EXCLUSIVE: USA-backed Colombian invasion of Venezuela imminent?

[mom cat]

EXCLUSIVE: USA-backed Colombian invasion of Venezuela imminent?

VHeadline.com correspondent Philip Stinard reports: On April 13, the Colombian senate approved a resolution proposed by Senator Enrique Gomez Hurtado that condemns the “dictatorial regime” of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias and calls for the Organization of American States to apply the Interamerican Democratic Charter to Venezuela.

According to Article 21 of the Charter “In the event of an unconstitutional alteration of the constitutional regime that seriously impairs the democratic order in a member state, any member state or the Secretary General may request the immediate convocation of the Permanent Council to undertake a collective assessment of the situation and to take such decisions as it deems appropriate.”

What is meant by “such decisions” is not specified in the Charter, but it is generally accepted to include all actions up to and including military intervention by OAS states, including the United States.

Immediate responses to the Colombian senate resolution from both the Colombian and Venezuelan governments were swift in coming. Two official responses were released by Colombian governmental bodies.
The first response came from Colombia’s Delegation to the Andean Parliament, which stated that the views expressed by the Colombian senate are not necessarily those of the Colombian government and people, and that the decision to invoke the Democratic Charter is in the hands of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez. Then, in a paragraph that is edited out of most news reports, the Colombian Delegation calls upon the Venezuelan government to find an “exit” to their situation, which is a more mildly worded version of the Colombian senate resolution that they supposedly condemned. This response was hardly reassuring to the Chavez government
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=17569

[burrowowl]

1. U$ gives Columbia

lots of dollars and lots of paramilitaries.
Is U$ bucking for WWIII?

[Zynx]

2. Colombia's army is disloyal and corrupt.

It is in no state to invade another country.

[NNN0LHI]

4. We just need their flag for show. We got the soldiers and mercenaries n/t

[patriotvoice]

8. Soldiers? Where, Germany?

Mercenaries, sure, but what troops? (Serious question, not sarcasm or trolling).

[NNN0LHI]

13. Where did the 2 divisions we removed from S. Korea go?

No one has said...yet.

Don

[Media_Lies_Daily]

19. Right. Even the crazy-bastard NeoCons wouldn't split forces...

...to fight wars on two different continents, And they're certainly not going to even send two BATALLIONS to fight in South America, much less two whole DIVISIONS.

[LagaLover]

42. We removed what, 4,000 soliders

from S Korea? Hardly two divisions...

[Judi Lynn]

35. Yes, we've been sending people there for ages.

What used to be "communists" in the '60's and '70's has apparently shifted to "drug guys" and may simply morph into the generic "terrorists."

From an old article, the first thing I could grab to illustrate:

In March 2002 The Bush administration drafted a plan to expand the US military role in Colombia from counterdrug training to anti-terrorism. The policy shift could require as many as 100 additional American troops to be sent to Colombia. On March 21, the Administration asked the Congress for new authorities. The terrorist and narcotics problems in Colombia are intertwined. President Bush recognized this link when he stated on April 18, after his meeting with President Pastrana, "We've put FARC, AUC on our terrorist list. We've called them for what they are. These are killers, who use killing and intimidation to foster political means... By fighting narco-trafficking, we're fighting the funding sources for these political terrorists. And sometimes they're interchangeable. It is essential for Colombia to succeed in this war against terror in order for her people to realize the vast potential of a great, democratic country ... I am confident that with the right leadership and the right help from America, ... Colombia can succeed. And it is in everybody's interests that she does succeed." The president added that he discussed with President Pastrana "how to change the focus of our strategy from counternarcotics to include counterterrorism."

In July 2002 the US Congress rolled back restrictions that had limited American aid to antidrug programs. The more broad-based U.S. assistance program for Colombia would enable Colombia to use U.S.-provided helicopters and the counter-drug brigade from Plan Colombia to fight terrorism some of the time, as needed. The White House proposal would maintain the 800-person cap on U.S. military personnel and contractors providing training and other services in Colombia. This will not exceed the 400-person cap on U.S. military personnel providing training in Colombia, nor the 400-person cap on U.S. civilian contractors. The new legal authorities sought by the White House allowed U.S. assistance to Colombia to be used to support a unified campaign against narcotics trafficking, terrorist activities, and other threats" to Colombia's national security.

