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Bogotá. The supposed assistance given by Colombian guerrillas to the kidnappers of the daughter of the Paraguayan ex-president is further proof of the international tentacles of the rebels who finance themselves through criminal activities, said Colombia’s Minister of Defense, Jorge Alberto Uribe. "This only confirms the fact that Colombian narcoterrorist groups are not merely Colombians, they have roots and presence in every country", warned Uribe, who was visiting Holland, according to AP. "I was just with the people at Europol – the European police- and I saw four or five cases which involved people from these groups, especially" from the...

A positive outlook of Venezuela's future By Aleksander Boyd London 22.01.05 | Wheels are in motion, cat’s out and shit has hit the fan big time. The stench, emanating from Caracas, can be felt here, in my London W1 cushy pad. A series of seemingly disconnected events have thrust unprecedented levels of criticism upon the Venezuelan ‘president’, which added to the evidence surfaced in each of the instances leave no room for doubt or confusion with respect to the credentials of Hugo Chavez. Allow me to enumerate them: 1) Rodrigo Granda, wanted FARC terrorist, is captured in the streets of...

A dialogue between two important members of the FARC (Colombian revolutionary Armed Forces), appears to be among the evidence submitted by the Colombian authorities to the Venezuelan Government according to Colombia’s Radio Caracol. Here is the translation of the only written report I have seen on the issue, which suggests that more than one hundred members of the FARC guerillas were in Caracas in early December for the II People’s Bolivarian Congress, financed and organized by the Chavez Government.. I had talked to two reporters who had mentioned this to me, but said they could not talk about it and...

"The Government had to choose between war and shame. They chose shame. They will get war too." -Churchill The grotesque Granda case would seem to be the cause of our problem with Venezuela in the same way that the war of independence would have been due to the insolence with which the chapeton refused to lend the flower vase to the party to honor Antonio Villavicencio. ... From the Ministry of Interior and Justice we warned that the key to our relationship with Chavez could be found in the Sao Paulo Forum, and in the communist conspiracy that was being...

Despite new evidence that Venezuela has become a sort of ''Club Med'' for Latin America's violent groups, the Bush administration is unlikely to start its second term taking major steps to isolate leftist-populist President Hugo Chávez. But, eventually, it will probably do so. Judging from what incoming Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate earlier this week and what I have heard in interviews with well-placed current and former U.S. officials, the U.S. strategy will be to wait until Chávez does something really obnoxious in the eyes of the world, which he probably will.

London 14.01.05 | Hugo Chavez, the greatest pariah ever to govern our nation, has just frozen diplomatic and trade relations with Colombia. The embarrassing thing for us decent Venezuelans is the reason for this breakage, i.e. the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Rodrigo Granda, FARC leader, was captured in Caracas by bounty hunters, when he was attending, as guest of honour, a Bolivarian celebration organized by the government of Venezuela. The Chavez regime then incurred in a series of mishaps, distortions and outright lies to cover its cosy relationship with the terrorist, who happened to have been naturalized in...

Noe Pernia is a reporter for Channel 2 News in Caracas, known as "El Observador". Because of the muzzle Bill he was not able to report correctly the news on the Granda case. He writes this in today's Tal Cual: Jesse did not say the truth, neither did I By Noé Pernía I tried to construct a story, a simple story that would help TV viewers of El Observador understand the labyrinth of the Minister of The Interior and Justice since on Thursday the 6th., the day of the wise men, he replied to the lawyers of Rodrigo Granda in...

We are going to let go for a while the Anderson case to occupy ourselves with the other political scandal, the one of Granda, the affable "chancellor" of the FARC. This appears to have the façade of pure theater, by both sides. Granda was detained here, by Venezuelan police, and handed over to the Colombian police.... Our hypothesis is that for some reason that this very opaque government will never make public, the presence of the guerrilla chief got uncomfortable for the executive and, in the framework of the new relationship that has developed between Chávez and Uribe ("I swear...

London 07.01.05 | Prensa Latina reports today that the lawyer of arrested FARC leader Ricardo Granda informed that Granda had both Colombian and Venezuelan citizenship. Lawyer Miguel Gonzalez expressed that his client is Colombian by birth and Venezuelan by adoption, whatever that means. Furthermore, Gonzalez is quoted saying that Granda did not need entry permits to Venezuela for he resides in that country. Granda's Venezuelan ID number was mentioned by his lawyer as 22.118.142. On other news, member of Colombia's Congress Foreign Affairs Commission Jimmy Chamorro declared that the Granda's capture in Caracas is but another proof of the close...

London 05.01.05 | The answer is, he was a guest of honour of the Bolivarian encounter of intellectuals organized, hosted and sponsored by the administration of Hugo Chavez. That’s right folks; Hugo Chavez cuddles with and invites international terrorists at the taxpayer’s expense, although this is not the first time his criminal and clumsy actions are spoilt by respectable police forces. Just to refresh public memory: Remember Montesinos’ 'arrest' in Caracas? Costa Rican authorities would later reveal that a man fitting his description entered their country using a false Venezuelan passport under the name Manuel Antonio Rodriguez. But Venezuela's Foreign...

London 04.01.05 | My astonishment with respect to the arrest of FARC leader Ricardo Granda in Caracas continues to grow, not because Granda was in Caracas as a guest of honour of Hugo Chavez but rather due to the outlandish nerve of the FARC in condemning Chavez via public communiqués. Mind you what sort of moral stance a bunch of assassins have to be claiming anything to anyone? Their rights to claim were forfeited the moment they decided to start killing innocent peasants to achieve whatever goal they set out to reach. What's more, according to UN reports 1 million...

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) confirmed that Rodrigo Granda Escobar, known as "the Chancellor" was kidnapped in Venezuela, while attending the Second Bolivarian Peoples Conference. In a statement published on their web page, the Central Command of this organization blamed the kidnapping of "Ricardo", as he is known within FARC, on "the Colombian intelligence services" and blamed his deportation on "gringo advisors and the complicit support of corrupt elements of the Venezuelan police". In the statement they went on to ask that the government of Venezuela make "its position clear regarding guarantees to the other bolivarian organizations that...

London 03.01.05 | Undoubtedly internet is the true revolution, so much so that a bunch of assassins, otherwise known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), have their own website where they post communiqués and other stuff. During last December's meeting in Caracas of guerrilla fighters, leftist talebans and revolutionaries, Ricardo Granda a.k.a FARC's 'foreign secretary' was arrested by Colombian police forces and whisked to Colombia. FARC leaders weren't amused by the operation and have released a communiqué criticising comrade Hugo for lack of protective measures towards such honourable guests. These guerrilla fighters must truly enjoy to crack bad...