Chávez arming Colombian guerillas?

CounterVortex

Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on a visit to Colombia Jan. 18 that the US is concerned about a Venezuelan military buildup, pointing to “what Mr. Chávez has done militarily in recent years and his acquisitions—both those he’s made as well as those he states he’s making for the future—high performance airplanes, modern submarines.” President Hugo Chávez is negotiating with Russia to buy five diesel submarines that he says Venezuela needs to protect its extensive offshore oil drilling facilities. (AFP, Jan. 18) Days after Mullen’s remarks, Miami’s El Nuevo Herald cited anonymous Colombian intelligence officials as saying that the country’s FARC and ELN guerillas are receiving ammunition manufactured in Venezuela. The officials said the 7.62mm AK-47 ammo recently captured from the FARC is produced by the state-owned Venezuelan Anonymous Military Industries Company (CAVIM). (Nuevo Herald, Bloomberg, Jan. 21)

On Jan. 20, US Drug Czar John P. Walters charged in an interview that the Chávez government is facilitating the rising flow of drugs through Venezuela to Europe and North America: “Where are the big seizures, where are the big arrests of individuals who are at least logistical coordinators? When it’s being launched from controlled airports and seaports, where are the arrests of corrupt officials? At some point here, this is tantamount to collusion.”

Walters said the volume of Colombian cocaine moving through Venezuela is believed to represent at least one-third of Colombia’s production, and continues to increase. He provided no statistics to back up his assertion.

In September, the US government found that Venezuela was one of two governments that had failed to take sufficient counter-narcotics actions. The Venezuela Information Office, a Washington-based agency funded by the Chávez government, called the accusations misleading, saying they ignored the country’s “history of cooperating” with international agencies.

US complaints about Venezuelan counter-narcotics operations have risen since August 2005, when Chavez broke off all cooperation with the Drug Enforcement Administration office in Caracas. Since then, seizures have fallen, and drug shipments by aircraft and shipping containers have skyrocketed, US officials charge. Then-Ambassador William Brownfield said in 2006 that the amount of drugs flowing through Venezuela had quintupled in five years.

In December, US officials in Caracas said as many as 100 illicit airstrips, stretching from Tachira state in western Venezuela to Bolivar state in the east, were being used for cocaine trans-shipments. The officials charged that the Chávez government had brought no major convictions of traffickers in several years. (Los Angeles Times, Jan. 21)

Chávez responded to the charges by calling Colombian President Àlvaro Uribe a “coward” and a “sad peon of the North American empire” for his dealings with Mullen and Walters. He said the “Colombian oligarchy is seeking reinforcements for the attack, and they are turning to the gringos.” (El Universal, Caracas, Jan. 21)

See our last post on Colombia and Venezuela.

  1. it;s the other way around
    it;s the other way around you beloved US’s CIA goons have been working hard to depose YET ANOTHER democratically elected government. but that not important to you propagandist, what important. what is for of utmost importance to you is to carry on full blast with your propagandas. the empire is on it’s last legs AND YOU KNOW IT. IT’S TIME FOR YOU TO PANIC.

    1. Who you talking to, bro?
      “Beloved” CIA goons? You are rather misreading the politics of this website. To the extent that we have a horse in this race, it is Chávez—certainly not Bush or Uribe. Even if these charges are disinformation, don’t you want to know what lies they are spreading? That said, the existence of CIA plots against Chávez does not mean that Chávez is not arming the FARC. Does it?

      1. Enenies of Freedom: Vatican, Jesuits, Military Order of Malta
        People,

        Chavez is aanother Jesuit backed military socialist-fascist, just like Fidel Castro.

        Nearly all of South America and Mexico is controlled by the Vatican-Jesuit-Military Order of Malta mafia network. From finance to politics, from religion to education.

        Now these fascist are in the process of overthrowing the United States and Canada.

        http://wikicompany.org/wiki/911:Vatican_%26_Jesuits
        http://wikicompany.org/wiki/911:Masons

        Wake up and speak up!

        1. Enemies of intelligent dialogue…
          …all seem to post on our website. You know, if this coterie of obnoxious dogmatists and arcane conspiranoids who have been commenting here are really a representative cross-section of our readership, maybe we should call it quits. Either that or change our URL to http://www.wingnutmagnet.com.

