Just Foreign Policy News
August 6, 2010
How Many Iraqis Did We "Liberate" from Life on Earth?
Attempts to estimate the Iraqi death toll from the U.S. invasion support the conclusion that hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died as a result of the war, which we can now state with high confidence. This suggests a test for anyone who claims that demands for occupying Afghanistan or bombing Iran have anything to do with human liberation: if they can’t be bothered to know or won’t acknowledge that the war killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, their claims of "humanitarian" motivation should be ignored.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/how-many-iraqis-did-we-li_b_673683.html
A Backdoor to U.S. War with Iran?
Some in Washington are trying to promote the "right" of Israel to strike Iran. Legitimizing an Israeli strike could create a backdoor to a US war. Urge your Representative to oppose H. Res. 1553, which endorses the "right" of Israel to attack Iran.
https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/hres1553
NATO Forces in Afghanistan Can’t Deny They Killed Civilians in Sangin
Interviews by Rethink Afghanistan confirm what NATO denied: U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan killed dozens of people in the Sangin District of Helmand Province July 23.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/derrick-crowe/us-and-allied-forced-kill_b_672987.html
South of the Border, scheduled screenings:
http://southoftheborderdoc.com/in-theatres/
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Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) The Afghan government announced that the official investigation has confirmed that 39 civilians were killed by NATO-led troops late last month in Sangin district, Xinhua reports. NATO said no civilians were killed in Sangin district on that day.
2) US officials acknowledged as many as "a dozen or more" Afghan civilians died during a nighttime raid by U.S. troops Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reports. Night raids on residential compounds, even those based on intelligence indicating the presence of Taliban figures, often place civilians in harm’s way, the LAT says. Confusion, darkness and the almost invariable presence of weapons in rural homes add to the danger.
3) Republican Rep. Frank Wolf has written to Obama urging the creation of an "Afghanistan-Pakistan Study Group," saying there is an urgent need to bring "fresh eyes" to the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, the Washington Times reports. "We are nine years into our nation’s longest running war and the American people and their elected representatives do not have a clear sense of what we are aiming to achieve, why it is necessary, and how far we are from attaining that goal," Wolf wrote. Wolf wrote legislation in 2005 that created the Iraq Study Group.
4) A crowd of 55,000 in Hiroshima marked the moment 65 years ago when the world’s first atomic attack incinerated the city, the New York Times reports. For first time, a representative of the US, Ambassador Roos, participated in the annual ceremony, raising hopes of a visit by President Obama, scheduled to be in Japan in November. Japanese political leaders, including survivors of the bombing, said they had no intention of asking the president to apologize. Instead, they said they would feel some measure of solace if a visit to their city could help Obama realize his vision of a denuclearized world. "We want President Obama to see with his own eyes what really happened here. This will give him stronger willpower to eliminate nuclear weapons," said the former head of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, a survivor of the bombing.
5) Hundreds of military service members and contractor employees who have fallen ill with cancer or severe breathing problems after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan say they were poisoned by smoke produced by burning trash, the Washington Post reports. In April, the VA identified burn pits as an environmental hazard. Last month, the American Lung Association urged the military to immediately find other means of trash disposal. A Defense Department spokeswoman said as of June, burn pits were in use at 166 locations where U.S. forces were based in Afghanistan.
Iran
6) Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Turkey sees no reason to curb a trade in petroleum products with neighbor Iran, Bloomberg reports. UN sanctions on Iran don’t cover the trade, Yildiz said.
El Salvador
7) Lori Wallach, writing on Huffington Post, notes that Pacific Rim Mining Corp. is suing El Salvador under CAFTA, claiming hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for failure to provide a stable investment environment, apparently because the previous conservative government failed to crush opposition to a Pacific Rim mining project. The same provisions allowing such lawsuits exist in the Bush-negotiated FTAs with Korea, Colombia and Panama that the Obama Administration wants to pass. 110 House Democrats have demanded that the extraordinary investor rights and their private enforcement be removed from the Korea FTA.
Cuba
8) Soldier of Fortune magazine in blasting the US trade embargo an Cuba in an article headlined "Fifty Years of Failure: Petrified U.S. Policy Toward Cuba," notes Al Kamen in the Washington Post. The lead author of the piece is a former news director of Radio Marti during the Reagan administration. The embargo "is essentially an absurdity that accomplishes nothing," the article says. Look for Obama administration action, after Congress leaves town, to loosen travel restrictions, Kamen writes.
