Reply #23: A lot has been happening in Lat. America while we were all looking at Iraq [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

(snip)

Colombian paramilitaries penetrate Venezuela to market for political assassination contracts

Colombia political leader Gustavo Petro has told delegates at the 2nd International Solidarity with Venezuela Meeting in Caracas that Colombian right-wing sectors are promoting the infiltration of paramilitary groups into Venezuela to embark on a campaign of selective political assassinations.

The Polo Democratic Independent leader claims that Colombian paramilitaries are entering Venezuelan not just to finance their activities but to sell themselves to Venezuelan groups and accept contracts to kill government grassroots leaders.

Former M19 Movement guerrilla, Petro warns that other sectors in his country are supporting the government's purchase of fighter plans and tanks from Spain but they will not be used to combat Colombia's guerrilla forces but are intended for a future armed confrontation with Venezuela ... "once the purchase has been complete, they will be placed facing Zulia and Apure States."

(snip/...)

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=17548
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Venezuela Invasion?

by Philip Stinard
April 18, 2004

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."
(snip)

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.
Venezuelan National Assembly (AN) deputy Tarek William Saab characterized the Colombian resolution as a "vile pamphlet" which, besides being poorly written, appears as though it could have originally been written in English by the US State Department.
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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.
(snip)

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=5354