[Marxism] Could the US be using Uribe to have an excuse to fight with Venezuela? Yes, but

[Anthony Boynton]

Anthony, could the US be using Uribe to have an excuse
to fight with Venezuela?

Yes.

Yes, but.

A week or so Condis-sleaza Rice and eight Democratic
Party Senators and Congreso people dropped into
Medellín for tea and toast. Around the same time the
head of the Southern Command toured the most important
cities and military bases of the country.

The US embassy here has been the HQ of the anti-Chavez
operation for a long time, at least since current US
ambassador William Brownfield arrived.

The Bush administration would like nothing better than
to have a war between Colombia and Venezuela in which
it could intervene against Venezuela.

But that does not mean it will happen, or is close to
happening.

Uribe changed the Colombian army in a very serious
way. He has fired so many generals people have lost
count. Some of them have even gone to jail. The
Colombian army is very, very corrupt, maybe as corrupt
as Haliburton. Before Uribe arrived they had one
mission: steal as much as possible. Fighting was not
something they did much of, liked very much, or knew
very much about.

Uribe made them, some of them, some of the time, fight
against the FARC. They didn’t stop stealing, but now
they have to take a break once and a while to fight.

The Colombian military has more combat training, and
more combat experience than any military organization
in Latin America. It is large, and well equipped,
thanks to Plan Colombia. Some of its generals  might
even like to fight a real war to show the stuff they
are made of. But most of the generals here still think
fighting is only done to keep the job.

Colombian soldiers are drawn almost exclusively from
the poor, for the simple reason that anyone can buy
their son’s freedom from the supposedly universal
draft. Most of those draftees are not anxious to fight
anyone. But when they fight the FARC, the FARC is
almost always way out numbered, and way outgunned.
This would not be the case in a war with Venezuela.

Uribe is not an idiot, he is not even the idiot of the
United States. He is a puppet only when he wants to be
used in my estimation. In the case of fighting the
FARC he wants to be used, because he personally wants
revenge for the death of his father. 

Although it may sound strange, revenge for deaths and
kidnappings of people from rich and powerful families
is one of the driving force for the Uribe government’s
self-proclaimed crusade against the FARC. A lot of the
top families in this country want revenge.

On the other hand, Venezuela is Colombia’s next door
neighbor. It is traditionally the second largest
trading partner of Colombia (after the USA), but it is
Colombia’s major export market for manufactured goods
and most agricultural products (the USA buys oil,
coal, nickel, coffee, cut flowers and cocaine –
Venezuela buys shirts, shoes, cars, refrigerators,
chickens, meat, and fruit.). Venezuela is also the
location of much of Colombia’s foreign investment (no,
Paula, Colombia is not an imperialist country.)
Colmbian’s own supermarket chains, shoe store chains,
etc.etc. in Venezuela.)

A war with Venezuela would be neither popular nor
profitable, so – aside from the wishful thinking of
Pentagon pencil pushers and the White House, I can not
see much reason for Uribe to go to war.

Of course,. my crystal ball is not working and has not
worked for years, so who knows.

Anthony



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