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Mounting provocations against Venezuela<br>
WASHINGTON BACKS KIDNAPPING OF COLOMBIAN GUERRILLA EXILE IN CARACAS<br>
____________________________________________________________________<br><br>
News & Analysis: South & Central America<br>
<a href="http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/jan2005/vene-j26.shtml" eudora="autourl">http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/jan2005/vene-j26.shtml<br>
</a>By Bill Van Auken<br><br>
The barrage of US provocations against Venezuela since the beginning of
the<br>
year is a clear indication that the oil-rich South American country will
be<br>
one of the principal targets in the global war on "tyranny"
elaborated by<br>
George W. Bush in his inauguration speech last week.<br><br>
The latest campaign mounted by Washington has centered on the kidnapping
in<br>
Caracas last month of a senior international representative of the<br>
Colombian guerrilla movement, the FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces
of<br>
Colombia.<br><br>
The FARC representative, Rodrigo Granda, was abducted by a combined
force<br>
of US-trained Colombian special forces and elements of the
Venezuelan<br>
military, who were reportedly paid over $1.5 million to collaborate in
the<br>
kidnapping. Several Venezuelan national guardsmen--ironically,
leading<br>
members of an elite anti-kidnapping unit--have been placed under arrest
for<br>
their part in the seizure of Granda.<br><br>
The operation, a flagrant violation of Venezuela's national
sovereignty,<br>
recalled the cross-border seizures and murders of exiled political<br>
dissidents carried out by Latin American dictatorships in the 1970s
under<br>
the CIA-backed "Operation Condor."<br><br>
While branded a "terrorist" by both the rightist government of
President<br>
Alvaro Uribe in Colombia and the Bush administration in Washington,
Granda<br>
was a public figure who served as a political spokesman for the
FARC,<br>
traveling to numerous conferences in Latin America and Europe.<br><br>
On December 8 and 9, just days before his kidnapping, Granda had
addressed<br>
a Venezuelan government-sponsored "Bolivarian Congress of the
Peoples"<br>
attended by other international delegations. He had not been charged
with<br>
any crime, outside of speaking publicly against the policies of the<br>
US-backed Colombian regime.<br><br>
Washington's reaction to the escalating diplomatic confrontation
between<br>
Venezuela and Colombia provoked by the incident leaves no doubt that
the<br>
kidnapping involved US collaboration and constituted a deliberate
extension<br>
of the Bush administration's "global war on terror."<br><br>
In its manner of execution, the kidnapping bore the hallmarks of
the<br>
criminal and unilateral military aggression that has characterized
this<br>
so-called war by the US administration. No warning was given to the<br>
Venezuelan government, much less any evidence of Granda's supposed guilt
or<br>
formal request for his extradition. Rather, the FARC official was
grabbed<br>
off the street in downtown Caracas, forced into a vehicle and taken<br>
incommunicado across the border in violation of international
law.<br><br>
Granda was a political refugee who had fled Colombia because of the<br>
murderous repression that successive governments there have
unleashed<br>
against the left, the working class and the poor. He had lived in
Venezuela<br>
for several years and enjoyed dual citizenship.<br><br>
The movement that he represented, the FARC, has existed in Colombia
for<br>
over 40 years. It has exerted control over large sections of the
country<br>
and, on various occasions, participated in negotiations with the<br>
government. In the mid-1980s, it declared a truce and sought to
enter<br>
politics through a new party, the Union Patriotica. While the party
gained<br>
broad popular support, its candidates and members were subjected to<br>
relentless repression, with some 5,000 of them--teachers, workers,<br>
intellectuals--murdered or "disappeared" at the hands of
government<br>
security forces and right-wing death squads.<br><br>
The Colombian government defended its cross-border kidnapping, declaring
in<br>
an official statement that it had "the right to free itself from
the<br>
nightmare of terrorism." It described its bribing of Venezuelan
military<br>
personnel as a "bounty," which it said was a "legitimate
instrument of<br>
state, which aids in the process of defeating terror."<br><br>
US Ambassador to Colombia William Wood affirmed "100 percent
support" for<br>
the Colombian statement, declaring it of "transcendental importance,
not<br>
only for Colombia but for the struggle against terrorism in the
Andean<br>
region."<br><br>
The Colombian provocation has been accompanied by a series of
denunciations<br>
of the Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chavez by both US
government<br>
officials and influential sections of the US media. Most
prominently,<br>
Condoleezza Rice, Bush's secretary of state-designate, condemned the
Chavez<br>
government in the course of her nomination hearing before the US
Senate<br>
Foreign Relations Committee January 18.<br><br>
