Killing of FARC Leader Causes Colombia-Ecuador Tension

Hugo Chavez Warns of possible war in region

The Colombian Army announced on March 1 that during an attack on a rebel base near the southern border with Ecuador, its forces had killed Raul Reyes, the vice-commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The aerial attack carried out by Air Force jets armed with cluster bombs began approximately half an hour after midnight in a jungle area near the Putumayo River. According to President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, informants gave the exact coordinates of where Raul Reyes and his escort had camped 1800 meters within Ecuadorian territory.

photo of Raul Reyes dead by www.eltiempo.com

“I take full responsibility for this action and also thank those informants that with the valuable information given have contributed to rid Colombia of bloodthirsty terrorists. We will pay their rewards immediately.” said Uribe during a televised press conference.
After being informed that Reyes was dead, Uribe phoned his Ecuadorian counterpart Rafael Correa that later expressed his indignation with the way the Colombian Army had acted inside his country’s territory. While President Uribe declared that his troops did not violate Ecuadorian territory, President Correa ordered Ecuador’s embassy in Bogota to be closed and that the Ambassador leaves Colombia.
“There was no combat, the FARC guerrillas were massacred as they were sleeping, we found 16 corpses. Colombian army soldiers entered our territory illegally and took away the bodies of Reyes,Julian Conrado and other rebels,” said Correa to TV reporters.

Photo of Julian Conrado by www.eltiempo.com

The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez also ordered his Ambassador to return from Colombia and increased tension in the area by sending Venezuelan troops to the border with that country and sent a stern warning to Alvaro Uribe.
“Until when will Uribe continue with his madness? All that man wants is to continue with the war. Listen to me Mr. Uribe, if you try to do something like that in Venezuelan territory, you will create a causus bellis, in other words, a cause for war,” said Chavez in a televised press conference.
For the past year Chavez has continuously criticized Uribe whom he describes as “ a pawn of U.S imperialism, that carries out all the orders given to him by George Bush”. After Israel, Colombia is the world’s second highest recipient of U.S military aid with an estimated total of US$7 billion per year. During 2006 and 2007, the Venezuelan government headed by Chavez acquired Russian military equipment that included Mig fighter planes, combat helicopters and thousands of AK-47 assault rifles at a total estimated cost of between US$2 to US$3 billion.
Raul Reyes was an extremely important element for FARC since he was in charge of carrying out all international and peace negotiations. According to the Colombian Army, Reyes may even have been the current leader of the Colombian rebels since there are some unconfirmed rumors that Manuel Marulanda a.k.a “Tirofijo” (The Sureshot in Spanish),the man that founded FARC in 1964 may have died some years ago. Raul Reyes had been a member of FARC for the past thirty years after beginning his political career as a trade union representative while working at the Colombian branch of Nestle, the famous Swiss multinational company. In the past ten years he had become even more important to Marulanda since Reyes had married his daughter. FARC has not yet announced who will be the successor of Raul Reyes, but there are many candidates in its Central Command that is formed by some twenty individuals.

Chile TV Joins Media War Against Hugo Chavez

Chilean journalists repeat version given by Pro-US news agencies

No one can deny that throughout its history, the printed press in Chile has been controlled by the right wing oligarchy, and recent events prove that this situation also affects all television stations.

For those not familiar with it, as follows is a brief description of how the Chilean television system is organized at present. A considerable percentage of the population has access to international cable television, but the majority must still choose between “open” TV stations, that in general show programs dubbed in Mexico such as “America’s Next Top Model”, a large variety of oriental martial arts films or reality shows.

The most important are Channel 13 (UCTV) run by the Roman Catholic Church’s university, Channel 9 (Megavision) owned by Ricardo Claro, one of Chile´s wealthiest businessmen, Channel 11 (Chilevision) (also owned by another local tycoon and former presidential candidate Sebastian Piñera. Channel 4 (La Red) is linked to another of the country’s main “economic groups”, (the Matte family) and finally there is Channel 7 (Television Nacional), the state owned channel that in theory should be plural and give the opinion of all sectors of Chilean society left, right and center. It was surprising to see during how similar the coverage given by TVN of the recent release of prisoners made by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was to the other TV stations that clearly have a pro U.S and right wing opinion, and whose main enemy at present is Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela.

