Posted on 04/14/2002 4:01:40 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
LINKS to Hugo Chavez's "government" June 2001 - March 2002
I'm keeping track of Hugoland formally known as Venezuela. Please LINK any stories or add what you wish to this thread. The above LINK takes you to past articles posted before the new FR format. Below I'll add what I've catalogued since that LINK no longer could take posts.
(March 1, 2002)-- Venezuela's strongman faces widespread calls to step down
By Phil Gunson | Special to The Christian Science Monitor
[Full Text] CARACAS, VENEZUELA - The man who won Venezuelan hearts three years ago as a strongman who could deliver a better life to the masses is now facing them in the streets.
More than 20,000 people turned out this week calling for the resignation of President Hugo Chávez, while some 2,000 supporters marched in a rival demonstration of support. The demonstrations come after months of building discontent with a president who has managed to alienate the labor class, the media, business groups, the church, political parties, and the military.
Four military leaders have publicly called for his resignation.
In November, Chávez introduced 49 "revolutionary" decrees. The package of laws - affecting everything from land rights and fisheries to the oil industry - unified virtually the whole of organized society in a nationwide business and labor stoppage that paralyzed the country on Dec. 10.
The protests this week have a note of irony, because they started out as a commemoration called by President Chávez. In his eyes, Feb. 27 is a milestone of his so-called revolution - "the date on which the people awoke" in 1989. That is when thousands of rioters and looters took to the streets in protest of an IMF-backed austerity plan, in which the government hiked gas prices.
In what became known as the caracazo, or noisy protest, thousands of rioters and looters were met by Venezuelan military forces, and hundreds were killed. Three years later, Chávez and his military co-conspirators failed in an attempt to overthrow the government responsible for the massacre, that of President Carlos Andres Perez. Chávez was jailed for two years.
"But the elements that brought about the caracazo are still present in Venezuela," says lawyer Liliana Ortega, who for 13 years has led the fight for justice on behalf of the victims' relatives. "Poverty, corruption, impunity ... some of them are perhaps even more deeply ingrained than before."
Chávez's supporters consist of an inchoate mass of street traders, the unemployed, and those whom the old system had marginalized. This, to Chávez, is el pueblo - the people.
"But we are 'the people' too," protests teacher Luis Leonet. "We're not oligarchs like he says. The oligarchs are people like Chávez, people with power."
On Wednesday, Leonet joined a march led by the main labor confederation, the CTV, to protest what unions say is a series of antilabor measures, including one of the 49 decrees dealing with public-sector workers.
Chávez won't talk to the CTV, whose leaders, he says, are corrupt and illegitimate. So he refuses to negotiate the annual renewal of collective contracts with the confederation, holding up deals on pay and conditions for hundreds of thousands of union members like Leonet.
Across town on Wednesday, a progovernment march sought to demonstrate that the president's popularity was as high as ever.
"For the popular classes, Chávez is an idol," says marcher Pedro Gutierrez.
Pollster Luis Vicente Leon, of the Datanalisis organization, warns that marches are no measure of relative popularity. "There is a lot of discontent among ... the really poor," Leon says, adding that so far the protests are mainly among the middle class.
But the middle class can be a dangerous enemy. It includes the bulk of the armed forces, and the management of the state oil company, PDVSA.
This month, four uniformed officers, ranging from a National Guard captain to a rear-admiral and an Air Force general, called on the president to resign, while repudiating the idea of a military coup of Chávez, himself a former Army lieutenant-colonel.
But senior "institutionalist" officers "are under severe pressure from lower ranks frustrated at the lack of impact" that these acts have had, a source close to military dissidents says. In other words, a coup cannot be ruled out, although the United States publicly denounces the idea.
Meanwhile, the president's imposition of a new board of directors on PDVSA this week sparked a virtual uprising by the company's senior management. In an unprecedented public statement, managers said the government was pushing the company "to the verge of operational and financial collapse" by imposing political, rather than commercial, criteria.
The political opposition remains relatively weak and divided. But in the view of many analysts, a president who offends both the military and the oil industry is asking for trouble. In the bars and restaurants of Caracas, the debate is no longer over whether Chávez will finish his term, which has nearly five years to run. It is when and how he will go - and what comes next. [End]
A consular spokesman would not comment when asked if the measure had anything to do with the proven instances of terrorists being issued official Venezuelan passports by the Chavez government. But closing the consulate automatically shuts the main route for those terror groups to gain entry to the United States, and thus forces them to seek less direct ways of access. A dozen countries, among them Britain and Australia, have also withdrawn diplomatic staff and urged their citizens to not go to Venezuela. With Chavez clinging desperately to power and not willing to resolve the conflict by democratic means, the risk of mass bloodshed grows every day.***
"I quit my job when I got tired of doing dirty work for Chavez with the Cubans looking over my shoulder," Marcos Ferreira says, while showing proof that former 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 then 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.***
MORE from same article but in separate post:
REAL AXIS OF EVIL - Venezuela and CUBA*** The president's scheme also involves government-sponsored armed militias, or Circulos Bolivarianos, modeled on Cuba's Revolutionary Defense Committees. These militias are taking over police stations around the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and invading the facilities of the state-run oil company, PDVSA. Indeed, the latter is presided over by an ex-communist guerrilla leader, Ali Rodriguez Araque.
