The Wall Street Journal reports today on the content of computer files closely tying Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez with FARC, a terrorist organization that makes its money running drugs to the United States and kidnapping people inside Colombia: “These documents indicate Venezuela appears to be making concrete offers to help arm the rebels, possibly with rocket-propelled grenades and ground-to-air missiles. The files suggest that Venezuela offered the FARC the use of one of its ports to receive arms shipments, and that Venezuela raised the prospect of drawing up a joint security plan with the FARC and sought basic training in guerrilla-warfare techniques.”

This is the same Hugo Chavez who has been praised repeatedly by Joe Kennedy in television commercials, and who Kennedy called his good friend. Such Hollywood left-wing luminaries as Kevin Spacey have paid visits to Mr. Chavez, giving the dictator even more credibility in the eyes of an unwitting public.

In related news, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refuses to allow a vote on a free trade agreement with Colombia, a slap in the face of this struggling democracy. Pelosi cites concerns with labor and with the plight of unions in Colombia, but her refusal to send Colombia a lifeline works very nicely with the Chavez plan to arm the FARC rebels. It is almost as if it were a pincer movement meant to cut off democracy in a critically important area.  Read more...