On Christmas day 2007, all the before mentioned stations gave extensive coverage of how FARC had failed to deliver Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez to a delegation of Venezuelan government officials, Red Cross volunteers and well known figures such as film director Oliver Stone. The original plan was that FARC would hand over the two women in a jungle area near the border between both countries, but the rebels issued a statement explaining that due to constant patrolling by the Colombian Army, the operation would have to be postponed until a later date. However Chilean news commentators rarely mentioned this statement and gave the “CNN” version: FARC had lied to Hugo Chavez and were never going to release any of the prisoners. On January 10,2008, TVN and all the other TV stations gave very brief coverage when Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez were finally released by FARC. President Hugo Chavez announced at approximately 3 p.m. local time that the two women were ready to board a helicopter that would take them from the border area to Caracas, the Venezuelan capital. At the 6 p.m. edition of its daily newscast, La Red gave a brief five minute segment to inform that the “hostages had been rescued” but did not mention how or by whom.

At the 9 p.m. edition of “24 horas”, TVN´s news program, a young reporter named Jose Antonio Neme (probably a relative of Antonio Neme, a well-known journalist at Channel 13 during General Pinochet´s 17 year dictatorship), spent nearly 20 minutes analyzing the situation in Venezuela. With a photo of President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia in the background, Neme hardly mentioned that it was in fact Hugo Chavez that had convinced FARC to release the two women. Neme declared that among the many prisoners held by FARC are some “American diplomats”. There are indeed three U.S citizens that FARC has recognized to be holding as prisoners: Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes. The U.S government has described the three men as “civilian contractors”, but most probably their real occupation is that of “military advisers”, as they were known during the Reagan era.

The three men were in a Colombian Army helicopter that was shot down by FARC rebels in February 2003 as they flew over a jungle area. In an interview given in 2006, one of the leaders of FARC, Raul Reyes, declared that the three Americans “are spies that were trying to find out the locations of our bases, so it is very difficult that they will go free in the near future.”

Megavision has a Colombian news commentator called Libardo Buitrago that is obviously not sympathetic to Chavez or FARC, while at Chilevision (Channel 11), Monica Sanhueza described FARC as “definitely a terrorist organization”. FARC has been battling the Colombian army many years before Monica was even born, so how can she be so “definitely” sure that FARC is a terrorist organization? At Channel 13 (UCTV), the main international news commentator is Constanza Santa Maria, a graduate of Chile´s most right wing and posh university, and has continued voicing this channel’s traditional anti-left wing opinion, identical to that it had in the seventies, when it played a crucial role in destabilizing the government of Salvador Allende. In those days UCTV´s main commentator was a priest called Raul Hasbun, that is now making comments against FARC at “Megavision”. With regards to Constanza, she described how Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez had suffered “terrible hardships and constant torture” during their five years as prisoners of FARC. Maybe Constanza did not see the moment the two women were handed over to the Venezuelan authorities, both were in perfect condition. While a prisoner, Rojas even gave birth to a baby in a FARC base, unlike the many pregnant left wing militants in Argentina, Chile Uruguay and Paraguay, whose babies were snatched from them before being murdered by U.S trained soldiers and thrown into the sea from planes and helicopters. Most of these children were given in adoption to the same people that had murdered their mothers, and until today the relatives are searching for them.

