Archive for June 9th, 2008

Tales from the Fascist Revolutionary Crypt

June 9, 2008

Remember the Venezuelan National Guardsman captured in Colombia with 40,000 bullets for the FARC’s AK-47 rifles?

The same one that General Fredys Alonso, Commander of the Venezuelan National Guard said “When
we received the information, we immediately began to inquire and I can
say with all propriety that there does not exist neither in the
payroll, nor in the ranks of the National Guard an active or retired
member with the name Manuel Agudo Escalona”
Remember
that? It was all another charade by the hateful and lying Colombian
authorities to make Venezuela and its Government look bad, much like
the Reyes fake computer information.
Well, we
had another flip-flop today on Sergeant  Agudo Escalona. You see,
General Alonso’s exhaustive search within his own ranks, active and
retired, failed to turn up not a soldier, but a sergeant, who was
indeed caught in Colombia, but here is where the two stories diverge,
as told by Badass Rodriguez Chacin in a press conference. 
It
turns out that the honorable Sergeant Agudo Escalona was simply set up
by the Colombian authorities. He was offered to accompany someone
across the border, in order to smuggle some 500 million Bolivars (US$
200,000) across the border, for which he was offered payment.
The
Sergeant was asked to please wear his uniform to make the whole thing
more effective I guess. He the boarded a boat with the money (He did
not mention how many suitcases it takes to pack Bs. 500 million) and
three people who were unknown to him introduced three boxes in the boat
with the ammunition. At that point a commission from the Colombian Army
showed up and detained him in what was clearly a trap to catch this
Sergeant in an illegal activity different than the one he thought he
was carrying out. 
Of course, there is no
explanation as to why he pleaded guilty on Saturday if he was so
trapped. And we are to believe a man who the FARC called a “true
badass” when he tels us this story about poor Sergeant Agudo, who by
the way was being paid some US$ 40,000 to accompany the money across
the border.
Nice work if you can get it, nice tale if you believe it. 
But
after so many tales, contradictions and flip-flops, does Badass really
expect us to believe this new tale from the fascist revolutionary crypt?

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Chavez flip-flops again as he asks the FARC to release all hostages and give up their armed fight

June 9, 2008

In yet another flip-flop and about face in policy, Hugo Chavez called
today for the FARC guerrillas to give up their fight after forty years
of death and destruction in Colombia. Chavez’ statement represent a
remarkable shift in policy by  the Venezuelan President who enraged
many in the region, including Colombia’s Government, by asking last
Fall that the FARC be recognized as a “legitimate insurgent force”.
Moreover, the Venezuelan President called on the FARC to give up all of
the hostages in their hands in exchange for…

Nothing.

After months of trying to negotiate that the Colombian Government clear
an area of that country for the rebels in exchange for a handful of
hostages.

This represents a remarkable about face which closes Chavez’ attempt to
get recognition by negotiating with the FARC the release of the
hostages, which in the end turned out to be not only a gigantic
failure, but seems to have been used by the Colombian Government to
track down and destroy the main leaders of the guerilla movement, as
barely three of the hostages have been released and Ingrid Betancourt
remains in captivity.

For Chavez it is a risky call, likely driven by the content of Reyes’
computer. Risky, because the FARC seems to be in disarray and it is
likely that it will be difficult to achieve a consensus on Chavez’
request. But he could come out of all this smelling better if
Betancourt is finally liberated.

Chavez involved himself in the FARC/hostage negotiations thinking that
it may lead to the Nobel Peace Prize, but he underestimated Uribe’s
understanding of the FARC and his determination to destroy the group.
Meanwhile, the FARC has always had a convergent but parallel agenda to
Chavez and never trusted him completely instead using him for their own
purposes. This led to many failures and few rewards for Chavez as Uribe
stood back and used the extra noise surrounding Chavez’ negotiations to
track down the FARC leaders.

The flip flop represents the fourth one in one week, as Chavez seems to
be using polls and Reyes’ computers to redefine himself in surprising
fashion. As Pedro Mario Burelli said, Chavez seems to be running away
at full speed from Hugo Chavez in a sign that he is worried about his
standing, both nationally and internationally.

Internationally, it is hard to believe that the information in Reyes
computer will not come out to tell us the true story of Chavez’ tight
realtionship with the FARC. Nationally, it may hold back Chavez in
terms of what Bills he may enact under the umbrella of the Enabling
Bill that expires in mid July. Most likely, Chavez will look for the
National Assembly to extend that Law, so that he can use it to push his personal political project after the November elections.

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