VENEZUELA: SEVEN KILLED NEAR BORDER
from Weekly News Update on the Americas
On Sept. 17, members of an unidentified armed group ambushed a commission
of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA as they worked on a surveying
project near the Colombian border, killing 23-year old engineer Ana Laura
Carrasco and six soldiers, including 2nd Lt. Carlos Perez Fernandez,
commander of the army unit escorting the delegation. Another civilian and a
soldier were wounded; seven civilian members of the delegation were unhurt.
The attack took place near the town of La Victoria in the western plains
state of Apure, near the border with the oil-rich Colombian department of
Arauca. (AP, Sept. 18; AFP, Sept. 19)
The Colombian government immediately blamed the attack on the leftist
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). According to an analysis by
Swedish reporter Dick Emanuelsson, Colombian defense minister Jorge Alberto
Uribe was quoted in Venezuela's rightwing newspaper El Universal as saying
"the Colombian army has reliable intelligence suggesting that the 10th
front of the FARC, headed by Jaime Cotrino Diaz, known by the alias
Arcesio, is responsible for these acts." (Colombia Indymedia, Sept. 20)
Just days before the attack, Venezuelan journalist Juan Ramon Rios
published a report claiming that at least two paramilitary groups were
patrolling in the same region of Apure, coordinated by Venezuelan
right-wingers Robert Alonso and Carlos Ortega. The Cuban-born Alonso owns
Finca Daktari, a farm in the Caracas suburbs where in May of this year
Venezuelan authorities arrested dozens of paramilitaries at a training
camp. (ANNCOL, Sept. 21)
The Venezuelan government has been careful not to assign blame. On Sept.
19, Venezuelan defense minister Jorge Garcia Carneiro said a Colombian
citizen was being investigated for alleged participation in the attack.
Garcia told the Colombian radio station Caracol that Venezuelan authorities
had not been able to confirm reports that the crime may have been committed
by right-wing paramilitaries. (El Nuevo Herald, Miami, Sept. 20) President
Hugo Chavez also said it was unclear who committed the attack, and added
what sounded like a warning: "The Colombian guerrillas are not our enemy...
But if they enter our territory, from that moment they become an enemy of
this country because they violate the sovereignty of our territory." (La
Republica, Peru, Sept. 21)
If the FARC's 10th Front is responsible, it would not be the first time
that unit has carried out attacks which seem to go against the FARC's
stated political goals. On March 10, 1999, the FARC admitted that its 10th
Front was responsible for the Mar. 4 execution of indigenous rights
activists Ingrid Washinawatok, Terence Freitas and Lahe'ena'e Gay. The
three US activists, who were visiting Colombia as guests of the U'wa tribe,
were kidnapped on Feb. 25, 1999, in Colombia's Arauca department; their
bodies were found a week later across the border in Apure state, Venezuela.
(Weekly News Update on the Americas, Sept. 26)
NOTE: More bodies were found in subsequent days, bringing the total to
twelve--some from separate incidents and possibly including some of those
who carried out the initial attack. Some bodies were found with the hands
tied behind the back. All the deaths have been attributed to irregular
forces. (Venezuelanalysis, Sept. 21)
See also WW3 REPORT #99
-------------------
Compiled by WORLD WAR 3 REPORT, Oct. 6, 2004
Reprinting permissible with attribution
WW3Report.com
Current Issue