South America At War
It may seem odd that this caught my attention, but It did. Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela are at the brink of war.
The juxtaposition of events in Colombia and Venezuela give a compelling indication that Hugo Chavez has allied himself with FARC, the terrorist rebels just across his border. The day after the Colombians managed to kill FARC’s second in command, Chavez moved ten battalions to the border, threatening war against the US-allied government in Bogota, which he called “criminal”:
The move threatens to bring the US into open conflict with Chavez for the first time. We have allied ourselves with the Colombian government to eradicate narco-traffickers as well as to help them eliminate the threat from FARC. The terrorist group still holds Americans, having kidnapped them years ago after a plane crash in territory under their control.
I visited Ecuador nearly 23 years ago, and spent a week in both Quito and Banõs. Banõs in particular was amazing – coming into town, which was relatively small and rustic and nestled between two mountains, the falls to the east left a rainbow over it. For someone without much world-travel experience, it left an impression, to say the least.
Quito was different. It was, indeed, striving to be cosmopolitan, and the chess tournament being held at the 5-star hotel in the new part of the city certainly added to that impression.
But to get there, we had to walk from the old part of the city, which was pleasant enough, through a park.
And one morning, taking that walk, my companions and I saw a small formation of what looked like armed military. I recall how the uniformed man in front stopped in the middle of the road, knelt and fired something into the air. Moments later we smelled tear gas, and hastened out of the park area, but not before we saw, maybe half a dozen men running together and chanting something in unison that rhymed in Spanish. I don’t think it was “Two, four, six, eight, Who do we appreciate?”
I discovered later that the building on the south side of the park, where we just happened to be passing, was a large union hall. We all knew that at that time, this was the locus of anti-government sentiments, and this was just a small insurrection.
FARC has apparently not gone away. Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chevez demanded weeks ago that FARC, which is essentially a leftist, anti-government, terrorist, Colombian drug-running organization in the habit of taking hostages, be recognized as a legitimate army. This week, Columbia followed the rebels into Ecuador and killed FARCs second in command, while violating Ecuadorian sovereignty. From MSNBC:
Correa said on Saturday that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe had informed him of the raid, but later announced that he was misled after Ecuadorean officials inspected a bombed rebel camp.
Colombian officials have long complained that Ecuador’s military does not control its sparsely populated border, allowing rebels to take refuge on its territory.
I expect this situation to get more press in the coming days.
