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The Right-Wing Brazilian Politicians vs Venezuela and FARC
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
[Venezuela's permanent entry into Mercosur, while approved by almost
all of its South American members and by Brazil's President Lula da
Silva, was blocked late in 2007 by the right-wing pro-oligarch
legislators in Brazil. These are the same interests who approve of
right-wing paramilitary operations in Colombia, their incursions into
Venezuela, the USA's dismally failed drug war (called Plan Colombia)
and are [leased to see Colombia's President Uribe's recent dithering,
demented, or perhaps just deceptive behavior, as he changes his tune on
the FARC prisoner negotiations almost daily.
The "banana republic" legislators in Brazil, as COHA calls them, are
now mocking the failure of Hugo Chavez's efforts to negotiate the
release of a few FARC prisoners. But that was yesterday, when Colombia's
government announced an end to any foreign involvement in humanitarian
missions. Today is a new day, Chavez says he has received Uribe's
approval for the release after all. Who know what the story will be
tomorrow.
Uribe appears heedless to the cost and anguish of the years-long
conflict to Colombians, and the suffering it has caused. He is
apparently simply following orders from el Norte. -NY Transfer]
Council on Hemispheric Affairs - Jan 8, 2008
http://www.coha.org/2008/01/08/brazil%e2%80%99s-legislators-react-to-chavez%e2%80%99s-failed-effort-to-obtain-the-release-of-several-farc-political-prisoners/
Some Brazilian Legislators Mock Chavez's Failure to Rescue Colombian
Hostages
Some legislative figures in Brasilia, who at times apparently confuse
their country with Honduras when it comes to a well-ripened capacity
for corruption and other banana republic antics, may have now turned
from selling their votes on pending legislation to more esoteric
political matters. This is because their venality has become a target
for public opprobrium from Brazilians in all walks of life. It was this
kind of behavior that appeared to originally inspire Hugo Chavez to
famously describe, in a perhaps impolitic manner, some members of
Brazils upper house as being Wa****ngtons parrots. Now those
legislators seem to have contracted to carry out some further good
works on Wa****ngtons behalf by attempting to block Venezuelas
prospects of being voted into the Mercosur trade pact.
According to Latin News, several Brazilian brave hearts, such as
Senator Her!****o Fortes and Congressman Raul Jungmann, have belittled
Chavezs humanitarian role after the latter had accepted Colombian
President Alvaro Uribes invitation to act as an intermediate in trying
to obtain the release of hostages held by the leftist Colombian
guerrillas, the FARC. Jungmann, who heads Brazilias lower houses
Foreign Relations Committee, accused Chavez of self promotion and
asserted that the Venezuelan effort had no interest in saving the
lives of the hostages, while Fortes dismissed Chavezs labors as
little better than another example of his pyrotechnic initiatives.
They did this by ridiculing the Venezuelan presidents sincerity and
well-intended bona fides in seeking an early release of the hostages.
If Chavez is guilty of anything, it was that he overestimated Uribes
personal stability and that before the Colombian leader had
preemptively dumped the Venezuela president, he had repeatedly
sabotaged the Venezuelan leaders hostage release efforts.
Wa****ngton understandably has been anxious to score points against the
despised Hugo Chavez by depreciating what it saw as his offish role in
seeking to unsuccessfully gain the release of hostages caught up in the
bitter Colombian conflict. But the mystery remains what was in it for
Bogot! to play such a spoilers role" why did Uribe, by ridiculing
Chavezs release efforts, do something which on the surface did so
little for Colombia as well as his own increasingly precarious domestic
political standing?
It was obvious that President Uribe, who certainly is no marplot, was
looking for a fight when he preemptively revoked Hugo Ch!vezs local
credentials to potentially negotiate a hostage swap. If so, this
represented an abrupt change of styles. Soon after taking office in
2002, Uribe admirably had fought for autonomy from U.S. dominance in
order to maintain a constructive and engaged relation****p with his
counterpart in neighboring Venezuela, and both leaders worked to
contain major crisis situations " be it the abduction of a high FARC
official from Caracas or an alleged Colombian-related plot to
assassinate Chavez " that could have severely poisoned their ties. No
matter how grating or provocative was the divisive incident, both sides
always have managed to draw back from the brink. This included such
incidents as the aforementioned abduction and later extradition to the
U.S. of the senior FARC official by some local bounty hunters in the
pay of Colombian intelligence agents, as well as efforts by the then
U.S. ambassador to Bogot! to try to pressure Uribe to seek a
confrontation vis--vis Venezuela over several bilateral issues.
Uribes original decision to work through Chavez on the hostage had
prospects of paying off because there was every reason to believe that
Chavez was close to achieving some success with FARCs senior
leader****p over the deeply troubling hostage issue which was costing
Uribe popularity plunges back in Bogot!.
While the poor taste of Jungmann and Fortes reflects their destined
meretricious foot-note role in the affair involving Venezuela, and
innocent political prisoners, their conduct also sadly provides
tangible proof of the banality of so many of Brazils elected public
figures and the great countrys widely noted lack of decisive
leader****p on a national level.
*
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