EL UNIVERSAL

In the opinion of German scholar Heinz Dieterich, the reason for the "increasing military provocations" of the Colombian government and the US military in the Caribbean would be to "put in check mate" the governments of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his Ecuadorian counterpart Rafael Correa's.

The leftwing PhD in Economic Sciences said in an article posted on Kaosenlared.net that Washington has come to the conclusion that, on the one hand, the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) have lost their operational capacity and, on the other hand, it has managed to neutralize the government of Bolivian President Evo Morales. Therefore, its success in these two countries would be the background for the final move against Chávez and Correa.

The master plan
According to Dieterich, the US strategy to destroy the "Latin American liberation forces" has been a flexible one, by including new challenges as they emerge. The starting point of this plan, he added, was the removal of Colombian guerrillas with the implementation of Plan Colombia and the "inauguration of the 'Master of Shadows' Álvaro Uribe."

The scholar explained that when Chávez took office, he became the second target of the "imperial oligarchic interests." Therefore, Washington set to overthrow him in 2002. However, in the face of the failed coup, the US government needed urgently to wipe out the FARC, "because Colombia is just a platform for the military attack."

In his view, the White House planned to neutralize the FARC around 2007-2008 "to unleash an overall offensive against Chávez and the Bolivarian forces from 2008-2009."

Morales and Correa
The third target of Washington, according to Dieterich, was Evo Morales in Bolivia. His government would be finished "by means of separatism, the Trojan horse of the Constituent Assembly and the organization of the International Confederation for Freedom and Local Autonomy (Confilar)."

In Ecuador, the "imperialist" standard would be repeated upon Rafael Correa's takeover. The scholar explained that the spearhead of imperialism are the Guayaquil's oligarchy and a disappointed indigenous movement.

Decisive software
Dieterich maintains that the Pentagon assumption is that the losing operational capacity of FARC and Morales are irreversible. "This situation has helped it unleash the paramilitary subversion from Colombia and the military subversion from the US Fourth Fleet against Venezuela and Ecuador."

Translated by Conchita Delgado