Chavez Threatening Colombia
(T)Hugo Chavez has moved ten battalions of his army to the Colombian border. His intentions are not clear, but the volume of his rhetoric indicates that he may be willing to go to war allied with the criminals and drug traffickers of the Colombian FARC group.
CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez on Sunday ordered thousands of troops to the border with Colombia after Colombia's military killed a top rebel leader.
Chavez told his defense minister: "Move 10 battalions for me to the border with Colombia, immediately." He also ordered the Venezuelan Embassy in Colombia closed and said all embassy personnel would be withdrawn.
The announcements by Venezuela's leftist leader pushed relations to their tensest point of his nine-year presidency, and Chavez warned that Colombia could spark a war in South America.
He called the U.S.-allied government in Bogota "a terrorist state" and labeled President Alvaro Uribe "a criminal."
The leftist leader warned that Colombia’s slaying of rebel spokesman Raul Reyes could spark a war.
“It wasn’t any combat. It was a cowardly murder, all of it coldly calculated,” Chavez said.
“We pay tribute to a true revolutionary, who was Raul Reyes,” Chavez said, recalling that he had met rebel in Brazil in 1995 and calling him a “good revolutionary.”
Well, only if you subscribe to a certain definition of good revolutionary, being a dead one. Reyes was accused of expanding FARC's drug trafficking as well as of the murder of hundreds of people who opposed FARC. Regardless, I sincerely hope Chavez is not crazy enough to cross that border. If he does, the US will have to intervene – and will have a perfect justification to do so in Chavez's invasion. If the Congress wants to send a clear message to Venezuela that they will support Colombia and considers it an ally, they should pass the free trade agreement with Colombia. It may help avert a war.
World news | Gaius March 2, 2008
By feeblemind, March 2, 2008 @ 3:10 pm
If Chavez goes to war with Columbia, do we still buy his oil? If not, where will we get it? Either way, I look for it to support the price of oil.
By Quilly Mammoth, March 2, 2008 @ 5:36 pm
(T)Hugo’s oil counts for less than 10% of the oil we use. NAFTA requires that Canada make up any shortages such an embargo would create. (Yeah, Obama…let’s scrap NAFTA you dolt). More importantly, the only real producing fields that (T)Hugo has produce a type of oil that only in America are there many refineries capable of refining it. The fields that produce lighter crude require foreign assistance to develop…and he stole them _before_ that really happened. The refineries in Venezuela were in the middle of being fully upgraded to refine his oil effectively but, well, he stole them before fully complete _and_ enough local talent was trained enough to keep going.In short, the doofus really needs us more than we need him. In a war Colombia’s Army is vastly superior to Venezuela’s. However, the acquisition of SU-30MK@ by Venezuela last year makes them quantitatively better than Colombia’s Kfir and Mirage 5 fighters. If Colombia can knock down the SU-30s than tehir Super Tacanos will decimate Venezuela’s Army.
By martian, March 3, 2008 @ 10:42 am
The tried and true method for a dictator to retain power – start a war! Make sure everyone is concentrating on the war and blame the enemy for all of the problems – economic downturns, shortages, etc. – that are facing your country. (T)Hugo is just following the script. What he’s counting on is that we are stretched too thin militarily and politically to give significant help to Columbia.
By Joe Grajales, March 3, 2008 @ 4:38 pm
Great post there. Conservatives will not let this proto-communist dictator attack its democratic neighbor, which happens to be our main ally in the region. And all the talk about the American military being overstretched is overdone. The US would only need to send down a couple of air craft carriers and cruisers into the Caribbean and wipe out the Venezuelan war infrastructure. The Colombian army is probably second only to the Marines as far as being battle tested and tough as nails, so they could do the work on the ground. Chavez better tread carefully or he’ll end up like Mussolini!