Venezuela denies arming FARC

[IndianaGreen]

Venezuela denies arming FARC

Tuesday 28 July 2009

Caracas has dismissed allegations made by the Colombian government that weapons found in a FARC arms dump in October came from the Venezuelan military.

According to Bogota, the bazooka-like AT-4 single-use launchers, made by Saab Bofors Dynamics of Sweden, were recovered from a unit headed by a FARC commander known as John 40.

President Alvaro Uribe complained over the weekend that if Colombia had kept quiet about the weapons "they'll fire them and obtain more and no-one in the international community will halt their sale."

Colombia recently asked Sweden to confirm whether they had been sold to Venezuela and it did so.

Senior Swedish Trade Ministry official Jens Eriksson said that his government was working with Colombia "to find out how this happened."

"We have also contacted Venezuelan authorities," he said. "We are still waiting for an answer."

On Monday, Venezuela's Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami dismissed the report of the missiles, denying that "our government or institutions have ever collaborated with any type of criminal or terrorist organisations."

The country's Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro called the launcher claim part of a "brutal campaign" with a single objective - "to justify the presence of US bases" in Colombia.

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/world/venezuela_denies_arming_farc

[subsuelo]

1. The question nobody is asking... Why would he arm the FARC in the first place?

Chavez has never been aligned with them... he's repeatedly called on them to end their struggle, and they have a history of harassment and murder of the indigenous people that Chavez is such a champion of.

The attempt to portray Chavez as somehow aligned with the FARC is another display of the extreme ignorance played on by the U.S. media, which has as it's goal the promotion of corporate business interests. *That* is the real story at play here.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Exactly. What could he EVER gain from such an eccentric action?

These scheming little nazis think we'll believe anything, apparently.

Don't you hate being told lies by idiots? I know I do!