The first time Hugo Chávez froze relations with Venezuela’s second-largest trading partner (meaning Colombia, in January 2005), was due to the capture of one of the FARC leaders, Rodrigo Granda, while he was attending a Bolivarian meeting organized by the Venezuelan regime in Caracas. Granda, a wanted criminal involved in the planning and assassination of Cecilia Cubas, daughter of former Paraguayan president Raúl Cubas, had been living in Venezuela, where the Chávez government granted him citizenship. The army intelligence officer who led the operation to capture Granda was tortured and falsely convicted by Chávez’s irregular courts.
The second time Hugo Chávez froze relations with Colombia was due to the assassination of FARC leader Raúl Reyes in Ecuador in March 2008. This time, the Venezuelan dictator escalated his desire for war with Colombia, even ordering troops and tanks to the border between the two countries.
The most recent, and third, time Chávez froze relations with Colombia was over the seizure of “AT-4 anti-tank rocket launchers purchased by Venezuela from Swedish Saab Bofors Dynamics,” found in the hands of the FARC, a terrorist organization according to European countries, the U.S., and Canada.
If more evidence were needed regarding Chávez’s connections to the FARC, his close associates are deeply involved in dealings with the terrorist group. Therefore, the question is not whether Colombia’s latest revelation confirms what has long been public knowledge, but rather asking: when will the international community start treating Hugo Chávez and his regime as the supporters of terrorism that they are?