End of Reyes

A South America Standoff

IN NOVEMBER 2006, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC), the Marxist terror group that has waged a nearly half-century war against the Colombian state, circulated an open letter to the academic and Hollywood left, requesting that their "always generous solidarity" with Third World liberation movements again be marshaled to "pressure President Bush and his government to support a prisoner exchange in Colombia." The mediation request was addressed to Oliver Stone, Michael Moore, Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky, and, bizarrely, Denzel Washington. It was signed, with comradely greetings, by FARC "foreign minister" and second-in-command Raul Reyes.

Last Saturday the Colombian military briefly trespassed the border of neighboring Ecuador and, in a combined arms raid, disposed of Reyes. Acknowledging his military's one mile incursion into Ecuadorian territory, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe offered the country's chavista president, Rafael Correa, a perfunctory apology. Predictably, he refused to be assuaged. When Colombia claimed that the terrorists were killed during a "hot pursuit" operation that spilled across the border, Correa complained that Reyes, along with 23 other members of his execution and kidnap gang, had in fact been killed "in their pajamas."

Read the rest of this piece in The Weekly Standard.

Comments

[Michael Pack]

I'm as anti-communist as they come ,yet that's not the whole story.Much of FARC's income is in the drug trade.The U.S. bears the guilt of funding this Marxist gang just as the 19 amd. helped create Al Capone.By jailing our people for a crime against no one we give our[and allies] and constant and large revenue stream.We have taken this 'drug war' much farther than alcohol.Most of that is due to the fact drug producing countries are poor and beholden to our government.We never took a hard line against Canada,Great Britain,ect during the alcohol war.Look at the trade between Detroit and Winsor.

[Episiarch]

Michael P. is absolutely right. FARC would be dead and gone by now if we didn't prosecute the war on drugs all the way into Columbia, thereby giving them a massive source of money.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

[rana]

I wonder if Uribe will actually follow through on his threat to expose evidence found in Reyes' computer of Chavez' collaboration with FARC, or will he wimp out?

[Rimfax]

It's difficult to fathom how this article seemed complete without some mention of the fact that FARC survives on the drug trade. Even without using anti-prohibition rhetoric, the one fact that kept FARC from going the way of the Red Brigade 20 years ago would seem important to mention.

[charlie]

Rimfax -- you forget that this article was published in the Weekly Standard. It's much more important to cast all of the world's problems as the fault of anti-American leftists rather than actually studying them carefully and objectively -- probably because too often they'd find it was U.S. policies responsible for many of those ills.

[atrevete]

I agree with Michael P and Episiarch, although kidnapping for ransom is also a source of income for the Farc.

[rana]

"I agree with Michael P and Episiarch, although kidnapping for ransom is also a source of income for the Farc."

Sure is. Chavez is said to have paid $300 million for hostage release...
But he may have paid as much for coca 😉

[atrevete]

Hmmm, that's about $100 million a hostage, isn't it? Of course the Farc took four MORE hostages the very next day....

[R C Dean]

Now, THAT'S what I call a business plan, atrvete.

And, special eco-conscious bonus - hostages are a renewable resource!

[Gahan]

The Mexican press has been investigating ties between the FARC and public Mexican universities. Apparently some of the people killed at the camp were UNAM students who had taken up arms with the guerrillas.

[Michael Pack]

The problem with kidnapping is you need to be closely involved.With drugs you can keep several degrees of separation.Plus you can curry favor with the locals be throwing them a few bucks.

[spur]

Not mentioning the drug trade and FARC is ridiculous but makes sense based on the publication -- in addition to the drug trade Colombian government after Colombian government has done nothing for rural poor Colombians for basically ever -- there would likely still be a FARC type force even without the drug trade but likely on par with the generally non-violent though misguided movement in Bolivia...

[atrevete]

Also, Ivan Rios, the Farc's fourth in command was killed in the past few days, apparently by his own bodyguards, eager to collect a bounty from the Colombian government. They sent his bloody, severed hand as proof of death to the proper authorities and all. And I think they got extra credit for his confiscated laptop - should also be some interesting things on there.

[wang]

War, war, war, I havn't heard it for a long time.

[Nike Dunk Low]

is good