The FARC, Chávez and Betancourt

There have been zillions of articles about Colombia's latest developments.
Caracas Chronicles posted a good article comparing the editorials from different media sources.
It was very interesting to see how Venezuela's official media (i.e. Chávez' followers) talked about "retained people" and not kidnapped people and similar things.

In the last couple of days pro-Chávez groups have started to produce all kinds of strange statements like:

• It was evil to cheat guerrilleros by pretending to be an ONG group with Che-Guevara badges (as if kidnapping people and putting bombs that kill innocent or murdering Indians who do not cooperate with the guerrilla were saintly jobs)
• The action taken by the military was not "unprecedented", it was just a copy of an action the guerrillas did some years ago (hello, there is a patent on the process, you have to pay rights to the guerrilla)

Ecuador's president, Correa, had the nerve to say that even though he was happy for the prisoners' release, it was a pity the liberation had to take place through violence (????) and not through peaceful negotiations.

Now, top of the top might be - I haven't read but a handful of Chavez outlets - what high-profile Chávez supporter and one of his best-known intellectuals, Britto García, wrote in the site of Venezolana de Televisión:

"(Britto García) said the show set up by Uribe is evident. He said this after analyzing the detailed story Ingrid Betancourt told, who admitted the guerrilla were carrying out a humanitarian release. The writer reminded what Betancourt said (sic): “we arrived a place, the FARC set us free, they put us in a helicopter". That confession is enough: “the government kidnapped the hostages and then said it had liberated them”, Britto García said.

Could Chávez supporters please agree on one single complot before speaking up?

Of course, a lot of people are now tapping on their own shoulders and congratulating themselves for helping so much in the hostage liberation. That is what the French are doing, the Swiss, the US, Venezuela, Ecuador, etc. Only the Chinese remain silent about their help, even if the Chinese food the Colombian security forces must have been eating during the preparation time will certainly have contributed more to the liberation than what several countries did.

And then a French Swiss radio station says it knows from very good sources the hostages had actually been released for 20 million dollars, that the 3 US citizens released were FBI agents lent to DEA and that the release money came from the US

UPDATE: what do you think about this video?

Meanwhile, Hugo Chávez is thinking how he can try to regain face. At the same time, he announced the National Electoral Council had to register over 3 million new voters for next November's elections and it seems as if the CNE will do something to make this happen.More on this in a later post