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hey guys i need your help! i just spent the last couple of hours writing the following, i have contacts at a few newspapers here in australia so it would be good to get it published but ive run out of time and i will be really busy with work over the next couple of days..so any advice on editing it would be appreciated, i need to fix up the introduction and the conclusion, im going to have to print out a copy on the train and try and do it there...
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Now that tensions have eased and trade routes reopened each of the three leaders support amongst their people has been bolstered because of their ability to reassert their sovereignty and national identity on the international stage.
As little as two hundred years ago the nations that represent modern day Colombia, Venezuala, and Ecuador existed as one “Gran Colombia” which was formed by Simon Bolivar the legendary figure who united Latin America against Spanish Imperialism. Bolivars dream of a unified Latin America was short lived as Gran Colombia was sundered soon after his death due to internal conflict.
Today, Hugo Chavez who lead the “Bolivarian Revolution” and renamed his country once elected to the “Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela” sees himself as the uniting force against US imperialism and is convinced that the bombing of a FARC base inside Ecuador on march 1st is part of a plan by the United States to further divide the three countries.
While Ecuadors president Rafael Correa considers himself a personal friend of Hugo Chavez he has repeatedly insisted he is not apart of the Bolivarian movement. He stressed Ecuadors interest in remaining uninvolved in Colombias internal conflict but condemns the FARCs kidnappings, violations of human rights and bombings.
Colombias violation of Ecuadors territory took relations between the three countries to the brink of war. According to an unnamed Colombian military source, an international call made by Hugo Chavez to inform Raul Reyes of the release of three hostages held by the FARC for almost 7 years had been sucessfully completed was intercepted by authorities and used to track the rebel leader.
President Correa said that Colombia has “trampled international law” and that it should not remain unpunished. He felt that he had been “betrayed” by Uribe who “knew” that Ecuador was negotiating the release of 12 FARC hostages including the French-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt.
Correa called to sanction Colombia against the harmful precedent that “a country can bomb the territory of another country under the pretext of its fight against terrorism¨ a precedent which caused Hugo Chavez to mobilize 9,000 troops along its porous border with Colombia, the main exit point for Cocaine smuggled out of the country where FARC Guerillas enjoy a non-agression pact with the Venezualan military.
The president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, whose fathers’ assasination by the FARC Guerillas became a motivating force to focus on his political career, claimed that documents seized during the raid implicated both Venezuala and Ecuador in supporting FARC activities and threatened to bring Chavez to the International Criminal Court for crimes of funding terrorism and genocide. Both Correa and Chavez vehemently deny these claims calling Uribe a “liar”
Uribes tough stance on the FARC Guerillas has seen terrorist attacks drop almost 50% to their lowest level in almost 20 years during his term in office, he now enjoys unparalled support among middle and upper class Colombians who say the country has never been safer – for peasants living in the countryside nothings changed.
Colombia has the largest internal refugee crisis in the world. The Civil War has forced three million people from their homes into the slums surrounding the mega-cities like Bogota or further into the unforgiving jungle where the harsh, humid conditions and lack of roads or infrastructure mean it is impossible for the farmers to cultivate anything other than the resilient Coca Plant.
Of the billions of dollars of US Foreign Aid sent to Colombia, the vast majority is used to arm military and rogue paramilitary groups. A tiny percentage of this aid is used to assist farmers in the development of alternative crops to the Coca plant. However the people who need this aid most, those living in FARC controlled territories, will not receive it.
While the FARC originally began as an ideaological movement for social justice for Colombias poor with Bolivarian inspiration in the 1960s, it has long lost any moral highground it may have once had due to extortion, kidnapping, recruiting of underage boys and girls (according to the FARC any child over 11 years old is fit to fight) and its involvement in the lucrative Cocaine trade.
To combat the insurgency the Colombian army began to arm and train civilian self defense groups funded by large landowners and cattle ranchers. These groups became todays Paramilitaries which have become even more ruthless than the FARC guerillas in their quest for control of the countries Coca fields.
Colombias largest paramilitary force, the United Self-Defense Forces have earned the nickname “The Head Cutters” because their victims are normally tortured, multilated, and finally decapitated. The Paramilitaries attack those that are suspected of being guerilla “sympathisers” which include peasants, peace advocates, human rights workers, and leaders of labor unions.
While the Colombian army now tries to distance itself from the Paramilitaries there have been cases of collusion between the two armed groups. In 2007 Uribes government sponsored a controversial amnesty for paramilitary groups to lay down arms. It says that 30,000 have been demobolized
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ive written a little about Correa aswell to tie it into the theme i introduced in the begining, but im afraid its become too tangential and im going to have to cull it
President Rafael Correa will soon stand for reelection in Ecuadors volatile political landscape which has seen a civilian or military government take control democratically or by force on average every two years. All three democratically elected presidents between 1996 and 2006 failed to finish their terms.
Without the chance to mature each Government has been unable to address Ecuadors reappearing problems of a roller coaster economy and class warfare that have haunted the country since independence.
With each new president comes new promises, to eradicate inequality and rid the ruling class of corruption. Time and time again the promises turn out empty as the poor are misrepresented and marginalised by the new president who inaugurally attempts to appease the elite ruling class and their stranglehold over the judicial and legislative courts.
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and chomsky is awesome too.
. I assume you're back in Australlia now? I'm somewhat confused, as the last time we spoke you said you were at work. The time before that you said you were still in Argentina, and a few weeks before that you said you were leaving in a couple of days. So I'm thouroughly confused now 
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