[NYTr] VIO news excerpts on Colombia Hostage, Freeze wi5h Venez
 
Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 12:24:19 -0600 (CST)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Venezuela Information Office (VIO)
http://www.rethinkvenezuela.com

excerpted from VIO Venezuela Daily News Roundup - Nov 30, 2007

[New video footage on CNN shows that hostages in Colombia for whom
President Chavez was negotiating a release are indeed alive.  The news
comes a week after Colombian President Alvaro Uribe canceled the
humanitarian mediation by Chavez, claiming that he had disobeyed
orders.  Among those hostages seen in the footage are the former
Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S.
citizens who were kidnapped years ago while working as military
contractors.  The Guardian reports that "many families of the captives
believe the move [by Uribe to stop talks] ended the best chance in
years to secure their freedom." -VIO]

Guardian Unlimited - November 30, 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/colombia/story/0,,2219785,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

Rebel tape shows foreign hostages alive in Colombia

Evidence that a former Colombian presidential candidate and three
Americans held for up to five years by leftwing guerrillas are still
alive was revealed today.

Recently recorded videotapes showed an emaciated Ingrid Betancourt - a
high-profile captive with dual Colombian and French nationality who has
been held hostage since 2002 - apparently chained up in a jungle
location.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) guerrillas captured
Betancourt during the 2002 presidential election campaign. In the
silent images, which, according to the date stamp, were recorded on
October 24, Betancourt has long hair and stares blankly at the ground.
No images of her have been seen since 2002.

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been pushing for
Betancourt's release, said the video was "undeniable" evidence that she
was alive.

"This encourages us to boost our efforts to win her release," he said.

Other tapes showed a number of Colombian hostages and three Americans,
military contractors on an intelligence-collecting mission. The tape of
the Americans read January 1 2007, but a kidnapped Colombian soldier,
who appeared on the same tape, said the recording had been made on
October 23.

Farc abducted Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell and Marc Gonsalves after
their plane crashed in southern Colombia in 2003. Each American briefly
stood alone on the screen, also against a jungle backdrop, looking
haggard. The rebels had not released any images of them since 2003.

The high commissioner for peace, Luis Carlos Restrepo, said the tapes
were seized after the arrest last night of three suspected urban
members of the Farc. The five tapes also showed images of 12 other
Colombians, mainly members of the security forces.

"It is a sad image but she is alive," Betancourt's sister, Astrid, told
the French television broadcaster LCI. "I am extremely moved to see
these images of my sister."

Betancourt's son, Lorenzo, said he had been waiting for years for proof
that his mother was alive.

"Now, thankfully, the Farc have a human side and realised they
absolutely needed to give a sign that she is alive," he told Europe-1
radio.

The Colombian government said it had also recovered a series of letters
apparently written by the hostages, including what appeared to be the
will of Howes.

Another letter was from Howes to his wife. A further note was from
Gonsalves to the Farc military commander, known as "Mono Jojoy", dated
October 23 2007, while Betancourt had written a letter to her mother,
dated October 24 2007.

The Farc, which uses kidnapping to both raise money and pressure the
government, is offering to release these and other hostages in exchange
for the freeing of hundreds of rebels from Colombian and US prisons.
Some hostages have endured a decade in Farc captivity.

The rebels were criticised for failing to provide proof that the
hostages were still alive during the recent mediation by Venezuelan
president Hugo ChC!vez, who demanded such evidence from the guerrillas.

ChC!vez had been trying to mediate a deal between the government and the
rebels until last week when the Colombian president, Clvaro Uribe,
ended his role, saying ChC!vez had disobeyed a direct order by
contacting the head of Colombia's army.

Many families of the captives believe the move ended the best chance in
years to secure their freedom.

                                  ***

CNN - November 30, 2007
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/11/30/colombia.hostages/index.html#cnnSTCText

Videos show hostages held by Colombian rebels

(CNN) -- The Colombian government has seized five videotapes from
suspected members of a rebel group that show a number of hostages,
including Colombian Sen. Ingrid Betancourt and three American
contractors, a government statement said Thursday.
art.betancourt.afp.gi.jpg

Colombian Sen. Ingrid Betancourt appears in an image from one of the
seized videos.

