Hugo Chavez prefers dictators.
Wall Street Journal July 25, 2003 - Flying Too High, Venezuela Shops for MiGs*** As to the letter, Mr. Santos seems to have been on solid ground. Colombian security analyst Alfredo Rangel Suárez tells me he has seen the text and in a column last week in Colombia's El Tiempo, he described its contents. Contrary to Mr. Santiago's claims, it was not a casual inquiry.
"The request from Venezuela to the Russian factory is very specific: Fifty combat aircraft, with multifunctional Zhuk-M liquid crystal 6X8 inch radar, with navigation and weapons control systems that insure the use of six types of air-to-air missiles, three classes of guided air-to-surface missiles, in addition to bombs and 30 caliber guns," wrote Mr. Rangel Suárez. "Additionally, it asks that ten of the planes be delivered within 18 months of the contract signing and also that it include a tailor-made maintenance center for MiGs in Venezuela." The letter was sent to the director general of Russian MiG Aeronautic Corporation, Nicolai Nikitin and signed by Venezuelan Air Force commander Régulo Anselmi, according to an El Tiempo report.***
Chavez Plans for Terrorist Regime***During the last few weeks, Chavez has moved to control the military high command with his closest acolytes. Gen. Luis Garcia Carneiro, who has been leading the Caracas-based 3rd Infantry Division in operations to disarm the metropolitan police, now is the effective head of the army.
Possibly thousands of Arab terrorists as well as Colombian narcoguerrillas are being protected by DISIP, which has come under the control of Cuba's DGI, according to members of the Venezuelan security agency. European diplomatic officials in Caracas confirm that Cubans are operating DISIP's key counterterrorist and intelligence-analysis sections. According to a variety of sources, 300 to 400 Cuban military advisers coordinated by Havana's military attaché in Venezuela, navy Capt. Sergio Cardona, also are directing Chavez's elite Presidential Guard and his close circle of bodyguards, some of whom can't even sing the words to the Venezuelan national anthem. As many as 6,000 Cuban undercover agents masquerading as "sports instructors" and "teachers" also are reported to be training the Circulos Bolivarianos and even operating naval facilities.
"I quit my job when I got tired of doing dirty work for Chavez with the Cubans looking over my shoulder," Ferreira tells Insight, claiming that Interior Minister Rodriguez Chacin and other presidential aides repeatedly pressured him to launder the identities of terrorists and narcotraffickers transiting through Venezuela. He also was ordered to deceive U.S. authorities on the activities of a Hezbollah financial network whose files were requested by the FBI following the Sept. 11 attacks.
Chavez gave instructions to destroy records on 10 suspected Hezbollah fund-raisers conducting suspicious financial transactions in the islands of Margarita, Aruba and Curaçao, and the cities of Maracaibo and Valencia, according to Ferreira. The Venezuelan president also dissolved key military counterterrorist units by firing 16 highly experienced, U.S.-trained intelligence officers at the time of the terrorist plane attacks in New York City and Washington. Circulos Bolivarianos leader Lina Ron celebrated the event by burning an American flag in the center of Caracas. ***
