February 5, 2008    Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal astutely noted that Hugo Chavez is a desperado- an outlaw/ a bandit... a thief. We take this a step further and state that Chavez is a desperado/a caudillo for communism who unaccountably robs his own state assets to increase his agents of harm in many nations now to encourage more lawlessness, more narcotrafficking, more financial/monetary crimes, and more cancerous infiltrations to sustain their criminal empires. Here is a superb piece from Investors Business Daily on the No Mas FARC rallies that took place yesterday in almost 150 cities world wide. Our guess would be way off in total numbers if we did not see that millions rallied in about 150 cities yesterday- that is remarkably huge and cannot be dismissed.
 
Many tell us that they were glad they attended the mostly Colombian rally in Washington, DC plus the two in Ecuador that we know of. The rallies looked to be genuinely made up of regular folks of all ages and all walks of life. The whole day was well done and well attended and carried the rallying voices that said that all rejected the new communism sweeping South America, even from the narcoterror groups like the FARC. Many of the Ecuadorean governmental officials as well as Democrats sometimes called U.S. Congressional leaders spend more time supporting pro drugs and pro FARC advocates than in helping defenders of liberty. It is an effort to turn the war on drugs in to a war of attrition and dishonesty. But North Americans have a choice- they can still research, can still voice their rejection of such behind the scenes activities to encourage the neo-communists and drug advocates,  and vote pro FARC /pro drugs advocates out of office. North Americans can also insist that every single one of the behind the scenes Soros activists and Chavez/DISIP agents from Venezuela and the FARC working actively globally and now inside Ecuador and inside Washington, D.C. [and many other countries] are to be denounced and formally/officially removed from inside Ecuador or from inside the USA as the paid communist agents that they are. Freedom/ Libertad was more the cri than anything else heard yesterday because folks know that the FARC would destroy liberties as surely as Rafael Correa and Hugo Chavez's "new democracy" which is not new and is not a democracy. To South Americans in many nations, the choice between freedom and sub-human living is a real choice today. Equating narcostates with neo Marxism is growing even as folks simply cannot understand why other folks do not try to understand this. We see that this is a real frustration.
 
Another palpable chant heard yesterday was the one...."No more Lies" and we sense  that folks are way past being upset with the media's coverage and numerous politicians, paid actors, and officials who spread disinformation about what happens there as nations fall apart and few stand united for honest reporting and the facts.  We have not seen such a united stand against destructive propaganda and narcoterror in our memory. What was absolutely missing was the knowledge that formally/diplomatically/officially Hugo Chavez is indeed a state sponsor of terror for the FARC now although mostly unsaid, this is well known. Rafael Correa, unlike Peru's Alan Garcia, was noticeably vacationing...as is his official style, vacated as he is on anything having to do with any position of responsibility and integrity. It is a national past time today for Ecuadoreans to abandon commitments to functional living and simply vacate anything of real value to the pressing agenda of dysfunctional living as is roundly the daily events across Ecuador. But running away from moral responsibilities gets one in to a place historically known to Colombians called the 1990s take over of Colombia by the FARC. Today Chavez and Rafael Correa would complete that take over. The U.S. Democrats think this is a very good idea too and are doing all that they can do to help speed the Chavez-FARC take over of Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador, having successfully helped their neo communist friend named Hugo Chavez from whose wallet they do benefit yet. But Venezuela today is not only morally bankrupt under Chavez, it is economically bankrupt even though oil money flows like water from Caracas to Cuba to Washington, D.C. to U.S. Democrats to paid NGOs to paid governmental actors across Ecuador, running Montecristi and Carondelet now. Rafael Correa has in fact rolled out the red carpet to the FARC and Hugo Chavez's depravities and has not once- not ever- done one thing to stop the growing spread of Chavez's bankrolled and managed installation of Castro's communism and the FARC in Ecuador, as we all know.
 
Two weeks ago, the USA's John Walters correctly and simply stated that Hugo Chavez's nation was fundamentally a state sponsor of terror formally/officially in alignment now with the FARC. Yesterday, millions ratified this basic fact without once uttering Hugo Chavez's name. Anyone with a brain could experience this reality yesterday as folks rejected the advancements and political/media supports for these agents of horror. Walters is admirably correct and so too are the millions of voices heard yesterday from Tokyo to Paris and even in Caracas who obviously agree with him in full. To deny this reality abandons the obligations of free speech/open media and moral surety and reflects a repulsive, debauched and morally compromised political agenda which cannot be welcomed at any place.
 
