Hugo Chavez and Colombia

Hugo Chavez is a fascinating character to me. He loves to compare himself to the Bolivars and Guevaras of the world, but really lacks the ideological depth and charismatic qualities of those two men. He reminds me of Saddam Hussein. Radical Islam was always simply a convenient vehicle for Hussein to advance . . . well, the cause of Hussein. Marxism serves much the same purpose for Chavez. Like Islam, Marxism in and of itself isn't inherently negative or evil. However, certain aspects of both ideologies lend themselves to revolutionary appeals. But while Islam is simply young (where was Christianity 600 years ago?) and will hopefully, like Christianity, shed it's more literal interpretations of scripture with time, Marxism requires a revolution to work. But Chavez is no ideologue. It would surprise the hell out of me if he has even read Das Kapital. He is a strongman, a thug - no more. And the recent troubles between Columbia, Venezuela and Chavez stooges Ecuador really illustrate it.

This conflict is about drugs, not Karl Marx. Anyone who watched Entourage last season or has seen any number of those flashy, ridiculous drug dealer biopics like Blow will have at least a notion of what FARC is all about - newspapers label them as Marxist Guerrillas, and maybe when they were established in 1964 at the height of the Cold War, they were exactly that. But not anymore. Cocaine has funded and fueled their army for so long that they are no different than a street gang fighting for their corners, or in this case crops. Ideology was abandoned long ago. But naive lefty youngsters around the world and in Europe especially have turned a blind eye this unfortunate truth and have idealized the group, turning them into righteous warriors for a cause long dead - "Guerrilla Chic."

The case of 29 year old Tanja Nijmeijer brings this into focus. Nijmmeijer was an upper-class dutch college student who fell for the Guerrilla Chic, and is now paying dearly. She wrote her senior thesis at the University of Groningen on FARC, and then traveled to Colombia in 2000 to see things for herself. Upon arriving, she taught English to the upper class children in Pereira and volunteered at a shantytown just outside the city. She was understandably horrified by the wealth disparities her two roles must have illustrated. She decided to do something, and joined FARC. Over 3 years later, a raid by the Colombian government yielded her laptop and diary. The laptop was filled with pictures of her family, who she has not been in contact with for years, and her diary details the FARC commanders hypocrisy, materialism, drug use, and brutality. She is unable to escape for fear of being shot by what by now can only be termed as her captors.

Ingrid Betancort is a much more publicized case. Her dual-French citizenship has assured Europe has rallied around her cause. Like Nijmeijer, she bit off more than she could chew when while campaigning for the Colombian presidency, she ignored government warnings and ventured into rebel territory to pontificate about corruption and was immediately kidnapped and held hostage by FARC. She was kidnapped in 2002, and is still being held.

That brings us to the nastiness this weekend. Chavez has been defending FARC since coming to power, and has gotten 6 hostages released over the last few months - but not Betancourt. However, this weekend he went into a tizzy along with Ecuador's Rafeal Correa over Columbia's incursion into Ecuador to cap Raul Reyes, FARC's second in command. Both men claimed they had been very close to securing Betancourt's release and the "warmongering US puppet" had fucked things up but good. Of course there has been no mention from either government of the laundry list of atrocities Reyes has commited in the name of the coca plant. Ecuador has cut off diplomatic ties to Columbia, and Chavez has as usual taken to the bully pulpit to practice his Castro impression and bogart the international media.

It may simply be that Chavez is using FARC to get more attention. I am sure he would love to personally secure Betancourt's release if only to rub it in the face of the new, tough-talking Parisan Sheriff Nicolas Sarkozy.But there are intelligence sources around the globe that believe Chavez's infatuation with FARC may have more to do with business than anything else. This article in the Guardian gives a nice overview of Venezuela's real motivations in cozying up with FARC. A while back we linked to a story detailing Chavez henchmen getting caught at a Miami airport with suitcases full of cash. Obviously it is quite a jump to assume it was drug money . . . but the Guardian article makes some shocking assertions about just how deep the ties between the Colombian drug trade and the Venezuelan military - ie Chavez - go.