"I think it's extremely unfortunate that the Chavez government has
not been<br>
constructive," declared Rice. "And we do have to be vigilant
and to<br>
demonstrate that we know the difficulties that that government is
causing<br>
for its neighbors, its close association with Fidel Castro in
Cuba...and<br>
those relationships are deeply concerning to us and to
me."<br><br>
She said the US government was "very concerned" about Chavez
because he is<br>
"a democratically elected leader who governs in an illiberal
way." She<br>
described his government as a "negative force" in the region,
accusing it<br>
of taking "very troubling" steps against the privately owned
media and the<br>
right-wing opposition in Venezuela.<br><br>
Rice's menacing tone was in line with an editorial published by the<br>
Washington Post just four days before the hearing, entitled
"Venezuela's<br>
'Revolution.'" It described the Chavez government's limited land
reform<br>
efforts as an "assault on private property" and "the
latest step in what<br>
has been a rapidly escalating 'revolution' by Venezuela's president that
is<br>
undermining the foundations of democracy and free enterprise in
that<br>
oil-producing country." It also cited a proposed arms deal between
the<br>
Venezuelan government and Russia. The editorial noted that in an
earlier<br>
period such developments would have sparked a US military
intervention.<br><br>
The Miami Herald published a column based on an interview with
General<br>
James Hill, the outgoing chief of the US Southern Command, which directs
US<br>
military operations throughout Latin America. Hill charged that Caracas
was<br>
"allowing the FARC to set up camps" in Venezuela and giving
money to the<br>
MAS, the Bolivian left-nationalist movement led by Congressman Evo<br>
Morales--charges vehemently denied by both the Venezuelan government
and<br>
Morales. Hill described Chavez as having "all the potential for
becoming a<br>
destabilizing factor" and declared that the US government would have
to<br>
impose "consequences if he continues to meddle with violent
groups."<br><br>
Finally, the Wall Street Journal, whose editorial pages most
closely<br>
reflect the thinking within the right-wing layers that direct the
affairs<br>
of the Bush administration, published a column January 21 citing
the<br>
controversy over the Granda kidnapping. "President Bush has made it
clear<br>
that any government that gives safe haven to terrorists is a US
enemy," it<br>
said. "That would seem to require a more serious approach to
whether<br>
Venezuela is supporting terrorism in Colombia." It also cited the
Moscow<br>
arms proposal and added, "The US cannot ignore Venezuela's alliance
with<br>
the worst criminal organizations on the continent or its support of<br>
aggression against a neighboring government."<br><br>
The Venezuelan government of President Chavez has responded to the<br>
kidnapping by withdrawing its ambassador to Colombia, freezing
trade<br>
relations with the neighboring country, and demanding that the
Uribe<br>
government issue an apology.<br><br>
The confrontation with Colombia over the Granda kidnapping was the focus
of<br>
a mass demonstration in Caracas Sunday marking the 47th anniversary of
the<br>
1958 overthrow of Venezuelan military dictator Gen. Marcos Perez
Jimenez.<br>
The crowd carried banners reading, "Bush: Venezuela is Not
Iraq" and<br>
"Colombia, Stay Out of Venezuela." Thousands marched across the
city from<br>
the sprawling slums of eastern Caracas to the Miraflores
presidential<br>
palace.<br><br>
In a speech from the palace balcony, Chavez mocked Rice's statements at
the<br>
Senate hearing, referring to the secretary of state-designate as<br>
"Condolencia" and describing her as a "complete illiterate
on what is<br>
happening in Venezuela, the world and in Latin America."<br><br>
"The most negative force that there could be for this world is
North<br>
American imperialism," said the Venezuelan president. "So if we
are<br>
classified from there as a negative force, we're all
right."<br><br>
Referring to last month's kidnapping as "one more assault by the
US<br>
government," Chavez added, "I am conscious of where this
provocation comes<br>
from. It comes from Washington, not Bogota."<br><br>
The US State Department has attempted to fan the flames of
confrontation<br>
between Venezuela and Colombia, demanding that the Chavez
government<br>
respond to a list of alleged "terrorists" presented by the
right-wing<br>
Colombian regime. Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel
described<br>
the list as "irrelevant," noting that it conveniently ignored
Colombian<br>
drug traffickers and right-wing paramilitaries who had entered
Venezuelan<br>
territory. Nearly 130 heavily armed Colombian paramilitaries were<br>
discovered in the country last year. They were collaborating with<br>
Venezuelan rightists in a plot against the government.<br><br>
The Venezuelan government further indicated that it would draw up its
own<br>
list of right-wing Venezuelan fugitives harbored by the Uribe government
in<br>
Colombia. Chief among them is Pedro Carmona, the former head of the<br>
Venezuelan business federation, who played a key role in the
