[R-G] The New Smear Against Chávez

[Anthony Fenton]

The New Smear Against Chávez
http://socialistworker.org/print/2008/05/28/new-smear-against-chavez
June 01, 2008 By Chris Carlson
Socialist Worker

May 28, 2008

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The reported death of Manuel Marulanda, leader of the Revolutionary  
Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), once again highlights the U.S.-backed  
dirty war in that country. The Colombian military's report that it  
killed the rebel leader comes amid claims that the FARC is receiving  
support from the Venezuelan government, led by President Hugo Chávez.

Chris Carlson, a contributor to venezuelanalysis.com, looks at the  
allegations that there is a connection between Venezuela and the FARC,  
and finds them lacking.

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WASHINGTON AND its faithful lackeys in the media have launched a new  
offensive against Hugo Chávez and the government of Venezuela. The  
recent "discovery" of a laptop computer that allegedly belonged to the  
FARC guerrilla group has ignited another media-generated scandal,  
creating a whole new round of accusations against the Chávez  
government, but without any evidence to support them.



Those who have followed events in Venezuela in recent years shouldn't  
be surprised by this. Every few months, a new controversy is ignited  
by the media regarding Venezuela's socialist president, Hugo Chávez;  
each time with plenty of distortions, baseless accusations and  
outright falsehoods.



Late last year, the media "show" centered on a proposed reform to the  
Venezuelan constitution. The mainstream media repeated endlessly that  
the constitutional reform would make Chávez "president for life" and  
would "turn Venezuela into a dictatorship."



In reality, the reform simply proposed the removal of presidential  
term limits--something that has also been in the works in neighboring  
Colombia, where it has gotten absolutely zero criticism from the  
mainstream media. The reason? Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is  
Washington's closest ally in the region.



In early 2007, the media generated yet another controversy based on  
complete fabrications, this time about freedom of expression and media  
censorship in Venezuela. After President Chávez announced the decision  
not to renew a broadcast license of one of Venezuela's major TV  
stations (a legal right afforded to the president), a media scandal  
erupted claiming that there was no "freedom of expression" in  
Venezuela, and for months on end, the media repeated the false claim  
that Chávez had "shut down" a major media outlet and was "censoring  
the media" because of its anti-government stance.



But the reality is that no TV station was ever closed down, and to  
this day, the same TV station continues to broadcast its virulently  
anti-Chávez message across the country by cable and satellite TV.



In fact, much of the media in Venezuela continues to be extremely anti- 
Chávez, including nearly all of the major newspapers and several radio  
and TV stations, leaving the claims about freedom of expression in  
Venezuela to be completely baseless. Venezuela has a diversity of  
media outlets and a range of political debate that one could only  
dream of having in the United States.



So it should come as no surprise that Washington and its unofficial  
spokesmen at the media are at it again, this time accusing Hugo Chávez  
of having ties to the Colombian guerrilla organization FARC. And they  
claim that the computer recently "uncovered" from a guerrilla camp has  
the evidence to prove it.



This "proof," Washington claims, is enough to put Venezuela on their  
list of state sponsors of terrorism, a move that would significantly  
change relations between the countries and could involve economic  
sanctions against Venezuela. But, once again, the allegations are full  
of complete distortions and baseless claims.



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THIS LATEST attack on Venezuela has centered on information found on  
laptop computers that were allegedly uncovered from a FARC guerrilla  
camp in Ecuador after the Colombian military made an illegal cross- 
border bombing of the camp, an attack that was widely condemned in  
Latin America, but which Washington supported.



The illegal military assault resulted in the killing of a top FARC  
official along with more than 20 other people, including several  
university students from Mexico. Hours after the attack, Colombia  
announced it had "found" a laptop computer at the camp belonging to  
the FARC, and that it contained information linking the Venezuelan  
government to the FARC guerrilla organization (allegations that  
Washington has long made, but has never supported with any evidence).



The allegations raised some immediate doubts. First, how likely is it  
that a laptop computer could survive a bombing attack that killed  
nearly everyone in the camp? And second, if it did survive, how could  
the Colombian government have gone through the literally thousands of  
files on the computer in a matter of hours to find information  
implicating Hugo Chávez?



But notwithstanding these questions, there is not even any way to  
prove that the computers were actually found at the guerrilla camp, or  
that the files contained on the computer are authentic, and weren't  
just put there by the Colombian government.



