By Mario A. Flores
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez announced a new purchase of weapons from Russia arguing that the use of seven Colombian military bases by the United States is forcing his hand. Chávez said he would like to spend “not one cent in weapons,” but he must under the circumstances.

Chávez announced that the transaction would be in September but did not disclose the weapons involved or the amount he is spending.

“It’s going to be a series of agreements not just on weapons, although weaponry will be a significant component in order to enhance our operational capacity, our defense system and antiaircraft defenses,” Chávez said during an international press conference.

The announcement comes as the President of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe, just completed a lightning visit to seven Latin American nations to explain Colombia’s decision to allow the United States to use the bases and address some of the concerns in the region. Uribe’s trip did not include Ecuador and Venezuela.

Although Uribe’s tour generated some understanding, it did not quell the uneasiness of neighboring states. Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay expressed reservations over the Colombia-United States agreement. Bolivia remains its harshest critic while Peru supports it, and Chile and Paraguay said Colombia has the right to make sovereign decisions, such as who it allows on its territory.

Chávez’s weapons purchase announcement also comes on the backdrop of Colombian accusations that the Venezuelan administration has been supporting the terrorist group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a Colombian guerrilla group financed mostly by proceeds from the drug trade.

Evidence has surfaced in the last two weeks that ties Venezuela to weapons seized from the rebels and to collaboration between the guerrillas and high-ranking military and intelligence officials in Chávez’s government.

Chávez reacted to the accusations by freezing bilateral relations. This week, he accepted to meet with former Colombian president Ernesto Samper to discuss the quickly deteriorating situation between the two nations.

At the end of the meeting, Chávez said that “there are no mediators here, no possible mediation. The only way for calm to return is for Colombia to back away from its decision to hand over its territory to the United States so that it [the United States] can continue its aggression against us. There’s no other way.”

The Venezuelan leader warned that the use of military bases in Colombia by the United States, whom he calls “the Yankees, the most aggressive nation in the history of humanity,” can lead to war in the region.

For more information, please see:

El Pais – Chávez alerta del riesgo de guerra en Suramérica por el acuerdo militar entre Colombia y EE UU – 06 August 2009

RCN Radio – Chávez subraya al recibir a Samper: “No hay mediación posible” con Uribe – 06 August 2009

El Pais  – Chávez anuncia otro pacto de rearme con Rusia – 07 August 2009

By Mario A. Flores
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

CARACAS, Venezuela — In a surprising about-face, the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, ordered the return of his ambassador to Colombia just a few days after recalling him from Bogotá.

Chávez had retaliated against Colombia by suspending diplomatic relations and ordering a freeze of bilateral relations with the neighboring nation after Bogotá said weapons found in the possession of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were originally sold by a Swedish company to the Venezuelan armed forces and reacting to Colombia’s announcement that it would allow American troops to use its military bases.

Chávez had also threatened sanctions against the Colombian state oil company Ecopetrol saying the company would not be allowed to participate in the tender of its Carabobo heavy crude blocks in the Orinoco oil-rich belt because of the diplomatic dispute. This is the first tender since the government nationalized several projects in the Orinoco belt.

But on Saturday, the Venezuelan leader said, “[Our] ambassador Gustavo has given [the Foreign Minister] all the reports he was going to, let him go back to Bogotá. Return to Bogotá Gustavo.”

The shift comes after discrete reminders that Venezuela depends on natural gas from Colombia to keep its oil wells running.

During a recent interview, Colombia’s Energy and Mines Ministry said that the natural gas supply to Venezuela would continue, “for now.”

The Colombian gas is essential for keeping the oil flowing from many of Venezuela’s aging oil wells. Without the gas injections, many of the wells in the oil-producing state of Zulia would cease to work and Venezuela’s oil output, exports and dollars would rapidly collapse at a time when the government is grappling with a sharp decline in oil revenue and mounting debts

An Ecopetrol spokesperson chimed in with the Colombian Ministry saying that, “We have complied with our contract since the beginning of 2008 without regard to the political situation between Colombia and Venezuela,” referring to the natural gas exports. “We expect to maintain those sales to that market,” the official added.

