Carter and the scourge of Chavez

We've opined here and here about former President Jimmy Carter's coddling of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. In last fall's election Carter, badly conned, legitimized a rigged election consigning millions of Venezuelans to live under a brutal regime indefinitely.

Well Carter's idiocy is also contributing to the destabilization of the entire region. Thor Halvorssen writes in the Weekly Standard that Chavez has been aggressively aiding and abetting FARC, the large, vicious guerrilla group that has been trying to usurp power in Colombia for decades, which controls a big chunk of the cocaine trade and has caused the deaths of an estimated 100,000 people.

The U.S. Department of State has designated FARC a Foreign Terrorist Organization--yet FARC leaders are welcomed in Venezuela and treated as heads of state. The prominent FARC leader Olga Marin, for example, spoke on the floor of Venezuela's National Assembly in the summer of 2000, praising Hugo Chavez as a hero of the rebel movement and thanking the Venezuelan government for its "support." Weeks later, the Colombian government announced that it had confiscated from terrorists more than 400 rifles and machine guns bearing the insignia of the Venezuelan armed forces.
...
the Chavez-FARC connection surfaced again when Venezuela's intelligence chief, Jesus Urdaneta, publicly denounced Chavez for supporting FARC. A lifelong friend and military colleague of President Chavez, Urdaneta publicized documents showing that the Chavez government offered fuel, money, and other support to the terrorists. The documents included signed letters from a Chavez aide detailing an agreement to provide support for FARC. That aide later became Chavez's minister of justice, a position which gave him oversight of the entire Venezuelan security apparatus.
...
On December 14, 2004, Ricardo Granda, widely known as FARC's "foreign secretary," was arrested on the Colombian border. One of the most senior, well connected, and highly skilled political strategists in FARC's history, Granda had been living in Venezuela's capital.

Carter, one of the worst presidents in US history, has amazing lengthened his pathetic list of 'accomplishments' since leaving office with Venezuela a crowning 'achievement'. His positive contribution to history? His abject failure helped usher in the Reagan Revolution.