Hugo Chavez - Venezuela

Human rights groups demand autonomy to investigate shootings at anti-Chavez rally *** Allies and adversaries of Chavez have spent weeks arguing who is responsible for the violence. Opposition leaders claim Chavez loyalists urged supporters to fire at unarmed marchers, who were calling for the president's resignation. Government spokesmen argue conspirators orchestrated the shootout to prompt a military uprising against the president.

"The government doesn't want the truth to come out, that's why ruling party lawmakers are stalling on the approval the proposed law," said Ramon Medina, a member of the First Justice opposition party. Tarek Saab, a pro-Chavez lawmaker, denied the ruling party is dragging its feet or standing in the way of an investigation.***

Chavez says there's evidence U.S. wanted him dead*** Chavez said the evidence includes information collected from a coastal radar installation that tracked a foreign military ship and aircraft operating in and over Venezuelan waters a day after his ouster. The ship, helicopter and plane -- identified by their transponder codes as military -- disappeared from the radar the morning he returned from his imprisonment on the island of La Orchila, he said.

In addition, Chavez said, an American was involved in what he characterized as an assassination plot against him uncovered in Costa Rica four months ago. He said the details of the plan revealed at the time essentially predicted what transpired April 11, when a protest march on the presidential palace turned violent and led to his arrest by senior military officers.

"I am being objective about this. I can't be launching accusations, and I want to believe that a government that has stood so strongly behind democracy is not involved in this tyrannical, macabre coup," Chavez said during a one-hour interview at the presidential palace. "It is very important to clarify these matters as soon as possible."

...As evidence, the president talked for the first time about an alleged plan to assassinate him. Chavez said he was vacationing with his family in Barinas province in western Venezuela when he received a phone call from his foreign minister, Luis Alfonso Davila, on Jan. 1 telling him to return to Caracas immediately. When he arrived, Chavez said, Davila told him that a man from a Central American country had appeared at the Venezuelan Embassy in San Jose, Costa Rica. Chavez said the man told Venezuelan officials that he was a mercenary who had been training with perhaps a dozen other men in a Central American country for a mission scheduled for this year. The men had gathered in San Jose to await an American member of the team, who over drinks on New Year's Eve said, "Chavez is done. He doesn't know what's coming."

Chavez refused to provide further details of the alleged assassination plot, including what country the informant was from or where he is now. He said he did not know whether the American was a government official or a private mercenary.***

Chris Dodd's vendetta*** WASHINGTON -- Venezuela's agony under a leftist demagogue elected by the people has enabled Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd to revive his vendetta against Assistant Secretary of State Otto Reich. Dodd blames Reich for approving the 48-hour removal of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The problem is that the aborted coup was not approved by Reich or anybody in the U.S. government.

Dodd has wisecracked that Reich, in charge of Western Hemisphere affairs, lacked "adult supervision" in handling the coup while Secretary of State Colin Powell was in the Middle East. In fact, Chavez's government holds the U.S. blameless, recognizing that Reich neither encouraged nor condoned the Venezuelan president's temporary removal.

Why, then, are Dodd and his allies in Congress elevating Chavez, who as an army officer once bungled a left-wing coup himself, as a symbol of Latin American democracy? Dodd, who appears to be gearing up for an investigation of Reich's performance and is reported to be contemplating a trip to Venezuela, never seemed exercised about Chavez trampling democratic practices in trying to model himself after Fidel Castro. Nor do Reich's critics mention that Chavez's brief fall from power came after his troops opened fire on unarmed demonstrators.***

Chavez Shuffles Key Venezuela Defense, Economy Jobs *** Chavez also named a new interior and justice minister, former military officer Diosdado Cabello, who until a week ago had served as his vice president. Cabello replaced another former military officer, Ramon Rodriguez. Gen. Rincon takes over from Jose Vicente Rangel, who was named vice president by Chavez a week ago, replacing Cabello. Announcing the changes to his economic team, the president made Felipe Perez, an economics professor with a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago his planning and development minister. Perez replaced veteran Jorge Giordani, who had held the strategic planning portfolio since Chavez's 1998 election. As finance minister, Chavez named banking and finance specialist Tobias Nobrega. ***

A deeply divided Venezuela faces uncertain future following coup attempt *** "We have an elected president, but not necessarily a democratic one, and an unimpressive opposition, without leaders or plans for the country. This is our tragic situation," said political analyst Luis Vicente Leon.

