Venezuela Asked Colombian Rebels to Kill Opposition Figures, Analysis Shows

[Bacchus39]

Source: NYTimes

CARACAS, Venezuela — Colombia’s main rebel group has an intricate history of collaboration with Venezuelan officials, who have asked it to provide urban guerrilla training to pro-government cells here and to assassinate political opponents of Venezuela’s president, according to a new analysis of the group’s internal communications.


The analysis contends that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was asked to serve as a shadow militia for Venezuela’s intelligence apparatus, although there is no evidence that President Hugo Chávez was aware of the assassination requests or that they were ever carried out.

The documents, found in the computer files of a senior FARC commander who was killed in a 2008 raid, also show that the relationship between the leftist rebels and Venezuela’s leftist government, while often cooperative, has been rocky and at times duplicitous.

The documents are part of a 240-page book on the rebel group, “The FARC Files: Venezuela, Ecuador and the Secret Archive of Raúl Reyes,” to be published Tuesday by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. While some of the documents have been quoted and cited previously, the release of a CD accompanying the book will be the first time such a large number of the documents have been made public since they were first seized.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/world/americas/10venezuela.html?_r=1&hp

[ret5hd]

1. ahhhh...the magick computer reappears!

[Bacchus39]

2. Reyes and his computer

http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,1189789,00.jpg

[Peace Patriot]

21. Nice of you to provide a pic of Raul Reyes. Now imagine him blow to bits by...

...500 lb. U.S. "smart bombs," as he was in March 2008, along with 24 other sleeping people in a FARC guerrillas hostage release/peace negotiation camp just inside Ecuador's border.

That's why it's called the "miracle laptop" --an item that the Colombian military claimed they took from the crater...um, bombed out camp, and which Interpol said that the Colombian military had compromised to such a degree that its contents "cannot be used in a court of law."

The "miracle laptop" is like Dracula. It just keeps coming back from the dead. I wish that could be said for the people that the U.S./Colombia ripped to shreds that night or shot in the back, as they ran for their lives in their pajamas (as reported by the Ecuadoran military). They are dead forever, and don't get to testify about anything including the veracity of the "miracle laptop."

The trouble with trials is that they might reveal who really deserves the epithet "terrorist"--for instance, the Colombian military, to whom Amnesty International attributes 92% of the murders of trade unionists in Colombia.

[Bacchus39]

25. here is a link to a pic of a dead Raul Reyes, he was NOT blown to bits

you seem to keep picturing this as nuclear device that would disintegrate everything within the camp where Reyes was killed. again, here is Reyes, was he blown to bits????

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.infolatam.com/2010/08/11/colombia-venezuela-chavez-uribe-santos/raul_reyes21/&usg=__zE4bZM4stf2e3Yq0ouHBStG0aLE=&h=372&w=500&sz=30&hl=en&start=34&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=HAEbGWda9SuUaM:&tbnh=97&tbnw=130&prev=/search%3Fq%3Draul%2Breyes%26start%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26ndsp%3D20%26biw%3D1003%26bih%3D598%26tbm%3Disch&ei=SZXJTdPjEsnPgAeonvHYBw

[dipsydoodle]

3. By Simon Romero......surprise surprise.

Shouldn't this be in the humour forum ?

[leveymg]

4. Aptly-named: The FARCE Files.

Nobody in the Colombian secret police would be capable of manufacturing such a computer file - that would not be the act of a gentleman.

:rofl: (The NYT still carries world-class humor and parody.)

[Zorro]

5. Damn

Ya beat me to it, Bacchus.

For those who reflexively dismiss the authenticity of the data recovered from the laptops yet won't read the article, here's a golden nugget for you:

"Moreover, data from the archive has led to the recovery of caches of uranium in Colombia and American dollars in Costa Rica, and has been the basis of actions by governments including Canada, Spain and the United States. Such uses constitute “de facto recognition” that the archive is authentic, the institute said."

[Bacchus39]

6. and here is the location of the report for those who have issue with the NYT take on it

http://www.iiss.org/publications/strategic-dossiers/the-farc-files-venezuela-ecuador-and-the-secret-archive-of-ral-reyes/summary/

[bemildred]

7. Yet more nebulous babble from the magic laptop.

One wonders who is funding the dissemination of this crap.