Colombia
9) A Colombian police investigator admitted to manipulating evidence against trade unionist Liliany Obando which was recovered from FARC leader "Raul Reyes" computers, according to Colombia Reports, citing Europa Press. According to a Canadian professor who has campaigned for Obando’s release, the trade unionist was arrested the week she wrote a report on the murder of 1,500 agricultural union members over the last 30 years. Following the Colombian raid which killed Reyes, Ecuador’s public prosecution released a report alleging that Colombian authorities manipulated the computer files before handing them over to Interpol. The files captured during the raid have been cited as evidence in numerous accusations by the Colombian government in the past two years against people who have alleged links to the FARC.
Venezuela
10) President Chavez said he may not accept a newly nominated U.S. ambassador to Caracas who sharply criticized Venezuela, Reuters reports. "What he said is very serious, we are evaluating it, I’ve almost blocked him from coming," Chavez said. Venezuela’s foreign ministry on Wednesday said it had demanded an explanation from Washington for what is described as "meddling and interventionism."
11) Venezuela’s foreign minister will attend the inauguration of Colombia’s incoming president Santos on Saturday, signaling a thaw in relations, Reuters reports. Chavez has made clear he hopes for better ties with Santos, who is under pressure from exporters to normalize business with the nation’s main local market.
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Afghan gov’t confirms 39 civilians dead in NATO attack
Xinhua, Aug. 5
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-08/05/c_13432093.htm
Kabul – The official investigation has confirmed that 39 civilians were killed by NATO-led troops late last month in Sangin district in southern Afghan province of Helmand, a statement released by Presidential Place said on Thursday.
"The report presented by Senator Mullah Shir Mohammad Akhundzada, who leads the investigating team, to the President on Wednesday said that some families gathered in a house to escape the conflict when a rocket of the allied force hit the house killing 39 people including women and children," according to the statement.
Four other civilians were injured in the incident on July 23 when Afghan and NATO-led troops were fighting Taliban insurgents in the area.
However, NATO said no civilians were killed in Sangin district on that day.
2) Afghan civilians killed in nighttime U.S. raid
In a raid targeting senior militants, four to ‘a dozen or more’ civilians were killed, NATO says. The deaths probably will add to tension between the West and Karzai’s government.
Laura King, Los Angeles Times, August 5, 2010 5:06 PM PDT
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-civilians-20100806,0,6159361.story
Kabul, Afghanistan – As many as "a dozen or more" Afghan civilians died during a nighttime raid by U.S. troops hunting for Taliban commanders in eastern Afghanistan, military officials acknowledged Thursday.
The episode, which took place Wednesday in Nangarhar province, comes amid escalating tensions between the Western military and the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai over civilian casualties.
It also pointed up the growing emphasis by the American military in recent months on pinpoint raids targeting senior insurgent figures. Hundreds of Taliban field commanders have been killed or arrested in such strikes this year, military officials have said.
In Wednesday night’s raid, a fierce firefight broke out after American and Afghan forces swooped down on a compound in Sherzad district, according to local officials and the NATO force. Fifteen to 20 insurgents were killed, including two wanted Taliban commanders, the officials said.
But night raids on residential compounds, even those based on intelligence indicating the presence of Taliban figures, often place civilians in harm’s way. Confusion, darkness and the almost invariable presence of weapons in rural homes add to the danger.
[…] Even before this incident, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization force and Karzai were locked in a dispute over more than three dozen civilian deaths reported in an incident last month in the southern province of Helmand.
On Thursday, Karzai’s office said an investigation indicated that 39 civilians, including women and children, had been killed in a rocket strike July 23 during fighting in Helmand’s Sangin district. Last week, the Afghan leader said as many as 52 civilians had died.
The NATO force said earlier that up to eight people, all or most of them insurgents, had been killed in fighting that took place about 10 miles away, but insisted that there was no military activity in the area where the larger number of deaths were reported to have occurred.
[…]
3) Wolf Seeks ‘Fresh Eyes’ On Mission In Afghanistan
Calls for study group in letter to Obama
Ashish Kumar Sen, The Washington Times, Friday, August 6, 2010
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/aug/6/wolf-seeks-fresh-eyes-on-mission-in-afghanistan/
Nine years into the war in Afghanistan, the American people and their elected representatives still do not have a clear sense of U.S. goals in the region, a senior House Republican says in a letter to President Obama.
