Spanish police arrest Spain's FARC commander

[Zorro]

Source: AFP

Spanish police said Saturday they had arrested a 57-year-old Spanish woman they claim is the leader of the Spanish cell of Colombian Marxist rebel group FARC.

Maria Remedios Garcia Albert was arrested at her home in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, northeast of Madrid, they said.

The interior ministry said Garcia Albert had provided logistical support for FARC and had direct contacts with Raul Reyes, the FARC number two who was killed by Colombian troops inside Ecuador earlier this year.

Analysis of Reyes' computer passed on to Spanish investigators by Colombian authorities had led them to identify Garcia Albert.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080726/wl_afp/colombiarebelshostagesspain_080726195102

---

It appears that this may be a result of actionable intel from those laptops the DU FARCies have been adamantly dismissing as bogus.

[Arctic Dave]

1. "arrested a 57-year-old Spanish woman they claim is the leader"

Maybe it was actionable intel, or not.

[struggle4progress]

2. New situation demands unity: OSPAAAL (Green Left / Australia)

1 March 1995
By Stephen Marks

OSPAAAL was founded at the Tricontinental Conference held in Havana in January 1966, which was attended by more than 500 representatives of national liberation movements, guerilla organisations, socialist and communist parties and various other groups, mainly from Asia, Africa and Latin America. They formed a consensus on the need to promote mobilisation, unity and struggle against colonialism, racism and imperialism.

Pez explained that since then the former colonies have gained their independence and anti-racist struggles, such as that in South Africa, have won many victories. However, in recent times the socialist governments of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe have also disappeared, and the struggle against imperialism hasn't ceased.

Taking into account these changes, and although the struggle is less confrontational, Pez insisted that the reasons for the creation of OSPAAAL still exist. “New urgencies again demand unity. Misery burdens the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America.

“Non-existent health services, illiteracy and unemployment are creating a spreading poverty that now grips more than a thousand million people. Terrible ecological damage is brought about by environmental practices which are carried out because people have no other means of subsistence and survival. This situation could be avoided and even overcome if better living conditions existed.” ...

http://www.greenleft.org.au/1995/177/12532

[AlphaCentauri]

3. Another smoke cloud for the media

The big news are not in the english language

Misión de la OEA dice que los secuestrados por paramilitares están muertos
http://www.informador.com.mx/internacional/2008/27144/6/mision-de-la-oea-dice-que-los-secuestrados-por-paramilitares-estan-muertos.htm

[Judi Lynn]

4. Wow! I copied and pasted the Spanish text of your article into the google translation tool,

and it gave a very rough translation, which is STILL clear enough to communicate an ugly, UGLY story!

Mission of the OAS said that the hostages are killed by paramilitaries

An OAS mission said that the hostages are killed by paramilitaries. EFE.

The New Hope Foundation, the fight against kidnapping, estimated at nearly 3 thousand 500 people kidnapped in Colombia
The dialogue opened in late 2002, concluded in mid-2006 with the dissolution of the AUC (Colombian paramilitary), which disarmed more than 31 thousand paramilitaries.

Bogota .- The Colombian AUC paramilitary organization dissolved killed everyone who remained sequestered, admitted the Mission Support the Peace Process (MAPP) instituted in the Andean country by the Organization of American States (OAS), local press reported today .

The head of MAPP, Argentine Sergio Caramagno, said in an interview published today that the Bogotá daily El Periodico that "we had no contact with the reality of the paramilitaries abducted."

"At some point we heard paramilitary leaders say that they had kidnapped, that these people were victims of homicide, had been killed," added the diplomat.

In MAPP, then acknowledged, "we knew we had a number of people who had been reported as kidnapped, but these people were not alive."

"When we take into consideration the issue of people kidnapped, we did not see any places where people plagiarism such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN)," he added Caramagno.

"I understand we're talking about people who were killed," insisted the head of that body of the OAS in Colombia, who assumed the role of verifier in the peace process in the Executive President Alvaro Uribe with the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) .

