I'm reproducing the full statement, including a long criticism of Uribe's politics, but only translating the short communique on the crisis that the PDA put forward on March 2.
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The PDA's National Directorate, meeting in Bogota on February 29-March 2 and facing the crisis of relations of the Colombian State with the neighbouring republics of Ecuador and Venezuela:
Colombia accepted at the OAS that it did in fact violate Ecuador's sovereignty. Venezuela and Ecuador are to discuss the situation further. Latin American countries all rejected this - it is a good sign to the US, and there have been numerous of these in recent years, many of which had to do with Colombia or Venezuela, that the Latin American countries won't tolerate these sorts of violations of sovereignty (except for Haiti). The text of the OAS resolution, below, in Spanish.
Colombia's regime is using a well-known tactic. When caught committing a crime, accuse the other party. The more mud slung, the better. El Tiempo's headline, quoting Colombia's representative to the OAS, "One hopes that Ecuador and Venezuela will have the courage to expel the terrorists from their territory." Colombia's claiming they found "evidence" on Raul Reyes's computer (captured during the massacre and violation of sovereignty that they committed when they assassinated Reyes) of support for FARC by Ecuador and Venezuela.
The second-in-command of FARC (Colombia's guerrilla group), and perhaps its most visible spokesperson, Luis Édgar Devia Silva, or "Raul Reyes" (the nom de guerre), was killed by the Colombian military in bombings yesterday. The Colombian military killed some 15 guerrillas in the operation, according to their own reports, including Raul Reyes.
Saw a story yesterday about how the Canadian military sent a memo around telling soldiers not to reveal their military connections on facebook, because al-Qaeda's on facebook and it could endanger soldiers and their families. Taken to its logical conclusion, this idea makes the entire Canadian military a covert operation. If a nation's military isn't able to operate out in the open, it seems there are a lot of implications.
Also, four more people were released by FARC in Colombia as a result of the Venezuelan mediation.
Apologies for the time away from blogging. I had the pleasure of being on a two-person panel with John Clarke of OCAP over the weekend, organized by the London Project for a Participatory Society (LPPS). We were talking about "taking back the city" and, as much as I enjoy being on a panel with John, he always puts me to shame. The talk was video recorded and might be available at some point on youtube.
I was on CFUV (Victoria University, BC, Canada) campus radio on Chris Cook's excellent "Gorilla Radio" show. Though I haven't been able to access it, Chris sent me a link to an audioblog, perhaps you can listen, here.
The Constitutional Reform referendum in Venezuela has failed, and Chavez, unlike the Venezuelan opposition, gracefully accepted the defeat. I know that a lot of people are disappointed, but I think there are some very good things that can come out of this.
Before I get into that, the results. "No" got 50.7% (4 504 351), "Yes" got 49.2% (4 159 392) votes. Abstention was very high, at 44.11%. I got these results from El Tiempo, the Colombian newspaper, and they come from when there were 97% of the votes counted.
It's late, I'm doing my usual ZNet editing routine, and I want to write something before the night is through. Probably too ambitious. But at the very least I can post this, what looks like an excellent and important project covering the upcoming referendum in Venezuela, something on which there will be abundant misinformation and on which solid information will be important.
Venezuela radio en vivo has some credible people involved and I think it might be a source of such solid information. Check it out.
This morning I was interviewed by Jeff Monaghan of the Ottawa community radio station, CKCU. I enjoyed being on the air to talk about Colombia and help build for an event on Thursday where my friend Manuel Rozental will speak. Jeff was kind enough to post the interview online. Listen here if you like...