The threat of Hugo Chavez

"Chavez's internal repression and international ambitions are accompanied by regional belligerence. His purchase of high-performance MiGs from Russia threatens to ignite a regional arms race. While irrelevant to Venezuela's real security concerns, Chavez may have plans for the MiGs. He has ignited dormant territorial disputes with his neighbors Columbia and Guyana. He has also funded far-left movements elsewhere in South America and given sanctuary to Columbian terrorists next door. Crucial to all of Chavez's activities is his key alliance with Fidel Castro. Chavez props up Fidel's tottering regime with oil, and Fidel sends thousands of operatives to Venezuela to help Chavez consolidate his rule."

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/mannes200412140820.asp

 

Last December a high-level Venezuelan military defector gave sworn testimony that terrorist links exist between al Qaeda and the Chavez government. The defector, President Chavez's personal pilot, alleges that one operation involved the transfer of close to $1 million in cash to Osama bin Laden....

Also, the congressional signatories turn a blind eye to mountains of hard evidence--most supplied by U.S. allies in the Colombian government--confirming Chavez's support for the FARC and ELN terrorist networks. The Colombian government declared that the head of the FARC terrorist group, Manual Marulanda, is hiding in Venezuela, and the Colombian embassy in Caracas was bombed a day after Chavez made a blistering speech attacking Colombia. The Financial Times reported last week that the perpetrators of the bombing may be FARC terrorists or even members of the Venezuelan secret police. Yesterday in Colombia, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton gave a press conference where he unequivocally stated that the Chavez government will not refer to the FARC Colombian terrorists as "terrorists," because the Chavez government wishes to remain "neutral."

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/346jorji.asp?pg=1

 

Oh, we are not going to invade, but we are sending our operatives to help Colombia which is being attacked by Chavez--which is part of the reason for the visit of President Alvaro Uribe at Crawford, Texas, today.

 

Assassinated or missing

Carlos Augusto Aumatrie (assassinated)
Juan Carlos Urbano Lugo (assassinated)
Jose Manuel Vilas Liñera (assassinated)
Omar Arturo Morales
Juan Jose Perez
Juan Ernesto Sanchez
Andres Bastidas Guedes
Jose Luis Rodriguez
Eduardo Jose Miranda
Julio Cesar Gomez
Rafael Tomas Pulido Marcano (APPEARED BADLY TORTURED)
Pedro Jose Sanchez Robles (assassinated)
William Alvarez Morales (assassinated)
Yormy Rafael Suarez Riveros (assassinated)
Evangelina Carrizo (assassinated)
Dictor Damas (assassinated)
Bruno Biella (assassinated)
Marvin Carrasco
Nelly Rodriguez Martinez (assassinated)
Jose Guevara Reyes (assassinated)
Juan Carlos Zambrano (assassinated)
Argenis Dugarte (assassinated)
Jose Guevara Reyes (assassinated)
Jose Sanchez Robles (assassinated)
Jose Luis Ricaurte (assassinated)
José Antonio Quero
Carlos Armando López Martínez
Nelson Alexander Batista
Orlando Antonio Bustamante, (soldier: severely burnt whilst under military arrest)
Ángel Ciro Pedreáñez, (soldier: severely burnt whilst under military arrest)
Maritza Ron, assassinated in Altamira Square on August 16th 2004
Silvino Bustillos. Gone missing on October 31 2004. Has not been seen since. Allegedly tortured and assassinated by a Military Intelligence squad commanded by National Guard Lieutenant Danny Alfredo Daniels Perez.
Antonio Lopez Castillo, assassinated by the State police
Juan Carlos Sanchez, assassinated by the State police
Romer Luján, (soldier: severely burnt whilst under military arrest)
Raúl Royett Gutiérrez, (soldier: severely burnt whilst under military arrest)
Leonardo González Lárez (student), assassinated by a military police death squad on June 27th 2005
Edgar Quintero Torrealba (student), assassinated by a military police death squad on June 27th 2005
Erick Miguel Montenegro Sánchez (student), assassinated by a military police death squad on June 27th 2005

