Oil Wars

Listening to the Chavez government and then to its opponents one would often think they are living in different universes. They can't ever seem to agree even on the basic facts of what is going on in their own country. Of course, to me the Chavez government government has much more credibility given that everytime one of these disputes is investigated by unbiased outside parties it turns out that it was the Chavez government was telling the truth while the opposition was giving false information. Prime examples are the out come of the Recall Referendum where numerous outside observers confirmed that the information provided by the government, that Chavez won, was correct. And more recently we saw that the government was telling the truth all along about the country's oil production numbers.

Now we may have yet another incident to back up Chavez's credibility and show what liars the opposition are. For much of the past year the Chavez government has been investigating and uncovering plots to overthrow it or carry out terrorist acts in Venezuela. The opposition has said these were all just propoganda and attempts to divert public opinion. Well, yesterday the president of Colombia and guess what he said - yes, thats right, that some Venezuelan military officials and Colombian secret police had been meeting in Colombia to plot against the Venezuelan government:

SANTA MARTA, Colombia (AFP) - Venezuelan former soldiers plotted against President Hugo Chavez's government at a Colombian military building, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said.

Uribe made the stunning disclosure Saturday at this Caribbean resort town where he is meeting with Chavez, and after analyzing documents furnished by the Venezuelan leader.

"The Venezuelan soldiers who are in Bogota went to a building to meet with members of the Colombian military. President Chavez gave us these documents ... we analyzed them and this morning I said to President Chavez: 'I must tell you the truth: this is a building of Colombia's public forces,'" he said.

Uribe said that intelligence efforts against the Venezuelan government are conducted in the building, and took full responsibility for the affair.

The two presidents met for six hours amid a climate of unusual goodwill Saturday to discuss the purported Bogota-based conspiracy against the Venezuelan president, which Chavez first disclosed to his Colombian counterpart during a meeting in Venezuela on November 24.

Seven Venezuelans involved in a 48-hour coup against Chavez in April 2002 have been linked to the new plot.

Businessman Pedro Carmona, leader of the failed military-civilian coup, enjoys political asylum in Colombia, where he is working as a university professor.

Uribe refused asylum to six Venezuelan soldiers involved in the coup but gave them permission to live in Colombia while they look for safe haven in another country.

The conservative Colombian leader said Saturday that he takes responsibility for the events.

"I took responsibility before President Chavez and I took it in public, because the government of Colombia, which suffers from terrorism, cannot permit anyone to plot conspiracies, especially against a brother country," he said.

So I don't know if anyone out there is keeping score but when it comes to the veracity of their information it is at least Chavez 3 the opposition 0.
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