Colombian paramilitaries arrested in Venezuela
Jeremy Lennard and agencies
Monday May 10, 2004
Guardian Unlimited
Venezuelan police have arrested more than 70 Colombian paramilitary fighters who were allegedly plotting to strike against the government in Caracas, according to the country's president, Hugo Chávez.
Opposition leaders, however, were quick to dismiss the president's claim, calling the raids on a farm less than 10 miles from the capital a ruse to divert attention from their efforts to oust Mr Chávez in a recall vote.
During his weekly radio and TV broadcast, Hello Mr President, Mr Chávez said that 53 paramilitary fighters were arrested at the farm early on Sunday and another 24 were picked up after fleeing into the countryside.
The country's security forces were uncovering additional clues and searching for more suspects, he said, adding that the arrests were proof of a conspiracy against his government involving Cuban and Venezuelan exiles in Florida and neighbouring Colombia.
Mr Chávez also claimed the plot was backed by Venezuela's mostly pro-opposition news media and said that the raids had "eliminated the seed of a terrorist group".
"Now they are importing terrorists," Mr Chávez said of his opponents, adding that the farm - in the municipality of El Hatillo - was owned by Roberto Alonso, a Cuban exile with links to Venezuelan and Cuban exiles.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/venezuela/story/0,,1213445,00.html~~~~~~~~~Colombia's dark underbelly leaves Bush with an embarrassing best friend
Isabel Hilton
18 March 2007 11:59
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President George W Bush’s plan for a Free Trade Area of the Americas has faltered, electorates blame free market liberalism for years of stagnation, and high oil prices help Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez bid for Fidel Castro’s crown as figurehead of the Latin left. When Bush visited Uruguay, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala this past week, he was received with little enthusiasm. Only in Colombia has Bush found an unconditional friend in President Alvaro Uribe, who he has praised as an ally and granted billions of dollars in military aid.
But Bush’s best friend is becoming his biggest embarrassment. Uribe leads a country mired in corruption, violence and drugs, and where critics of the government receive death threats, and drug barons and death squad leaders win amnesty.
Uribe’s troubles began last year when a computer was seized from a paramilitary leader known as “Jorge 40”. On it were the names of politicians who apparently collaborated with Jorge 40 to intimidate voters, seize land and kidnap or kill trade unionists and political rivals.
Jorge 40 is the nom de guerre of Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, leader of the Northern Bloc of the United Self Defence Forces of Colombia, a paramilitary umbrella group set up in 1997 and categorised by the US as a terrorist organisation. Tovar controlled drug trafficking on the eastern half of Colombia’s Caribbean coast. Since then, eight pro-Uribe congressmen have been arrested and the foreign minister has been forced to resign.
But the most dangerous scandal for Uribe comes from the arrest of Jorge Noguera, his former campaign manager and, from 2002 to 2005, head of the DAS. Former DAS colleagues have told investigators of Noguera’s close collaboration with Jorge 40 and other paramilitary leaders. The accusations include an assassination plot against Chávez, the murder of political opponents, electoral fraud, and doctoring police and judicial records to erase paramilitary cases. Noguera worked directly with Uribe and, when the investigations began, the president appointed him consul in Milan. Colombia’s Supreme Court forced his return.
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http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=302362&area=/insight/insight__international/~~~~~~~~~The Venezuelan elite imports soldiers
by Marta Harnecker
May 23, 2004
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If anything has become clear following the discovery of an incursion of a significantly large paramilitary group into the country, it is that the 'anti-Bolivarian and anti-Venezuelan oligarchy and its masters in the north' have not been able to recruit Venezuelan soldiers for their subversive objectives and 'have been forced to recruit them in another country,' as expressed President Chavez in front of tens of thousands of people, who gathered in Caracas this past Sunday, May 16th, to demonstrate their rejection of paramilitary activity and to express their support for peace.
Since 'the conspiracies against Venezuela do not end with the capture of mercenaries in Caracas,' there must be many other infiltrators in other areas of the country; since this is not an isolated action, but one whose efforts to stop the process continue, one can reach but only one conclusion: it is necessary to prepare oneself for self-defense. This is why the President considered it opportune to take advantage of the occasion and to announce three strategic lines for defending the country. The most radical proposal was a call for the population to massively participate in the defense of the nation.
A week earlier, on the 9th of May, on the outskirts of Caracas, a paramilitary force was discovered, dressed in field uniforms. Later, more were found, raising the total to 130, leaving open the possibility that there are still more in the country. The three Colombian paramilitary leaders of the group are members of the Autonomous Self-Defense Forces (AUC) in Northern Santander state in Colombia.
Some of the captured Colombian fighters have a long history as members of paramilitary forces. Others are reservists of the Colombian army and yet others were specifically recruited for the task in Venezuela and were surely tricked. Among these there are several who are minors.
A colonel of the Venezuelan air force was also detained, as well as seven officers of the National Guard. Among those implicated in the plot is a group of civilians headed by the Cuban Roberto Alonso, creator of the 'guarimbas,'<1> and Gustavo Quintero Machado, a Venezuelan, both who are currently wanted by the Venezuelan justice system.
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http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=5579~~~~~~~~~
Barracs at the property of opposition activist Robert Alonso where Colmbian paramilitaries lived for 46 days
Credit: Venezolana de Televisión