Posted on 04/14/2002 4:01:40 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia may be getting beaten on the battlefield, but the 17,000-strong leftist insurgency known as the FARC has proven once again that it is capable of something perhaps more serious: creating a power vacuum in largely rural areas far from the federal government's reach.
''This is worse for democracy,'' Benítez said. 'They are in a hurry to show their power, to say, `There won't be elections here.' And they've done it.''
From 1998 to 2000, Benítez was the mayor of Támara, a town of 9,000 people in the northeastern state of Casanare. At the townspeople's urging, he signed up to run again. At a recent campaign event, he was summoned to see Commander Antonio, a regional leader of the FARC.
Surrounded by five armed men dressed in camouflage, Antonio politely but firmly told Benítez to withdraw from the race. Benítez did.
''It was an order. I thought, `Well, if it's like that, I'm leaving,'' he said Tuesday over coffee in the nation's capital, where he fled. ''I don't need this.'' Concerned over why the other candidate was not forced to quit, more than 100 people, including the police lieutenant, urged Benítez to reconsider in the past week. They told him he couldn't ``leave the town to the bandits.''
Unlike Gov. Gray Davis, Chavez, a former army officer who first won the presidency in 1998, has plenty of tricks up his sleeve to stall and even derail the process.
Vanessa Roca, a 31-year-old secretary from the eastern state of Monagas, says she lost her job at a state-owned transport company after signing a petition calling for a recall referendum to remove Chavez from office. She traveled seven hours by bus to ask officials at the National Electoral Commission (CNE) to remove her name from the petition.
"A friend who had the same thing happen to him told me this might help me get my job back," she said. "I understand it happened to a lot of us."
As the Chavez government tries to remain in office, state employees and students who signed the petition, or who are suspected of sympathizing with the political opposition, are being purged from jobs, internships and grants, according to dozens of interviews with trade unionists, students, state workers, lawyers and human rights activists.
And in an effort to discredit the recall movement, state workers whose names appear on the petition are being encouraged by the government to sign legal complaints alleging that their signatures were forged.
Former President Carlos Andres Perez predicts Chavez "will not have a peaceful exit" and will be forced out of office if he refuses to accept the recall vote. "Violence is bad, and we don't promote it," he recently told Colombia's daily newspaper, El Tiempo, "but no other option is possible." ***
The killings, blamed on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, come less than three weeks before Colombians vote on Oct. 26 in local elections that have been dogged by a wave of assassinations, kidnappings and death threats.
Orlando Hoyos, mayor of the southern village of Bolivar, was shot dead on Monday as he left a secret meeting in the mountains with FARC rebels and other officials. Jaime Zambrano, mayor of neighboring Santa Rosa, was killed on Tuesday, police said.
Mayors and councilors in Colombia's lawless countryside are common targets of illegal armed group fighting in a four-decade war. Local war lords, often the real authority in towns with little state presence, frequently summon councilors and mayors to intimidate them and check on their platforms.
Perhaps such notions seem ridiculous, but Morales and the MAS believe in their rhetoric and seek to "liberate" their fellow Amerindians and coca growers throughout Latin America. In the same October 2002 interview, Morales acknowledged that "of course, sometimes it is the coca growers that set off the spark" if there is still violence and military repression. The advent of MAS will make it harder than ever for Bolivia, with its nationalist military, a tradition of about one coup d'état every ten months since it gained independence in 1825, an unstable government coalition of ex-leftists, opportunists, and the simply corrupt, to function as a democracy or achieve economic development. La Razón columnist José Gramunt de Moragas put it well when he recently described Bolivian politics as a pendulum eternally moving between unsolved problem to violence and back to the status quo.
Bolivia is not alone in this predicament. Ecuador's recently elected president, Lucio Gutierrez, a former coup-making colonel, lost the support of the powerful Indian socialist organizations when he tried to impose some economic common sense. He is in danger of becoming the fifth elected president in so many years to lose his job before the end of his mandate. In Peru, another former officer and (failed) coup-maker is also increasing his popularity on an indigenous/socialist platform. All in all, and considering also the pseudo-indigenous Zapatista socialists of Mexico (led by a Marxist, blue-eyed former academic), it appears that the indigenous Latin American peoples' growing political power represents not progress but simply anti-democratic socialist nostalgia and a profoundly reactionary and illiterate approach to economics. The tragedy, of course, is that these people are the most likely victims of the type of politics they advocate. Their future seems destined to look much like their past of poverty and backwardness, all in the name of a "progressive agenda."***
"Let them declassify the secret documents on CIA involvement and their financing of undercover activities during 2002-2003 because we have hard evidence that the terrorist attacks were planned," he said. He did not mention which US lawmakers would be asked to help.
He said the records would reveal CIA funding links to Vene-zuelan opposition groups seeking to oust Chavez.
Maduro also said he will seek US congressional approval for access to any CIA records related to a failed coup in April last year, which swept Chavez from power for less than two days.