Ridiculously, Venezuelans such as General Baduel [and his employers/funders whose very activities today are not helpful at all] and numerous Venezuelan public figures abandon their moral core to inform the globe that no one must challenge the supremacy of Hugo Chavez lest they fear for their lives. We remind that living under threat of death and prison is no way to live and the sooner that Chavez and his money making rackets are gone, the sooner is functional liberty restored. Venezuelans seem to think that they can have it both ways....support for Chavez and the FARC plus a co-existence with the very real evil that Chavez and the FARC enforce. Ecuadoreans are so debased that they think this way too. To be sure, they are dead wrong and will soon enough grasp this concept even as their jobs, their futures and their reputations are in the gutter.
 
To deny what happens in Venezuela because of Chavez's governmental decision-making in alignment with criminals and terrorists and full governmental support policies is the height of irresponsibility and cannot be massaged/dismissed or ignored any longer.
 
Instead of running away from the basics about the FARC and Chavez's criminal support for the FARC, far more appropriate would be a sincere thank you to Mr. John Walters for his vision, his integrity and his leadership. His honest words commendably resonate still today. Even more appropriate would be to offer up, `What can we do to Help?' instead of the rampant cynicism and repulsive rejection of Mr. Walters' stabilizing and wholesome truth telling. In this war of attrition waged by the U.S. Democratic party under the shocking leadership of their political manipulator named George Soros and his pro drugs wallet, coupled with Russian money movers and FARC money launderers...we see a region called the Andes in grave peril, ruinously dividing against itself. Perilous it is for all who live there where rule of law has been abandoned, morals are forgotten, and democracy has run away. The choices are stark and very grave indeed. Lives are insecure and unstable because choices are made to avoid building stable, decent governments, schools and actors of integrity. Murder and crime are at historic highs and nothing is lawful as the rule of lawlessness overwhelms. Paid propaganda and thousands of Chavez's agents fan the globe to deny, decry, debase and denounce the values of honest reporting, the realities of living under criminal cartels while encouraging wholesale justifications and excuses for their own repulsive complicity with these growing cartels of corruption. It is a thousand cuts of dishonorable acts by men who profiteer from debased justifications for their own confused and increasingly objectionable positions.
 
It comes to this: one is either with Rafael Correa and Hugo Chavez's dishonest government or one is not. One is with the FARC or one is not. There is no middle ground. There is no grey area and anyone who tells you differently is either morally compromised or is an agent of harm or both.
 
NO MAS FARC. NO MAS CHAVEZ Y CORREA. Y No Mas Soros and his Chavez-FARC enabling/advocating politicians such as McGovern, Reid, Pelosi, Dodd, Delahunt, Obama, and Piedad Cordoba.


...Venezuelans joined the demonstrations staged in main Venezuelan and Colombian cities... (Photo: Iván González/ Efe)- el UNIVERSAL

We know what can be done to remove these agents of harm. Do you know? Part of the answer lies in refusing to accept the lie that Chavez will hurt us if we but tell the truth. Another part of the solution is found in standing united with truth tellers and refusing to coalesce with dishonest functionaries, propagandists, politicians and dirty money movers. To restore trust and confidence, now completely abandoned in Venezuela and Ecuador, one must at all times be engaged in acts of honor.

Millions around the globe grasp this concept...they are not alone and anyone who dismisses their reality is already on the take and compromised.
 
Today, Hugo Chavez is formally/diplomatically/officially uncompromisingly connected to the FARC as a state sponsor of the terror group, the FARC. To deny this is fraudulent and dishonest. To pretend that there are no consequences for criminal adventurism is to debase integrity's oath. We commend this superb analysis and urge it as a reference to the millions on 2-4-08 joining to proclaim NO MAS FARC as noted already in the excellent analysis from INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY. We remind that desperados are outlaws/caudillos and as such, lead to nothing good.
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The Wall Street Journal
February 4, 2008
The Americas
Desperado
By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY
February 4, 2008; Page A14

In 1981, Argentine inflation topped 130%, and by the early months of 1982 the situation was rapidly deteriorating. A web of price controls designed to compensate for monetary mischief at the central bank only made things worse. Confidence had collapsed and civil unrest was growing.

The military government's decision to lay claim to Britain's South Georgia Island on March 19, 1982, and later the Falklands, was dictator Leopoldo Galtieri's last-ditch effort to boost the nation's sense of strength, and to distract it from the reality that it was caught in an economic maelstrom.

