Venezuela Says Colombians Held in Anti-Chavez Plot

[maddezmom]

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela's security forces said Sunday they had captured more than 50 Colombian paramilitaries who were being trained by dissident Venezuelan military officers to launch attacks against President Hugo Chavez's government.

~snip~
Rodriguez said the ranch belonged to a member of the anti-Chavez opposition, Robert Alonso, whom he said was linked to Cuban exile groups in Miami opposed to Cuba's Communist President Fidel Castro (news - web sites).


Chavez, a firebrand left-wing populist who was briefly ousted in a coup in 2002, has in the last two years denounced numerous plots and conspiracies against him by opponents he says are backed by the U.S. government and Cuban exiles. He has often failed to back his charges with concrete evidence.


Washington has repeatedly denied his accusations of U.S. involvement.

`snip~
more:http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&ncid=586&e=7&u=/nm/20040509/wl_nm/venezuela_plot_dc

[SquireJons]

1. Well, whadda ya know

Another planeload of mercenaries off to topple an oil rich small country. What a coincidence. I'm flagergasted... no really... I ammmm bwuuhahahahahahahah... (oh god, I've got tears in my eyes)

Somebody better grab the reins cause this coach is out of control and flying down hill.

[SquireJons]

2. Flying down hill

...and dickieboys standing circus style on the four horses backs, cracking the whip and laughing maniacally.

[Judi Lynn]

3. So glad you found this! People have been waiting for the next step

since we read _Bush sold even more tanks and war planes to Alvaro Uribe, Colombia's grubby right-wing "President."

We read a couple of weeks ago that Colombian paramilitaries (an extension of Urbibe's actual army, for whom he has asked complete amnesty, after unbelievable atrocities (even involving using chain saws on people)) were soliciting employment across the border in Venezuela, offering to whack local Venezuelan popular, grass-roots leaders in various communities.

Venezuelan "exiles" are united in South Florida with Cuban hard-line Batistiano "exiles." They even staged a joint anti-Chavez parade in Miami on a day the entire world was protesting _Bush's plans for war.

Now they are caught connected together near Caracas. I REALLY hope the Venezuelan government's going to get on top of this.

The coup _Bush's State Department employees supported and funded with our taxes continues, and won't go away until it is shown it can't succeed there.

[bahrbearian]

4. Cuban exile groups in Miami

Seem to be the U.S. Mercenaries in Latin America

[dArKeR]

5. Now we know what Bush's 23 Treasury Agents have been doing for 2

years! Setting up the money for Bush Crime Family Terrorism.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&ncid=716&e=6&u=/ap/20040429/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/terrorism_financing
More Agents Track Castro Than Bin Laden

[Mika]

6. Yep. Anti Castro/Cuba ops is a cover for this. They need Castro to stay

No Castro = no anti Castro funding & no cover

No Cuban embargo = no lobbying and campaign dollars on both sides of the issue

Regarding Cuba, maintaining the status quo is all important for both parties and both sides of the Cuba "issue".



The Dem party is just as responsible, and, especially considering Kerry's recent stances on Chavez and the US's embargo on Cuba, it looks like it will continue to be.




This political corruption is reason enough to end the Cuban embargo and the sanctions on Cubans & Americans - now.

Dem party members should demand this of all of their representatives!

[dArKeR]

7. Engagement and trade with USSR and China is the US policy but not with

Cuba. Why?

[Mika]

8. As I've said, its for campaign cash

On the part of both sides of the US political aisle.

charts from opensecrets.org




And then there's the anti embargo US agrigroups who counter lobby.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Also, our rigid right-wing has a psychopathic need to win

over ANY country which dares to follow its own path and doesn't bow down to them.

In _Bush's case, there may be a looney-toons festering hatred for a government which his own dad attempted, with the CIA, to destroy, and failed, on April 17, 1961.

