Chavez Says Plots Against His Government Have Arisen From Colombian

[cal04]

Chavez Says Plots Against His Government Have Arisen From Colombian Intelligence Agencies

Colombian intelligence agencies have been behind past plots against his government, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said, adding that he was pleased those conspiracies have not undermined relations between the two neighbors. The accusations come days after the firing of one top official in the Colombian secret police and the resignations of two others in a scandal over alleged links to right-wing paramilitary groups that have battled that country's leftist rebels.

In an interview with the Caracas-based Telesur television station, Chavez said his government has "many pieces of evidence" that "conspiracies are hatched against us in Colombian intelligence bodies." Chavez did not directly link the resignations in Colombia to his claims of plots, but suggested that the recent scandals illustrate his complaint. He did not provide details of any specific violent plots, but said there are elements in Colombia "who obey Washington" and who attack Venezuela with false claims about him supporting leftist rebels. Chavez, a leftist, has repeatedly accused the United States of supporting efforts to oust him - accusations that U.S. officials have denied.

Some Colombian authorities have, in the past, accused Venezuela of turning a blind eye to rebels crossing the border to flee Colombian troops. Chavez says Venezuela has stepped up its security along the border and that past claims of rebels bases in Venezuelan territory are not true. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said knew nothing of alleged plots within his nation's intelligence agencies, adding that hoped Chavez would give him details this week at the Americas Summit in Mar de Plata, Argentina. "I hope President Chavez, in Mar de Plata, helps us with evidence," Uribe told reporters as he left a meeting in Bogota on Wednesday.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBGJZXFKFE.html

[brainshrub]

1. Can Chavez go 24 hours without uncovering a plot?

Okay, okay... I get it already! The Bushistas want to kill you and take the oil.

We know that.

[mitchtv]

3. Will the Chimpco puppets

ever give up?

[Bacchus39]

5. his detective powers are just that good

today Colombia, tomorrow the Vatican. stay tuned for the next episode.

[Judi Lynn]

6. He has had a lot of help, hasn't he?

I'm certain your fully aware of the Colombian paramilitaries bagged near Caracas on the ranch of Cuban-Venezuelan Roberto Alonso, next door to the ranch owned by media owner, and _Bush friend, Gustavo Cisneros.

DU'ers have been discussing since the first articles started circulating in many papers, including the ones in threads in which you posted. Here's a condensed version for other DU'ers, who may not have read about it:

Sun 09 – Colombian paramilitaries arrested in Caracas; ex-minister Londoño criticises UN role.

· Venezuelan authorities arrest at least 80 people they accuse of being Colombian right-wing paramilitaries plotting to join Venezuelan dissidents in a bid to overthrow left-wing President Hugo Chavez. Officials said they captured 56 paramilitaries on a farm on the outskirts of Caracas early on Sunday, and later caught another 24, some reportedly wearing Venezuelan military uniforms, after they escaped to a mountainous region south of the capital. Miguel Rodriguez Torres, chief of the police intelligence service, said the group, which he said totalled 130, had been training on the farm for a month. "Their intentions were to organise 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.
(snip/...)

http://www.abcolombia.org.uk/previews_weeks.asp?id=74

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

MARIO MURILLO:...One thing that I think should be pointed out is that earlier this year, a couple of months ago there was indications that rightwing paramilitary Colombian-trained and rightwing paramilitaries were inside Venezuela attempting to create the conditions for kind of an attack against the Chavez government. That was kind of egg in the face for President Uribe.
{snip/...)

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/16/1411222

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

Colombian Paramilitaries Convicted of Plot

Humberto Márquez


CARACAS, Oct 25 (IPS) - A Venezuelan military court sentenced 27 Colombian paramilitaries to six years in prison Tuesday for participating in a failed plot to overthrow the government of Hugo Chávez in May 2004, while 73 others were acquitted, released from prison and deported.

Two Venezuelan officers tried in the same case were handed nine-year sentences, and a third was sentenced to two years and five months in prison. Three lower-ranking officers were declared innocent and released.

The court ruling has brought to a close a legal process that has stretched on for nearly one and a half years. But it has not answered many of the questions left by a strange story of invasion, plots and political conspiracy.

On May 9, 2004, police intercepted outside of Caracas a bus full of Colombians dressed in military fatigues, as it was pulling out of a ranch southeast of the capital. But only one of the man was armed.

A search of the Daktari ranch - owned by right-wing Cuban exile Robert Alonso, now a fugitive from justice - brought to 130 the number of Colombians arrested. Most of them were young unemployed men or labourers who had been recruited as paramilitaries with false promises in northeastern Colombia.
(snip/...)

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=30774

ETC.

[Bacchus39]

7. and the FARC is there too

I remember that part of the discussion too

[Judi Lynn]

8. FARC in Venezuela? Why don't you provide a link to that information?

Here's a reference:

Why the Elites Hate Hugo Chavez
Buzz Words and Venezuela
By SAUL LANDAU


.....The recovering economy has caused rifts among the anti-Chavez crowd. Some believe that only violence will destroy him. Opposition leaders have appealed to Washington, claiming without evidence that Chavez collaborates with Colombia's FARC and ELN guerrillas. Recently on Channel 41 in Miami, Eduardo Garcia, a former Venezuelan army captain, showed up in uniform to describe how an anti-Castro Cuban group, Comandos F4, had helped him in his violent plan to unseat Chavez.
(snip/...)

http://counterpunch.org/landau07022004.html

[Bacchus39]

9. I already did

http://www.upi.com/inc/view.php?StoryID=20030908-075735-2592r
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/031006/6venezuela_3.htm

when are you going to learn Spanish and travel to Venezuela??

[Say_What]

10. Had Salvador Allende done the same, he may be alive today

and LatAm would a been a very different place. Unfortunately, we didn't have realtime news and the internet at that time.

Chavez is smart to keep telling the world that there are plots against him. Particularly when the planet (except JoeSixpakAmeriKan) knows that overthrowing democratically elected governments is the US's MO.

If you "get it already" you definitely do not comprehend what the USSA is capable of.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB123/chile.htm

[Judi Lynn]

2. I'm glad he's keeping this information in the public eye.

It's his best chance to survive what _Bush undoubtedly hopes to do to him, a la Salvador Allende, and the many attempts made on Fidel Castro.

As long as the threat remains, it's in the best interest of many, many people that our homicidal Republican administration is not going to be given the secrecy, concealment they need to murder him, and overturn the Venezuelan election THAT WAY.

[mdelaguna2000]

4. I am glad too...

...I wish they would just leave him alone. Can't we just allow one leader to break the corruption of the old, wealthy elite and do something for poor, indigenous peoples of his country? How I despise what's been done already to thwart him, and what's being done currently - lots of yankee dollars pouring into all manner of Chavez opposition, official and otherwise.

I hope he breaks out the evidence at the conference. Let 'em have it, Hugo.