In October 2002, eighteen months after an American missionary plane was mistakenly shot down, the United States resumed a campaign to help Colombia track and force down drug flights. The program was suspended in April 2001 in Colombia and Peru after a Peruvian warplane shot down the missionary flight over the Amazon, killing an American and her infant daughter. Colombian warplanes will intercept drug flights based on intelligence from the United States.

In a significant shift in American policy, in October 2002, United States Special Forces arrived in Colombia to lay the groundwork for training in counterinsurgency. Under a two year $94 million initiative, beginning January 2003 ten American helicopters will bolster the Colombian counterinsurgency efforts, and some 4,000 troops will receive American training. The troops will defend a 500-mile long pipeline, which snakes through eastern Colombia, transporting 100,000 barrels of oil a day for Occidental Petroleum of Los Angeles. The pipeline has long been vulnerable to bombings by Colombia's guerrilla groups. Pipeline bombings by the guerrillas cost the government nearly $500 million in 2001. The two main rebel groups, which view Occidental as a symbol of American imperialism, have bombed the pipeline nearly a thousand times since the 1980's. The Colombian military increased security, deploying five of the six battalions in the 6,000-man 18th Brigade to pipeline protection, up from just two battalions in 2001. The number of bombings fell to 30 in the first nine months of 2002, down from 170 in 2001.
(snip)

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/colombia.htm

I'm sure you know Colombia is the third largest recipient of our foreign aid. I wonder whom they think they're kidding here?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

COLOMBIA'S KILLER NETWORKS

The Military - Paramilitary Partnership and the United States

The junior and mid-level officers who tolerated, planned, directed, and even took part in paramilitary violence in Colombia in the 1980s now occupy senior positions in the Colombian military. To be sure, a few, linked to well-publicized cases, have been forced into retirement or dismissed, but many more have been awarded medals for distinguished service and lead Colombia's troops. As commanders, they have not only promoted, encouraged, and protected paramilitary groups, but have used them to provide intelligence and assassinate and massacre Colombians suspected of being guerrilla allies. In fact, many victims - community and peasant leaders, trade unionists, and human rights monitors among them - have no ties to guerrillas, but have been trapped in a conflict where few wear uniforms or admit their rank.

Human Rights Watch has obtained evidence, including the heretofore secret Colombian military intelligence reorganization plan called Order 200-05/91 and eyewitness testimony, that shows that in 1991, the military made civilians a key part of its intelligence-gathering apparatus. Working under the direct orders of the military high command, paramilitary forces incorporated into intelligence networks conducted surveillance of legal opposition political figures and groups, operated with military units, then executed attacks against targets chosen by their military commanders.

Human Rights Watch has also documented the disturbing role played by the United States in support of the Colombian military. Despite Colombia's disastrous human rights record, a U.S. Defense Department and Central Intelligence Agency team worked with Colombian military officers on the 1991 intelligence reorganization that resulted in the creation of killer networks that identified and killed civilians suspected of supporting guerrillas.


Human Rights Watch
New York · Washington · London · Brussels

Copyright © November 1996 by Human Rights Watch.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.

ISBN: 1-56432-203-3
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 96-77749
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1996/killertoc.htm

[NNN0LHI]

3. Take a look here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1672744

[mom cat]

5. Keep us posted on the slow train. so sad...

[NNN0LHI]

9. The number of trains has increased here in the past few days

Its over a hundred a day now. Hope that helps?

Don

[legin]

22. Taking a shot at it

Whatever it is is heading or coming back from the eastern seaboard posts around New York area. They are coming from or going to the north and middle central states.

basic map:
http://www.50states.com/us.htm

So if you know any big army camps in the middle of the u.s. could be useful, or which states have had their national guard called up.

Logistics are very important in war.

[Darranar]

6. An interesting possibility...

there has been strife on that particular border for a while, it may flare up.