Here's one angle of involvement for the older _Bush:

In 1953, Bush got money from Brown Brothers Harriman and, with partners Hugh and Bill Liedtke, formed Zapata Petroleum. By the late 1950s they were millionaires. Bush bought subsidiary Zapata Off-Shore from his partners and went into business on his own in 1954. By 1958, the new company was drilling on the Cay Sal Bank in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. These islands had been leased to Nixon supporter and CIA contractor Howard Hughes the previous year and were later used as a base for CIA raids on Cuba. The CIA was using companies like Zapata to stage and supply secret missions attacking Fidel Castro’s Cuban government in advance of the Bay of Pigs invasion. The CIA’s codename for that invasion was “Operation Zapata.” In 1981, all Securities and Exchange Commission filings for Zapata Off-Shore between 1960 and 1966 were destroyed. In other words, the year Bush became vice president, important records detailing his years at his drilling company disappeared. In 1969, Zapata bought the United Fruit Company of Boston, another company with strong CIA connections.
(snip)

http://www.famoustexans.com/georgebush.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More:

1960–1961. Bay of Pigs. Bush and fellow CIA operative Felix Rodriguez organize and train Cuban exiles in Florida and across the Gulf region for an invasion of Cuba, and the assassination of Fidel Castro, with assistance from elements of the Mafia (based in Florida). President John F. Kennedy pulls the plug on the operation, infuriating the Cubans, the CIA, the mob, and Bush.
(snip/...)

http://members.tripod.com/~reno4governor/index-62.html

[Imperialism Inc.]

9. Yes there has been much (way) under-reported activity in

Colombia with regards to Venezuela.
The accusations still continue but some wingers in the Colombian Senate recently tried to get the OAS to consider ousting Chavez.

This article is probably the best sumamry. (note I am posting a lot of this on the basis of their "Fair Use" statement at the bottom of this article)
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1162

On April 13, the Colombian senate approved a resolution proposed by Senator Enrique Gomez Hurtado that condemns the “dictatorial regime” of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias and calls for the Organization of American States to apply the Interamerican Democratic Charter to Venezuela.

According to Article 21 of the Charter: “In the event of an unconstitutional alteration of the constitutional regime that seriously impairs the democratic order in a member state, any member state or the Secretary General may request the immediate convocation of the Permanent Council to undertake a collective assessment of the situation and to take such decisions as it deems appropriate.”

--cut--

The most notable Venezuelan response to the Colombian resolution came from Jose Vicente Rangel, Executive Vice President of Venezuela, who made the astute observation, “Senator Gomez Hurtado’s proposal has as its bases the United States government’s campaign against Venezuela and the geo-strategic development of Plan Colombia.”

Rangel’s statement also makes note of the fact that the original Spanish version of Proposition 249 is written in bad Spanish, with misspellings and grammatical errors that are uncharacteristic of the normally high standards of Colombian jurisprudence. Rangel proposes that the proposition could have been “inspired and edited by the Venezuelan coup leaders in exile in Bogota, Pedro Carmona and <…> Daniel Romero, spokesman of the de facto government the 12th of April <2002>.”

However, others take a more sinister view...

Some Colombian social and political leaders point to the recent presence in Colombia of US Congressman Lincoln Diaz Balart ... cheerleader for the right-wing Cuban exile community in Florida ... as possibly having an influence in the drafting of this document.

--cut--

Many point to US policy in Colombia under the program Plan Colombia. Even mainstream Latin American history books (e.g. A History of Latin America, by Keen and Haynes, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 2004) state that Plan Colombia is not so much about US anti-drug policy as it is about securing the Colombian oil industry that had been under attack by leftist guerrillas. Besides outsourcing the task of taking back control of guerrilla-controlled areas to paramilitary death squads responsible for the slaughter of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of innocents, and providing juicy multimillion dollar contracts to US companies such as Monsanto and DynCorp, there have been few visible accomplishments for Plan Colombia.

It is not inconceivable that part of Plan Colombia would be to destabilize and overthrow the Chavez government and install puppet leaders to make US access to Venezuelan petroleum resources easier and cheaper.

