Varieties of Imperial Decline: Narco-Terror Attrition
by Toni Solo
On March 1st Colombian government armed forces, supported by US military surveillance resources, massacred a group of
over 20 people located at a FARC encampment on Ecuadoran territory near the border with Colombia in the area of
Sucumbíos. Although most media reports describe the victims as members of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, some
reports from Ecuador suggest that as many as five or six of the people murdered may have been Mexican students
researching the Colombian conflict. (1) The complete sequel to the Bush-regime backed massacre will probably take many
weeks to play out completely.
The Colombian cross-border raid posed a serious and immediate threat to its neighbours' security and stability. It cut
short for the time being well-advanced negotiations for the release of around a dozen prisoners of the FARC, including
former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three US mercenaries and various members of the Colombian
security forces. The forceful response from Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa was backed by almost all the region's
governments and leaders. The Colombian government was left isolated and its arguments discredited.
Peace may seem to have been made at the March 8th Rio Group summit between the parties involved - Ecuador, Colombia and
Venezuela. But that peace is unlikely to be accomplished except in the most fragile way. Colombia's narco-terror
President Alvaro Uribe committed implicitly to respect in future the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of
neighbouring Ecuador, Venezuela and - with respect to the two countries' continuing maritime dispute - Nicaragua.
Colombia failed to persuade other governments to include a description of the FARC as "terrorists".
The Declaration (2) simply notes that Colombia regards irregular groups like the FARC as terrorists. This is a very
important diplomatic setback for President Uribe's narco-terror regime and for its supporters in the US government. The
non-reporting of that outcome in NATO country media indicates that the low intensity war against Venezuela specifically
- and against the member countries of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) in general - works in converse
synchronization with every downward ratchet of US global influence and prestige.
The governments of Venezuela and Ecuador are insisting on the correct application of international law, just as
Nicaragua did during the US government organized terrorist aggression of the 1980s. But as Ecuador's President Rafael
Correa pointed out during his speech at the Rio Group Summit, it is hard to deal with someone as cynical and deceitful
as Alvaro Uribe. (3) Both Correa and Chavez have been very clear in stating what they think about Uribe. Prior to the
summit Chavez declared, "President Uribe is a criminal - not just a liar, a paramilitary leading a terrorist State...."
(4)
So they travelled far and fast during the day-long proceedings of the Santo Domingo summit in order to reach agreement
with the other members of the Rio Group, including Colombia. In the end, Jose Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the
Organization of American States, said Chavez "made an extensive speech, considered, reflexive, very conciliatory and I
certainly think it played an important role" in resolving the conflict. (5) Even Peru's chameleon buffoon-President Alan
Garcia was reported as agreeing that President Chavez was one of the promoters of "a good settlement and rapprochement"
between the leaders of Ecuador and Colombia. (6)
The outcome of the latest Rio Group Summit provided a welcome breathing space, if not a full stop, to the developing
drift towards regional instability and conflict. Not for nothing did both President Correa and President Chavez voice
concerns that the US government is seeking to transplant its Middle Eastern modus operandi to the Andes. In Iraq, the
Bush regime promoted regionalization favouring the Kurds. It is doing the same in the resource rich provinces of
Bolivia.
After having invaded Iraq and bankrolled Israeli aggression for decades, the US blithely accuses Iran and Syria of
destabilizing the region. In the Andes, it accuses Venezuela. Sensible defensive measures by Venezuela to fend off
possible violations by Colombia similar to the raid into Ecuador get described by the Bush regime and by US persidential
candidate Hilary Clinton as "provocation". One looks in vain in the Western Bloc/NATO country propaganda media for any
reference to the absurd double standards such remarks imply.
The UK Guardian newspaper continues to be a useful bellwether for Western Bloc propaganda in the liberal news media. In
February, the Guardian/Observer web site carried baseless allegations by John Carlin alleging that the Venezuelan
government was involved in narcotics dealing (7). In March, in a piece systematically misrepresenting the crisis, Isabel
Hilton, whom some might see as a doyenne of British liberal media foreign affairs reporting, deploys classic British
colonialist hauteur to denigrate Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.