Rep. Frank R. Wolf, Virginia Republican and a member of the House Appropriations Committee, calls for the creation of an "Afghanistan-Pakistan Study Group," saying there is an urgent need to bring "fresh eyes" to the U.S. mission in Afghanistan.
"We are nine years into our nation’s longest running war and the American people and their elected representatives do not have a clear sense of what we are aiming to achieve, why it is necessary, and how far we are from attaining that goal," Mr. Wolf wrote in his letter to Mr. Obama.
Mr. Wolf said that in recent conversations he has had with former senior diplomats, public policy experts, and retired and active military officers, he has received a grim picture of the situation in Afghanistan. "Many believe our Afghanistan policy is adrift,and all agreed that there is an urgent need for what I call an Afghanistan-Pakistan Study Group," he wrote.
[…] Mr. Wolf wrote legislation in 2005 that created the Iraq Study Group, which is acknowledged as having played a key role in refocusing the George W. Bush administration on the mission in Iraq.
[…]
4) U.S. Envoy Attends Hiroshima Event
Martin Fackler, New York Times, August 6, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/world/asia/07japan.html
Hiroshima, Japan – With the mournful gong of a Buddhist temple bell and the release of a flock of doves, a crowd of 55,000 on Friday solemnly marked the moment 65 years ago when the world’s first atomic attack incinerated this city under a towering mushroom cloud.
For first time, a representative of the United States, Ambassador John V. Roos, participated in the annual ceremony, raising hopes here of a visit soon by a more prominent guest, President Obama, who is scheduled to be in Japan in November.
Mr. Obama has become a popular figure here since delivering a speech last year in Prague calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons. The mayor and other residents of Hiroshima have repeatedly invited him to come to their city, which – along with Nagasaki – is one of the world’s most recognized symbols of the horrors of nuclear war.
Until Friday, American officials had always skipped the annual ceremony, fearing their presence would renew the debate over whether the United States should apologize for the World War II bombings, which together killed more than 200,000 people in explosions so intense that many victims were vaporized, leaving only ghostly shadows on walls, while others died in agony from burns and radiation sickness.
Such a debate would probably be politically divisive in the United States and could even drive a wedge between America and Japan, one of Washington’s closest allies. American officials have long defended the bombings as having shortened the war and avoided an invasion, which they say would have cost untold thousands of American and Japanese lives. But many Japanese see the attacks as the epitome of the indiscriminate slaughter of modern warfare, and a principal reason for Japan’s postwar pacifism.
In interviews this week, political leaders here, including aging survivors of the bombing, sought to allay such concerns, saying they had no intention of asking the president to apologize. Instead, they said they would feel some measure of solace if a visit to their city could help Mr. Obama realize his vision of a denuclearized world.
"There is no point in apologizing now, after 65 years," said Akihiro Takahashi, 79, the former head of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and a survivor of the bombing, who has spearheaded the effort to bring Mr. Obama to Hiroshima by writing four letters of invitation. "We want President Obama to see with his own eyes what really happened here. This will give him stronger willpower to eliminate nuclear weapons."
Calls for Mr. Obama to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki have spread in Japan not only since his Prague speech but also after he won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Speculation has focused on his November visit, which will coincide with a gathering in Hiroshima of other Nobel Peace laureates.
During a visit to Washington in January, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba of Hiroshima personally extended an invitation to Mr. Obama. In a speech on Friday at the ceremony, Mr. Akiba praised the president’s "powerful influence" in pushing for nuclear disarmament.
[…] Not everyone welcomed the ambassador. A few blocks from the ceremony, at an impromptu alternative memorial, leftist groups demanded an apology from the United States and the expulsion of its military bases in Japan. Still, many said they would appreciate a visit by Mr. Obama, even without an apology.
"I want President Obama to apologize," said Tadashi Takahashi, 84, a survivor who became an antiwar advocate. "But even more, I want what he wants – a world without nuclear weapons."
Experts here said that a healthy dialogue, instead of dividing the two nations, could bring them closer together. They said that many Japanese did not necessarily deny that the bombs had hastened the war’s end but that they felt that Americans did not appreciate the appalling human cost.
"Japan and the United States are not so far apart," said Kazumi Mizumoto, a professor at Hiroshima City University. "Maybe they should offer a joint apology of all the terrible things that happened in that war."
5) Alarms sound over trash fires in war zones of Afghanistan, Iraq
Maria Glod, Washington Post, Friday, August 6, 2010; A02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/05/AR2010080506807.html
Hundreds of military service members and contractor employees have fallen ill with cancer or severe breathing problems after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they say they were poisoned by thick, black smoke produced by the burning of tons of trash generated on U.S. bases.
