Chavez forming 'axis' with Cuba, Brazil?

A Venezuelan military defector who claims President Hugo Chavez is developing ties to terrorist groups such as al-Qaida said he plans to meet this week with U.S. officials in Washington.

Air Force Maj. Juan Diaz Castillo, who was Chavez's pilot, told WorldNetDaily in an interview yesterday through an interpreter that "the American people should awaken and be aware of the enemy they have just three hours' flight from the United States."

Fermin Lares, spokesman for the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, said he could not comment officially on allegations made by Diaz and the other military dissidents.

After an attempt on his life, Diaz said he was smuggled out of Venezuela in the hull of a fishing boat last month and now is in Miami. He confirmed that his family is in hiding after leaving their home in Valencia, Venezuela, over the weekend due to death threats.

Diaz said he will warn U.S. officials of Chavez's direct involvement with international terrorism and his formation of a bloc of Latin American countries opposed to the United States.

"My objective here in the U.S. is to show who Chavez really is and the danger he represents for the whole Western Hemisphere and especially in Venezuela," Diaz told WND.

The State Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said it would not comment on Diaz or his allegations in accordance with protocol.

Diaz said he was part of an operation in which Chavez gave $1 million to al-Qaida for relocation costs, shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. He is one of more than 100 military officers who have quit the Chavez regime as the president tries to hang on to power amid a month-long general strike that has cut off oil exports, his primary source of income.

Many of the officers have relocated to a public square in Caracas, vowing to protest along with thousands of Venezuelans until Chavez leaves. The dissidents have set up a website in English, MilitaresDemocraticos.com, through which they warn of the president's alleged efforts to "Cubanize" the country.

In addition to his purported al-Qaida links, Chavez has been warmly received in travels to Iraq, Iran, Syria, North Korea, China and Libya.

Diaz said Chavez is in the process of forming a bloc of Latin American countries that "will promote terrorism and also direct action against the economy of the United States."

The leaders of Cuba, Brazil and Ecuador are on board with Chavez, he said, and they "now are aiming at Argentina."

On his first day in office last week, Brazil's new president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, had breakfast with Chavez and dinner with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The Associated Press reported that da Silva is projecting the image of a leftist alliance in Latin America that Chavez already has nicknamed the "axis of good."

In Ecuador, the election of former army colonel Lucio Gutierrez on Nov. 24 has prompted analysts to ask whether the new president is "another Chavez."

Diaz said the alliance will start looking for alternative markets, such as Asia, that could hinder U.S. efforts to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas by 2005.

"The people are really radicalized against Chavez and the country is on hold," he said.

Though the economy is in steep decline, with food shortages and massive unemployment, "Chavez insists on staying in power," he said.

"Our main objective is that his exit would be institutional and democratic," said Diaz, "but Chavez is promoting a social explosion."

Unless something changes, he sees an uprising, or "civil war," on the horizon, possibly within the next month.

Most Venezuelans would like to see a constitutional transition of power, concurred Stephen Johnson, a former State Department officer who now serves as Latin America policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

"Sometimes people who oppose a leader like this are afraid of what they may lose," Johnson said. "That's why they are agitating to get him to resign."

Chavez could be removed through a referendum in the fall or sooner through impeachment by the national assembly, he said.

Recent polls indicate as many as 90 percent of Venezuelan voters want immediate elections, though Chavez's term ends in January 2007.

Johnson said, however, that not many Venezuelans "are thinking ahead as to what kind of government should replace him."

"They obviously can't continue, as in the past, with a caretaker state in which the elites did not take care of democracy," he said, noting that a major party ran a former Miss Universe for president in 1998.

"One must seriously question a government that relies excessively on the oil industry to take care of Venezuela instead of developing a business environment where private enterprise can flourish," he said.

Yesterday, following a call by the opposition to stop paying taxes, thousands of Venezuelans marched to the offices of the federal tax agency and ripped up their tax forms, according to news reports.

Chavez responded to the protest in a speech he ordered broadcast on all television and radio stations.

The president warned that the government will "take all actions necessary to make sure every last cent is paid, because it belongs to the people."

