Chavez: Colombia Relations on Ice

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-venezuela-colombia,0,2818652,full.story


Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Monday that reconciliation is impossible with Colombia's president as the two leaders traded stern warnings in an escalating diplomatic crisis that threatens trade ties between the South American neighbors.

Chavez said Sunday he is putting relations "in the freezer" after President Alvaro Uribe ended the Venezuelan leader's role mediating with Colombia's leftist rebels. That announcement drew a strong rebuke from Uribe, who said Chavez's actions suggest he wants to see a "terrorist government" run by leftist rebels in Bogota.

The spat is the bitterest yet between Chavez and the U.S.-allied Uribe, who in the past have sought to cultivate cordial ties despite their deep ideological differences.

It could have serious economic consequences. The two countries are major commercial partners, with $4.1 billion in trade last year, about two-thirds of that in Colombian exports to Venezuela.

Neither leader announced any concrete plan, but Chavez said economic relations will be hurt as a result of Uribe's actions, which he called "a spit in the face."

Relations with Colombia have reached their "most serious crisis," Chavez said in a televised interview early Monday. While diplomatic channels may remain open, he said, "not reconciliation because it's impossible now. When it reaches these levels between two heads of state, it's impossible."

"We'll have to wait for a new government in Colombia we can talk with," Chavez said on state television. "I hope it arrives sooner than later."

He said Venezuela will be on alert to potential military threats from Colombia as well.

Chavez was responding to Uribe's decision Wednesday to end Chavez's role mediating preliminary talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known as the FARC. The talks aimed to free rebel-held hostages including three Americans and Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian seized in 2002 while campaigning for Colombia's presidency.

Uribe's government said Chavez broke the conditions of his involvement by directly contacting the chief of Colombia's army. On Sunday, Uribe questioned Chavez's motives.

"Your words, your attitudes, give the impression that you aren't interested in peace in Colombia, but rather that Colombia be a victim of a terrorist government of the FARC," he said in the town of Calamar. "The truth is President Chavez, we need a mediation against terrorism, not people who legitimize terrorism."

Chavez has suggested that FARC rebels could eventually put down their guns and join politics. But Uribe said addressing Chavez: "If you are spreading an expansionist project in the continent, in Colombia this project will make no headway."

Uribe also suggested the socialist leader might be looking to stir up conflict to boost his image ahead of a referendum Sunday on constitutional changes that would let him run for re-election indefinitely.

The confrontation is a sharp break for two leaders who have often appeared together smiling and speaking of their "sister nations." Just last month, they opened a natural gas pipeline between their countries.

But on Monday, Chavez said Uribe is serving his "masters" in Washington.

"Uribe's mask has fallen off," he said. "It's the voice of the oligarchy and the voice of the U.S. empire. ... They could build him a statue in Washington now."
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-venezuela-colombia,0,2818652,full.story

That's likely the truth of the matter. Billions of U.S. tax dollars are at issue, for Uribe, in the phony, neverending "war on drugs" (war on the poor), and whose close ties to rightwing paramilitary death squads, including drugs and weapons traffickers, have been exposed by courageous prosecutors and judges in Colombia over the last year. In fact, I was quite surprised when Chavez was able to make any headway at all toward resolving the 30 year civil war in Colombia.

And it's interesting that Uribe didn't want Chavez to contact the Colombian military. Did he expect him to walk into that minefield without direct assurances from the Colombian military that they would not interfere and kill people who were negotiating? Not to mention his own safety. One of the recent disclosures in the Colombian scandals was a rightwing paramilitary plot to assassinate Chavez (and the Colombian military is closely tied to the paramilitaries). Chavez would need to contact the elements in the Colombian military leadership who could control the paramilitaries. Otherwise, this negotiation could very easily have been a trap--of one kind or another, including an ambush of Chavez himself.

It was a curious "condition" and appears to be just an excuse to stop the negotiation, get more billions from the Bushites (our tax dollars), and deny Chavez any credit as a diplomat. Fits with everything else Uribe and Bush have done. Serves the interests of Exxon-Mobile, Chevron-Texaco, Chiquita, Monsanto, the World Bank loan sharks and other global corporate predators.

Too bad for the hostages, whom Bush and Uribe never gave a fuck about anyway. Neither wants peace. War is too lucrative.