The Devil's Excrement

A dialogue between two important members of the FARC (Colombian revolutionary Armed Forces), appears to be among the evidence submitted by the Colombian authorities to the Venezuelan Government according to Colombia’s Radio Caracol. Here is the translation of the only written report I have seen on the issue, which suggests that more than one hundred members of the FARC guerillas were in Caracas in early December for the II People’s Bolivarian Congress, financed and organized by the Chavez Government.. I had talked to two reporters who had mentioned this to me, but said they could not talk about it and I also heard on the radio. Here is El Universal’s report translated by me:

A telephone dialogue between two presumed rebels of the FARC who coordinated their participation in a forum that was Caracas in Caracas comprises part of the evidence given by Colombia to Venezuela on the supposed active presence of guerrillas in Venezuelan territory, the local press revealed today. 

In the recording, according to Radio Caracol, ‘ Juan Santrich’, presumed member of the General Staff of the CRAF, and ‘ Jorge Tivieras’, who was a connection in Caracas and logistic coordinator of a rebellious international front that resides in that city, disclosed DPA.

Tivieras’ confirms  to ‘ Santrich’ that are 41 people accredited for the congress and  they aspire to at least 100 to have their ID’s to participate in that Bolivarian encounter (…) and define that  transport is assured by bus for 600sympathizers, said to the radio broadcasting station, mentioning the tape.

 According to Radio Caracol, the recording was one of proofs sent by Bogotá to Caracas that would confirm the presence and ‘ the political activism of the FARC in Venezuela. ‘

Both men speak in code in the preparation of a political forum that was carried out in the Venezuelan capital in the first days of December, that would have been attended by more than a hundred of members of the FARC’ guerrillas”  the report adds. 

The recording, according to the radio broadcasting station citing the authorities, indicates that ‘ Santrich’ asks for a report on the arrival of the rebels to the Venezuelan capital to also inform to him this to the boss ‘ Iván Márquez’ – member of the Secretariat of the FARC -.,

They also speak of the attendance of a large group of Indians to the forum that was held in Caracas.

 In the event apparently subversive propaganda would be have been distributed and a declaration against President Alvaro Uribe was prepared, although the speakers do not mention him with his own name, adds the document.

The Chavez Government is once again trying to use its favorite tactic: confusion. After  being hit with a list of Colombians terrorists in Venezuela, including their criminal details,  which according to that country’s Foreign Minister was sent yesterday and not the day before, at the request of Venezuelan authorities, now the Government wants to claim some Venezuelan terrorists that are in Colombia and are saying that it is Colombia that has a problem. The reality is that there is a huge difference, Colombia has a problem of guerrillas and terrorists that it is trying to fight, while Venezuela has been harboring terrorist and not helping the Colombians in their fight.

Today, there were quite a few reports of the Government’s hypocrisy. One of them claimed that during Chavez brief departure in 2002, the police found the business card of none other than the FARC’s Minister of Foreign Relations Rodrigo Granda in the office of one of his Ministers.  Separately, an opposition municipal Deputy said that the Government had also given the Venezuelan nationality to “Commander Gabino”, information that the Deputy said had reached his hands via intelligence from the Government itself.

Meanwhile, Chavez wants to generate additional confusion by scheduling a march for Sunday. You see, Sunday is the 56^th. Anniversary of the end of the last Dictatorship, a date that Chavez has celebrated and not celebrated on off and on during his six years in power, at his convenience. The opposition has been calling for a march to mark the occasion starting in the East of Caracas, which was denied permits by both the pro-Chavze Mayor of the Libertador District Freddy Bernal and and the pro-Chavez Mayor of the Metropolitan area Juan Barreto. Of course, this is simply a smokescreen to have Chavez steal the show, by calling for a march to defend the country’s sovereignty staring curiously in the East of Caracas, where Chavez has not been in quite a while, because he is no longer the man of the people that could walk calmly anywhere he wanted. But he claims he will try and go to the Colombian Consulate, which happens to be in the most anti-Chavez Municipality in the country: Chacao. Chavez has in fact cancelled his “Alo Presidente” program as his advisers are probably recommending that he shut up for a while, so that things don’t get more complicated than they currently are.

