WhatFinger


FARC, Hugo Chavez

Hugo Chavez Bagman for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia



Lifting up the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rock finds a python with the face of Hugo Chavez. Self-touted as the go-to guy for the release of Colombian hostages, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gets his FARC clout from being its bagman. “I don’t think this comes as any surprise to the Colombian people who never trusted Chavez, or as any surprise to the worried loved ones of hostages still held in captivity,” Bogotá Free Planet (BFP) publisher Ernesto Pardo told Canada Free Press (CFP) this morning.

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Colombia’s police commander said yesterday documents found at the camp of a top FARC commander killed in a raid showed evidence Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had made $300 million payments to FARC. “Gen. Oscar Naranjo earlier said computers found in the camp of FARC commander Raul Reyes had revealed documents showing ties between the rebel leader and a representative of the government of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa.” (Reuters, March 3, 2008). Raul Reyes, who became the public face of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia as the group’s spokesman, was killed Saturday just across the border in neighbouring Ecuador in fighting that left a total of 17 rebels and one soldier dead. With a name that caused dread, in real life the 59-year-old Reyes was Luis Edgar Devia Silva, and he was considered a contender to take over FARC. His death marked the largest setback to Colombia’s terrorists since President Alvaro Uribe took office in 2002, and temper tantrums from Chavez who has now declared war on Colombia. That the U.S. State Department had offered a bounty of $5 million for information leading to the arrest of Reyes, as well as the other six members of the FARC’s ruling secretariat leaves Chavez seething. With Hollywood director Oliver Stone in Colombia to film the hostage release for a documentary, Act 1 had to be abandoned in a hostage release that never happened on New Year’s Eve. Chavez was still playing a starring role in the early January release of Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez, both held by FARC for several years. The four latest hostages to be released are all former members of the Colombian Congress. Gloria Polanco, Luis Eladio Perez and Orlando Beltran were all seized in 2001, while Jorge Gechem had been in rebel hands since 2002. Ingrid Betancourt, regarded as the most prominent of the hostages, remains in captivity. She was seized along with Clara Rojas while out campaigning for the presidency in 2002. Betancourt’s fate has been pushed into headlines courtesy of her dual French-Colombian nationality. Until his recent marriage, French President Nicolas Sarkozy was also been active in efforts to secure her release. Among hostages considered worthy of “trade-off” are three U.S. nationals who were working for an American defence contractor when their small Cessna plane went down in a rebel-held area of the jungle in February 2003. Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes were employed by Northrop Grumman and were involved in anti-drugs surveillance. Sadly, some 700 hostages, with no trade off value to FARC or Chavez, many of them civilians, kidnapped mainly for ransom, receive little publicity. That the civilian hostages remain off the radar screen is not lost on average Colombians, whose recent marches against FARC are on the increase. Meanwhile, Chavez’s role on the world stage as a diplomat and deal broker is over. All that is left standing in the spotlight is FARC’s $300-million bagman.


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Judi McLeod -- Bio and Archives -- Judi McLeod, Founder, Owner and Editor of Canada Free Press, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in the print and online media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared throughout the ‘Net, including on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

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