…………. Opposition lawmakers are trying to demonstrate that Chavez ordered his security forces to fire on peaceful protesters. They are also probing the alleged participation in the shootings, of the so-called Bolivarian Circles - neighborhood groups promoted by Chavez but accused by his opponents of acting as pro-government vigilante squads. Chavez, a former army paratrooper who spent time in jail for taking part in a 1992 coup, is the first Venezuelan president from the country's poor, dark-skinned majority. "The poor majority feels for the first time that there is a project that takes them into account," said Tarek William Saab, a pro-Chavez lawmaker.

…………. Many members of the middle and upper classes now staunchly oppose the government, believing Chavez - a close friend of Cuban President Fidel Castro - is a closet socialist. Critics say Chavez has accumulated tremendous personal power through his party's majority in Congress and by stocking the judiciary and other state institutions with allies. Mirna Perez, a lawyer who demonstrated against Chavez last week, said she voted for him in 1998 and now regrets it. "He's been the worst thing possible for Venezuelan democracy," she said.***

Terrorists active in U.S. 'backyard': Latin America hotbed for both al-Qaida, Hezbollah***Both al-Qaida and Hezbollah are active in the common border area of Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, according to an earlier statement of Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in hearings before the Foreign Appropriations Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, cited in a report from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The activities of the Irish Republican Army, Iran, Cuba and various international terrorist networks operating in Colombia may turn that Latin American nation into a "breeding ground for international terror equaled perhaps only by Afghanistan," according to the committee report.

Further to the south in Latin America, Hezbollah and the terrorist Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) are operating in the tri-border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. The suspected activities of these groups include counterfeiting U.S. currency and drug smuggling, with the area in which they function described as a "haven for Islamic extremists" by the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Asa Hutchinson, in testimony before the House International Relations Committee. "The situation in the tri-border area [of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil] highlights the ease with which terrorist organizations can infiltrate and assimilate in other countries and go relatively undetected for an extended period of time," Hutchinson stated.

The linkage among various terrorist groups and nations associated with support of terrorism in Latin America combines considerable financial resources and technological expertise. In addition to the vast oil wealth of Iran, the South American terrorist network can rely upon South American drug money to finance its activities. Colombia alone produces 90 percent of the cocaine and "at least" 70 percent of the heroin sold in the U.S., according to estimates of the House International Relations Committee.***

Colombia Rebel Allies Face Charges [Full Text] WASHINGTON (AP) -- Striking a blow against a terrorist threat outside the Arab world, federal prosecutors are seeking indictments against a handful of supporters of the Colombian rebel group known as FARC, officials said Tuesday. Attorney General John Ashcroft planned to announce the indictments later Tuesday, officials told The Associated Press, speaking only on condition of anonymity. Ashcroft has increasingly sought to use U.S. anti-terrorism efforts against the world's largest drug traffickers as another way to stem the flow of cash and weapons to terrorists.

Prosecutors were seeking charges of conspiracy to commit murder against the supporters and members of the leftist rebel group that has kidnapped hundreds and stepped up violence in Colombia since peace talks with the government there broke down, officials said. Ashcroft has said previously that members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, have killed 13 Americans since 1980 and kidnapped more than a hundred others, including three U.S. missionaries in 1993 who are believed to have been killed.

The indictments were being sought in Washington, the officials said. FARC frequently has been implicated in cocaine drug running that affects the United States, U.S. officials have said. The rebel group is estimated to have 17,000 members and is one of three main rebel groups involved in Colombia's long strife. Last month, Ashcroft announced the indictment on cocaine charges of three FARC members who conspired to deliver plane loads of cocaine into the United States from 1994 until February 2001.