[Renew Deal]

13. Funny how anything even remotely bad about Chavez or Venezuala is dismissed

Yet many of the same tools of Chavez don't give Obama, the Dems, or the US the benefit of the doubt.

[EFerrari]

17. This article was written by Simon Romero, who is notorious

for writing unbelievable crap about Venezuela. He's the one who wrote that article about Chavez declaring war on GOLF, LOL, and about Chavez stealing a 5 star hotel -- that belonged to Venezuela.

It's bird cage liner.

[Bacchus39]

19. well, you should buy the actual report then. He didn't write that

lol

[bemildred]

22. This is not "anything", this is babble, it is full of weasel wording and "not really" statements. nt

[frylock]

24. you can apply the exact opposite..

a lot of irony-impaired posters round these parts.

[JackRiddler]

26. Funny how you think untrue and invalid generalizations like that constitute an argument.

[ieoeja]

8. They had the good sense to leave Hugo Chavez out of it.

Because suggesting the American-trained, former head of Venezuela Special Forces who masterminded a counter-coup in advance of the actual coup, and whom the military strongly supports, needs help from FARC would be a bit ridiculous.

[Renew Deal]

9. Does that mean Venezuala is a state sponsor of terrorism?

:shrug:

[robcon]

10. That's a news flash? Chavez has been implicated for years.

n/t

[EFerrari]

18. Yes, Chavez has been implicated for years and for years,

nada has been found, much to the dismay of the capital interests who want their oil out from under Venezuela's land.

[Bacchus39]

20. Report on Raúl Reyes' computers points to Chávez

The secret archives of Raúl Reyes, the slain leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and other sources "suggest that (Ecuadorian President Rafael) Correa personally requested and accepted illegal funds from the FARC in his first electoral campaign in 2006," said the report issued by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a leading think-tank based in the United Kingdom


Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez promised "USD 300 million" in 2007 to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), to which Chávez provided political support and continued access to cross-border sanctuaries, according to a study of the e-mails and strategic documents of the computers owned by Raúl Reyes, a member of FARC's seven-man Secretariat, which was released Tuesday in London by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a leading think-tank based in the United Kingdom.

The report entitled The FARC Files: Venezuela, Ecuador and the Secret Archive of "Raúl Reyes" claimed that the coming to power in 2007of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, who allegedly "requested and accepted illegal funds from the FARC" during his political campaign, was for the Colombian guerrillas a "climax" of years of efforts to infiltrate Ecuador, AFP reported.

These are the main findings of the report published by the IISS, after a two-year study of the e-mails and thousands of strategic documents obtained from three laptops, two hard drives and three USB pen drives that were found in the FARC camp where the former FARC number two leader "Raúl Reyes" was killed on March 1, 2008, after a Colombian bombing raid in Ecuador.

The report stressed that although the Colombian guerrilla arrived in Venezuela long before Chávez, its relationship with the Venezuelan Head of State strengthened when he took office in 1999.

"Since at least 2000, Chávez harbored the intention of providing financial support on a scale aimed at affecting the strategic balance in Colombia," the report highlighted. It added that in 2007 the Venezuelan president "promised USD 300 million to the rebel group."

The files also show that Chávez provided "a significant political support to FARC in order to promote its legitimacy abroad" and "to undermine Colombian government's interests" and allowed them to "use freely the Venezuelan territory" with some "minor restrictions."

In this context, the IISS said that the resumption of relations between Caracas and Bogotá since Juan Manuel Santos took office is "unlikely" to "last."

http://english.eluniversal.com/2011/05/10/report-on-raul-reyes-computers-points-to-chavez.shtml

[AlphaCentauri]

11. is it taking the place of the US?

no wonder

[Renew Deal]

12. huh?

[JackRiddler]

27. It means elements of the terrorist state in Colombia are willing to manufacture bullshit evidence.

State terrorism? Surely the Colombian death squads and narcostate qualify.

[Peace Patriot]

14. "Curveball" is alive and well, and warming up in the BULLpen to win one for the losing Oilers.

(Note: The poster does not identify the author of this Judith Millerish slime, but it is, of course, Simon Romero--the New York Slimes' "Judith Miller" for Latin American countries with leftist governments and lots of oil.)

------------------

For those who want to read something informative about Venezuela...

--------------------------

NGO 'Journalists for the Truth' says Freedom of Speech Thriving in Venezuela (5/7/11)

....According to ( Jose Gregorio Nieves, VP of Journalists for Truth), Venezuela is currently living “an explosion of freedom of speech” that is evidenced by the accelerated growth of small and alternative media outlets around the country.