The dialogue opened in late 2002, concluded in mid-2006 with the dissolution of the AUC, which disarmed more than 31 thousand paramilitaries.

Caramagno said that "once the demobilized paramilitaries, wonder where are the abductees claim is challenged by calling mothers and relatives of victims, identify mass graves and recognize the bodies."

The New Hope Foundation, the fight against kidnapping, estimated at nearly 3 thousand 500 the number of people are kidnapped in the country.

Of these, around 500 people fell into the hands of the AUC, according to the same source.

You're so right. This story most likely will NEVER appear in English, and everyone will never know about it here unless they read Spanish and see this info. you've shared.

No shock or surprise in this story, however, is there? These guys are pure evil.

Thanks.

[AlphaCentauri]

14. the PR distributors are very busy flooding the web to cover up the real issues.

it's the a new sort of "news spam"

[Igel]

19. Here's mine.

http://www.informador.com.mx/internacional/2008/27144/6/mision-de-la-oea-dice-que-los-secuestrados-por-paramilitares-estan-muertos.htm
============================
OAS Mission says that those kidnapped by the paramilitaries are dead

* The New Hope Foundation, fighting against kidnapping, cited almost 3500 persons kidnapped in Colombia

Dialogue, opened at the end of 2002, ended in mid 2006 with the dissolving of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC, Colombian paramilitary group), which disarmed more than 31 thousand members.

Bogota: The local press announced today that the Peace Process Support Mission (MAPP), established in the Andean country by the Organization of American States (OAS), acknowledged that the defunct Colombian paramilitary organization AUC killed all those kidnapped whom it held.

The MAPP chief, argentine Sergio Caramagna, asserted in an interview published today in the Bogota daily El Periodico that "we weren't in touch with the reality concerning those kidnapped by the AUC."

"At one point we heard the paramilitary chiefs say that they had no kidnapees, that these people had been murder victims, had been assassinated," the diplomat added.

We in MAPP, he then acknowledged, "knew that there had been a number of people claimed to have been kidnapped, but these people were not alive."

"When we consider the subject of kidnappings, we didn't see locations where abductees could have been kept, as with the FARC and the ELN," Caramagna added.

"I understand that we are talking about people who were assassinated," the chief of this OAS agency in Colombia insisted. The agency undertook the role of verifying the peace process between the Executive (branch?) of president Alvaro Uribe and the AUC.

Dialogue, opened at the end of 2002, ended in mid 2006 with the dissolving of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC, Colombian paramilitary group), which disarmed more than 31 thousand members.

Caramagna said that "once the AUC were demobilized, to ask where the kidnapped people were was to ask for the return of what the mothers and family members of the victims were asking for, to identify mass graves and identify the bodies."

The New Hope Foundation, fighting against kidnapping, cited almost 3500 persons kidnapped in Colombia.

Of those, some 500 fell into the AUC's hands, according to the same source.
========================

As always, caveats: It's late, and I'm not taking the time to double check that I got "reivindicación" anywhere near right. I have another place or two I'd rather check before publishing, but this doesn't count.

I note that there are two narratives going, and they might be the same, or might not be. There's a semantic game played, and whether or not it's resolved properly is unclear, given just the text. It depends on the details on a case-by-case basis. It's possible that all those claimed to have been kidnapped by the AUC were taken elsewhere (i.e., abducted) and then killed; it's possible they were killed at some other point, by the AUC or by others. All the passives strike me as unnecessarily awkward; all the sentences indicating the agent, who did the killing (i.e., killed "by the AUC") are supplied by the reporter(s). I'd be more comfortable if at some point the diplomats involved had actually used an active voice, but they're diplomats and, as with translators, "ambiguity is your friend". The diplomats' ambiguity, assuming the New Hope folk are right about the number, is "0 < # killed by AUC < 500", while the reporters assert simply "# killed by AUC = 500". One is too many, but victims' families will want to apportion blame, and it's best to blame the right people.

The oddest difference between the google rendition and the Spanish is this:
""At some point we heard paramilitary leaders say that they had kidnapped, that these people were victims of homicide, had been killed," added the diplomat."

