Chavez security chief alleges FARC links

CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- A senior official in Venezuela's security service resigned, after saying the force protects members of Colombian rebel groups operating in Venezuela.

Gustavo Egui Bastidas, the Deputy Commissioner of the country's Police Intelligence Division, or DISIP, said Thursday he could no longer do his job with a clear conscience.

"I am resigning because I disagree with the DISIP's policy of providing security to Colombian guerrillas ... this policy is more than just irregular, it approaches treason to Venezuela given the innumerable deaths, kidnappings and other crimes for which these groups are responsible in our country."

Egui Bastidas said 90 percent of his fellow officers "obey orders but do not agree with them" and called on President Hugo Chavez to reverse his policy of tacit support for the rebels.

"All the peace negotiations there are over and open confrontations between the guerrillas and the Colombian government have begun. Are they going to carry on letting them cross over into Venezuelan territory?" Egui Bastidas asked.

The former DISIP official called on the Armed Forces to issue a statement about their view of the Chávez government's alleged support for the Colombian guerrillas.

Egui Bastidas also made a number of revelations about DISIP activities in recent months. He said the Venezuelan security service had collected personal information about all serving military officers and had also tried to smear opposition figures, such as Alberto Pena, the mayor of Metropolitan Caracas.

The official said he was also concerned at the growing role of Russian and Cuban security advisers in Venezuela.

Egui Bastidas said he had experienced "the direct participation and the attempts at indoctrination by the Russian and Cuban intelligence services, who have direct and virtually unlimited access within the Helicoide (DISIP's headquarters building)."

The official's lawyer, former DISIP Secretary-General Joaquin Chaffardet, said around 100 members of the Cuban intelligence services are currently operating in Venezuela.

The new allegations would, if proven, further strain the already difficult relationship between the United States and Venezuela.

Secretary of State Colin Powell recently confirmed that the Bush administration was concerned about "some of President Chavez's actions and his views on what constitutes a democratic system."

At the time, Powell refused to comment on rumors of Venezuela's links to Colombian terrorism, saying he needed to see a full report on the issue.

The new allegations will also damage Venezuela's fragile relations with its neighbor Colombia.

Colombian presidential candidate Harold Bedoya told local radio it was time Chavez and Cuban President Fidel Castro made a full statement of support for the Colombian government.

"I hope Chavez and Castro, who have backed the FARC rebels, will from now on ally themselves with Colombian democracy and we won't have any further problems with them," Bedoya said.

The Venezuelan government continues to deny that it supports the guerrillas. Foreign Minister Alfonso Davila said the Venezuelan authorities "regretted the escalation in violence" but would back the Colombian government's decision.

Davila said Chavez has supported the peace process in Colombia ever since his 1998 election, and noted that peace and stability in Colombia were essential for the security of the entire region.

Despite the foreign minister's assurances, Egui Bastidas said he was afraid that the Venezuelan authorities would take action to stop him from speaking out about the sensitive relationship between the DISIP and the Colombian rebels.

At a news conference, the former security official tried to forestall any covert attempt on his life.

"I would like to assure you that I have no plans to commit suicide, my car is in perfect working order and I have never been involved in any criminal act," he said.

--this situation down there has the potential to become just such a whopper complex mess it's mind boggling. It's alrady a mess, to imagine it in the "much worse" level is scary in a way. The least we should do is to end the WOD and to cease the flow of greenbacks into that region. After that I honestly don't know what would work. I can guess a little here at best, just from a real basic common sense approach. From what I can read, I guess the majority of people in venezuela have had enough of chavez, but I doubt that he would go willingly at this time. It would take a national 'solidarity" style peoples refusal to cooperate movement down there to get him out. The only way to do that is to create a situation where they are forced to chose between removing him and "not working", give them a little free time on their hands.

If you take the sum total of the geographical area, really look at it, and ty to contemplate some sort of huge US lead interdiction and counter guerrila warfare effort, I think it would dwarf what we are seeing in afghanistan. and if we get involved in a similar situation with a few more mideast countries and african countries and perhaps some far east asian countries, all at the same time, I just don't see where the assets would come from, either men or materiel. And I think it's naieve to think that if we go on a nation destroying binge, one at a time, that all the rest of these nations are just going to sit there and wait their turn. That just isn't going to happen. it might for one or two countries in a row, after that, nope, they'll get together or act individually (both probably)and the world will see assymetrical warfare on a basis that has never been contemplated before.

