Don't accuse Chávez of backing terrorism
by Andres Oppenheimer
Here's my advice to President Bush following the release of explosive documents showing Venezuela's active support for Colombia's FARC guerrillas: You have the most powerful weapon you ever had against Venezuela's radical leftist President Hugo Chávez. Don't use it!
If the United States adds Venezuela to its list of ''terrorist'' nations -- alongside Cuba, North Korea and Iran -- and imposes economic sanctions on the Chávez government, it will give Chávez a much-needed public relations boost.
Chávez would wrap himself in the national flag, play the victim, raise the international conspiracy card and rebound from his Dec. 2 electoral defeat. Bush would be doing him a big favor.
A senior U.S. official confirmed to The Miami Herald's Washington correspondent Pablo Bachelet earlier this week that the Bush administration has launched a preliminary inquiry by government lawyers to see whether to add Venezuela to the State Department list of countries that support terrorism.
It won't be easy for Bush to resist the temptation, especially in an election year, when Bush's Republican Party wants to come across as the toughest in the war on terrorism.
And there are so many smoking guns in the three Toshiba laptops found by the Colombian army in the March 1 raid on a FARC guerrilla camp in Ecuador that -- if international forensic computer experts confirm the authenticity of the computer files, as expected -- there will be more than enough evidence to single out Venezuela as a country actively supporting the FARC. The United States, Canada and the European Union define the FARC as a ''terrorist'' group.
According to the FARC computer files, Chávez was negotiating setting up a $300 million fund for the Colombian rebels and had received more than $100,000 from the FARC when he was in prison following his 1992 failed coup attempt in Venezuela. The documents also show active Chávez protection of the FARC's camps in Venezuela.
Chávez and Ecuador President Rafael Correa, a close Chávez follower who also figures prominently in the documents, have denied the allegations. Venezuela and Ecuador say the computer files were fabricated.
Colombia says there is no question that they belonged to slain FARC leader Raúl Reyes and has invited a team of Interpol forensic computer experts to examine them. The Interpol team arrived in Colombia earlier this week.
Leading Venezuelan pollsters agree that a U.S. designation of Venezuela as a ''terrorist'' state would give new propaganda ammunition to Chávez. They say Chávez has not yet recovered from his Dec. 2 electoral defeat, and that rising crime and food shortages have undermined his popularity, which has fallen to less than 50 percent in recent months.
Asked whether Chávez would benefit from a U.S. decision to place Venezuela on its list of ''terrorist'' nations, Luis Vicente León, director of Venezuela's Datanálisis polling firm, told me, ''Of course it would help him.'' León added, ``Anything that allows Chávez to back up his theory that there is a U.S.-led conspiracy against Venezuela plays in his favor.''
León said polls show that Venezuelans have little sympathy for Chávez's radical leftist views: 86 percent of Venezuelans are against following the Cuban model, and 80 percent believe that Chávez should respect the private sector. But the same polls show that Chávez gets high marks for defending Venezuela's sovereignty, León said.
''Nationalism works well for Chávez,'' León said. ``If the United States steps up sanctions against Venezuela, Chávez will have an easier time playing the nationalist card.''
My opinion: President Bush should take a deep breath and reject the calls from GOP hard-liners to do anything leading to sanctions against Venezuela.
Instead, the United States should sit back, allow the Interpol team to certify the authenticity of the documents and let the Venezuelan people contrast the content of those files with Chávez's promises ''by God and my sacred mother'' that he has ''never, ever'' given money or protection to the FARC.
Such blatant lying -- which can be seen by anybody on YouTube -- would do more harm to Chávez's credibility at home than anything Bush can say or do.
Source: Miami Herald
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