Transcriptie: Cynthia McKinney's toespraak in Duitsland

War and the Economy:
We Must Take our Countries Back

We can’t give in and we can’t give up

by Cynthia McKinney

Volledige transcriptie.

Vertaal in het Nederlands.

Colombia: Stakingen en groeiend sociaal protest tegen regering Uribe

De regering Uribe schijnt maar moeilijk overweg te kunnen met deze kritiek of andere vormen van gerechtvaardigd protest. Dat leidt tot verkrampte reacties, waarbij geprobeerd wordt om legitieme verzuchtingen en argumenten te ontkrachten door de oppositie te criminaliseren, te beschuldigingen van terrorisme of van banden met de FARC.

Lees verder bij MO

Betancourt

Question, was this a "rescue" in a Colombian military operations as claimed or was it another unilateral prisoner release by FARC, after FARC was called upon by Chávez to release prisoners and following a FARC's track record of unconditional prisoner releases earlier this year?. Perhaps.

President Bush will no doubt be claiming this prisoner release is an example of the success of Plan Colombia and a push for the Free Trade Agreement with Colombia, both of which are now stalled in Congress. CNN is at this moment opining that this "successful rescue operation ... will breath new life into Plan Colombia and the Free Trade Agreement.

Axis Of Logic

Ik ben blij voor die vrouw dat ze vrij is. Maar iets zegt me dat ze als pion gebruikt wordt in een smerig geopolitiek spelletje. We weten dat Chavez al flinke druk op de FARC uitoefende om haar en andere gijzelaars vrij te krijgen. Waarschijnlijk mag hij koste wat kost niet de credits daarvoor krijgen, en krijgen we hier een heldhaftig kulverhaal voorgeschoteld. Ongetwijfeld later in Hollywood-versie in de bioscopen.

Nog twee woorden. Plan Colombia.

Colombia op straat tegen paramilitairen

Tienduizenden Colombianen zijn gisteren de straat op gegaan om te protesteren tegen het geweld van paramilitairen, rechtse gewapende groepen die het land al decennia terroriseren. Ook vroegen ze aandacht voor de vier miljoen vluchtelingen die in het land op de vlucht zijn voor het geweld. Onder andere in de steden Bogotá, Medellín, Cali en Barranquilla werd er gedemonstreerd.

Lees meer

Plan Colombia: The Real Destabilizing Force in South America

March 4th 2008, by Carlos Martinez - Global Exchange Venezuela Program

In surveying US press coverage of the recent tensions between Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela one might come to the conclusion that Colombia has become the victim of the wrath of its' evil next door neighbor, Hugo Chavez. Once again, the media spin machine has been turned against Venezuela, bypassing a contextual analysis of the situation for a simplistic story line. With headlines such as, "Chavez Picks a New Fight" (Business Week March 4, 2008) the story perpetuates the US government's claims that Venezuela is a destabilizing force in the region while ignoring the alarming actions perpetrated by the Colombian government.

While Chavez has certainly made it easy for international attention to be focused on his actions, the lack of coverage on the response of other South American presidents is disconcerting. The most egregious example of this blind spot is with Ecuador itself, the country whose territory was trespassed in Colombia's attacks. The protests raised by Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa have been sorely under reported in comparison to Chavez's response, potentially leaving one with the impression that Ecuador does not consider Colombia's actions to be of major concern.

Read more: Venezuelan Analysis

Translate/vertaal

Chavez accuses Colombian paramilitaries to attack Venezuela

CARACAS .- The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, said today that a group of Colombian paramilitaries called "Black Eagles" is trying to infiltrate the country in order to "harm" in dealing with the "support" of some Colombian institutions.

See complete google-translation to English

Venezuelan Minister: Oil Company Asset Freeze is “Judicial Terrorism”

Caracas, February 8, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com) - Venezuela's Energy Minister, Rafael Ramirez, characterised a series of court orders obtained by Exxon Mobil Corp. in Britain, the Netherlands, and the Dutch Antilles, freezing up to $12 billion in assets of Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA, as "judicial terrorism," in a statement today.

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War vs Peace: Colombia, Venezuela and the FARC Hostage Saga

Within the space of one week, three high level US officials - Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy John Walters, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice - visited Colombia, where they made a series of attacks on Venezuela.

The officials alleged that Venezuela had become a key transit route for Colombia's cocaine production, which accounts for 60% of world supplies. They also alleged that Venezuela is supplying material support and weapons to the FARC; that the FARC operate in Venezuelan territory and hold prisoners there, and that Venezuela constitutes a military threat to Colombia and has expansionist aims in the region.

However, no evidence has been provided to back up any of these claims, none of which stand up to scrutiny of the facts. The allegations are in reality aimed at generating a matrix of negative international opinion in order to isolate the Chavez government whose Bolivarian revolution is posing a serious challenge to U.S. imperialism in the region.

This media and diplomatic campaign has been combined with the launching of a general military offensive against the FARC guerillas which control around 30% of Colombian territory.

Orders were given on January 26 to encircle FARC camps where prisoners are held in order to carry out a military rescue (in direct contradiction to the wishes of the relatives of the prisoners) and to attempt to engage FARC guerrillas in combat. On the day of the so-called peace rally, Uribe called for the complete eradication of the FARC from Colombian soil.

Roots of the conflict

Colombia's guerrilla war dates back six decades, to La Violencia (The Violence) the 10-year civil war that began in the late 1940s between the Conservative and Liberal parties of the Colombian oligarchy that resulted in at least 200,000 deaths.

Many workers and peasants fled the violence, creating independent "peace communities" in the south of the country. When the government persecuted these communities, guerrilla organizations were formed as instruments of self-defense. Out of these groups, the FARC formed in 1964, and today, together with the National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia's second largest guerrilla group, control almost 40% of the country.

The FARC has previously attempted to reach a peace accord with the Colombian government in the 1980s. However, after they disarmed and established a civilian organization, 3,000 of their members were massacred by the military, forcing them back into armed struggle. The FARC were placed on the US's list of banned terrorist organizations after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US.

The campaign against the FARC and the Venezuelan government also seeks to distract attention from the growing "para-politics" scandal that has engulfed the Uribe government, with 40 pro-Uribe legislators under investigation for their connections to the paramilitary groups, including Uribe's brother and cousin.

Uribe is also seeking to use the conflict as an excuse to crackdown on internal dissent. The Colombia Solidarity Campaign statement reported that in the previous two weeks, dozens of activists have been arbitrarily arrested and detained. Senator Peidad Cordoba, who is now under investigation for "crimes against the homeland," has been the victim of numerous death threats and verbal assaults attacks publicly justified by Colombian Interior Minister, Carlos Holguin in Colombian daily El Tiempo on January 24 when he said, "when a person speaks against their country, as Senator Piedad Cordoba did, it is natural that people will react."

Leader of the center-left opposition party, Polo Democratico Alternativo, Carlos Gaviria, also received death threats for organizing a separate march on the same day as the pro-war demonstrations in order to call for a humanitarian accord. Gaviria described the political environment as "pre-fascist."

Full article Global Research