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Venezuela to Colombia : A U.S. Base on the Border Means War

5:17 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Colombia|Ecuador|Venezuela · 1 Comment

15 May 2008

With the lease of the U.S. military base in Manta, Ecuador expiring next year and Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa vowing not to renew, the United States Ambassador to Colombia, William Brownfield, suggested that the Ecuador base could be moved to La Guajira inside Colombia, who maintains friendly diplomatic relations with the U.S. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, not one to take a “wait and see” approach, said that placing a U.S. base in the region that spans northeastern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela, would equal nothing less than a threat of war.

“We will not allow the Colombian government to give La Guajira to the empire,” Chavez said, referring to the US during a speech to a packed auditorium of uniformed soldiers.
“Colombia is launching a threat of war at us.”

While Chavez certainly will be called out because he is the only one crying “war” , what would a U.S. military base on the Colombia/Venezuela border mean?

Via / Al Jazeera

Hugo Chavez Says Colombia (and U.S.) Trying to Provoke War

1:19 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Colombia|Politics|Venezuela · 2 Comments

12 May 2008

Yesterday Hugo Chavez accused Colombia (and the U.S.) of provoking a war by pushing Interpol to back up the position that Venezuela’s government has supported the FARC.

“El gobierno de Colombia es capaz, así lo digo, es capaz de provocar una guerra con Venezuela para tratar de justificar la intervención de los Estados Unidos en Venezuela”, expresó el mandatario, en su habitual mensaje dominical.

Currently Interpol is determining if computer files recovered from a camp of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia prove that Venezuela is supporting the guerrilla organization, as the U.S. and Colombia claim.

The Wall Street Journal reported May 9 that the files showed that Chavez sought guerrilla warfare training from the FARC, as the rebel group is known, and may have offered to supply them with rockets, citing unnamed senior U.S. intelligence officials. The findings may increase pressure for the U.S. to put Venezuela on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, the Journal reported.

Penobscot Nation Has Got Venezuela’s Back

10:27 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Politics|Venezuela · Comments Off

10 Apr 2008

Penobscot Indians are leading the opposition to a congressional resolution to label Venezuela as a terrorist country.
Penobscot leaders say that House Resolution 1049 threatens to stop free heating oil that Venezuela has supplied to hundreds of American Indians and low-income people for the last three years. James Sappier, former Penobscot chief, said it was not true that the Venezuela government supports the Colombian guerrilla group, FARC, designated by the U.S. as a terrorist group. Sappier and others are urging tribes to contact their representatives to urge them to vote against the resolution.

Via / New American Media

Los Simpsons Don’t Live In Venezuela

1:15 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · TV|Venezuela · 1 Comment

9 Apr 2008

In Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, boobs bouncing in bathing suits is more appropriate at 11 am than the Simpsons.

The country’s TV regulator said the saga of Homer Simpson, wife Marge and their three children flouted regulations that prohibit “messages that go against the whole education of boys, girls and adolescents”.
It said that some unspecified complaints had been received from viewers.
Televen’s manager may decide to show The Simpsons, which has been dubbed into Spanish, at another time of day.

It’s not even the original Baywatch replacing the popular cartoon family, it’ Baywatch Hawaii, a later incarnation of the lifeguard rescue show which started in 1989.

Via / BBC

Venezuela Does It’s Part Against Ilegal Drug Trade

12:15 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Venezuela · Comments Off

31 Mar 2008

Venezuela has long been criticized by the U.S. government for not doing enough against the illegal drug trade within it’s borders. Its’ not clear if the recent anti-drug campaign within Venezuela is a reaction to this criticism or part of a longer strategy.

Venezuelan authorities have launched a new operation against the illegal drugs trade by bombing secret airstrips in remote parts of the country.
The first runway to be destroyed was 15km (nine miles) from the Colombian border in the state of Apure.

Via / BBC

Venezuela Wins Suit Against Exxon

9:19 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · business|Money|Venezuela · Comments Off

18 Mar 2008

Score for Venezuela in it’s ongoing battle with U.S. oil giant Exxon. Earlier today a British court ruled that a $12 billion freeze on Venezuelan assets awarded to U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil should be lifted. The freeze has been won in January by Exxon, who wanted to secure available cash if it won arbitration over an oil field which was lost in President Hugo Chavez’s nationalization drive. Exxon is expected to appeal.

Venezuela’s Ambassador to Britain, who arrived shortly after the ruling, answered with just one word when he heard the result: “Excellento”.Excellento? Um Reuters, check your translations.

Via / Reuters

Paz Sin Fronteras Concert This Sunday on Colombian-Venezuelan Border

14 Mar 2008

This Sunday, March 16th, on a bridge linking Venezuela and Colombia, music will join the two nations as well, following political drama between the South American countries. The Concierto Paz Sin Fronteras (The Peace Without Borders Concert)will feature Miguel Bosé, Juan Luis Guerra, Juanes, Ricardo Montaner, Alejandro Sanz, Juan Fernando Velasco And Carlos Vives. This concert on the Simón Bolívar Bridge Linking Cucuta, Colombia, and San Antonio del Tachira , Venezuela is Juanes brainchild, revealing his continuing interest and activism in human rights and peace issues in his country, Colombia and in Latin America as a whole.

Colombia and Venezuela Make Nice

6:03 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Colombia|Ecuador|Politics|Venezuela · Comments Off

10 Mar 2008

art.uribechavez.ap.jpg After a week of rising tensions between Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Yesterday Venezuela announced that it was reestablishing diplomatic relations with Colombia. This followed a Friday meeting between the parties in the Dominican Republic where the presidents of Ecuador, Venezuela, and Colombia signed a declaration to end a crisis sparked by the attack, when Colombian troops killed a rebel leader and 21 others inside Ecuadoran territory.

“The Venezuelan government will send to Bogota, immediately, diplomatic personnel charged with representing the republic before the government of Colombia,” the Venezuelan government said in a statement posted online Sunday. “In the same manner, the Venezuelan government has communicated to the Colombia authorities their disposition to receive in Caracas, in a short time, the diplomatic personnel of the sister republic.”

The three presidents even shook hands. Awww.

Via / CNN

Hugo Chavez Quote of the Day

9:35 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Latin America|Politics|Venezuela · Comments Off

5 Mar 2008

With the escalating war of words and laptops going on among Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela let’s get Hugo Chavez’s aka Latin American enemy #1 (even beating out Fidel!)take on things.

Before sending troops to the Colombian border, On Sunday during his weekly talk show he said:

The Colombian government has turned into the Israel of Latin America. Colombia is a terrorist state that is subject to the great terrorist, the government of the United States and their apparatus.

Via / IMC NYC

Are Colombia, Ecuador & Venezuela Ready to Get Their War On?

12:42 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Colombia|Ecuador|Politics|US Presidential Race 2008|Venezuela · Comments Off

4 Mar 2008

The media is all over the story that Ecuador and Venezuela are ready to declare war on Colombia. Ecuador and Venezuela have cut diplomatic ties with Colombia and sent troops to their respective borders with the nation run by Alvaro Uribe. Alvaro Uribe can indeed be seen as the cause of the war talk thanks to him allowing (some say officially ordering) his troops into Ecuadorian land to capture and kill FARC leader Raúl Reyes. In the raid laptops were captured, starting a war of documents on laptops as well. Colombia says that documents recovered reveal Hugo Chavez’s support of the FARC in terms of money. Venezuela later displayed the laptop of a slain drug trafficker, which it said contained information implicating Colombia’s national police chief in the cocaine trade.

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