I can imagine the scenario this Sunday, the recently invented Chavista march, clashes with the opposition march which will be declared illegal by the pro-Chavez municipal authorities and the Minister of Information Andres Izarra will come on TV to describe in his best Goebbelian fashion the excesses of the opposition. Izarra (Hi Andrés, in case you are reading this!), gave a press conference this afternoon to talk about the list that Venezuela will hand over to Colombia after finally being run over by the length and detail of the Colombian one and added the announcement of the pro-tsunami telethon to his appearance, with a final sprinkling of how much support the policies of defense of the sovereignty of the country have among the Venezuelan population, as determined by the most obscure pollster in the country or the US.

Meanwhile, the most pro-Chavez European leader cancels his visit to Venezuela as the Colombians and the US continue playing hardball distributing the list of terrorists in Colombia, as well as evidence of the locations of guerilla camps under the blind eye of the Venezuelan authorities. And that is the problem when you try to ride double speak the way Chavez likes, Rodriguez Zapatero may be a leftist, but he got to power on the coattails of a horrible terrorist attack on his own people and country Thus, he can not afford to be seen in the company of thugs, that clearly support what his people consider as their own enemies.

Unfortunately, all of these controversies cloud the news behind the news that the Supreme Court named a new Electoral Board in which four of the five members are clearly Chavez loyalists. Thus, we get screwed once again (or is it once more?) as if we had a chance of having fair elections before, but the possibility is simply very remote now. The whole thing is so ludicrous; that this is the second time the Supreme Court names the Electoral Board due to the omission of the National Assembly, which is probably illegal. The reality is that the Chavistas in the Assembly don’t even want to start doing the democratic exercise of choosing an Electoral Board agreeable to everyone. Instead, they want to wait until the new Assembly is elected fraudulently and then they will fill their mouths with “democracy at work” as the most Stalinist Government in Latin American history ratifies, once again, the Chavez dictatorship in Venezuela.

The Chavez Government is once again trying to use its favorite tactic: confusion. After  being hit with a list of Colombians terrorists in Venezuela, including their criminal details,  which according to that country’s Foreign Minister was sent yesterday and not the day before, at the request of Venezuelan authorities, now the Government wants to claim some Venezuelan terrorists that are in Colombia and are saying that it is Colombia that has a problem. The reality is that there is a huge difference, Colombia has a problem of guerrillas and terrorists that it is trying to fight, while Venezuela has been harboring terrorist and not helping the Colombians in their fight.

Today, there were quite a few reports of the Government’s hypocrisy. One of them claimed that during Chavez brief departure in 2002, the police found the business card of none other than the FARC’s Minister of Foreign Relations Rodrigo Granda in the office of one of his Ministers.  Separately, an opposition municipal Deputy said that the Government had also given the Venezuelan nationality to “Commander Gabino”, information that the Deputy said had reached his hands via intelligence from the Government itself.

Meanwhile, Chavez wants to generate additional confusion by scheduling a march for Sunday. You see, Sunday is the 56^th. Anniversary of the end of the last Dictatorship, a date that Chavez has celebrated and not celebrated on off and on during his six years in power, at his convenience. The opposition has been calling for a march to mark the occasion starting in the East of Caracas, which was denied permits by both the pro-Chavze Mayor of the Libertador District Freddy Bernal and and the pro-Chavez Mayor of the Metropolitan area Juan Barreto. Of course, this is simply a smokescreen to have Chavez steal the show, by calling for a march to defend the country’s sovereignty staring curiously in the East of Caracas, where Chavez has not been in quite a while, because he is no longer the man of the people that could walk calmly anywhere he wanted. But he claims he will try and go to the Colombian Consulate, which happens to be in the most anti-Chavez Municipality in the country: Chacao. Chavez has in fact cancelled his “Alo Presidente” program as his advisers are probably recommending that he shut up for a while, so that things don’t get more complicated than they currently are.

