[Marxism] Should Chavez Be on the List Of Terrorism Sponsors? (WSJ)

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Wall Street Journal continues its war against the
government of Venezuela, using the Granda kidnapping
as the most recent pretext. While O'Grady's been hard
on Fidel Castro and Cuba, she's even harder still on
Hugo Chavez, against whom she's been hammering away
for months and months, including challenging also the
legitimacy of his defeat of the recall. Since this
column focuses on justifying the Granda kidnapping,
readers may wish to see what Chavez himself had to
say on the subject. Here's the transcript of what
he said on the Alo Presidente television program:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/chavez-011605e.html

Since the WSJ is the pre-eminent business daily in
the United States, and it also fervently supports the
aggressive foreign policies of the Bush administration,
columns like this must be understood for what they are:
open public justification for cover action and direct
military intervention. The Washington Post is taking
the same line as the Journal is taking on Venezuela.


Walter Lippmann
======================================================

January 21, 2005 
 
THE AMERICAS  
 
Should Chavez Be on the List
Of Terrorism Sponsors?

By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY 
January 21, 2005; Page A9

In the war on terror no Latin American leader has been a
better ally to George W. Bush than Colombian President
Alvaro Uribe. It has not been without cost.

In circumstances similar to those former Spanish Prime
Minister José María Aznar had to endure for his support of
the Iraq invasion, the Colombian president has faced
anti-Yanqui grandstanders who want to blame America first.
Yet Mr. Uribe has remained true to the anti-terror cause
and a good friend to the U.S. Now, Mr. Bush has a chance to
return the favor.

In the last month, evidence has surfaced that Venezuela's
President Hugo Chávez is harboring Colombian terrorists.
Although the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá is supporting Mr.
Uribe, Mr. Bush owes the Colombian leader an even stronger
effort towards containing the Venezuelan tyrant.

Another good reason to take Chávez seriously is that there
are alarming reports that suggest he may be bent on arming
his revolutionary cadres all over South America. That could
threaten regimes friendly toward the U.S. throughout the
region.

Mr. Uribe's troubles with Chávez came to a head in December
with the capture by bounty hunters, inside Venezuela, of a
key leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), which
has for years waged war on Colombians. Rodrigo Granda,
known as the "foreign minister" of the FARC, was delivered
to Colombian officials in the border state of Cúcata.

It turns out that Granda had been living in Venezuela since
2002, in a comfortable mountain residence just south of
Caracas, coming and going as he pleased. Just before the
August recall referendum that challenged the Chávez
presidency, Granda was granted Venezuelan citizenship.

Chávez's denials that he knew about Granda are implausible,
given the man's political importance and the Chávez network
of domestic spies. Reliable sources say that Interpol
advised Venezuela a year ago that Granda was a wanted man.

But why arrest a friend of the family? Venezuelan Foreign
Minister Alí Rodríguez is on the editorial board of the
hard-left Argentine-based magazine "America Libre;" so are
the FARC's Comandante Manuel Marulanda, and the leader of
Colombia's other main terror group known as the ELN. This
is a strange association considering the fact that the
FARC, heartily supported by Fidel Castro, has murdered,
maimed and kidnapped thousands of Colombians and terrorized
society over its 40-year history. The Financial Times
reported yesterday that "according to Granda's diary,
excerpts of which were seen by the FT, the top FARC
representative kept the telephone numbers of several people
in the Chávez government and other FARC members in
Venezuela."

All of this raises the likelihood that Venezuela is a safe
haven for FARC terrorists, just as Colombia has claimed
over the past few years. Officials in Bogotá maintain that
at least seven guerrilla bigwigs are enjoying Chávez's
protections. The Colombian government also says that FARC
members have attended conferences hosted by the Venezuelan
government in Caracas and it further alleges that there are
various FARC encampments on the Venezuelan side of the
border.

Chávez is bent out of shape about the Granda capture. He,
like Granda, protests that Venezuelan sovereignty was
violated, even though it was not Colombian law enforcement
agents that brought Granda in but Venezuelans who wanted
the reward. Chávez can't very well object to the use of
reward money, since he has offered just such compensation
for the capture of his own enemies, inside or outside
Venezuela.

Granda's complaints give a good picture of just how safe
the Colombian terrorist thought he was in Venezuela. 
"There has to be a minimum of good manners toward another
government, for sure," he told Colombian authorities.
Otherwise, if captures like his are allowed, "we return to
the law of jungle." Venezuela's vice president is telling
the Colombian government that Bogotá must pinpoint the
whereabouts of the guerrillas it alleges are inside
Venezuela or stand accused of lying.

President Bush has made it clear that any government that
gives safe haven to terrorists is a U.S. enemy. That would
seem to require a more serious approach to whether
Venezuela is supporting terrorism in Colombia.

Special attention might be profitably directed at FARC's
role in South American arms smuggling and why that might
tie in nicely with ambitions of Chávez and Castro to expand
their influence throughout the region. Russian press
reports say that Chávez has recently ordered 100,000
Kalashnikov automatic weapons from Moscow. His national
guard and police are already well armed so it is reasonable
to worry that these guns are meant for clandestine
distribution on the continent. Former Colombian Interior
and Justice Minister Fernando Londoño wrote in Bogotá's El
Tiempo on Monday that, "Chávez and Castro know that there
is no dictatorship without arms." That could be why the
Granda seizure has caused such uproar in the Chávez
government: The FARC's arms and narcotics trading network
is key to spreading the Chávez revolution throughout South
America.

The State Department has badly bungled its handling of
Chávez. In August it endorsed his victory in a recall
referendum even though voters faced government intimidation
and no serious investigation was ever allowed of plausible
charges that voting machines were rigged. State's
ill-considered action, granting Chávez a legitimacy that he
doesn't deserve, will be used in his defense for years to
come. Only this week, Rhode Island Republican Senator
Lincoln Chafee used it during Senate hearings on
Condoleezza Rice's nomination to head up State. Complaining
about Ms. Rice's criticisms of Chávez, he said "It seems
disrespectful to the Venezuelan people. They have spoken."
Mr. Chafee is not one of Washington's brighter bulbs, but
the initial problem was State's blessing of Chávez's
tainted "victory."

It can be hoped that Ms. Rice will give serious attention
to the slippage in Latin America and set about to build a
team that will address the problems of the region in a more
knowledgeable and active way. The U.S. cannot ignore
Venezuela's alliance with the worst criminal organizations
on the continent or its support of aggression against a
neighboring government. All those tender souls who worry
that Chávez will "cut off the oil" need to be told that he
would do himself far more harm than the U.S. if he ever
attempted such a power play.








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