Chavez Achieves Freedom of Two Farc Prisoners

images by Venezuelan TV (www.vtv.gov.ve) See the moment of reunion Venezuelan President wins important media victory At approximately 3 p.m local time of January 10, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela announced that he had spoken by satellite telephone with Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez. Both women had just been freed in good condition in some remote area of the jungle near the border of Colombia and Venezuela by members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The rebels handed over the Colombian citizens to a delegation that included Red Cross volunteers, Colombian Senator Piedad Cordova and the Cuban Ambassador to Venezuela. In a spectacular live broadcast the Venezuelan State television network showed as the two former hostages spoke with Chavez. “A thousand thanks for your good work Mr. President, please don’t lower your guard and continue with your efforts to free the other prisoners,” said Consuelo Gonzalez. “I am very grateful for your mediation President Chavez, I am very grateful,” said Clara Rojas in a very emotional conversation. (by www.vtv.gov.ve) Both women were retained nearly six years ago by the rebels in separate incidents as they entered FARC controlled territory without the necessary authorization. Both women are members of political parties that are involved in the official Colombian parliamentary system, as opposed to FARC that has waged a brutal guerrilla war against the Colombian Army for the past 50 years. Also the Venezuelan television network broadcasted as the women entered an M-17 helicopter of the local airforce that had Red Cross markings and began their flight to Maiquetia International airport near Caracas, the capital of that South American nation. In an emotional interview the elderly mother of Clara Rojas stated that “this has been the biggest miracle that God could have given me.” Clara Rojas was retained by the FARC rebels along with Ingrid Betancourt that was then a candidate in the Colombian presidential election. On that occasion Rojas made a heroic gesture, since she decided to accompany her friend Ingrid into captivity, even if the rebels told her she could go free. During her captivity, Rojas had an affair with a FARC rebel, and gave birth toa boy named Emmanuel in a jungle base. Emmanuel was also supposed to be included in this liberation operation, but one month ago the Colombian government announced that Emmanuel was really in a state run orphanage. Recently the mother of Clara Rojas other relatives had DNA tests and it seems very likely that the boy in the orphanage is Emmanuel, but his real identity is yet to be confirmed. This delicate operation carried out by FARC should have occurred on Christmas day of last year but the rebels informed Chavez that it was impossible to deliver the hostages due to the intense activity carried out by helicopters and patrols of the Colombian Army. It is now clear that the Colombian authorities tried to prevent the liberation of the hostages at all costs, as was proven some months ago when two women were arrested. They were members of FARC whose mission was to deliver “proof of life” to Chavez in the form of recent photographs and personal letters. All these were immediately published by the official press and caused the outrage among the relatives of the hostages. Among the many prisoners retained by FARC that include officers and soldiers of the Colombian Army are three American military advisers Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes whose helicopter was shot down by FARC rebels in February 2003 as they flew over a jungle area. In a recent interview, one of the leaders of FARC, Raul Reyes declared that the three Americans “are spies that were trying to find out the locations of our bases, so it is very difficult that they will go free in the near future.” The main conclusion that can be gathered from this happy ending is that the hero is President Hugo Chavez, while the villain of the plot is his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe, that has been described in harsh terms by Chavez as “ a puppet of Bush and U.S imperialism.” Also today Chavez declared that his next goal will be to free Ingrid Betancourt , that has both dual French and Colombian nationalities. In the last months of 2007, President Nicholas Sarkozy of France made a televised appeal to the leader of FARC, Manuel “Sureshot” Marulanda to release Betancourt. After the success obtained by Chavez, maybe to obtain Betancourt´s release Sarkozy will have to accept the repatriation of Ilich Ramirez, a.k.a Carlos, a Venezuelan revolutionary that has been confined at Clairvaux prison in northeast France since 1994.

Relatives of Colombian hostages demand Chavez mediation

Keith Stansell is held prisoner by Farc rebels in Colombia

Female Guerrilla deserts to Army with 4 year old prisoner

On Dec 4, a female member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC to use the Spanish acronym) escaped from a jungle base along with a four year old boy that was in her custody. According to the Colombian Army, Brian Rincon was kidnapped in June of this year from his kindergarten in the city of Cucuta, in the northern province of Santander. The small boy was taken to a jungle base of the FARC´s 10th Front where he was placed under the care of the woman whose name has not been revealed. A few days later FARC contacted Brian's parents and demanded a ransom of 500 million Colombian pesos (approximately US$245,000). However after nearly six months in her care, the woman took pity of Brian and decided to run away from the base and deliver the boy back to his family. Such was the bond created between the former guerilla and the boy that at first Brian refused to go with his real mother and instead demanded to continue with the woman that seems to be in her mid twenties. The woman also informed the Colombian Army that there are more children being held hostage in the jungle on the border with Venezuela.
This event adds further importance to the recent negotiations that have been carried out between the President of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe
and his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez, in order to organize an exchange of prisoners between the Colombian government and FARC.
On Nov 30, Uribe angered the relatives of the many hostages held by FARC after refusing to continue negotiating with Chavez. The relatives claim that Chavez was near to convincing the leader of FARC, Manuel Marulanda also known as "Tirofijo" (The Sureshot in Spanish), to release hundreds of Army officers, politicians and civilians imprisoned in the rebel bases. Today the mother of Ingrid Betancourt, a member of the Colombian congress that was captured by FARC five years ago has traveled to Caracas, Venezuela and asked President Chavez to continue negotiating in spite of Uribe´s refusal. Since Betancourt has dual nationality, the president of France, Nicholas Sarkozy, also met recently with Chavez to discuss the progress of the negotiations. Sarkozy recently proposed to Uribe and FARC that a demilitarized zone be created in some part of FARC controlled territory so that the prisoners can be exchanged. Also the U.S government is interested in reaching a solution since among the prisoners held by FARC are three American military advisers. In February 2003, Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell and Mark Gonsalves were piloting a Colombian airplane over FARC territory when the rebels shot it down with a Stinger missile. Since then the three Americans have been imprisoned in an unknown FARC base deep in the Colombian jungle.

