President Chavez says he would have liked to meet rebel leader Marulanda; hope death of FARC leader will lead to dialogue

Caracas Daily Journal (Jeremy Morgan): President Hugo Chavez said no one should be celebrating the death of Colombian rebel leader Manuel Marulanda -- and that he regrets they never met. Chavez referred to the rebel commander's death for the first time during a televised speech on Thursday, four days after it was confirmed in a video by a senior rebel leader. "It's lamentable to see some people happy about someone's death. We aren't happy about the death of Manuel Marulanda ... I'm sorry that I couldn't meet with Manuel Marulanda to talk about peace.''

The President said he would have liked to talk with Marulanda about a proposed swap of rebel-held hostages for imprisoned guerrillas. He hoped that "dialogue, conversations, are reactivated in this new situation created by Manuel Marulanda's death.

Chavez expressed his willingness to cooperate with Colombia and try to help free more hostages. The rebels have an ideological affinity for Chavez and freed six hostages to Venezuelan officials earlier this year. But relations between Venezuela and Colombia have grown tense in recent months due to a Colombian military strike on the rebel group in Ecuadorean territory and Colombia's accusations that Chávez has sought to arm and fund the guerrillas.

Chavez insists he has not been aiding the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and has been in contact only while seeking to broker hostage releases. That said, Chávez has long been under suspicion of sympathizing with the FARC. That relations between Chavez and Colombian president Alvaro Uribe are prickly is a secret to no one. Uribe's a conservative with free market instincts and Washington's closest ally in South America, none of which is in the least to Chavez' liking.
Uribe is in an alliance with the United States in his battle against drug trafficking. The FARC and other guerrilla groups are believed to be using the drug trade and common crimes such as kidnapping and extortion to finance their operations. For his part, Chávez has labeled the FARC as a legitimate "belligerent" in a civil conflict.

Skepticism about Chavez' links with the FARC was heightened by Colombian claims to have found files in a computer that supposedly belonged to the FARC's "foreign minister" and second in command, Raul Reyes, when he was killed on March 1. Whether the tapes actually demonstrate sustained links between Chavez and the FARC, as some of the President's opposers have claimed, remains a matter of debate. So, too, does the authenticity of the files and the claims made about their content. Marulanda's death of a heart attack in March was confirmed by senior rebel leader Timoleon Jimenez in a video broadcast last Sunday. Marulanda was believed to be 78.