UN lauds Venezuela's achievements on fighting drug trafficking

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Xinhua

UN lauds Venezuela's achievements on fighting drug trafficking
13:15, June 25, 2010

President of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly Ali Abdessalam Treki on Thursday lauded the Venezuelan government's progress in the fight against drug trafficking.

During a meeting with Venezuelan Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami and National Anti-Drug Office Director Nestor Luis Reverol, Treki said a UN analysis last week indicated that the country's fight against drug trafficking and organized crime had achieved positive results.

"We are satisfied with the achievements presented by the Venezuelan government," said Treki, who was on a visit to Venezuela as part of his Latin America tour to evaluate social projects of the Millennium Development Goals 2001-2015.

Treki has also met with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and other senior officials, who briefed him about progress in some social causes, including the fight against poverty and inequality, the effort to reduce birth-related mortality, literacy campaigns and food, education and health assistance to women.

Read more: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90856/7040469.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Venezuela says it captures suspected drug smuggler wanted in US on cocaine trafficking charges

Venezuela says it captures suspected drug smuggler wanted in US on cocaine trafficking charges
CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER
Associated Press Writer
10:17 p.m. EDT, June 24, 2010

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela has captured a suspected Colombian drug smuggler who is wanted on cocaine charges in the United States and who has allegedly collaborated with Mexico's Zetas drug gang, the justice minister said Thursday.

Tareck El Aissami held up the arrest of Luis Frank Tello Candelo, 47, better known as "El Negro Frank," as proof of Venezuela's determination to combat organized crime and drug trafficking.

Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas did not immediately answer telephone calls seeking comment.

El Aissami did not provide details regarding Tello Candelo's purported ties to the Zetas, initially formed by an elite group of Mexican soldiers who deserted to become hit men for the Gulf Cartel. The Zetas have since turned to drug trafficking and are fighting their former allies.

More:
http://www.courant.com/news/nation-world/sns-ap-lt-venezuela-us-drugs,0,3498059.story

[Judi Lynn]

17. Colombian trafficker arrested in Venezuela .(His records disappeared from the DEA, and the CIA)

Colombian trafficker arrested in Venezuela .
Friday, 25 June 2010 11:39 Brett Borkan .

Venezuelan authorities report the arrest of Colombian cocaine smuggler Luis Frank Tello Candelo, alias "El Negro Frank" who is wanted by the United States on drug charges.

According to Venezuelan interior minister Tareck El Aissami, Venezuelan police arrested 47-year-old El Negro Frank on Wednesday in the state of Miranda, alongside a Mexican alleged narco-trafficker from the "Los Zetas" cartel.