Fast forward to 2008 and Venezuela, where the parallels cannot be ignored. The military government of President Hugo Chávez is engaging in provocations against a foreign power that would seem to have little purpose other than getting news of the crumbling economy off the front pages and ginning up nationalism.

In a speech before the national assembly last month, Mr. Chávez dropped a bombshell, proclaiming that Venezuela now recognizes the Colombian rebel group known as the FARC as a legitimate political actor. He went on to ask that European and South American governments remove the group from their terrorist lists. A day earlier his special envoy for FARC relations went public with his own fondness for the Colombian rebels, and with the news that the Venezuelan government stands ready to help them.

This was more than Mr. Chávez playing footsie with the FARC, which he has long been doing. This was a statement of official support for a band of outlaws who seek the destruction of the Colombian democracy. The news shook both nations. It suggested that Colombia is not only at war with the rebels, but also with a neighboring state.
Mr. Chávez probably doesn't really want war with the militarily superior Colombia anymore than Galtieri wanted to battle it out with Britain. But by poking his neighbor in the eye, he was undoubtedly hoping for some kind of a reaction, to which Venezuela naturally would be obliged to respond. Amid an escalation of tensions between the two countries, a nationalist outcry to defend Venezuelan honor might dwarf the many troubles at home.

Colombia's president didn't take the bait. Instead of getting in a spitting match with Venezuela, Álavaro Uribe went to Europe shortly after Mr. Chávez's FARC speech to shore up support for his anti-terrorist agenda. He came home with backing from E.U. foreign policy chief Javier Solana, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and even Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero, who is notorious for his admiration of Latin American leftists. Mr. Chávez thus suffered yet another humiliation, only six weeks after he lost his bid to rewrite the country's constitution.

Hubris aside, Mr. Chávez had to know that his defense of the FARC was a long shot. But desperate times call for desperate measures. As the deterioration of the Venezuelan economy accelerates, Mr. Chávez is fast becoming a desperado with no better idea of how to get out of his jam than did Galtieri.

Central to his troubling circumstances is inflation. With Venezuelan crude oil around $80 per barrel, the local currency known as the bolivar ought to be strong. But the central bank has lost its independence and now acts as an arm of the Chávez government. As such it has shown little interest in defending the value of the currency.
Instead, it uses the gusher of oil dollars coming into the country as a reason to print up new bolivars to be put into circulation through government spending. This has pushed up demand and sent prices skyrocketing.

Just what Venezuelan inflation is now is anybody's guess. The government figure for 2007 is 22.5% but that number is derived from a basket of goods that includes price-controlled items, which are difficult to actually buy. In real life, when Venezuelans go shopping they have to pay market prices if they want to come home with the goods. This means that the cost of living is higher than the official rate.

Price controls haven't held down inflation but they have produced shortages of the goods they cover. Milk, rice, cooking oil, chicken, beef, pork, sugar, black beans and eggs are all hard to find and Venezuelans say that grocery shopping now requires stops at five or six stores. The most reliable sources of price-controlled items are street vendors, who charge two and three times the legal limit but tend to have stock.

Even Mr. Chávez recognizes that the shortages are real and not about to go away. And despite what appears to be a primitive understanding of economics, he may even have figured out the connection between prices and supply. This would explain why, as dire milk shortages became undeniable in recent months, he finally decreed an increase in the regulated price.

But don't hold your breath for further signs of enlightenment. Control of the oil industry has been the main reason Mr. Chávez has been able to squelch democracy. His own warped logic suggests that he needs to control other key sectors if he wants to keep his grip on power. If he can strangle the private sector, he can starve his adversaries.
This is why he is promoting government-owned food processors and has put a full-court press on private-sector agribusiness. Price controls now apply not only to the retail market but also to business transactions. This is designed to stop, for example, dairy farms from diverting raw milk to the production of cheese and yogurt, which have no price controls. Anyone caught violating price controls or selling products across the border in Colombia risks expropriation.