The Spanish is, " 'En algún momento escuchamos a jefes paramilitares decir que no tenían secuestrados, que esas personas habían sido víctimas de homicidio, habían sido asesinadas', agregó el diplomático." That clearly includes "we heard the paramilitary chiefs (or leaders) say they did not have any abductees, that these people had been homicide victims, had been killed (or assassinated)". Perhaps the Spanish had been updated to add the little word "no".

[AlphaCentauri]

20. what the spanish text try to explain is that the paramilitaries leader were

blaming the killing of those people on common homicide by other reasons than those of mass murder but in reality they were mass murders of hostages by the AUC.

[Igel]

23. That's the conclusion.

My quibble was that it's one that's imputed to the diplomats, but not actually asserted by them. A quick reading has people assuming that the diplomats actually asserted it, however.

[AlphaCentauri]

22. Here is another report

http://www.elpais.com.co/paisonline/notas/Julio282008/paras.html

[Peace Patriot]

5. I can dismiss the "miracle laptopS" as bogus without being a "FARCY"!

Why do you have to name-call to make your point?

The Interpol report on the "miracle laptopS" stated, unequivically, that the laptopS had been handled in such a way by the Colombian military as to make then unusable in a court of law.

Then there is this...

COLOMBIA: Interpol Notes Improper Initial Handling of FARC Laptops
By Constanza Vieira

"Using their forensic tools, they (the Interpol experts) found a total of 48,055 files for which the timestamps indicated that they had either been created, accessed, modified or deleted as a result of the direct access to the eight seized exhibits by Colombian authorities between the time of their seizure on 1 March 2008 and 3 March 2008 at 11:45 a.m."

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42391

More info here...

BoRev on Interpol
http://www.borev.net/2008/05/wait_did_they_assign_this_thin.html
(This page has a link to the actual Interpol report.)

Then there is the source...
The Colombian military. The guys that gave a wink to rightwing death squads who, for instance, tortured and hacked 50 people to death...

Human Rights Atrocities Still go Unpunished in Colombia
By Roxanna Altholz, UC Berkeley School of Law. Posted January 28, 2008.

"The recent acquittal by a Bogotá court of General Jaime Humberto Uscátegui, the highest ranking military official ever prosecuted for human rights violations, shows that Colombia's justice system continues to let the worst perpetrators go free. (snip) In 1997, over 50 residents of Mapiripán, a small village in southern Colombia, were tortured for days, hacked to death and thrown into a nearby river. Uscategui could have stopped the massacre -- but chose not to. (snip) The paramilitaries reached the massacre site via an airport under Uscátegui's command. The General's troops helped the paramilitaries pass through several security checkpoints on the road to Mapiripán."

http://www.alternet.org/rights/75239

...or, more, recently...

"Human rights groups accuse Colombian government of endangering activists
AP: March 26, 2008

"BOGOTA, Colombia: Human rights groups accused the administration of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Wednesday of endangering the lives of activists by suggesting they are linked to leftist rebels.

"Directors of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International USA, Refugees International, Human Rights First and 18 other groups demanded in a public letter that Uribe do more to protect human rights advocates and trade union members following a wave of killings earlier this month.

"At least four people involved in a recent national march to protest paramilitary death squad violence were killed by the far-right groups, and dozens more threatened with death, the letter said."

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/26/america/LA-GEN-Colombia-Human-Rights.php


----

39 union leaders have been murdered in Colombia by this year alone. Amnesty International attributes 92% of the murders of union leaders in Colombia to the Colombian military and closely tied rightwing death squads.

"...cases in which clear evidence of responsibility is available indicates that in 2005 around 49 per cent of human rights abuses against trade unionists were committed by paramilitaries and some 43 per cent directly by the security forces. Just over 2 per cent were attributable to guerrilla forces (primarily the FARC and ELN) and just over 4 per cent to criminally-motivated actions."
--p.5

http://www.amnesty.org/en/alfresco_asset/26e626d7-a2c0-11dc-8d74-6f45f39984e5/amr230012007en.html

----

Uribe, the Colombian military and their cohorts in the right death squads are about as reliable, when they make accusations against others, as George Bush, Dick Cheney and cabal. Some 50 of Uribe's associates are being investigated--and some are in jail--for their ties to the death squads, drug trafficking, election fraud and other crimes, and Uribe himself is under investigation on similar charges. I don't trust anything they say, nor any so-called "evidence" that they produce against anyone. Period.

