CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez says Colombia should not underestimate Venezuela's concerns over the neighboring country's decision to forge stronger military ties with the United States.
From Venezuela's point of view, Chavez said Thursday, it's like ''opening your house for your neighbor's enemy.''
Colombian officials have said Venezuela should not be concerned by a pact being negotiated to let U.S. forces use three airfields and two navy bases in Colombia. They say the number of U.S. service personnel and civilian military contractors will not exceed the 1,400 mandated by the U.S. Congress.
Chavez has threatened to scale back Venezuela's ties with Colombia if Bogota and Washington reach an agreement.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
From the guerrilla's mouth
Mistrust deepens between neighbours
SPEAKING earlier this month Ecuador’s foreign minister, Fander Falconí, observed that his country’s relations with Colombia had never been as bad. They just got worse: a video leaked to the Associated Press and published on July 17th showed the military commander of the FARC, Colombia’s biggest guerrilla group, saying that his organisation gave “aid in dollars” in 2006 for the election campaign of Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s president and had reached “agreements” with Ecuadorean officials.
There is no evidence that Mr Correa himself knew about any FARC donation, and he denies that any existed. Ecuador’s electoral commission approved his campaign’s accounts. Mr Correa was quick to claim the video was a “fabrication”. But that is implausible. The FARC commander, Jorge Briceño, is well-known. Colombian police found the video, which shows him reading a letter to a group of guerrillas last year, on the computer of a FARC organiser arrested in Bogotá in May. His remarks referred to the damage done by the leaking of guerrilla “secrets” contained in e-mails found on computer equipment belonging to Raúl Reyes, a senior FARC leader killed when Colombian forces bombed and raided his camp just across the border in Ecuador in March last year.
That raid prompted Mr Correa to cut diplomatic ties with Colombia. They have not been restored. Colombian officials say privately that their efforts to defeat the FARC, whose money comes mainly from drug-trafficking and kidnapping, are hindered by the complicity of some Ecuadorean officials with the rebels. In his e-mails, Reyes wrote of giving $100,000 to Mr Correa’s campaign and of a later meeting with his interior minister. This was to discuss the release of FARC hostages, said Ecuador. But the minister’s former deputy who also met Reyes was arrested this year on suspicion of drug-trafficking. He said he sympathised with the FARC.
Mr Correa complains that Colombia, an American ally, is trying to destabilise his socialist government. His government claims to have dismantled more than 200 FARC camps. It has filed a complaint at the International Court of Justice over Colombia’s spraying of coca fields along the border. It is preparing another suit over the raid on Reyes’ camp, which it says violated Ecuador’s sovereignty. A judge in Sucumbíos province recently asked Interpol for help in arresting Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia’s defence minister at the time of the raid and now a presidential candidate (the request was denied).
Colombia made no public response to all this. The leaking of the video marks a more aggressive approach, perhaps triggered by Mr Correa’s seeming radicalisation since he won a fresh election under a new constitution in April. Relations between Mr Correa and Colombia’s president, Álvaro Uribe, once reasonably close, are now marked by deep mistrust and personal antipathy. That is starting to hurt their countries’ close economic ties. Earlier this month Ecuador raised tariffs on hundreds of Colombian products.
Mr Correa remains popular, partly because he has lavished oil money on social programmes. He has won two presidential elections by comfortable margins. He has shaken off other embarrassments, such as recent revelations of government contracts awarded to his brother. But he has also picked many fights, defaulting on bonds and bullying foreign investors for example. Outside Ecuador, the FARC video will do nothing to encourage the idea that Mr Correa, whatever his political talents, is a responsible statesman.
EDITORIAL: Cut off Ecuador
Narco-guerrillas are too cozy in Quito
Several recent developments make it imperative for the United States to end the trade preferences it gives to the leftist government of Ecuador.
On July 15, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said that in his new role as president of the Union of South American Nations, he will try to create a regional organization to shut down critics in the media. This frightening move against a free press came two weeks after Mr. Correa began efforts to shut down Ecuador's Teleamazonas television network.
On July 16, Ecuador's state-owned Petroecuador oil company seized the oil fields of the Anglo-French Perenco Corp. This was despite a demand in May from an official arbitration body of the World Bank that the Ecuadorean government stop seizing oil. The expropriation of oil is nothing new. In 2006, Ecuador did the same thing to the American Occidental Petroleum Corp.
Most damning of all, Associated Press reported on July 17 that "an hourlong video" of a rebel leader "appears to dispel any doubts that Colombia's largest rebel army gave money to the 2006 election campaign" of Mr. Correa. That army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (known by its Spanish acronym, FARC), is officially labeled a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. The Council on Foreign Relations identifies the Marxist FARC as an outfit known for major cocaine trafficking, kidnapping, hijacking, assassinations and other murders.
The FARC leader on the video reads a letter discussing "assistance in dollars to Correa's campaign and subsequent conversations with his emissaries." FARC is known to operate out of camps on Ecuadorean soil and is one of the most destructive agents fighting against the Colombian government, which is a close American ally.
