Yeah, you heard right. The "retired" architect of the slaughter of 1.2 people in Iraq, to get their oil.
To understand this situation in South America, you have to start here...
"The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez," by Donald Rumsfeld, 12/1/07http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001800.htmlYou notice he says "tyrants"--plural. He has more targets in mind than Venezuela. He wants to clean out the nest of democratic, social justice-minded, ALLIED, leftist governments sitting on all that oil in the Andes region. Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina. Venezuela and Ecuador are members of OPEC, and have lots and lots of oil. Bolivia has some oil, and lots of gas (and a Rumsfeld-expoitable, rightwing separatist movement, to split the gas/oil rich provinces off from the central government of Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of Bolivia--a mostly indigenous country--and a strong Chavez ally). And there was a big oil find in Argentina recently--another strong Chavez ally (who today is signing food for oil trade agreements with Venezuela--despite every effort of the Bush Junta to break up their alliance).
Okay, got the picture? South American countries with leftist governments are allying with each other, with common goals of regional self-determination and social justice. These include also Brazil, Uruguay, Chile and Nicaragua (and likely Paraguay this year--a very popular leftist is running). Four of them--the above mentioned--HAVE LOTS OF OIL. The Bushites have almost no friends left in South America. Their one big friend, Colombia, is run by fascist thugs whose security forces and closely allied rightwing paramilitary death squads have been killing thousands of union organizers, political leftists, small peasant farmers, human rights workers and journalists. The Bushites have larded billions of our tax dollars upon these fascists, in military aid, for the phony, corrupt, murderous "war on drugs" (which all four Bolivarian democracies--listed above--have rejected) and recently added the excuse (in billion dollar aid packages for Colombia) of fighting leftists guerrillas, in Colombia's 40+ year civil war, whom the Bushites have deemed "terrorists." The leftist democracies of South America--particularly the Bolivarians--reject this policy as well. This puts our war profiteers at risk, as well as Exxon Mobil, Occidental Petroleum and other global corporate predators.
The LEFTIST DEMOCRACIES of Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina and FRANCE have been trying to broker a peace in the 40+ year Colombian civil war. Hugo Chavez of Venezuela--and now, we have learned, Rafael Correa of Ecuador--have put their personal reputations on the line, to negotiate the release of hostages held by the leftist guerrillas in Colombia, as a first step in brokering a peace in that civil war. They were succeeding. Six hostages have been released this year--mostly Chavez's doing. Correa was negotiating yet another hostage release (of 12 hostages, including French citizen Ingrid Betancourt).
Bush Cartel client state, Colombia, just sent bombers and soldiers into ECUADOR, and slaughtered a group of Colombian guerrillas who were hiding out in the jungle, in their sleep. They lied to Rafael Correa that they were in hot pursuit. They were not. And these weren't just any guerrillas. This group included Venezuela's, Ecuador's and FRANCE's CHIEF HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR, Raul Reyes, who was trying to negotiate, a) release of more of their hostages, and b) a peaceful settlement of this long civil war. He was the contact person and the moral force behind FARC's efforts toward peace.
In other words, Bush Cartel client state, Colombia, just destroyed all hopes for peace in Colombia's civil war!
As always, the Bushite use of the word "terrorist" excludes themselves, and their puppet states. Colombia is a terrorist state. Colombia is so bad that even this wimp-ass U.S. Congress balked at the Bushite "free trade" deal with Colombia, because of the short life span of union leaders in Colombia. This is WHY there is a FARC--armed leftist guerrillas--in Colombia. They don't have the option of peaceful political activity. They get chainsawed and their body parts thrown into mass graves, when they try to participate in the political process, or organize unions and communities to advocate for the interests of the workers and the poor. They are NOT "terrorists." And--according to every human rights group on earth--they are NOT responsible for most of the carnage in Colombia. Colombia's GOVERNMENT is responsible for 95% of the murders of union leaders in Colombia. But it's a CIVIL WAR. FARC has killed some people, and has kidnapped people. But, interestingly, the kidnapped people--according to the recently released hostages--are begging for Colombia to stop the killing, and to negotiate a political settlement of this war.
And Donald Rumsfeld is puppetmastering this situation, to start OIL WAR II: SOUTH AMERICA. He and the Bush Junta--who are subsidizing all this killing with our tax dollars--just pulled Alvaro Uribe's puppet strings, and got him to destroy the positive steps toward peace, by murdering Raul Reyes, and about 16 others, in the massacre in Ecuador, near the Colombian border.
Does this help? I will cite chapter and verse, if you need it. I've been following this situation closely now for several years--as have others here at DU. We know what we are talking about.
Here is what the recently released hostages were saying just a couple of days ago, about their hopes for peace...
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Chavez, freed FARC hostages call for political solution to Colombian conflict
February 29th 2008, by Kiraz Janicke - Venezuelanalysis.com
Luis Eladio Pérez and Gloria Polanco speaking at the press conference in Caracas (Reuters)
Caracas, March 1, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called for international mediation group to negotiate a humanitarian accord in neighboring Colombia, after a successful Venezuelan led humanitarian mission secured the release of four former legislators held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), on Wednesday.