The three included Tomas Molina Caracas, whom the government said commands FARC's 16th Front, which operates in eastern Colombia and controlled a key airstrip near Barranco Minas essential for carrying processed cocaine out of the rural region. Caracas is known in the region as ``El Negro Acacio.'' The others were identified as FARC members were Carlos Bolas and a man known to the government only as ``Oscar El Negro.'' [End]

Chavez at bay ***The government itself is close to bankruptcy. The coup attempt has stalled Mr Chavez's bid to take direct control of the management of the state oil company, the main source of government revenue. Austerity measures announced in February have not been implemented in full, according to Francisco Rodriguez, the economic adviser to the National Assembly and a former ally of the president. Opposition economists forecast a fiscal deficit of up to 9% of GDP this year, and say the government will not be able to finance more than five points of that. Mr Rodriguez suggested that the government enter into an agreement with that bogeyman of revolutionaries, the IMF. Any big change in economic policy would start with the sacking of Jorge Giordani, the planning minister. Despite being a favourite of Mr Chavez, he seems set to go.***

Chavez shoring up strength with purge of military figures*** Since the April 11-14 coup bid, in which Chavez was briefly deposed by dissident officers and then restored by loyal troops, the president has fired almost every officer in his military high command, some of whom were involved in the coup. Chavez has also ordered changes in other key command and oversight posts, such as the head of military intelligence. In Tuesday's command change in Valencia, Col. Pedro Ruiz Rondon took over the 41st Armored Brigade, based 90 miles from the capital, from Gen. Guillermo Rangel Lopez, as civilian opponents and supporters of the president faced off in noisy rival demonstrations outside the unit. The handover, which was originally scheduled for Wednesday, was hurriedly moved up because of the demonstrations.

Some analysts said this unorthodox command change, in which a lower ranking officer replaced a general, revealed the extent to which the coup had split the military, leaving a legacy of suspicion and mistrust. "There is definitely a purge in progress and what we have is a very precarious situation," said Alberto Garrido, an analyst and author of several books about Chavez, who staged a botched coup in 1992 six years before winning elections. "Putting a colonel in place of a general shows there is a lack of trusted figures among the generals," he told Reuters.***

Central America cleans house***While corruption, and impunity for those who commit it, has long existed in the region, it was eclipsed by massive violations of human rights and suppression of personal liberties. But as these countries get past these issues and more democratic institutions are developed, citizens are becoming increasingly aware that in a true democracy, no one is above the law. Additionally, many here expect democracy to bring better economic conditions. Although economic hardships continue to plague the region, citizens are more incensed with misuse of state resources, especially in a region where sales taxes have been steadily on the rise. The new anticorruption movement has also been buoyed by increasing international pressure, especially from the United States.

…. "There is an advance in the sense that this issue is now on the agenda in Central America," says Miguel Angel Sandoval, a Guatemalan political analyst, who is part of the signature-collecting campaign. "People are saying that this can't go on. We are heading in the right direction."***

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"We fight against poverty because hope is an answer to terror. We fight against poverty because opportunity is a fundamental right to human dignity. We fight against poverty because faith requires it and conscience demands it. And we fight against poverty with a growing conviction that major progress is within our reach." President George W. Bush, March 22, 2002.

President Bush's Visit to Latin America, March 22-24, 2002

Venezuela's Chavez says United States must explain reaction to coup *** CARACAS, Venezuela - The United States must explain its reaction to last month's failed coup in Venezuela, said President Hugo Chavez. Washington had initially blamed Chavez for his own brief overthrow. Chavez made the comments in an interview to be broadcast Sunday on CBS television's "60 Minutes." "The government of the United States ... I believe that they really owe an explanation ... to the people of the United States and also to us," Chavez tells interviewer Steve Kroft, according to excerpts of the interview released in advance on Thursday.***

U.S. policies get hostility from Brazilian politicians*** What is beginning to look like an escalating diplomatic skirmish between Brazil and the Bush administration went up another notch this week, when a Brazilian diplomat claimed in an academic paper that the U.S. government's ''irrationality and arrogance'' could expose the world to a Nazi-style imperial power. For the past few weeks, the government of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and left-of-center candidates for the Oct. 6 presidential elections have been sharpening their attacks on the Bush administration, which they see as setting back the clock on most international issues. Among the reasons for Brazil's growing anger: Washington's moves to substantially raise subsidies to U.S. farmers while continuing to preach free trade to the rest of the world; the Bush administration's successful campaign to fire the Brazilian head of the United Nations chemical-weapons control agency; and a growing perception that Bush is running world affairs without consulting other major players.***