All of this is being policed by the army. With its monopoly on the use of force, the government can indeed destroy the private sector. But as Galtieri found out, it cannot decree that supply meets demand. As shortages become more acute, don't be surprised to see the Venezuelan desperado picking more fights.
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Colombians have miserably lived under the FARC and recall too well the reign of terror under Pablo Escobar. Persons of common sense want these druggies and criminals gone. They know well what they do. Narcoterrorists will cut your throat, kidnap your children and loved ones, steal your freedoms and debase your livelihood. Hugo Chavez and Rafael Correa think this is just all right with them. As both have said....the money is good. And dirty money and political power is what this criminal cartel chimera ...or what does the OAS's Insulza call it- `vibrant democracies’ is all about. Following Peruvian Vladimir Montesinos's depraved plans about narcostates, Chavez and Correa apparently think that they can claim to fight against the FARC with tiny, insignificant efforts to turn away the FARC while embracing their lucrative drug shipping businesses, their money laundering and their political debaucheries while disingenuously claiming to "help the poor." The "poor" are enslaved by the Cuban FARC-Chavez -Correa system ...literally and physically. This is not helping the "poor" who are further bound by the chains of ignorance and deceit...all sponsored by the statist systems underway and our own refusal to deny these desperados of deception.
 
Recently, we hear far too many repeat the ridiculous expression that Colombia's Alvaro Uribe is a dictator/ a caudillo. This is of course a lie. And to all who foolishly repeat this patently fraudulent propaganda, we deny you. Instead of lying about Uribe's legitimate leadership and acts based on principled positions, it is time to state the facts.
 
Yesterday, the Andean media foolishly let Piedad Cordoba, a known FARC moll and paid stoolie for communist propaganda, currently the darling of Miraflores Palace and the U.S. Democratic Party leadership plus the Inter-American Dialogue [the IAD featured her last week is a "special private briefing"], vent her lies that the anti FARC rallies were encouraging class and racial divides. Nothing from Piedad Cordoba is honest and these words were patently wrong. Indeed, Uribe has the right of it that nations must stand united against global crime and narcotrafficking. Like Chavez and Rafael Correa, Cordoba wants us to accept their foolishness that the FARC just needs their drug and murder for hire monies to help the poor and liberate the oppressed. The FARC wants to help the oppressed all right....the oppressed by normative law and order criminals that is as they seek to legitimize the illegitimate.
 
Instead of making excuses for Hugo Chavez and Rafael Correa and instead of lying about genuine offers of assistance from truth tellers, both Chavez and Correa should be gone for their own depraved indifference to normative law and order. We can instead ask, What can we do to Help? And we wonder how long it will take to remove layers upon layers of liars, ninnyhammers, dimwits and dunces from this chain mail scam of criminal rackets?
 
Do you know what your own politicians are doing about the FARC? Do you know what your media owners are saying and doing about Hugo Chavez?

How many are actually selling freedom's brightest beacon out...to the rampant fear mongers who tactically are actually paid agents for Chavez? Use of fear and threats of reprisal are known acts of repression and must be denounced. Those who sell us fears are actually selling us more self imprisonment.

Like the snake of evil slithering around hallways of power, fear and threats are known tools of repression known to all racketeers and mafias. Unlike the numerous AMCHAMS and some Chambers of Commerce in Ecuador, we do not approve their buying in to the Chavez-Correa protection rackets, known to history as a basic mafia ploy. We have seen what happened to the private sector in Venezuela...no one wants to do business with these corrupted buffoons of compromised ethics any longer. No one... that is except the mullahs from Iran, dirty Russian money movers and hidden speculators. Protection rackets are never ethical governmental behaviors although that is all one gets from Correa and Chavez- paid protection rackets from their thugs and politburos.
 
Numerous morally confused persons whined that the NO MAS FARC rallies actually hurt the cause of freedom by harming the false myth that negotiations and "diplomatic acts" with Hugo Chavez and the FARC will be debilitated if the FARC are finally removed. To this we say...rubbish. Pure rubbish. How many more will die at the hands of the FARC and their state sponsors before these enablers grasp the concept that psychopaths and terror groups are not functioning state actors per se and to treat them as legitimate is a fraud. The greater good is the goal and the prevention of another of the tens of thousands of deaths at their hands by the FARC can be stopped now. While we applaud the useful tool of honest diplomacy, we remind that diplomacy must never serve the enabling of more crime.
 
Make your own analysis because your own future is in your hands...not helplessly abandoned to the tender mercies of bandits, enablers and communists.

We are not afraid of criminals and terror sponsors such as Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro or Rafael Correa. We are not afraid of their paid hacks, propagandists and political backers either. We know that their agents of fear are part of their plan to destroy liberty.
 
Do you know your own opinions about the FARC? Do you know what your family thinks about the FARC?
Do you know what you will do about this? Where terrorists are concerned- and the FARC are terrorists- either you are with the FARC or you are against the FARC in all their terror. In other words, the entire world yesterday chanted in one voice:  FARC YOU, CHAVEZ!

 
- Pedro Camargo for ECrisis