Anti-Chavez protesters tortured

Three dissident Venezuelan military officers and a young woman have been found dead after apparently being kidnapped, tortured and killed, for what some people fear may have been political motives.

A fifth victim, a 14-year-old girl, survived the attack and is in intensive care.

The three men were part of a group of rebel officers who had declared themselves opposed to the leftwing president, Hugo Chavez.

The officers had been occupying the Plaza Altamira, in the capital's wealthy eastern suburbs, since late October.

Witnesses told police that the group was kidnapped near the Plaza in the early hours of Sunday morning. Armed men reportedly forced them into two cars and drove away.

A farm worker discovered the bodies of Zaida Peroza, 28, a tourism graduate, and Felix Pinto, 25, an air force officer, and the 14-year-old Rosana Rivero on the side of a road east of Caracas on Sunday morning.

Rosana Rivero was still alive and was taken to a nearby hospital, where her condition is described as critical.

The bodies of naval officer Angel Salas and infantryman Darwin Arguello, both 21, were discovered in a park east of the city on Monday afternoon.

Police gave the cause of death as multiple shotgun wounds, and added that the bodies showed additional injuries consistent with the use of torture.

The leader of the dissident military officers, General Enrique Medina Gomez, said the officers were part of a group which took turns to keep watch over the square. He described the murders as "a crime against humanity".

Salas' brother Edwin, who is also a rebel naval officer, said the dissidents' public stand against the Chavez government had made them many enemies.

He said he and his brother had been subjected to constant intimidation since deciding to join the protests.

Mr Salas accused elements within the Venezuelan police and intelligence services of "persecuting" dissident officers. He said that they had also received violent threats from the Bolivarian Circles - groups of pro-government activists - and from the far-left Tupamaro group.

"The murder of my brother and his friends was carefully planned," Mr Salas said. "Everything about the way it was carried out points to a political motive."

Many of the senior military officers involved in the protests in the Plaza Altamira were involved in the short-lived coup against President Chavez last April.

The dissidents accuse Mr Chavez of authoritarianism and of using the armed forces to bolster his social reform projects. They also allege that Mr Chavez's "Bolivarian revolution" in favour of the poor masks a long-term project to introduce Cuban-style socialism to the oil-rich nation.

Despite international mediation, the political divide between Chavez supporters and opponents has widened since last April's coup, and the opposition recently held a damaging two-month strike with the aim of forcing the president's resignation.

As political tension has grown, violent incidents between the two sides have become increasingly common.

Government and opposition representatives signed an agreement on Tuesday to tone down verbal attacks on one another, but it remains unclear what influence this will have on their supporters.

The head of Venezuela's human rights association, Rafael Narvaez, who is representing the families of the four latest dead, said he had little hope that those responsible would be caught or punished.

"There are no credible institutions left any more, and there is currently no rule of law or due process in Venezuela," he said. "We will push as hard as we can for the authorities to investigate the murders, but if we hit a brick wall, we will ask the international community to apply pressure," Mr Narvaez said.

FARC - Chavez buddies:

U.S. Lawmakers Threaten Rebel Retaliation *** BOGOTA, Colombia - Leftist rebels accused by the United States of seizing three Americans have made a "very grave error" and can expect a U.S. response, an American congressman said Thursday. The Americans apparently were captured by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, after their U.S. government plane crashed in rebel territory Feb. 13, U.S. officials have said. They were on an intelligence-gathering mission. The rebels executed a fourth American and Colombian soldier who were also aboard, Colombia's army chief has said.

"I don't think there's any question that this precipitous action by the FARC is going to meet with very strong retaliation," said Rep. Tom Davis, D-Va., a member of a visiting Congressional delegation. "Precisely what happens is being discussed as we speak, but they've made a very grave error."

The State Department declined to say what steps could be taken. "Any questions on the response to the hostage scenario cannot be addressed at this time until the whereabouts of missing crew members is ascertained," said Department spokesman Lou Fintor. ***

So how can we build up support for that kind of action? Or what other actions can and should the US be taking?

