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of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, requested his help (publicly announced). Days before the first two hostages were to be released, Uribe abruptly withdrew his support of Chavez's efforts, Donald Rumsfeld wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post saying that Chavez's help was "not welcome in Colombia" (12/1/07) and, on the same day (12/1/07), the Colombian military bombed the location of the first two hostages, as they were in route to their freedom, driving them back into the jungle on a 20 mile hike to safety (unreported by the corporate press, though the hostages held a press conference about it). Chavez later got them out by a different route--and got four more released in Feb 08. Then, on March 1, 08, the U.S./Colombia brought this SUCCESSFUL hostage release effort to a dead halt, by bombing the camp of the chief FARC hostage negotiator, Raul Reyes, just inside Ecuador's border, killing him and 24 others (and almost starting a war with Ecuador).
I think what this adds up to is a set up of Chavez. They lured him into negotiating with the FARC for hostage releases, intending to hand him a diplomatic disaster, with dead hostages. When that didn't work--and Chavez was getting praise for his efforts, and world leaders and the hostages' families were begging him to continue, despite Uribe's treachery--they had to end it, and they did so using U.S. high tech surveillance, ten U.S. "smart bombs" and possibly U.S. aircraft and personnel-- to blow Reyes away, and everyone who was with him. Ecuador's president, Betancourt's husband, and others, have since revealed that Raul Reyes was about to release Betancourt. French, Spanish and Swiss envoys were in Ecuador for this purpose, and had apprised Uribe of their purpose. He also had access to U.S. high tech surveilance (of Reyes' phone calls). So he surely knew that this high profile hostage release was imminent.
My guess for who was calling these shots--Rumsfeld himself. This is his "retirement" project--Oil War II: South America.
One other evidence of Rumsfeld-type behavior (devious, treacherous, evil): after they blew Reyes away, Uribe claimed to have retrieved Reyes' laptop (later, laptopS) from the bombed campsite, and started leaking items from it to the press, to slander and defame Chavez, and Rafael Correa, as "terrorist lovers." This was so like the Niger/Iraq nuke forgeries and all the other clandestine bullshit that Rumsfeld's "Office of Special Plans" was up to, preliminary to the invasion of Iraq, that it still has me worried about Rumsfeld war plans to regain global corporate predator control of Venezuela's and Ecuador's oil, now controlled by governments that believe in using their countries' oil profits to benefit the poor.
I think the South Americans can fend this off. They are pretty united these days, with leftist governments everywhere (Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Nicaragua, and recently elected, Paraguay). Also to be noted: France's state oil company, Total, is one of several oil development partners that agreed to Chavez's 60/40 cut of Venezuela's oil profits to go to social programs in Venezuela. Exxon Mobil got booted out, because they wouldn't agree (and they then took punitive action in first world courts, to seize $12 billion in Venezuela's assets--legal action Exxon Mobil is losing). Chevron is also one of the partners, as are Norway's Statoil and others. This is not only motive for Sarkovy to refuse to participate in the corporate 'news' disinformation campaign against Chavez, it is also French motive for wanting peace in the Andes region. Peace means that the oil profits will be fairly dibbied up--various companies and the Venezuelan people sharing in it. The Bushites and Exxon Mobil, of course, want it all--all the oil, all the power, all the profit--but they may finally have over-reached.
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