In a lawsuit in federal court in Maryland, 241 people from 42 states are suing Houston-based contractor Kellogg Brown & Root, which has operated more than two dozen so-called burn pits in the two countries. The burn pits were used to dispose of plastic water bottles, Styrofoam food containers, mangled bits of metal, paint, solvent, medical waste, even dead animals. The garbage was tossed in, doused with fuel and set on fire.
The military personnel and civilian workers say they inhaled a toxic haze from the pits that caused severe illnesses. Six with leukemia have died, and five are being treated for the disease, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. At night, more than a dozen rely on machines to help them breathe or to monitor their breathing; others use inhalers.
"You’d cough up black stuff, and you couldn’t seem to catch your breath. And your eyes were burning," said Anthony Roles, 33, a father and Air Force retiree from Little Rock, who was told that he had a blood disorder shortly after returning from Iraq in 2004. "I can still smell it to this very day." Roles said there was a nickname for the symptoms: "Iraqi crud."
Whether the plaintiffs, who include current and former service members and KBR employees, can prove in court that open-air trash burning made them sick – or that KBR bears any responsibility – hinges on complex legal and medical issues. There is no guarantee that the courts will allow their cases to be brought to trial. But the lawsuit caught the attention of Congress and led to government limits on burn pits.
In March, the military banned most open-air burning of plastics, tires, aerosol cans and other materials. In April, the Department of Veterans Affairs identified burn pits as an environmental hazard. Last month, the American Lung Association, citing health risks to soldiers, urged the military to immediately find other means of trash disposal.
[…] R. Craig Postlewaite, acting director of the Defense Department’s Force Health Protection and Readiness Programs, said in court papers that the military acknowledges that it is "plausible and even likely that a relatively small number of people. . . may be affected by more serious, longer term health effects."
[…] Defense Department spokeswoman Cynthia O. Smith said most burn pits in Iraq have been shut down. As of June, she said, burn pits were in use at 166 locations where U.S. forces were based in Afghanistan.
[…]
Iran
6) Turkey Doesn’t Plan to Curb Iran Petroleum-Products Trade, Minister Says
Ali Berat Meric, Bloomburg, August 6, 2010
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-06/turkey-doesn-t-plan-to-curb-iran-petroleum-products-trade-minister-says.html
Turkey sees no reason to curb a trade in petroleum products with neighbor Iran, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said.
United Nations sanctions on Iran don’t cover the trade and "right now we believe that commercial companies can carry out this business," Yildiz said in Trabzon. "It’s a functioning commercial relationship."
He said the trade involves Turkish companies importing crude oil from Iran and selling refined products to Iran in return, Yildiz said. He didn’t give any figures for the size of the trade.
El Salvador
7) CAFTA Attack on Green Policy: Did Obama Need More Reasons to Renegotiate Bush’s NAFTA-Style Trade Deals?
Lori Wallach, Huffington Post, August 4, 2010
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lori-wallach/tribunal-oks-mining-corps_b_670740.html
Pacific Rim Mining Corp. just won the first stage in its attack under the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) demanding hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation from the government of El Salvador over environmental and health policies. The corporation is using the CAFTA provisions that grant foreign investors expansive new rights to sue governments in foreign tribunals over regulations or government actions that conflict with the pacts’ special rights for foreign investors and that could undermine their future expected profits.
Wait, weren’t we told that those outrageous NAFTA-style foreign investor special privileges – that promote offshoring and expose our public interest laws to attack in foreign tribunals – had been fixed in CAFTA? So, we should not worry that the same provisions appear word-for-word in Bush Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Korea, Colombia and Panama? OK, we didn’t buy it then, nor did congressional Democrats. Only 15 House Dems supported Bush’s CAFTA, which Obama opposed as a Senator.
So, what’s up with the Obama folks now? Last month, Obama said he wanted to start moving the three leftover Bush FTAs toward Congress and instructed trade officials to fix the Korea FTA so it could move early next year. But so far, "fix" only means improving access for U.S. auto and beef exports. The administration will decide its "ask" of Korea this month.
And now like a warning flare comes this ruling in a CAFTA investor attack on a country’s environmental and health policies.