For all we know, the arrest in Spain could be entirely bogus. Considering the source, and considering what we know about the "miracle laptopS" (that allegedly survived ten U.S. "smart bombs"), it more than likely is a false arrest based on bogus "evidence."

Your insults don't change these facts. You are the one leaping to conclusions.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Kicking and recommending so others will see your excellent post. Thanks. n/t

[Zorro]

9. Touchy, aren't we?

Nice try to hijack the thread and move off to a different topic.

BTW, that's "FARCie", not "FARCY"; perhaps I should trademark that term -- whatcha think?

As was explained to you some time ago, those laptops undoubtedly can -- and did -- survive the attack on Reyes' camp. Those ten U.S. "smart bombs" you allege (which is pure speculation) weren't nuclear weapons, after all.

And as was also pointed out to you some time back, it matters little if the material recovered will be used in a court of law. The laptop-recovered files provide investigatory leads that will uncover evidence that can be used in a court of law.

One day you'll have to accept that those laptops are the real deal. Not everything is a conspiracy, despite your attempts to "prove" otherwise through repetitive rhetorical asseverations.

And if you find my comment insulting, then you are perhaps too sensitive to be responding to my posts, because doing so will no doubt induce a serious case of the vapours.

[Peace Patriot]

24. Ad hominem attacks like yours are intended to spark objection, and then the retort,

"Touchy, aren't we?" ('When did you stop beating your wife, Senator?') It's a tired old trick, and lends nothing to the discussion.

I am neither a "FARCY" nor a "FARCIE." And your attempt to smear anyone who objects to this McCarthy-like witch-hunt against leftists in other countries, based on this dubious "evidence," is so typical of rightwing propaganda methods as to hardly need pointing out. A lot of good people had their lives ruined by such smear tactics during the McCarthy era. We now have its reincarnation--Bushitism--wherein anyone who supports progressive values and social justice is smeared as a "terrorist" or "terrorist-lover" or a "FARCie"--so similar to the phrases "commie" and "commie-lover" and "commie pinko"--intended to stab the listener with FEAR, and paralyze their powers of rational thought.

I stand by my criticisms of the "miracle laptopS" and I trust that defense lawyers for the leftists who are being persecuted in this laptop witch-hunt will have a field day exposing the laptopS' uselessness as "evidence" in courts of law, and any further "evidence" illegally obtained through falsely based search warrants.

The intent of this kind of all-purpose psyops tool, the "miracle laptopS"--so like Joe McCarthy and his "lists" of "commies in the government" and "commies in Hollywood"--is to cripple the political left, and drain its resources and energies. You are contributing to that rightwing effort. Your tactic of calling critics of this dubious evidence a "FARCIE" betrays you.

Karl Rove did the same thing to Max Cleland in 2002--ran an ad smearing this paraplegic Vietnam War veteran as "a friend of Osama bin Laden"--in that case, the cover narrative for a blatantly stolen election. It is the tactic of liars, thieves and mass murderers. Nice company you find yourself in.

[Pavulon]

10. Pretty simple operation..

grab a guy after he talks to france, either with their direct help or by triangulation, etc. The farc are not nice people, so they are not treated nice by the locals and any one else who may choose to interact with them. They are fair game.

Reads like traditional covert stuff. My opinion.

Grab the guy, or just kill him and take his computer system. Guess he never heard of whole disk encryption. Not like would do much good any way.

The HD recovery from a disk that fell from space was just a fuck you to those who knew what was on that system

Snatch people and get information from them and or just kill them outright.

Remove information from computer and use said information to flip or kill people who are listed.

Being a communist in latin america has always been dangerous.

