More empty promises from Hugo Chavez
Venezuela’s strongman socialist leader Hugo Chavez promised a rescue operation for hostages held by the Columbian narco-terrorist group FARC “within hours” back on Wednesday. So how’d that go? From CNN;
It was not immediately clear when the operation would begin. However, Chavez described Colombia’s agreement as the last step before the operation to free the hostages would begin.
Yeah, that was on Thursday. The Miami Herald reports this morning;
Two Venezuelan helicopters sent to Colombia to retrieve three rebel-held hostages sat idle on a runway on Saturday, waiting for the coordinates on the pickup location.
The information never came.
Marxist rebels announced last week a deal with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to release former vice presidential candidate Clara Rojas, 44, her jungle-born toddler and former congresswoman Consuelo González, 57. The women have been held for more than five years in a portion of the jungle controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
With Colombia’s go-ahead and much fanfare, Chávez organized a mission of high-profile international observers, adorned two Colombia-bound choppers with required Red Cross insignia and had the hostages’ relatives flown to Caracas for the planned reunion. But as of late Saturday, family members and observers were still waiting for the one detail on which the entire mission depends: instructions from the rebels on the hostages’ pick-up spot somewhere in FARC-controlled land, which is about the size of France.
I suggest the whole thing is an attempt by Chavez to take the focus off of him in regard to the two Maleta-gate cases that are being investigated by the media and US prosecutors.
Tomas Sancio at Venezuela Politics wonders why a few non-Venezuelans are more important to the Chavez regime than 33 Venezuelans everyday;
The previous article would probably make us look insensitive if the facts weren’t as grim for the amount of people murdered in Venezuela during 2007. 12,249 people were murdered according to government figures. That’s 33 persons per day. We didn’t use the word “people” because an average of more than one person per hour is killed and this person that is killed every 44 minutes is just as important as the ones being rescued this weekend in Colombia.
The Interior Minister’s reaction is a typical one. He states that the opposition’s figures are exaggerated. But what can be more exaggerated than 33 people murdered on a daily basis. Is 100 a figure to worry about?
Well, actually solving Venezuela’s problems is pretty hard, and if it fails, there’s no one to blame. There’s only an upside to getting FARC’s hostages released – and if it goes south, he can blame it on Uribe.
Category: Foreign Policy, Hugo Chavez, Politics