El Aissami said that the Colombian trafficker was also arrested in Colombia in 1996, but freed in 1999 when a judge ordered his release due to lack of evidence, after his file mysteriously disappeared from Colombian intelligence agency DAS' archives, in addition to those of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and CIA.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/10482-colombian-trafficker-arrested-in-venezuela.html

~~~~~
Can't find any photos of this guy. They are all just GONE. Here's a report on him via google translation:

Captured in Venezuela to Colombian narco requested by U.S.
June 24, 2010 3:57 pm

Authorities arrested a suspected Colombian drug trafficker who is wanted in the United States for various crimes, said Thursday the Minister of the Interior , Tarek El Aissami.
Colombian Luis Frank Tello Candelo , 47 , was captured in the last hours in the Havana municipality of Baruta , said El Aissami.

Tello , aka the "black Frank ", is "one of the most popular men in America "for the crimes of " drug trafficking "," conspiracy "and " money laundering from drug trafficking , "said minister.

The Aissami reported that the detainee is said to integrate a group known as "Los Zetas " who traffics drugs and distributes in Mexico, and that " corrupt officials from Mexico and the United States. "

He indicated that he has informed the Colombian authorities on the arrest , but did not say when and where he would be deported Tello.

The portfolio holder stated that local authorities are still conducting research on the case and that it is possible to make additional arrests .

The Aissami also rejected a report issued on the eve of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime ( UNDOC) , which states that drug trafficking through Venezuela has increased in recent years.

He said that the figures on Venezuela i " do not correspond with reality and are not true , much less reflect the effort made by our government. "

According to the official , Venezuela asked the president of UN General Assembly , Ali Treki Abdessalam , a review "immediately be rectified and that the data are reflected in this report. "

The report's release coincided with the visit of Treki to Venezuela, where, through an interpreter said .

In this regard the Libyan political , ending his term in September from a year in the General Assembly , told VTV that the UNODC report what he saw in Venezuela. "I think this will be very beneficial to re-evaluate any incorrect information that has been produced , "he said .

The UNODC said in its report that more than half of the large seizures of cocaine intercepted in the Atlantic, between 2006 and 2008, came from Venezuela.

Also , the international greeted the Venezuelan security forces have seized 34 tons of cocaine in 2008, but also expressed concern because this amount exceeded the seizure of Peru and Bolivia.

http://www.radiosantafe.com/2010/06/24/capturan-en-venezuela-a-narco-colombiano-solicitado-por-ee-uu/

[saigon68]

25. "El Negro Frank,"

Nice Handle

[Judi Lynn]

2. Oliver Stone: The US Has Intervened Fifty-Five Times in Latin America

Oliver Stone: The US Has Intervened Fifty-Five Times in Latin America
Robert Greenwald Filmmaker, Brave New Films
Posted: June 24, 2010 06:47 PM

Critically-acclaimed Hollywood Director Oliver Stone dropped by our studio for a Brave New Conversation, where I spoke with him about his latest documentary South of the Border, scheduled to be released in more than 30 countries this month. South of the Border begins by exploring the role that the corporate-owned mainstream media in the U.S. and Venezuela have played in shaping American's perspectives on South America, beginning with clips of the attempted coup on Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. In the Brave New Conversation, Stone describes the South American press:

The press (in South America) is totally owned privately, and most of that press, unlike most Americans realize, is anti-reform. Anybody who comes along and wants to change anything is castigated in the press. Chavez is one example: They kill him every day. The press is vibrant, it's oppositional, calls for his resignation, calls him a madman, and sometimes calls for an overthrow of the government. This is going on everyday and in America they say there's censorship. We're crazy; if we had a press like that, it'd be Fox News on steroids.

You can watch an excerpt from my interview here.

South of the Border offers a unique perspective on Latin America, one of a quiet revolution taking place where democratically-elected presidents have braved the strong arm of the US and its policies throughout the region by daring to oppose money for the War on Drugs and structural adjustment policies of the International Monetary Fund, making history with their efforts. Oliver Stone interviews Brazil's Lula da Silva, Argentina's Cristina Kirchner and her husband, ex-President Nestor Kirchner, Ecuador's Rafael Correa, Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Castro of Cuba, and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela: Leaders who are committed and unified in strengthening their countries' economic engine without the interference from the US.

To give you a glimpse of what the US has done in Latin America, Stone explains the following:

The only two allies we have left are Peru and Colombia -- both bad guys, because we've given Colombia 6 billion dollars to fight this so-called drug war. The paramilitaries in Colombia have killed close to maybe 30 thousand -- we don't even know -- maybe 120,000, maybe even 200,000 people have vanished in Colombia over the last 20 years. It's a horrible war.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-greenwald/oliver-stone-the-us-has-i_b_624885.html

[Judi Lynn]

3. General Assembly President and Venezuelan leader discuss development, UN reform

General Assembly President and Venezuelan leader discuss development, UN reform

24 June 2010 – United Nations reform, climate change and global efforts to achieve the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have topped the agenda during wide-ranging talks between General Assembly President Ali Treki and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Mr. Treki and Mr. Chavez also discussed South-South cooperation, the Middle East conflict and other peace and security issues when they met yesterday at the start of the General Assembly’s four-day official visit to Venezuela.

The two officials stressed the need to continue efforts to reform and strengthen the UN, and especially to revitalize the 192-member General Assembly and its role on issues such as climate change, disarmament, peace and security, and economic and financial matters.

Mr. Chavez briefed Mr. Treki on Venezuela’s progress towards the MDGs, the set of social and economic targets – including eradicating poverty, boosting maternal health and overcoming environmental degradation – that world leaders pledged at a summit in 2000 to try to attain by 2015.

More:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35133&Cr=mdg&Cr1=

[Tempest]

4. Where's all the Chavez haters?

*crickets*

[bitchkitty]

5. They're waiting on orders. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

7. Probably working on a way to attack the UN General Assembly President.

We just might find out he, too, is a "commie."

[Tempest]

10. Or worse

A Socialist, Marxist, Leninist, Stalinist Commie.

[Forkboy]

6. Odd how quiet this thread is.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Yeah, unfortunately this news repudiates their pathetic claims Hugo Chavez has turned

over Venezuela to the Colombian FARCs to use as their own cocaine processing area.

[Tempest]

11. And there's the crux of it

Every time they come up with a talking point, whether it's supporting FARC or shutting down all opposition media sources, they continue to get shot down.

Chavez is the Red Baron to his DU detractors. Rat-a-tat-a-tat. Another one goes down in flames.

[hack89]

40. No it doesn't - quite the opposite actually

The murder rate in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
has increased markedly since the end of the Cold War,
but especially since the late 1990s. There may be many
reasons for this, but it happens to have occurred just as
Colombian illegal armed groups' involvement in the
cocaine trade began to pick up. There was a brief drop
after 2003, when Colombia began to reduce the size of
the illegal armed groups, followed by a resurgence afterwards.
Today, there are eight times as many murders as
there were two decades ago, and the murder rate per
100,000 population appears to be in the low 60s, among
the highest in the world. Kidnappings also appear to
have greatly increased, with the areas bordering Colombia
being among the worst affected.

Colombian illegal armed groups = FARC

[hack89]

50. I know - none of the Chavistas can figure out

how to refute the UN drug report. Pretty damning report.

[Rage for Order]

52. Good on Chavez

I criticize him at times, but I'll give him credit when it's due, and this is one of those times.

[hack89]

53. Read the UN report first

Under Chavez, Venezuela has become the largest drug transshipment point in SA with skyrocketing drug violence. I think he is regretting his support for FARC.



http://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr/WDR_2010/World_Drug_Report_2010_lo-res.pdf

[ronnie624]

9. He he he.... n/t

[EFerrari]

12. This is what happens when you kick the DEA out of your country.

:)

[elias49]

13. No kidding! nt

[Judi Lynn]

14. Who can forget their fine work during Iran/Contra? n/t

[Tempest]

15. +10,000 n/t

[ChangoLoa]

19. World Drug Report 2010 (UN)

type "Venezuela" in the pdf search bar.

http://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr/WDR_2010/World_Drug_Report_2010_lo-res.pdf


Ali Abdessalam Treki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Treki

[Judi Lynn]

20. Here's a report on Colombian Luis Frank Tello Candelo via google translation of a Colombian report:

Captured in Venezuela to Colombian narco requested by U.S.
June 24, 2010 3:57 pm

Authorities arrested a suspected Colombian drug trafficker who is wanted in the United States for various crimes, said Thursday the Minister of the Interior , Tarek El Aissami.
Colombian Luis Frank Tello Candelo , 47 , was captured in the last hours in the Havana municipality of Baruta , said El Aissami.

Tello , aka the "black Frank ", is "one of the most popular men in America "for the crimes of " drug trafficking "," conspiracy "and " money laundering from drug trafficking , "said minister.

The Aissami reported that the detainee is said to integrate a group known as "Los Zetas " who traffics drugs and distributes in Mexico, and that " corrupt officials from Mexico and the United States. "

He indicated that he has informed the Colombian authorities on the arrest , but did not say when and where he would be deported Tello.

The portfolio holder stated that local authorities are still conducting research on the case and that it is possible to make additional arrests .

The Aissami also rejected a report issued on the eve of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime ( UNDOC) , which states that drug trafficking through Venezuela has increased in recent years.

He said that the figures on Venezuela i " do not correspond with reality and are not true , much less reflect the effort made by our government. "

According to the official , Venezuela asked the president of UN General Assembly , Ali Treki Abdessalam , a review "immediately be rectified and that the data are reflected in this report. "

The report's release coincided with the visit of Treki to Venezuela, where, through an interpreter said .

In this regard the Libyan political , ending his term in September from a year in the General Assembly , told VTV that the UNODC report what he saw in Venezuela. "I think this will be very beneficial to re-evaluate any incorrect information that has been produced , "he said .

The UNODC said in its report that more than half of the large seizures of cocaine intercepted in the Atlantic, between 2006 and 2008, came from Venezuela.

Also , the international greeted the Venezuelan security forces have seized 34 tons of cocaine in 2008, but also expressed concern because this amount exceeded the seizure of Peru and Bolivia.

http://www.radiosantafe.com/2010/06/24/capturan-en-venezuela-a-narco-colombiano-solicitado-por-ee-uu/

[ChangoLoa]

22. Ali Treki Abdessalam is speaking in his own name not UN's.

In my opinion, the news written by Xinhua is at best incomplete.

[Judi Lynn]

24. Why not respond to the information itself? Are you saying it's a lie?

You may be a little too far into your Cold War act.

Debate the material with more truthful information.

[ChangoLoa]

27. The information Xinhua provided was that the UN lauded Venezuela and it didn't.

Have you actually read the UN's report?

No one has offended you here, Judi Lynn. Please stop implying fake and fabricated positions about an unrelated issue such as the Cold War.

[Judi Lynn]

30. What the article said was the following:

During a meeting Venezuelan Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami and National Anti-Drug Office Director Nestor Luis Reverol, Treki said a UN analysis last week indicated that the country's fight against drug trafficking and organized crime had achieved positive results.

[hack89]

33. What he didn't say is that under Chavez

Venezuela has become the biggest drug transhipment point in SA. How did things get so badly out of hand?

[hack89]

35. self delete

v]

[hack89]

36. self delete

[ChangoLoa]

31. The UNODC said half of the seizures.... CAME from Venezuela. Not that they were MADE by Venezuelan

authorities. Have you read the report???

"Between 2006 and 2008, over half the maritime shipments
