Chavez accuses US of cross-border raid (UPDATED)

Photo from AP/Ramon Espinosa

Colombian President Uribe in Santo Domingo

Still chewing his daily coca leaves, apparently, Chavez has decided that the best way to come out of the situation into which he’s cornered himself is to make up stuff according to the Associated Press (Washington Examiner link);

On his arrival in Santo Domingo, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made jibes at Colombia and the United States, which has supported the Andean nation with more than $4 billion in counterinsurgency and anti-drug aid since 2000.

“The U.S. empire has taken over Colombia,” Chavez said.

Chavez claimed the strike that killed Raul Reyes, a top leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was “planned and directed” by the U.S. Later, he said he had information that “gringo soldiers” participated in the attack, but provided no evidence to back the claim.

I can’t imagine the Defense Department taking the chance on losing US troops in a potential battle in a country where they’re not invited – I know that’s the stuff of Hollywood drama, but that’s not how it works.

The Miami Herald reports that this dust-up is hurting Venezuelans more than it’s affecting Colombia;

Before the restrictions, about 30,000 Colombians crossed the border in San Antonio every day to work in Venezuela, and Venezuelans went the other direction to shop.

”The situation is very grave on the border,” City Councilman Alejandro García said. “For a problem that’s between Ecuador and Colombia, we Venezuelans are paying the price.”

He added that the fuel restrictions had forced a local jeans factory to close after it didn’t receive enough diesel oil to keep production going.

And many Venezuelans suspect that Chavez has ulterior motives for throwing his troops into the frontier gaps;

Many in San Antonio speculated that Chávez had sent troops to the region to protect guerrillas taking shelter there from Colombian attack. Many in the region said that extortion, kidnappings and executions at the hands of Colombian as well as Venezuelan guerrillas were regular occurrences.

”Of course there are Colombian guerrillas here, and the government knows where they are,” García said.

Manuel at The Devil’s Excrement writes that the Venezuelan Army tried to block Argentine reporters from recording and interviewing protesters outside of Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas;

And today a group of Argentinean reporters were detained and clashed with the Military Police as they deviated from the program and attempted to go and tape and interview protesters right outside the Miraflores Presidential Palace. According to the reports, the police got violent with them and actually blocked their path so that they could not get to the protesters. They also attempted to take away their equipment but were helped by other reporters.

The Washington Times reports that the DEA aided Thai police in the capture of Victor Bout, international gun dealer buying weapons for FARC. I wondered yesterday if his arrest isn’t the result of the Colombian raid against Raul Reyes last weekend and some of the electronic evidence the Colombians gleaned from the equipment found among the pieces of Reyes.

The Real Cuba writes that my ruminations about Victor Bout might prove to be correct;

Viktor Bout, an international arms dealer dubbed the “Merchant of Death,” was arrested in Thailand and charged in New York on Thursday with trying to sell weapons to Colombian rebels, officials said.

According to a report in Spanish newspaper El Pais, Bout was found thanks to information contained in the computer of Raul Reyes, the FARC leader who was killed by the Colombian army last week.

Gateway Pundit writes that it was a phone call from Chavez that enabled Colombians to pinpoint assembled pieces of Raul Reyes right before they disassembled him;

That was a big mistake.
NOTE TO TERROR LEADERS: When Chavez calls- Don’t pick up.

Jim also shows remarkably good taste by linking to my story yesterday – thanks.

There’s more on the phone call at El Universal.

UPDATE: After nearly a week of drama queen over-reaction, Hugo Chavez calls for calm (AP link);

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called Friday for a cooling of tensions with Colombia and predicted a summit of Latin American presidents in this seaside capital “is going to be positive.”
[…]
“People should go cool off a bit, chill out their nerves,” Chavez told journalists at his hotel before leaving for the summit at the foreign ministry of the Dominican Republic. “I think the meeting today is going to be positive, because it is going to help the debate. We have to debate, talk, and this is the first step toward finding the road.”

That’s hilarious. After mobilizing his army, navy and air force to the Colombian frontier, even though the attack against Raul Reyes happened all the way across Colombia from Venezuela, Chavez is trying to act like the great peacemaker. Porque Chavez no se calla?

An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings says it before I thought of it;

It’s possible the loony toon figured out his mouth was writing checks his ass couldn’t cash?

But maybe the reason Chavez is calling for calm is this from Gaius at Blue Crab Boulevard about a Washington Post article on those documents Colombian officials found on Reyes’ computers;

The correspondence appears to show that Venezuelan officials are eager to work with rebel commanders to isolate Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, an ally of the Bush administration. The documents also include letters to Chávez from FARC leader Manuel Marulanda.

The Post article goes on to claim that Colombia is willing to allow external police organizations verify the origins of the documents;

The chief of Colombia’s National Police, Brig. Gen. Óscar Naranjo, said the government has asked a team from Interpol to examine the laptops and hard drives to confirm that they belonged to FARC commanders. That multinational team is to work in Bogota on Tuesday.

“We have nothing to hide,” Naranjo said by phone Thursday afternoon. “We’re entirely open to any technical review.”

But back to the AP article; Danny Ortega of Nicaragua decided to break off relations with Colombia and no one noticed. I suppose that’s one less truckload of bananas for Colombians. But Colombia has at least one ally at the conference;

One of the rare regional voices offering support for Colombia was Salvadoran President Tony Saca, who said the Colombian government should be able to defend its citizens.

“We need to understand Colombia has the legitimate right to go after terrorists … wherever they may be, of course without harming the sovereignty of another country,” Saca said on arrival in Santo Domingo.

Salvadorans probably remember their own struggle with communist guerillas who hid out in Guatemala and were supplied by Cuba and Nicaragua.

In Ecuador, Security Minister Gustavo Larrea said the army captured five suspected FARC rebels on Thursday. The suspects were nabbed “a few meters from the Colombian border,” in the general area where the raid took place, Larrea said.

Yeah, I’ll believe that when I see it.

Category: Foreign Policy, Hugo Chavez, Terror War