"A group of legislators will go to Washington so that the secret documents on the coup d'etat are declassified so that we can know the names of those who have received money from the CIA to create this chaos in Venezuela," Maduro said.***
According to Chavez's former personal pilot, Venezuelan Air Force Major Juan Diaz Castillo, Chavez told him, "...to organize, coordinate, and execute a covert operation consisting of delivering financial resources, specifically $1 million, to [Afghanistan's] Taliban government, in order for them to assist the al-Qaeda terrorist organization...making it appear as if humanitarian aid were being extended to the Afghan people."***
A: I have always spoken very sincerely with him, with respect, in good faith, and seeking solutions to the problems. Because we have a very extensive border with Venezuela, we have to find solutions to common problems.
Q: Are you concerned in any way by some reports that allegedly link him, or his government, to the Colombian guerrillas?
A: He has told me repeatedly, in all our meetings, that he has no connection with the Colombian guerrillas, that he simply took some steps when the previous Colombian administration so requested it from him.
That's why I've chosen to maintain a periodic dialogue with Venezuela. And coming from one fundamental premise: We are the guilty party in all this, for we were the ones who allowed the expansion here of violent groups and drugs. So I tell our neighbors, all our neighbors: "Colombia is the great culprit, but help us."
It's like when you contract a disease by your own fault. Those around you try to help to cure you, not only for your good, but also so they don't get the disease. So I've told them: "We are guilty, but you run the risk of contagion."***
Columbus Day on Oct. 12 is celebrated as a holiday in the United States and several Latin American nations, but Chavez said it should be remembered as the "Day of Indian Resistance."
"We Venezuelans, we Latin Americans, have no reason to honor Columbus," he added.
The Venezuelan leader said Spanish, Portuguese and other foreign conquerors had massacred South America's Indian inhabitants at an average rate of roughly "one every 10 minutes." He described Spanish conquistadors like Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro, as "worse than Hitler."
He said even the continent's geographical names, like America and Venezuela, were imposed by foreigners.***
"As an incumbent with considerable influence over the legislative and judicial branches, as well as the military, his position is inherently privileged, though his popular support is only 30 percent to 40 percent," Fitch said in a news release.
Chavez, who led a failed coup in 1992 before winning the presidency in 1998's election, faced down a coup attempt himself last year. Now the opposition is trying to unseat him through a recall referendum.
While Wall Street generally distrusts Chavez for his loud anti-capitalist rhetoric, the international bond market has welcomed the finance ministry's effort at extending the government's debt-repayment schedule.
Venezuela is the world's No. 5 oil exporter, but its economy was devastated by a strike in December and January aimed at driving Chavez from office.
Chavez's opponents say he's an inept authoritarian who takes after his friend Fidel Castro, the communist leader of Cuba. But Chavez's supporters, many of whom live in poor barrios long neglected by successive Venezuelan governments, characterize the opposition as elitists out to preserve their own privileges.
Chavez's foes will seek to collect enough signatures later this month to trigger a possible referendum on his presidency in late February 2004. A new president could be sworn in by April 5, 2004, if the recall proceeds without delay and goes against the president, Fitch noted. [End]
Protests by the country's poor Indian majority against Sanchez de Lozada have spiraled in the last month amid an economic downturn in this nation of 8 million people, one of the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. Indian leader and lawmaker Evo Morales, who nearly won the presidency in 2002, rejected the government's claims of a coup bid. "They are the subversive ones who are trying to act like coup leaders," he told reporters.***
But Uribe also told contenders that under no circumstances should they try to make a deal with illegal armed groups that would guarantee their safety but compromise their ability to govern freely should they be elected. At least 25 candidates have been killed in the run-up to the Oct. 26 elections, while another 160 have pulled out, a third of them citing death threats, according to official figures.
''Every Colombian democrat must close ranks to defend the constitution and our democratic rights,'' Uribe said on Sunday in the northwestern city of Manizales. ``No candidate should be prepared to accept threats from armed groups.''Uribe said intelligence indicated that Colombia's largest rebel army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has ordered its fighters to assassinate any candidate who does not reach an agreement with the group to safeguard its interests. ***
The violence has kept Venezuela on edge as Chávez opponents prepare a signature drive to demand a referendum on ending his six-year term, which runs until 2007. Chávez insists his opponents lack the popular support to gather the required 2.4 million signatures.
On Sunday, Interior Minister Lucas Rincón said seven people have been arrested in connection with the bombings but did not identify them or provide details.
Also Monday, Prosecutor Américo Gloria revealed there were two explosions at the Fuerte Tiuna military base Oct. 5 -- not one as authorities originally said***
The Miami-based umbrella group of nearly all newspapers in the Americas said Cuba is the country where freedom of the press ``is violated most systematically and completely.''
''Twenty-eight independent journalist are serving prison sentences ranging from 14 to 27 years in subhuman conditions, far from their families, with no medical attention and no respect for their other basic human rights,'' the IAPA concluded in a report.
Venezuela was also mentioned as a concern for harassment of Venezuelan journalist by sympathizers of President Hugo Chávez.