Perhaps it is to this end that the Colombian government has purchased forty AMX-30 tanks from Spain with US assistance. And, knowing how US covert operations have been conducted in the past, it is quite possible that the US has great interest in testing and observing how much support the Chavez government has by, for instance, sending its surrogates to attack the hospital in Monagas State and watching the community response. This could also extend to observing the Venezuelan diplomatic response to the (intentional?) provocation produced by the Colombian senate resolution.

--cut--

We are all waiting for President Uribe’s response

====

Uribe's response (thankfully) was to not support this resolution.

[Judi Lynn]

11. Who could expect Cuban "exile" Congressman Lincoln-Diaz Balart

to appear in Colombia? He was NOT well-received, as some of us learned from a DU'er who has close friends in Colombia.

Published: Thursday, April 15, 2004
Bylined to: Patrick J. O'Donoghue


Objections to Colombian Congress medal for gung-ho US Congressman Diaz-Baralt




Colombian political and trade union organizations have rejected outright a Colombian Congress decision to honor controversial US Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart with a medal.

Prensa Latina press agency reports that a letter had been sent to Colombian Congress president, Senator German Vargas and read out by in the House by Congressman Wilson Borja, stating that the US Cuban Congressman does not have sufficient merit to receive a congressional medal.

The dissidents argue that Diaz-Balart is a well-known terrorist, who incited the assassination of a Head of State and ousting of a legitimately elected government ... "it's a shame to see Colombian Congressmen lending themselves to such an act."

Diaz-Balart is accused of manipulating a law draft to solve immigration problems for many Colombians in the USA as a political maneuver to secure Hispanic votes for George W. Bush and moreover, the dissidents claim that the visiting Congressmen contributed to electoral fraud in Florida that got Bush through to the Presidency.

Signatories in Cali (Colombia) reject the Congressman's support for continuing the economic blockade on Cuba. "The origin of such strange conduct on the part of the Colombian Congress could be due more to pressure from the Miami-based violent organizations and pressure from the USA government's commitment to Miami Cubans, as well as the increasing intervention of the USA in Colombia's internal affairs."
(snip/...)

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=17551
(Free registration is required)

[salin]

12. boy Reich et al must be getting so frustrated

they keep trying tried and true tactics (doesn't this current one sound like the alleged training of Haitian "rebels" in the Dominican Republic by US military?) - and keep getting foiled in Venezuela.

I recognize that Chavez has a real mixed record - and is neither a complete hero, nor a complete villain (as is often portrayed here - as either a or b) - but one has to marvel at his government's thwarting power of the multiple toppling attempts.

[Judi Lynn]

13. No kidding! It's just the same, isn't it?

Just found this article which I had never seen earlier, and it's only a week old, too:

Senior U.S. military commander says more American troops needed in Colombia


By Kim Housego
ASSOCIATED PRESS
6:05 p.m. April 29, 2004

BOGOTA, Colombia – U.S. troops advising Colombia in its war against rebels and paramilitary forces are hampered by Congress' cap on the number of American soldiers, a senior U.S. military commander asserted Thursday.

U.S. Army Gen. James Hill, the commander of U.S. military operations in Latin America, said Washington's ability to provide advice and training as Colombia carries out offensives against the insurgent groups has been hurt by Congress' stipulation that no more than 400 U.S. troops and 400 American contractors can be in this Andean country at one time.

President Bush has asked the U.S. Congress to allow up to 800 U.S. military personnel and 600 U.S. citizen civilian contractors to help Colombian government forces.

"I've been unable, because of the cap, to keep up with the ability to give them planning assistance and other support, especially logistics ... to help them run a larger campaign," Hill, commander of the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, told a news conference at the U.S. Embassy.
(snip/...)

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20040429-1805-colombia-ustroops.html

These bastards must never sleep! Jeez.

[salin]

14. good find... I remember back in the Colombian presidential elections

the electorate reportedly took a turn to the right - due to ongoing fears from gorrila's (mostly tied to drug activities) - and the candidate (who won) promised a more direct offensive, more military engagement, and... if I recall correctly... closer ties/work/support from the US ...

