Colombia to return Venezuela national guard troops

[bemildred]

Source: AP

BOGOTA — Four soldiers from Venezuela's National Guard captured in Colombian territory will be repatriated in a bid to ease tensions between the South American neighbors, President Alvaro Uribe's government said Saturday.

The Colombian navy intercepted the men Friday in El Aceitico along the border, according to a statement by Colombia's DAS intelligence agency. It said they were traveling in a boat, inside which Venezuelan military uniforms were found.

Long-standing tensions have worsened in recent months over Colombia's agreement to give the U.S. military more access to its bases — a deal that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez calls a threat to his country.

Chavez ordered his military last weekend to prepare for possible war with Colombia in case the U.S. attempts to provoke one.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hCIKDzMk3thB2iiP8uhH7lXThSCQD9BVM81G0

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. And people wonder why monitoring would be a good thing

[Vidar]

2. The way to deal with bullies is to call their bluff. Chavez did that to

Columbia, home base of our death squads.

[COLGATE4]

3. Oh come on

You don't really believe that, do you?

[RedCloud]

4. Ho Chi Minh and Castro came to the USA first, looking for help.

But then again, I am sure you know that!

And in the rare event you are simply cracker barreling your way through this, do you not see a pattern? Arm the counterinsurgency to the teeth while paying lip service to the concepts of American democracy to its sheeple?

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

6. Okay

Which is somehow different from the game of arming communist guerillas to the teeth while paying lip service to the concepts of liberty and the self-determination of peoples?

[EFerrari]

9. And yet another bout of innuendo for which you produce no evidence.

Consistency is only a virtue up to a point.

Meanwhile, it has been shown that Plan Colombia and USAID funds have enriched the Colombian paras.

http://www.verdadabierta.com/paraeconomia/1963-platas-de-usaid-y-plan-colombia-llegaron-a-manos-de-los-paras

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

10. "Go to the archives"

I've posted several links for you already and your response has always been to either immediately abandon the thread or to claim the materials I've presented have been "disproven" without providing any sort of evidence of that yourself. Quite frankly, it seems that you like to start arguments about this subject and when they really get going, you hide on the sidelines and hope Lynn or PeacePatriot will bail you out.

[EFerrari]

11. Oh, baloney. You have zip evidence that Chavez is arming anyone to the teeth

just as you have zip evidence that he's "backing" FARC.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

12. I would post the links again

but you'd simply dance around them, insisting they've been disproven but failing to cite any evidence that proves it. You've made it abudantly clear that anything that taints the image of Chavez you have in your mind will be dismissed out of hand.

[EFerrari]

17. You also have zip real interest in this topic, refusing to look at anything

I or Peace Patriot or Judi Lynn have offered you. Have a good night!

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

19. Actually,

I've read nearly everything the three of you have offered up - whether it's been relevant to the discussions we've been having or not.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

5. And how exactly do you propose TWO bullies deal with each other?

[Judi Lynn]

13. Where are Hugo Chavez' death squads, record of massacres, "false politives,"

with his own military slaughtering innocent people and dressing them as FARCs to add to the body count, and where is his record of connections to the narcotraffickers going back for decades to his own father, as well as his living cousin, his cabinet members, and much of his party's Senators?o

Uribe was even mentioned as a politician connected, along with his father, to narcotraffickers in a US Department of Defense report in 1991.

Either honor your responsibility to get in touch with the facts, or stop trying to bait D.U. posters who come here in good conscience to communicate with other Democrats, liberals, progressives.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

14. You seem to have this idea

that since the paramilitaries are bad, anyone who isn't a paramilitary or directly involved with the paramilitaries is automatically good and has their hands free of the blood of innocents. Quite frankly, it's insane. Perhaps you've spent so much time focusing on the crimes of the paramilitaries that you've blinded yourself to the crimes of the FARC. I don't know. All I can say is that your black and white view of the world doesn't take into account the complexities of this situation and, in fact, seems more based on emotionalism than an objective analysis.

[EFerrari]

15. And you seem to have the idea that your psuedo logic makes sense

to anyone but you.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

16. Do tell.

[Ysabela]

7. Yet another biased headline for the US/Columbia propaganda war

The headline should read "Columbia to release hostages, Venezuelan National Guard Troops"

[EFerrari]

18. Bingo.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Venezuela's Media Minister: End tensions only through direct negotiations with USA

Venezuela's Media Minister: End tensions only through direct negotiations with USA
By Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Communication & Information (Minci) Minister Blanca Eekhout has held a press conference insisting that Venezuela seeks peace both in Venezuela and Colombia.

The conference was part of a government counter-attack to charges launched by Brazil's Senate that postponed approval for Venezuela's entry into the Southern Cone Economic Zone (Mercosur) and the Colombian Foreign Ministry's decision to accuse Chavez at the UN for threatening Colombia with war.

President Chavez has used several public events to explain what he actually meant when he told military officers last Sunday to prepare for war. The phrase he used was an old adage learned in every military academy that "if you want peace, prepare for war." The proverb comes from Roman times and Latin "Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum." The opposition and international press blew the statement out of context.

Minister Eekhout tackled the matter as media minister, showing statistics that around 75% of recent articles on Venezuela published by the international press are negative. The sample monthly survey is taken from pieces written in 14 South American broadsheets, eight European and, surprisingly, just three US broadsheets.

Positive pieces gonged a meager 5% and very positive a poor 1%.

When asked about Brazil's intermediation offer, Eekhout said any help is welcome but Venezuela doesn't need any mediators because dialogue to ease tensions must be direct with the United States of America whom she accuses of employing the double morality of spouting peace overtures while in practice installing military bases.

More:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Venezuela-s-Media-Minister-by-Patrick-J-O-Donog-091112-740.html

[Judi Lynn]

20. Venezuela: Colombia detained troops illegally

Posted on Monday, 11.16.09
Venezuela: Colombia detained troops illegally
The Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela -- A Venezuelan commander contends Colombia wrongly detained four of his soldiers last week along the border separating the South American nations.

National Guard Gen. Orlando Mijares says the troops were navigating the Meta River, which is part of the border, when Colombian soldiers intercepted their boat.

Mijares said Monday that rivers on the frontier are considered international waters under agreements between Venezuela and Colombia, meaning troops from both countries are allowed to use them.

Colombia sent the Venezuelans home over the weekend, saying it wanted to ease worsening tensions. There have been several shootings and slayings the past few weeks along the border.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/1337218.html

[Mudoria]

21. I guess he has to spin it somehow