Caracas Chronicles

Bogota’s El Tiempo has obtained a leaked copy of the Venezuelan Military Intelligence Directorate (DIM)’s strategy vis-à-vis Colombia’s presidential election. The thing is…remarkably sane. Featuring the kind of cool-headed assessment of the situation we so seldom see from the public face of the Chávez government, the document shows a DIM that’s well aware there’s little they can do in the short-term to affect Colombia’s leadership.

Instead, it seems grimly resigned to a future Santos government, and expresses concern that Santos may strike a considerably more aggressive posture than Uribe – a concern I share. It seems to include some vague hints about a longer term strategy to gain political clout in Colombia, but it’s very very far from a smoking gun. 

There is, of course, always the possibility that some other, more secret bit of Military Intelligency is running cash to some candidate or another. But insofar as the document El Tiempo obtained is a true reflection of high level Venezuelan military intelligence thinking on Colombia’s internal affairs, it suggests reality is, indeed, much stranger than fiction…I mean: sane, level headed chavista military spooks? Really?!