Caracas Daily Journal (Vincent Bevins): While the crisis seems to be on its way to winding up, possibilities and hopes are re-appearing for the continuation of hostage hand overs and peaceful negotiations with the FARC. At the very least, President Hugo Chávez and Colombian Senator Córdoba think that further unilateral hand overs are likely, and have kept working on the project.
Last Friday in the Dominican Republic, Chávez announced that he had received proofs of life of 18 Colombian military officers held by the FARC. And Monday, Justice Minister Ramón Rodríguez Chacín gave Senator Córdoba ten more.
Córdoba said that she believes that the FARC is still interested in unilaterally handing over hos-tages and she announced she would tour Latin America, the United States and Europe to create the committee of friendly countries that President Chávez announced, the Santo Domingo Group. She said the group, which would likely count on Ecuador, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Brazil, Argentina, among others, could talk with President Uribe to speed up negotiations with the FARC.
She said that Colombia had a right to pursue the FARC, be-cause there is a war, but believes that the conflict, like any, should have some minimum ethical standards. She has insisted on the release of Piedad Córdoba as a symbol.
It's unclear how much the crisis last week has affected the FARC's previously well-known desire to continue with negotiations, hand overs, and the creation of a demilitarized zone.
The group has said that they remain committed to the plan, but the loss of the contact man for negotiations they called a "heavy blow" to the chances of the operations.
France confirmed last week that they had contacts with Reyes and knew he had promised to hand over hostages, including Betancourt, to Ecuadorean Pre-sident Rafael Correa.
There is also the issue of what exactly it is Colombian President Alvaro Uribe thinks about Chávez' relationship with the FARC. Last week he seemed fairly sure that Chávez was giving them massive amounts of money, and said he would denounce him for "genocide" before the World Court, but has stepped back.
Of all people, Copei has demanded that Uribe lay his cards on the table. They have told him to either go forward with the evidence he has against Chávez, or detract his claims and admit he was lying.
When the contents of the laptop were actually published, it became exceedingly obvious that they would not be able to establish a strong case against Chávez. There is no actual mention of "300 million dollars," just a document called "300."
Chávez' name does not appear. Trying to come up with an explanation for the "300 dossier" lends itself to several possible stretches of the imagination.
If Uribe persists with the claims or if they are picked up by the U.S. government, all Venezue-lans, not to mention the FARC peace process, could be severely damaged.
Last Friday in the Dominican Republic, Chávez announced that he had received proofs of life of 18 Colombian military officers held by the FARC. And Monday, Justice Minister Ramón Rodríguez Chacín gave Senator Córdoba ten more.
Córdoba said that she believes that the FARC is still interested in unilaterally handing over hos-tages and she announced she would tour Latin America, the United States and Europe to create the committee of friendly countries that President Chávez announced, the Santo Domingo Group. She said the group, which would likely count on Ecuador, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Brazil, Argentina, among others, could talk with President Uribe to speed up negotiations with the FARC.
She said that Colombia had a right to pursue the FARC, be-cause there is a war, but believes that the conflict, like any, should have some minimum ethical standards. She has insisted on the release of Piedad Córdoba as a symbol.
It's unclear how much the crisis last week has affected the FARC's previously well-known desire to continue with negotiations, hand overs, and the creation of a demilitarized zone.
The group has said that they remain committed to the plan, but the loss of the contact man for negotiations they called a "heavy blow" to the chances of the operations.
France confirmed last week that they had contacts with Reyes and knew he had promised to hand over hostages, including Betancourt, to Ecuadorean Pre-sident Rafael Correa.
There is also the issue of what exactly it is Colombian President Alvaro Uribe thinks about Chávez' relationship with the FARC. Last week he seemed fairly sure that Chávez was giving them massive amounts of money, and said he would denounce him for "genocide" before the World Court, but has stepped back.
Of all people, Copei has demanded that Uribe lay his cards on the table. They have told him to either go forward with the evidence he has against Chávez, or detract his claims and admit he was lying.
When the contents of the laptop were actually published, it became exceedingly obvious that they would not be able to establish a strong case against Chávez. There is no actual mention of "300 million dollars," just a document called "300."
Chávez' name does not appear. Trying to come up with an explanation for the "300 dossier" lends itself to several possible stretches of the imagination.
If Uribe persists with the claims or if they are picked up by the U.S. government, all Venezue-lans, not to mention the FARC peace process, could be severely damaged.
"She said that Colombia had a right to pursue the FARC, because there is a war..."
ReplyDeleteSure lady. And by the same token, the FARC has the right to overthrow the colombian narco-régime and institute a socialist state with equality for all.
And for that matter: when is this colombian state mafia going to cough up some of their hostages? And let's not confuse 'hostages' with 'prisoners of war' either, for that matter.