[Mika]

16. Yes, there was a bomb blast close to Powell on his Uribe endorsement tour

Just a week or so before the elections in Colombia, Colin Powell did his endorsement tour of Uribe there was a bombing close to where Powell has spoken a few hours earlier. According to Powell and State it was "proof positive" that Colombians needed to elect a git tough candidate that Bush* Crime Inc supported.

[salin]

18. and the mutually appreciated troops

were soon committed - in the us press it wasn't framed as a payoff for the election... or as a way to also perhaps get at venezuela... but in response to concerns about terrorism and protecting the pipelines. I want to say the announcement (or was it a request to congress) for an increase in troops commitment was in the spring/summer after Afghanistan and before Iraq... I haven't followed too closely but my mind somehow keeps track of interesting stories... so I am not sure how the timeline of those events follow

(attempted coup...)
(election in Colombia (just after the Powell visit)
(request for troops for the "war on Terror" in Colombia to "protect the pipeline...)

are they sequential?

[Judi Lynn]

19. You're right, looks like they're headed far, far right

Here's something I just found which I never have heard. It should be quite easy to double check, as well.

Uribe, Bush, and
Plan Colombia
Military Solutions to Social
Problems a Recipe for Failure
By Ron Jacobs
On Tuesday, August 6th, a new president took over in Colombia. Like the president who took over in the US in 2001, Colombia's new president Álvaro Uribe Velez is a right-winger who supports military solutions to social problems and, also like the president here, he was elected by less than 30 percent of the voting eligible population. Another parallel to Mr. Bush is found in Mr. Uribe's distaste for democracy. Indeed, Uribe has announced plans to eliminate the current two houses of congress and replace them with a single house.

Governmental action that currently requires legislation, would simply require, under Uribe's proposal, presidential decrees. Uribe justifies his plan as a means to make the government leaner and meaner. Most observers agree however, that the underlying motive is to free up more money for the military and police forces. Uribe has already asked the U.S. to increase military aid to Colombia. The U.S. has given Colombia over $2 billion in mostly military aid since 2000. Since Colombia became the third largest recipient of U.S. military aid, state repression and paramilitary violence have only increased.
(snip/...)

http://www.narconews.com/jacobs2.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If THAT doesn't sound Duhbya-like, I don't know what DOES! This info. gets nastier the closer you look. Sounds like they are members of the same @$$####$' club.

[salin]

20. dang... does this sound like an El Salvidor of the 80s in the remake?

Since Colombia became the third largest recipient of U.S. military aid, state repression and paramilitary violence have only increased. paramilitary violence - combined with state repression... wonder how violent... just reading the words I heard an echo of the stories of the deathsquads in El Salvidor... a government we supported, gave money too and turned a blind eye... while funding the contras - in violation of US law... to overthrow Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua...

Sounds all to familiar... except now there are even higher stakes to some of these folks... the energy industry has big interest due to the oil in the region... (don't recall the confluence of huge industry/multinational interests in the Nicaragua/El Salvidor saga... that seemed to be pushed by and isolated with the coldwarrior contingent within the white house)

[Tatiana]

15. He's not the only one who has thwarted multiple toppling attempts.

Look at Castro. I suspect the U.S.'s own meddling in Venezuela's affairs is what has caused Chavez to be an ally of Castro's.

[salin]

17. Don't know enough of the origins of their being allies

but it sure would seem as though this would be a factor.

There was an item before the coup attempt that had sources in Venezuela's government accusing the US government (tied to the state dept, I believe) of attempting to set up an assassination of Chavez. Never heard of the story again - and it was from VNews (? VHeadlineNews?) (which seemed to me to be pretty pro-Chavez) - so not sure how accurate the charges were (was it just propoganda to counter the US propoganda leading up to the coup attempt? was it real and we just have a news blackout? who knows?) The story always made me curious... but couldn't find it anywhere else. Yet it lingers in my memory...