abortive<br>
US-backed coup that saw Chavez briefly deposed and imprisoned in
April<br>
2002. The coup attempt led to the deaths of some 60 Venezuelans.
Senior<br>
Venezuelan military officers involved in the coup are also hiding
in<br>
Colombia and continuing to plot against the Chavez government from
there.<br><br>
Venezuela's VTV television network this week carried an interview with
a<br>
recently retired Colombian army officer who testified that Carmona and
the<br>
Venezuelan military coup plotters had been allowed to use Colombian<br>
military installations to hold meetings.<br><br>
The Bush administration's use of the Granda kidnapping to attack
Venezuela<br>
is the clearest manifestation of the fraud and hypocrisy of the
so-called<br>
global war on terror. Out of the more than 40,000 civilian victims
of<br>
Colombia's four-decade-old civil war, more than 80 percent have been
killed<br>
by the military and its allied right-wing death squads. State terrorism
has<br>
been ruthlessly employed to defend the interests of the native
oligarchy<br>
and the multinational corporations with investments in
Colombia.<br><br>
Meanwhile, Washington has built up the machinery of state terrorism
wielded<br>
by the regime in Bogota, providing some $3 billion in military aid
and<br>
dispatching some 800 US military "advisers" and another 600
civilian<br>
contractors to the country. This vast military program has bought the
Bush<br>
administration the unqualified support of Uribe, the only Latin
American<br>
head of state who supports the US intervention in Iraq.<br><br>
Since Chavez was first elected in 1998, Washington has continuously
sought<br>
to undermine and topple his government. The Venezuelan president
survived<br>
the US-backed coup attempt of 2002 thanks to a mass outpouring against
the<br>
seizure of power. After repeated attempts to unseat him through a<br>
presidential referendum, a vote was held on August 15 of last year,
with<br>
Chavez winning a landslide that was certified by international
inspectors,<br>
including former US president Jimmy Carter.<br><br>
Now, it appears that the Bush administration is attempting to paint
the<br>
Venezuelan government as a state sponsor of terrorism to prepare
for<br>
possible military aggression. US hostility to the Chavez government
is<br>
fueled by his anti-imperialist rhetoric and populist reforms. In 2001,
the<br>
government enacted a land reform law allowing for the redistribution
of<br>
unused or underutilized land, and it appears that it may now be taking
the<br>
first steps to meet the demands of landless squatters, who have
occupied<br>
some estates. According to the latest census figures, 60 percent of<br>
Venezuela's land is owned by 1 percent of the population.<br><br>
In addition, Washington opposes Venezuela's policy of supplying Cuba
with<br>
oil, thereby defying a US blockade designed to strangle the island
nation's<br>
economy and force the downfall of the Castro government. This issue
looms<br>
large among the right-wing ideologues in the Bush
administration.<br><br>
The most essential question in Venezuela, however, is the oil itself,
which<br>
is why it has joined such other major petroleum producers as Iraq and
Iran<br>
as a prime target in the "global war on terror." The South
American country<br>
currently exports approximately 1.2 million barrels of oil a day to the
US.<br>
This accounts for nearly 15 percent of American imports and more than
half<br>
of Venezuela's total production.<br><br>
The Chavez government has taken steps both to exert greater control
over<br>
the country's oil wealth and diversify its markets. Rising oil
prices,<br>
meanwhile, have strengthened its political position and given it
greater<br>
leeway in placing demands on foreign oil companies, as well as in
granting<br>
concessions to the Venezuelan people.<br><br>
Last October, Chavez suddenly announced that his government was
raising<br>
royalties paid by foreign companies pumping oil from the Orinoco
fields<br>
from 1 percent to 16.6 percent. ChevronTexaco was one of the companies
most<br>
affected. The government also recently announced that it is reviewing
33<br>
operating agreements negotiated with foreign energy conglomerates in
the<br>
1990s to see if they still meet Venezuela's needs.<br><br>
Meanwhile, Venezuela has negotiated a series of agreements with
China,<br>
which is aggressively seeking global energy supplies for its
growing<br>
economy. The deals grant Chinese oil companies preferential terms in
the<br>
development of oil and gas exploration and production in Venezuela.
In<br>
announcing the agreements, Chavez declared expanded relations with
Beijing<br>
represented the best means of ending "100 years of US
domination" of<br>
Venezuela's oil industry. Caracas has reportedly begun negotiations
with<br>
Panama over the opening of a pipeline to speed exports to
China.<br><br>
US imperialism will not willingly cede hegemony over the largest
oil<br>
reserves in Latin America. Behind the rhetoric about
"democracy" and<br>
"terrorism" lie the profit interests of the US oil
conglomerates and<br>
America's financial oligarchy.<br><br>
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