Is War Brewing In South America?
Hard to tell what is really happening, considering the players. Hugo Chavez the somewhat boisterous president of Venezuela and Rafael Correa the president of Ecuador have both ordered troops to their borders with Colombia. An operation by the government of Colombia and it’s president Alvaro Uribe, led Colombian military to cross over into Ecuadorian territory and kill rebel leader and spokesman for the FARC, Raul Reyes and 16 other guerrillas on Saturday.
Colombia claims that it was in hot pursuit of the rebels that were attacking the Colombian military from the Ecuadorian side and that is what led them to cross over into Ecuador. Uribe has long been complaining that the FARC rebels have a history of killing in Colombia and then being allowed to hide across the borders of both Ecuador and Venezuela.
Ecuador and Venezuela claim that the rebels were bombed and massacred in their sleep. As to be expected, Chavez claims the attack was masterminded by the U.S. and that Colombia is only a puppet of the U.S. Empire. Fueling the fire, Fidel Castro wrote in “The Granma”, his state sponsored online newspaper, that the U.S. was to blame for the trouble, and that what happened in Ecuador are the “Genocidal plans of the Yankee Empire”. Now who is puppet to whom?
Both Ecuador and Venezuela have recalled their ambassadors from Bogota, and so far Ecuador has expelled the Colombian Ambassador from Quito, the capital of Ecuador. Chavez has threatened to retaliate if Colombia tries to cross into Venezuela for any reason, and claims that this could be a prelude to a South American War.
The leftist FARC rebels who have been fighting the Colombian government for 40 years, have killed thousands of people according to government reports. They have been holding around 40 high-level hostages demanding exchange for hundreds of guerillas in jail. Some of the hostages have been held for over 10 years.They currently hold Ingrid Betancourt, a former presidential candidate who is said to be gravely ill, 3 U.S. defense contractors, Colombian police and other military personnel.
Lately there has been some headway with the release of six hostages in the last 2 months, a deal brokered by Hugo Chavez with the assistance of the Ecuadorian government, but that is part of the problem between the three countries. Chavez and Correa are seen as being more and more sympathetic to the cause of the FARC, and Uribe holds a strong stance against the rebels, exclaiming that Colombia will stand firm in it’s fight against terrorist.
The war of the “cojones” has begun.
Chavez colombia correa ecuador farc rebels venezuela
on March 4th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Pretty good coverage. I really don’t think any of them is brash or silly enough to go to war, but it’s a frightening scenario.
on March 4th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Hope it would be solve with a win2 solution.
on March 5th, 2008 at 5:05 am
It must be dreadful to live there.
on March 5th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Actually, both countries are quite beautiful. But like every country in the world, there are problems…and they’re usually with the government.