Free Republic

05.11.07 | While the autocrat entertains narcoterrorist leader from the FARC Rodrigo Granda, who was captured in Venezuela in late 2004, and 'mediates' in the liberation of Ingrid Betancourt, former Minister of Defence Gral. Raul Baduel called a press conference and announced that Chavez's proposed constitutional reform amounts to a coup d'etat.

London 03.04.07 | Daily El Progreso reported yesterday that 31 US citizens have been detained in the Gran Sabana region, close to Santa Elena de Uairen in the Venezuela - Brazil border. Accusations of illegally practising medicine purportedly caused the arrest. Regional media were informed by an allegedly trustworthy source. >>

London 24.03.06 | Somewhat I feel vindicated. In August last year I posted an extremely thorough piece of investigative blogging regarding Smartmatic; the e-voting machines vendor, which owns Sequoia, that has proven so useful to Venezuela's wannabe dictator Hugo Chavez. The recent e-voting fiasco in Chicago comes to prove the hypothesis that one thing is to observe how rigged electoral processes in far away lands, which do not affect Americans, are overlooked, or simply ignored, by the mainstream media and an entirely different matter when similar problems corrode the transparency and outcome of elections in US soil.

02.12.05 | Diplomatic sources in Caracas report about an opinion trend that appears to be gathering force. The "electoral boycott" hypothesis, peddled by Venezuela's officialdom and its OAS sidekicks, has it that the decision of opposition political parties to withdraw from Assemblymen elections on December 4 constitutes, at best, a "boycott" and at worse "an electoral coup." Chavez opponents also stand accused of having, irresponsibly, broken an agreement with the OAS whereby participation in the race was a given. Let me be real clear about the reason that prompted such a reaction by the opposition. On Wednesday 23 an audit...

29.11.05 | Hugo Chavez's spinmeisters love to sing the mantra "Venezuela wants to have the most cordial relations with the USA, based in mutual respect and understanding..." Well, how does the barring a BIPARTISAN US Congressional Delegation, from entering Venezuela, bodes with the aforementioned predicament? It was not enough, for Chavez, to have orchestrated with Kirchner, riots and the subsequent media attack on Bush in Mar del Plata. Nor it was sufficient for him to call President Fox a "lapdog of the empire" -one has to love the irony in light of the dynamics of the Castro-Chavez marriage... Now the...

29.11.05 | All the major political parties have announced withdrawal from the electoral race of next Sunday, in which Venezuelans would choose Assemblymen. Accion Democratica, COPEI, Fuerza Liberal, Polo Democratico, Venezuela de Primera, Movimiento Republicano, Vision Emergente, CausaR and Proyecto Venezuela have made clear that under the present conditions they will not participate in electoral processes. It appears that only Primero Justicia, MAS and Rosales' Nuevo Tiempo are still willing to take part, although Descifrado has reported that Primero Justicia is having second thoughts about participating. Sources in Caracas are sending shocking reports. Primero Justicia could have reached a pact...

On the latter development, Sunday’s Boston Globe ran a front page story (read below in full) under the triumphant title “Thousands in Massachusetts to get cheaper oil”. The subheading states that “[Congressman Willliam] Delahunt, Chávez help broker deal”, and the story goes on to inform us that according to Citizens Energy Corp, “the approximately $9 million deal will bring nine million gallons of oil to [45,000] families and three million gallons to institutions that serve the poor, such as homeless shelters”.

14.11.05 | Isn't it obvious? For, in what other 'civilised territory' does appeasement towards terrorism constitute general praxis? The website of Colombia's narcoterrorist group FARC was registered, according to WHOIS, by one Orlando Higuita of Netzwerk Resistencia. Server services are provided by a Swiss outfit by the name of SWIX.CH, which provides free hosting services. The IP address related to the domain points to RIPE Network Coordination Centre, a company in Amsterdam. The registrant's email address is netzwerkresistencia@hotmail.com and there is even a telephone number (+41.14562315) of Orlando Higuita.

London 15.09.05 | The existence of systematic political prosecution in Venezuela, as established in article 7 of the Rome Statute, has been been argued for some time now. Apologists of Hugo Chavez maintain that it is nonsense, just another cry wolf allegation against the 'democratically elected' leader. Many people have complained about the existence of a list, compiled by chavista assemblyman Luis Tascon with a group of collaborators, that is widely utilised by government officials at all institutional levels to deny passports, contracts, IDs, employments, benefits, etc. The creation of said database was ordered by Hugo Chavez himself, who in...

London 06.09.05 | A church located southeast of Caracas in "Barrio El Winche" of Fila de Mariches and attended by the congregation of Laura Sisters and the Salesian Fathers has been invaded and taken over by supporters of Hugo Chavez, El Universal reports today. Members of Endogenous Battle Units (Unidades de Batalla Endógenas or UBE) -a Chavez invention to create a new democratic model of popular support- expressed that the action was taken in order to establish, in the church, a post of military security that shall be manned by Venezuela's National Guard.