Scary stuff:

"Latin America's Red Axis"
http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/analysis.htm
An essay by Brazilian philosopher Olavo de Carvalho poses the question, “What would Lenin do if he were president of Brazil?” Perhaps, on his first day in office, he would breakfast with Hugo Chavez and eat dinner with Fidel Castro. This is not what Carvalho’s essay suggests, but it is what Brazil’s new president has done. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva used his first day in office to embrace the “axis of the good,” an anti-American alliance formed between communist Cuba, Venezuela and Brazil. This “axis of the good,” so named by President Chavez of Venezuela, is remarkably similar to the “axis of evil.” Both oppose U.S. imperialism. Both are hostile to capitalism and free markets. Both look favorably on anti-Western terrorists and communists.

Carvalho might have also asked, “What would Lenin do if he were president of Venezuela.” Recently President Chavez attempted to win the release of Carlos “the Jackal,” a Venezuelan terrorist brought up on communism and educated in Moscow. More recently Chavez’s presidential pilot (a Venezuelan Air Force officer, Major Juan Diaz Castillo) alleged that Chavez passed 1$ million to the Taliban after 9/11, with $900,000 specifically earmarked to assist al Qaeda. (2)

It may be argued that Lenin would applaud Chavez’s support for bin Laden. Anyone who successfully drops the Twin Towers, who sets the Pentagon ablaze, who terrorizes the heartland of global capitalism, is worthy of communist support. If Islamic extremism is useful to the Revolution then it will be used. In terms of global strategy, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” After this fashion Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez, has chosen his friends with care (and with a degree of secrecy). Military officers in Venezuela, seeing Chavez’s communist and terrorist ties, have realized the danger that Chavez poses to the entire region. Over 135 of these officers have resigned their commissions in protest. They have set up their headquarters in the Plaza Altamira, in the very heart of Venezuela’s capital. These officers have warned the country of a growing totalitarian regime. In support of these brave men, Venezuela’s oil workers have initiated a crippling strike that promises to affect global oil prices. Their demand is simple: President Chavez must either resign or hold elections.

The strikers say that President Chavez has violated the Constitution of Venezuela. He is governing illegally. He has imported Cuban secret police to train his own security services. These gunned down peaceful demonstrators in the Plaza Altamira last month. The facts of this story have not received the attention they deserve in the North American press. If one hears anything, one hears about a nefarious CIA plot against a democratically elected leader. For the radical left and their agents of influence: Venezuela’s popularly supported labor strike against Chavez is “a strike of the rich.” This is the position of Michael Ruppert’s Web site, www.copvcia.com, which featured an article by Dale Allen Pfeifer claiming that the vast majority of Venezuelans are not supporting the strike against Chavez: “The strike is a failure in every respect but for the critical shutting down of oil exports,” wrote Pfeifer, who goes on to say that “the U.S. may sponsor a coup in Venezuela within the next month or so” in order to assure Venezuela’s oil production. “This strike was choreographed by experienced coup plotters in the U.S. The Unions behind the strike … are financially tied to the National Endowment for Democracy, which is a cover for CIA financing.”

On Monday I spoke with Shane Connor, a U.S. businessman recently returned from Venezuela. He was among those who helped President Chavez’s pilot, Major Juan Diaz Castillo, escape from certain death at the hands of Chavez’s thugs. “The people in Venezuela are trying to avoid the Cubanization of their country,” explained Connor. “I spent time with Diaz. His family is getting death threats. All of these men [the military officers who have resigned in protest] have their heads on a block.” (3)

I asked Connor if this was a “revolt of the rich,” as Pfeifer and Ruppert have claimed. Connor replied: “I flew down there the night before the strike and watched the whole thing evolve. About 80 percent of the people are in favor of getting rid of Chavez. This has coalesced under the military officers who have left him. Chavez has even lost the support of really poor people.” (4)

In Venezuela it has been alleged that Chavez, who once dubbed himself a “Maoist,” has stashed $4.5 billion in Chinese banks. By common report Chavez is heavily involved in illicit arms and drug trafficking in support of communist revolutionaries. “China has invested more in Venezuela than any other Latin American country,” explained Connor. And there is a relationship between Chavez and Moscow that deserves special attention as well. Even more interesting is a statement by Chavez’s education minister, Hector Navarro. When he opened the country’s leading university, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Navarro talked of Chavez’s “Bolivarian principles” which are in solidarity with “Algeria, Cuba, Iran and North Korea.” What does one say to this kind of radicalism? “The men of integrity have left Chavez in protest,” explained Connor. (5)

