The Economist: Just how much help has Hugo Chávez given to Colombia's guerrillas?

tasco66 says on May 22, 2008, 13:30:

Looks like Cassini aka Buggy was wrong again (no surprise here):

"The secretariat's e-mail correspondence sheds light on several other matters. It confirms that Manuel Marulanda, the FARC's veteran leader, is still alive and apparently in overall command. It also shows the FARC's cynicism about the plight of its hostages. Mr Briceño says repeatedly that he does not expect to achieve the hostage-for-prisoners swap while Mr Uribe is in power but that the FARC will keep pushing it to create problems for the president. When Mr Chávez asked for Ms Betancourt's release “we told him that if we did that we would be without cards," Mr Márquez writes."

Bravo, Presidente Uribe for the perfect operation!

0 funny, 0 helpful.

slguy says on May 22, 2008, 13:48:

you trying make any point, cassini, or only using bandwidth?

btw, you never responded to my request for your analysis of the "yankee propagada". any particuar reason?

Before you throw me out, make sure I pay my bar tab

0 funny, 0 helpful.

tasco66 says on May 22, 2008, 13:49:

Cassini aka Buggy, nice picture (although not very original). What have your posts got to do with Chavez's support for the Farc? Is this another one of your Marxist propaganda tactics?

Bravo, Presidente Uribe for the perfect operation!

0 funny, 0 helpful.

tasco66 says on May 22, 2008, 13:54:

Very interesting:

Contacts intensified last September after Mr Uribe asked Mr Chávez to mediate with the FARC to release the guerrillas' hostages, including Ingrid Betancourt, a politician with French and Colombian nationality. The secretariat agreed to send one of its members, Iván Márquez, to meet Mr Chávez in Caracas to talk about swapping the hostages for jailed guerrillas—but also, wrote Mr Briceño, “to lay the foundations for mutual political relations...even though this might be in the long term.�

At their meeting, Mr Chávez “approved totally and without batting an eyelid� a FARC request for $300m, Mr Márquez reported to his colleagues in a message published by Spain's El País and Colombia's Semana. In a long e-mail 12 days later, Mr Briceño notes that it was not clear whether the money was “a loan or for solidarity� but that the FARC should offer Mr Chávez help in return. According to a document obtained by the Wall Street Journal, Mr Chávez's interior minister, Ramón Rodríguez Chacín, asked the FARC to train Venezuelan soldiers in guerrilla tactics for use if the United States were to invade.

In an e-mail dated February 8th, Mr Márquez and a colleague report that Mr Chávez (whom they identify with the pseudonym “�ngel�) had told them that the first $50m was “available�, with another $200m over the course of the year. However, there is no corroboration as to whether any money was actually paid. Colombian officials have long said that the FARC was wealthy through drug money. So why were they so jubilant about the loan? Perhaps because army pressure against the guerrillas has disrupted their drug business. The government has evidence that some FARC fronts are short of cash and have trouble paying farmers for coca paste, says Sergio Jaramillo, the deputy defence minister.

The e-mails show the extent to which the army has the FARC on the run: the secretariat members often complain of their difficulties in communicating with each other. Days after Mr Reyes was killed another member of the secretariat, Iván Ríos, was murdered by his own bodyguard. This week Mr Ríos's deputy, Nelly �vila Moreno (aka “Karina�), surrendered. But the FARC is far from defeated. In an e-mail last August Mr Briceño notes that guerrilla landmines are undermining army morale. Their impact is “very good and we are going to increase them,� he writes.

Bravo, Presidente Uribe for the perfect operation!

0 funny, 0 helpful.

jonas says on May 22, 2008, 13:55:

So any of you guys reckon the big country up north might invade Venezuela any time soon for the terrorist support? hmmmm scary thoughts....

Simon Presidente!

0 funny, 0 helpful.

nueva york bombero says on May 22, 2008, 14:06:

I highly doubt it, unless Chavez does something really stupid.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

jonas says on May 22, 2008, 14:21:

nueva york bombero says on May 22, 2008, 14:06: flag

"I highly doubt it, unless Chavez does something really stupid."

Your comment makes me smile :-)

Simon Presidente!

0 funny, 0 helpful.

CatGirl says on May 22, 2008, 15:25:

I just did a test run (small sample size) and put some people off of ignore. Now I think I am seeing double...wot happened? Is my fun house eye acting up again or does PBH have twins??

Love and Time: the only two things that cannot be bought, but only spent

0 funny, 0 helpful.

nueva york bombero says on May 22, 2008, 16:25:

Yeah, I think either multiple personality complex or stalking situation happening here....
Jonas...I know it was a funny thing to say....IF he does something stupid....

0 funny, 0 helpful.

CatGirl says on May 22, 2008, 16:53:

NY Bomb - this is like ...weird on wierd.
Maybe I oughtta "can" this test run and put those bottons back as before.

Love and Time: the only two things that cannot be bought, but only spent

0 funny, 0 helpful.

nueva york bombero says on May 22, 2008, 16:55:

maybe so my feline friend:)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

CatGirl says on May 22, 2008, 17:12:

NY Bomb - Amor, if you only knew..............jeje

Love and Time: the only two things that cannot be bought, but only spent

0 funny, 0 helpful.

nueva york bombero says on May 22, 2008, 17:16:

email me and explain.......

0 funny, 0 helpful.

vladimiro says on May 23, 2008, 05:52:

Interesting article, but it does not say how much support if any at all was actually provided.

"The guerrillas are desperate to establish a “strategic alliance�? with Mr Chávez. But that was still just an aspiration in early 2007, the documents suggest. “We don't know if we enjoy their trust,�? writes Jorge Briceño (alias “Mono Jojoy�?), the FARC's military leader, to other members of the secretariat."

Its not as if the FARC are running their own cable news show out of Caracas :) From another article it also appears that Democratic Party representatives also had ties with the FARC, and are being investigated by the Colombian government, but nobody is making exaggerated claims about the US government's involvement with the FARC that I can see.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

gatogris says on May 23, 2008, 06:22:

Vladimiro, precisely, the true extent of actual flows of matériel or funds may never be known, but what does seem to be certain is the FARC were/are having a hard time establishing working alliances in the sense of producing anything other than concordant dialogue. Chavez is crafty, and skilled at maintaining his balance by keeping others (Uribe, Bush) off-balance, and I suspect that once again his promises and assertions were just that. There may have been some infusions of briefcases of cash (party favors, more or less) and even a few high-level meetings but I don't think that Chavez would have seen actually attaching himself in a meaningful way to the guerilla's operational and tactical infrastructure as in his best interest.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

romy says on May 23, 2008, 08:14:

same story... nothing new
"They represent only one side of a story, and most of their claims have yet to be independently corroborated"

0 funny, 0 helpful.

cali373 says on May 23, 2008, 10:40:

Just how much? If at all.

Smile if you are a thinker!

0 funny, 0 helpful.