When it comes to the lunatic NAFTA-CAFTA investor rights, the U.S.-Korea FTA poses a special threat – because both countries are major capital exporters. That means, in contrast to U.S. FTAs with developing countries, there are hundreds of Korean firms operating here that could use the FTA’s investor rights to skirt our court system and laws and demand taxpayer compensation in foreign tribunals for U.S. laws that they do not like. And the hundreds of U.S. firms in Korea could do the same there. Moreover, this private enforcement system covers the Korea FTA’s financial services provisions, meaning the recent U.S. and Korea reregulation initiatives would be newly exposed to attack by numerous banks and insurance and securities firms.
The fact that an attack like Pacific Rim’s would even be possible highlights what is wrong with our current trade agreement model. The very existence of these extraordinary foreign investor rights – the notion that foreign corporations could be allowed to sue the U.S. government in private international tribunals, bypassing domestic courts – undermines federal and state efforts to protect public health, safety, and precious natural resources.
Consider the logic of Pacific Rim’s case. The firm sought to establish a massive gold mine with cyanide ore processing in the basin of El Salvador’s largest river, Rio Lempa. They got an initial exploration permit. El Salvador, the size of Massachusetts with a population density of 800 people per square mile, already faces severe environmental degradation and surface water contamination. Opposition to the project grew. The conservative Arena government agreed to do a national review of mining policy, but to date the laws remain the same. The firm’s response was to not file the feasibility study, which is necessary to obtain an operating permit, and largely shut down operations. Now, the firm claims El Salvador should pay hundreds of millions of dollars because it failed to provide a stable investment environment.
Good thing BP is not a Canadian firm, or we could be facing the same sort of case over post-Gulf disaster changes to offshore drilling policy.
Even when a country successfully defends against such a challenge, significant amounts of taxpayer funds must be expended in legal defense. There is simply no basis for elevating the interests of specific foreign corporations to equal footing with governments’ public health, environmental and safety laws, which is what private enforcement of intergovernmental agreements does.
So, it’s no surprise that 110 House Democrats in a letter to President Obama last month – and numerous labor, environmental and other organizations – have demanded that the extraordinary investor rights and their private enforcement be removed from the Korea FTA.
Now, Obama must decide: Will he fix this problem, as he committed to do during the campaign? Or will he take ownership of Bush’s NAFTA expansion agreements with Korea – and Colombia and Panama – with foreseeable and dire policy and political consequences?
Cuba
8) At 50, Cuban trade embargo is not aging well
Al Kamen, Washington Post, Friday, August 6, 2010; A16
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/05/AR2010080506768.html
The half-century-old Cuban trade embargo has seen better days. For its first 30 years, when the Castro crowd was in cahoots with the Soviets – even welcomed nukes 90 miles from Florida – the embargo enjoyed widespread support.
The collapse of the Soviet Union 20 years ago undermined the Cold War rationale for the effort. International and domestic support steadily eroded. Even Bay of Pigs veteran Francisco J. Hernandez, head of the hard-line Cuban American National Foundation, last year undercut the once-sacred embargo, not calling for ending it but calling it "a symbol" and "not something that is that important anymore."
But you’re in very deep trouble when none other than Soldier of Fortune magazine blasts the embargo in an article headlined "Fifty Years of Failure: Petrified U.S. Policy Toward Cuba."
Worse, the lead author of the piece, coming out in the October issue, is Jay Mallin, a former Latin America reporter for the Washington Times and news director of Radio Marti during the Reagan administration. (His co-author is former Miami Herald Latin America editor Don Bohning, who covered Cuba and the region for many years.)
The embargo "is essentially an absurdity that accomplishes nothing," they write, and "has been a boon to the Castro government, providing a handy excuse" for its failures. They recount arguments, usually spouted by the libs, for changing course.
On the international front, the United Nations has regularly condemned the embargo. Last year’s cliff-hanger vote was 187 to 3 – the United States, Israel and Palau (although key allies Micronesia and the Marshall Islands abstained).
[…] In recent years, agriculture and business groups have been increasingly opposed. A business group from Virginia went there recently. (And look for Obama administration action, after Congress leaves town, to loosen travel restrictions.)
[…]
Colombia
9) Police investigator admits manipulating Reyes’ files.
Cameron Sumpter, Colombia Reports, Thursday, 05 August 2010 16:05
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/11199-police-investigator-admits-to-manipulating-rayes-files.html
A Colombian police investigator admitted to manipulating evidence against activist Liliany Obando which was recovered from FARC leader "Raul Reyes" computers, found in the cross-border raid in Ecuador in 2008, reports Europa Press. When asked by a prosecutor if the police official had "opened and manipulated information before that information was subject to judicial review, in the absence of legal authorization to do so," investigator Ronald Coy replied, "yes sir."