Thomas Howes, American military adviser currently prisoner in Colombia
Only a few days ago, the Colombian Army captured some young women as they headed from the jungle towards a city. Inside their belongings the Army soldiers discovered photos of Ingrid Betancourt, the three Americans and many other hostages that may have been taken very recently, as well as letters for their relatives. It seems that FARC tried to keep the promise made to Hugo Chavez that "proof of life" would be delivered before continuing with negotiations. The relatives have also criticized the Army for revealing the content of the mail, among which are a letter from Keith Stansell to his Colombian wife and last will testaments by the other two Americans.
In an interview earlier this year with Clarin , a well known Argentine newspaper, the spokesman of FARC, Raul Reyes explained why Betancourt and the three Americans are kept as prisoners and also what FARC demands from the Colombian government.

Clarin Reporter : Why has it taken so long to free the prisoners, since some have been held for as long as ten years in the jungle?

Raul Reyes : The last time we negotiated with the government, we released 300 Army soldiers and only 14 of our members that were ill were released. Betancourt has not been "held hostage", to us she is a political prisoner because she is part of the system that were are fighting against.

C.R: What about the three Americans that you hold since 2003?
They are north American agents. FARC did not capture them in
Washington, Nueva York, Texas or Boston, but as they spied in Colombian territory .

C.R : The U.S Government says they are civil contractors......

R.R : That's a big lie. They were spying in Colombia, violating our sovereignty and independence. So we will only release them in exchange for our leaders Simon Trinidad and Sonia that are jailed in the United States, as well as the rest of our troops that are prisoners in Colombian jails.

C.R: Chavez offered his territory to do the prisoner swap. Do you accept this?
R.R: Through Clarin, I want to thank President Chavez for this gesture, for his generosity with Colombia and the relatives of the prisoners. However we have decided that this is a problem caused by the internal conflict in Colombia, so the swap must be done in Colombian territory.

C.R: So you refuse to hand over prisoners in Venezuela?

R.R: Yes, what we want is that first a demilitarized zone be created in Colombia before exchanging prisoners. We also want President Chavez to continue contributing in order to reach an agreement with the Government.

HUGO CHAVEZ STEALS THE SHOW AND ARGUES WITH KING of SPAIN

Venezuelan leader is main attraction during summit in Chile

Chavez gets mobile phone call from Fidel Castro

The recent trip by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Santiago, Chile, to attend the 17th version Ibero-American Summit will long be remembered due to the controversy caused by his statements.

Chavez during his two hour speech

The Ibero-American Summit, which took place from Nov. 9-11, is a forum between Spain and Portugal, two former colonial powers that ruled Latin America for nearly 300 years and all the Latin American countries that gained independence from them at the beginning of the 19th century.

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The main goal of the summits is to increase cooperation and improve relations among these countries, but after the recent events in Santiago, many analysts doubt that another one will be held in the near future. Until this year, the summits had been quite a boring affair, with the most interesting activities being posh dinners, folk singing and dance shows, and finally meetings that always seem to end inconclusively.

Many Chilean citizens interviewed by TV crews on the street were unable to explain exactly the aim of the summit. But now, thanks to the charismatic and eccentric Chavez, the summit has become the favorite topic for debates.

The controversy began on the first day, Nov. 8, when the local press noted that Raul Reyes, second in command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC, to use the Spanish acronym), had arrived secretly in Santiago.

Raul Reyes,No.2 of the FARC
Speaking in Bogota, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe demanded that Reyes be immediately arrested. Afterward, the Chilean police confirmed that Reyes was not in the country but in some undisclosed jungle area near the border between Colombia and Venezuela.

FARC TROOPS IN A JUNGLE BASE
It seems that Reyes was in fact meeting with Hugo Chavez, who is acting as a mediator between the Uribe administration and the FARC on an agreement to exchange hundreds of jailed FARC militants for an equal number of government prisoners. The FARC rebels are holding many Colombian army soldiers, government officials and politicians hostage in their jungle bases in western Colombia. This may account for why Chavez arrived in Santiago at 6:00 a.m. on Nov. 9 in his brand new Sukhoi aircraft, which was recently acquired in Russia, along with many fighter planes, helicopters, submarines and 100,000 AK-47 assault rifles.

