Tall & Rich

A Yanqui’s View of Latin American Politics

Archive for May 10th, 2008

Baduel: Chavez aching for a fight

Posted by Jonn Lilyea on May 10, 2008

Raul Baduel

Raul Baduel, Hugo Chavez’ former Defense Minister and friend issued a warning to the world about Chavez’ intentions on Globovision, the remaining independent Venezuelan broadcaster. The warning was translated on El Universal;

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is looking for an international conflict in an attempt at refreshing popularity and postpone local elections next November, said former Defense Minister, General Raúl Baduel.

“What happens in Bolivia is the Bolivians’ own business,” the ex senior officer told private news TV channel Globivisión, and added that the agreements entered into by Bolivia and Venezuela involve the military only in activities tied to development instead of belligerent operations.

Chávez repeated on Thursday that he would not remain “arm crossed if the empire and its tokens” succeed in dividing Bolivia and held responsibility in advance for any future meddling in the Bolivian internal affairs.

No one knows Chavez better than Baduel, who can be personally credited with Chavez’ constitutional referendum failing and probably prevented Chavez from seizing the government and establishing a dictatorship after the referendum failed. After a string of failures as an international power broker using Venezuela’s petro-cash and piling up caches of weapons using Venezuela’s petro-cash, Chavez’ ego needs a coupla victories.

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Morales agrees to recall election

Posted by Jonn Lilyea on May 10, 2008

Evo Morales, president of Bolivia has succumbed to political pressure from his opponents after the residents of Santa Cruz decided by a large majority to secede from Bolivia in a protest of Morales’ intent to rewrite the Constitution according to the Wall Street Journal;

Mr. Morales agreed to the referendum late on Thursday after the country’s opposition-controlled Senate ordered that a recall vote be held within three months. “It’s best that the people decide our destiny,” Mr. Morales said.

The referendum will amount to a do-or-die moment for Mr. Morales, an Aymara Indian who won power in 2005 pledging to transform the lives of Bolivia’s majority Indian population. Nearly halfway through his five-year term, Mr. Morales’s populist policies and alliance with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez have driven a wedge in the country between the mostly Indian highlands and the more prosperous eastern lowlands.

Cuban propaganda outlet Granma quotes Morales as having begged for a recall for a year;

Morales said that he had been waiting for the Senate to send him the bill “in order to immediately invoke it,” recalling that he had sent such a proposal to the Senate last year and lamenting that the Senate had failed to approve it earlier.

“I want to convey to the country the deep satisfaction I felt upon hearing that the Senate had finally approved the government- proposed measure to convene a recall referendum to consider the mandates of the president and governors,” Morales said in a message to the nation.

“Much better that the people decide the fate of the president and the governors,” he added. Once the president invokes the law, the referendum take place within 90 days.

It’s odd that Morales has asked for a national referendum on the secession of Santa Cruz and a national referendum on his presidency, yet not for his constitutional overhaul. Learning from Chavez’ failure at rewriting the Venezuelan constitution last year, Morales is sure his reforms will fail as well. I’m sure if he wins the recall election, he’ll call it a referendum for his jiggering with the constitution.

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Venezuela/FARC deny connections

Posted by Jonn Lilyea on May 10, 2008

Hugo Chavez

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal reported that the US has accepted the information found on Raul Reyes’ computer to be genuine;

“There is complete agreement in the intelligence community that these documents are what they purport to be,” a senior U.S. official said. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has been sharing its assessments with the White House, this official said.

And of course, the Venezuelan government and FARC deny it, charging “The Empire”, “the oligarchs”, and any other boogeyman they could think of with fabricating the evidence;

Mr. Chávez has repeatedly said the files were faked by Colombia. “We don’t recognize the validity of any of these documents,” Bernardo Álvarez, Venezuela’s ambassador to the U.S., said in a Wednesday interview. “They are false, and an attempt to discredit the Venezuelan government.”

To prove there’s no connection between FARC and Venezuela, the Venezuelan Information Ministry published a letter from FARC on their website;

The FARC itself has suggested the files are fake. A FARC statement published on the Web site of Venezuela’s Information Ministry ridiculed Colombia’s claims about the computer files, saying computers couldn’t have survived the Colombian army attack “even if they had been bullet-proof.”

There. That ought to show ‘em. Who could accuse them of a connection when they publish each other’s statements? And I don’t think FARC has any actual witnesses to whether the laptops were destroyed or not. Well, none that they’ve spoken to lately anyway.

The Washington Times summarized the Wall Street Journal report;

The newspaper said the files recovered from the computer indicate Venezuela has offered to arm the rebels, possibly with rocket-propelled grenades and ground-to-air missiles, and offered FARC the use of a port to receive arms shipments.

The U.S. intelligence official said it was “entirely possible” that the Venezuelan government has already transferred weapons to the rebels, who seek to overthrow the Columbian government.

“The documents also reveal that the Venezuelan government has attempted to assist the FARC in acquiring arms and munitions,” the official said. “The extent of that flow of arms is unclear at this time, but it’s entirely possible some of those shipments have made their way to the FARC.”

Of course, the WSJ isn’t telling Colombians anything they don’t already know according to El Universal;

Colombian intelligence agencies found that a chief of the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) is present in Venezuelan territory and despite having conveyed “many times” that information to President Hugo Chávez’ government “nothing happens,” said Colombian Minister of Defense Juan Manuel Santos.

Rebel chief Iván Márquez, the successor of FARC second-in-command Raúl Reyes -who was killed by Colombian troops during a raid in Ecuador last March 1st- “is in Venezuela. Many times have we provided the coordinates and the information (to the Venezuelan government) and nothing happens,” Santos lamented.

The US has enough problems in the world, we certainly don’t need to needlessly cause problems with Chavez, who up until this point has merely been a pain. But, this clearly puts him in the “with the terrorists” category of nations.

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