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Political Prisoners

Updated list 01.04.05

Danny Rámirez, Orlando Pantaleón, Saúl Lozano, Henry Vivas Hernández, Lázaro Forero, Iván Simonovis, Arube Pérez, Marcos Hurtado, Héctor Rovain, Julio Rodríguez, Rafael Neazoa, Ramón Zapata, Erasmo Bolívar, Luis Enrique Molina, Blas Sousa Freitas, Felipe Rodríguez, Francisco Usón, Ovidio Poggioli, Jesús Farías Rodríguez, Jesús Castro Yelles, Rafael Farías Villasmil, Javier Quintero González, Javier Nieto Quintero, Carlos Guerra Camejo, Francisco Martínez G., Luis Antonio González, Miguel Prieto Morales, Otto Gebauer Morales, Humberto Quintero Aguilar, Luis Eduardo Salazar, Carlos Ortega, Salomón Madrid, Mario Pelez, Triana Guerra, Leonardo Tayupo, Leonardo González, Jotaniel Marcano, Luis Chacín Sanguinés, Tayro Aristiguieta, Rafael Gregory Umanés, Pedro Antonio Sifontes N., Silvio Mérida Ortiz, Juvenal Mora Pineda, Victor Valero Castellanos.

http://www.vcrisis.com/index.php?content=letters/200403020624

 

After having aided and in some instances directly ran much of the insurgency in both Afghanistan and Iraq, the government of Iran and in particular the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) could provide invaluable assistance to the Chavez in his ongoing covert and increasingly overt assistance to the narco-Marxist terrorist known as the FARC and ELN in Colombia. These forces originally created by the Soviets and Cubans have been waging a 40-year campaign to destroy the democratic government in Colombia. In recent years, because of the fall of the Soviet Union and the success of U.S.-Colombian efforts to dismantle the drug cartels, FARC and other such groups, who were always connected and paid to protect the cartels operations, have begun taking a far more active role in the production and distribution of drugs from Latin America to the rest of the world. This has provided the financial resources necessary for them to continue their violence.



With success in recent years under President Uribe leadership and with United States aid, which after Afghanistan and Iraq represents the third largest U.S. commitment of resources against an insurgency, FARC and their fellow narco-terrorists are once again facing increased pressure, including on their primary source of financing for operations. In addition the loss of direct military support, in terms of weapons and other material for such groups throughout Latin America, and for that matter the rest of the world, following the collapse of the Soviet Union has meant that they have had to use up existing stockpiles of arms and often pay well above the market value for replacements. No longer can they depend on the KGB to hand out weapons and ammunition like candy, which obviously increases the operating expenses for these terrorists.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=17677

 

How did you get out into left field, Ken? Chávez is propping up Castro or vice versa and exporting terrorism to his neighbors. He is cozy with Iran. He has told his poor people that private property belongs to them and started a Mugabe style action against the rich--including one British cattle company that has owned the land for 100 years--wherein the poor are squatting on the land with the blessings of Chávez. He has jailed or murdered anyone who got in his way and introduced a rein of terror into his own country, which is filling up with Cuban military operatives disguised as regular workers. Even Condi Rice has stated that he is a negative force in the region. With his oil money, he is trying to overthrow Colombia with forces first funded by the Soviet Union 40 years ago.

 

Except that he is oil rich and is arming to the teeth as well as funding Castro in Castro's old age when no one else would honor his worthless IOUs anymore.

One thing is for sure, human rights abuse in Venezuela is not going to attract the attention of the left the way the minor incidents in Gitmo have.

By the way, it is all of his neighbors that are being affected by his overflow. He seems to have a lot of influence in Bolivia also.

 

Chávez is also fighting with the Catholic Church verbally. Chávez has a religious left theology.

According to CNN:

Chavez, a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro who frequently tells his supporters that Jesus Christ was a socialist and anti-imperialist, called [retired Cardinal] Castillo Lara "a bandit" who "has the devil inside him."

Eduardo Fernandez, president of the Social Christian Party, criticized Chavez for "using vulgar and offensive language" in referring to "a respectable man who is adored by the Venezuelan people."

After months of keeping a low profile, the country's highest body of Catholic leaders, the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference, has recently renewed its criticism of Chavez and his left-leaning government.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/07/19/venezuela.chavez.ap/