The tapes are the only recent evidence that the hostages kidnapped by
the Revolutionary Armed Force of Colombia (FARC) may still be alive.

Four of the five videos show recording dates in late October, while the
fifth is branded January 1, 2007.

In addition to Betancourt and the contractors, several kidnapped
members of Colombia's security forces appear in the tapes.

Earlier this month, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, acting on behalf
of the Colombian government, held talks with Colombian Sen. Piedad
Cordoba and Luciano Marin Arango, a member of the high command of FARC,
in a bid to broker the exchange of as many as 50 kidnapped civilians.

Those civilians include Betancourt, a Colombian-French national who was
kidnapped in 2002 while running for president, and the three American
contractors who were captured when their plane went down in 2003 during
a drug-eradication flight.

The guerrillas have demanded the release of 500 imprisoned FARC rebels
in return for their hostages.

Prior prisoner-release negotiations between Colombia and FARC have
stalled over a rebel demand for creation of a demilitarized zone for
the exchange and for released rebel prisoners to return to the
guerrilla group.

In the early November meeting, Marin Arango reiterated the guerrillas'
demands for a demilitarized zone.

Established in 1964 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist
Party, FARC is Colombia's oldest, largest, most capable and
best-equipped Marxist rebel group, according to the U.S. Department of
State.

The United States, the European Union and Colombia classify FARC as a
terrorist group.

                                       ***

Bloomberg - November 28, 2007
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aWJg_Xyuus3M

Chavez Escalates Attack on Colombian President Uribe

By Guillermo Parra-Bernal and Matthew Walter

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez said he won't maintain relations with
neighboring Colombia as long as Alvaro Uribe is in power, calling it a
matter of ``dignity.''

Chavez's comments mark an escalation in the week-long conflict between
the two, which included the withdrawal of Venezuela's ambassador to
Colombia. The tension was stoked after Uribe withdrew his support for
Chavez's involvement in hostage negotiations with Colombia's biggest
guerrilla group.

``As long as President Uribe continues to be the president of Colombia,
I won't have any type of relation with him or with the government of
Colombia,'' Chavez said today in a speech in Venezuela's Tachira state.
``I can't, it's about dignity,'' he said in comments broadcast by
Venezuelan state television.

Chavez summoned his ambassador to Colombia home yesterday for
consultations to discuss ``recent events,'' according to a statement
from the foreign ministry. Chavez later gave a speech calling Uribe a
``sad pawn'' and a spokesman for the U.S.

Colombian stocks have dropped 2 percent this week on concern that the
conflict will hurt trade between the countries, which are each others'
second-biggest trading partners behind the U.S. Venezuela relies on
Colombia for food and textiles, while Venezuela sends gasoline to
Colombia.

Uribe urged ``respect'' among the leaders today.

``Heads of state have to think not in their own anger, not in their own
vanity, but in the need to respect, first, the country they
represent,'' the president said today, according to a statement posted
on the Colombian presidential Web site.

Chavez Tensions

Tensions between Chavez and other world leaders have flared in recent
weeks. The Venezuelan leader voiced support for Bolivia in its border
dispute with Chile, drawing a rebuke from Chilean President Michelle
Bachelet. Spanish King Juan Carlos I told Chavez to ``shut up'' during
a summit in Santiago earlier this month.

The row with Uribe began after Chavez directly contacted Colombia's
army commander to discuss his efforts to help secure the release of
hostages being held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or
FARC.

Chavez hasn't said whether he will permanently close Venezuela's
embassy in Bogota or take steps to curtail trade between the two
countries. Venezuela has increasingly relied on Colombia to meet demand
for basic foods like milk, eggs and meat. A spokeswoman from
Venezuela's foreign ministry declined to comment when contacted by
Bloomberg News.

``The government of Colombia attacked the dignity of our nation, and
that shouldn't be permitted,'' Foreign Affairs Minister Nicolas Maduro
said in comments broadcast by the state TV channel today. ``It shows
that the Colombian government isn't behaving according to the Colombian
people's desire to have peace in their soil.'' 