[AlphaCentauri]

13. Not all Laptops are equal

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55009-2001Mar11?language=printer

[hack89]

15. AUC was disbanded in 2006 right?

and their leaders were arrested and extradited to the US - right?

[Judi Lynn]

16. You had to have noticed all the reports from human rights organizations stating they are NOT gone.

Justice & Peace Law and Decree 128

Since 2003, paramilitary groups, responsible for the vast majority of human rights violations in Colombia for over a decade, have been involved in a government-sponsored "demobilization" process. More than 25,000 paramilitaries have supposedly demobilized under a process which has been criticized by AI and other Colombian and international human rights groups, as well as by the OHCHR and the IACHR. The process is lacking in effective mechanisms for justice and in its inability to ensure that paramilitary members actually cease violent activities.

In fact, paramilitarism has not been dismantled, it has simply been "re-engineered." Many demobilized combatants are being encouraged to join "civilian informer networks," to provide military intelligence to the security forces, and to become "civic guards". Since many areas of Colombia have now been wrested from guerrilla control, and paramilitary control established in many of these areas, they no longer see a need to have large numbers of heavily-armed uniformed paramilitaries.

However, evidence suggests that many paramilitary structures remain virtually intact and that paramilitaries continue to kill. Amnesty International continues to document human rights violations committed by paramilitary groups, sometimes operating under new names, and often in collusion with the security forces.

More:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/Colombia/Justice_and_Peace_Law_and_Decree_128/page.do?id=1101862&n1=3&n2=30&n3=885

~~~~~~~~~~

INTERNATIONAL
Embargo Date: 1 September 2005 10:00 GMT

~snip~
In the last 20 years, Colombia’s armed conflict has cost the lives of at least 70,000 people, the vast majority of them civilians killed out of combat, while more than 3 million people have been internally-displaced since 1985. Tens of thousands of other civilians have been tortured, “disappeared” and kidnapped. The vast majority of non-combat politically-motivated killings, “disappearances”, and cases of torture have been carried out by army-backed paramilitaries.

The government began demobilization talks with the paramilitary umbrella organization, the Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, AUC), soon after the AUC announced a ceasefire in December 2002. Under the Santa Fe de Ralito agreement, signed in July 2003, the AUC agreed to demobilize all its combatants by the end of 2005. More than 8,000 paramilitaries have so far reportedly demobilized.

However, the latest figures suggest that the paramilitaries have been responsible for at least 2,300 killings and “disappearances” since they declared their unilateral ceasefire.

More:
http://asiapacific.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR230252005?open&of=ENG-COL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Dirtier War
Colombia’s fake “Peace Process” and US Policy
by Jake Hess
June 19, 2007

~snip~
Nor do the Democratic proposals appear to include any new mechanisms for ensuring that remaining military aid is not used to commit human rights abuses. The Democrats claim to be devoted to justice for Colombia’s struggling social movements; yet, as evidence presented in this article amply demonstrates, the military and government they’re funding continues to collaborate with deathsquads in violently suppressing those activists brave enough to speak out. Democrats claim to be especially concerned about labor rights; yet, the President they’re prepared to hand some $600 million to has presided over the assassination of some 400 trade unionists, almost all of which have been carried out with impunity. As in the past, the majority of these killings are blamed on deathsquads allied with the Colombian state and, as has become clear recently, Uribe’s political network in the government. (7)

More:
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/15149

~~~~~~~~~
What in this article would lead you to believe there is any substance in that claim?

Posted by Justice for Colombia | Date 1 April 2008

Army & Paramilitaries Implicated in New Killing

A community activist who worked alongside of national and international NGOs in securing support for poverty-stricken rural communities has been assassinated despite frequent assurances from the Colombian authorities that his life would be protected. Gerardo Antonio Ciro was killed on March 30th in the municipality of Cocorna, Antioquia department, shortly after a joint patrol of soldiers and paramilitaries had repeatedly enquired as to his whereabouts.