of cocaine to Europe detected came from the
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela*. Ecuador has also been
affected by an increase in transit trafficking, and both
countries are experiencing increasing problems with
violence."
p. 26

As we can see in the graphic just below: "Departure locations of identified drug trafficking shipments by sea from South America to Europe, 2006-2008"


http://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr/WDR_2010/World_Drug_Report_2010_lo-res.pdf

[hack89]

29. You become the biggest drug transshipment point in South America?

Venezuela accounts for 51% of drug shipments to Europe. The UN report simply lend credence to the report that as Venezuela welcomed the drug gangs (including the FARC) as Colombian government(with DEA help)cracked down on the drug gang.

I don't think many here have actually read the UN report.

[Judi Lynn]

32. From the U.N. report:

Cocaine is typically transported from Colombia to
Mexico or Central America by sea (usually by Colombian
traffickers), and then onwards by land to the United
States and Canada (usually by Mexican traffickers). The
US authorities estimate that close to 90% of the cocaine
entering the country crosses the US/Mexico land border,
most of it entering the state of Texas and, to a lesser
extent, California and Arizona, through the relative
importance of Arizona seems to be increasing. According
to US estimates, some 70% of the cocaine leaves
Colombia via the Pacific, 20% via the Atlantic and 10%
via the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Caribbean.
24 The routes have changed over the years.

http://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr/WDR_2010/World_Drug_Report_2010_lo-res.pdf

[hack89]

37. Here is a better quote

The drug trafficking situation in the Bolivarian Republic
of Venezuela appears to be deteriorating. In 2008, the
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela was fourth in the world
in annual cocaine seizures (34 mt), ahead of Peru and
the Plurinational State of Bolivia. According to the new
Maritime Analysis Operation Centre (MAOC-N), more
than half of all intercepted shipments in the Atlantic (67
incidents between 2006 and 2008) started their journey
in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Direct shipments
from Colombia, in contrast, accounted for just
5%.7 In addition, many undocumented air flights leave
the country, and all the clandestine air shipments of
cocaine detected in West Africa appear to have originated
in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The
country also appears to be the source of cocaine flown to
clandestine airstrips in Honduras, with devastating
effects there (discussed below).

[Vidar]

16. At least the UN recognizes quality, while we arm another death squad.

[hack89]

39. Did you read the UN report?

The murder rate in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
has increased markedly since the end of the Cold War,
but especially since the late 1990s. There may be many
reasons for this, but it happens to have occurred just as
Colombian illegal armed groups' involvement in the
cocaine trade began to pick up. There was a brief drop
after 2003, when Colombia began to reduce the size of
the illegal armed groups, followed by a resurgence afterwards.
Today, there are eight times as many murders as
there were two decades ago, and the murder rate per
100,000 population appears to be in the low 60s, among
the highest in the world. Kidnappings also appear to
have greatly increased, with the areas bordering Colombia
being among the worst affected.

[conspirator]

18. ja ja ja n/t

[ChangoLoa]

21. "UN" thinks siege of Gaza is worse than Auschwitz

President of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly Ali Abdessalam Treki on april 11th 2010:
"The siege on Gaza is a disgrace for the entire international community. It is a camp that is worse than the camps of the Nazis in the past."

http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/2460.htm

[Judi Lynn]

23. So your response to the article is not to debate its truth but to attack the President of the U.N.

General Assembly?

Do you think that's prudent?

[ChangoLoa]

26. I'm not attacking Treki, I'm providing the original source ~ the UN report

And highlighting that the UN hasn't lauded Venezuela yet. Treki has but his words are not transposable with UN's conclusions on any matter. If I find some official UN document lauding Venezuela, I'll agree with Xinhua.

[Judi Lynn]

28. What was the purpose of posting the UN General Assembly President's personal Wiki?

What does his Wiki profile have to do with this article you claim is a joke, anyway?

Leave the evaluation of the article up to the DU'ers who might read it, themselves. They don't need your guidance.

Xinhua is a source many people use, have used. It has never been accused of mendacity once. I only know of one or two posters, tops, over the years who have wanted to point out it's from "communist China" and their lame complaints had little value.

[ChangoLoa]

34. The purpose is to highlight the fact that many times he's speaking in his own name. Not UN's

As, IMO, it was the case this time.

Have I mentioned anything about communism? Why such obsession of yours? Does communism has anything to do with this issue???

[Judi Lynn]

41. Don't attempt to be coy. Xinhua is published in China, and you insinuate my reference is not

as respectable as other sources, apparently.

That only happens when you are reaching for ways to disrespect someone's link.

[ChangoLoa]

43. I'm not "disrespecting someone's link"... does that even exist?

If it does exist, I didn't intend to disrespect you personally, Judi. Sorry if you took it that way.

Read again, my opinion was that this particular news by Xinhua was misguiding because they confuse "UN" with "Treki". If they had titled "Treki lauds Venezuela..." it would be a different matter to discuss.

Now, I ask you please to stop calling me "anti-communist" every time I say something as if it was some kind of ultimate weapon. I am not an anti-communist (even if I am not a communist neither) and you know it very well.

[Judi Lynn]

38. For regular DU posters who read Latin American items, you may want to see this.

It's a 10 year old article I just stumbled across, but something in the first few paragraphs rings a bell. I wanted to make sure this got posted somewhere before I let it go:

Paramilitaries, Drug Trafficking
and U.S. Policy in Colombia
by Samia Montalvo
Dollars and Sense magazine, July / August 2000

At 32 years old, Carlos Castano leads Colombia's largest paramilitary force, the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), or United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia. The AUC has earned the nickname "The Head Cutters" because its victims are usually tortured, mutilated, and then decapitated. Waging a relentless war against Colombia's leftist guerrillas -the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN)-the paramilitaries both launch attacks on guerrilla-held territory and target those they suspect of being guerrilla "sympathizers" (including labor-union leaders, peasants, peace advocates, and human-rights workers).

