On Nov. 26, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez indefinitely froze relations between his government and the Colombian government headed by Álvaro Uribe. Chávez had been working for several months to secure a prisoner exchange between the Colombia government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which leads a decades-long insurgency and controls large swaths of the Colombian countryside.
The process of negotiations began on Aug. 5, when Piedad Córdoba, a progressive senator from Colombia’s Liberal Party requested that Chávez mediate a humanitarian exchange between the Colombian government and the FARC.
On Aug. 15, Uribe authorized Córdoba to act in a similar role as facilitator, along with Chávez.
In following weeks, the French government, the European Union, Brazilian president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and even Uribe expressed their support for the process.
Chávez had recently met with Ivan Márquez, a high-level secretariat member of the FARC’s military command, in Caracas. In addition, he traveled with Córdoba to a conference in France to garner international support for a humanitarian settlement of the prisoner exchange. Both French and Venezuelan newspapers reported positively on the conference, which was attended by many European nations.
The French government has a direct interest in the prisoner exchange because the FARC currently holds Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian national. Betancourt’s story has captured great public attention in France and President Nicholas Sarkozy made the work for her release one of his campaign promises.
But suddenly on Nov. 21, Uribe abruptly ended Chávez’s role as mediator and Córdoba’s as facilitator, accusing the Venezuelan president of violating the terms of the negotiations and later of sympathizing with the FARC. Uribe claimed that Chávez had violated the two leaders’ agreement by calling Colombian general Mario Montoya.
But at the heart of the rupture in relations is the fact that Chávez and Uribe represent two diametrically-opposed political trends in Latin America. The rightwing Uribe is a strict adherent to the neo-liberal model and an ardent supporter of the Bush administration. In addition, Uribe has been linked to the notorious fascist paramilitary organization, the United Self-Defense Forces of Columbia (AUC). Videotape and eyewitness testimonies have also been released that show Uribe shaking hands with high-level paramilitary commanders. Over the last several months, due to investigations led by Colombia’s Liberal Party, Uribe-backed congressmen, aides, cabinet members, intelligence officers and military commanders have been incarcerated or investigated by federal courts for having ties with the AUC.
Hugo Chávez is spearheading the Bolivarian Revolution, which aims to lead Venezuela towards socialism and unify Latin America as a whole. Chávez has energized socialists and anti-imperialists throughout Latin America, and has become a primary target of the U.S. corporate and political establishment.
It is very likely that the U.S. government decided the negotiations were showing Chávez in a favorable light as a successful mediator, and thus had to end. With the Dec. 2 Venezuelan referendum looming, the anti-Chávez propaganda in full swing and the CIA trying desperately to destabilize the country, the last thing Washington would want is for the Bolivarian president to score a major diplomatic victory.
In addition, there were already signs that the Uribe government was not going to negotiate in good faith. Although the FARC had called for the demilitarization of the towns of Pradera and Florida, in order to help create a safe zone for talks and the prisoner exchange, Uribe consistently refused.
Before the “spit launched at the face of Venezuela”—as Chávez called it—the Venezuelan president had left the door open for future relations with Uribe. But for now, Venezuela has cut all ties with Colombia.
Chávez said he does not know how this will affect the extensive business relationships between the neighbor countries, but that “everything” could be affected.
The era of Chávez patiently tolerating the extreme militarism and elitism of Uribe and the Colombian government is officially over. Instead, Chávez announced, “the time has come to unmask him.”
Chávez has made the lines very clear once again; the people of Latin America must choose sides. As Chávez put it in one of his speeches in response to the attacks by Uribe, “[Uribe and his government are] part of the Colombian oligarchy. They are very rich people. Well in other words they are Santander; the one who gave the order to kill [Simon] Bolivar thereby destroying Gran Colombia … ‘Santanderism’ is alive in Bogotá! … We are Bolivarianism! For Liberty, for Liberation for the unity of our people!”