I can imagine the scenario this Sunday, the recently invented Chavista march, clashes with the opposition march which will be declared illegal by the pro-Chavez municipal authorities and the Minister of Information Andres Izarra will come on TV to describe in his best Goebbelian fashion the excesses of the opposition. Izarra (Hi Andrés, in case you are reading this!), gave a press conference this afternoon to talk about the list that Venezuela will hand over to Colombia after finally being run over by the length and detail of the Colombian one and added the announcement of the pro-tsunami telethon to his appearance, with a final sprinkling of how much support the policies of defense of the sovereignty of the country have among the Venezuelan population, as determined by the most obscure pollster in the country or the US.

Meanwhile, the most pro-Chavez European leader cancels his visit to Venezuela as the Colombians and the US continue playing hardball distributing the list of terrorists in Colombia, as well as evidence of the locations of guerilla camps under the blind eye of the Venezuelan authorities. And that is the problem when you try to ride double speak the way Chavez likes, Rodriguez Zapatero may be a leftist, but he got to power on the coattails of a horrible terrorist attack on his own people and country Thus, he can not afford to be seen in the company of thugs, that clearly support what his people consider as their own enemies.

Unfortunately, all of these controversies cloud the news behind the news that the Supreme Court named a new Electoral Board in which four of the five members are clearly Chavez loyalists. Thus, we get screwed once again (or is it once more?) as if we had a chance of having fair elections before, but the possibility is simply very remote now. The whole thing is so ludicrous; that this is the second time the Supreme Court names the Electoral Board due to the omission of the National Assembly, which is probably illegal. The reality is that the Chavistas in the Assembly don’t even want to start doing the democratic exercise of choosing an Electoral Board agreeable to everyone. Instead, they want to wait until the new Assembly is elected fraudulently and then they will fill their mouths with “democracy at work” as the most Stalinist Government in Latin American history ratifies, once again, the Chavez dictatorship in Venezuela.

–In a country where an opposition Mayor is jailed for months on a minor civil charge, the Constitutional Hall of the Venezuelan Supreme Court rules that the National Guardsmen being accused of murder of some prisoners should be tried in freedom! This overturns an earlier decision by the Penal Hall of the Supreme Court and shows that it is a privilege to be a member of the military in this country.

–The Government of Colombia confirmed today that it has handed over the information on members of the FARC who are beloved to be in Venezuela. As reported by Caracas daily El Nacional this morning, there are seven names in the list. And according to El Tiempo de Bogota, the list contains cellphones numbers, bank account numbers, car models and license plates as well as the names of the places where they move around.

–Jorge Rodriguez was named as the new President of the National Electoral Council. Oh! He was not the president already?

—Venezuela will ask Colombia to detain General Felipe Rodriguez for his role in the explosions at the Colombian and Spanish Embassies. Wow! It took them two years to ask for the extradition. But wait, I thought “the opposition” placed the bombs and they are all mostly in Venezuela!

–Deustsche Bank downgraded its outlook on ConocoPhillips, due to concerns about the Venezuelan Government treatment of foreign oil companies. Umm, I wonder how many other companies they downgraded. Did they downgrade the Chinese oil company? Or any of the French ones? I just wonder.

—Rodrigo Granda’s wife entered Venezuela from Bogota, with a courtesy visa from the Venezuelan Embassy in Cuba. Granda himself went to the Caracas airport to get her through when the immigration authorities stopped her.

—Rodrigo Granda’s daughter worked in 2003 and 2004 in the International relations Department of the Libertador Municipality of Caracas. The Mayor of that municipality is pro-Chavez supporter Freddy Bernal. I love revolutionary solidarity! Hire the daughters of the big shots even if they are foreigners! I guess pull works everywhere!

—Is former Vice-Minister of Finance Jesus Bermudez being protected by the FBI due to fears that he will be killed while he negotiates telling all he knows with US authorities?

—Was the rate to get out of being charged with being at the Presidential Palace on April 12^th. 2002, US$ 300,000 with a down payment of US$ 20,000? Figure it out, 200 times 300,000 and you are talking big money!

–Now that the Government has declared mortgaege lending for homes a not for profit activity, banks will have to lend 15% of their credit portfolio for home mortgages. The not for profit rate this time will be 11.5%. With inflation at 19.8%, I can’t wait to remortgage my home at this rate, and buy a dollar denominated Venezuelan Governent bond that yields 10%, with the first devaluation…just imagine!