According to the U.S. State Department, there were 399 massacres in 1999 (up from 239 in 1998), 80% of which were carried out by the paramilitaries. The Colombian Armed Forces, meanwhile, often turn a blind eye to atrocities committed by the paramilitaries-their allies in the counterinsurgency war.

More:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/South_America/Paramilitaries_Colombia.html

This jumped out because of the fact our corporate media tells us DAILY of beheadings by Mexican cartels, but we were NEVER informed by any of this, not once, concerning Colombia. Small detail, but it really stands out as selective reporting.

[Judi Lynn]

A little starter for people unaware of Colombian narcotraffickers in Venezuela:

VENEZUELA: Guns, drugs and thugs: the threat from Plan Colombia
Wednesday, November 17, 1993 - 11:00
Jim McIlroy & Coral Wynter, Caracas

National and state governments are attempting to tackle the threat posed to Venezuela by right-wing paramilitary groups that have infiltrated the regions of the country bordering Colombia, particularly the state of Tachira.

From December 2005, when Venezuelan army colonel Heber Aguilar assumed leadership of the Tachira state police, there has been a drastic change in the situation, with a greater police presence in the streets. Aguilar told the July 13 Ultimas Noticias, "The job has not been easy. First, we must fight and keep fighting against internal corruption. More than 80 police have resigned, and some have been dismissed for being involved in crimes. Many of those collaborate directly with paramilitary groups ..."

More than 150 police out of a total of 2500 in Tachira are being investigated for alleged involvement in crime. Aguilar added that they had created special groups to operate in the municipalities near the border — the Tactical Group for Joint Actions and the Rapid Response Group.

Tachira's governor, Blanco la Cruz, claims "Plan Colombia" has increased the penetration of the paramilitaries into Venezuela. Plan Colombia is the Washington-funded counterinsurgency war against left-wing guerrilla movements in Colombia, especially the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — the FARC — under the cover of waging a "war on drugs". The Center for International Policy estimates that the US government spent US$631.6 million on military and police assistance programs for Plan Colombia last year.

The Colombian armed forces that are the beneficiaries of Washington's largesse have long been known to be linked to right-wing paramilitary groups.

In 2001 Human Rights Watch reported that many Colombians told its researchers "that paramilitaries are so fully integrated into the army's battle strategy, coordinated with its soldiers in the field, and linked to government units via intelligence, supplies, radios, weapons, cash, and common purpose that they effectively constitute a sixth division of the army ... certain Colombian army brigades and police detachments continue to promote, work with, support, profit from, and tolerate paramilitary groups, treating them as a force allied to and compatible with their own."

La Cruz told UN that Plan Colombia is used to justify the paramilitary presence in Venezuelan territory, and that this forms part of the strategy of the US government to confront Venezuela's left-wing President Hugo Chavez, whose Bolivarian revolution threatens US imperialism in a region long-considered Washington's "own backyard".

More:
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/35301is

This is an old article, there are TONS more available online as soon as you start looking around. This is a subject you will need personally to research for YOURSELF. Get in there and look around, and don't stop unti

[Judi Lynn]

42. Dominion of Evil:Colombia's paramilitary terror, reference to narcotraffickers at Venezuela's border

Dominion of Evil
Colombia's paramilitary terror
by Steven Ambrus
Amnesty International magazine, Spring 2007


~snip~
The government has launched projects in which paramilitaries and victims work side by side and communities are compensated for their suffering through the building of schools and bridges. Amnesty International vigorously opposes such projects because of the trauma that victims naturally feel in the presence of the paramilitaries. Nevertheless, the government believes they are an important step toward reconciliation. "Our role as a government institution is to show people how to forgive," Pearl said. But that is easier said than done. There are now more than 3 million internal refugees in Colombia and 3.5 million hectares (about 9 million acres) of land in the hands of paramilitary commanders and their front men, according to CODHES, the nation's leading nongovernmental refugee agency. The paramilitaries have not only taken huge quantities of land, the agency says, they have taken the best land. Centuries old Afro-Colombian, Indian and peasant farmer communities have been dispersed, their plots stolen for paramilitary drug crops as well as palm oil, cattle and logging operations. As hundreds of thousands of victims of paramilitary terror pack into the slums of the major cities and roam the streets begging for bread, forgiveness has become about more than a question of attitude. It is inextricably linked to reparation. "The paramilitaries have used extremely intricate strategies for hiding the origin of stolen land," said Jorge Rojas, director of CODHES. "And unfortunately the government lacks a legal mechanism for either identifying or returning it."

Indeed, instead of feeling repentant, some paramilitaries seem eager to increase their wealth. At its height, the AUC exported an estimated 40 percent of Colombian cocaine, controlling coca fields and ports for shipping drugs abroad, intelligence officials say. Some paramilitaries are still trying to maximize their share of the trade. Last year, the OAS drew attention to the emergence of dozens of tiny but deadly new paramilitary gangs. Since then, those groups have waged horrific campaigns of intimidation to protect cocaine laboratories, as well as arms and drug shipments, along Colombia's borders with Ecuador and Venezuela. Colombian authorities say they have captured more than 200 former paramilitary combatants who had joined new groups. But with former AUC members trying to hold onto their land and perpetuate their power, human rights groups say they still feel threatened because some paramilitary structures have not only survived but have morphed into new, potentially more volatile groups.

More:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Colombia/Dominion_Evil.html

