There are calls also to bring the charges to the OAS — which clearly makes a LOT more sense.

It’s hard to believe that Uribe turned out to be the guy to admit that there’s a genocide going on in Colombia. Whatever was he thinking? On top of that he’s trying to pin the tail on a man who has very clearly been otherwise occupied for the last eight years — when the FARC has been chugging along quite splendidly for what? 40 years? Plus. PLUS. Chavez has actually secured the release of 6 hostages in the last month. That Uribe is UberConfused.

The World Court, fancy name aside, is clearly a European Court. It’s impotence in the context of US aggressions in Nicaragua is just one of many arguments to support a truth and reconciliation program in the hands of a regional United Nations. Chile and Argentina have already formed Peacekeeping Forces. There is a will and there is a way. Nobody wants to beat war drums. Except, obviously, the poor Yanqui doodles and their little pocket poodle. Who don’t know how to conduct business in any other manner.

Oi.

I think we’re making some serious progress here.

See also : Crisis Will Strengthen Forces Calling for Negotiations

What are the chances that a united Latin America that fails to support Uribe’s aggressions will strengthen the struggle for a united Bolivia?

Looking good in Hollywood.

Bolivia calls Unasur meeting on Colombia-Ecuador crisis

OPEN QUOTE

LIMA, March 4 (Xinhua) — Bolivian President Evo Morales and current President of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), has called a special meeting of the Union to discuss the Colombia-Ecuador diplomatic crisis, according to a statement from Bolivia’s Foreign Ministry Tuesday.

The Unasur Council of Foreign Ministers meeting will take place Thursday in the Dominican Republic on the sidelines of a Rio Group meeting there, said the statement.

Earlier Tuesday, Morales said the two nations’ conflict could seriously affect the Unasur consolidation process.

Foreign ministers from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay have confirmed that they will attend the meeting, it said.

that’s fucking absurd.

OK OK OK, I know this is leaving the thread a little — but the two headlines are just MUCH funnier in the context of this thread than they would be in just their own light.

UN Urges Bolivia to Make Coca Chewing a Crime (from Bloomberg! LOL)

Bolivians choose the euro

From the Guardian Threat of war as Venezuela and Ecuador order troops to Colombian border

Venezuela started shutting crossing points on the 1,400-mile border to try to isolate its neighbour after Bogotá made a series of extraordinary allegations about the Venezuelan leader funding Marxist guerrillas intent on building a uranium-enriched “dirty” bomb...“Colombia proposes to denounce Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela, in the international criminal court for sponsoring and financing genocide,” said President Alvaro Uribe.

Can anyone believe this crap?

The Organisation of American States, a pan-regional body, held an emergency meeting in Washington to seek a diplomatic solution after President George Bush sided with Colombia, his administration’s key ally in Latin America. The US president accused Venezuela of “provocative manoeuvres” and said he stood by Bogotá and its fight against terrorism. He also urged Congress to approve a free-trade agreement with Colombia.

...[FARC] said in a communique that Reyes died completing a mission to arrange Betancourt’s release through Chávez and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who has made it a personal cause. Sarkozy said last week that Betancourt could be near death, and that her “martyrdom is the martyrdom of France”.

...Despite a recent arms build-up Venezuela’s army is puny compared to the US-equipped, war-seasoned Colombian armed forces. Another deterrent to hostilities breaking out is cross-border trade worth $6bn annually, much of it Colombian food imports on which Venezuela depends.

“The good news is that the three countries are so intertwined that a military conflagration would be tremendously costly for all,” said [Michael] Shifter.

Ummm…

Sounds like Chavez is bolstering his recently flagging “revolution” with the intention of giving his supporters a more tangible enemy than the alleged U.S. invasion of Venezuela on the drawing board.

His negotiations with FARC rebels is considered a legitimization of their political power in Columbia and is a calculated risk on the part of Chavez to strengthen the Venezuelan position in Latin America and weaken U.S. regional influence.

Sometimes no Peace

Hugo was/is just trying to emerge a just peace junta. He’s not really a power hungry kinda guy. FARC is the one that’s been pushing him to help out. It’s the FARC that keeps knocking on his door.

I don’t know why people keep trying to talk about Venezuela’s flagging revolution. I haven’t heard anything about it flagging. The referendum hit a snag. And people keep talking about it’s failure. But it just ain’t so. The food shortages, come on, EVery body knows this, are being caused 1.) by neofeudal stockpiling and 2.) the working class’s unprecedented ability to shop.

Ain’t no flagging revolution. Nowhere, nohow.

Plus Nicolás Maduro (foreign minister) has been grabbing more face time — I think — has anyone else noticed that?

Yay.

Underestimating Rafael Correa (from Fidel)

The US president accused Venezuela of “provocative manoeuvres” and said he stood by Bogotá and its fight against terrorism. He also urged Congress to approve a free-trade agreement with Colombia.

