FARCing up Hugo Chavez

In what can only be described as a brilliantly executed plan, the Colombian military rescued fifteen hostages held by the leftist terrorist group FARC:

Colombia's military yesterday rescued the most prominent of several hundred hostages held by Marxist rebels, a group of 15 that included the French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three American Defense Department contractors who had been imprisoned in remote jungle camps since 2003.

...Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos told reporters earlier in the day that the rescue mission had been made possible by "a special intelligence" operation that had penetrated the highest reaches of the FARC, including the group's seven-man directorate and one of the rings of specialized rebel units entrusted with guarding hostages. Santos said that ring, commanded by a rebel known by the alias Cesar, was tricked into believing that the FARC's leader had called for the hostages to be brought to him.

And ironies of ironies, the military outfitted their people in Che shirts to fit in. As Allahpundit noted: "awesome."

The big loser in this is Hugo Chavez who has been using his oil money to prop up the terror group since he took office. By funneling money to the FARC, he had allowed them to keep holding Betancourt and the Americans for as long as they have. His recent spats with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Chavez' concerted effort to spread socialism throughout South America have had the effect of destabilizing the region. This action will seriously curtail those aims.

The US military had much more to do with this operation than they are letting on but Bush took the smart road of allowing Uribe the credit and thus allowing him to increase his standing not only with his own populace but the region as a whole. Maybe American Democrats will now understand just how important Uribe is to our interests in the region. That was a joke of course as Democrat leadership tends to snub Uribe as often as possible thus giving support to Chavez.