After all, how easy would it have been for the Colombian government to  
simply load whatever files they wanted onto the computer, or simply  
prepare the computer ahead of time and claim that it was found it at  
the FARC camp? As Venezuela expert Eva Golinger said, "How easy it is  
to just write a document in Word on some computer and say it was  
written by someone else!"



For this reason, the Colombian government invited the International  
Police (Interpol) to analyze the data and validate the information  
found on the computers. But contrary to the claims of the Colombian  
government and the international media, Interpol did nothing of the  
sort. The Interpol examination was limited to determining one thing:  
whether or not the computer files were manipulated after March 1, the  
date the Colombian military bombed the FARC camp and supposedly gained  
possession of the evidence.



When Interpol's report stated that there was no evidence the files  
were manipulated, Colombia and Washington immediately jumped on this  
as validation for their claims. The international media faithfully  
echoed the official line. "FARC Computer Files Are Authentic," said  
one headline from the Washington Post. "Venezuela Offered Aid to  
Colombian Rebels," read another. And the next day, the BBC confidently  
stated, "Colombia did not fake Farc files."



But even Interpol's own report reveals that they have no way of  
verifying this. Many of the files found on the computer were dated in  
the future, in 2009 and 2010, throwing out the reliability that any of  
the dates on the computer are accurate, and suggesting that the dates  
had been altered.



In addition, Interpol's own report also says that they have no way of  
validating where the computers came from, or the source of any  
information found on the computers. "The verification of the eight  
seized FARC computer exhibits by Interpol does not imply the  
validation of the accuracy of the user files, the validation of any  
country's interpretation of the user files or the validation of the  
source of the user files," the Interpol report clearly states on page 9.



So in other words, there is no way of knowing if the computers or any  
of the files contained on the computers are authentic, or if the  
Colombian government just made the whole thing up and planted the  
evidence.



In spite of all this, Washington and the international media are  
treating the findings as irrefutable proof that Hugo Chávez has ties  
to the FARC guerrilla organization, and are accusing the Venezuelan  
government of supporting acts of "international terrorism." Some in  
Washington are even calling for Venezuela to be added to the U.S.  
State Department's list of "State Sponsors of Terrorism" along with  
Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Sudan and Syria, which could mean economic  
sanctions against Venezuela.



Many analysts believe that the Bush administration will not go through  
with this, however, given that Chávez has repeatedly threatened to  
stop the supply of oil to the United States in the event of any  
aggressions toward Venezuela.



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PERHAPS THE most ironic part of this latest attack on Venezuela is the  
fact that it is the United States, not Venezuela, that supports  
terrorism in Colombia.



Washington sends hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the  
Colombian government every year in addition to military equipment and  
personnel. In 2007, total aid to Colombia reached the astronomical  
level of $756 million, all of which goes to the Colombian government,  
and the Colombian military. Ironically, the largest perpetrators of  
violence and killing in Colombia are the Colombian military and the  
right-wing paramilitary groups connected to the government, not the  
FARC guerrillas.



Human rights organizations that routinely document human rights  
violations in Colombia have repeatedly shown over the years that the  
paramilitary groups are responsible for the majority of the killings  
of civilians.



For example, the Colombian Commission of Jurists (CCJ) reported last  
year that during President Uribe's first term in office (2002-2006),  
the paramilitaries were responsible for 61 percent of the deaths, the  
Colombian military accounted for 14 percent, while the various  
guerrilla groups were responsible for the remaining 25 percent.



And over the last two years, it continues to be revealed that many in  
the Uribe government, including some of the president's closest  
allies, have maintained long ties to the right-wing paramilitary  
groups, those responsible for the largest portion of the killings in  
the country. As many as 33 lawmakers, and most recently, the  
president's cousin Mario Uribe Escobar, have been indicted for  
colluding with the paramilitaries and are currently in jail awaiting  
trial.



It is becoming increasingly obvious that what is known as the "para- 
politcs" scandal is really more of a "para-Uribismo" scandal, as one  
Colombian senator has suggested--and that could explain why Uribe  
might want to divert attention away from his government and direct it  
toward Venezuela and the FARC.



Once again, Washington and its allies have launched a successful media  
campaign of slander against Venezuela and the Chávez government. And,  
once again, it is based on lies, distortions and baseless accusations.



But the hard truth is that Washington is supporting the side that is  
doing most of the killing in Colombia, with more money and weapons  
than the FARC could ever dream of having. And we don't need to "find"  
a laptop in the jungle to prove it.





Chris Carlson writes for Venezuelanalysis.com Web site, a source in  
English for current news and analysis of Venezuela. Readers of Spanish  
should visit Aporrea.org.