Sorry to be so brief, it’s late.., but I wanted to fit all these news for completeness sake.

–In a country where an opposition Mayor is jailed for months on a minor civil charge, the Constitutional Hall of the Venezuelan Supreme Court rules that the National Guardsmen being accused of murder of some prisoners should be tried in freedom! This overturns an earlier decision by the Penal Hall of the Supreme Court and shows that it is a privilege to be a member of the military in this country.

–The Government of Colombia confirmed today that it has handed over the information on members of the FARC who are beloved to be in Venezuela. As reported by Caracas daily El Nacional this morning, there are seven names in the list. And according to El Tiempo de Bogota, the list contains cellphones numbers, bank account numbers, car models and license plates as well as the names of the places where they move around.

–Jorge Rodriguez was named as the new President of the National Electoral Council. Oh! He was not the president already?

—Venezuela will ask Colombia to detain General Felipe Rodriguez for his role in the explosions at the Colombian and Spanish Embassies. Wow! It took them two years to ask for the extradition. But wait, I thought “the opposition” placed the bombs and they are all mostly in Venezuela!

–Deustsche Bank downgraded its outlook on ConocoPhillips, due to concerns about the Venezuelan Government treatment of foreign oil companies. Umm, I wonder how many other companies they downgraded. Did they downgrade the Chinese oil company? Or any of the French ones? I just wonder.

—Rodrigo Granda’s wife entered Venezuela from Bogota, with a courtesy visa from the Venezuelan Embassy in Cuba. Granda himself went to the Caracas airport to get her through when the immigration authorities stopped her.

—Rodrigo Granda’s daughter worked in 2003 and 2004 in the International relations Department of the Libertador Municipality of Caracas. The Mayor of that municipality is pro-Chavez supporter Freddy Bernal. I love revolutionary solidarity! Hire the daughters of the big shots even if they are foreigners! I guess pull works everywhere!

—Is former Vice-Minister of Finance Jesus Bermudez being protected by the FBI due to fears that he will be killed while he negotiates telling all he knows with US authorities?

—Was the rate to get out of being charged with being at the Presidential Palace on April 12^th. 2002, US$ 300,000 with a down payment of US$ 20,000? Figure it out, 200 times 300,000 and you are talking big money!

–Now that the Government has declared mortgaege lending for homes a not for profit activity, banks will have to lend 15% of their credit portfolio for home mortgages. The not for profit rate this time will be 11.5%. With inflation at 19.8%, I can’t wait to remortgage my home at this rate, and buy a dollar denominated Venezuelan Governent bond that yields 10%, with the first devaluation…just imagine!

Sorry to be so brief, it’s late.., but I wanted to fit all these news for completeness sake.

I guess Petkoff resonates very well with my post last night on Garzon’s decision in today’s Editorial in Tal Cual:

Garzon Attacks by Teodoro Petkoff

The grandmother had twins. As if it were not enough with the scandals that lately plague the Government, we now have to add the charging by Judge Baltazar Garzon of the Directors of Spanish bank BBVA for “contributions to the electoral campaign of Hugo Chávez to the Presidency of Venezuela” that may have violated Spanish legislation.

But, the point is not only that Spanish bankers violated Spanish laws, something that will have to be determined in a trial, but that candidate Hugo Chávez and his party may have violated Venezuelan laws, when they received financing from a foreign company for his electoral campaign in 1998. There is a presumed crime in Spain, that will be tried there, but there is also a presumed crime in Venezuela, about which, despite the injunction requested by lawyer Tulio Álvarez, years ago, in front of the Supreme Court, Venezuelan justice has not acted.

In fact, the Court sent the case to the Prosecutor to open an investigation. Of course, Isaias put the case in the drawer. Although it is not possible to have any illusions with Venezuelan justice, it is going to be very difficult for the Prosecutor and the Supreme Court to ignore the consequences of the trial that is developing in Spain. Because, let’s assume that the trial determines that indeed the bank made those “contributions” (one for US$ 525 thousand dollars on 12/1/98 and another for one million on July 5^th. 1999, my comment: note Chavez was already President on this last date), then how do things stand?

