News of the Restless A door at the end of a dead-end street…

Oh look, I found another bomb-proof magic laptop in a FARC camp! And look, there’s video in it proving that the FARC financed the election campaigns of Hugo Chávez, Rafael Correa, and a host of other leftist LatAm leaders…

Well, no. Actually, I found no such laptop. But then, neither did those who put out the same claim…and how do we know? The FARC have put out a communiqué denouncing the bullshit:

The gringo military invasion.

1. The presidential authorization for installing 5 new US military bases in Colombian territory is an act of high treason against our homeland, an affront to the dignity of the nation, and to the memory of all the martyrs of Bolívar’s army of liberation, who gave their lives struggling against the colonial imperial yoke and for independence.

2. After the all-around failure of Plan Colombia and the increasing anti-colonial sentiment running through Latin America, there is no doubt that this new phase of the gringo invasion has as its principal target the revolutionary insurgency, which in time will become the bridgehead of a war, directed by Washington, against governments, countries and fellow peoples who are fighting for a sovereign development and for the integration of Latin America.

3. The announcements of the escalation of the US invasion of Colombia come in the midst of new corruption scandals by the Uribe gang in the Nariño palace, corrupt officials who shame our country before the world and who fill future generations with rage and indignity by way of the bloodthirsty mentality, the cynicism, the avarice and the impudence which characterize the mafia governing the country today.

4. As a new smokescreen and an act of aggression against the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, Washington and Bogotá manipulated a FARC video, taking it out of context. We categorically deny having sent money to any electoral campaign in any neighbor country.

5. Our resolve to strive for a democratic peace and a New Colombia is stronger than ever. The people of Colombia and all of Latin America and the Caribbean will know how to respond, as our history has shown, to this new aggression of the empire of the north and its lackeys.

Translation mine. Italics added for emphasis.

Now, you can think what you like of the FARC and their methods, but I’d say this analysis of the situation is bang on. There is indeed a campaign afoot in Washington and Bogotá to depose a legitimate leader, using the dirtiest of smear tactics.

Rafael Correa, alias El Ecuadorable, has been an incredibly effective president. He beat out Washington’s hand-picked candidate–a crooked old banana baron who, it turns out, not only tried repeatedly (without success) to buy his way into power, but apparently thought he could also buy the right to sexually abuse an innocent woman. Correa’s reign has stabilized a notoriously “unstable” Ecuador. He’s remained in power with no signs of an ouster in sight; he is popular among his people, handily beating out every neoliberal candidate touted by Washington to oppose him; he’s strengthened ties with other Latin American leaders via Mercosur, Unasur and the ALBA. He’s even been good for his nation’s finances, something socialists are not supposed to be, according to all the crapitalist dogma we’ve been hearing ever since the Russian revolution (if not longer.)

And we all know that if socialists don’t fail as they’re supposed to, crapitalists will do whatever it takes to make them fail (or, failing that, kill them.) So, it’s no wonder someone is trying to drag El Ec down using whatever they think will do the trick. Ergo: Magic Colombian laptops, anyone?

Only one problem with this little rat-fuck: the video in question is a pretty transparent forgery. Obscurantism: now available in handy video format.

Meanwhile, speaking of transparency, look who’s committed to it, and why:

This Wednesday, the government of Ecuador handed over to its Attorney General’s office a document which, presumably, was part of the diary of “Raúl Reyes”, the second-in-command of the FARC, who died during a bombing raid by Colombia on Ecuadorian territory on March 1, 2008.

During a press conference, the minister of the interior, Gustavo Jalkh, and the chancellor, Fander Falconí, explained that they did not attribute “either truth or falseness” to the document, but that they were handing it over to the “competent authority” to offer “total transparency”, and to take “appropriate juridical measures.”

The authorities handed over to the media copies of the manuscript, which, presumably, had been the personal diary of FARC commander Raúl Reyes. They also sent a copy to the Organization of American States (OAS).

The alleged diary makes reference to the former Ecuadorian minister Gustavo Larrea, who publicly admitted having met with the guerrilla leader in an effort to arrange a humanitarian prisoner-swap in an undisclosed location, and to the ex-undersecretary of Government, José Ignacio Chauvín, who is under investigation for suspected connections to narcotrafficking.

Also, the document records Reyes’s activities in chronological order.

In the manuscript, Reyes also mentions retired colonel Jorge Brito, accused by Colombia of having received money from the guerrillas, and a certain “Doctor Ayala”, who is not identified further.

“President Correa never sent any type of emissary, in any manner, in any connection to the events related herein,” said minister Jalkh, adding that the intent is to “analyze the document for evidence that it is attributable to Raúl Reyes, and to see if what it says is true.”

The minister added that the Ecuadorian goverrnment “could not keep to itself a document of this nature, and this demonstrates a profound commitment to truth, justice and the right we all have to be duly informed and, above all, seriously informed.”

Translation mine.

Consider yourselves now duly and seriously informed. Which is more than you’d ever be if you relied on the lamestream media for this story.

PS: For more due and serious information, see also this Venezuelanalysis story.