The Singing President

Chavez has become the "singing" president of South America. After walking down from his airplane, Chavez greeted reporters with a traditional folk song called "The Little Gold Coin." The main chorus of this song is as follows: "I am not a little gold coin, and this is why many people do not like me." Chavez immediately began to create tension as he criticized the slogan of the summit, which aims at creating "social cohesion" in Latin America. "This is not enough for me, we need socialism, it's the only way to end poverty in our continent," said Chavez. Then he left for a hotel, which he had demanded not be one of the many American chains in the Chilean capital.

Chilean and Venezuelan Flags
The rest of the day, the press anxiously waited for Chavez's next appearance. During the first meeting with the other heads of state, Chavez caused another controversy by speaking for half an hour instead of the traditional five minutes, then again by not attending the traditional state dinner held that evening at the "La Moneda" presidential palace. One of his major allies in the region, Bolivian President Evo Morales was also absent from the dinner. Morales chose instead to play a football match against a team of Chilean politicians and reporters. Along with a team formed by his bodyguards, Morales scored two goals during the 8-1 victory over the Chilean team.

Heated Argument With the King of Spain

Most international news agencies reported the next incident to occur. On Saturday morning, during the final meeting, Chavez began to accuse former Spanish Premier Jose Maria Aznar of an attempted overthrow of the Chavez government in 2002.

"I said it yesterday and I'll say it again today, Aznar is a fascist," said Chavez.

At this point, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Zapatero, who was sitting four chairs to Chavez's left, replied by saying, "Let me remind you that former President Aznar was elected by the Spanish people, so I cannot accept those comments about him."

A heated debate ensued between Chavez and Zapatero, but it could not be heard clearly because the Venezuelan leader's microphone had been switched off.

Sitting next to Zapatero was the King of Spain, Juan Carlos. He pointed his finger at Chavez and shouted, "Why don't you shut up?"

At this point Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, acting as mediator of the meeting, tried to intervene. "Please, gentlemen, can we continue with the normal discussion," she said.

But the shouting match between Zapatero and Chavez continued.

Sitting next to Chavez was the Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a close ally. He defended Chavez by criticizing the Spaniards since he had only been allowed to speak once, "While they had been given two chances to give their opinions."


For possibly the first time in his life, the King of Spain lost his temper in public, stood up and left the room.

After a brief conversation with Bachelet, who tried to convince him to return to the meeting, the King of Spain departed with his bodyguards for the airport and left the country immediately.

The general opinion among the Spanish reporters present was that they had never seen their king so angry. They were surprised by his reaction to the opinions given by Chavez.


The Alternate "People`s Summit"



Bolivian delegation



On Nov 10, at 3:00 p.m., Hugo Chavez appeared at the "Summit for the Friendship and Integration of the Ibero-American People," also known as "The Summit of the People." It was organized by Chilean left wing parties. Many delegations from neighboring countries were present, such as the "Landless Movement" (MST) from Brazil, representatives of Bolivian and Chilean native groups, and representatives of university students from Argentina.

Aucan Huilcaman,Mapuche leader with supporters

Next was Chavez, who for two hours made a constant attack on the United States government, praised the examples of Fidel Castro, Salvador Allende, Che Guevara and even quoted Mao Tse-tung, who once stated, "Capitalism will end as a paper tiger."

But the most spectacular part of Chavez's speech occurred as Carlos Lage handed him a mobile phone. Chavez claimed to be speaking to Fidel Castro. Castro's voice was heard faintly as Chavez placed the mobile next to the microphone. Then the Venezuelan president attempted to connect the mobile's loudspeaker but was unable to do so. "I don't know how this model works, but anyway, Fidel sends his regards to all of you," Chavez saidDuring his speech, Chavez announced that he had made an agreement with the Chinese government to build the first South American satellite, which will be sent into orbit to broadcast Telesur, a television network that already has stations in Brazil and Bolivia. Chavez also stated that Telesur would broadcast in conjunction with Al-Jazeera, the Arab news network.

New Venezuelan flag created by Hugo Chavez

Finally, Chavez issued a warning to the United States: If it invades any South American country, it would be faced with "many Vietnams."
"The Venezuelan revolution is armed. We will not end up like Allende, who had no weapons and was not a soldier. However, in my case I am a professional soldier, I am ready for war," Chavez said.
Next to speak was President Ortega of Nicaragua. He also attacked the United States. In addition, he praised Hugo Chavez and called for an end to the Organization of American States (OAS). According to Ortega, Washington controls the OAS. Because of this, Latin American countries should form a new organization, which would include Cuba but not the United States, in opposition to the OAS.

The ceremony ended with Chavez, Ortega, Morales and Lage saluting the crowd to the tune of the traditional Chilean revolutionary song "El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido" ("The United People Will Never Be Defeated").