Docs Suggest Chavez, FARC Agreed to Blame Paramilitaries for FARC's Murders
By Jonathan Winer
On May 10, the Colombian magazine Semana reported that FARC guerrillas developed a strategy in the fall of 2004 to blame Colombian paramilitaries for the Apure massacre in which FARC killed five soldiers and a woman engineer in a raid on Venezuelan oil company assets there. At the time, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his defense minister told the public that Colombian paramilitaries had carried out the raid, murdering the six civilians in cold blood.
Privately, FARC's leaders discussed in e-mails the reality that Chavez knew FARC was responsible. As FARC leader Raul Reyes concluded, "President Chavez is annoyed, but wants to treat this politically and with prudence." According to the e-mails, Venezuelan military leaders were increasingly upset at FARC's kidnapping, extortion and murder of Venezuelan cattle ranchers, but President Chavez wanted to keep things quiet in order to maintain a relationship with FARC despite the provocations due to FARC's ability to contribute regionally to extending the reach of Chavez's "Bolivarian revolution."