Venezuelan legislation is very precise with respect to this.

On the one hand, political parties are obligated to keep accounting books about their income and expenses in electoral campaigns and present them to the CNE. Well, in the books of MVR, delivered to the CNE, the contributions by BBVA do not appear. We would have one crime right there: hiding information and falsifying data. But there is more. The Law of political parties, in its article 25, paragraphs 4 and 5, compels political parties to “reject donations…from foreign companies or with holding companies abroad”. Not observing this disposition is punished with prison from two to three years and the penalty increases if the funds came from a crime. If the trial in Spain determines that those “contributions” , then, those that received those funds , here in Venezuela, if it is proven that they committed a crime when they asked for them and received them, would also have to receive the punishment foreseen by law. Who is responsible in front of the law? The candidate and Head of the respective party. In this case it happens to be Hugo Chávez Frías, who at the time was the candidate and, simultaneously, the Head of MVR. Who should also receive the punishment foreseen in article 258, paragraph 5 of the Suffrage Law which punishes with prison from two to three years to “the candidate that hides information or provides false data to the CNE about his campaign expenses. By the way, what happens to our sovereignty in all this? Isn’t hypocritical to persecute an NGO for receiving financing abroad when those accusing have such a large skeleton in their closet?

Many see the crisis between Venezuela and Colombia as a simple incident, a likely mistake by Chávez in confronting President Uribe, who is likely to be a formidable opponent. I don’t. While I think the Granda case may have taken Chavez initially by surprise, I also think once he acted and spoke on the case, it was a well thought out reaction: It is time to export the Bolivarian revolution, we now control Venezuela. This idea is shared by Fernando Londoño, the former Minister of Interior and Justice of Colombia as shown by his article in El Tiempo a couple of days ago.

 Is not because of Granda by Fernando Londoño Hoyos

“He who humiliates himself to avoid war, will have the humiliation and will have the war” (Churchill)

The grotesque Granda case would be the cause of our problem with Venezuela in the same measure that the war of independence would have been due to the insolence with which the chapeton refused to lend the flower vase to the party to honor Antonio Villavicencio. History organizes imitations of flower vases to distract simple souls. Thus, beyond the facts and its idiotic interpretations, we are forced to penetrate the profound historical logic which explains why what is happening to us is happening.

From the Ministry of Interior and Justice we warned that the key to our relationship with Chavez could be found in the Sao Paulo Forum, and in the communist conspiracy that was being brewed there for the takeover of the Continent. It was improper to invade someone else’s space, but at least we are consoled by the fact that we did it without subterfuge: Chavez wants to organize for us a coup d’ etat, similar to the one he could have staged in Venezuela with the ballot boxes and he has recently ratified with fraud.

The attempt is an old one. The octogenarian muse of comrade the President, has had an old appetite for Colombia. When a member of the Communist youth, he came to Bogotá to sabotage the Pan-American Conference with the murder of Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, he was already dominated by his geopolitical obsession. That is why he armed the FARC, the ELN, the M-19 and all of the groups of bandits that have whipped the nation with the preaching of a popular revolution. And now, in that languishing autumn that his friend Garcia Marquez predicted for him, he finds that he can revive those dreams of revolution in Colombia.

And it serves him for his purposes an ignorant charlatan, who lacks any moral scruples, owner of a country lined with gold. Chavez never read Das Kapital and he would not understand it if he read it, he doe not have the give and take with a Hegel and his very complex dialectic and he despises a Feurbach, not because he objects his historical materialism, but because he gets tangled when he pronounces the last name. But he is a communist, he is “Bolivarian”, he has the weapons, the dollars, the flatterers, the cynicism and perhaps the gall to be the perfect instrument for the little Cuban Dictator.

