Supposed guerrillas correspond to no known guerrilla or fugitive ... question is why we ever thought they were!

Caracas Daily Journal (Vincent Bevins): Just as rumblings continue in North America as to the very dangerous possibility that the Bush administration might consider listing Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism, the government here seems to have avoided the necessity of making a very difficult decision in Táchira.

The man in a Venezuelan hospital who earlier had been reported to be Joaquín Gómez turns out to be neither him nor any other guerrilla wanted by Interpol or Colombian authorities.
Venezuelan Interior and Justice Minister Ramón Rodríguez Chacín announced that according to the responses he got from the two organizations, the fingerprints and photos of the men that his office sent did not correspond to any known wanted guerrillas or fugitives.

The men who were suspected of being guerrillas entered a clinic near the Colombian border earlier this week, suffering from bullet wounds.

Now, investigations are beginning into who started the rumor that the man was indeed Gómez, the person who recently replaced Raul Reyes as the FARC's number-two man.
Sending the fingerprints to Colombian authorities might have been the first thing that the governments of Venezuela and Colombia cooperated on since the diplomatic crisis erupted in the region last week.

The fact that the wounded man is not Gómez has spared the Chávez government from being forced into an uncomfortable position. Chávez has normally insisted on his neutrality in the battle between Colombia and the FARC, and in this case he would have been forced to decide whether or not to extradite the leader. This would of course have been further complicated by claims from Uribe that Chávez is harboring FARC members, and claims from Chávez that Uribe is dealing with the guerrillas in exactly the wrong way.

But in any case, all of this happens against the backdrop of a United States government that is seriously considering for the first time to list Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Sure, a US State Department representative stated it was "too soon" right now to make the declaration, but the fact that the issue is under discussion is frightening. Most of the countries on that list have some kind of action taken against them by the U.S., whether sanctions or military threats. The list is small and contains no ally of the U.S., but countries like Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Cuba.

The analysis, they say, hinges on the laptops, which prove far from conclusive. George Bush also went as far as to call Chávez a "demagogue," and hold up Uribe as a model of democracy in the region, despite possible human rights abuses or violations or international law.

This is a good example of the Bush government's view of Latin America these days, constrasting "good" Uribe with "bad" Chávez, ignoring moderates and model democrats like Bachelet, Lula, or Kirchner.