Chavez freezes ties with Colombia

[Heidi]

Source: BBC

Page last updated at 03:28 GMT, Wednesday, 29 July 2009 04:28 UK

Venezuela is withdrawing its ambassador from neighbouring Colombia and freezing relations, following a dispute over weapons supplied to Colombian rebels.

President Hugo Chavez, who announced the move on Venezuelan TV, also said he was halting trade deals with Colombia.

The announcement came a day after the Colombia government said weapons bought by Venezuela from Sweden had made their way to left-wing Farc guerrillas.

Mr Chavez denied this and accused Colombia of acting "irresponsibly".



Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8173709.stm

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Earlier related Latest Breaking News Thread

[RedCloud]

1. ¿Qué ha pasado con Gran Colombia?

They were all at one time together with Ecuador and Teddy's break away root hog or die Canal province, Panama, one big happy family.

I really don't know what to make of this since Venezuela wants to send oil to China via Colombia.

Thanks Heidi for your post.:pals:

[Heidi]

2. Good morning,

you! :hug:

[RedCloud]

3. More breaking news! Weapons were from 1980's!

Check this out:

Jan-Erik Lovgren, the head of the Swedish government agency that supervises weapons exports, told Swedish Radio that the rocket launchers were sold to Venezuela during the 1980s, – at least a decade before the Chavez government came to power.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4670

[EFerrari]

4. LOL.

:hi:

[dipsydoodle]

5. And FARC was established

well prior to that - 1960's I think.

[RedCloud]

6. This type of scandalous reporting is propaganda for the stupid.

They always say Chávez nationalized oil, but Pérez did it many years ago. Or else we were lied to once again.

[dipsydoodle]

7. You're preaching

to the long ago converted. :hi:

[formercia]

8. The Choir agrees.

Preach on. :hi:

[Igel]

12. True.

And I guess it's possible that FARC acquired the rocket launchers before Chavez was elected in what, 1999? That they've carried them around for 10 years without using them. Or perhaps put them in the permanent armories they've constructed around Columbia.

Oh, wait. I don't think FARC has permanent armories.

My point, poorly made: It's easier to store weapons for 20+ years in a warehouse where they can sit on a shelf than in a series of jungle encampments. Note the word "easier". It's not impossible that FARC's had them for over a decade, it's just not what you'd generally think of as the default hypothesis.

[dipsydoodle]

15. They are old anti tank weapons

not anti aircraft for example and I guess that whoever has had possession had yet to find a suitable opporunity not to waste them.

[Peace Patriot]

9. The din of corpo/fascist 'news' monopoly lies and propaganda about Chavez has become

very intense--has increased rather than decreased from Bush Junta levels--and is very, very worrisome.

"Big Lie" campaigns like this take humongous energy and resources--money, people, bribes, networks. They are not cheap. And they are not conducted for the hell of it. We have only to review the buildup to the Iraq War to understand what this campaign against Chavez probably means--Oil War II-South America.

All of the war assets are being put in place--the reconstitution of the US 4th Fleet in the Caribbean (initiated by the Bushwhacks last summer, and I haven't seen any countermanding order from the Obamaites; even Lula da Silva considers the 4th Fleet a threat to Brazil's oil--everybody south of the border knows that it is a threat to Venezuela); five new US military bases in Colombia (--five! For what? The "war on drugs"? Ha, ha.), which has a long border with Venezuela; the putsch in Honduras (a US client state, with a history of being used as a "lily pad" country for US aggression in the region); the payment of multi-millions of US taxpayer dollars, through USAID and other budgets, to fascist coup plotters within Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Honduras and other countries (these coup plotters in the oil rich provinces of northern Venezuela (on the Caribbean, adjacent to Colombia) and Ecuador (adjacent to Colombia) intend to secede from the national governments, and turn over control of the oil to US multinationals); the larding of Mexico's rightwing regime with billions in military aid (again, for the laughable if it wasn't so murderous "war on drugs). They can't have Iran's oil--as long as Russia and China are a threat. So they want Venezuela's and Ecuador's, at least. (Both adjacent to Colombia, both victims of border harassment including an outright US/Colombia attack on Ecuador last year, with ten 500 lb US "smart bombs"--ostensibly to slaughter 25 sleeping people in a temporary FARC hostage negotiator's camp--to sabotage FARC's bid for peace--but also to test out military systems from Colombia against Ecuador and Venezuela.)

This crap from Sweden about weapons from the 1980's is not a mistake, is not "bad journalism," and is not just another lie by terrified global corporate predators, in fear of socialism. It is part of a long running, now intensifying psyops campaign, and it's purpose--from what I can see--is war.

[fascisthunter]

14. Robert Amsterdam is making the rounds on left leaning talk shows

and the hosts are falling for it.

[dipsydoodle]

16. Maybe the question which should be asked

was why did Perez buy them in the first place. Venezuala wasn't exactly at war with anyone at that point in time.

They were bought in Europe and presumably taken back as hand luggage :) :shrug:

[Canuckistanian]

10. How do you "freeze ties"?

You either maintain or you cut off ties.

"Freezing" gives the impression that ties are being held at the status quo.

[Vidar]

11. Good for Chavez.

[fascisthunter]

13. Good