I'm not sure Colombia has the force or the will to conquer Venezuela, even with US urging and support, though.

[IndianaGreen]

7. No matter who gets elected US President in November

there will be a US-sponsored Chilean-style coup in Venezuela in which thousands of progressives and other innocent civilians will be butchered for the greater glory of fucking Uncle Sam.

Distributed to newspapers on Wednesday, December 18, 2002 by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information
U.S. Still Intervening Against Democracy in Venezuela
by Mark Weisbrot

CARACAS -- "Where are they getting their money?" asks historian Samuel Moncada, as the television displays one opposition commercial after another. Moncada is chair of the history department at Central University of Venezuela in Caracas. We are sitting in one of the few restaurants that is open in the eastern, wealthier part of Caracas.

For two weeks during this country's business-led strike, the privately owned stations that dominate Venezuelan television have been running opposition "info-mercials" instead of advertisements, in addition to what is often non-stop coverage of opposition protests.

"I am sure there is money from abroad," asserts Moncada. It's a good guess: prior to the coup on April 11, the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy stepped up its funding to opposition groups, including money funneled through the International Republican Institute. The latter's funding multiplied more than sixfold, to $340,000 in 2001.

But if history is any guide, overt funding from Washington will turn out to be the tip of the iceberg. This was the case in Haiti, Nicaragua, Chile, and other countries where Washington has sought "regime change" because our leaders didn't agree with the voters' choice at the polls. (In fact, Washington is currently aiding efforts to oust President Aristide in Haiti -- for the second time). In these episodes, which extended into the 1990s, our government concealed amounts up to the hundreds of millions of dollars that paid for such things as death squads, strikes, economic destabilization, electoral campaigns and media.

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1218-05.htm

[Darranar]

12. They tried once, and failed....

I'm not at all convinced that they'll succeed if they try again.

[IndianaGreen]

14. If Bush gets elected...

he may dispense with any pretenses whatsoever and go for a full-blown invasion using oil, and keeping gas prices low, as a pretext. I am sure that many selfish and egocentric Americans will support anything that saves them money at the gas pump, even if it means the deaths of innocents.

I am utterly disgusted with this country, as much as the anti-Fascist Germans were at Nazi Germany.

[Geo55]

16. Money....hmmm

"The Southern Command is certainly influential when it comes to hemispheric policy.

It has more people -- 1,470 -- dealing with Latin American matters than those at the departments of State, Commerce, Treasury and Agriculture, the Pentagon's Joint Staff, and the office of the secretary of defense combined. The command's $800 million annual budget covers 19 countries in Central and South America and 12 in the Caribbean."



http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0430-08.htm

[David Zephyr]

10. Anyone Here Ever Read "Bitter Fruit"?

"Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala" by John H. Coatsworth, Richard A. Nuccio, and Stephen Kinzer published by the Harvard University Press.

[schultzee]

33. I think I'll get it at the library. Thanks for the mention.

[David Zephyr]

45. Check Your Private Mail.

I sent you a note on the book.

[Imperialism Inc.]

11. Uribe and OAS both denounced this move.

This is over a month and half old. I think LBN requires the article to be 12 hours old at most.

[silverlib]

15. Deleted by poster

[keithyboy]

17. With the mess in Iraq, Venezualen oil become very important to US

How many lives and dollars are we willling to offer up this time?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

20. Not that important. Iran is probably next....or Syria.

[NashVegas]

18. Isn't Colombia Kinda Busy With Civil War and All?

Just asking.

[CHIMO]

21. Haiti All Over

Again.

Time to re-read Gulliver's travels.

[0007]

28. One of my very favorites

[AP]

23. This probably why it's right for Brazil to want nuclear weapons.

[Vladimir]

34. Indeed. As I have said before

these days if you are third world country, security is a big nuclear arsenal. And it will remain thus until the West learns to keep its hands off - or gets its own Hiroshima.

[regnaD kciN]

24. Not bloody likely...

As my wife (who grew up in Colombia) pointed out, for the Colombian military to reach the Venezuelan border in numbers sufficient to invade, they'd have to fight their way through large blocs of guerilla-held territory first -- something they haven't had much success with in the first place.

