Weekly Report - 20 September 2012 (WR-12-37)

As Benjamin Franklin famously said, “Well done is better than well said”. The actions of the Venezuelan government and police this week are a clear demonstration of the accuracy of Franklin’s words. President Hugo Chávez has long denied that his administration provides safe haven to Colombian left-wing guerrillas and narco-traffickers, even though the US has blacklisted several high-ranking members of the armed forces and the Venezuelan cabinet for their supposed involvement in drug-trafficking and money-laundering. The capture of the last of Colombia’s longstanding capos still at large, and the subsequent killing in a shootout of a Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) guerrilla wanted in connection to a failed bomb attack in Bogotá [WR-12-19], have been much more convincing of Venezuela’s intention to cooperate with transnational security efforts than any statement Chávez could ever make.