~~~~~
There will be more information available you can find regarding the use of Venezuelan land, particularly along that border with Colombia for the right-wing narcotrafficking monsters for everything from labs to airstrips. Venezuela looks for them, frequently catches them, and has destroyed their airstrips, planes when they found them, as well.

IF you don't know about it chalk it up to our controlled media. The info. is there, you just need to look for it on purpose.

[hack89]

44. Spanish court says Venezuela helped ETA, FARC

ETA SUSPECT "LIVED IN VENEZUELA"

The court ruling came one day after Spanish and French police dealt a heavy blow to ETA by capturing its leader Ibon Gogeaskoetxea in northern France.

One of the two ETA suspects captured with Gogeaskoetxea had recently returned from Venezuela, where he had lived for several years, Spanish counter-terrorism sources said.

According to Monday's detailed court ruling, in 2007 ETA rebels were given a Venezuelan military escort to a site in the jungle where they gave a course on handling explosives to visiting FARC guerrillas.

"This shows Venezuelan government cooperation in the illicit collaboration between FARC and ETA," Judge Velasco said in the document, adding that one of those wanted is Arturo Cubillas, who has worked for Venezuela's government since Chavez won elections in 1999.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62047720100301

[Judi Lynn]

45. Don't know what to tell you. It looks like NOTHING I've ever seen before, and I've been looking!

That will be a good story to watch. I really want to be around when they get it straightened out. For those who didn't click the link here's the story on Venezuelan officials escorting Basque gangsters to meet some FARCs. (Yeah, that really happened, you bet! <sproingggg!> :silly: )

The spat comes as tensions run high between Venezuela and its neighbor Colombia, over Caracas' alleged support for FARC, or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

Spain's relations with Venezuela have suffered in recent years, with King Juan Carlos telling Chavez to "shut up" at a summit in Chile in 2007 after the Venezuelan repeatedly interrupted Zapatero.

Spanish oil company Repsol has significant investments in Venezuela. Spain's second-largest bank BBVA also has interests there.

ETA SUSPECT "LIVED IN VENEZUELA"

The court ruling came one day after Spanish and French police dealt a heavy blow to ETA by capturing its leader Ibon Gogeaskoetxea in northern France.

One of the two ETA suspects captured with Gogeaskoetxea had recently returned from Venezuela, where he had lived for several years, Spanish counter-terrorism sources said.