Heh… never one to miss an opportunity.

The ICC is perhaps not the right place for Latin America to sort out its diffifulties, but that doesn’t mean they’re totally useless . . . why don’t we

Sue Israel for Genocide before the International Court of Justice

?

oh yeh

Don’t think they’re a member

Nice piece at InterPress re. the FTA w/ Colombia. It focuses on labor issues but this bit has been rolling around in my mind since I read it. Anyone who comes across more on the significance of transfering intellectual property rights, please post it at das G. Muchas gracias.

U.S.-Colombia Pact Mired in Row Over Labour Abuses

Violence directed against unions and the role some U.S. corporations have played in supporting it is an important aspect of the debate over the FTA, say labour activists, but it is far from the only one.

“Even if Colombia had a sterling record on human rights, if there were no assassinations of trade unionists, the Colombia free trade agreement would still be a bad idea,” said Economic Policy Institute global policy director Tony Avirgan.

“These agreements provide for the extension of patents and [intellectual] property rights, particularly in terms of medicines, that go way beyond what’s provided for in the United States,” Avirgan said.

“They should be called corporate rights’ agreements rather than free trade agreements,” he argued. “It’s a misnomer because they’re not much about the exchange of goods, but they are about empowering corporations.”

Displaced Pay Homage to Victims of Paramilitaries

OPEN QUOTE

“It was an homage to the indigenous people, afro-Colombians, peasant farmers and everyone else who has been killed in this absurd war,” indigenous activist Manuel Bautista told IPS at the start of a three-day march that will end in the Colombian capital Thursday.

Bautista and others affected by Colombia’s civil war threw thousands of flowers into the Magdalena river, which crosses the country from south to north, on Tuesday in a “national homage to the victims of paramilitarism, parapolitics and crimes of the state.”

The flowers of all colours were cast into the river by around 700 indigenous and black people displaced by the war who came from the western provinces of Chocó and Cauca to join others from the central provinces of Tolima, Huila and Cundinamarca in the march.

The ceremony took place on a bridge joining Flandes, a fishing village in Tolima, with Girardot, a town in Cundinamarca, in west-central Colombia.

According to a local non-governmental organisation, Justice and Peace, “nearly four million people in Colombia have been displaced and have been stripped of their land, and at least 15,000 people have been forcibly disappeared, with their bodies buried in 3,000 secret common graves or thrown into rivers.”

from above article OPEN QUOTE

The United Nations attributes 80 percent of the human rights crimes committed in Colombia’s armed conflict to the paramilitary groups . . .

END OF QUOTE really, the more you think about Uribe’s Rant, the more it starts to look like he went AWOL.

Bernard’s old, but he’s not THAT old.

Colombia’s Cornered President — High Stakes in the Andes

OPEN QUOTE

Eerily, in a March 1 column, one of Colombia’s most prescient political analysts, Alfredo Molano, predicted that a giant storm cloud was about to sweep across some portion of Colombia’s borderlands. Molano described how President Álvaro Uribe had brought the war with the FARC to the Darien Gap joining Panama, the Catatumbo region of Northern Santander shared with Venezuela, and the frontiers of Pasto and Putumayo bordering Ecuador. In Molano’s view, the fact that Uribe had been politically cornered at home and abroad made a widening war across national borders all but inevitable. As Justin Podur noted, domestic and foreign pressure for a negotiated peace-that is, a political solution to the armed conflict-has led to an escalation of the war by the stronger, more violent party, along Israeli lines.

END OF QUOTE

OAS countries take note.

Panama is one of the countries selected by the OAS to act as ambassador to “the Crisis “

There are a bunch of poison pills in the “Colombia’s Cornered President” piece. LOL.

What fun.

OPEN QUOTE

“It is doubtful that the United States was directly involved in killing Reyes, since Plan Colombia was specifically designed to give the Colombian government the hardware, surveillance, and training to carry out such missions on its own”

END OF QUOTE

?

Pffftttttt. . . .

Although :

“in light of past episodes, he had little reason to fear a reprimand from Washington, and was likely emboldened by past precedent”

is quite likely to be true, considering the ultra stupidity of his last move . . .

Oh hey, these guys are really going to town . . . last we heard of Victor, he was disappearing arm shipments that the US MIC hired him to fly to Iraq.

OPEN QUOTE

A suspected Russian arms dealer, dubbed by some the Merchant of Death, has been arrested in Thailand, accused of trying to buy weapons for Colombian fighters.

Thai police arrested Viktor Bout on Thursday at a Bangkok hotel after they had arrived at the hotel looking for one of the Russian’s associates.

Bout, who is the target of an international arrest warrant and US sanctions, was attempting “to procure weapons for Colombia’s Farc rebels”, the Thai police said in an arrest report.

