http://www.alternet.org/story/87821/
June 11, 2008
Alternet
Chavez's Call for FARC Disarmament Takes Washington By Surprise
By Mark Weisbrot
Washington's foreign policy establishment -- and much of the U.S. media
-- was taken by surprise this week when President Hugo Chavez of
Venezuela, said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
should lay down their arms and unconditionally release all of their
hostages. The FARC is a guerilla group that has been fighting to
overthrow the Colombian government for more than four decades.
Chavez's announcement should not have come as a surprise, because he
had already said the same things several months ago.
On January 13, for example, Chavez said: "I do not agree with the armed
struggle, and that is one of the things that I want to talk to
Marulanda (the head of the FARC who died last March) about." Chavez
also stated his opposition to kidnapping, and has made numerous public
appeals for the FARC to release their hostages.
Chavez had also explained previously that the armed struggle was not
necessary because left movements could now come to power through
elections, something that was often difficult or impossible in the past
because of political repression.
The surprise in U.S. policy and media circles is a result of a
misconception of Chavez's recent role in Colombia's conflict. A
comparison: former President Jimmy Carter has recently called upon the
United States to negotiate with Hamas -- dismissed as a terrorist
organization by the U.S. and its allies in Israel and Europe. Carter is
not an advocate of Hamas nor of armed struggle. He has met with Hamas
and called for negotiations because he is trying to promote a peace
settlement.
The same has been true for Hugo Chavez in the Colombian conflict. This
is how Chavez's role has been seen by the families of the FARC's
hostages (including U.S. military contractors), Colombian anti-violence
activists, the governments of Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia and
almost every other state in the region, and also in Europe. None of
these people (including FARC kidnapping victims) or governments are
admirers of the FARC. They have strongly supported Chavez's efforts,
including but not limited to his success this year in gaining freedom
for six hostages that were held by the FARC.
But for Washington and its right-wing allies in Colombia, Chavez and
the FARC have become comrades in arms. The media has honed in on about
two or three positive statements uttered by Chavez about the FARC (out
of thousands of hours of his speeches) to describe Chavez as a "staunch
FARC supporter" (Time Magazine June 9). On June 10, the Associated
Press reported, falsely, that Chavez had five months ago been "urging
world leaders to back their [the FARC's] armed struggle."
The U.S. State Department has even said it would consider placing
Venezuela on its short list of "state sponsors of terrorism." This is
unlikely in an election year, since Venezuela is our fifth largest oil
supplier and the Republicans are already getting enough political
headaches from gasoline at $4.00 a gallon.
For at least six years the Bush Administration has tried to make it
look like Chavez and his government have been arming, funding, and
otherwise supporting the FARC.
Until March of this year, Washington had supplied no evidence,
documentary or otherwise, of such support. News articles containing
such allegations were for years based on anonymous sources. But on
March 1 the Colombian military bombed and invaded a FARC camp in
Ecuador, killing more than two dozen people. These included FARC
commander Raul Reyes, who was also the chief negotiator for the release
of high-profile hostages held by the FARC, and some non-combatants. The
incursion was condemned by governments throughout the hemisphere,
except for the United States and Colombia.
The Colombian military claims to have captured eight computer exhibits,
including laptops and flash drives, during the attack. Since March, the
Colombian government has been releasing various files that allegedly
come from this equipment, claiming that these files and communications
indicate that Venezuela's government has been supporting the FARC. The
government also alleged, on the basis of these files, that the FARC had
helped finance the 2006 electoral campaign of Ecuadorian president
Rafael Correa. Both Venezuela and Ecuador have contemptuously dismissed
the charges, with President Correa arguing that the computers and
equipment did not even originate in the FARC camp.
<end excerpt>
The rest, about discrediting the recent files, is the lamer part of his argument. (I have no problem believing the laptops were planted wholesale; we've done it before -- it's almost becoming a modus operandi; Weisbrot just does a very lame job of casting doubt.) But I found this first part interesting.
Michael