VENEZUELA-COLOMBIA: Alleged Kidnapping of Guerrilla Leader Sparks Tensions

By Humberto Márquez Reprint | | Print |

Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Jan 6 2005 (IPS) - Venezuela has launched an investigation to determine whether Colombian agents kidnapped a FARC rebel leader in Caracas, then claimed he had been captured in Colombia.

If this is the case, “it would be a serious violation of our sovereignty,” said Venezuelan Interior and Justice Minister Jesse Chacón.

The captured rebel leader is Rodrigo Granda, also known as Ricardo González. He is the second in command to Raúl Reyes in the International Commission or “foreign ministry” of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the main leftist rebel group active in that country.

The Colombian police maintain that Granda was arrested on Dec. 14 while walking down the street in Cúcuta, a town in northeastern Colombia near the Venezuelan border, located 900 kilometres from Caracas.

“We are waiting for the results of the investigation being conducted by the state intelligence services, and when a concrete determination is made, the foreign ministry will officially state its position,” said Venezuelan Foreign Minister Alí Rodríguez.

Kidnapping “is an ethically reprehensible crime, punishable under the laws of every country,” Rodríguez stressed.

Meanwhile, in Bogotá, Colombian Defence Minister Jorge Uribe insisted Thursday that “the capture of guerrilla leader Rodrigo Granda was carried out in the border town of Cúcuta by the Colombian police, acting alone, with no cooperation of any kind from the Venezuelan authorities.”

Uribe added that Granda’s capture by the Colombian police could not be considered a kidnapping, but rather “the arrest of a criminal wanted for years on charges of drug trafficking, and well-known as one of the most important figures in the FARC terrorist group.”

Rightist Colombian President Alvaro Uribe also remarked on Thursday that members of the FARC “carry out kidnappings on a regular basis, commit terrorist acts daily, violate human rights, and deal in drugs, but when they are captured, they claim they have been kidnapped and complain that their human rights have been violated.”

Political tensions have been sparked by the Venezuelan security services’ continued investigation into the allegations that Granda was in fact kidnapped in downtown Caracas on Dec. 13 and taken to Cúcuta in the trunk of a car.

The FARC released a communique on Dec. 30 stating that “Ricardo” had been kidnapped in Caracas on Dec. 13 “with ‘gringo’ (U.S.) assistance and the complicity of corrupt members of the Venezuelan police.”

According to the communique, Granda was in Venezuela to attend the Bolivarian Congress of the Peoples, a meeting of leftist social and political organisations from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, named after South American independence leader Simón Bolívar. The event was held in various Venezuelan cities on Dec. 8 and 9.

The pro-Chávez Venezuelan daily Vea, which is headed by veteran leftist Guillermo García Ponce, published the FARC communique, and gave credence to the reports that it was “a combined operation by the CIA (U.S. Central Intelligence Agency) and the Colombian police.”

Parliamentary Deputy Marelis Pérez of the governing Fifth Republic Movement said Granda had shown up at a meeting of the Bolivarian Congress in Maturín, in eastern Venezuela, asking to be one of the speakers.

But, she said, she turned down his offer because he had not been invited, and only allowed him to distribute literature at a few tables.

“He identified himself as a representative of Colombia’s revolutionary movement, and we told him we could not allow him to take part in the Congress because he belonged to an armed group,” said Pérez.

She added that “we are concerned about Granda’s human rights situation.”

Chacón, meanwhile, said in a statement that “there are strong signs that Rodrigo Granda was kidnapped near the Bellas Artes metro station in (central) Caracas,” and the information gathered so far “could implicate Venezuelan police officials or former officials in the incident.”

“There are also signs that could implicate Colombian functionaries,” the official communique added. “If this extremely grave possibility, which would violate Venezuelan sovereignty, is verified, the actions merited by the case will be taken.”

A violation of national sovereignty, which would “drag us into a conflict that, although tragic, can and must only be resolved by Colombians themselves”, will “definitely not be tolerated,” the statement concludes.

Granda apparently holds dual Colombian-Venezuelan citizenship, which would only fuel the controversy over the case, because it could mean that a Venezuelan citizen was kidnapped in his own country by Colombian agents.

Two days ago, Chacón reported that the investigation was focusing on the kidnapping of an individual in Caracas, who could be Granda, as well as the fact that the individual was transported to the western border without being stopped at any police or military checkpoint.

Granda’s lawyer, Miguel González, stated again in Bogotá that his client was kidnapped around 16:00 on Dec. 13 in a small café in Caracas, while he was being interviewed by Colombian journalist Omar Rodríguez, who has not been heard from since.

Chacón confirmed that according to witnesses, the person who was kidnapped was dragged out of the café and forced into a car by several men at some time between 15:50 and 16:10 on Dec. 13.

Carlos Lozano, the director of the Colombian communist weekly Voz, told several radio stations that while Granda and Rodríguez were talking in the café, armed men arrived in three vehicles, accompanied by agents on motorcycles, and shoved the insurgent into one of the cars.

Lozano also provided the car’s licence plate number.

Granda was then moved to another car for the long trip to the border, all of the checkpoints along the highway were passed without any problems, and on the morning of Dec. 14, the Colombian police reported that Granda had been arrested in Cúcuta, according to González and Lozano.

Minister Uribe said the case “will not affect diplomatic relations” between the two countries.

And in Venezuela, Foreign Minister Rodríguez, after describing the kidnapping as “an international crime,” added that his country also condemns “the cold-blooded murders of not only Venezuelan soldiers in recent months, but of Venezuelan civilians as well.”

He was referring to an incident last September, when irregular Colombian combatants ambushed an inspection team of oil company employees and their military guard in southwestern Venezuela near the border, killing four soldiers and a female engineer.

It is not yet clear whether the attackers were guerrillas or right-wing paramilitaries.