Prepare for War: Military Pact Threatens Chavez
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By Eddy Acevedo.
On October 30, 2009, the United States and Colombia signed a military cooperation pact that will provide greater access of Colombian military bases to the United States. The purpose of this agreement is to give the United States the ability to combat drug trafficking and terrorism in the region with a maximum number of 800 American troops and 600 civilian contractors. While Colombia and the United States continue to strengthen their bilateral relations, fellow Colombian neighbor Hugo Chavez believes this agreement is a threat to Venezuela. Surprisingly, I agree with Chavez because a stronger relationship between Colombia and the U.S. gives us the ability to unveil the atrocities in which he partakes. Recent reports from Venezuela have stated that President Chavez haPostss ordered the Venezuelan military to prepare for war and has increased troops along the Colombian-Venezuelan border. He is using scare tactics to brain wash Venezuelans by having them believe that an invasion by Colombian and U.S. armed forces is imminent. However, this is not the first time this occurs. This is merely another opportunity by Chavez to distract Venezuelans suffering from extreme poverty, an unstable economy, and political unrest.
Last year, Colombian armed forces entered Ecuadorian territory in order to raid a FARC terrorist camp which was also the home of rebel leader Raul Reyes. During this raid, Colombian military personnel uncovered Reyes’ computer files that confirmed the ties among Chavez, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, and the FARC terrorist group. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was heavily criticized over this raid for interfering Ecuadorian sovereignty. However, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 adopted in 2001 clearly states that “states shall take the necessary steps to prevent the commission of terrorists acts, deny safe haven to those who finance, plan, support, or commit terrorist acts, and prevent those who finance, plan, facilitate or commit terrorist acts from using their respective territories for those purposes against other States.” President Uribe took the necessary actions to protect his citizens and the national security of Colombia.
In addition, reports suggest that neighboring countries Ecuador and Venezuela have been harboring terrorists within their borders. Chavez has gone so far as to advocate for taking the FARC off the United States and European terrorism list and believes that the FARC is an army, which it is clearly not. Ironically, while Chavez and Correa condemned the violence used during the attack, they did not hesitate to use violence against Colombia. Both leaders directed their military to their perspective border in order to intimidate Colombia in 2008, yet President Uribe showed restraint in not sending his troops and avoiding a further escalation of the situation.
Thanks to the information gathered from Reyes computer in the raid, Costa Rican authorities raided a house in San Jose where drugs and money were found. This money was used to finance the terrorist activities of the FARC. There is a direct correlation between drugs and terrorist organizations. Thus, military cooperation between the U.S. and Colombia is essential for the security of the Western Hemisphere. Cracking down on the drug trade can negatively impact the ability of these terrorist organizations to operate. The seized Reyes files also lead to 30 kilos of uranium being found in a village near Bogota. While it may be argued that 30 kilos is not much, this illustrates that the FARC can obtain uranium and could have used it for ammunition, bombs, or explosives.
Colombia has a very strong partnership with the United States because we believe in democracy, adhering to the rule of law, and transparency in government. President Obama finally has in place a new Assistant Secretary of Western Hemisphere at the State Department, Arturo Valenzuela and it is time to help Colombia. The first necessary step to offering this assistance is by passing the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) immediately. Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives did not feel that the FTA warranted a vote in Congress under the Bush administration. Now under President Obama, the clock continues to tick without any trade assistance going towards our strongest ally in Latin America. The FTA benefits both countries because American consumers would be able to enter the Colombian market with no tariffs. Since Colombian products enter the United States with no fees, Colombia should do the same in return. It is my hope that signing this military pact is a signal of more assistance going towards Colombia. Chavez needs to seriously consider the loyalty of his military before throwing out accusations of a looming war that he cannot win. Colombia is gaining strength and its military is far more powerful than Venezuela’s. I commend the administration with moving forward with the military pact and I urge the administration to pass the FTA as soon as possible to provide relief and support to Colombia.
Eddy Acevedo currently serves as the Federal Affairs Coordinator of Miami-Dade County’s DC Office. Miami-Dade County is the 9th largest county in the United States and is considered the Gateway to the Americas. Mr. Acevedo advocates for the County’s priorities with Congress and the White House. In 2005, he worked as Senior Legislative Assistant to Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-18), Ranking Member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
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What a fascinating analysis. We Americans should be more informed about these issues.
What’s really going on here is that the United States has ambitions to extend NAFTA deep down into South America. It’s just more imperialism. Now that Saddam Hussein is gone, they’ve got themselves a new scapegoat by the name of Hugo Chavez. Next thing you know they’re going to say he’s got weapons of mass destruction. And we all know what ended up happening with that!
Hugo Chavez only weapon of mass destruction is his mouth. Look at the destruction and divisions he has created among the Venezuelan people, now he wants to create a rift between Venezuela and Colombia “paises hermanos” since their founding in order to cover up his ineptitude as a ruler. Mass destruction is all he has done during all the years of his “reign”.
Recently one of my kids read the book “Animal Farm” by George Orwell as a school assignment and I read it along with her. It is impossible to read this and not see the pig Napoleon on Chavez; in the story Napoleon announces that Snowball (another pig and former comrade) stole the idea of a windmill from him which supposedly was going to make life for the animals easier. The animals work harder with the promise of easier lives with the windmill. After a violent storm, the animals find the windmill destroyed. Napoleon convinces the rest of the animals that Snowball destroyed the windmill, even though this was not true. Once Snowball becomes a scapegoat, Napoleon has an imaginary enemy which he uses to keep the animals occupied and oblivious of their reality. The reality to which the animals of the farms where ignorant of was that Napoleon abuses his power, making life harder for the animals; the animals, though cold, starving, and overworked, remain convinced through psychological conditioning that they are better off than they were when ruled by Mr. Jones. (The human that was the former owner of the farm).
The point is that Chavez is using this as a distraction to unify the “hungry” Venezuelans to rally against an enemy that he is blaming for the failures of inadequacies as a ruler.
The Venezuelan people should read this book and see the story of Venezuela during the last 10 years being described on this book.
I remember “Animal Farm” from grade school, we also watched the movie. It is fitting to describe the repulsive pig Chavez