He is wanted by Interpol for allegedly violating UN arms embargoes to several countries in Africa.

Later US officials said Bout had been arrested in a sting operation in which US anti-drugs agents posed as Farc fighters.

END OF QUOTE

Victor’s looking pretty good, if you ask moi

OH BUT WAIT, the article continues and the plot thickens

OPEN QUOTE

Russia is likely to seek Bout’s extradition, the RIA Novosti news agency on Thursday quoted a Russian law-enforcement official as saying.

“Russia is currently waiting for official confirmation from Thailand of the businessman’s arrest. We should get that in two or three days. After that we can demand his extradition to Russia,” an unnamed official was quoted as saying.

Pavel Felgenhauer, a Moscow-based defence analyst, told Al Jazeera that the international arms trade was worth billions of dollars.

“After the end of the Cold War there are a lot of extra weapons, especially of Soviet-Russian origin, available and a lot of skilled mercenary fighters including pilots and mechanics,” he said.

“So they [arms dealers] deliver not just simply small arms or just guns, but MiG fighters. They deliver helicopter gunships, together with mercenary fighters, which have been used in wars in the Balkans, in Africa, in Asia.

“Really, it’s like delivering pizza – it’s really hot. This is a cash market. If you pay, you get your delivery in several days, on the spot together with mercenaries and you can go to war.”

Felgenhauer said Bout “most likely knows a lot” about the trade.

“He can embarrass a lot of people – in Russia, but not only in Russia,” he said.

Although Bout has been investigated by police in several countries, he has never been prosecuted for arms dealing.

Venezuela accuses Colombia of war crimes: ‘‘We also want peace, but we cannot accept under any pretext that the Colombian government uses Ecuadoran territory to implant imperialist doctrine,’‘ added Chavez in reference to Colombia’s ally, the United States.

Nicaragua breaks off Colombia ties

OPEN QUOTE

“We are breaking off relations because of the political terrorism being carried out by the government of Alvaro Uribe, not because of the Colombian people,” Ortega said alongside Correa in Managua, the Nicaraguan capital, on Thursday.

REUTERS pictures — 10 hours ago: Demonstrators hold a banner during a march against paramilitary violence in Bogota March 6, 2008. Thousands of Colombians headed for the streets on Thursday to protest against paramilitary right wing violence. The banner reads ‘No more Uribe, Para-Colombia’.

Getty Images — 8 hours ago: A man holds a sign reading “Another America is possible” during a protest in Guatemala City on March 6, 2008, against Bogota’s air raid against a FARC guerrilla camp inside Ecuador of past Saturday. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega joined Ecuadoran counterpart Rafael Correa and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez in breaking diplomatic relations with Colombia.

It looks like he’s alone ya? Pero no . . .

Getty Images – 8 hours ago: A group of people protest in Guatemala City on March 6, 2008, against Bogota’s air raid against a FARC guerrilla camp inside Ecuador of past Saturday. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega joined Ecuadoran counterpart Rafael Correa and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez in breaking diplomatic relations with Colombia. The signs read (L to R): “Vietnam, Guatemala, Afganistan, Irak, Ecuador, up to where Bush?”, “Yes to Ecuador, no to Uribe” and “Solidarity with the Ecuadorean people”.

Everybody knows.

Reuters pictures — 14 hours ago: Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez hold up copies of the bilateral accords they signed in Miraflores Palace in Caracas March 6, 2008. A leftist Latin American alliance formed around Ecuador and Venezuela, isolating their U.S.-backed neighbor Colombia after its bombing of rebels on Ecuadorean soil.

Getty Images — 21 hours ago: Venezuelan and Colombian citizens embrace during a demonstration for peace in Cucuta, in the border with Venezuela on March 6, 2008. Colombia on Monday tried to tamp down tensions over its incursion into Ecuador, which has sparked diplomatic rebukes from around Latin America and led to a military standoff with its neighbors. Venezuela and Ecuador moved troops to their borders with Colombia and engaged in a war of words following Colombia’s anti-guerrilla raid Saturday into Ecuador.

AP Photo by Gregorio Marrero — 20 hours ago: Supporters of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez dressed as Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe, front, and Uncle Sam, rear, perform during a protest in Caracas, Thursday, March 6, 2008. Venezuela broke diplomatic relations with Colombia after Colombian security forces attacked a rebel base on Ecuadorean soil.

Here’s a funny piece : it looks like the US MIC is taking steps to commandeer the dirty bomb laptop, undoubtedly so they can promptly “loose” it.

