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Rumsfeld sees Colombian guerrillas as threat to regional stability
Visiting US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said here Wednesday that one of the interests of his country is "regional stability" in face of the "threat" posed to "Colombia and its neighbors" by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC).
"I'm here because in the United States we are interested in the regional stability," Rumsfeld told a press conference here at the end of his one-day visit to Colombia.
Rumsfeld stressed the importance of the country in fighting terrorism, saying, "Colombia is a very important country that is in our same hemisphere" and "on the front line of the global war against terrorism."
The 17,000-strong FARC, the largest rebel group in Colombia, has been blamed for explosive attacks and kidnappings and is listed by the United States as a terrorist organization.
On Tuesday, Rumsfeld said here that the United States fully supports the Colombian government in its effort to crack down on drug trafficking and rebel forces.
He said the Bush government had approved the resumption of drug surveillance flights over Colombia after a two-year suspension and this would make it harder for the traffickers of drugs and weapons to escape detection.
Rumsfeld noted that the Colombian war on terrorism "moves on the right path" and reiterated US support to the administration of President Alvaro
Uribe.
The defense secretary was accompanied by a 50-member delegation.
On the possibility of the United States providing more assistance to Colombia, he said there is a "legislative limit" to resources and the number of people involved.
In the US Congress, an assistance project for Colombia is under consideration for the coming fiscal year, amounting to 700 million US dollars. The Andean country is the third largest beneficiary of US military assistance, behind Israel and Egypt, and one of the seven Latin American countries that supported the US-led war against Iraq.
Brazil urges Israelis, Palestinians to continue dialogue
The Brazilian government Wednesday condemned the suicide bomb attack on a bus in Jerusalem, and asked Israelis and Palestinians to continue peace negotiations.
"The Brazilian government once again calls on both Israelis and Palestinians to continue with their efforts for a regional pacification," the Brazilian Foreign Ministry said in a
communique.
"We continue believing that the present moment could constitute a chance to consolidate the climate for mutual confidence, around the goal of a lasting peace in the Middle East," it said.
The ministry expressed its shock over the violence in the Middle East, citing the attack on the United Nations in Baghdad and the terrorist attack against civilians in Jerusalem.
Brazil would contribute to the mutual understanding between Israelis and Palestinians by joining an international effort directed by the United Nations.
"In our opinion, peace will only be reached through the creation of an independent Palestinian state and a recognition of the right of existence of the State of Israel within internationally recognized borders," the communique said.
A suicide bomber blew up a crowded bus in downtown Jerusalem on Tuesday night, killing at least 20 people and injuring over 100 others. The Palestinian militant groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
The United Nations headquarters in Baghdad also suffered a deadly truck bomb on Tuesday, which killed 24 people, including Brazilian veteran diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN special envoy to Iraq and high commissioner for human rights.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva Tuesday declared a three-day national mourning over the death of the UN "peace hero".
Colombian president willing to hold talks with guerrillas
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said Wednesday that he had asked his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez to pass a message to Colombian guerrillas to seek an eventual peace process as soon as possible.
Uribe said he made the request last week when the two leaders attended the inauguration of Nicanor Duarte, the new president of Paraguay, in Asuncion, capital of Paraguay.
He told Chavez: "Tell the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that if they are bored with our policies, they can negotiate with me in five minutes."
Relations between Bogota and Caracas have been strained at times over accusations by the Colombian military that Chavez was letting FARC rebels use Venezuela as a staging ground for attacks -- a claim denied by Venezuela
The Colombian president said his government would guarantee the guerrillas that they would not suffer the same fate as the Patriotic Union (UP). After signing a peace accord and forming a political party in 1985, nearly 3,000 UP members were exterminated, including some senators, representatives and town councilors.
FARC has warned that it will not negotiate with
Uribe.
Colombia has been ravaged by a four-decades civil war, the longest in Latin America, in which government forces, leftist guerrillas and far-right paramilitaries have fought each other.
About 3,500 people, most of them civilians, are killed in the internal conflict every year.
Uribe, who took office in August 2002, has adopted a tough policy against the leftist guerrillas and far-right paramilitaries.
Venezuelan opposition presents signatures
demanding midterm referendum
The Venezuelan opposition turned in more than three million signatures Wednesday to demand a recall referendum on ousting President Hugo Chavez, who called the opposition's move "a piece of joke."
The opposition Democratic Coordination (CD), which blamed Chavez for the country's faltering economy, presented the collected signatures to the National Electoral Council
(CNE).
The CNE, Venezuela's top electoral authority, will issue a ruling on the legality of the document in 30 days, said Cipriano
Heredia, spokesman of the 21-member opposition commission jointly launching the anti-Chavez campaign,
But Venezuelan Attorney General Marisol Plaza dismissed signatures collection as "invalid".
The signatures were not valid, Plaza told the state-run television, because "they were collected in February outside the legal time period, which started on Wednesday,"
During an interview on his visit to Argentina, a defiant Chavez said: "The opposition plays an ironic, shameful, dramatic and comic role, but lacks a compass, leadership and flag."
He indicated that there could be private interests involved in the irregular collection of signatures.
Chavez, who survived a brief coup in 2002, reached the midpoint of his six-year term Tuesday.
Under Venezuela's Constitution, a referendum can be held halfway through a president's term if signatures demanding his departure from at least 20 percent of the electorate -- about 2.4 million -- can be collected.
The opposition declared it had collected 3.2 million signatures.
CD leader Enrique Mendoza and the Secretary of Citizen Security of metropolitan Caracas, Henry
Vivas, said that signatures were presented without fanfare in order to avoid "episodes of violence."
"People could be certain that the signatures are in safe keeping, the way it should be," Mendoza said.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Venezuelans marched Wednesday afternoon on Libertador Avenue, west of Caracas, in support of the recall referendum. Organizers said 600,000 people took part in the rally, but the government estimated the crowd at 50,000.
Clashes between Chavez protesters and sympathizers have led to several deaths earlier this year when the opposition called a nationwide strike to demand Chavez's resignation. No incidents were reported Wednesday.
Venezuela, the world's fifth oil exporter, was badly shaken by the two-months general strike.
The government and the opposition signed an agreement in May to hold a "binding referendum" on Chavez's rule to end the country's political crisis.
The Supreme Court will appoint an electoral council by Aug. 22 to organize a referendum for the president, governors and mayors.
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