London 29.08.05 | Jorge Rodriguez, the almighty head of Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE), presented recently with great pomp a book entitled "15.08.04 Una experiencia democrática Referendo Revocatorio Presidencial" (translation 15.08.05 a democratic experience presidential recall referendum). One must assume that Rodriguez feels very proud of his performance as head of the CNE and for that reason had a book produced in which, talking in the first person, he entertains readers with all sorts of personal and subjective views about Venezuela, its electoral entity and processes. However someone within his 'independent electoral' institution decided to play mind games with this...

After analyzing the minutes of a meeting held in Chicago between Cook County and Chicago's city officials with the board of Sequoia, that remained in charge after the take over, and that of Smartmatic [6], Ochoa noted that unknown Venezuelan investors, operating via proxy European ventures, could indeed be the controlling power behind Smartmatic. Ochoa indicated that an entry in the minutes of the meeting aforementioned describes Cook County's Commissioner Peter Silvestri [14] asking to representatives of Sequoia/Smartmatic "who owns Sequoia?" (sic). The answer came from Honorable David Orr [15]: "Smartmatic International, which is owned by a Dutch company, owns...

London 02.08.05 | Some sources report an odd meeting a few days ago in Caracas' military base Fort Tiuna. The assistants: President Hugo Chavez, VP Jose Vicente Rangel, electoral chief Jorge Rodriguez, Minister of Defence Orlando Maniglia and Smartmatic's 'wunderkinds' Antonio Mujica and Alfredo Anzola. The get together was called by Chavez on July 12 to have the number of votes in the coming elections fixed, for chavista democracy must be showcased to the world as a thriving one. And what better than 10 million votes to prove it?

Besides transport and ocean surveillance planes, as well as patrol boats? Well, according to Spanish news agency Europa Press, during the first half of 2004 Spain sold to Chavez chemical warfare agents and radioactive materials to Venezuela worth €539.603 according to a report entitled "Spanish exports of defence materials and related products and technologies". The report, produced by Spain's Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, was revealed to Europe Press. Venezuela appeared as the twelfth buyer of such defence material to Spain for the period that saw José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero winning the vote over Partido Popular.

London 29.03.05 | Not two hours have come to pass since the posting of my latest article on Eva Golinger's false claims for yet another hate message to arrive in my inbox. Here's what she had to say this time: Mr. Boyd, your ridiculous ranting yet again proves shallow and false, yet you try with all your conviction to make yourself sound believable and capable. The truth is, were I to have violated any laws in the State of New York, the appropriate authorities would have made sure to resolve the matter. You have no understanding of US regulations, the...

London 25.03.05 | Twenty days ago, on March 5, I published an article about Eva Golinger's false claims that her Venezuela Solidarity Committee was a registered 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization [1]. Since that day peculiar things have been happening to Golinger's website venezuelafoia.info.

London 17.03.05 | On very rare occasions I lift my self imposed restriction to comment upon issues non related to my country but I guess the recent killing of Robert McCartney by IRA terrorists is a good opportunity to do so and draw some comparisons between Northern Ireland and Venezuela.Informed readers ought to be aware of the terrorist activities of the IRA in their campaign to 'liberate' Northern Ireland of British occupation. From a Republican perspective said exercise to reclaim sovereignty by the Irish is somewhat admirable. As a matter of fact not long ago I quotedGerry Adams remarks “sometimes...

London 07.03.05 | Last Friday I published the result of an investigation regarding the falsely claimed tax exempt status of Eva Golinger's not-for-profit NGO "Venezuela Solidarity Committee". It seems that Golinger, or colleague Jeremy Bigwood, have been busy trying to cover their tracks by way of removing said false claims from their website venezuelafoia.info foolishly thinking, as ever, that those who have a constant watch on them are as mediocre as they are.

London 27.02.05 | Remember a couple of days ago I reported about another FARC leader having been arrested in Venezuela? Well in spite of some rather odd changing or articles in Venezuela's official media and backpedalling from ministers, presumably due to this piece of news, colonel Óscar Naranjo director of Colombia's investigative police, confirmed the identity of the detainee as that of FARC leader Gentil Alvis Patiño.

The item is that the French ambassador in Caracas, Pierre-Jean Vandoorne, did meet with Rodrigo Granda sometime in April 2004. This Granda is of course the "foreign minister" of the FARC who was arrested last December in Caracas, whisked to Cucuta, and became the cause of the latest diplomatic rift between Bogotá and Caracas. It is also the same Granda that walked around Venezuela as if nothing, who became a Venezuelan citizen "very easily" and just on time to vote on August 15 (for Chavez it is presumed). It is also the Granda that has just being implicated in the...