Nieves pointed to the fact that the South American country’s telecommunication industry has been growing by 20 percent annually and that more than 60 community television stations as well as 250 grassroots radio and print operations have been founded since Hugo Chavez became President in 1999.

This reality contrasts starkly with the version of events being offered by the corporate-run media organizations, many of which where directly involved in the attempted violent overthrow of Chavez in 2002.

“The majority of Venezuelans are not content with just receiving a message”, Nieves commented, “but rather in analyzing it and verifying it, especially after April 2002 when the rightwing in alliance with the private media and foreign interests executed a coup d’etat against President Hugo Chavez”....

http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6175
http://www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/COI62.pdf

--------------------

Losing Latin America (4/14/11)
America’s ‘backyard’ has never been so united and independent of U.S. influence.

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/7171/losing_latin_america

--------------------

(My note: What is REALLY going on re Colombia's 70-year civil war spilling into Venezuela--infiltration by the Colombian military/government-connected, rightwing paramilitaries, the "Black Eagles": )

Águilas Negras: Rising from the Ashes of Demobilization in Colombia (4/13/11)

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/colombia-archives-61/2999-aguilas-negras-rising-from-the-ashes-of-demobilization

--------------------

African Union and President Chávez: The Peace Proposal for Libya (4/12/11)

http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_62769.shtml

--------------------

Interview: Reinaldo Bolivar on the Historical, Cultural, and Political Importance of Africa to Venezuela (4/19/11)

(Spanish) http://encontrarte.aporrea.org/142/entrevista/
(English) http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/6143

---------------------

Afro-Venezuelans and the Struggle Against Racism (4/29/11)

Venezuela is making unprecedented progress in combating the historical legacy of racism and recognizing the national importance of its African heritage, through several governmental initiatives, such as the following:

--Recognition of intercultural education in the 1999 Constitution;
--Social missions addressing poverty and inequality;
--The creation of the Presidential Commission for the Prevention and Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination in 2005;
--New Education Law approved in 2009;
--The incorporation of afrodescendent topics in the 2011 Census;
--The official celebration of the Month of Africa and Day of Afro-Venezuelans in May;
--The Establishment of the Vice-Minister for African Affairs;
--The upcoming new law against racism and discrimination.

(MORE)

http://venezuela-us.org/live/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/04.26.2011-FS-Afro-Venezuelans-Final.pdf

--------------------

Justice Done, 25 Years After Venezuela's Yumare Massacre of 1986

http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6176

--------------------

(My note: a thoughful analysis of the demonisation of Chavez.)

Hugo Chávez's Reverse-Halo Effect (5/3/11)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/may/03/hugo-chavez-reverso-halo-effect

---------------------

Venezuela: Putting People First (4/11)
Jennie Bremner on the positive example provided by Venezuela and the need for solidarity.

Jennie Bremner, Assistant General Secretary of Unite - Britain and Ireland's biggest union (with 1.5 million members) - writes on the positive example provided to working people by the Venezuelan struggle for social justice as well as the need for international solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution...

"For those of us campaigning for social justice and against inequality and poverty, two key things stand out. Firstly, that poverty fell during both years of recession, and secondly that the government has protected – and in some areas even expanded – social spending, including on key areas such as health and education that I will look at below."

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/venezuela-putting-people-first/

[Peace Patriot]

15. Here's some more about what's REALLY happening in Latin America...

...for those interested.

------

(My note: This is the key relationship around which Latin American solidarity has been built--Brazil and Venezuela. The U.S. has been unable to "divide and conquer" it on behalf of our transglobal corporate/war profiteer rulers. Dilma Rousseff, who was Lula da Silva's chief of staff, who was tortured by the U.S.-backed dictatorship in Brazil and who has now been elected president of Brazil in her own right, clearly shares Lula's and Chavez's "raise all boats" philosophy for the region and ferocious commitment to Latin American democracy (i.e., real democracy, not the fake kind we have here) and unity in dealing with U.S. meddling, bullying and aggression.)

Brazilian, Venezuelan presidents discuss trade, regional development (5/10/11)

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Monday met with her Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez for discussion on bilateral trade and regional development.

