Chavez, FARC, Threaten Wider Regional Conflict

By Douglas Farah

The reaction of presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Rafael Correa of Ecuador to the killing of FARC commander Raul Reyes is now threatening to plunge South America into a disastrous conflict.

"This could be the start of a war in South America," Chavez said. He warned Colombian president Alvaro Uribe: "If it occurs to you to do this in Venezuela, President Uribe, I'll send some Sukhois" _ Russian warplanes recently bought by Venezuela.

This is no small threat. In the past several years Chavez has spent , according to the Defense Intelligence Agency, $4.3 billion in weapons in 2005-2006, more even than China. This includes a Kalashnikov assault rifle (AK-47) factory licensed from Russia. For a nation not at war, this is hardly an auspicious sign.

This is the alliance many of us have warned of for some time. Chavez, Correa, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and Evo Morales in Bolivia have been trying for some time now to form an anti-American bloc in Latin America but have no coherent ideology to counter the changes in the world.

It is no secret that the Bush administration has taken even less interest in Latin America than Clinton and Bush I. The consequence of this short-sighted world view is the emergence of an axis that is fed on Venezuela's oil riches and the FARC's cocaine bonanza.

As I have said before, I do not want to use this forum to debate the rationality or efficiency of the U.S.-led "war on drugs." The policy is what it is, and is unlikely to change soon. So, in that context, the FARC has chosen to engage in a criminal activity that provides it with hundreds of millions of dollars. This river of money allow the group to control criminal pipelines that move drugs, weapons, illegal aliens, stolen cars etc. across our borders with impunity, on a daily basis. That is no small threat.

The economic bonanza of this alliance, coupled with the failure of previous governments in Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela to deal with endemic corruption and real social issues, have given this axis access to power.

The main beneficiary of the current hue and cry by nations that have long sheltered the FARC-designated a terrorist entity for its drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion activities-is, of course, the FARC itself. My full blog is here.

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