                                  ***

Bloomberg = November 29, 2007
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aIsAbEOrgChI

Colombia Hasn't Received Chavez Statement on Ties

By Andrea Jaramillo

Colombia hasn't received an official statement from Venezuela on
diplomatic relations between the two nations, Colombian Foreign
Minister Fernando Araujo said.

``We will maintain our ambassador in Caracas and will continue to
monitor the situation,'' Araujo told RCN radio. Araujo said the only
official statement Colombia has received is Venezuela's decision to
recall its ambassador to Bogota.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said yesterday that he won't maintain
relations with his neighbor while Colombian President Alvaro Uribe
remains in office, calling it a matter of ``dignity.''

Araujo called for `prudence' in managing ties with Venezuela, which
buys about 15 percent of Colombia's exports. Each country serves as the
other's second-biggest trading partner, behind the U.S.

Uribe has formed a foreign relations commission to evaluate the
situation, Araujo said, according to a statement from the Foreign
Ministry. The commission, which will meet Dec. 5, includes Vice
President Francisco Santos, three senators and three members of the
lower house as well as other advisors designated by the president,
according to the statement. 

                                   ***

The Economist - November 29, 2007
http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10214719

Sad pawn sent to freezer

THE decision in August by Clvaro Uribe, Colombia's president, to invite
his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo ChC!vez, to help broker the release of
45 hostages held by FARC guerrillas for the past five years always
looked like a misjudgement. It took only three months for Mr Uribe to
have second thoughts. But when he told Mr ChC!vez that he was cancelling
his mediation effort, it unleashed volleys of invective between the two
leaders.

After a telltale pause that spoke of premeditation rather than
spontaneous frustration, Mr ChC!vez began by calling Mr Uribe a "liar
and cynic" who "does not want peace", adding that Colombia "deserves a
better president". Mr Uribe in turn accused his neighbour of seeking to
"build an empire based on his [oil-rich] budget" and of wanting
Colombia to be "a victim of a FARC terrorist government". That prompted
Mr ChC!vez to dub Mr Uribe "a sad pawn of the empire" (as he likes to
call the United States), say that he was putting relations with
Colombia "in the freezer" and recall his ambassador in BogotC!. He would
have "no type of relationship" with Mr Uribe's government, he vowed.

Mr Uribe may reckon that a few insults are a price worth paying for
ending a venture that seemed certain to provide political gains for Mr
ChC!vez and the FARC but looked unlikely to free all the hostages?if
any. These include Colombian police and army officers, three American
contractors and Ingrid Betancourt, a politician of dual
Franco-Colombian nationality. Mr Uribe was under pressure both from
Colombians and from Nicolas Sarkozy, France's president, to reach a
deal with the FARC that would see its captives swapped for rebel
prisoners in Colombia's jails. The FARC are known to view the
anti-American Mr ChC!vez with sympathy. But in turning to him, Mr Uribe
also seemed to be showing his pique at the refusal by the Democrats who
control the United States Congress to ratify a free-trade agreement
with Colombia.

Venezuela's president took to the role of mediator with predictable
gusto. He met the hostages' families and invited a FARC leader to his
presidential palace. He accepted an invitation from Mr Sarkozy to visit
Paris. He wanted to arrange a personal meeting with Manuel Marulanda,
the FARC' s veteran leader. He spoke to Colombia's army commander
without going through Mr Uribe?something which Colombia's president
claimed he had been explicitly asked not to do.

Piedad CordC3ba, a leftist Colombian senator who was co-mediator,
claimed this week that the initiative had made great progress, that the
FARC had backed down on some of its demands and that a prisoner swap
would lead to full-blown peace talks. To others it didn't look like it:
the FARC failed even to provide proof that the hostages were still
alive. Mr ChC!vez himself said he expected the mediation to take a year.

