Are you for real!?

Guerrillero!!!!

is
BogOta not BogAta

I don’t believe that the release was a US operation. It was too slick and sophisticated. A US operation would have been crude and bloody. As soon as the helicopter with Betancourt was off the ground, other choppers would have machine-gunned the FRAC people. I would guess that it was a French operation (it reeks to high heaven of Sarkozy!) and I would guess that the 20 Mil was French money. Probably the French set the whole thing up but because US citizens were involved, informed the US of its plans. The US then told Uribe, who threatened to blow the whole thing if he wasn’t let in on the deal.

The idea that McCain was in on the plot sounds silly to me. Nobody, not even McCain himself, claims that he had any part in it. I would guess that they chose that day because all eyes in Colombia were focused on McCain’s visit and everyone beleived that the military and police would be too busy babysitting the Ancient Mariner to notice what was happening up-country.

I too have been surprised by Ingrid Betancourt’s state of health. Saint Ingrid, as she has been nicknamed in France, has spent the days since her release hugging and kissing every French politician who has come within reach and shows no sing of the slighest ill-health. That suggests that she was “fattened up” for release, which, in turn, suggests that the whole thing was planned for a long time and that FARC was in on the deal from the start.

In any event, the whole thing is a huge triumph for FARC and the Europeans and a slap in the face for Uribe and the US.

I humbly disagree that the FARC is anything other than a narco-trafficking terrorist organization. They make money by trafficking cocaine, extortion, kidnappings, roadblocks. They began with a clear political goal, but have clearly strayed from their initial reasons for becoming dissidents. Uribe understands that a majority of the FARC members are poor farmers who have been either forced into the organization through extortion, or by lack of options. He has put programs in place that not only grant amnesty, but also provide job training and education free of charge for laying down their weapons. His campaign has been extremely successful. The FARC is finally dwindling. Uribe is well-loved by the Colombians. They even opted to change the constitution so they would be able to elect him as their president again. The general population is sick of the FARC and want them out. Back in February there was a huge protest by the Colombian people against the FARC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7225824.stm

Many politicians have entered into peace talks with the FARC, offering amnesty and opportunity if they would lay down their weapons. They were given a demilitarized zone (more than once) which they quickly exploited and transformed into a major drug hub and canceled their peace talks with the government. Ingrid Betancourt herself was in peace talks with leaders of the FARC when she was kidnapped. Sounds to me like they aren’t actually interested in their political goals.

The FARC basically started as a reaction to the Pablo Escobar Colombia. If you don’t know the history of that time period, you won’t understand the real story and you will believe the US has much more to do with all of this than it actually does. Plan Colombia was started by Bill Clinton (didn’t know if you knew that) to get rid of Escobar and the drug-related violence and kidnappings. The entire country was about to be overrun by terrorists and the US came to their aid… maybe it was merely in an effort to protect the oil pipeline that was being attacked constantly on the border of Venezuela (likely)… regardless. Escobar and his cronies basically owned Colombia. They were in positions of extreme political power. The rebel groups developed as either supporters of this, or dissenters. Their war is about money, power, and drugs, not politics. Kind of like every other war!

On a side-note Colombia is the country, Columbia is a city… and it’s Bogota, not Bogata.

FARC preaching about peace and problem solving as they chain folks by the neck for years and years and rape or murder (remember Ingrid Washinawatok).

Gnoams – ageless deformed dwarves of folklore.