Commander Raúl Reyes with his FARC delegation meeting on February 21, 2000 with Spanish dignitaries, including Judge Eloy Velasco in the presidential palace in Valencia, Spain. Judge Velasco is now accusing President Chávez of consorting with the same FARC organization and of supporting terrorism. Raúl Reyes was murdered along with 16 comrades by the Colombian government in a cross-border attack in Ecuador on March 1, 2008.

Last May Spanish “super judge” Baltasar Garzón was suspended from his duties for trying to open an investigation into the crimes perpetrated during the fascist era of Spain’s infamous dictator, Francisco Franco who died in 1976.

The Franco period is something which most Spanish would prefer to wipe from their memories as it was a period of mass violation of human rights, torture in the context of a bloody civil war and fascist dictatorship which lasted from 1939 to 1976.

The Spanish judge who became an international hero by going after Augusto Pinochet and Osama bin Laden was suspended for allegedly abusing his authority by investigating what is arguably Spain's own biggest unresolved case: atrocities committed during and after its ruinous Civil War. He is currently awaiting trial.

There are political interests in Spain, especially in the right-wing Popular Party (PP), which prefer to let the atrocities lie, since this party’s antecedents can be traced back to fascist roots and were recently exemplified by its former leader, José Maria Aznar, whom President Chávez labeled without hesitation a “fascist”.

It is telling that the Spanish judiciary which is disciplining Garzón, does not have a commitment to finding out the truth about Franco’s reign of terror. On the other hand, the situation currently making headlines in Spain and Venezuela concerning alleged ETA members being trained in Venezuela by the FARC is not being hidden in some lost filing cabinet.

The driving force behind the investigation and accusations against Venezuela is one Judge Eloy Velasco. Last March Velasco hit the headlines by accusing Venezuela of harboring ETA terrorists when in fact the men concerned had been exiled in Venezuela in 1989 in a government to government agreement between then Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez and Spanish Premier Felipe Gonzalez.

Now Velasco is accusing one of the exiled ETA members, Arturo Cubillas, of training ETA members in Venezuela in 2008. The accusation is based on the evidence given by two ETA members awaiting trial in Spain who both have a long list of bloody terrorist activities of their own for which to answer. These men are facing long jail terms and their credibility and sworn statements as witnesses must to be questioned.

In fact, both Spanish and Venezuela authorities could easily check to see if the ETA members either left Spain or entered Venezuela in 2008 simply by consulting immigration records. If these two men were dangerous ETA terroists, what were the Spanish authorities doing giving them passports in the first place. The mind boggles at such irresponsibility  ... or the mind understands the geopolitical chess being played out. 

Imagine – you are facing 20 years behind bars. It’s a racing certainty that you would cut a deal with the prosecutors to point the finger at an “enemy regime” such as Venezuela. Velasco is a member of the right wing, Spanish PP whose spokespersons are consistent in their criticism of President Chávez’s socialist revolution. This evidence has gifted Velasco a platform from which he can launch accusations at Venezuela of allowing ETA members to be trained on Venezuelan soil and also say that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were also involved. And he can do it with authority and recognition as a judge.

The implication is that Venezuela is supporting and cooperating with ETA and FARC both of which are labeled “terrorist groups” by the all-powerful US State Department.

It is ironic that Velasco is praised for his actions in combating terrorism whereas his own PP organization wants Judge Garzón tried for launching an investigation into Spain’s own past state terrorism, executed against its own population. This is Spain’s inherent contradiction and a clear sign of its tendency to exist in an Upside Down World.

However, Judge Velasco also has some burning questions to answer from his own past which are never mentioned in the corporate Spanish press. How can he, the one who accuses Venezuela of harboring FARC “terrorists”, explain that on 21st February 2000, an official delegation of the FARC was invited to the City of Valencia and entertained in an official visit by that city’s hierarchy – among them Judge Velasco, then head of justice in Valencia, and the late FARC Commander Raúl Reyes?

This is incontrovertible evidence that Velasco was involved with FARC – the official photos at the head of this report, prove it. Moreover, the doubtful evidence of Venezuelan support for terrorism, provided by two accused murderers out to save their own skins must be seriously questioned. Is the latter evidence, presented by Judge Velasco, strong enough to condemn Venezuela as a “supporter of terrorism” as many in Spain’s PP would wish? Certainly not. And Velasco cannot deny his meeting with FARC in 2000, to discuss what? Guerrilla tactics?

Velasco talks about FARC and ETA in the same breath as terrorist organizations but it did not prevent him from participating in FARC’s official visit to Valencia. How can Velasco explain this contradiction since his support of FARC in the past is no less than obvious. If he were consistent with his accusations against President Chávez, he would be obliged to admit that for all intents and purposes, his own relatonship with the FARC was illegal in complicity with terrorist activities, as he defines them and the FARC now.

It is situations like these which are tainted with bare faced hypocrisy which lead people to conclude that Spain lives in an Upside Down World. Garzón is accused of abusing his authority when he wants to champion the truth behind Spain’s dark past, whereas Velasco could meet up with the FARC and later accuse the FARC of terrorism ... and ... accuse Venezuela of supporting the FARC and be thus guilty of state sponsored terrorism - and no one utters a word – that is, nobody except for Axis of Logic and other revolutionary media. This entire scenario would serve a satirical sitcom better than the absurdity of the Spanish Government launching an attack on another nation. Hopefully, the people of the world will laugh these accusations against Venezuela off the front pages of the capitalist newspapers and flip to a cartoon channel when reported on their television as “news.”

It’s predictable that Judge Velasco would attempt to explain that  FARC was not a terrorist organization in 2000 until they were declared as such after 9/11. Frankly, the most intellectually challenged can see through that like a window pane. FARC’s strategy and actions did not change overnight from 2000 to 2001 and if I understand the editorial position of Axis of Logic correctly, they cannot in truth be called a “terrorist organization” but are in fact a revolutionary group whose mission it is to liberate their country from foreign domination. Yes, from the U.S. imperialists.

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet it is said that “There is something rotten in the State of Denmark”. With such contradictions and political adventurism being practiced by Judge Velasco and supported by Zapatero’s government we must conclude that everything is putrid in Madrid.

READ HIS BIO AND MORE ESSAYS BY
AXIS OF LOGIC COLUMNIST, ARTURO ROSALES