The policeman is testifying in the case against Obando, a Colombian trade unionist and human rights defender, who was arrested on August 8, 2008 and accused of raising money for the FARC.
The evidence of Obando’s links to the guerrilla organization were allegedly found in the Raul Reyes computers, which the prosecution said also contained personal emails between Reyes and Obando that suggested a romantic relationship between the two. Coy had earlier testified that no e-mails were found on the computer.
Obando and her defense have always maintained that she was raising money for Colombia’s largest agricultural union FENSUARGO. According to James Brittain, a Canadian professor who has campaigned for Obando’s release, the trade unionist was arrested the week she wrote a report on the murder of 1,500 FENSUARGO members over the last 30 years.
Obando’s defense attorney Eduardo Matias says that Ronald Coy’s confession means that the prosecution against his client now has no legal basis. "There was … an abuse of authority in violation of due process and therefore the proof can not be considered as evidence in criminal proceedings," the lawyer said.
Following the Colombian raid on Ecuadorean soil which killed FARC leader Raul Reyes, Ecuador’s public prosecution released a report alleging that Colombian authorities manipulated the computer files before handing them over to the international police force Interpol.
Interpol’s investigation found no evidence that the files had been tampered with after March 3, but said that Colombian authorities "did not always follow internationally accepted methods for handling computer evidence." The international police organization also acknowledged that it had never performed a physical electro-magnetic exam of the hard discs, which according to Interpol is the only valid way to retrieve a copy of computer content.
According to the analysis of the Ecuadorean prosecution, Colombia did tamper with the files before March 3. The report says that all 45 files handed over to Ecuador have the same creation, last modified and last viewed date. The timestamps on 40 of those files are before March 1, indicating that Colombia never opened the files they sent to Ecuador. If Colombia had not tampered the files, the creation, last modified and last viewed dates would all be different and the last viewed date would have to be between March 1 and March 3.
The files captured during the raid have been cited as evidence in numerous accusations by the Colombian government in the past two years against people who have alleged links to the FARC.
Venezuela
10) Chavez May Bar Nominee U.S. Envoy For "Meddling".
Daniel Wallis and Frank Jack Daniel, Reuters, August 5, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/08/05/world/international-uk-venezuela-usa.html
Caracas – Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday he may not accept a newly nominated U.S. ambassador to Caracas who sharply criticized the South American nation’s socialist government and its armed forces. Larry Palmer told a U.S. senator last week that morale was low in Venezuela’s military and that there were "clear ties" between members of Chavez’s government and leftist Colombian guerrillas operating in Venezuela.
"What he said is very serious, we are evaluating it, I’ve almost blocked him from coming," Chavez said, before a meeting with former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner.
Venezuela’s foreign ministry on Wednesday said it had demanded an explanation from Washington for what is described as "meddling and interventionism" in South America’s top oil exporter, a key supplier of crude to the United States.
A U.S. State Department official said Palmer’s comments were in line with government opinion. In written replies to questions from Senator Dick Lugar of Indiana, Palmer said he was "keenly aware of the clear ties" between members of the Chavez government and Colombian rebels.
[…]
11) Venezuela signals thaw with Colombia
Frank Jack Daniel, Reuters, Aug 6
* Chavez sends greetings to incoming Colombian president
* Lula and Kirchner seek solution to dispute
* Venezuela’s relations with United States deteriorate http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFN0610278220100806
Caracas – Venezuela’s foreign minister will attend the inauguration of Colombia’s incoming president, Juan Manuel Santos, on Saturday, signaling a thaw between the Andean neighbors after relations broke over leftist rebels.
The socialist Chavez severed ties last month and announced he was sending troops to the border when the outgoing government of President Alvaro Uribe, a close U.S. ally, said Venezuela tolerated Marxist rebel camps on its territory.
The latest spat was widely seen as a parting tussle between two ideologically opposed leaders who have long bickered over guerrillas and a U.S. military presence in Colombia. So the warmer words ahead of Santos’ swearing-in came as no surprise. "We are very optimistic," Chavez told reporters about prospects for less antagonism with the new government.
[…] Though Chavez is not expected at Saturday’s ceremony, he has made clear he hopes for better ties with Santos, who is under pressure from exporters to normalize business with the nation’s main local market worth billions of dollars annually.
[…]
–
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
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