Relations between Colombia and Venezuela have long mixed closeness with
tensions, some of them caused by the spillover from Colombia's armed
conflict. Though political opposites, the conservative Mr Uribe and the
socialist Mr ChC!vez share a populist, demagogic streak. They had struck
up a surprisingly warm relationship of mutual respect. That will not be
easily restored. Rodrigo Pardo, a former Colombian foreign minister who
now edits Cambio, a newsmagazine, said he had never witnessed such
harsh exchanges between the two countries' leaders, even when a
missile-bearing Colombian warship entered waters claimed by both
countries in 1987. But he doubts relations will break down completely.

For both countries, the other is too important to ignore. For each, the
other is the second-largest trading partner after the United States.
Trade between them totalled $4 billion last year and is heading for $5
billion-$6 billion this year. Venezuela takes many of Colombia's
manufactured goods. Thanks partly to the inefficiencies generated by Mr
ChC!vez's populist economic policies, Venezuela depends on Colombia for
staples such as milk. It even imports natural gas from its neighbour
through a pipeline inaugurated by the two presidents this year.

Mr ChC!vez faces an unexpectedly close battle to win approval for a
constitutional referendum on December 2nd that opponents say would turn
Venezuela into a socialist autocracy (see article). Many people in
Caracas share Mr Uribe's view that Mr ChC!vez is exploiting the row
between the two of them to stir up nationalist feeling. Colombia has
said that its ambassador is staying put in Caracas. Once the referendum
is out of the way, expect his Venezuelan counterpart to return to his
post in BogotC!.

                                  ***

Inter Press Service - November 29, 2007
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40279

COLOMBIA-VENEZUELA:  Diplomatic Crisis Worries Border Dwellers

By Constanza Vieira

CCCUTA, Colombia (IPS) - RubC)n Plata works like "fly-by-night" capital:
wherever he finds the best returns is where he can be found. He moves
from one activity to the next without looking back, although he draws
the line at anything "crooked."

He has been selling orange juice on a street corner in the Venezuelan
town of UreC1a, across the border from CC:cuta, the capital of the
northeastern Colombian province of Norte de Santander.

He pays 2,000 bolivars a week (around a dollar at the official exchange
rate) to far-right Colombian paramilitaries in "protection" money, so
that they will leave him alone. He also made these payments in the
past, when he sold coffee to public employees in city government
offices and in the main square in CC:cuta, a city of nearly one million,
from a heavy box of thermoses hanging from his shoulder.

The 48-year-old started working at age seven, after running away from
home because of abuse. He has shined shoes, washed cars, milked cows,
and sold cigarettes, eggs, cakes, fruit, "raspao" -- shaved ice with
syrup -- and even birds: canaries that he touched up with paint to make
them prettier.

He never went to school. But after he discovered that "the world was in
the alphabet," he learned to read on his own, stringing together the
letters, in newspapers.

But although he can't write well, he won over his wife, who like him is
Colombian, with his letters. She understands what he writes, because he
was able to improve thanks to the adult literacy programme carried out
by the Venezuelan government of Hugo ChC!vez.

He has travelled "all around Venezuela" and seven years ago settled in
UreC1a. His two children, ages 13 and 16, both go to school. They are
Venezuelan citizens, are into sports, and the elder says he is going to
be an electronic engineer.

The university is tuition-free, and he will receive a stipend from the
government, to live on while he studies. "It's a real blessing," says
his father.

Although he was born in Colombia, Plata says he is "from both sides of
the border." In 2004, he gained permanent residency status in
Venezuela. But he was not made a citizen, even though he provided all
of the documents and papers they required. He did see others carrying
in folders with a single sheet of paper -- and a stack of bank notes.

In the supposed "industrial" zone of CC:cuta, most people eke out a
living selling contraband items smuggled across the border. But the
real industrial area is in UreC1a, where between 30,000 and 50,000
Colombians work.

At 6:00 AM Colombian time, which is 7:00 AM in Venezuela, crowds of
Colombians cross the bridge by foot, bicycle or motorcycle to go to
work in UreC1a, basically a large outlying neighbourhood of 37,000
people on the other side of the TC!chira river, where small workshops
operate in nearly every house.

Plata parks his three-wheeled juice cart every day at the corner of a
laundry that washes jeans. He installed a sunshade over his cart, to
provide his thirsty customers with a bit of relief from the burning sun.