[kikiek]

26. Probably one of em on our "wish list"

But sounds like it wouldn't happen without direct US intervention, and I cannot imagine even this admin being that stupid.

[kikiek]

25. Chavez predicted this after Haiti

Chavez said we really wanted him out and that he wouldn't go without a fight. They are in the top 5 or 6 for oil reserves, and we could put in a US friendly ruler without doing the dirty work. Neocons will mold the world into a model they like. Middle East will have to wait. They fight back. I am sure there is foreign aid on the books for any country willing to take care of facilitating the desired power changes.

[Matilda]

27. They just have to move the troops to Haiti,

and it's just a jump to Venezuela.

I just hate seeing this happen, and we're all so helpless.

[happyslug]

29. Remember those Howitzers the Army called back from the Ski Patrols??

Last Month, they were 105mm TOWED artillery pieces, we do not NEED them in Iraq (We have 155 Self-propelled). We may have use for them in Afghanistan (But even there it looks like we are using the bigger guns from fire bases).

Thus the 105mm Towed pieces does not make sense for use in either situation (and that includes Saudi Arabia if it blows up). On the other hand those 105s are idea for Helicopter insertion into the Jungle Mountainous terrain of Columbia.

The re-claiming of the 105mm Howitzers make sense if Bush and Company decided to go into Venezuela. Out Troops (or Colombians Troops) would need artillery support and the 105mm Howitzers would be ideal in that terrain.

[htuttle]

30. Crear dos, tres, muchos Vietnams

[Snazzy]

31. This is dated April 17 n/t

[schultzee]

32. USA doing what it does best, spreading violence and murder to

create puppet democracies.

[Judi Lynn]

36. Who has had time to remember how deeply Bush is involved in Colombia?

Bush in Colombia: An Old War Gets a New Boost
by Laura Orlando

Probably few Americans know that by the end of this week the United States may be even more deeply entrenched in the Colombian war. The Bush administration wants to escalate the conflict there, with U.S. soldiers digging in on the new Latin American front in the "war on terrorism."

Two bills that will be considered by Congress this week and next will decide just how deeply the U.S. military will be involved in the decades-old civil war in Colombia.

The first, a Department of Defense authorization bill for fiscal year 2003, includes a House Armed Services Committee waiver that would allow the Secretary of Defense to eliminate the cap on U.S. military personnel in Colombia. The old bill provided $1.3 billion and put a cap of 400 on U.S. military personnel.

The Republican-controlled House Rules Committee did not allow an amendment by Gene Taylor, a Mississippi Democrat, to eliminate the waiver from the bill, so there will be no cap and no debate on how many U.S. military personnel and contractors the Department of Defense sends to Colombia.
(snip/...)

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0514-08.htm

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

37. I've just been listening to the clock tick on this one

Man, the only way the US (Repub admin or Dem - it doesn't matter) to sneak "regime change" into Venezuela is through Colombia. Its only a matter of time for a full scale attempt at overthrowing Chavez.

[Scurrilous]

38. Report: Colombian militia leader smuggled into Israel

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/434028.html

<snip>

"Carlos Castano, a right-wing militia leader in Colombia, was recently smuggled into Israel, AFP reported. The militia leader disappeared from Colombia on February 16 after the country's militias agreed to a government demand to disband. Castano, 39, was first moved to Panama under American guard and then sent to Israel, the according to the French news agency's report. The Colombian government refused to confirm or deny this report."



http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1146/a04.html?80207

<snip>

COLOMBIA PARAMILITARY CHIEF ADMITS CRIMES

Says Group Killed Civilians, Dealt Drugs

"Carlos Castano, chief of the paramilitaries that battled Colombia's rebel armies, has acknowledged his forces massacred civilians, extorted money and dealt drugs, but he claimed those acts were "inevitable excesses" in a war to save the nation.

As his United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia prepare to disband as part of a peace agreement with the government, Castano sought to justify the tactics the outlawed right-wing militia group used to fight leftist rebels for nearly two decades."