          1. Enenies of Freedom: Vatican, Jesuits, Military Order of Malta
            Bill Weinberg,

            Name calling is easy. We’re not talking about aliens or NewAge bullshit here. I’m surprised that you are so blind about the British Imperial & Jesuitical conspiracy fact.

            A conspiracy fact that has been writtin about for at least hundreds of years.

            Try reading some of these books, by people like: Samuel F.B. Morse, John Quincy Adams, Charles Chiniquy, or Eric Jon Phelps:
            http://wikicompany.org/wiki/911:Literature

            Show me where you get your argument from, that these people are wrong, and have been wrong for centuries.

            Lets talk about these facts of history, before you say others are wrong.

            1. Fascism preys on the stupid
              Look buddy, I hate to break it to you but the problem isn’t that the world is run by Masons, Illuminati, Elders of Zion, Jesuits, Bilderbergers, Knights of Malta, Shriners or whatever. The problem is that the world is run by capitalists. You accuse others of being “fascists” while falling for the classic fascist propaganda trick of scapegoating some conveniently hidden and mysterious elite for the world’s ills—thereby letting the real elites, who are in plain sight, off the hook. Wake up!

              1. Enenies of Freedom: Vatican, Jesuits, Military Order of Malta
                1) You’re dodging the question. Do you reject the Papal / Jesuit / Military Order of Malta conspiracy about which the important authors mentioned above have written?

                2) Who are these “real elites” that I and others overlook? Give me some names please.

                3) Bill, you seem to give very little facts to back up your rigid statements about ‘my misunderstanding’. Have you ever heard of the Pilgrim Society? They are the inner-core of the Military Order of Malta. Do you know they control much of the global financial system?

                1. You have a redundancy problem
                  1. I don’t “reject” your particular little conspiracy theory so much as I find it irrelevant. An “important author” named Karl Marx correctly identified the enemy in 1848: capitalism. But of course you’ll tell me he was part of the conspiracy.

                  2. Names? Uh, how about Dick Cheney?

                  3. The real problem with the “global financial system” is less who controls it than that it exists. But what does this have to do with Chavez anyway, who is doing his best to withdraw Venezuela and Latin America from the “global financial system” (World Bank, IMF, etc.)? Do you bother to read the newspapers? Or just wacky conspiranoid websites?

                  Now I challenge you to provide us with documentation that Chavez is part of the “Military Order of Malta.” Not just a random link to a website full of conspiracy arcana, but documentation—like a book reference to this specific fact (including page number), or a link to a legitimate news source. Big extra credit if you can explain to us why it matters.

                  1. Enenies of Freedom: Vatican, Jesuits, Military Order of Malta
                    1) “Karl Marx correctly identified the enemy in 1848: capitalism. But of course you’ll tell me he was part of the conspiracy.”

                    No, they themselves say he worked (in part) on Das Kapital in the garden of the elite Philips family (http://www.streekarchiefbommelerwaard.nl/%5B…]).

                    Das Kapital is a very mechanic view on the labor of man, it formed (much of the) ideological basis for Communism, Labor Zionism and Socialism, and the centralist fraud, corruption and prosecution that followed. Research the Bolsheviks Revolution (and the many years of prosecution that followed, all funded by the ‘West’), and Lenin readmitting the Jesuits after their expulsion from Russia (http://continuingcounterreformation.blogspot[…]). Socialism itself was already being perfected in the indigenous labor camps of the Jesuits in South America.

                    2. “Names? Uh, how about Dick Cheney?”

                    Are you kidding me? Thats what you call “the secret elitists”? He’s a Neocon agenda supporter (since masonic President Ford times), a front puppet for the Jesuit-SMOM-Black Nobility elite. From Papal kisses, to Red Mass celebrations, to Opus Dei Supreme Court judges. Do you know who controls Black Water Worldwide? Yep, the Knights of Malta.

                    3. “The real problem with the “global financial system” is less who controls it than that it exists.”

                    To some extend I agree with you here, however exposing the people who work for it and their global mechanism is _a part_ of healing the system. The core of the problem is the mass neurosis in society, this extends to all other parts of society.

                    3. “Now I challenge you to provide us with documentation that Chavez is part of the “Military Order of Malta.””