At noon, workers from the small local factories flood the streets in
search of something to eat. Hundreds pass by Plata's cart, wearing blue
coveralls.

"Don't look for Venezuelans here, because there aren't any," he tells
IPS. "All of the companies here in UreC1a are Colombian. Can you imagine
how much our country benefits from Venezuela? That is what the
presidents should see."

With regard to the escalating diplomatic crisis between ChC!vez and his
Colombian counterpart, the right-wing Clvaro Uribe, he says "they are
both crazy, two armed madmen," and adds that he does not pay attention
to them "because I do have to work for a living, whereas they have
salaries."

After Uribe abruptly put an end to ChC!vez's efforts to mediate an
agreement between Colombia's FARC guerrillas and the government for an
exchange of hostages held by the rebels for imprisoned insurgents, the
Venezuelan leader called home his ambassador to Colombia for
consultations, and said he was putting relations with that country "in
the freezer."

But despite the insults exchanged over the last week by the two
presidents, who are at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum, Plata
says he hopes Colombian opposition Senator Piedad CC3rdoba, who had been
appointed by Uribe to facilitate a hostage-prisoner swap and who
enlisted ChC!vez's help in the first place, can persuade him to continue
his efforts.

"I said wow! if ChC!vez achieves that, it'll be the most wonderful thing
in the world. But look what happened now. The whole thing fell apart,"
he remarks sadly.

"I cried last night when I saw how that poor woman (CC3rdoba), who
wasn't doing anything wrong," went from being the official facilitator
of the hostage talks to being accused as a "traitor and terrorist," he
adds.

Plata believes that "Uribe got scared" that the leftwing Venezuelan
leader's ideas would find an audience in Colombia.

"That's what happened to Uribe, he didn't like it, and he said, no,
let's put an end to this," says Plata, who adds that he thinks about
"those poor people, the families of the hostages, who are sad and
crying."

He also comments that "Uribe has to realise that what ChC!vez is doing
isn't bad. ChC!vez is a realist. He sees what he sees, and what he sees
are things that are wrong, and are badly done."

"What ChC!vez wants is a solution. He wants to change the world,
modernise it. But it turns out that the oligarchy has a strong hold,"
not just in Venezuela, but "in the whole world." That's why they tell
him "why don't you shut up? When he tells them the truth," he says,
alluding to Spanish King Juan Carlos's angry outburst at ChC!vez during
the Ibero-American summit in Chile early this month.

"What has Uribe done in Colombia? Why are there so many Colombians in
Venezuela?" he asks, referring to the nearly six million Colombians who
have crossed the border "seeking refuge because of our economy, the
poverty in our country."

"With this nutcase here (ChC!vez), I have my own little house, thank
God." He himself built his two-room brick house on a lot granted to him
by the Venezuelan government after massive numbers of Colombians were
displaced by paramilitary attacks in 1999 and 2000, across the border
in Norte de Santander.

And the other day, he fell sick, but "health care here is free," he
underlines.

Plata also points out that in the past, labourers did not have social
benefits, and could just be fired for no reason, and without pay. But
today, employers in Venezuela provide their workers with equipment,
like coveralls.

In Venezuela "there is a future, there is work. In Colombia, where can
you feel that there is work? Over there, it's like it used to be here."

He says he would vote "yes" in Sunday's referendum on sweeping
constitutional amendments in Venezuela, "to give him (ChC!vez) my vote.
I've never voted for anyone in Colombia," where he has only cast blank
ballots, he adds.

Local residents on both sides of the border say this is the "busiest"
border in South America. Most of the trade between the two countries,
forecast to amount to six billion dollars this year, moves across this
border.

This week, while Venezuela decides what measures it will take to
"freeze" relations with Colombia, cross-border activity has been
frantic.

The Colombian customs agency reported on Nov. 22, the day after Uribe
cut off ChC!vez's mediation efforts, an unusual increase in the flow of
goods from Colombia to Venezuela: 31 million dollars, compared to a
daily average of 14 million dollars.

And on Saturday, when the mask fell off the supposed "warm relations"
between the two presidents, the weekend average climbed from two
million to over 15 million dollars a day.

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