A ''special distinction'' of the IAPA's award went to the 28 Cuban journalists.
Receiving the award on their behalf, Humberto Castelló, executive editor of El Nuevo Herald of Miami, asked Jack Fuller, the Chicago Tribune publisher IAPA president, ``not to allow Venezuela to become a new Cuba with the press.''
The IAPA also said national security is being used as a pretext to clamp down on the media in the United States. [End]
He was speaking with reporters during a news conference at the Hilton Trinidad, prior to his departure for Caracas following an overnight visit in Port of Spain. Quoting the celebrated Cuban poet Jose Marti, Chavez said: "We will repay love with love." Saying that the protests which have forced his Government onto the defensive for more than a year now had been the work of terrorists, he said those actions almost strangled the country's economy. And the oil facility made available by Trinidad and Tobago enabled the Venezuelan economy to breathe again, he said.
……….The talks with Manning also focused on an idea from Chavez to construct a gas pipeline from Venezuela, through the Caribbean to Cuba and countries in Central America. "And who knows; it could go all the way to North America," he said.
He said also that Venezuela was indeed interested in an arrangement by which gas from reserves in his country could be processed in Trinidad for shipment and distribution in North America. And, he said, he was renewing discussions on a grand idea of forming one giant entity out of all the State-owned energy companies in Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil and Peru. He said Venezuela and Ecuador had already established a task force to explore this idea in some detail.
"This is not a far-fetched idea at all," he said."It is entirely feasible and it can be done but it is an idea that disturbs some people. "Ay-ay-ay!" he said, remarking on the possibilities for economic integration thrown up by this idea, adding that "it is time for us to return to the Bolivarian vision" for unity among Latin American and Caribbean countries. He said follow-up discussions on some of these matters were expected to take place sometime in October, in Caracas.***
Elsewhere, about 1,000 miners were marching toward La Paz to join demonstrations by thousands of poor Indians, union workers, and street vendors. Reports by independent Radio Erbol and private broadcaster TV 21 said the miners clashed with government troops in the city of Patacamaya, about 60 miles west of La Paz. Those reports indicated troops fired tear gas and miners responded by hurling dynamite.
Human rights groups and local media have reported up to 65 deaths in three weeks of street clashes between mostly Indian demonstrators and troops. The authorities have reported at least 16 deaths, but have not confirmed the higher figure.***
The announcement by Francisco Carrasquero, president of the National Electoral Council, came after Venezuela's opposition accused officials of dragging their feet in setting a date.
Officials rejected an earlier petition for technical reasons.
The opposition must gather more than 2.4 million signatures to request the recall against Chavez.
Venezuela's Constitution allows recall referendums after the midpoint of a president's six-year term - which was Aug. 19 for Chavez.
According to the National Electoral Council, the earliest the presidential recall could be held would be March 2004.
The Organization of American States has endorsed the presidential recall as a peaceful and democratic means of ending tensions that triggered a failed 2002 coup and two-month strike earlier this year.
The opposition accuses Chavez of accumulating power, ignoring rampant graft in public administration and dividing Venezuelans along class lines.
Chavez, who survived a brief 2002 coup, claims a corrupt political elite is conspiring against his leftist government. [End]
A foreign diplomat said that a school gymnasium in the south of La Paz, and under army protection, had been opened to house those who want to leave the city.
Most of the foreigners are cooped up in their rooms in hotels next to the central Plaza San Francisco.
"On Monday morning we saw all the shops in the street had pulled down their shutters, our hotel was barricaded with sandbags and the first tear gas grenades went off around 11 o'clock in the street against demonstrators protesting the massacres the day before in El Alto," said Coninne Munsch, one of 60 stranded French tourists.
Munsch and the other foreigners awoke Monday morning to fiery demonstrations raging in the streets around their hotels.
Instead of some holiday bargain-hunting and snapping picturesque street corners, tourists have had to pick their way through the debris of pitched street battles and numerous road blocks in the four or five streets that make up the main tourist centre.
"One can find water, ham, cheese, bread, coffee, for the moment it's available," said Antoine Esteve, who arrived in La Paz last Friday.
The capital is threatened with food shortages due to the protests and roadblocks which have shut down key transport routes across Bolivia.
"It was very dramatic," said another tourist who arrived last Thursday.***
Jaime Paz Zamora, a former president himself, called the impending announcement by Sanchez de Lozada a "patriotic decision." Asked by reporters whether he meant a presidential resignation, Paz Zamora responded, "You are intelligent people. You know what it is." ***
Venezuela's elections authority this week said the opposition could gather signatures supporting a recall referendum from Nov. 28 to Dec. 1. The constitution says a referendum request must be backed by signatures from at least 20 percent of the electorate.
But Chavez warned: "Their names will be recorded forever."
"They should know that although they are not going to get (a referendum), their names will be recorded. Unlike in a vote, which is secret, they will sign. They will put their names and surnames, their national ID number and their fingerprint," he said.***
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