[Judi Lynn]

21. This is interesting. I missed it the first time.

It is published on Cubanet, published in South Florida by Cuban "exiles," which is funded in part by money from U.S. taxpayers, through USAIDL

Cuban exile group denies alleged Chavez plot


MIAMI, Dec 1 (Reuters) - A Miami-based Cuban exile group on Wednesday denied an accusation by Cuban President Fidel Castro that one of its directors plotted to fund an assassination attempt against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

"What else is there for Castro to accuse us of? The whole thing is so ridiculous," said Ninoska Perez, spokeswoman for the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) that Castro linked to the plot. "I don't know if it's senility, or what it is with Castro."

At a news conference in Havana on Tuesday, Castro denounced an alleged plot by four Cuban exile "terrorists" living in Florida to kill Chavez in December.

The Cuban leader said funding for the assassination plan would have come from a fifth plotter, Arnaldo Monzon, whom he identified as a member of the leading anti-Castro group, CANF.

Perez confirmed Monzon is a director of the group but called Castro's accusation "ridiculous" and denied that Monzon or CANF was funding such a plot.

"What we need is a psychiatrist to strap a straight jacket on Castro," Perez said. "Every plot he dreams up, we're behind it."

Citing a report from Cuba's intelligence services, Castro named the four Cuban exiles allegedly involved in the plot as Eusebio de Jesus Penalver, Rene Cruz, Ernesto Diaz and Mario Chanes de Armas.
(snip)

http://64.21.33.164/CNews/y99/dec99/02e13.htm

(I would mention that Ninoska Perez-Castellon is an intense, nasty blowhard, and a Miami "exile" spokesperson, who was on tv a lot during Elián's ordeal, snarling, yapping, and making people who had never seen her before, ill.)



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Then there is the plot uncovered to shoot down his plane as it was returning from Europe, which Venezuelan sources uncovered, and rerouted his plane, and found weaponry used by the Venezuelan military, and a map indicating his flight pattern. Creepy.

Here's an account of THAT plot, from the BBC. I don't believe it was carried in our own media:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2344973.stm

[salin]

25. Perhaps what I read about was accusations tied to the first incident

I think that I read about it in Feb/March 2002. The story I recall wasn't about an attempt as much as about ties to the US plot/planning.

Never saw the second item/accusation. I don't think it was carried here.

[Imperialism Inc.]

24. Yes, Venezuela is very complex politically and at the end of the

day Chavez is a politician and a man who desired power, with all the trapping that entails.

But I wouldn't assume his supporters here see him as some kind of angel. On the other, hand I don't mind admitting that I would cream my jeans if we had some politicians here opening up and improving our democracy in the ways his new constitution and programs have for Venezuela. And , then when I hear his stance on "globalism" I just faint. I can't help it. (haha)

[salin]

26. I would agree with you

per the complexity of Chavez - and have to admit some admiration for the stands against the pushes of globalization.

Just commenting that at times when debates get going per Chavez (most often fueled by those who can not stand Chavez) - some of the pro Chavez rhetoric can start to read as binary as the writing of the anti-Chavez people... could just be an artifact of styles of debates rather than overly rosey views of Chavez.

Part of what is so frightening about the current trends here in the US towards the labor force, away from manufacturing (and being a producing nation which can be self-sufficient), towards tax policies that reward the idle rich (living on investments) and place more burden on earned/productivity income (those living on wages), and a slew of other things... is wondering if we could be on a long slide towards class systems that mirror central and south America. I can not think of a modern country that has digressed class wise in such a ways - but it seems to be the hidden intention of some at the top of the financial and political power structures in this country. The fear, for me, is that it seems that once that level of economic disparity is so severe and so entrenched - is it possible to reverse it? It seems to me that part of the modern histories in central and south america is littered with leaders some with good intentions some with less good intentions - who attempt through different policies to reverse the course with little effect or with disasterous effects. Sometimes one has to wonder - can it be reversed? How? Is this where we are sliding (granted I think that it would take several generations to get to that point, if indeed that is where we are headed.)

