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GUEST: Robert Naiman, National Coordinator of Just Foreign Policy

Colombian troops conducted an unauthorized raid into Ecuador recently, saying they were targeting members of the rebel group, FARC. The US-backed Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, has justified the raid saying that Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa has not done enough to fight terrorism. The move prompted Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to send troops to Venezuela’s border with Colombia, and threaten to cut off food imports from Colombia. As of this weekend however, Venezuela plans to re-establish diplomatic ties with its neighbor as tensions have begun easing. Overall, reaction outside the US has been focused on Colombia’s culpability for the raid on a sovereign neighbor. The Organization of American States passed a resolution calling the attack a violation of Ecuador’s sovereignty and international law. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the resolution. But the reaction within the US has been markedly different: US mainstream media are targeting Chavez for his reaction and the White House are doing the same while justifying Uribe’s position. Meanwhile Democratic Presidential candidate Obama has taken a seemingly neutral position, while Clinton has called for an escalation against Venezuela. No one here seems to be pointing the finger at US military aid to Colombia’s so-called “war on terror” and how it threatens to destabilize the entire region.

Read Robert Naiman’s article here: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/05/7482/