The interesting thing about this is that Hilton and Carlin were both important media players in perception management of
the Contra war against Nicaragua. Carlin reported on the Nicaraguan war for the Independent and Hilton was the
Independent's Latin America editor. In those days they did their level best not to report the mass terrorism practised
by the Contra. In the best traditions of NATO-friendly social-democrat "balance", the Independent's editorial line in
those days was to disparage the Sandinista revolution as incompetent and foolish. Now, on Venezuela, while Carlin offers
bogus, fact-averse "reporting", here we get Hilton editorializing, "It has been a farce but this crisis needn't end in
tragedy." (8)
So not only are the same old political Iran-Contra Reaganaut players in Washington driving the 4th generation war
against Venezuela but the same media managers and writers are back in action as well. Gangster politicans like John
Negroponte, Elliot Abrams and the rest have their messages reinforced by journalists like Carlin and Hilton. Managing
rich-country mass opinion is part of the total war at grass roots level in which low-intensity conflict consists.
Mainstream corporate media outlets by definition tend to favour views that reinforce the propaganda line of the
corporate elite and their political front-persons.
So after a swift, skewed, de-contextualized, opposition-style account of the situation in Venezuela, Hilton writes,
"Despite Correa's leftwing credentials there is little love lost between him and Chávez, and Correa set about marking
out the contrast, building diplomatic support in Latin America's capitals where neither Uribe nor Chávez enjoy favour."
In fact, Correa's whirlwind tour in search of support took in Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Panama. On March
8th Correa declared "Chávez knows he can count on us, when Venezuela needs us we'll be there." (9)
So much for Correa distancing himself from Chavez. Later on, Hilton recoups some credibility by grudgingly acknowledging
Chavez' role in negotiating the release of people held by the FARC and acknowledging that Uribe may have used the raid
into Ecuador to boost his chances of a second re-election so as to serve a third Presidential term. But the main
argument of her piece is that somehow Chavez was "humiliated" by Uribe when in fact as events turned out it was Uribe
who was left isolated and lacking credibility. Meanwhile, President Chavez and his ALBA partners, Nicaragua's Daniel
Ortega and Bolivia's Evo Morales, consolidated their supportive relationship with President Correa.
In Venezuela, over 180 rural workers have been murdered during land disputes since 2001. Colombian paramilitaries are
thought to have been hired by local landowners for their expertise in such killings. Along the Colombian border and
elsewhere in Colombia various paramilitary groups calling themselves "Aguilas Negras" are reforming the former AUC
paramilitary groups supposed to have "demobilized" during President Uribe's two periods in office. The Venezuelan
authorities accuse Colombian paramilitaries of running narcotics smuggling and food and fuel contraband operations along
the borders of Tachira and Zulia provinces.
Writers like Luismi Huarte (10) argue that current conditions inlcude all the elements necessary for a Nicaraguan Contra
style war of attrition. The objective is not to defeat Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution but to wear it down, sustain an
atmosphere of constant crisis and deprive the Chavez government of popular support. The Colombian incursion into Ecuador
to murder a FARC leader trying to promote moves towards negotiations and peace was clearly part of that war of
attrition. The recent Rio Group Declaration is unlikely to stop the current US government or its successor from trying
to reproduce its Middle Eastern policies in the Andes. Both Rafael Correa and Hugo Chavez have already noted that such
is their intent.
Notes
1. "Conflicto se trasladó a México, Ecuador confirma oficialmente que víctimas eran estudiantes de esa nacionalidad",
Agencias. aporrea.org , 07/03/08
2. Declaration of the 20th Summit of the Rio Group held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (toni's tranlsation) :
" The Heads of State and Government of the Permanent Mechanism for Consultation and Political Cooperation - the Rio
Group - together for the 20th Summit Meeting in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, alert to the situation prevailing
between Ecuador and Colombia, have agreed to make the following Declaration:
1. The events that took place on March 1st 2008 are the cause of deep concern for the whole region, when forces of
Colombia's military and police entered Ecuadoran territory in the Sucumbíos province without the express consent of the
Ecuadoran government, in order to carry out an operation against members of the irregular Combian Revolutionary Armed
Forces group who were clandestinely camped in the Ecuadoran frontier area
2. We reject this violation of Ecuador's territorial integrity and therefore reaffirm the principle that a State's
territory is inviolable and cannot be subject to military occupation or other measures of force taken by another State,
directly or indirectly, for whatever motive, even temporarily.
