A few days ago Hugo Chavez, under attack for not doing anything about the Venezuelan hostages in the hands of the FARC and the ELN in Venezuela, dared to say with a straight face that there were no Venezuelans in the hands of these two terrorist groups, which he now wants us to convince us are such good and humanitarian people.
But Hugo Chavez has accustomed us Venezuelans to his lies and cynical statements, except that now he is directing them to international opinion as he tries to attack the Colombian Government. But as a friend kindly reminded me yesterday, it was Hugo Chavez who said at the Cartagena summit:
“I am a man of honor and if I were to support the guerrilla I assure you that I would not hide it. I don’t support nor have I ever supported, nor will I ever support the Colombian guerrilla. No way”. So spoke President Hugo Chavez on November 9 th, 2004 during a press conference in Cartagena.
Lies come indeed easily to the Venezuelan President who can keep a straight face in saying the above and now three years later do exactly what he claimed he would never do. But the truth is that he has always been a sympathizer of the FARC from the early days, he just hides it. The same way in which he was a sympathizer of terrorist Carlos the Jackal as clearly expressed in his letter to that terrorist in 1999 and he sympathized with the September 11th. attacks until he realized his suggestion that the US had it coming to them did not play well anywhere else.
And it is not surprising that Chavez now named as Minister of the Interior the same man that told the guerrillas a message from Chavez that basically said: Hang in there, you can count on us.
But those kidnapped in Venezuela have families and the families did not take well to Chavez’s statements and they have been holding meetings with the press and since Chavez apparently does not care about the Venezuelan hostages, they appealed to the Colombian Government for help. Above is a partial list of some of those kidnapped, as well as the guerrilla/mercantile/terrorist group taking responsibility for it or asking for the ransom. This is a very short list of 44 names, but only in 2007 a total of 279 Venezuelans were kidnapped.
And to show the type of cynical double standard the Government has and the disdain for the suffering of its own citizens, Minister Rodriguez Chacin, the same one that tells the FARC guerrillas to hang in there and count with the support of Chavez and his Government at the moment in which the two Colombian hostages were being handed over, suggests today that the relatives of those kidnapped “may be incurring in treason” when they ask help from the Colombian Government, because nobody knows what the political objective of the kidnappers may be.
A strange statement from a man that just participated in the inverse operation of rescuing Colombian hostages in the hands of a terrorist group whose only objective is the overthrow of the Colombian Government no? Thus, Chavez was and is promoting treason on the part of Colombians when he seeks to help them and the two women released and their relatives have incurred in the same crime.
That is the logic or lack of it that Venezuelans have seen in nine years of lies, deceit and yes, treason to Venezuela on the part of Hugo Chavez and his cronies. Treason when Chavez gives money without authorization to anybody he wants to buy. Treason when he violates the Constitution and signs international agreements to give oil away to Cuba and other countries. Treason when suitcases full of cash leave Venezuela while Venezuelans go hungry or get killed by common criminals or by illnesses that were erradicated or under control in Venezuela before Chavez was elected President.
To say nothing of the fact that lying about PDVSA’s production is treason. Or the destruction of PDVSA, or the country’s industrial base, or the way US$ 300 billion in oil income has been mismanaged.
I could go on and on, but five years of writing here tell you the whole story. We know who the traitors and liars are.
And is not us.