Chav sides with narco-terrorists, threatens war with Columbia

Chavez orders troops to Colombian border
Venezuelan leader warns neighbor's action against rebels could lead to war

BREAKING NEWS

updated 1 hour, 23 minutes ago
CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez on Sunday ordered thousands of troops to the border with Colombia after Colombia's military killed a top rebel leader.

Chavez told his defense minister: "Move 10 battalions for me to the border with Colombia, immediately." He also ordered the Venezuelan Embassy in Colombia closed and said all embassy personnel would be withdrawn.

The announcements by Venezuela's leftist leader pushed relations to their tensest point of his nine-year presidency, and Chavez warned that Colombia could spark a war in South America.

He called the U.S.-allied government in Bogota "a terrorist state" and labeled President Alvaro Uribe "a criminal."

The leftist leader warned that Colombia's slaying of rebel spokesman Raul Reyes could spark a war.

"It wasn't any combat. It was a cowardly murder, all of it coldly calculated," Chavez said.

"We pay tribute to a true revolutionary, who was Raul Reyes," Chavez said, recalling that he had met rebel in Brazil in 1995 and calling him a "good revolutionary."

Chavez: Colombia 'the Israel' of region
Chavez said he had just spoken to Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa and that Ecuador was also sending troops to its border with Colombia.

"The Colombian government has become the Israel of Latin America," an agitated Chavez said, mentioning another country that he has criticized for its military strikes. "We aren't going to permit Colombia to become the Israel of these lands."

Chavez accused Uribe of being a puppet of Washington and acting on behalf of the U.S. government, saying "Dracula's fangs (are) are covered in blood."

"Some day Colombia will be freed from the hand of the (U.S.) empire," Chavez said. "We have to liberate Colombia," he added, saying Colombia's people will eventually do away with its government.

The U.S. State Department had no immediate reaction to Chavez's comments.

On Saturday, Chavez cautioned Uribe against similar military strikes along Venezuela's border.

"Don't think about doing that over here, because it would very serious, it would be cause for war," Chavez said. "How far is President Uribe willing to go in his warlike madness?"

Chavez, who maintains warm relations with the Colombian guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, said that "it was obscene to see the smiling faces" of Colombian military commanders standing behind Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos as he announced the death of FARC spokesman Raul Reyes and 16 other rebels on Saturday.

Colombia defends incursion
On Sunday, Colombia defended its decision to carry out the raid, saying it acted in self-defense.

"The terrorists, among them Raul Reyes, have had the custom of killing in Colombia and taking refuge in the territory of neighboring countries. Many times Colombia has suffered from this situation that we must avoid to protect our citizens," a Foreign Ministry statement said.

Ecuador has done little to try to remove the heavily armed fighters from Colombia's conflict who cross the long, porous border into its territory.

Colombia's military tracked Reyes' location through an informant and bombed a camp on its side of the Ecuadorean border, where Reyes was thought to be, Santos said. Ground troops moved in but came under attack from another camp across the border in Ecuador. When the military overran that camp, they found Reyes' body, Santos said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23435878/

Narco-terrorists? You're just trying to start touble, aren't you? You've managed to take what would have been a semi-interesting subject of discussion and distorted it to your own little troll-view of the world.

Chavez was elected by the people of Venezuela 3 times. They are allowed to have the leader they choose. Unlike the US where our leader stole the first election and doctored the second to win. Maybe they like having a left-wing leader. Maybe they like what he has done for their country. Maybe they like having a leader who is for the poor and middle class instead of one who panders to the top 1%.

And maybe, just maybe, someone who is actually in that part of the world knows more about the situation than we do up here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FARC

The FARC-EP says these objectives motivate the group's efforts to seize power in Colombia through an armed revolution. It funds itself principally through extortion, kidnapping and participation in the illegal drug trade.

did somebody say "Chav"?

The only thing that would warm your heart anymore, Stock, would a terrorist attack in Ireland.

No, what would warm my heart more is Sean Penn explaining why Chavez is so awesome after this.

you arent for fighting terrorists so much as liberals, huh?

Aren't they the same thing?

well, liberals take away your income through heavy taxation of the upper class, funding useless social programs, while terrorists do the same thing...
with bombs. so, you know, pretty much.

Ok barring the already inflamatory nature of the original post, and the admittedly biased nature of it. It's still a valid point in this context. Chavez is admittedly siding with known terrorists who use child soldiers as young as 11, traffic in drugs and use kidnapping and extortion.

So Columbia invades Ecuador and Chavez is a dick for moving troops to secure the Venezuelan border. And you don't like Sean Penn. Does that about sum it up?

Only insane dictators move troops to the border when a nearby country is ramping up their internal conflict. Obviously the man is insane.

And Sean Penn is VERY, VERY relevant. (Pg 63, Troll Handbook)

Useful idiots are always relevant. I love how they visit these hostile countries and moon over their enlightened opposition to the US, then get put into the embarrassing position of apologizing for their heroes when they do stuff like threaten a neighbor for fighting terrorists. Kind of like what you're doing right now. Perfectly normal to put your army on a neighbor's border because they killed a terrorist leader?

troll

troll

Somehow it seems characteristic of Stock; he knows stuff about other countries, but the only use he can find for it is in dishonest attempts to bias a thread.

Is comparing a country to Israel supposed to be a South American insult? Because I'm not really seeing the correlation with Columbia.

and then only use i can find for it is paltry attempts at photoshop generated humor.

Stockula,

Chavez is not moving troops to Colombia's border out of solidarity with Reyes, he is moving troops to the border because Colombia entered into Ecuador's territory to carry out the attack. Not only is Ecuador an ally of Venezuela, but Chavez is worried that Uribe will cross Venezuelan borders as well.

Guardian UK
Reuters South Africa

Chavez is trying to draw a parallel between Israel's strikes in neighboring countries to Colombia's recent use of the same tactic. While comparing Colombia to Israel is not a direct insult (as far as I know), Israel's attacks within the borders of sovereign nations (however justified - that's a different debate) are incredibly unpopular. Drawing the parallel between Colombia and Israel in this regard seems to be Chavez's attempt to reign in Colombia (and prevent similar attacks on Colombia's soil).

If he supports FARC, then maybe he has a reason to be worried.

Irrelevant.
Ecuador doesn't support FARC yet that doesn't seem to prevent Columbia from launching military strikes into Ecuador.

well the relevancy seems to be that Chavez supports FARC, or at least supported Reyes as a fellow Revolutionary. FARC is also recognized as a terrorist organization, not just by the US, but also by the EU and Canada. They have publicly admitted commiting what accounts to war crimes. They have a history of kidnapping, drug trade, and murdering judges and elected officials. I don't see anything in the article or the two others that I have read about what Rafael Correa has said about the attack, other than what was reported through Chavez.

the airstrike actually occurred on the Columbian side of the border. The incursion happened when Columbian troops were fired on by rebels on the other side of the border, or at least that is the report so far.

I don't think Ecuador supports FARC as much as it has avoided becoming involved because it does not have the means to effectively fight them without tying themselves to US policy the way Columbia has.

What this seems to amount to is more grandstanding by Chavez. Removing his embassy from Columbia seems especially odd, as that is usually the action of a country already declaring war. I doubt Chavez will invade Columbia even more than I doubt that Columbia has any intention of invading Venezuela.

IIUC, removing an embassy is a declaration of serious annoyance, but not to the point of war.

So say the Columbians. Ecuador tells a different story.