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At the time, Chavez denounced the documents as forgeries to vilify him. But like indigestion, they've resurfaced with new charges, that, according to the Post, "will be even more difficult to ignore" even though they're as baseless as earlier ones.
This time they're over late July claims that "sophisticated Swedish-produced antitank rockets" sold to Venezuela years ago were captured in a raid on a FARC-EP camp. Supposedly, the same laptops referred to "a FARC operative in Caracas" discussing them in 2007 "with two top Venezuelan generals, including the director of military intelligence, Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios."
Calling Chavez a "caudillo," (a strongman or military dictator), the editorial accused him of "public bluster" after withdrawing his ambassador and diplomatic staff from Colombia and "threaten(ing) to close the border to trade" for reasons the Post omitted.
Colombia is a corrupted narco-state and the region's most repressive death squad democracy that targets unionists, human rights activists, and legitimate resistance groups like the FARC-EP. Chavez acted in response to America's stepped up military presence there and intention to supply the government with new weapons and technology plus billions through Plan Colombia in support of the "Uribe doctrine" that's hard right, corporate-friendly, and militarized for enforcement.
Stepped Up Gunboat DiplomacyÂ
During his late June White House visit, president Alvaro Uribe gave the Pentagon access to seven new military bases - three airfields, two naval installations, and two others later revealed. The largest is Palenquero Air Base, north of Bogata. Another is the Malambo Air Base near the Venezuelan border. The two navy bases are at Cartagena and Bahia Malaga, and the Florencia army base as well, near the Ecuadorean border, along with nine other military installations currently stationing US forces supplemented by the reactivated Fourth Fleet in April 2008 (headquartered at Florida's Mayport Naval Station) after a 60 year hiatus.
It was created during WW II for Latin America and the Caribbean, disbanded in 1950, and now again operating to "conduct varying missions including a range of contingency operations, counter narco-terrorism, and theater security cooperation activities." According to US Naval Forces Southern Command chief Adm. James Stevenson last year, "the Fourth Fleet will send a message to Venezuela and the region." Commandant of the National War College, General Robert Steel, said at the time:
"The United States' obsession with Venezuela, Cuba and other things indicates they are going to use more military force, going to use that instrument more often."
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