Americas

Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, warned his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe that if a similar incursion to the one into Ecuador was to happen in Venezuela, he would consider it “causa bellis” (a cause for war). Next day, on his regular Sunday broadcast, without any reason or new development to justify it, Chavez ordered the Minister of Defense to mobilize ten battalions to the border with Colombia, and his Foreign Minister to shut down –effective immediately– the Venezuelan embassy in Bogota.

The Colombian army bombed a FARC guerrilla camp 1.8 kilometres inside the Ecuador border, troops went in, retrieved the body of Raul Reyes –second in command of the insurgents– and left. Rather than beginning the discussion by questioning the border trespass, the first question should be: why do neighbouring countries –willingly or not– provide safe-haven to the Colombian terrorists?

President Correa of Ecuador knows this; but what is yet to be clarified is if it is a matter of his armed forces lacking the capacity to protect their territory, or of his government’s complicity. In Chavez’s case there are no doubts: his support for the FARC is unequivocal.

So, what should be said about the rising war-mongering in the region?

This is a bilateral issue between Colombia and Ecuador. Everybody else should only intervene if aiming to defuse tensions through diplomatic channels. Chavez’s belligerence has more to do with his domestic political problems. (Authoritarianism handbook, rule 1: create an external conflict to galvanize internal support, distract attention, create a state of emergency, and disqualify the opposition voices as traitors to the fatherland).

Borders should be respected; by everyone. So Colombia should, and has, apologised to Ecuador. But the latter should also defend the integrity of its territory against the guerrillas’ incursions.

The international community should not lose sight that the democratic legitimate government of Colombia is dealing with a terrorist organisation, financed through kidnappings for ransom, extortion and drug-trafficking. The FARC commander killed was personally responsible for innumerable well-documented criminal acts.

When Chavez, in his broadcast, called for a minute of silence in Reyes’ honour, and spoke of him as a “good revolutionary,” this was not a “causa bellis” but a bellicose provocateur.