This is special edition of my Early Report series. With my special edition’s I’ll be looking at the overlooked or ignored stories of the international community from all sides, with a hopefully unbiased eye
In early 2008 the Colombian Military crossed the Ecuadorean Border, raiding a camp 12 miles from the border. In a brief firefight 25 FARC rebels were killed, among them was Raul Reyes, one of the main leaders of the FARC, an extreme Marxist Terrorist Organization, if it is not the most bloody terrorist organization in history, it certainly is one of them.
The raid saw a outcry from both Venezuela and Ecuador, launching a escalating crisis that saw Hugo Chavez and Rafael Correa place troops on the Colombian border in preparations for war. Most of South America criticized Colombia’s Actions.
Ultimately the crisis saw a peaceful end, and the data found at the makeshift rebel base set in motion the events that led to "Operation Jaque"where Three Americans and Ex-Presidential Candidate Ingrid Betancourt were taken from the FARC in what could be called a flawless rescue.
But amongst the many computers taken from the base were many troubling documents, later verified as untampered by the Interpol, linking Chavez and Correa to the FARC. Chavez and Correa both accused Colombia of modifying the information, even following the Interpol’s report. The data was over 600gb’s of Data, mostly normal day to day operation information, but sprinkled with information including letters of thanks to Hugo Chavez for his help, information about a donation the FARC made to Chavez following the coup in 1992, and concrete information about money transfers made by Chavez to the FARC. Further evidence about meetings between Ecuador’s Head of State and the FARC was also found in the Data. Despite this, both the Venezuelan and Ecuadorean governments rejected the papers and no kind of international action was taken.
Yesterday information was released by the AP from computers taken by the Colombian Government from a local leader of the FARC. The video shows the current head of the FARC, Mono Jojoy, responsible for the death of over 20 American’s amongst hundreds of others, talking about how the FARC funded Rafael Correa’s first presidential race, and criticizing Hugo Chavez for not having followed through and declaring war on Colombia.
Now, you can say what you want about the video, but it looks quite authentic. At the very least it shows that the FARC think they have connections with Rafael Correa, and considering how private these videos are, they are evidence enough to open a international investigation of the events.
Being connected with the FARC, either by receiving their funding, or funding them, is no little thing. The FARC has terrorized Colombia over the past 40 years, and are responsible of countless massacres and kidnappings. They have had the most activity out of any terrorist group in the past 100 years. At one point in the 1990’s one car bomb was being detonated a week within Colombia.
Either way, these allegations deserve to be investigated, and if Correa is found to have received money from the FARC or collaborated with them, he should step down, or sanctions must be established.
Update 1
The comments on this post prove why so few American's understand Latin American politics.
Defending the FARC, is first of all unnaceptable, but I will draw attention to my support or Uribe.
Uribe is hardly a fascist, he is a moderate in the terms of Colombian Politics, whose history and constitution differs very much from the American one. Most of the criticizations of Uribe come from a misunderstanding of Colombian law, or applying American Standards to Colombia.
Of course plenty of unionists have been killed over Uribe's presidency. So have plenty of normal people. The facts are within Colombia the murder rate is incredibly high, and the majority of murders go unsolved (IIRC, It's something like 70%). Colombia still has a police force and justice agency that is stuck in the 1980s by US Standards, but for third world nations, that is not uncommon.
Now as for the FARC, anyone who really wanted sources about them being no good bastards, those sources can be provided. Would you like a list of the political hostages held by the FARC? The amount once extended beyond 100.
Would you like the video recorded of the FARC pretending to be soldiers, following the explosion of two bombs (they planted) in order to kidnap a entire state senate?
Would you like to hear about the M18, a organization that was born in the 1980s as a offshoot of the FARC, that was paid by Escobar to raid the Supreme Court of Colombia and kill off the Supreme Court Justices, and pretty much did?
Would you like to hear about the Massacre in which the FARC killed 199 civilians with a mortar attack?
Would you like to hear about how the FARC bombed one of the largest and most prestigious sports clubs in the Capital of Colombia, killing 25 and injuring over 200?
I meanI can give you a list of attacks they've done. It's not in the least bit complete. Hell it doesn't represent 10% of their attacks.
Now you need to understand a thing or two, about the state of the nation back in 2002, when we elected Uribe. We had a record murder rate within Colombia. We had "Pescas Milagrosas" where the FARC, ELN, and AUC would park cars across the major highways of Colombia, and grab any rich people that came by, hike them into the hills, and sell them back to their family for a 500 dollars.
We had "Vueltas Millionarios" where taxi drivers were contracted by the FARC throughout the major cities, to kidnap people.
The FARC had run rampant within the demilitarized zone thanks to Pastrana's feeble attempts at peace talks. They had places to grow, to organize, where they didn't need to hide. And the result were level of attacks that were never seen before.
My own uncle, a presenter for the state television station was kidnapped just outside of Medellin. A town I had visited back in 1998 was so insecure that you couldn't walk out on the streets. The family farm I had visited then was being used by the FARC as a temporary base.
I'm sure you wouldn't understand what it is like to live with the threat of being bombed, or killed, or kidnapped, every single day. But you know what, Uribe stopped all that. I can DRIVE from one city to another in Colombia. I wasn't able to do that before. I can take a taxi in a city without being afraid.
Now you can call me Uribe lover, and a fascist all you want. But the first thing Uribe did when he was elected president was come to my little town of 45,000. Down in the middle of the Amazon Jungle. A city with the worst level of education, where the only way to live is via plane, and where the youth is damned to live there for all their life without any opportunities.
He sat for two entire days listening to the problems of the citizens, he didn't even eat lunch or dinner so that he could listen. And he brought jobs and tourism to our town, he brought a university, he subsidised our flights so that we could actually leave without pay 400 dollars round trip.
So you know what, I think Uribe is a pretty nice guy.
But then again maybe I'm just a fascist.
Update 2
By the way the video is real, my internet has been intermittent all day so I was not able to look it up and post it in the sources as I had planned...
By the way, if you take a look at the Colombia table here (which is completely sourced) you'll see how each year the murder rate dropped from 2002 and onwards, till reaching half of what it was in 2002.
Also, when writing this, I was completely unbiased. I did not add any opinion to the matter. If I had, I would have recognized more how justified the Colombian Government's actions were, just considering who Raul Reyes is...