Chavez and Castro know that there are no Dictatorships without weapons. That’s why they love the FARC and that is why they are concerned that we will end up defeating them, as will fatally occur if a powerful ally dos not come to aid them. Like themselves, distracting the energies of Colombia in an international conflict, while their languishing allies catch a new air and while over a country in chaos the absurd take over by an extreme left Government, could unexpectedly happen

Thus, examining the Granda theme, it gains all of its fabulous importance. It allows Chavez to trick his internal public opinion and use and take advantage of the incident to press the anti-patriotic and traitorous opposition, which is what all tyrants always wanted. The Deputies, who stood up to applaud his ridiculous speech, will not do so well from today on. Censorship of the press has found the ideal pretext for the persecution of managers, those worms that buy Colombian products, will now be done in the name of the blemished sovereignty of Venezuela.

Once the borders to civilized and creative traffic are closed, they will open widely the doors to the weapons, the bombs, the propaganda and the money to aid the extreme left. The petrodollars will sprout without shame to back strikes and protests. And the Bolivarian Congresses, with ample delegations of the FARC, will repeat without rest.

The matter at hand is very grave and never has the country been in a bigger danger. But Churchill’s’ maxim that we remember above fits like a glove. President Uribe knows it and Colombians will have to surround him, without forgetting that we don’t have a conflict with our Venezuelan brothers, victims with us of the sick delirium of the two survivors of a species that many thought extinct: that of the Caribbean Dictator with communist delusions.

Many see the crisis between Venezuela and Colombia as a simple incident, a likely mistake by Chávez in confronting President Uribe, who is likely to be a formidable opponent. I don’t. While I think the Granda case may have taken Chavez initially by surprise, I also think once he acted and spoke on the case, it was a well thought out reaction: It is time to export the Bolivarian revolution, we now control Venezuela. This idea is shared by Fernando Londoño, the former Minister of Interior and Justice of Colombia as shown by his article in El Tiempo a couple of days ago.

 Is not because of Granda by Fernando Londoño Hoyos

“He who humiliates himself to avoid war, will have the humiliation and will have the war” (Churchill)

The grotesque Granda case would be the cause of our problem with Venezuela in the same measure that the war of independence would have been due to the insolence with which the chapeton refused to lend the flower vase to the party to honor Antonio Villavicencio. History organizes imitations of flower vases to distract simple souls. Thus, beyond the facts and its idiotic interpretations, we are forced to penetrate the profound historical logic which explains why what is happening to us is happening.

From the Ministry of Interior and Justice we warned that the key to our relationship with Chavez could be found in the Sao Paulo Forum, and in the communist conspiracy that was being brewed there for the takeover of the Continent. It was improper to invade someone else’s space, but at least we are consoled by the fact that we did it without subterfuge: Chavez wants to organize for us a coup d’ etat, similar to the one he could have staged in Venezuela with the ballot boxes and he has recently ratified with fraud.

The attempt is an old one. The octogenarian muse of comrade the President, has had an old appetite for Colombia. When a member of the Communist youth, he came to Bogotá to sabotage the Pan-American Conference with the murder of Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, he was already dominated by his geopolitical obsession. That is why he armed the FARC, the ELN, the M-19 and all of the groups of bandits that have whipped the nation with the preaching of a popular revolution. And now, in that languishing autumn that his friend Garcia Marquez predicted for him, he finds that he can revive those dreams of revolution in Colombia.

And it serves him for his purposes an ignorant charlatan, who lacks any moral scruples, owner of a country lined with gold. Chavez never read Das Kapital and he would not understand it if he read it, he doe not have the give and take with a Hegel and his very complex dialectic and he despises a Feurbach, not because he objects his historical materialism, but because he gets tangled when he pronounces the last name. But he is a communist, he is “Bolivarian”, he has the weapons, the dollars, the flatterers, the cynicism and perhaps the gall to be the perfect instrument for the little Cuban Dictator.

Chavez and Castro know that there are no Dictatorships without weapons. That’s why they love the FARC and that is why they are concerned that we will end up defeating them, as will fatally occur if a powerful ally dos not come to aid them. Like themselves, distracting the energies of Colombia in an international conflict, while their languishing allies catch a new air and while over a country in chaos the absurd take over by an extreme left Government, could unexpectedly happen

Thus, examining the Granda theme, it gains all of its fabulous importance. It allows Chavez to trick his internal public opinion and use and take advantage of the incident to press the anti-patriotic and traitorous opposition, which is what all tyrants always wanted. The Deputies, who stood up to applaud his ridiculous speech, will not do so well from today on. Censorship of the press has found the ideal pretext for the persecution of managers, those worms that buy Colombian products, will now be done in the name of the blemished sovereignty of Venezuela.

