On Thursday, July 22, Venezuelan president Chávez decided to put the
border with Colombia on maximum military alert, after Colombian
president Alvaro Uribe made accusations that Venezuela was harbouring
FARC guerrillas and demanded an “international commission of enquiry”.
President Chávez also announced that Venezuela was breaking off
diplomatic links with Colombia and gave Colombian diplomats 72 hours to
leave the country.
The whole presentation of the Colombian ambassador the meeting of
the OEA (Organization of American States) in Washington on Thursday was
farcical. He presented pictures and satellite maps which were supposed
to prove the presence of FARC and ELN guerrilla leaders in Venezuelan
territory, as well as the existence of FARC and ELN camps inside
Venezuela.
Uribe recieving the "freedom medal" of US President Bush.He
claimed that these images had obtained from the computer of Raul Reyes,
the FARC leader killed during an illegal incursion of Colombian troops
in Ecuadorean territory in March 2008. Already at that time, a report
from Interpol made it clear that no proper computer forensic methods had
been used in handling the seized computer and that its contents had
been changed between its seizure on March 1 and March 3 when its
contents were made public. In other words, this “proof” is as good
as the “proof” that there were Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.
“There is no evidence, not a single piece of proof, of where those
photographs were taken”, responded Venezuelan ambassador to the OAS Roy
Chaderton. He added that the Venezuelan army had verified and thoroughly
inspected the locations and coordinates provided by the Uribe
administration on Thursday and had found none of the alleged “terrorist
sites”, “camps” or “guerilla presence” claimed by Colombia.
Furthermore, one asks, why has the Colombian government waited for
more than two years to release this “information”? Some are saying that
one of the reasons could be that Uribe is about to hand over power to
Santos who is said by some to be a more “reasonable” president who
wishes to build “good relations” with Venezuela. This, however, is an
illusion. Santos was Uribe’s defence minister and was the spokesperson
for many earlier provocations against Venezuela. We should be under no
illusion that he will be any better than Uribe when it comes to his
internal and external policies.
It is reasonable to suppose that this latest provocation from the
Uribe government, just a few days before it has to hand over power to
its successor and former Defence Minister Santos, is linked to a wider
campaign against Venezuela in the run up to the very important September
26 National Assembly elections.
On June 3rd, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched a public
attack on Venezuela, saying that its “leaders have tried to silence
independent voices that seek to hold that government accountable”, while
announcing additional funding for NGOs operating in countries where
democracy is allegedly “under threat”.
At the beginning of July, Cardinal Jorge Urosa, the archbishop of
Caracas, lashed out against Chavez saying that he was leading the
country towards a “Marxist-communist dictatorship” based on a “foreign
model” copied from the former Soviet Union, and that he had a “violent,
exclusive totalitarian tendency.” The Cardinal conveniently forgot that
the hierarchy of the Catholic Church (and the Cardinal himself)
participated and openly supported the April 2002 coup against the
democratically elected president. Some democratic credentials!
There have also been tensions around the presence of US military
aircraft in the Dutch island of Curaçao, just off the Venezuelan coast,
which Venezuela has on several occasions accused of having violated her
own airspace. To this we have to add the recent deployment of US troops
in Costa Rica, a country which has no army. On July 1, the Costa Rican
government authorized the presence of 46 US war ships and 7,000 marines
into its territory.
National Assembly elections
spokesman P.J. Crowley. Photo by Ralph Alswang.It is clear
that every time the Venezuelan people are called to elections or
referenda, a carefully orchestrated campaign is immediately put in
place. This campaign includes media manipulation, diplomatic pressure
and attacks, attempts to brand the Venezuelan revolution as a
dictatorship, or linking it to “terrorism” and narco-trafficking etc. It
also involves economic sabotage, attempts to create chaos and
disruption in Venezuela itself, etc. These are the “democratic” methods
of the Venezuelan oligarchy and imperialism, and Colombia is a key
player in these plans.
Washington is very selective in its condemnations of human rights
violations. Under the government of Uribe Colombia has accumulated an
appalling record of human rights violations, including the assassination
of trade unionists and social activists, kidnapping, torture, etc.
Recently a mass grave containing more than 2,000 bodies from the dirty
war was discovered in Macarena, the largest ever found in Latin America.