Mr. Correa has denied any knowledge of FARC funding of his campaign and has vowed to investigate, a pledge that may be akin to the wolf investigating who killed the sheep. As the Economist magazine concluded, with prototypical British understatement, "outside Ecuador, the FARC video will do nothing to encourage the idea that Mr. Correa, whatever his political talents, is a responsible statesman."
Despite all this, Ecuador still enjoys preferential trade treatment with the United States as part of the Andean Trade Preference Act, which was renewed in June for Quito for six more months by President Obama. On June 9, however, the Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and three other major business organizations protested, writing that because of "breaches in the basic rule of law that are occurring in Ecuador ... we believe that the automatic renewal of Andean preferences for Ecuador would send the wrong message to other developing countries."
Recent developments bring to mind the dispute with Chevron Corp., in which Mr. Correa's government is supporting a $27 billion lawsuit for ill-proven damages, involving purported pollution for which an earlier Ecuadorean government already had cleared Texaco (which is now part of Chevron) back in 1998. As we have noted before, Ecuador's court system has been denounced as unreliable or corrupt by the United Nations, the International Bar Association and the U.S. State Department.
A government that tries to destroy a free press while seizing foreign businesses and harboring terrorists is a government with no credibility. Ecuador merits neither trade preferences nor respect, but only suspicion.
Several recent developments make it imperative for the United States to end the trade preferences it gives to the leftist government of Ecuador.
On July 15, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said that in his new role as president of the Union of South American Nations, he will try to create a regional organization to shut down critics in the media. This frightening move against a free press came two weeks after Mr. Correa began efforts to shut down Ecuador's Teleamazonas television network.
On July 16, Ecuador's state-owned Petroecuador oil company seized the oil fields of the Anglo-French Perenco Corp. This was despite a demand in May from an official arbitration body of the World Bank that the Ecuadorean government stop seizing oil. The expropriation of oil is nothing new. In 2006, Ecuador did the same thing to the American Occidental Petroleum Corp.
Most damning of all, Associated Press reported on July 17 that "an hourlong video" of a rebel leader "appears to dispel any doubts that Colombia's largest rebel army gave money to the 2006 election campaign" of Mr. Correa. That army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (known by its Spanish acronym, FARC), is officially labeled a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. The Council on Foreign Relations identifies the Marxist FARC as an outfit known for major cocaine trafficking, kidnapping, hijacking, assassinations and other murders.
The FARC leader on the video reads a letter discussing "assistance in dollars to Correa's campaign and subsequent conversations with his emissaries." FARC is known to operate out of camps on Ecuadorean soil and is one of the most destructive agents fighting against the Colombian government, which is a close American ally.
Mr. Correa has denied any knowledge of FARC funding of his campaign and has vowed to investigate, a pledge that may be akin to the wolf investigating who killed the sheep. As the Economist magazine concluded, with prototypical British understatement, "outside Ecuador, the FARC video will do nothing to encourage the idea that Mr. Correa, whatever his political talents, is a responsible statesman."
Despite all this, Ecuador still enjoys preferential trade treatment with the United States as part of the Andean Trade Preference Act, which was renewed in June for Quito for six more months by President Obama. On June 9, however, the Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and three other major business organizations protested, writing that because of "breaches in the basic rule of law that are occurring in Ecuador ... we believe that the automatic renewal of Andean preferences for Ecuador would send the wrong message to other developing countries."
Recent developments bring to mind the dispute with Chevron Corp., in which Mr. Correa's government is supporting a $27 billion lawsuit for ill-proven damages, involving purported pollution for which an earlier Ecuadorean government already had cleared Texaco (which is now part of Chevron) back in 1998. As we have noted before, Ecuador's court system has been denounced as unreliable or corrupt by the United Nations, the International Bar Association and the U.S. State Department.
A government that tries to destroy a free press while seizing foreign businesses and harboring terrorists is a government with no credibility. Ecuador merits neither trade preferences nor respect, but only suspicion.
Monday, July 20, 2009
U.S. Close to Deal With Colombia on Base Access
BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AP) — The United States and Colombia are nearing agreement on expanding the American military’s presence here, probably basing several hundred troops in a central valley to support Air Force drug interdiction missions.
Both countries said they hoped that a fifth round of talks scheduled for this month in Bogotá would seal a 10-year lease arrangement.
Opponents worry that an expanded role for the United States military in Colombia, the world’s No. 1 cocaine-producing nation, could antagonize Colombia’s leftist neighbors and draw the United States deeper into Colombia’s complicated, long-running conflict involving leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitary groups.
Most details of the negotiations have remained secret, but senior Colombian military and civilian officials said the goal was to make Colombia a regional hub for Pentagon operations.
At a public hearing Wednesday called in response to criticism of the secrecy surrounding the talks, three Colombian government ministers defended the negotiations as vital in the fight against drug trafficking and terrorism. “We’re not ceding even a piece of territory,” said the acting defense minister, Gen. Freddy Padilla.