Once the borders to civilized and creative traffic are closed, they will open widely the doors to the weapons, the bombs, the propaganda and the money to aid the extreme left. The petrodollars will sprout without shame to back strikes and protests. And the Bolivarian Congresses, with ample delegations of the FARC, will repeat without rest.

The matter at hand is very grave and never has the country been in a bigger danger. But Churchill’s’ maxim that we remember above fits like a glove. President Uribe knows it and Colombians will have to surround him, without forgetting that we don’t have a conflict with our Venezuelan brothers, victims with us of the sick delirium of the two survivors of a species that many thought extinct: that of the Caribbean Dictator with communist delusions.

Andy Webb writes about the diplomatic rift between Colombian and Venezuela (Thanks JT!). He has some extremely juicy tidbits that are worth copying verbatim, since in three days, you will need a subscription to read the article (bold is mine):

” According to Mr Granda’s diary, excerpts of which were seen by the FT, the top FARC representative kept the telephone numbers of several people in the Chávez government and other FARC members in Venezuela. It also has the numbers of Evo Morales, the Bolivian coca farmers leader and an international ally of Mr Chávez”.

“Colombia possesses photographs of FARC settlements in Venezuela taken by US satellites. To be classed by Colombia, and by extension the US, as a supporter of terrorists could give Venezuela, the world’s fifth- largest oil exporter, “rogue-state” status. Condoleeza Rice, the incoming US secretary of state, described Mr Chávez as a “negative force” in the region.”

“The Granda incident has caused ructions within the government of Mr Chávez, self-styled champion of the region’s wave of radical populism. His position in recent days has been influenced by the competing pull of a range of disparate leftwing and military factions.

While all the factions are loyal to the president, the radicals favour a faster pace of social reform and a more confrontational stance with the US. After the capture of Mr Granda a radical group of Marxist intellectuals who have sought international solidarity for Mr Chávez, as well as for the FARC, pressured Mr Chávez to take an aggressive stance with Mr Uribe.

“This internal struggle is having a big impact on the [structure of] power,” says Alfredo Keller, a Caracas-based political analyst. “Chávez acted to suit the requirement of the left.” Differences between them and more conservative, mainly military, factions, analysts say, help explain why Mr Chávez took so long to respond to Mr Granda’s capture.”

Andy Webb writes about the diplomatic rift between Colombian and Venezuela (Thanks JT!). He has some extremely juicy tidbits that are worth copying verbatim, since in three days, you will need a subscription to read the article (bold is mine):

” According to Mr Granda’s diary, excerpts of which were seen by the FT, the top FARC representative kept the telephone numbers of several people in the Chávez government and other FARC members in Venezuela. It also has the numbers of Evo Morales, the Bolivian coca farmers leader and an international ally of Mr Chávez”.

“Colombia possesses photographs of FARC settlements in Venezuela taken by US satellites. To be classed by Colombia, and by extension the US, as a supporter of terrorists could give Venezuela, the world’s fifth- largest oil exporter, “rogue-state” status. Condoleeza Rice, the incoming US secretary of state, described Mr Chávez as a “negative force” in the region.”

“The Granda incident has caused ructions within the government of Mr Chávez, self-styled champion of the region’s wave of radical populism. His position in recent days has been influenced by the competing pull of a range of disparate leftwing and military factions.

While all the factions are loyal to the president, the radicals favour a faster pace of social reform and a more confrontational stance with the US. After the capture of Mr Granda a radical group of Marxist intellectuals who have sought international solidarity for Mr Chávez, as well as for the FARC, pressured Mr Chávez to take an aggressive stance with Mr Uribe.

“This internal struggle is having a big impact on the [structure of] power,” says Alfredo Keller, a Caracas-based political analyst. “Chávez acted to suit the requirement of the left.” Differences between them and more conservative, mainly military, factions, analysts say, help explain why Mr Chávez took so long to respond to Mr Granda’s capture.”