U.S. steps up intervention in Venezuela, Colombia
By Berta Joubert-Ceci
Washington is rapidly and dangerously
stepping up its hostile acts against Hugo Chávez's Bolivarian government
in Venezuela. A Jan. 14 article in the right-wing Washington Times newspaper
quoted a Bush senior official as saying, "The administration will begin a broad
campaign in Latin America soon, urging friendly countries to reassess their
relations with Mr. Chávez and to speak up against his authoritarian and
anti-democratic rule.
"We'll be communicating our conclusions to his
neighbors and raise the alarm about what is happening in that important
country."
One of these neighbors is Colombia. Although
Colombian-Venezuelan relations have been tense for years due to conflicts on
their common border, Chávez has increased trade and economic cooperation
with Colombia. This is part of Chávez's proposal for Latin American
integration called the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas or ALBA. This
program aims at opposing and replacing Washington's Free Trade Agreement of the
Americas (FTAA, or ALCA using the Spanish initials).
Recent bilateral
accords included an important project: the construction of a trans-Caribbean gas
pipeline that will run from Venezuela through Colombia. This project would
greatly help the economies of both countries.
Dubbed the "Israel of Latin
America," Colombia is the closest and most loyal ally of Washington in the area.
Its president is Álvaro Uribe Vélez, a pro-fascist U.S. client.
Uribe is diligently setting in place the essential directives needed to suppress
any opposition to his and Washington's agenda of privatization and the stealing
of natural resources by transnational, mostly U.S.-based, finance
capital.
The role assigned to Colombia is twofold: exterminate the
insurgency there and threaten its neighbor, the Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela. Faithful Uribe has increasingly been doing just that.
Granda
kidnapped in Caracas
On Dec. 13, after the closing of the Second
Bolivarian Congress of the Peoples held in Caracas, Rodrigo Granda, a
representative of the international commission of the FARC-EP (Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia--People's Army) who had attended the congress, was
kidnapped in Caracas. It was in the middle of the day right in front of a
restaurant where he was being interviewed by Omar Rodríguez, Le Monde
Diplomatique's editor in Colombia.
Granda's account and a later
investigation by the Venezuelan authorities showed that Colombian police and
rogue officers from the Venezuelan National Guard and police were involved in
the kidnapping. Granda was forced into the trunk of a vehicle and driven to the
Colombian border. Once in Colombia, he was handed over to that country's police
in the city of Cúcuta.
Right away the Colombian government
announced the capture, stating that it was done in Colombia and denying reports
that Granda was seized in Venezuela.
On Jan. 13, a month after the
incident, Venezuelan officers detained for their role in the kidnapping stated
they were paid $1.5 million by Colombian police for their participation.
Colombian Minister of Defense Jorge Uribe, his position compromised by this
admission, publicly admitted that the Colombian government had indeed paid that
amount for the capture of Rodrigo Granda. He did not admit, however, that Granda
was captured in Venezuela, but claimed it was in Cúcuta,
Colombia.
In a statement to radio RCN, Colombian Vice President Francisco
Santos justified the bribe, saying, "This is a legitimate method, it is used
here, in the United States, in England and other places."
In Colombia,
where more than 60 percent are poor and the process of privatization is leaving
millions without adequate health care and other essential social services, one
wonders where this "hefty reward money" is coming from. Possibly from
Washington's Plan Colombia.
The Venezuelan government has reacted by
withdrawing its ambassador from Bogotá and suspending the new bilateral
projects and trade accords, accusing the Colombian government of an assault on
its sovereignty. Chávez said that he has taken this action until Uribe
apologizes for sending police to Venezuela and bribing local Venezuelan
authorities to help kidnap Rodrigo Granda.
Venezuelan Vice President
José Vicente Rangel said, "I think that the Colombian authorities are
committing a serious mistake. Plan Colombia is being carried out all over the
Andean region." He also compared the kidnapping of Granda to the anticommunist
extermination plan "Cóndor" for which former Chilean dictator Augusto
Pinochet was recently being tried.
The situation between the two countries
is escalating daily and the U.S. government has publicly taken sides. A Jan. 16
AP article quotes U.S. Ambassador William Wood as saying, "We support 100
percent the declarations from [Uribe's] presidential palace."
In what was
clearly an attempt to divide and conquer, Wood even agreed with a statement that
the FARC-EP had released after the kidnapping. Wood said: "For the first and
probably last time we are in agreement with the FARC, which in its Dec. 30
communique asks the Venezuelan government to define its position."
Only
U.S. imperialism, which has been trying to destabilize Venezuela since Hugo
Chávez took office, can benefit from this latest attack. Recent
developments in the Bolivarian Revolution, like enforcing laws on land reform
and the media, are truly a terrible nightmare for the U.S. ruling class.
Venezuela has also gained in international prestige and trade
relations.
Washington has intervened both from within, by funding
Chávez's opposition through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
and other organizations and employing CIA agents, and from without, particularly
through Colombia. There have been many "mini interventions" from Colombia
against Venezuela through its common border. Last year, 100 Colombian
paramilitaries were caught in Caracas, training to kill Chávez.
The
U.S. campaign to destabilize Vene zuela is continuous, with the CIA playing a
very active role in the support and training of disaffected elements hostile to
the revolution.
U.S. media mobilizes against
Chávez
A Jan. 14 Washington Post editorial was meant to warn
the U.S. ruling class: "Last Sunday hundreds of heavily armed Venezuelan troops
invaded one of the country's largest and most productive cattle ranches,
launching what President Hugo Chavez describes as his 'war against the
estates.'
"The next day Mr. Chavez signed a decree under which authorities
are expected to seize scores of other farms in the coming weeks. This assault on
private property is merely the latest step in what has been a rapidly escalating
'revolution' by Venezuela's president that is undermining the foundations of
democracy and free enterprise in that oil-producing country. The response of
Venezuela's democratic neighbors, and the United States, ranges from passivity
to tacit encouragement."
The editorial then reminds the ruling class here
of Venezuela's relationship with Cuba and its trade agreements with China,
Libya, Iran and Russia. In the article in the Washington Times referred to
earlier, the quoted U.S. government official says, "An interagency policy review
under way is focusing on political and diplomatic measures, rather than economic
sanctions that might hurt the U.S. economy." This refers to the flow of oil that
makes Venezuela the fourth-largest oil supplier to the U.S.
With the
kidnapping of Rodrigo Granda, the Bush administration aimed to not only deal a
blow to the Bolivarian Revolution and its improving relations with Colombia, but
also against the Colombian insurgency.
Every revolutionary should oppose
this imperialist act against Venezuela and against the armed insurgency in
Colombia. The FARC-EP deserves the solidarity of the people around the world who
demand peace with justice. Revolutionaries who, like the FARC and the ELN, are
waging a battle against imperialism and for national liberation, should be able
to address international forums without threats and fear of prosecution or
assassination. They should not be pariahs just because the terrorist government
of the United States places them on its "most wanted" list.
Reprinted from the Jan. 27, 2005, issue of Workers World newspaper
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