3. We note with satisfaction the full apologies offered by President Alvaro Uribe to the Government and people of
Ecuador for the violation of the territory and sovereignty of that sister nation on March 1st 2008 by the public forces
of Colombia.
4. We also note the commitment by President Alvaro Uribe in his country's name that these events will not be repeated in
the future under any circumstance in compliance with the dispositions of Articles 19 and 21 of the Charter of the OAS.
5. We note the decision of President Rafael Correa to receive documentation offered by President Alvaro Uribe and which
would have reached the Government of Colombia following the events of March 1st, so that the Ecuadoran judicial
authorities may investigate possible violations of national law.
6. We recall too the sacred priniciples of international law, respect for sovereignty, abstention from the threat or use
of force and non-intervention in the internal affairs of other States, stressing that Article 19 of the Charter of the
Organization of American States states that No State or Group of States has the right to intervene, directly or
indirectly for whatever motive in the internal or external affairs of any other. The foregoing principle excludes not
just armed force but also other forms of intervention or tendency against the State's personality or the political,
economic and cultural elements that constitute it.
7. We repeat our commitment to peaceful coexistence in the region based on the fundamental precepts of international law
contained in the Charters of the United Nations and the Organization of American States, as also is stressed in the
essential objectives of the Rio Group, the peaceful solution of international disputes and its vocation to keep the
peace and search jointly for solutions to conflicts that affect the region.
8. We repeat our firm commitment to fight threats to the security of all its States proceeding from the action of
irregular groups or from criminal organizations, in particular those linked to narco-trafficking. Colombia considers
those organizations as terrorists.
9. We support the resolution approved by the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States of March 5th 2008.
Likewise, we express our support for the Secretary General in fulfilling the responsibilities that he has just been
assigned, via the resolution mentioned, to head a Commission that will go to both countries to visit those places that
the parties indicate and write up a report of his observations to the Consultative Meeting of Foreign Ministers and
propose formulas for a rapprochement between the two countries.
10. We urge the parties involved to keep open respectful channels of communication and to seek formulas for lowering
tension.
11. Taking into account the valuable traditions of the Rio group as a basic mechanism for promoting understanding and
the search for peace in our region, we make clear our complete support for all efforts at rapprochement. In that spirit
we offer to the governments of Colombia and Ecuador the Group's good offices to contribute to a satisfactory solution
for which reason the Group's Troika remains attentive to the results of the Consultative Meeting of the Foreign
Ministers.
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. March 7th 2008.
3. (Video) "Correa: "No puedo aceptar las falacias de Álvaro Uribe" "Aporrea / TeleSUR / Yvke Mundial 07/03/08 -
http://www.aporrea.org/tiburon/n110395.html
4. http://encontrarte.aporrea.org/noticias/n8576.html
5. "Insulza: Intervención del presidente Chávez en la Cumbre de Río fue “decisiva y tremendamente constructiva” ",
Aporrea / Antv Noticias, 09/03/08
6. "Alan García reconoce que Hugo Chávez promovióacuerdo pacífico en Cumbre de Río", TeleSUR, aporrea.org, 08/03/08
7. http://toni.tortillaconsal.com/carlin.html
8. "It has been a farce, but this crisis needn't end in tragedy", Isabel Hilton, The Guardian, March 7th 2008
9. "Rafael Correa: "Chávez sabe que cuenta con nosotros, cuando Venezuela nos necesite, allí estaremos" ", Aporrea /
TeleSUR, aporrea.org, 08/03/08
10. "Paramilitarismo colombiano en Venezuela: otro factor más de desestabilización", Luismi Huarte, Rebelión, 09-03-2008
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toni solo ia based in Central America - articles archived at http://toni.tortillaconsal.com