You look at each one of these global hotspots, there's ONE common denominator to them, almost without exception. It's raw resources involved in each case, and those are oil and drugs and arms. I mean, there it is, that's the common denominator that goes even beyond religion or race or politics.

So, any solution outside fighting 18 and a half wars all over for the next 30 years would involve 1-eliminating as much as you can the money involved in illegal drug smuggling, remove that motive, and 2-make the us energy independent, import zero external oil from anyplace except maybe canada. I'd even count mexico as one of the proscribed countries to import from, they have been way too cozy with the drug smugglers, and with cuba, and you'd have to practically replace their entire civil and military government to remove the ones involved. This has to be noted and acknowledged at some point to be effective in analysis

If you make production and supply of those first 2 commodities* irrelevant from our perspective, it won't completely eliminate the threat potential, but will go a long way to de-fang the situation. A very long way.

That or just keep on what we are doing, which WILL lead to the 18 and a half war scenario. I would have to say I am not looking forward to the 85% or higher tax rate that would be required to accomplish this task. And that high tax rate would be the smallest consequence, not the largest.

* I hate to use the word commodities here, but given the total dollar amount "traded' in the global "free market" as regards to both, then how that has invariable lead to the last commodity, massive arms purchases and usage, I can't think of a better term for it, and it makes more sense to just admit it exists and is *true facts*.

Easy guaranteed money to most individuals-think big lotto winners in a lot of cases- make them wasteful and not think what they do with it. It leads to problems a lot of times, this is actually verifiable in studies done. "Easy money" to nations does exactly the same thing, it's a massive corruptible influence, and gives them a lotta cash to go around and do stupid things, and to buy a lot of weapons toys, which invariably get used. This is important to consider, these weapons get used. If you can force people to work harder for their loot, they tend to stop and think about what they do with it, how it's spent. It just happens. We can force that issue without dropping bomb one or firing shot one by ceasing to be the worlds largest market for those two commodities, at least in terms of --> outgoing dollar flow. And we can cease to arm belligerents all the time, we should more restrict the export of advanced modern weaponry and stop treating it as just expensive potato chips, as "just another trade item" when it clearly is not. YOu provide the money for these various places to have so much extra they can massively arm, then profvide the very arms they want to them from the money they just got, by golly, shazzam, the arms get bought, the old 'tensions rise' phrase occurs in various news articles, and then wars just miraculously 'break out". This is just so much of a 'duh" anymore it has to be embarrassing if anyone hasn't made that connection yet. Cognitive Dissonance.

This is possible, and just like venezuela needs to have it's oil and drug smuggling money recipient leaders replaced with people with more common sense and zero involvement in misusing those commodities, we need to do the same with our government. We will never stop being involved in these weirdo foreign nations, the bulk of these wars won't stop, and we won't stop transferring our cash to them, until we STOP electing leaders who personally profit on the mega bucks scale with these commodities. Whether it's directly or tangentially, whether it's being a millionaire from supplying foreign oil, or being a millionaire from making money off the global arms/construction/whatever trade that a lot of that drug and oil money gets spent on.

I fail to see why these connections can not be honestly made outside of partisan politics. These connections give both domestic hard core partisan sides the swooning vapors and cause immediate total denial of any 'wrongness". Well, I sez tuff ruck, the connections EXIST and are completely verifiable. The connections are obvious, they go across party lines in this country, and have so for generations now, and there is no motive cash wise for these people for anything but further maintenance of the global status quo. The current status quo is guaranteed easy money, money by the boatload. There's zero incentive for any sort of common sense US policy changes, the money is simply too huge a factor to allow that to happen. And it's "easy money", it's money that these people have carved in stone in their minds as their virtual birthright, and to hell with anyone else, that money to them is going to come first. They are going to do and say and posture whatever it takes to retain control of these trillions and power they have accumulated. And that won't stop until it becomes difficult for them to become 'leaders' from people by the millions becoming aware of the connections and not allowing them to become 'leaders", either in the private sector by voting with their stock market investment money choices or the public arena with their political office vote. The US people have two votes, the one they are the most familiar with they basically keep wasting on voting in global oil,arms and drug war money recipient merchants A or B, who both are in those businesses, and their 'vote" in the market keeps going to these companies who care not about domestic or global security except if there's a buck in it for them. And in a lot of cases, we are talking about the same exact guys.

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