Colombia began natural gas exports to Venezuela in January 2008 through a new pipeline.

But Chávez challenged Colombian President Álvaro Uribe to show up to the regional summit of Unasur (Union of South American Nations) being held this week in Ecuador to explain Colombia’s decision to allow the United States to use seven of its military bases.

“Uribe should show up, come and face the music and let’s sit down and talk,” Chavez told local Colombian television RCN.

Uribe just completed a whirlwind South American tour to defend his plans to expand the U.S. military’s presence in Colombia, a prospect that worries even friendly nations in the region.

The purpose of Uribe’s trip was to allay fears that the U.S. military could become too powerful on the continent if given long-term leases on Colombian bases. Colombia maintains that the American presence is necessary to combat drug-trafficking operations.

The overall success or failure of Uribe’s trip will be evident in Quito when most of the continent’s leaders will attend the summit. Colombia is an important member of Unasur but announced it will not attend the meeting, in a clear sign of the tense diplomatic relations between Colombia and Ecuador

Quito and Bogotá have been embroiled in a smoldering feud that dates back to last year when the Colombian army raided a terrorist camp in Ecuadorian territory that killed a guerrilla chief and twenty-five other people. Ecuador reacted by breaking off diplomatic relations.

Colombia has also leveled allegations that documents found on computers at the rebel camp showed the guerrilla had at least tried to help finance Rafael Correa’s first presidential campaign. Correa, now president of Ecuador, has vehemently denied the charges.

For more information, please see:

El Comercio – Venezuela bajó el tono de la crisis – 09 August 2009

Latin American Herald Tribune – Latin American Realpolitik: Chavez Returns Ambassador to Bogotá As Colombia Focuses on the Natural Gas Sent to Keep Venezuela Oil Wells Pumping – 09 August 2009

RCN Television – Chávez ordena retorno de su embajador a Colombia – 09 August 2009

Reuters – Chávez pide a Uribe que “dé la cara” en reunión de Unasur – 08 August 2009

Colombia Reports – Chavez returns envoy to Colombia – 08 August 2009

The Union of South American Nations – UNASUR

By Don Anque
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

Asunción, Paraguay – Indigenous families living in a squatter settlement on the outskirts of the Paraguayan capital of Asunción have organized themselves. Now, they have a community soup kitchen and are producing handicrafts to sell. Many of the families say they do not want to return to panhandling on the streets of Asunción, far away from their home villages.

Cerro Poty soup kitchen located on the outskirts of Asunción pictured here.  Photo by Reuters.

“We used to go out on the street and ask for money, with our children, at the stoplights,” Petrona Ruiz, one of the women running the Cerro Poty soup kitchen. “But we haven’t gone out to beg on the streets in three months.”

Earlier this year, Amnesty International claimed that the government of Paraguay is failing to adequately protect the rights of its indigenous peoples. Amnesty International’s March 2009 report on Paraguay stated that many of its indigenous peoples were forced to live in misery and effectively condemning some to death.

Many years ago, the Yakye Axa and Sawhoyamaxa Indigenous communities were displaced from their traditional lands and were promised by the Paraguayan government that their lands would be returned to them.  For more than 10 years of living at the side of the Pozo Colorado-Concepción highway, these communities lived without access to their land they live in precarious conditions, unable to source water and food for themselves and with inadequate provision of health and education.

After a breakthrough court decision, the Paraguayan government was ordered to a return the ancestral lands to the Sawhoyamaxa Indigenous People in a span of three years as well as to undertake a series of measures to ensure their survival in the interim.

For more information, please see:

Amnesty International  – PARAGUAY’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN PERIL – 31 March 2009

IPS News  – Indigenous Squatter Communities Organise Self-Help – 02 August 2009

Amnesty International- Indigenous Peoples’ Rights – Solidarity across borders – 16 July 2009