Posted on 11/28/2003 1:39:38 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
President Hugo Chávez's appointment of two radicals to run the passport agency raises eyebrows partly because of reports of Arabs obtaining Venezuelan ID documents.
CARACAS -- Already facing allegations that Muslim extremists have obtained Venezuelan identity documents, President Hugo Chávez has put the country's passport agency in the hands of two radicals -- one a supporter of Saddam Hussein.
Hugo Cabezas and Tareck el Aissami were appointed last month as director and deputy director of the Identification and Immigration Directorate, in charge of border controls and issuing passports and national ID cards. The agency also works with electoral authorities on voter registration.
Both were top student leaders at the University of the Andes in the western city of Merida, described by senior school officials as a virtual haven for armed Chávez supporters and leftist guerrillas.
When El Aissami served as president of the student body from 2001 to 2003, his armed supporters controlled the university's dormitories, said Oswando Alcala, a professor and director of student affairs.
Cabezas and El Aissami declined several Herald requests for interviews. Calls to the Information Ministry in Caracas also failed to elicit an official response.
Their appointments to the passport office raised eyebrows both because of the reports of Arabs obtaining Venezuelan ID documents and the possibility of fraud in an ongoing drive for a referendum to recall Chávez. His popularity stands at less than 40 percent.
''These appointments raise suspicions,'' said Pompeyo Marquez, a former Cabinet minister for border issues and an opponent of Chávez opponent. ``The risk is that they can play tricks both as regards elections and with identity cards.''
MAGAZINE REPORT
Allegations that Chávez's leftist government issued ID documents to Islamic radicals surfaced most recently in the newsweekly U.S. News and World Report. ''Venezuela is providing support -- including identity documents -- that could prove useful to radical Islamic groups,'' the magazine reported last month, quoting senior U.S. military and intelligence officials.
Chávez has strongly denied previous opposition allegations of links to Islamic radicals and leftist guerrillas from neighboring Colombia. Following the U.S. magazine's report, he accused the U.S. ''extreme right'' of trying to justify his ouster by ``anything: an assassination, a coup d'etat, an invasion.''
Some senior U.S. officials have dismissed the allegations as rumors spread by Chávez opponents. Others say the State Department and the Pentagon are downplaying them to avoid a confrontation with Venezuela, which sells the United States more than 1.3 million barrels of oil products per day.
Chávez was the only head of state to visit Hussein in recent years -- in 2000. He bitterly opposed the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and tried to have a postwar Iraqi delegation banned from OPEC meetings.
Cabezas, 30, and El Aissami, 28, both lawyers, are strong Chávez supporters. Cabezas is now the fourth-highest-ranking official in Chávez's Fifth Republic Movement, serving as secretary general of its National Tactical Command.
El Aissami, talking to reporters in Merida on March 27 before he traveled to Caracas to see Baghdad's ambassador to Venezuela, denounced the U.S. invasion of Iraq ``because today a noble, unarmed and peaceful people is being attacked.''
BAATH PARTY LINK
Born in Venezuela of Syrian parents, El Aissami is the son of the president of the Venezuelan branch of Hussein's once-ruling Baath Party, and nephew of Shibli Al Aissami, a top-ranking Baath Party official in Baghdad whose whereabouts are unknown.
Tareck El Aissami's father, Carlos, defended him in an interview with The Herald as an outstanding student and said he was not a member of the Baath Party.
In an article the father wrote after the Sept. 11 terror attacks and showed to The Herald, he called President Bush ''genocidal, mentally deranged, a liar and a racist,'' and al Qaeda's leader ``the great Mujahedeen, Sheik Osama bin Laden.''
During Tareck El Aissami's tenure as president of the university's student body, his supporters are alleged to have consolidated their control of the Domingo Salazar student dormitories and turned them into a haven for armed political and criminal groups.
A report by the vice-rectorate of academic affairs, states that of 1,122 people living in the eight residences, only 387 are active students and more than 600 have no university connections.
''There's always weapons there,'' said Alcala, the student affairs director. ``This is something you see in the movies.''
Chavez is going to disrupt the petition drive and blame it on the opposition. Poll watchers from the Atlanta based Carter Center are standing by to evaluate the honesty of the recall. (Jimmy Carter never met a communist dictator he couldn't admire.)
Chavez has charged his militant Chavistas to watch for petition fraud and is putting 60,000 troops at 2700 polling places to watch for fraud. They will create chaos. He will not leave office democratically.