                    I said he was a Vatican-Jesuit fascistic helper (a Jesuit temporal coadjutor).

                    Watch him run around with the Jesuit-trained dictator Fidel Castro, the Pope, and the head of the Military Order of Malta:

                    http://z13.invisionfree.com/THE_UNHIVED_MIND/index.php?showtopic=13500

                    In addition he has called for a New World Order numerous times.

                    See how the world works Bill?

                    3. “Big extra credit if you can explain to us why it matters.”

                    “Know Thy Enemy”

                    1. Well, I sure called that one.
                      1. Yup, Karl Marx was part of The Conspiracy. He wrote Capital in some guy’s garden. That proves it!

                      2. Can’t read, can you? I said Cheney was a part of the real elite, which is in plain sight, not your imaginary “secret elite.” What difference does it make whether Cheney is a “front-puppet for the Jesuit-SMOM-Black Nobility elite”? (What, no wackjobbery here!) Isn’t it sufficient that he is former Halliburton CEO and a warmonger, which is all a matter of public record?

                      3. No documentation on your irrelvant claims about Chavez. If you can’t prove someone is a member of your sinister secret societes, then they merely become a “helper” or “front puppet”—and then you fail to provide documentation for that either, except who they “run around” with.

                      Know thine enemy indeed. You are so busy chasing imaginary specters that you can’t see the self-evident reality that imperialism is in engaged in a project of endless war to control the planet’s oil and shore up its own global supremacy. Obvious from the daily headlines, no need to resort to any secret socities.

                      Have a nice life, Mr. Redundant.

  2. Venezuelan opposition demands drug test for Chávez
    From Reuters, Jan. 24, with a small but obvious error. They presumably mean that Morales sends Chávez coca leaf, not coca paste.

    CARACAS — Venezuela’s opposition is demanding leftist President Hugo Chavez take a drug test after he said he chews coca leaves to keep up his energy.

    The anti-US leader has repeatedly defended the use of coca leaves despite accusations by the United States that he is turning Venezuela into a “haven” for drugs from Colombia.

    “We are going to ask that the President of the Republic take a toxicological exam, as would any baseball or football player,” said opposition politician Antonio Ledezma, of the small party Brave People’s Alliance.

    “This is an apology for the consumption of drugs.”

    Chavez said during a January speech that Bolivian President Evo Morales, a close Chavez ally and outspoken supporter of legalizing the cultivation of coca, sends him coca paste. [Sic]

    Coca leaf is the raw material for making cocaine. But Andean indigenous peoples have for centuries chewed coca leaves to ease hunger and reduce the effects of altitude sickness.

    “Coca is not cocaine … I chew coca every morning and look at me,” Chavez said, displaying his biceps with a chuckle during a speech to Congress.

    Chavez has spoken for as long as eight hours in a single sitting, reportedly sleeps around four hours per night and is known for drinking lots of coffee and calling aides and ministers with questions in the very early morning.

    US drug czar John Walters told Reuters in a weekend interview that Chavez has become a “facilitator” of drug trafficking from Colombia — the world’s largest producer of cocaine — through Venezuela. Chavez rejected the charges as part of a US smear campaign against him.

    1. Chávez chews pasta de coca?
      Reuters wasn’t wrong. He really did say “paste.” Again from Reuters, Jan. 28:

      CARACAS — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez switched from coffee to another stimulant during a speech on Saturday — he popped a coca leaf into his mouth and chewed it while defending the use of the plant.

      Bolivian President Evo Morales, an advocate of the Andean nation’s indigenous coca growers, brought Chavez coca leaves while in Caracas for a summit of Latin American leaders allied with Chavez.

      “I knew you wouldn’t let me down, my friend, I was running out,” Chavez said as he received the leaves from Morales during the televised summit. He broke one in half and chewed it, drawing applause.

      “Capitalism and international mafias have converted (it) into cocaine, but coca is not cocaine,” he said.

      Opposition leaders this week said the leftist Chavez, famous for speaking for hours on end, should take a drug test after he told legislators he chews coca to keep his energy level up.

      The anti-US leader said this month that every morning he chews “coca paste”, a highly addictive substance made from coca leaves that serves as a base for cocaine and is sometimes smoked — not chewed — by drug users.

      Chavez appeared to have misspoken, meaning instead to say he chews coca leaves.