According to Monday's detailed court ruling, in 2007 ETA rebels were given a Venezuelan military escort to a site in the jungle where they gave a course on handling explosives to visiting FARC guerrillas.

"This shows Venezuelan government cooperation in the illicit collaboration between FARC and ETA," Judge Velasco said in the document, adding that one of those wanted is Arturo Cubillas, who has worked for Venezuela's government since Chavez won elections in 1999.

Venezuelan legislator Hayden Pirela, who heads the parliament's subcommission for border affairs and integration, said the fact Cabillas had worked in the government did not mean Venezuela supported ETA.

FARC has killed thousands of people in a decades-old war to set up a Socialist state in Colombia. ETA has killed more than 850, fighting for independence for the Basque Country. FARC is also believed to have had training from suspected members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) on bomb-making techniques.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_MKLsgAEmlco/S48D7EeVHzI/AAAAAAAAAlQ/rknNtlOBvX8/s400/EloyVelasco.jpg

Judge Eloy Velasco

By the way, do you ever feel these corporate media spin stories could use some editing? I'm not too sure about the reason for dragging up King Carlos' telling Chavez to "shut up" yet again. But that's just me.

[EFerrari]

46. Yes and the Spanish court backed off that claim

and agreed to work with Venezuela.

http://www.blnz.com/news/2010/03/01/Spanish_judge_accuses_Venezuela_rebel_1068.html

[Judi Lynn]

47. Sure glad you remembered that "small" detail! There hasn't been any news from them SINCE that time,

either.

They didn't get any more magical behind-the-scenes info. from the magical computerS on the subject, probably because they were too nearsighted to realize they'd need a deeper story if the #### didn't hit the fan immediately after they dropped their "news" bomb.

Another amazing quality of that Reyes computer was its ability to foretell things which didn't happen until long after it was "discovered" in the bombing on Ecuador. Holy smokes. How can that be?

Memory refresher for any reader regarding the "magic laptop" of Colombia!

Colombia’s Magic Laptops
Nov 3 2008
Daniel Denvir

In September, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that it was designating one former and two current high-ranking Venezuelan government officials as collaborators with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Hugo Carvajal, in charge of Venezuela’s Military Intelligence Directorate, and Henry de Jesús Rangel Silva, head of the Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP), were both said to have aided the FARC’s drug-trafficking operations, while Ramón Rodríguez, former minister of interior and justice, was accused of being “the Venezuelan government’s main weapons contact for the FARC” and trying “to facilitate a $250 million loan from the Venezuelan government to the FARC in late 2007.”

These assertions came a day after Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez announced that he was expelling the U.S. ambassador in solidarity with Bolivia’s Evo Morales, who had done the same a day earlier. While OFAC did not specify its sources, an anonymous Bush administration official told The New York Times that the allegations were partly based on evidence from laptops recovered from a FARC camp in Ecuadoran territory bombed and raided by the Colombian military on March 1.

In September, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that it was designating one former and two current high-ranking Venezuelan government officials as collaborators with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Hugo Carvajal, in charge of Venezuela’s Military Intelligence Directorate, and Henry de Jesús Rangel Silva, head of the Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP), were both said to have aided the FARC’s drug-trafficking operations, while Ramón Rodríguez, former minister of interior and justice, was accused of being “the Venezuelan government’s main weapons contact for the FARC” and trying “to facilitate a $250 million loan from the Venezuelan government to the FARC in late 2007.”

These assertions came a day after Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez announced that he was expelling the U.S. ambassador in solidarity with Bolivia’s Evo Morales, who had done the same a day earlier. While OFAC did not specify its sources, an anonymous Bush administration official told The New York Times that the allegations were partly based on evidence from laptops recovered from a FARC camp in Ecuadoran territory bombed and raided by the Colombian military on March 1.

This sequence of events was a familiar one: the expulsion of an ambassador, closely followed by charges of FARC collaboration based on evidence from the laptops. On March 2, Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa expelled the Colombian ambassador, charging that Colombia had knowingly violated Ecuador’s sovereignty, despite the doublespeak coming from Colombian officials, including President Álvaro Uribe, that Colombia had bombed Ecuador without violating its airspace. Hours later, Uribe’s press secretary told reporters that computers belonging to Raúl Reyes, the FARC’s second in command who was killed in the raid, had been recovered and that they revealed disturbing links between the Correa government and the FARC. Colombian National Police general Óscar Naranjo then held a press conference in which he accused Ecuadoran security minister Gustavo Larrea of having met Reyes in January and agreeing to place Ecuadoran military units less hostile to the FARC along the border. Larrea denied this but did say he met with Reyes, the FARC’s de facto ambassador, as part of approved hostage negotiations that were known to the Colombian government.