Mr Ciro, who was murdered as he left his him in the village of El Jordan, was a leading member of the Colombian NGO ASOPROA which assists in rural community development. The NGO implements various projects in the Cocorna area and Mr Ciro had travelled abroad on behalf of the organisation to seek funding for their work. He had also been elected as the community leader in Cocorna and was known for his work to denounce human rights violations against peasant farmers in the region.

Threats against Mr Ciro began in 2002 when paramilitaries forced him to flee his home, though he returned in 2005 to be with his family. Shortly afterwards the threats resumed and additional threats were made against his wife and daughter. As a result a meeting was held in June 2005 under the auspices of the local ombudsman, Ossman Castano, where regional military and police officials promised to protect his life.

On January 6th 2006 his son, Javier Ciro, received a note saying that if his father did not leave the area the entire family would be killed. The note also said that anyone who publicly spoke out about army killings in the region would be targeted too. The following month, on February 4th 2006, a second meeting was held at which Mr Castano, local commanders of the security forces, the mayor of Cocorna and human rights groups were present. Again assurances were given that Mr Ciro's life would be protected.

But despite the promises, Mr Ciro was killed on March 30th 2008. Though it has not been confirmed who was responsible for the murder human rights groups have pointed out that Mr Ciro had been the target of a systematic campaign of threats and persecution at the hands of the paramilitaries and the Army for some years. In addition, the 'Corporacion Juridica Libertad', a well-respected human rights group based in the city of Medellin, has reported that in the days leading up to his death a joint unit of soldiers and paramilitaries had been asking locals where they could find Mr Ciro.

http://www.justiceforcolombia.org/?link=newsPage&story=245

[hack89]

17. OK - do you see the FARC counterbalancing the paramilitaries

different sides of the same evil or you see a moral difference between the two?

Is it ok to condemn both equally?

[Zorro]

18. Don't hold your breath waiting for an answer

Our resident Colombian motormouth curiously goes silent when asked to acknowledge and condemn FARC atrocities.

[AlphaCentauri]

21. 2006? so what's the deal with Carlos García Orjuela

Carlos García Orjuela, presidente de 'la U', cuarto jefe uribista detenido por parapolítica

http://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/politica/2008-07-26/carlos-garcia-orjuela-presidente-de-la-u-cuarto-jefe-uribista-detenido-por-parapolitica_4398110-1

Looks more like the AUC still operating from the central government

[Judi Lynn]

7. Blind To Toll From Colombia Violence: Lieberman Ought To Meet Victims

Blind To Toll From Colombia Violence
Lieberman Ought To Meet Victims
By DAVIDA FOY CRABTREE, ALLIE PERRY And CHARLIE PILLSBURY
July 27, 2008

'Violence in Colombia has dropped markedly," Sen. Joseph Lieberman opined in a July 13 letter send to Davida Foy Crabtree. It arrived after the three of us returned, as did the senator, from visits to the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Our planes landed in Cartagena within hours of one another on July 1. The similarities between our visits and our impressions of violence in Colombia end there.

Sen. Lieberman, who traveled with Sen. John McCain's entourage, was hosted by Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, stayed in Colombia less than 24 hours, and did not leave Cartagena.

Traveling as members of the United Church of Christ, we were hosted by our longtime mission partner, Ricardo Esquivia, Mennonite lawyer and director of Sembrandopaz, a peace and development initiative of Protestant churches on the north coast of Colombia. Over eight days we traveled to several locales, including Maria La Baja in the province of Bolivar, Sincelejo in the province of Sucre and Montelibano and Tierralta in the province of Cordoba.

Before our trip, we contacted Sen. Lieberman's office imploring him to meet with human rights defenders. To our knowledge he did not; we did.

We met with human rights defenders who are working with the people of Caribbean coast communities who have been displaced, forced off ancestral lands by the violence — leaving behind their homes, their crops and their source of livelihood. Close to 4 million Colombians, according to current estimates, are now "internally displaced persons."