During a telephone call to state owned VTV Thursday, Chavez indicated that France, Ecuador, Brazil and Argentina as well as the Organization of American States support such a move. It is "essential" that Venezuela is part of any international mediation group, because "the FARC have demonstrated that they don't believe in anyone else," he added.
In a communiqué, released minutes after the hostage handover the FARC said this would be the last unilateral hostage release. The FARC reiterated their longstanding call for a military free zone as a precondition for any further negotiations for a humanitarian exchange of 40 remaining high profile hostages for 500 imprisoned guerrillas. However, the Colombian government immediately rejected this proposal.
Chavez said the desire for peace by the majority of Colombians and that the pressure of world opinion would force Uribe to change his position.
"President Uribe is going to have to change his position. Everybody is in agreement except for Uribe, " he declared.
Speaking at a press conference in Caracas on Thursday night, the former Colombian legislators, Luis Eladio Pérez, Jorge Gechem, Orlando Beltrán and Gloria Polanco, also spoke out in favor of a military free zone to facilitate a humanitarian exchange.
"I publicly challenge President Alvaro Uribe to demonstrate the success of his policy of democratic security and clear the military from the municipalities of Pradera and Florida and after 45 days the Armed Forces can recuperate this territory," Perez said after his liberation. "The solution is political, Mr. President Uribe," he repeated twice during the press conference.
"If you persist in the foolishness of insisting on a military rescue you are going to receive, Mr President Uribe, 40 or 50 corpses. It is absurd to think of a military rescue with the conditions that we had in captivity. There would be a massacre," Pérez stressed.
He revealed that the four recently liberated ex legislators have a proposal to present "to President Uribe, the President (of France Nicholas) Sarkozy and, of course, to President (of Venezuela, Hugo) Chavez." This proposal would only be made public after the three heads of state had been informed, he said.
Pérez who classified the FARC as a "political military group who use terrorist practices" also referred to former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, captured by the guerrillas in 2001, who he said is in a "very bad state of health."
In a message released in 2003 demonstrating Betancourt's proof of life, the former presidential candidate indicated that she was opposed any form of military rescue, as she feared a repeat of the tragedy that occurred in May that year when ex governor of Antioquia, Gilberto Echeverri, and the del ex Defense Minister, Guillermo Gaviria, died during a botched military rescue ordered by Uribe.
Betancourt maintains this position Perez said, however she is also conscious "of the high risk and lack of commitment of the President of the Republic."
In contrast Betancourt calls for a political solution to the conflict based on the Geneva Convention and believes that "fundamentally President Uribe has to recognize the political status of the FARC guerrillas," Perez said.
Pérez also affirmed that after an attempted escape, Betancourt, "remained chained up during the night," and her captors, "humiliated her, obliged her to walk barefoot, tied her to trees and rationed her food."
Ex congressman Orlando Beltrán condemned "all terrorist acts, wherever they come from. I condemn the terrorism of the FARC, of the paramilitaries and the terrorism of the State." He pointed out that Colombia "is the only country in the world that has disappeared an entire political movement, more than six thousand leaders of Unión Patriótica were disappeared, to speak only of this case."
Under a previous peace accord in the 1980's the FARC demobilized and formed Unión Patriótica, however after they laid down their arms thousands of former guerrillas were hunted down by paramilitaries, backed by the Colombian state, and massacred, forcing them back into the armed struggle.
Beltrán added that the Colombian State "has to assume responsibility and understand that they must create the conditions to achieve a humanitarian accord. I don't understand why, when make these handovers in a unilateral manner, they say they are not going to clear the military from a centimeter of the national territory."
Gloria Polanco asserted, "It is necessary to reach the heart of President Uribe, to speak to him, to explain, because he has to understand that if he does not clear the military from Pradera and Florida, which is what the FARC ask, our comrades will die in captivity."
"I am asking for a humanitarian accord, because they have to place value on life, not on a piece of land, not on a piece of territory," she said.
All four ex-legislators confirmed that they would participate in an international day of action organized by human rights organizations on March 6 in protest against paramilitary violence in Colombia. Uribe has condemned the protest scheduled to take place in some 150 cities around the world, claiming it is organized by the FARC.(emphasis added)
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3213(Note: Venezuela Analysis is a Fair Use web site.)
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Rumsfeld & co. have just destroyed all of this. They don't care a crap about the hostages--or peace. This is a Rumsfeld specialty--creating chaos, and thus, global corporate predator opportunity. He is working closely with Exxon Mobile, which just took legal action to freeze $12 billion in Venezuela's assets--in a dispute over Venezuela's 60% share in its own oil (a deal that Norway's Statoil, France's Total, British BP and even Chevron agreed to). The goal is destabilization of Venezuela, and the Andes region, preparatory to other plans, including (as Rumsfeld says) "swift" U.S. action (i.e., military intervention), in support of "friends and allies in South America" (fascist thugs planning coups against the Andes democracies, and, of course, the Bushites' close fascist buds in Colombia).
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