The two presidents were eager to consolidate the good bilateral relations that were built under the administration of Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who formed a close (alliance) with Chavez, said the Brazilian foreign ministry in a statement.

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90852/7375452.html

----------------------------------

Latam and Caribbean states create CELAC to counter US influence (4/26/11)

Latin American and Caribbean Foreign Affairs ministers are meeting in Venezuela in anticipation of the presidential summit scheduled for July 5 in Caracas when a new regional integration organization is set to be born, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean states, CELAC.

Latin American and Caribbean leaders will be meeting in July, on the 200th independence anniversary of Venezuela to agree (to) the statutes and founding charter of the new group which has the purpose of becoming an Organization of American States, OAS, without the United States and Canada.

The new entity will bring together all Latin American and Caribbean countries with the purpose of promoting political dialogue and cooperation for development”, points out the Brazilian Foreign Affairs ministry in an official release.

http://en.mercopress.com/2011/04/26/latam-and-caribbean-states-create-celac-to-counter-us-influence

--------------------------------------------------------

CELAC includes ALL 33 Latin American/Caribbean countries and does NOT include the U.S. and its corporate/war profiteer ally, Canada. Latin American/Caribbean countries are making a statement here, by having the first meeting of CELAC in Venezuela. Get it? The Venezuelan peoples' peaceful conquest of the U.S.-supported rightwing coup attempt in 2002 is what STARTED all this cooperation and unity. They inspired the entire region to fight back. Soon, leftist government after leftist government had been elected--in Brazil, in Argentina, in Bolivia, in Ecuador, in Uruguay, in Paraguay (!), in Nicaragua, in El Salvador, in Guatemala and in Honduras until the U.S.-supported coup in 2009--a U.S. action that further solidified the region against U.S. interference. And now this solidarity against U.S. interference includes EVERY LatAm/Caribbean country, even those with rightwing governments, who have united in CELAC against the U.S.-dominated OAS.

THIS is why the U.S. transglobal corporate/war profiteer rulers, and their lackey press, loathe the Chavez government and, by implication, the Venezuelan people (whom they never mention). This is why they smear, slander, revile and demonize Chavez--this, and their autopilot prep for the next oil war. They have tried every way imaginable to deprive the Venezuelan people of their freely chosen government--chosen in elections that are far, FAR more honest and transparent than our own. Now they are moving on to the Rumsfeldian/"Curveball" manufacture of evidence that Chavez--whom Lula da Silva called "the great peacemaker"--supports "terrorism."

This is not only obvious in this Slimon Romero hit piece--it is also quite worrisome--because the last time the New York Slimes did this, a hundred thousand people lost their lives in the first weeks of bombing alone.

I DON'T KNOW if this is part of a Pentagon "Big Dartboard" oil war plan, but the parallels are haunting and the Pentagon buildup of military bases in the Central America/Caribbean region--including bases right off Venezuela's oil coast and in neighboring Colombia--add to U.S. oil war concerns.

It could be--or rather, it most certainly is--part of a CIA political campaign, which, combined with millions of our tax dollars in USAID-NED money to rightwing groups in Venezuela and throughout the region, may be aimed 'merely' at sullying Chavez, reducing Venezuelan influence, "dividing and conquering," etc.--more of the ad nauseum propaganda campaign against Chavez/Venezuela of the last decade. And there are some counter-indications to an imminent oil war plan (--the apparent new peacefulness of U.S. client state, Colombia, vis a vis Venezuela being one of them). But we REALLY need to be alert to NY Slimes signals on the oil wars. And we need to remember that Venezuela has the biggest oil reserve on earth (--twice Saudi Arabia's, according to the USGS). The U.S. war machine is a thirsty beast--and a real boondoggle for the oil corps. If they fail in Libya, is Venezuela next?

[Rage for Order]

23. Clearly you have your finger on the pulse of what's REALLY happening in Latin America

From June 2008: "Planning Oil War II: South America"

"I expect trouble before our November election. In fact, I think this may be the "October Surprise," not Iran."

Plenty more "expert analysis" where that came from

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3533980&mesg_id=3534487

:rofl:

[Peace Patriot]

29. It's still on the Pentagon's Big Dartboard, believe me.

They're building MORE U.S. military bases in Honduras and Colombia, as we speak. What FOR?