According to Army Brigadier General Rene Sericia Garcia, “I know the Chavez government from the inside. This government is a leftist totalitarian dictatorship.” Air Force Brigadier General Pedro Antonio Pereira Olivares said, “Chavez is not just a threat to his own people, but to the stability of the entire region. He openly finances terrorism in other countries, and has expressed his hatred for the democratic Western way of life.” Further clarifying the reasons to resist Chavez, National Guard Brigadier General Angel Sanchez Velasco said to his fellow citizens, “Wake up. Chavez has smuggled a dictatorship in through the back door. But together, we can give the country a better future and put a brake on Chavez’s subversive Castro-Communist project.” (6)

“These are decent guys,” explained Connor. “They want the president to be forced out legally. They’ve got two-dozen cases pending against Chavez because of his unconstitutional acts. But he has neutralized the courts. They are daring him to resign or hold an election now, but Chavez is not planning to leave office until 2013.”

The dictator would consolidate his power. He would unite with Castro. He would support Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. The main objective is to bring the United States to its knees, to break up capitalism. The labor strike against him therefore has its positive side. “We will burn wood as long as we have to,” Chavez has declared. After all, the United States is going to suffer too. The U.S. economy is going to take a hit. Because of this strike there will be unemployment in North America. Capitalism will be blamed. In the end, this lack of fuel serves to fuel a global revolution.

“There’s no other place in which the threads of the world’s revolutionary net show up as clearly as in Latin America,” explained Brazilian philosopher Olavo de Carvalho in a recent e-mail. If things are bad in Venezuela they will be bad in Brazil, if not worse. President Lula da Silva has appointed Eduardo Soares to be the National Secretary for Public Security in Brazil. Carvalho describes Soares as a “typical Latin American pseudo-intellectual … full of moralizing platitudes against the evils of capitalism. Nobody could represent the new government’s mentality better than him.” It seems that Soares, like a good anti-capitalist, supports the Zapatista guerrillas in Mexico, the FARC guerrillas in Colombia, Fidel Castro in Cuba and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Carvalho asks us if it is a coincidence that all these people “share the same cause”?

And what is that cause? Well, the cause is communism; and in support of this cause -- opposed by the brave men in the Plaza Altamira -- Russia has sent an oil tanker; Cuba has sent security experts; Algeria has sent oil workers. No doubt Brazil’s president will follow suit. The entire anti-American bloc will fret in sympathy. The truth is, communism didn’t die in 1991. It merely changed its fighting formation. One might even say it “shape-shifted.” In this regard, the North Americans have been very slow to realize the encirclement that has been progressing against them. Yes, Latin America has been penetrated and subverted to a great degree. Colombia is fighting for its freedom against a Communist insurgency. Venezuela, Cuba and Brazil have formed into Hugo Chavez’s so-called “axis of the good” -- which is merely a western extension of the “axis of evil.”

The Western Hemisphere is being subverted before our very eyes. While we are distracted by events in Afghanistan, Iraq and North Korea an enemy combination is forming at our back door. The freedom-loving people of Venezuela have turned against this formation. They have recognized it and they have mobilized. One would like to think that America, under similar circumstances, would do the same. We watch and wait to see if America will realize what is at stake in Venezuela. It is not simply a question of oil. It is a question of freedom.

Notes:

Olavo de Carvalho,“What Would Lenin Do?” http://www.olavodecarvalho.org/traducoes/what_lenin.htm
Art Moore, “Defector: Chavez Gave 1$ to al Qaida,” http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30350
Shane Connor, “Freeper Reports From Ground Zero Venezuela,” http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/802763/posts
Official Web Site of Venezuela’s Military Resistance Movement, http://militaresdemocraticos.surebase.com/en/index.html
Johan Freitas, “Chavez Spokesman Reaffirms Support for North Korea: ‘Model to Follow,’” http://militaresdemocraticos.surebase.com/articulos/en/20030106-03.html
List of Venezuelan officers and their testimony against Chavez, http://militaresdemocraticos.surebase.com/en/oficiales.html

© 2003 Jeffrey R. Nyquist
January 7, 2003

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