Keep your eye on South America, folks, particularly Venezuela and Colombia. Colombia is ruled by the rightist government of Álvaro Uribe, and is engaged in a long-standing battle against leftist rebels known as the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). In addition to being a center of cocaine production and trafficking, Colombia has one of the worst human rights records in the hemisphere. Not coincidentally, Colombia is also by far the largest recipient of US military aid in the Western Hemisphere.

This week, the New York Times ran an article by Andrean bureau chief Simon Romero that opened with this lede:

Despite repeated denials by President Hugo Chávez, Venezuelan officials have continued to assist commanders of Colombia’s largest rebel group, helping them arrange weapons deals in Venezuela and even obtain identity cards to move with ease on Venezuelan soil, according to computer material captured from the rebels in recent months and under review by Western intelligence agencies.

Once again, we see America’s leading “newspaper of record” simply recycling the anonymous propaganda being disseminated by “Western intelligence agencies.” All of the information in the article is based upon materials which the Times’s anonymous intelligence source claims were found on computers seized by Colombian troops during a raid on a FARC compound in Ecuador in 2008. The article states, “The New York Times obtained a copy of the computer material from an intelligence agency that is analyzing it.”

Simon Romero has a well-documented history of running anti-Chávez/anti-Leftist stories that range from the merely misleading to the outright false. As a mouthpiece for the oligarchies of Latin America, Romero is indispensable.

Romero’s employer, by the way, is the same New York Times which published an editorial on April 18, 2002 supporting the previous day’s coup d’etat against the Venezuelan president:

With yesterday’s resignation of President Hugo Chávez, Venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened by a would-be dictator. Mr. Chávez, a ruinous demagogue, stepped down after the military intervened and handed power to a respected business leader, Pedro Carmona.

[…]

Washington has a strong stake in Venezuela’s recovery. Caracas now provides 15 percent of American oil imports, and with sounder policies could provide more. A stable, democratic Venezuela could help anchor a troubled region where Colombia faces expanded guerrilla warfare, Peru is seeing a rebirth of terrorism and Argentina struggles with a devastating economic crisis.

Yes, the military ousted the elected leader of Venezuela, and the Times’s editorial board welcomed the “resignation” of President Chávez. Nice. I’m sure they’ve improved since then, though!

Just yesterday, AFP reported on concerns being raised by officials in Brazil, Ecuador, Chile, and Venezuela about Colombian plans to allow US access to seven of its nation’s military facilities:

US President Barack Obama’s national security advisor said Tuesday Washington will give a “good explanation” for plans to deploy US military units to bases in Colombia, after unease expressed in Latin America.

When you see the US government pouring billions of dollars in military aid into a country, you can be sure nothing good will come of it.

Keep an eye on the Venezuela-Colombia border – that’s where Obama will get a war he can truly call his own.