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U.S. steps up intervention in Venezuela, Colombia by Berta Joubert-Ceci
Washington is rapidly and dangerously stepping up its hostile acts against Hugo Chávez's Bolivarian government in Venezuela. A Jan. 14 article in the right-wing Washington Times newspaper quoted a Bush senior official as saying, "The administration will begin a broad campaign in Latin America soon, urging friendly countries to reassess their relations with Mr. Chávez and to speak up against his authoritarian and anti-democratic rule. "We'll be communicating our conclusions to his neighbors and raise the alarm about what is happening in that important country." One of these neighbors is Colombia. Although Colombian-Venezuelan relations have been tense for years due to conflicts on their common border, Chávez has increased trade and economic cooperation with Colombia. This is part of Chávez's proposal for Latin American integration called the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas or ALBA. This program aims at opposing and replacing Washington's Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA, or ALCA using the Spanish initials). Recent bilateral accords included an important project: the construction of a trans-Caribbean gas pipeline that will run from Venezuela through Colombia. This project would greatly help the economies of both countries. Dubbed the "Israel of Latin America," Colombia is the closest and most loyal ally of Washington in the area. Its president is Álvaro Uribe Vélez, a pro-fascist U.S. client. Uribe is diligently setting in place the essential directives needed to suppress any opposition to his and Washington's agenda of privatization and the stealing of natural resources by transnational, mostly U.S.-based, finance capital. The role assigned to Colombia is twofold: exterminate the insurgency there and threaten its neighbor, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Faithful Uribe has increasingly been doing just that. Granda kidnapped in Caracas On Dec. 13, after the closing of the Second Bolivarian Congress of the Peoples held in Caracas, Rodrigo Granda, a representative of the international commission of the FARC-EP (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia--People's Army) who had attended the congress, was kidnapped in Caracas. It was in the middle of the day right in front of a restaurant where he was being interviewed by Omar Rodríguez, Le Monde Diplomatique's editor in Colombia. Granda's account and a later investigation by the Venezuelan authorities showed that Colombian police and rogue officers from the Venezuelan National Guard and police were involved in the kidnapping. Granda was forced into the trunk of a vehicle and driven to the Colombian border. Once in Colombia, he was handed over to that country's police in the city of Cúcuta. Right away the Colombian government announced the capture, stating that it was done in Colombia and denying reports that Granda was seized in Venezuela. On Jan. 13, a month after the incident, Venezuelan officers detained for their role in the kidnapping stated they were paid $1.5 million by Colombian police for their participation. Colombian Minister of Defense Jorge Uribe, his position compromised by this admission, publicly admitted that the Colombian government had indeed paid that amount for the capture of Rodrigo Granda. He did not admit, however, that Granda was captured in Venezuela, but claimed it was in Cúcuta, Colombia. In a statement to radio RCN, Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos justified the bribe, saying, "This is a legitimate method, it is used here, in the United States, in England and other places." In Colombia, where more than 60 percent are poor and the process of privatization is leaving millions without adequate health care and other essential social services, one wonders where this "hefty reward money" is coming from. Possibly from Washington's Plan Colombia. The Venezuelan government has reacted by withdrawing its ambassador from Bogotá and suspending the new bilateral projects and trade accords, accusing the Colombian government of an assault on its sovereignty. Chávez said that he has taken this action until Uribe apologizes for sending police to Venezuela and bribing local Venezuelan authorities to help kidnap Rodrigo Granda. Venezuelan Vice President José Vicente Rangel said, "I think that the Colombian authorities are committing a serious mistake. Plan Colombia is being carried out all over the Andean region." He also compared the kidnapping of Granda to the anticommunist extermination plan "Cóndor" for which former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was recently being tried. The situation between the two countries is escalating daily and the U.S. government has publicly taken sides. A Jan. 16 AP article quotes U.S. Ambassador William Wood as saying, "We support 100 percent the declarations from [Uribe's] presidential palace." In what was clearly an attempt to divide and conquer, Wood even agreed with a statement that the FARC-EP had released after the kidnapping. Wood said: "For the first and probably last time we are in agreement with the FARC, which in its Dec. 30 communique asks the Venezuelan government to define its position." Only U.S. imperialism, which has been trying to destabilize Venezuela since Hugo Chávez took office, can benefit from this latest attack. Recent developments in the Bolivarian Revolution, like enforcing laws on land reform and the media, are truly a terrible nightmare for the U.S. ruling class. Venezuela has also gained in international prestige and trade relations. Washington has intervened both from within, by funding Chávez's opposition through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and other organizations and employing CIA agents, and from without, particularly through Colombia. There have been many "mini interventions" from Colombia against Venezuela through its common border. Last year, 100 Colombian paramilitaries were caught in Caracas, training to kill Chávez. The U.S. campaign to destabilize Vene zuela is continuous, with the CIA playing a very active role in the support and training of disaffected elements hostile to the revolution. U.S. media mobilizes against Chávez A Jan. 14 Washington Post editorial was meant to warn the U.S. ruling class: "Last Sunday hundreds of heavily armed Venezuelan troops invaded one of the country's largest and most productive cattle ranches, launching what President Hugo Chavez describes as his 'war against the estates.' "The next day Mr. Chavez signed a decree under which authorities are expected to seize scores of other farms in the coming weeks. This assault on private property is merely the latest step in what has been a rapidly escalating 'revolution' by Venezuela's president that is undermining the foundations of democracy and free enterprise in that oil-producing country. The response of Venezuela's democratic neighbors, and the United States, ranges from passivity to tacit encouragement." The editorial then reminds the ruling class here of Venezuela's relationship with Cuba and its trade agreements with China, Libya, Iran and Russia. In the article in the Washington Times referred to earlier, the quoted U.S. government official says, "An interagency policy review under way is focusing on political and diplomatic measures, rather than economic sanctions that might hurt the U.S. economy." This refers to the flow of oil that makes Venezuela the fourth-largest oil supplier to the U.S. With the kidnapping of Rodrigo Granda, the Bush administration aimed to not only deal a blow to the Bolivarian Revolution and its improving relations with Colombia, but also against the Colombian insurgency. Every revolutionary should oppose this imperialist act against Venezuela and against the armed insurgency in Colombia. The FARC-EP deserves the solidarity of the people around the world who demand peace with justice. Revolutionaries who, like the FARC and the ELN, are waging a battle against imperialism and for national liberation, should be able to address international forums without threats and fear of prosecution or assassination. They should not be pariahs just because the terrorist government of the United States places them on its "most wanted" list. |
