Posted on 03/07/2003 3:02:01 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela - The United States is concerned that international terrorist groups have established bases in Venezuela and other Latin American countries, the U.S. ambassador said Friday.
"We are worried about the existence of terrorist groups not only in Venezuela but in all Latin American countries," Charles Shapiro told reporters after meeting with Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel.
Shapiro was responding to questions about statements made by Gen. James Hill, commander of the U.S. Southern Command. Hill told a military conference in Miami on Tuesday that organizations such as militant Lebanese group Hezbollah were operating in the tri-border area of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay and Venezuela's Margarita Island, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.
Hill said the groups were taking advantage of smuggling hotspots and weak institutions in those areas to channel funds to international terrorist groups.
"I don't want to accuse anybody but we are on alert," Shapiro said. "We are ready to collaborate with the Venezuelan government to seek out terrorism that may exist in this country."
Shapiro said he met with Rangel to discuss "the possible and very probable war against Iraq." He did not provide details on the meeting.
Venezuela, home to the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East, is a key supplier of oil to the United States, though exports were hobbled by a failed two-month strike to demand early elections.
On Thursday, Energy and Mines Minister Rafael Ramirez said Venezuela would go along with a possible decision by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to suspend its quota system during a war on Iraq.
Ramirez wouldn't comment on Venezuela's individual position on the matter, however. The 11-member OPEC meets March 11 in Vienna, Austria to re-evaluate its production quotas.
Countries mentioned so far: Venezuela, Brazil, Paraguay.
Then we should have a real war on drugs or else end the WOD which helps these people take in so much money. Most of the drugs end up in the US, so we're paying for our own destruction.
The headlines in La Prensa this morning: Invasión Narcoterrorista. General Hill warns that Panama faces the possibility of an invasion of narcoterrorists in the province of Darién in Panama. He stated that the U.S. and Panama are exploring how to protect the frontier between Darién and Colombia. Possibilities are to extend “humanitarian assistance” (U.S. military) to the Darién province.
The Venezuelan government also will host an international Bolivarian Circle meeting in April in Caracas. ''There are circles in Bilbao, Madrid, Denmark -- all over the place. It's really neat,'' said Guillermo García Ponce, Chávez advisory committee coordinator, in an interview with The Herald in Caracas. He acknowledged that South Florida has become an anti-Chávez stronghold. ''I suppose [the Miami circle] will have to keep a low profile,'' García said.
Anti-Chávez activists say they do not oppose the presence of a Bolivarian Circle in Miami as long as it doesn't instigate the violence they allege the circles have caused in Venezuela -- a claim Soto and others deny. ''The government has allowed the Bolivarian Circles to attack the newspapers, attack the reporters,'' said Raúl Leoni, a Venezuelan opposition leader who lives in Weston. ``The fact that you win an election doesn't make you eternal if you're not doing your job correctly.''
……………..The Bolivarian Circles -- along with Chávez's controversial 1999 ''Bolivarian constitution'' -- are part of his overarching ``Bolivarian Revolution.'' Some 70,000 circles exist in Venezuela, made up largely of the working class. Typically, they meet weekly and engage in humanitarian projects such as providing food for the poor -- with military financing -- and building schools. Critics compare the circles to Fidel Castro's Committees for the Defense of the Revolution.***
Rather, the problem is that Brazil, the biggest country in South America, is sitting on the sidelines while the neighborhood is afire, several of the speakers said. Brazil is still paralyzed by 19th century fears of U.S. imperial designs, which have long driven it to instinctively reject almost anything coming from Washington or supported by Washington, regardless of its merits, they said. These days, Brazil is effectively blocking a Canadian-sponsored proposal to hold an emergency summit with President Bush and 33 other elected leaders in the hemisphere, aimed at doing something about the escalating crises in Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Haiti and several other countries.
Such a presidential summit would, among other things, force the Bush administration to pay some attention to Latin America, which fell off White House radar screens after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But while the United States, Mexico, Caribbean nations and most South American countries support the emergency summit, which would be held in September in Mexico, Brazil is stone-walling the proposal, Canadian and U.S. officials say. ''Everybody is mystified as to why Brazil doesn't go along,'' says Paul D. Durand, Canada's ambassador to the Organization of American States.***
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.