Step One. Stop ignoring the problem. (a)The Administration, preferrably via Colin Powell, should be escalating Venezuela to the top of the list as a human rights violator. (b)And George Tenet, much as I fervently believe he needs to be sacked, if left in place (presumably because he provides bipartisan cover--which is dubious), must do the heavy lifting of publicizing a lot of the adverse intel about the situation. He must be made to testify in Congress and the Seante before congressman and senators who loudly demand: 'Who Lost Venezuela??!' He must then participate in Heritage foundation & AEI seminars, and hold press conferences from one end of the country to the other reporting the 'hostile, inimical, war-fomenting covert actions of the Venezuelan junta.'

Step Two. All governmental relations to Venezuela must be systemmatically re-evaluated and revised accordingly with recognition that a regime change is in order. Chavez, after arbitrarily cancelling the constitution cannot claim the virtue of his elected status...and we should never accord him that status. (I.e., we should pull a democRAT-type 'dis' on him). He needs to be instantly made into a Castro-grade pariah.

Step Three. Clean our own house. The State Dept. needs to seriously reorient its South American attitudes, and hawks elevated within the policy ranks. The profoundly tyrannical and anti-democratic conspiracy that Chavez and his junta represents needs to be publicized by the Administration.

Step Four. Elevate the priority, to minimize the level of blood-shed ultimately risked in this conflict. GWB can stop hoping Chavez's junta is going to be easily deposed by the Venezuelan people. The progressive Sovietization is happening before our eyes.

Step Five. Steel the Public against the Marxist/Anti-American-Dominated Media for the necessity to rescue a fellow democracy from the anti-constitutional putsch of a socialist fascist. Remember, we ALSO needed foreign assistance to successfully rebel against King George III. Just like Hitler before Chavez, it will take a major rescue operation by the West to save these poor folks from Socialist Fascism. We'll need some tough-talk rhetoric, ideally from Donald Rumsfeld. And then we need a major reiteration of the principal points of the Bush Doctrine, with an elaboration reinforcing the Monroe Doctrine. We need to draw a line in the sand. No more Cubas. Period.

Step Six. Revise the role of China in the hemisphere. No Chinese interference in this hemisphere will be brooked. We need to tell them after pointing to the clear improprieties of their backing the putsch, 'Get out. Now.'

Step Seven. Then, the coup-de-grace. Link it to the war on terror in a Presidential prime-time speech to the nation. The darkest human intelligence of the conspiracy network must be revealed. The million-dollars-plus financial aid (misappropriated Venezuelan state monies) shipped to Al-Quaeda by Chavez, flagrantly and spontaneously POST 9-11, plus the importation of a number of arab Islamicist jihadists into his country (offering them both safe haven, and a launching pad for terrorist activity in the Western hemisphere) needs to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. The provocative saber-rattling revolutionary 'war' rhetoric of Chavez needs to be publicly rebuked by GWB himself. He should demand a complete disavowal, retraction, and hand-over of the terrorists in his midst, plus a return to the actual lawful constitution of Venezuela...or the war on terror comes to Venezuela. GWB should also pledge, that if we need to, we will assure the peoples of Venezuela all the tools for, ending the hunta, restoration of their Constitutional democratic freedoms and the rule of law.

The actions of Chavez are prima facie causus belli. They go way beyond merely unfriendly acts. They are acts of war. And they need to be expressly and openly classified as such. Chavez must be made a high-profile target. We didn't start this war, they did. Hence, Venezuela's dictator is not a politically difficult target. I would argue that a liberation of Venezuela is precisely what we need to win the war on terrorism...we have to finish the job of draining the swamp. We need to make a high-profile example out of him, and start punishing countries that harbor Al Quaeda and its ilk. Especially here. After that, Panama's president needs to be talked to about Hutchinson Wampoa's corruptly-obtained leases...and permitting their country to become a covert military base. China needs to be kicked out.

If we don't clean house in the Western Hemisphere, we will be considered by our enemies everywhere as incredibly weak or self-deluded by arrogance. And our job in the Middle East to 'drain the swamp' will just be made impossible, as we become paralyzed by what the left-controlled European and American media tell us is 'acceptable.'

Once Iraq is liberated, we need to take care of this just as swiftly as we can. It should be conducted as a war of liberation, just as Afghanistan was. We need to use special forces to back the faction wanting liberty. But to minimize the media firestorm, I recommend SWIFT action, without any prior approach to the U.N. or even the O.A.S. There will be no avoiding having to go through the House and Senate, but if the ground is laid for the call for intervention, it should be do-able.

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