One of the paramilitaries gave details of the opposition's plans, but asked that his face not be seen fearing retaliations against his family in Colombia
Credit: Venpres~snip~
Linked to larger group
One of the detainees confessed to a TV reporter that the owner of the farm offered them 500 thousand Colombian pesos to come and work there. When they arrived 46 days ago, they were greeted by men in camouflage uniforms, who told them they would receive training for attacks to National Guard bases.
"Eight days after we arrived, they told us that we could not escape, that we cannot give information to anybody, and that we could not see or talk to any civilians, otherwise they would kill our families," said the detainee in a thick Colombian accent. The man was wearing a sky mask in order to avoid being identified.
The group planned to concentrate near a Caracas military base -presumably the National Guard Urban Security Command- and assault it next Wednesday. The witness explained that the goal of the operation was to steal weapons from a arms depot at the base in order to arm a militia of three to four thousand paramilitaries who would come to Venezuela.
About 100 of the irregulars are members of the Colombian military reserve, according the authorities' analysis of Colombian documents found in the farm, and according to testimony by some of the men captured.
According to the detainee, on Saturday afternoon, some "generals and colonels", organizers of the operation brought Venezuelan army uniforms, boots, and food. "We could not see them because we they only allowed us to see them from afar."
"When we knew about the plan, some of us tried to escape. One of the Colombians rebelled and managed to escape, but he was caught 100 meters away. They tied him and told him that next time he tried to escape, he would be killed. They then took away our ID cards and documents," said the detainee.
According to the witness, they held regular target practices, but access to weapons was limited, perhaps due to the fact that some have tried to escape. Part of the training consisted of a drill in which they entered into a house and killed some people.
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Media questioned
In contrast with other events, the local media, which openly opposes the government, has given little coverage to the capture of the paramilitaries. Among the media trying to downplay the events is Venevision, Venezuela’s largest commercial TV network, which is owned by billionaire Gustavo Cisneros. Only the local news network Globovision covered the news to some extend using TV footage from the state TV station.
President Chavez lamented the media’s attitude and said that "they have set this important event aside, denying society its right to be informed.” Only the state media has properly informed about the raids.
The Minister of Communication and Information Jesee Chacon condenmed the media's attitude towards an event "without precedent in recent history in Venezuela".
Lawmaker Saab also criticized the local commercial media for not covering the event and just giving TV space to opposition leaders who dismissed the raid as "a show created by the government".
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http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1267~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~If the opposition media is correct, then when these paramilitaries are released, they won't go to Colombia (home), will they, since it was all theater!