Various updates on Ingrid Betancourt, Chavez and Uribe

Many things keep happening from last Wednesday exploit. In no particular order.

Ingrid's fake rescue

Neither the New York Times nor the Washington Post are buying the RSR note. It is good to note that neither Romero of the NYT, and even less Forero of the WaPo are supporters of Uribe.

By the way, Fausta has translated the words of the rescue video. You can find it here.

Mugabe's model for Chavez

The Washington Post has a very worrisome article about the future of Venezuela: how the Zimbabwe army forced Mugabe to run the way he run. Apparently it seems that the man who is really running Zimbabwe, using Mugabe as a proxy, is General Constantine Chiwenga. No wonder the repression was so brutal, so professional we could say. Not a small thing to notice as yesterday Chavez announced the army promotions where as expected loyalty to Chavez was the main requirement to become general. Expect generals to have grown fat and powerful to refuse soon to let Chavez have any democratic after thought, assuming he has any , of course.

On another note, the Weil cartoon of last Friday is worth publishing: let's see if Chavez now starts taking care of Venezuelan hostages inside Venezuela, not mentioning that crime keeps us up as hostages in our own homes.

The doctor to Chavez: Forget about Ingrid,
just here you have plenty of kidnapped folks that you can rescue.

The press in Europe

The francophone press is of course all devoted to Ingrid, including medical results of her first check up. Apparently she did not suffer from hepatitis, probably from some other parasitic diseases that has yet to be identified. From her declarations life in the jungle was hell. But of all bugs that made her life miserable, the worst predator is man, that is, the conditions that the FARC held their captives. She said that she would not treat a plant the way she was treated.

Le Monde also addresses the Swiss Radio rumor, acknowledging that indeed it is quite possible that some informants have received some money, in particular the wife of the captives guard, but still, Le Monde elegantly dismisses the RSR report.

"En l'état, l'hypothèse d'une "vaste mascarade" est donc à prendre avec précaution."
In its current state the hypothesis of a "huge masquerade" is to be considered with caution.

This one by the way claims new information confirming their original "scoop", yet they do not give any further detail. Interesting that they are the only media receiving such insider's info, no? And as far as I could see the RSR is not as interested in detailing the inhuman treatment of Ingrid at the hands of the FARC. Surely they are upset that the world would doubt the word of the Swiss. Imagine that...... from the people who are paid not to reveal anything about their customers....

I would agree with the comment of a Le Monde readers that such thing as the RSR scoop are best ignored. But this is a Swiss BBC wanna-be and such a media must be taken to task. Their recent "confirmations" are rather sinking them further. At this level of news you cannot play a casual game. We'll see if they are as good as their word.

-The end-