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Is Chavez Supporting FARC/ELN?

I recently attended an economic forum in Moscow. As you can imagine, much of the forum was devoted to the oil industry and how countries like Russia are awash with petrodollars. One of the audience members asked the panel what the nations like Russia are doing with all of this money.

During a discussion of what Russia was doing, one of the panelists noted that Hugo Chavez, while pontificating as to how he was spending money on the poor, and making a big show of spitting in the face of the United States, had gone on a buying spree, from Chinese and Iranian armaments, to "government projects" which include a luxurious $54 million A319CJ Airbus plane for Chavez’s personal use (the Venezuelan and Kuwaiti governments are the only developing countries to purchase such luxuriant aircraft.

And then, the panelist noted, rather ominously, that in 2002, the Venezuelan National Assembly assigned $3.2 billion to the Macroeconomic Stabilization Fund – a fund Venezuela uses to protect itself against sudden changes in oil revenues. However, this money was never deposited and the Chavez government claims not to know where it is. The panelist concluded that Western governments (not just Bush and Uribe) believe this money is being used to destabilize other Latin American nations.

If this is the case, and it is hard not to believe it (after all of Chavez's talk of leftist revolution, his running amock in Argentina, and his animus for Uribe), this makes Colombia's ability to put an end to its civil strife all the more difficult, even without FARC being supported by drug taxes.

What do you think? Do you think this is just Chavez bashing (the panelist was neither American nor native spanish-speaking), or do you think Chavez is working to create as much havoc in Colombia as possible. I have an intense dislike for Chavez and personally feel he is supporting FARC in any way he can (although, they may not need so much cash with the drug money they earn).

By El Jefe on Nov 16, 2005, 14:16 in Politics & the war.

juancegomez says on Nov 16, 2005, 14:58:

.... I think that while a number of Venezuelan officials and radicals may be engaged on such activities on an individual scale, something which has been definitely proven...I don't seriously believe that there's enough evidence to see that as the official policy of the entire Venezuelan state, to the poin that such an accusation can be sustained.

Chavez does sympathize with the FARC's ideology as it has a common basis, resulting in their being for the most past generic "marxists", but in practice that's not so clear cut.

Chavez's also helped Colombia fight them, though under his own terms, and has provided the Colombian government with several extraditions of irregulars and other criminals when necessary (even irrespective of the Granda debacle, which was another story as it wasn't even a matter of active Venezuelan action but rather of passivity...yet it likewise didn't result in Granda being defended per se by the Venezuelan government, but rather in the objection of his form of capture).

Not to mention that economic relations between both countries are quite significant and positive to jeopardize them by providing outright active support to the FARC.

If anything, one can argue that Venezuela has, as of yet, been more passive rather than active as far as "helping" the FARC goes.

To put it in a few words: I don't fear Chavez, but I do fear the radical Venezuelans that are to his left...and may come to power as a result of the U.S. and the Venezuelan Opposition not knowing how to properly deal with somebody like Chavez.

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jccg says on Nov 17, 2005, 06:16:

Chavez do not support the guerrillas but guerrillas do "support" chavez, actually, what they do is use the socialist facts from venezuela's gov to give the idea that they will behave in the same way if they were in power. The idea of socialism still been considered a danger from "clasist" goverments like USA and Colombia (that's why they say chavez is bad), and they use the fact that FARC support chavez policies to support the idea of "evil" on the venezuelan gov.

Expanation:
Clasist goverment: a goverment that considere some people more important that other, in modern times it is based in the amount of money they have. i.e. rich are more important, have more rights (or access to those "public" rights), etc. OF COURSE I meant the reality of facts, not what is written in paper, when "all citizens are equal and have the same rights"

This is just the true!!

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