U.S. Skeptical of Colombian ‘Dirty Bomb’ Claims

Uribe Learns that the Internet Makes Everyone’s Laptop Magic

By Special Report

What a relief! Latin America’s littlest strongman decided to “revise” his pledge bring Hugo Chavez up on charges of “genocide” and/or “terrorism” before the International Criminal Court. Venezuelan newspapers chalk it up to Uribe’s “democratic spirit,” but it probably had a bit more to do with “lawyers” and “dictionaries” and “a super dubious past.”

Anyway it got us thinking: What if the shoe were on the other foot? I mean, sure, back in the day Senator Uribe was considered to be one of the world’s top drug dealers, working for the Medellin cartel and being—how did U.S. intelligence put it?— “a close personal friend of Pablo Escobar.” But that was 1991, this is now, and surely we couldn’t hold a grudge going back to the early 90s (sorry just a little laptop humor!) Haha here at BoRev, we don’t need any miracle computer to tell you what a liberal democracy is made of. We’re kicking it analog after the jump.

For the record, Colombian paramilitaries are also listed as a terrorist group in the US and Europe. With that in mind, Uribe’s political allies alone make the FARC look like boy scouts. Por ejemplo:

1. Fourteen of Uribe’s closest congressional allies remain behind bars for their terrorist links, and are slowly revealing where bodies have been dumped, leading to discovery of mass graves last spring.

2. His foreign minister was forced to resign a year ago when her brother (a senator) was arrested for overseeing the killing of thousands of peasants. (Yeah that’s “thousands” with a “thu”)

3. His campaign manager/secret police chief was jailed that same month for “giving a hit list of trade unionists and activists to paramilitaries, who then killed them.”

4. His Army chief “collaborated extensively” with illegal death squads and, back in 2002, colluded in the massacre of 14 people for their supposed leftist politics.

5. His police intelligence unit illegally wiretapped the phones of journalists and opposition figures for two years

6. His Defense Minister “tried to plot with the outlawed private militias to upset the rule of a former president,” and

7. In last fall’s elections, a whopping 30 major candidates turned up murdered.

And of course our little hero gags newspapers from reporting on corruption, jails journalists without trial, gave himself the power to rule by decree, overrides Supreme Court decisions by fiat, refers to human rights monitors as “political agitators in the service of terrorism,” and amended the Constitution to give himself a new term. But other than that he’s a goddamned democratic beacon.
Mar 7, 2008, 09:45

“Venezuelan newspapers chalk it up to Uribe’s “democratic spirit”? What Venezuelan newspapers would that be? LOL.

$300 Million From Chavez To Farc A Fake

Here’s the written evidence

This past weekend, Colombia invaded Ecuador, killed a guerrilla chief in the jungle, opened his laptop – and what did the Colombians find? A message to Hugo Chavez that he sent the FARC guerrillas $300 million – which they’re using to obtain uranium to make a dirty bomb!

• click here to read the full article » » »

Uribe Learns That The Internet Makes Everyone’s Laptop Magic

What a relief! Latin America’s littlest strongman decided to “revise” his pledge bring Hugo Chavez up on charges of “genocide” and/or “terrorism” before the International Criminal Court. Venezuelan newspapers chalk it up to Uribe’s “democratic spirit,” but it probably had a bit more to do with “lawyers” and “dictionaries” and “a super dubious past.”

• click here to read the full article » » »

Here’s my theory, greg — try this one on for size :

They created that email from start to finish. Who knows what the first draft looked like. But chances are pretty damn good that they shot it full of holes before they released it so Uribe could wiggle out of a Wopping World Court Case Latin America style.

The Neofeudal State vastly underestimated its opponents and it’s just as well that they got their lesson so cheaply.

We, otoh, set a very useful planetary precedent. A minuet if there ever was one. How many parts was that? LOL.

Isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think?

In summary?

After a session at the Rio Group summit marked by exchange of insults, Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, intervened to defuse tensions, saying: “We cannot continue to blow the winds of war.”

The summit ended with handshakes between Alvaro Uribe, the Colombian president, and both Correa and Chavez.

Uribe apologised for the raid but did not say that he would not carry out another raid.

Afterwards, Nicaragua and Venezuela announced they would re-establish ties with Colombia.

Ecuador’s president has said his country will “take time” to restore diplomatic ties with Colombia.

Actually, it gets better . . . QUOTE Continues

Correa described Ecuador as a victim of Colombia’s conflict, and proposed an international peacekeeping force to guard their border.

But his idea was not included in the summit declaration.

The plot thickens

Questions Raised by Deaths of Students at Rebel Camp

There were 5 Mexicans at the Rebel camp. And we know that the Shock Doctrine folk have been looking to up the police state infrastructure in Mexico — by upgrading their disenfranchised indigenous to the status of international terrorists.

One of them was allowed to survive . . . she is now in hospital in Ecuador. Do we think that was Uribe’s mistake?

No. We do not.

I can’t wait to hear what she has to pull out of her hat.