The accord would not permit the American military to use force, and all its activities would have to be approved by the Colombian government, he said.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Colombia seeks arrest of Mexican student tied to FARC
At the request of the Colombian government, Interpol, an international police agency, has issued an alert for the arrest of a Mexican student linked to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
Lucia Morett, 28, is wanted by Colombian authorities for organized crime, transnational crime and terrorism, according to Interpol's alert, known as a "red notice."
The notice is not an international arrest warrant but is an alert to police worldwide that she is wanted for extradition to Colombia.
Morett survived a March 2008 bombing in Ecuador by Colombian forces who were targeting a camp of FARC guerrillas.
The FARC's second-in-command, Raul Reyes, was killed in the bombing that Colombia's government viewed as one of the largest blows to the group.
Morett had returned to Mexico, but Colombian prosecutors consider her armed and dangerous.
"What is happening against her seems absurd to us, and what she is facing with this order is basically extradition to Colombia," Morett's father, Jorge Morett, said at a news conference in Colombia on Thursday.
Morett ran as a congressional candidate in Mexico's July 5 elections, which would have given her parliamentary immunity from the Interpol order. But she did not gain enough votes.
The Mexican government had not received a formal petition for Morett's extradition, Mexico's Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora, told reporters on Thursday.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Hail Colombia
President Obama, who withheld his support for a free-trade agreement with Colombia when he was a senator, recently sounded a more positive note on the issue. At a joint news conference this week with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Obama commended him for the progress his country has made in addressing human rights violations. In particular, he remarked on the more hospitable environment in Colombia today for labor organizers -- one of the sticking points for Obama and other Democrats in Congress.
"We've seen improvements when it comes to prosecution of those carrying out these blatant human rights offenses," Obama said. Furthermore, he added, he has instructed U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to work with his Colombian counterparts to bring the free-trade agreement to fruition. All of which suggested that Colombia has turned a corner since Obama's election, and that the United States may now be more favorably inclined to free trade with this Andean nation.
Obama is right to see progress, but wrong to assume that it began only recently. The improvements he cited this week were underway long before he became president; indeed, Colombia was moving in the right direction even when Sen. Obama opposed the trade pact that now, as president, strikes him as more appealing.
The concern over the hazards faced by labor organizers is legitimate. Colombia is the world's most dangerous country for union leaders, who risk their lives to seek working conditions that North Americans have long taken for granted. And until Colombia demonstrated a willingness to equalize the status of employers and employees, it was difficult to accept that free trade would benefit its people generally. Thankfully, Uribe too acknowledged those difficulties and began addressing them more than a year ago. Today, the government provides personal protection for labor leaders and has appointed a special prosecutor whose task is to improve the country's dismal record of prosecuting those who attack them.
Colombia is not done yet. The lure of the trade agreement has yielded positive results, which Democrats should acknowledge not by continuing to dwell on Colombia's grim history but rather by approving a pact that is in the interest of both nations. If dating Colombia's improvements to some point after his inauguration gives Obama the political capital he needs to support the pact, then fine. But it's historically inaccurate. It is Obama who's making progress today; Colombia did so long ago.
"We've seen improvements when it comes to prosecution of those carrying out these blatant human rights offenses," Obama said. Furthermore, he added, he has instructed U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to work with his Colombian counterparts to bring the free-trade agreement to fruition. All of which suggested that Colombia has turned a corner since Obama's election, and that the United States may now be more favorably inclined to free trade with this Andean nation.
Obama is right to see progress, but wrong to assume that it began only recently. The improvements he cited this week were underway long before he became president; indeed, Colombia was moving in the right direction even when Sen. Obama opposed the trade pact that now, as president, strikes him as more appealing.
The concern over the hazards faced by labor organizers is legitimate. Colombia is the world's most dangerous country for union leaders, who risk their lives to seek working conditions that North Americans have long taken for granted. And until Colombia demonstrated a willingness to equalize the status of employers and employees, it was difficult to accept that free trade would benefit its people generally. Thankfully, Uribe too acknowledged those difficulties and began addressing them more than a year ago. Today, the government provides personal protection for labor leaders and has appointed a special prosecutor whose task is to improve the country's dismal record of prosecuting those who attack them.
Colombia is not done yet. The lure of the trade agreement has yielded positive results, which Democrats should acknowledge not by continuing to dwell on Colombia's grim history but rather by approving a pact that is in the interest of both nations. If dating Colombia's improvements to some point after his inauguration gives Obama the political capital he needs to support the pact, then fine. But it's historically inaccurate. It is Obama who's making progress today; Colombia did so long ago.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Colombia minister's arrest sought
A court in Ecuador has ordered the arrest of Colombia's ex-defence minister over an air raid against a rebel base in Ecuador last year. The minister, Juan Manuel Santos, ordered the attack on a camp of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), which killed 25 rebels.
Colombia has said the raid, which took place in March 2008, was necessary in the "fight against terrorism".
Ecuador and Colombia severed diplomatic ties over the incident.
The attack was condemned by the Organization of American States.
Those killed in the operation included senior Farc commander Raul Reyes and an Ecuadoran national.
According to Ecuadorean media, Mr Santos is wanted for murder and violating Ecuadorian internal security.
He recently resigned as Colombia's defence minister.
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