[Vladimir]

39. Why Israel? n/t

[Judi Lynn]

41. You've GOT to wonder, don't you?

What IS it, torture techniques? Sounds like they've got bigger plans in mind, for sure. I'm betting they're going to try to swarm Venezuela for our right-wing interests.

They've already been killing people along the border, making incursions, and just a few weeks ago, over 130 of them were found at a farm owned by Roberto Alonso, a Cuban "exile" near Caracas. They were all Colombian paramilitaries.

In photos taken by the media, they tried to shield their faces. I would too, if I murdered people with chainsaws.

[Vladimir]

43. What bothers me

is as you say why he is there. I mean is he in Israel for training, or for refuge, or what? And, well call me naive, but what on earth does Israel have to gain from shielding him? Where is the quid pro quo - I don't see it.

I think war is coming to Venezuela, probably around referedum time (an easy prediction, I know)... what I am not so sure of is who will win.

[Judi Lynn]

44. I'm betting it's to learn the highly prized torture techniques.

If that's the case, it could tell us they are planning a real seige, something that could take a long time and lots of left-wing, or suspected left-wing lives, just like the '60's, '70', and '80's under Republican U.S. pResidents, and their puppets in Latin America.

[Judi Lynn]

40. Oh, wow, Scurrilous. This is really rotten.

That guy is purely evil. An actual "bad actor."

From a BBC article:

(snip).....The army said on Monday that 57 members of the AUC - the right-wing United Self Defence Forces of Colombia - had been arrested over the past three days. They have killed three more.

"This is the heaviest blow in history against the illegal self-defence forces," said Captain Alberto Rojas Torres, commander of the Navy's Pacific fleet.

Massacre

In the Easter attack, the AUC claimed they had killed leftist guerrillas, but those murdered were unarmed, and according to the authorities some had been killed with chainsaws.



The leader of the AUC, Carlos Castano

The BBC's correspondent in Colombia, Jeremy McDermott, said that the timing of Colombia's announcement is fortuitous.

The United States supports the Colombian army to the tune of more than $1bn and Europe, which has demanded action against the paramilitaries, is debating how much aid to give Colombia.

Human rights groups have long alleged that the army maintains links to the paramilitaries and turns a blind eye to their violence.
(snip/...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1306296.stm

So it's "Inevitable Excesses" now! The _Bush world and it's confederates are the absolute masters of euphemism.

Your information is tremendously important. Thank you.

On edit:

Adding photos.



Anarchy in Colombia
An Interview with Colombian Paramilitary Leader Carlos Castaño

Martha Elvira Soto F. and Orlando Restrepo, El Tiempo (centrist), Bogatá, Colombia, June 30, 2002.
Translated and posted to Worldpress.org July 15, 2002.


Carlos Castaño, leader of Colombia's feared AUC paramilitary group, in a photo dated Feb. 20, 2001 (Photo: AFP).
In the last week of June 2002, reports began appearing in the Venezuelan press that a guerrilla group calling itself the Autodefensas Unidas por Venezuela (AUV) had begun operating in the country. The reports “stirred a hornets nest”—as Bogotá’s centrist El Tiempo put it in a June 30 report—in Caracas because of the similarity of the group’s name to that of the Autodefensas Unidas por Colombia (AUC), a brutal, right-wing paramilitary group that openly uses drug money to fund its operations and that has been accused of a series of grisly massacres against Colombia’s civilian population.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez discounted the possibility that the group was linked to the AUC, proponing instead that the group was really the Frente Bolivariano de Liberación an offshoot of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (“Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia,” or FARC), a brutal, leftist guerrilla movement that controls large parts of rural Colombia.

El Tiempo sought out Carlos Castaño—the political director of the AUC—and asked him directly whether the AUC was connected with the Venezuelan group.

El Tiempo: There is some dismay in Caracas over the “first appearance” of the AUV. Are they your men?

Castaño: No, they are joining us in solidarity.

Solidarity?

We have some people giving instruction on Venezuelan territory. We maintain communication. It is a process that is in its early stages.
(snip/...)

http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/648.cfm