They already have Venezuela's oil coast and northern oil provinces surrounded--with U.S. airbases on the Dutch islands right off Venezuela's oil coast, numerous U.S. military bases and "forward operating locations" in Colombia, including one overlooking the Gulf of Venezuela only 20 miles from Venezuela's border, U.S. military bases in Honduras, Panama and other countries in this region, U.S. military operations in allegedly demilitarized Costa Rica, U.S. boots on the ground supposedly engaged in infrastructure building in Haiti, El Salvador and Suriname, and the U.S. 4th Fleet (mothballed since WW II, reconstituted by the Bush Junta in 2008) roaming the Caribbean. According to FOIA research, all of this and more is intended to provide the Pentagon with "full spectrum military activity" throughout the "Southern Cone" including dealing with countries that are "hostile to the USA."

THAT is what all this is FOR.

Or perhaps you think it's to stop drug trafficking.

:rofl:

I don't know when they'll strike. I was alarmed that the Bush Junta was intending to strike before that election. A whole lot of pieces had been put in place. Instead, they struck in Bolivia--with the U.S. embassy funding/organizing a bloody-handed white separatist insurrection whose goal was to split Bolivia in two and steal its gas resource (and destroy a Chavez ally, Evo Morales). They also were planning the coup in Honduras at that time, which unfolded only six months into the Obama administration (and destroyed a Chavez ally, Mel Zelaya). And they struck in our financial sector, for a thorough but apparently not final looting.

The thing is, I see no U.S. military stand-down in this region now. In fact, they are escalating the number of U.S. bases and operations in the Central America/Caribbean region, of which Venezuela's oil coast forms the southern rim. Brazil has been adamant about backing up Venezuela, and the entirety of Latin America seems to have become MORE united against U.S. interference than ever before-with the formation of CELAC, the anti-OAS. But that doesn't mean that a fabulous oil source such as Venezuela possesses is NOT on the Pentagon's target list. You seem to be a damn fool in thinking that thirst for more oil is not driving this war machine.

Venezuela has the biggest oil reserve on earth--twice Saudi Arabia's, according to the USGS--sitting right in our transglobal corporate/war profiteer rulers' "backyard." Venezuela's leftist government is also one of the most falsely and relentlessly demonized governments on earth. What is THAT for--except to stupify the American public in preparation for Oil War IV?

But you probably think that our transglobal corporate/war profiteer rulers want to bring democracy to Venezuela.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

And you more than likely ignore the polls that say that Venezuelans think they have the best democracy in the western hemisphere and that put their own country fifth in the world on individual happiness and future prospects. They don't need you or transglobal corporations and war profiteers to remake them into Saudi Arabia. So, something is very wrong with the mirage picture of bogeyman Chavez in the corpo-fascist press that is--if history is any guide--related to all this U.S. militarism surrounding Venezuela's oil coast and northern oil provinces in a menacing arc from Colombia to Guantanamo Bay.

And, given three U.S. wars thus far in the last decade--Iraq (oil), Afghanistan (pipeline) and Libya (oil)--it's reasonable to ask: Who's next? And it's reasonable to ask: Who's the bogeyman now? And it's reasonable to ask: Where is the Pentagon building more bases? And it's reasonable to try to suss out when and where they will strike--cuz they aren't going to tell those of us who are paying for it.

Though rightwingers are colossally funny sometimes, as well as colossally dense, I can't really end this reply with a laugh, cuz it ain't funny what the U.S. is doing around the world. And it ain't funny how many people are duped by the corporate/war profiteer propaganda. I just hope that there are enough of us who love peace and social justice to some day recover our trashed democracies and our trashed planet and create a better world.

:grouphug:

[Peace Patriot]

31. With Slimon Romero on it (the "Judith Miller" for LatAm oil) and the IISS packed with Bushwhacks

and spooks, I'm getting my crystal ball back out and I'm saying something's up.

Here's Gred Grandin's analysis of this FARC farce with a rundown on the liars and criminals behind this...

What the Farc files really reveal
A conservative thinktank's attempt to reheat widely discredited Colombian military claims about Farc is pure black propaganda
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/10/farc-files-colombia-venezuela

Posted by Judi Lynn, here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x601995

[EFerrari]

16. LOL

[Jazzgirl]

28. test

[makhno]

30. Great editing

Considering that the bulk of the article deals with the tenuous nature of the relationship between FARC and the Venezuelan security apparatus, the title and the lede seem cleverly designed to misinform the news skimming public.

Pravda FTW.