More:
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/commentary/hc-commentarycrabtree0727.artjul27,0,1867481.story

[ohio2007]

8. Hugo and the Spanish king recently made peace...what peace offering did Hugo present in good will ?

FARC
?

they've bee ratted out!



smile and wave boys,

smile and wave.......


http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080725/wl_afp/spainvenezuelapoliticsdiplomacy_080725210338

:hi:

[Peace Patriot]

11. Why do you think it's 'Hugo'?

...by which I guess you mean the legitimately elected president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, who, as head of state, has responsibility for Venezuela's relations with all other countries, as well as for the security of Venezuelans, and, these days, responsibility, as well, for the hundreds of thousands of Colombian refugees who have fled into Venezuela (mostly from the Colombian military and closely tied rightwing death squads). Why, just because this dubious arrest (based on the "miracle laptopS") took place in Spain, and Chavez happened to be mending fences with the King, would you attribute this arrest to Chavez, and not to Uribe--who instigated it, using the "miracle laptopS? (--none of the contents of which have been vetted by any objective party. Interpol specifically disavowed any verification of the contents, and hired non-Spanish speaking techies to make that point especially clear.)

Your post is full of dark innuendo, but no information. What does your juxtaposing of these two photographs tell us? Essentially nothing. If you have reason to put them together--other than vague, peek-a-boo accusations--please share.

And if what you are saying is true--that Chavez "ratted out" the FARC--and if this arrest has any true basis in any real crime by the arrestee, and if Chavez had anything to do with the arrest (no evidence for it; evidence points at Uribe)--you need to support your further implication, that Chavez was in any way allied with the FARC and thus in a position to "rat them out." Chavez made contact with the FARC at Uribe's request, last fall, for hostage release negotiations, and he furthermore, as head of state, has a duty to be in contact with any significant armed force on Venezuela's border, for the safety of his own people. He would be in dereliction of his duty if he was not. The FARC has controlled 20% to 30% of Colombia, and has been fighting this civil war for over 40 years. (As Rafael Correa, president of Ecuador has said, his country doesn't border Colombia--it borders the FARC!) Contact with the FARC does not mean alliance with the FARC (ask the Swiss, French and Spanish envoys who were headed to Raul Reyes's camp, on March 1 of this year--for the release of Ingrid Betancourt--when the U.S./Colombia blew the camp away with ten U.S. "smart bombs"! You think Switzerland, France and Spain were allied with the FARC?). Uribe later tried to make it look like Chavez was somehow allied with the FARC--using, once again, the very unreliable "miracle laptopS." (At first, it was one laptop; now it's several.) That doesn't make it true either.

So, please, if you are going to make such this accusation, you need to back it up, by establishing, a) Chavez alliance with the FARC (such that he would be in a position to "rat them out"); b) Chavez knowledge of, and disclosure of, this Spanish arrestee's activities and/or address (when reports say it was based on the "miracle laptopS"); and c) how either of these posited/implied actions, by Chavez, were not in the line of duty (and, indeed, as to his increased contacts with the FARC during the Nov 07 to Feb 08 period, conducted at Uribe's request, and furthermore at the request of the president of France and other world leaders, the hostage's relatives and human rights groups.)

Your "ratted them out" is heavily interpretive, with no evidence (and evidence contradicting it). My opinion of it right now is that it's just Bushite/Freeper crapola, which is generally inflicted on us with three-word sentences or bursts of venom, like this, and can't be defended. So, defend it. And I assure you that, although I have many good reasons for being pro-Chavez (and pro-Venezuelan Chavista activists, supporters and voters), and although I think he is part of--and an important leader of--an overwhelmingly beneficial, leftist, democratic trend in South America--I don't trust any politician, ever. So, if you've got evidence of Chavez's alliance with the FARC (other than activities connected to the hostage releases, or Venezuelan security), and of his now "ratting them out," I'd like to hear it. I'd also like to hear why you think that is bad. If FARC members have committed crimes, they should be tried--rather than peremptorily executed, along with thousands of innocents, as they do in Colombia. An arrest is better than a bullet through the head, no?

[bitchkitty]

12. There you go again, ruining all the fun.

Don't you know that Hugo Chavez is a dangerous Marxist who eats kittens, DAILY? He hates us because of our freedom!