What do you guys think of all this nonsense in Venezuela/Colombia/Ecuador?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/03/03/ecuador.colombia/index.html?eref=rss_world
As a measured sympathizer (with some significant misgivings) of Chavez, I find this development troubling. His actions seem to represent more than a mere technical assertion of Ecuador's terriorial integrity; they seem to amount to substantive, if implicit, support for the FARC. Now the FARC has been classified as a terrorist organization by the EU (in addition to the U.S. and Colombia) and has been accused of "flagrant disregard for lives of civilians" by Human Rights Watch. And of course it funds its activities through kindappings, cocaine production and trafficking, and extortion. So I'm not sure the FARC is really anything besides a (very powerful) organized crime syndicate with a token ideological agenda.
Anyway, my guess is that this, from Venezuela's point of view, is a case of "the enemy of my enemy's friend is my friend." But supporting paramilitary groups that try to advance compatible ideologies through highly objectionable methods is something that the U.S. has been rightly and roundly criticized for (say, for example, supporting fascist death squads in Latin America or anti-communist terrorists in Cuba). I don't think the analysis changes for left-wing groups that resort to terroristic tactics. Your ideological goals may be commendable but if you indiscriminantly attack civilians or engage in international drug trafficking to advance these goals, you should not enjoy the support of sensible leftists. Besides, I have to question the sincerity of anyone's socialist convictions who condones extorting, kidnapping, and killing civilians.
Anyway my guess is that this is probably all posturing, and it will fizzle out in time. But Chavez should probably exercise more discretion in terms of who he associates with, and he shouldn't go out of his way to provoke a military response from the U.S. That could jeopardize his highly laudable domestic agenda.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
My position (founded, as always, on total ignorance) is that this is probably just saber-rattling. Still, it is a little distressing that Chavez is rattling his saber in support of some pretty ugly characters...
ReplyDelete