Grand(a) Colombian Theater
By Teodoro Petkoff * | Tal Cual Digital
We are going to let go for a while the Anderson case to occupy ourselves with the other political scandal, the one of Granda, the affable "chancellor" of the FARC. This appears to have the façade of pure theater, by both sides. Granda was detained here, by Venezuelan police, and handed over to the Colombian police. This is already outside the realm of discussion. Our hypothesis is that for some reason, that this very opaque government will never make public, the presence of the guerrilla chief became uncomfortable for the executive in the framework of the new relationship that has developed between Chávez and Uribe ("I swear that I never have supported nor I will support the FARC") remember? Chávez said this not so long ago, in the last interview with his counterpart on the other side, the government of Venezuela decided to get rid of him, handing him over to Colombia. The rage of the FARC, expressed officially through its web page, is comprehensible. They consider themselves nothing less than betrayed.
Afterwards, each actor, particularly ours, has carried out his roll. For Uribe it is easier. He does not have to explain anything in his country.
There nobody requests nor will claim accounting for the detention of a guerrilla leader. The Colombian official version is that they detained him in Cúcuta and that is enough. But Chávez has another class of problem.
He is "ideological". He has on the left, from the "Assholes without borders" typical of the revolutionary tourists who were here recently, to his demolishers of statues.
To neither of these can fit in their heads that a government who is said to be revolutionary can play such a dirty trick on a "comrade". That, the kids from “aporrea" or some young historian does not understand that it may happen, but an old man like Chomsky, who knew the Hitler/Stalin pact, who heard the resounding silence of Fidel before the slaughter of Tlatelolco or the amazing endorsement of the same Fidel to the invasion of Czechoslovakia, tearing his clothes, is a little bit too much. But this class of people do exists, and Chávez has to given them some sort of explanation.
The most comfortable position is to pretend indignation by the "violation" of our sovereignty. But, yes, the president cuts a hair in four parts.
He does not scream bloody murder. The relations with Colombia, he says, are not in danger. It is a problem of police, not of governments. "The Colombian police lies to its government". For Uribe there is no problem. US Senators that visited us recently confirm it. Chavez asserted to them that the relations with the Colombian government are superb and that this episode will not cloud them.
In addition, yesterday Jesse Chacón made it clear that "the Venezuelan Government never has said that Granda was kidnapped by the Colombian police in Venezuela". Thus, there is not even, a “violation of sovereignty ". The entire problem, now, is reduced to annulling the Venezuelan nationality of Granda, for from the Electoral Registry he was already removed by the efficient kids of the CNE.
And we await for the next scandal, so that this one definitely dies. At the end of the day, the gas pipeline that will cut across half of Colombia is well worth a Granda. Reason of State.
* Translation by Miguel Octavio
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