FARC activity in Venezuela

[Gladiator]

A very interesting article (in Spanish) on the connection between the FARC and Venezuela.

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/reportajes/narcosantuario/FARC/elpepusocdmg/20071216elpdmgrep_1/Tes

[SJG]

farcin iceholes

[weyland]

farcin iceholes
I assume from this profound analysis that you are a foreign policy advisor to President Bush?

[SJG]

I assume from this profound analysis that you are a foreign policy advisor to President Bush?

No, I didn't even read the article. When I saw the word "FARC" I just wanted to use a quote from the classic Michael Keaton movie, Johnny Dangerously.....

[weyland]

A very interesting article (in Spanish) on the connection between the FARC and Venezuela.
Yes, it is interesting and no doubt largely true, but there are so many players and factions involved that no one point of view gives the whole story.

From a UK point of view the parallels with the IRA are interesting. An organisation that starts out as idealistic and relatively left-wing but gradually becomes more reliant on non-political crime and drug-dealing for funds, and that takes refuge across the border where the neighbouring government takes an inconsistent and ambiguous attitude to its activities.

Although President Clinton played a positive and helpful role in solving the Northern Ireland problems the main factor why the situation is so much improved is membership of the European Union. Firstly, there is less point in killing and dying over whether Ulster is part of the Republic or the United Kingdom when both these nation recognise the European Union as the ultimate sovereign authority. Secondly, and more immediately, both parts of Ireland have vastly improved their economies and standards of living through EU membership so that the old Roman Catholic grievances of unemployment and exclusion from social benefits have largely disappeared.

Similarly the only way the problem of drugs will be effectively solved in Colombia and Venezuela is by raising standards of living for the poorer classes. The question is which route to take. The parallel with Ireland continues in that Colombia and Venezuela originally gained independence as one united country, and Venezuela still retains that theoretical aspiration in its official title as Republica Bolivariana, just as the Irish Republic continued to consider the six counties of Ulster as part of its territory, ignoring reality.

I don't suppose the republic of Gran Colombia will ever be re-assembled but some sort of strong customs and economic union (EU style) between these and other nations is a real possibility in the medium future if they can they throw off American control, and that would make things harder for the drug lords to operate.

[Gladiator]

There has also been cooperation in the past between the IRA and the FARC, three IRA activists were once arrested in Colombia after coming out of FARC occupied territory, where presumably they were training some FARC commandos on urban guerilla tactics.

Another thing I found interesting in the article is that there are internal fighting in Venezuela between the FARC and the ELN for the control of the cocaine traffic routes, despite both groups sharing similar political ideologies and similar positions in their fight against the Colombian government.

Finally, Chavez has obviously never been personally accused, at least formally, of supporting in any way these Colombian guerrillas, but in view of what’s going on, one would have to be very naïve not to suspect that he is personally involved in Venezuela’s sponsorship of the FARC & ELN. Not that he gives a shit about being accused of sympathizing with armed guerillas, terrorist groups or whatever you want to call them, after all he’s always been a close friend of Carlos the Jackal, who is still rotting in a French jail, and has openly and frequently expressed his admiration for him, despite Carlos being the most wanted terrorist in the world for some years, when he was supported by the Russians during the cold war.