US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel Santos share a joint op-ed in the New York Times July 23, "Colombia's Gains Are America's, Too," shamelessly trading off the apparent hostage rescue operation to shill for the pending US-Colombia free trade agreement. Let's deconstruct this exercise in sinister propaganda:

In mid-July Citgo—the US oil distributor owned by the Venezuelan state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, SA (PDVSA)—began a program to distribute compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) to low- and middle-income families in Houston and Corpus Christi, Tex.; Lamont, Ill.; Lake Charles, La.; and Washington, DC. Ultimately the program is intended to supply some 460,000 of the energy-saving lightbulbs to homes in these cities and in Boston, Philadelphia, New York City, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Madison, Wisconsin.

Some 10,000 Venezuelans protested in Caracas July 12 to demand the country's supreme court overturn a "blacklist"—or "inhabilitación política"—barring several opponents of President Hugo Chávez from running in upcoming state and municipal elections. Chanting "freedom!" and waving Venezuelan flags, the demonstrators marched on the Supreme Justice Tribunal building, where they urged justices to strike down the list.

"Venezuela and Colombia today open a new epoch in our relations," Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez told reporters after a meeting with his Colombian counterpart Álvaro Uribe in Caracas July 11. "I want to make clear that the intention exists to relaunch and fortify relations between Venezuela and Colombia, because these brother nations are destined to be united." (ABN, Venezuela, July 11) Construction of a rail link through Colombia giving Venezuela access to the Pacific is said to have been discussed in the meeting. Uribe told a recent Colombian cabinet meeting, "President Chávez has offered to make this railway. We are ready to do it." (El Tiempo, Bogotá, July 12)

Claude-Marie Vadrot, writing for his blog on the French online journal Mediapart July 4, asserts that FARC hostage Ingrid Betancourt—freed in a Colombian military operation July 2—was actually supposed to be liberated on March 8, in a French deal that had been brokered by President Rafael Correa of Ecuador. FARC commander Raul Reyes had set up camp in Ecuador for this purpose, Vadrot says. He also claims the air raid on the camp that scuttled the deal was actually carried out by US aircraft—zeroing in on the location via Reyes' cell phone. "Having succeeded in obtaining the telephone number a few days earlier, the American officials agreed with the Colombian government that it was necessary to put an end to the negotiation that was on the verge of being completed."

As popular organizations called a one-day general strike July 9 to protest rising food and fuel prices, Peru's President Alan García accused leftist opponents of plotting to overthrow him. "What we are seeing is a conspiracy that is underway," García told reporters. Protesters filled the streets of cities across the country, halting traffic and shutting down rail access to Machu Picchu, Peru's top tourist destination. "They want to attack the democratic system...and take power by force," García said.

US authorities could demand the extradition of two FARC guerilla leaders arrested by Colombian commandos during their rescue of 15 hostages, Justice Department officials said July 7. FARC leaders Gerardo Antonio Aguilar Ramírez AKA "César" and Alexander Farfán Suarez AKA "Enrique Gafas", were indicted by a US federal court in May 2006, on charges of belonging to a terrorist organization and of holding hostages. The US also holds them personally responsible for kidnapping three US contractors, who were freed in the Colombian military operation after five years in captivity.

Latin American leftists expressed satisfaction at the release of 15 people held captive by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)—including French-Colombian ex-presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three US military contractors—in a Colombian military operation July 2. "Out of a basically humanist sentiment, we rejoiced at the news," former Cuban president Fidel Castro Ruz wrote in an article dated on July 3. "The civilians should have never been kidnapped, neither should the soldiers have been kept prisoner in the conditions of the jungle. These were objectively cruel actions. No revolutionary purpose could justify it." ("Reflections by Comrade Fidel," July 3)