Missing funds in Colombia prompt U.S. to suspend aid*** BOGOTA - The United States suspended administrative funding to Colombia's counter-narcotics police, and six of the unit's top officers were fired after the discovery that at least $2 million in U.S. aid was missing, U.S. and Colombian officials said Thursday. ''We discovered about two months ago a diversion of U.S. government funds from an account used by the Colombian counter-narcotics police to cover administrative expenses,'' a U.S. embassy official said. The aid was suspended in March, and Washington is waiting action against those responsible before resuming the fund flow, the official said.***

Venezuela's Media: Free or Footloose? (VRWC - South American style)*** APRIL 21, 2002. Imagine the owners of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and NBC, ABC, CBS, and CNN meeting at the home of Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. with the head of the Joints Chiefs of Staff and assorted military top brass to plot to bring down U.S. President John Doe, a blowhard populist who has been elected by a landslide.

The plan is wickedly simple. Organize a massive march to the Washington, D.C. headquarters of Omnicom, the behemoth conglomerate that generates most of the country's riches, ostensibly to show support for their valiant struggle against the meddlesome, regulation-crazy Doe. Then, suddenly, turn the march around and head to the White House, which, your military co-conspirators tell you, will be left unguarded, to demand that Doe resign, or else ... ***

Venezuela's Chavez Says Had Warning of Coup Bid *** LONDON (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Monday he had advance warning of the military coup that briefly overthrew him in April and was able secretly to organize loyal military units that put him back in power. The left-wing leader of the world's fifth biggest oil producer told BBC Television's Newsnight program he had a phone call from OPEC Secretary General Ali Rodriguez -- a Venezuelan -- warning the United States was fomenting a coup. "It was a call of alert. That helped me," Chavez, speaking in Spanish, told Newsnight. ***

Venezuela's opposition seeks unified strategy for ousting Chavez *** CARACAS, Venezuela - Conservatives wore green, while radical leftist students wore red. The vast majority of marchers last weekend, though, were not representing any political party and simply waved Venezuelan flags. The hundreds of thousands of marching Venezuelans dwelled less on their incompatible ideologies than on a deeply shared longing: to oust President Hugo Chavez.

One month after Chavez was removed from office and then quickly restored, dissent is rebuilding in this South American nation of 24 million people - but it is leaderless and disoriented. Most Venezuelans look upon the opposition parties with disdain, considering them corrupt and incapable of proposing a viable alternative to Chavez's self-described leftist "revolution." In desperation, the parties have pledged a unified strategy for toppling Chavez: convoke a national referendum to push him out.***

Another coup attempt in Venezuela? Sources say rebellion imminent if Chavez continues in office*** A second military rebellion against President Hugo Chavez will erupt in a matter of weeks if the Venezuelan leader does not resign soon or is not legally or constitutionally removed, according to the prediction of STRATFOR sources with the country's National Armed Forces and a government civilian security entity.

Even if unsuccessful, sources said, the second attempt to topple Chavez likely will be violent and will affect at least a half-dozen major garrisons simultaneously, demonstrating that the president does not control the deeply divided military.

If the reports are accurate, fighting likely would erupt between military units in different garrisons, and the resulting bloodshed could push Venezuela to the edge of a civil war, especially if the Chavez regime calls on the civilian Bolivarian Circles for its defense.***

Venezuelan Coup Disrupting Oil to Cuba [Full Text] HAVANA (AP) - Venezuela has not yet resumed shipments of 53,000 barrels a day of oil that Cuba received before the failed April 11 coup against President Hugo Chavez, Basic Industry Minister Marcos Portal said Thursday.

"It is possible that it will be re-established in the coming months," Portal told a news conference. Under an October 2000 agreement between Chavez and Cuban President Fidel Castro Venezuela was supplying the oil to Cuba on special terms, allowing it 15 years to pay and charging 2 percent a year interest on amassed debt.

Venezuela signed similar agreements with other countries in Central America and the Caribbean. During the two days when Chavez briefly lost control, Venezuelan oil company officials announced a series of changes that included an end of oil shipments to Cuba. [End]

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