[Marxism] Venezuela Captures Paramilitaries

[Chris Brady <cdbrady@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

{N.B.: the gusano connection}

Venezuela Captures Paramilitary Group Seeking to Overthrow Chavez

By: Venezuelanalysis.com, Sunday, May 9, 2004
Credit: Venpres
www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1267

   The paramilitaries were wearing Venezuela military uniforms.

Venezuelan authorities captured this morning a group of 55 Colombian
paramilitaries who were receiving training at a farm nearby Caracas in
preparation for attacks on Venezuelan military bases and for a coup
d'etat against the government of Hugo Chavez.

The raid was conducted by the civilian intelligence service DISIP,
military intelligence officers and the Scientific, Penal and Criminal
Investigation Department (CICPC). The property where the paramilitaries
were captured is located in the municipality of Baruta, in southeastern
Caracas. Footage by state TV showed what appeared to be living quarters,
with beds and kitchens.

The paramilitaries 55 initially captured are part of a larger group of
up to 130 men, some of which managed to escape. By Sunday afternoon,
authorities managed to capture several others for a total of 71
individuals detained, including two minors. Authorities continue to
pursue the irregulars through the mountains around southeastern part of
the valley of Caracas.

According to Venezuela's Defense Minister Jorge Garcia Carneiro, the
group's final goal was to overthrow the government. Garcia said that
there are Venezuelan retired military officers involved in the plot. The
Venezuelan military officers allegedly involved are part of the group of
rebels who regularly met at Francia Square in the affluent eastern
Caracas neighborhood of Altamira, to give anti-government speeches and
make calls to overthrow it.

     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 detainees 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.

There was no confrontation during the raid because the group was mostly
unarmed. They were to be transported to another location for more
training and to give them weapons.

      Cubans involved

According to authorities, the property where the paramilitaries were
captured belongs to anti-government political leader Robert Alonso. Mr.
Alonso, of Cuban origin, is a legal resident of the United States, and
creator of the civilian resistance plan called "Guarimba", aimed at
toppling the Chavez government and which was first implemented at the
end of February in Caracas during the Presidential Summit of the Group
of the 15.

Mr. Robert Alonso is one of the leaders of an opposition coalition know
as Bloque Democrático (Democratic Block) and he is also tied to the
larger Coordinadora Democratica opposition coalition. He is the brother
of Cuban-Venezuelan actress Maria Conchita Alonso.

Ismael Garcia, a pro-government member of the legislature said that the
paramilitaries who managed to escape did so through a property belonging
to Cuban-Venezuelan media magnate and Chavez opponent Gustavo Cisneros.
According to sources such as Newsweek, Cisneros was one on the main
architects of the April 11 of 2002 coup against Chavez.

Lawmaker Tarek William Saab, who heads the Foreign Relations Commission
of the National Assembly, asked that the mayor of the municipality of
Baruta, Mr. Enrique Capriles Radonsky be investigated in connection with
the group. Mayor Capriles has been accused of cooperating with the
Guarimba plan implemented last February in his municipality, by ordering
the police not to intervene to restore order.

Saab said the government of Colombia should investigate because 100 of
the detainees are members of the Colombian military reserve.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe congratulated "for capturing anybody
who commits illegal acts in Venezuela." Colombia's Ambassador to
Venezuela offered the cooperation of her government in the
investigations.

         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".

         Bloodshed predicted by opposition

Venezuelan former President Carlos Andres Perez, who opposes the Chavez
government, announced last week through Colombian radio network Caracol
that the political opposition to Chavez "is willing to oust him, not
through peaceful means but by force". Perez, who lives in exile in the
United States, said that he did not believe that Chavez's ouster would
spill into a civil war, but that "there will be blood spilled" to oust
him. The Colombian radio network Caracol is also owned by media magnate
and Chavez opponent Gustavo Cisneros.

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