Colombia claimed to have found eight “computer exhibits”—consisting of three laptops, two external hard disks, and three USB thumb drives—that luckily survived the bombing, which killed 25 people. At first, Colombia variously claimed that the laptops contained 10,000 or 16,000 documents (as reported by The New York Times and The Washington Post, respectively). An Interpol report on the computer exhibits released in May found that they collectively contained almost 38,000 written documents (like Word files and PDFs), more than 10,000 sound and video files, and almost 211,000 images. Despite the massive volume of files—equivalent to almost 40 million pages in a Microsoft Word file, according to Interpol—the Colombians claimed to have culled from them specific, strategic information on the Correa and Chávez administrations within 24 hours.

These “magic laptops,” which seem to supply evidence of FARC collaboration at opportune moments for the Colombian and U.S. governments, have formed the centerpiece of a propaganda campaign launched by the Colombian government and security forces, abetted by the media in Colombia, the United States, and Spain. This campaign follows a well-established technique: Allegations of FARC ties have long been used in Colombia to defame human rights activists and dissident politicians, often leading to death threats or assassinations by the army or paramilitary forces. The laptop-based allegations have been made through press conferences and intelligence leaks, as new charges have been rolled out to counter Ecuador’s consistent diplomatic victories at the Organization of American States (OAS) and other international bodies. It has also served to distract attention at home from a growing scandal connecting the Uribe administration to narco-paramilitaries, as well as to justify the government’s policy of total war against the FARC.

Media outlets, particularly in Colombia, the United States, and Spain, were complicit in the Colombian propaganda campaign, embedding themselves in a perceived fight against the FARC and its supposed allies in the Ecuadoran and Venezuelan governments. As an unnamed U.S. intelligence official told the Los Angeles Times in March: “I think you have to take at face value what the Colombians are saying.” The mainstream media have done just that—particularly in Colombia. For example, on March 3, the website of the Colombian daily El Tiempo published a gallery of 26 photos, purportedly from the laptops, leaked to the paper by an unidentified Colombian intelligence official. The low-quality, surveillance-style photos center on people attending the international conference of the Continental Bolivarian Coordinating Committee (CCB), a small left-wing organization with chapters throughout Latin America,- held the week before in Quito.

Purportedly taken clandestinely by the FARC, the photos were said to demonstrate contacts between Venezuelan Communist Party secretary general Óscar Figuera—a distant ally of Chávez—and the FARC, as well as members of Batasuna, the political wing of the armed Basque separatist group ETA. The paper ran a March 7 story based on the photos, as well as documents provided by the same intelligence source, titled “Trace of ETA in Reyes’ PC.”

More:
https://nacla.org/node/5184

~~~~~
Demon Computer Claims Everybody is a FARC Collaborator!

http://www.borev.net.nyud.net:8090/laptop1.jpg
Raul Reyes’ Miracle Laptop inexplicably survived a scorched earth bombing campaign over the weekend, and now humanity must find a new way to destroy it before it implicates us all. ABC News revealed all the terrible, terrible details from the thirteen documents the Colombian government made public last night, and we are all going to rot in The Hague. Details after the jump!

What The Laptop Said

>>> Apparently FARC leadership had ongoing contact with the highest levels of the Venezuelan government, and that the rebels believe that Chavez shares their goal of “discrediting” Alvaro Uribe. Perhaps a clandestine, criminal “discrediting”?

>>> The rebels refer to a “dossier” which the Colombian government knows is code proving decisively that Venezuela provided hundreds of millions of dollars to the terrorists!

>>> The French were also secretly and frequently in contact with the dreaded FARC leaders, and a diplomatic meeting with an envoy called “Noe” was in the works.

>>> The Italians too were negotiating with them and brokering talks between the FARC and the entire European Parliament.

>>> Ecuador was in high level contacts with the FARC and brokering talks with the United States of America.

More:
http://www.borev.net/2008/03/demon_computer_claims_everybod.html

[hack89]

48. Did you read your own link?

they didn't back down

A Spanish Foreign Ministry official told The Associated Press that Spain would now wait for Venezuela to answer a court request for more information to clear up the matter. He said allegations of collaboration between ETA and the FARC were not new, but the idea that Venezuela's government might be involved was.

[EFerrari]

49. Yes, I read the story when it came out. If you don't like that link

find a different one. They did back down and are now working together.

[hack89]

51. We will see

Based on the UN report, I would bet on the Spanish judge being right. It is pretty clear the UN believes that the FARC has moved their drug operations lock stock and barrel to Venezuela. Turning Venezuela into the number one drug transshipment point in SA had to take some help from the government - there has been no country in that region that has been able to resist the corrupting influence of drug money.