Human rights organizations fear that many of those might be “false
positives”, i.e. ordinary people who were killed by the army and branded
“insurgents” in order to boost the “successes” in the war against the
guerrillas, and so that soldiers and officers could be rewarded.
However, despite the recent victory at the polls by Uribe’s
successor, Santos, the Colombian ruling class is facing a growing
militancy of the trade union, peasant and indigenous movements. During
the celebration of 200 years of independence, social and indigenous
organizations organized a march and mass assembly (cabildo abierto)
in Bogotá, with more than 25,000 participating.
The right wing government of Uribe signed a deal with the US,
allowing its military full access to 7 key strategic basis in Colombia,
as well as full access to the country’s civilian infrastructure. US
military personnel in Colombia are also immune from prosecution. The
call to send “international observers” to the Colombian-Venezuelan
border is therefore an outright provocation, to which president Chavez
has responded with the necessary firmness.
As one might expect, Washington rushed to back up Uribe’s
allegations, which had been prepared in the US in any case. State
Department spokesman, P. J. Crowley called the dispute unfortunate and
said it was a “petulant response by Venezuela to cut off relations with
Colombia.” “Venezuela has clear responsibilities,” he said. “Colombia
has put forward serious charges. They deserve to be investigated.”
Not surprisingly, this provocation received the full support of the
Venezuelan counter-revolutionary opposition. In a joint press
conference, the “United Platform for Democracy” (MUD) supported
Colombia’s allegations and attacked Chavez’s “irresponsible foreign
policy”.
Meanwhile, there has been a lot of talk of taking this dispute to the
forthcoming UNASUR summit. The Brazilian government has already tried
to pour water on the flames. “We don’t want to favour Venezuela or
Colombia. We’re after an agreement and it would be excellent if we had
distension signals before Santos takes office”, said Marco Aurelio
García, president Lula’s foreign affairs advisor. He also insisted that
he thought that the dispute would be resolved quickly “once Santos takes
office”. But how can the dispute between revolution and
counter-revolution be solved with diplomatic niceties?
Defend the Venezuelan revolution!
Photo by Prensa
Presidencial.Faced with this attack, Chavez responded
correctly by putting the military in alert and by calling on the people
to mobilize and remain in alert. He has also threatened to close the
border and to cut off oil supply to the US if the conflict escalates
into military action.
As we have already reported, the newly formed Bolivarian National
Militia is a step towards the arming of the people to defend the
revolution and an intervention force would be faced by an armed people.
This initiative needs to be strengthened and widened, so that there are
units of the Militia in every factory, in every quarter, every peasant
community, to defend the revolution against capitalism and imperialism.
If the US were foolish enough to launch a military attack on
Venezuela through the agency of Colombia, this could have revolutionary
implications throughout the continent. We predict that the day after any
such action there would be no US embassy left standing in the whole of
Latin America.
In order to defend the Venezuelan revolution is necessary to mobilize
international solidarity, not only in the American continent, but also
worldwide. At the same time, in Venezuela, the revolution needs to be
completed with the expropriation of the oligarchy, the owners of banks,
industry and the land, so that the Venezuelan working people can
mobilize the full potential of the economy through a democratic
socialist plan of production.
If the Revolution is faced with war, it cannot afford to be naïve and
leave vital lines of supply and economic power in the hands of the
enemy. The Venezuelan capitalist class has shown once and again that,
faced with revolution, they will not hesitate to use all means at their
disposal, including assassination, military coups and economic sabotage,
in order to defend their power, wealth and privileges.
The counterrevolutionary Venezuelan bourgeoisie has shown repeatedly
that in any serious conflict they would side with the foreign enemy and
imperialism. The expropriation and nationalization under workers’
control of their properties is a matter of survival and
self-preservation for the Venezuelan revolution.
Finally, it is important to make an internationalist appeal to the
people of Colombia. Many times, the oligarchy in Latin America has led
the people of one country against the people of another; in order to
defend their power and divert the attention of the masses from their
real problems to the “foreign enemy”. The only way to achieve Latin
American unity is through socialist revolution spreading to the whole
continent and beyond.
Defend the Venezuelan revolution! Arm the people through workers’ and
peasants’ militias! Expropriate the property of the oligarchy and
imperialism! For the unity of the people of Venezuela and Colombia! For a
Socialist Federation of Latin America and the Caribbean!