Venezuela's Chavez warns supporters of referendum their names will be remembered.***"They should know that although they are not going to get (a referendum), their names will be recorded. Unlike in a vote, which is secret, they will sign. They will put their names and surnames, their national ID number and their fingerprint," he said. ***
***Vanessa Roca, a 31-year-old secretary from the eastern state of Monagas, says she lost her job at a state-owned transport company after signing a petition calling for a recall referendum to remove Chavez from office. She traveled seven hours by bus to ask officials at the National Electoral Commission (CNE) to remove her name from the petition.
"A friend who had the same thing happen to him told me this might help me get my job back," she said. "I understand it happened to a lot of us."
As the Chavez government tries to remain in office, state employees and students who signed the petition, or who are suspected of sympathizing with the political opposition, are being purged from jobs, internships and grants, according to dozens of interviews with trade unionists, students, state workers, lawyers and human rights activists.
And in an effort to discredit the recall movement, state workers whose names appear on the petition are being encouraged by the government to sign legal complaints alleging that their signatures were forged. ***Source
……..Cabezas, 30, and el-Aissami, 28, are both radical "Chavistas" who emerged as student leaders at the University of the Andes in the city of Merida, about 300 miles southwest of the capital, Caracas.
The university city of Merida has for decades been a haven for guerrilla groups, both domestic and foreign. Venezuelan and Colombian guerrilla groups continue to maintain an armed presence at the university, with the alleged complicity of Merida state government officials, according to students and university officials.
Merida's governor is a former army officer close to Chavez, Florencio Porras. Cabezas was his private secretary until last year.
State officials deny the allegations. Even so, students and academics point to a dramatic upsurge in radical student activity during el-Aissami's two-year tenure as president of the student union. Prior to his departure in July, armed groups consolidated their presence in student residences, they say.
A report by the vice rectorate of academic affairs recently found that of 1,122 people living in a student housing complex, only 387 were active students. More than 600 are completely unconnected to the university.
While the university provides essential services at the residences, students have a say in room allocation and building security. Under el-Aissami's rule political control over the residences fell into the hands of extremists with criminal ties, according to students and university officials.
The current director of Student Affairs, professor Oswando Alcala, accused students under el-Aissami's leadership of turning the residences into a base for criminal activity.
"They use the residences to hide stolen cars. There's drug trafficking, prostitution," he said. "There are always weapons there. . . . They leave the residences, put on ski masks and do hold-ups in the street."
He added that the students appeared to have political backing. "All this is done with the full knowledge of the university and (Merida) state authorities," he said.
University directors had tried to intervene, but local judicial and law enforcement authorities declined to act, he said.
When Alcala voiced objections in May, students in ski masks surrounded his office armed with gasoline and tires, threatening to burn it down. A former guerrilla himself, Alcala scared them off, saying he wasn't afraid of a violent confrontation.
El-Aissami was soundly defeated when he sought re-election in July, with opponents winning more than 70 percent of the vote. After the election, the new student council found the union offices ransacked, with phones, fax machines, computers and files all missing.
The windows of the student union offices are still full of holes made by rocks and bullets during election campaign violence.
Cabezas and el-Aissami belonged to a radical group called Utopia, of which Cabezas was a founding member. It is suspected of links with a clandestine armed paramilitary group, the Bolivarian Liberation Forces, or FBL, which professes allegiance to Chavez. ***
Hey Jimmy Carter .. Thanks for bailing Chávez butt out during the oil strike
You did a bang up job helping your Country .. /sarcasm>
ID Documents - that is the key problem for the US - it gives the terrorists new identities on demand! Chavez is another Castro!
It seems there is a power in this world trying to gather all evil to itself. We must unite with allies and fight for our future.
Let's see how much money does Venezuela owe us? How much money do we and the IMF give them?
"There's no turning back," Chavez said.
Opposition leaders claimed Friday's turnout was overwhelming.
"I saw lines that extended several blocks today. It was impressive," said opposition lawmaker Geraldo Blyde, who called last week's pro-Chavez drive "small and sullen."
Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel played down Friday's turnout, saying it was being exaggerated by opposition-aligned news media.
"They're trying to fool a lot of people using the media, but these ploys always fail," Rangel said.
The opposition also sought recalls against 34 pro-Chavez lawmakers.
Venezuela's labor ministry filed a formal complaint alleging that business owners were forcing employees to sign against Chavez. Opposition leaders accused state security forces of seizing petitions at some booths.
Election officials said they were investigating both claims.***
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