[Mika]

22. Oil wars maybe? But, what's with this?

Makes one wonder why a leader of an oil rich country like Ven. would complain about high oil prices, doesn't it?


-Chavez blames Bush's "imperialism" for soaring oil prices-
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday blamed the recent spike in world oil prices on U.S. counterpart George W. Bush and his "imperialist policies."
http://www.falkland-malvinas.com/Detalle.asp?NUM=3629

Chavez, whose nation is one of the main suppliers of crude to the United States, said the U.S. invasion of Iraq has unleashed an "inferno" in the Middle East. It is that situation, he claims, which has driven the international price of oil to $40 a barrel.

"George W. Bush is the great culprit for the entire disaster" with petroleum prices, Chavez said at a public event in Caracas.

--

According to Chavez, Bush "believed that by sending tanks and the Marines to Iraq he was going to take over the petroleum," of that country, but "it turned out he couldn't dominate Iraq and now the conflict has extended to other countries of the region." "We feel the fair price should be around $30 a barrel," said Chavez.

[Mika]

23. Pissing off the Bushies

Venezuela: Chavez Dumps Monsanto
http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/tncs/2004/0505venezuela.htm

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias has announced that the cultivation of genetically modified crops will be prohibited on Venezuelan soil, possibly establishing the most sweeping restrictions on transgenic crops in the western hemisphere.

Though full details of the administration’s policy on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are still forthcoming, the statement by President Hugo Chavez will lead most immediately to the cancellation of a contract that Venezuela had negotiated with the US-based Monsanto Corporation.

Before a recent international gathering of supporters in Caracas, Chavez admonished genetically engineered crops as contrary to interests and needs of the nation’s farmers and farmworkers. He then zeroed in on Monsanto’s plans to plant up to 500,000 acres of transgenic soybeans in Venezuela.

“I ordered an end to the project”, said Chavez, upon learning that transgenic crops were involved. “This project is terminated.”

Chavez emphasised the importance of food sovereignty and security — required by the Venezuelan Constitution — as the basis of his decision. Instead of allowing Monsanto to grow its transgenic crops, these fields will be used to plant yuca, an indigenous crop, Chavez explained. He also announced the creation of a large seed bank facility to maintain indigenous seeds for peasants’ movements around the world.

--

How does this relate to (plan) Colombia? .......

Closer to home in Venezuela, Monsanto manufactures the pesticide “glyphosate”, which is used by the neighbouring Colombian government as part of its Plan Colombia offensive against coca production and rebel groups. The Colombian government aerially sprays hundreds of thousands of acres, destroying legitimate farms and natural areas like the Putomayo rainforest, and posing a direct threat to human health, including that of indigenous communities.

[Judi Lynn]

27. Venezuela accuses Colombian paramilitaries of coup plot

Venezuela accuses Colombian paramilitaries of coup plot

33 minutes ago Add World - AFP to My Yahoo!


Sun May 9, 5:15 PM ET


Venezuelan soldiers guard alleged Colombian paramilitary militants in Caracas, after their arrest in Daktari farm, east of the capital.(AFP/Juan Barreto)



CARACAS (AFP) - Venezuelan authorities arrested 56 people they said are Colombian right-wing paramilitaries plotting to join Venezuelan dissidents in a bid to overthrow left-wing President Hugo Chavez.

The group was arrested on a farm outside Caracas where they had been training for a month, said Miguel Rodriguez Torres, chief of the police intelligence service.

"Their intentions were to organize themselves with people from Plaza Altamira to mount a coup," Rodriguez Torres told the official Venezuelan Television channel (VTV), referring to a Caracas square where Chavez opponents, including military officers, have protested.

The channel broadcast images of the prisoners.

Rodriguez Torres said the paramilitaries and their Venezuelan allies planned to attack a "military institution."
(snip/...)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040509/wl_afp/venezuela_colombia_040509211552