Following the blueprint that Castro drafted for Chile's Salvador Allende, a minority president who similarly imported thousands of Cuban paramilitaries to overthrow the constitution of Chile and establish a Marxist-Leninist regime there, Chavez is facing an internal rebellion against his plans. With 80 percent or more of the national revenues cut off by an oil strike, he is faced with difficult choices. Chavez may be forced to order his navy to take over some 20 oil tankers that are refusing to load. Since he cannot entirely rely on the loyalty of his armed forces, he is expected to bring in the Cuban advisers.
Cuba's Direccion General de Inteligencia (DGI) special-operations teams already are positioned at the port of La Guaira, according to Venezuelan navy sources, who report that Cuban undercover agents are using the local merchant-marine school. Sources say that they could be studying Venezuela's oil-tanker fleet as part of contingency plans to prepare for commandeering of some of the tankers by a U.S.-trained Venezuelan intelligence officer. A Cuban special-assault unit reported to be occupying the second and third floors of the Sheraton Hotel in La Guaira also could be part of the plans to break the strike and impose a terrorist dictatorship.
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.***
Then-President Andres Pastrana pledged that government forces would protect the region's estimated 96,000 residents when he ordered the soldiers to move into the zone. But the hellish facts on the ground show that life in the area has become more perilous. The murder rate has jumped, and some peasant families have been uprooted from their lands. "Although the guerrillas committed numerous acts of violence ... when they controlled the region, the levels of violence have increased since the army retook the zone," says a recent report by Amnesty International, the independent human-rights group. "Civilians have been the victims of systematic attacks."
For more than three years, Vista Hermosa was part of a so-called "peace laboratory." The town sits in a vast region of jungle and plains that was ceded by the Colombian government to the nation's largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in late 1998 in an effort to promote peace talks and end a civil war that began in 1964. The rebel-held area became known as the "despeje" -- Spanish for the "clearing" -- because Pastrana had ordered all government forces to withdraw. The zone was one of the few areas in Colombia free of combat, because just one side was in control.
But peace talks between the government and the rebels broke down in February, and Pastrana ordered the military to retake the region, which is roughly the size of Switzerland and covers about 4 percent of Colombia's territory. At the time, it was widely feared that outlawed right-wing paramilitary groups -- which, in addition to government forces, are fighting the rebels -- would move into the zone and go on a rampage against accused guerrilla collaborators. But in an odd twist, most of the 133 slayings reported in the region over the past 10 months have been blamed on the FARC. ***
o Fourth stereotype: that the opposition wants a coup d'état. ''Coup plotters use tanks and troops. They don't organize themselves to collect more than 2 million signatures for a petition asking for early elections,'' Jatar wrote. ``The true story is that despite having been elected, Chávez has broken the constitution and the law on many occasions.'' Chávez, who has stated that representative democracy ''is a farce,'' faces more than a dozen corruption and human rights accusations from the opposition in Venezuelan courts, including charges that he mismanaged millions of dollars from an economic stabilization fund and that his ''Bolivarian Circle'' militias were responsible for the killings of 19 people who were participating in an April 11 opposition march, she added.
Does this mean that we should support some opposition leaders' demands that Chávez resign immediately, or a coup d'état? I don't think so, and -- judging from what I heard from Jatar -- neither does she. Anything even closely resembling a coup would not only turn Chávez into a victim but would set a terrible precedent for Latin America's democracies. But Chávez critics have the right to demand -- within the law -- that their recently collected two million signatures be accepted as a legal step toward early elections. That's certainly more democratic than the attempt at a coup d'état Chávez led in 1992, his later glorification of that bloody uprising, or the gradual militarization of his government.
Recent opposition street protests have gathered more than one million people, according to press reports. That's probably 10 times the number of people who participated in the protests that toppled recent presidents in Argentina and Ecuador. To be sure, neither of the latter two countries' presidents was as inept as Chávez, who has managed the unthinkable: despite a rise in oil prices, Venezuela's economy has fallen by at least 7 percent this year, and there are as many as 2.5 million more poor in the country than when he took office.
Conclusion: Venezuelan opposition leaders who want to oust Chávez by circumventing Venezuela's laws should be condemned by the international community. But Venezuelan opposition leaders who are pursuing constitutional ways to vote the region's most incompetent president out of office should be applauded. ***
Chavez opponents called Saturday for a "victory" demonstration in the nation's capital. Antonio Ledezma of the Democratic Coordinator political movement called for nine marches throughout Caracas on Sunday to demand that Chavez resign and call elections. Demonstrators will converge in what's being billed as "the great victory rally," Ledezma said. Strike leaders have led numerous marches and vowed to continue their civil disobedience.
Each side accused the other Saturday of stonewalling after weeks of talks mediated by the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Cesar Gaviria. "I can't say we've made any significant advances," Gaviria said as talks were suspended Friday until after the holidays. They resume Jan. 2. "I can't say we've made any significant advances," Gaviria said as talks were suspended Friday until after the holidays. They resume Jan. 2. Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton said Saturday a hasty agreement could spark more political violence in this tension-filled South American country of 24 million people. Moving headlong into an agreement may not be acceptable to all parties given the diversity of Venezuela's opposition, which includes dissident military officers, traditional political parties, trade unions and some local media.
"He isn't interested in the talks or an electoral solution," said Alejandro Armas, one of six opposition negotiators. "The only electoral solution acceptable for the government is a (binding) referendum in August. That's why they are stalling." Chavez has told adversaries he will ignore the results of a nonbinding referendum slated for Feb. 2. Likewise, radical "Chavistas," as the president's backers are called, may not agree to a deal acceptable to moderate government supporters. "A hurried decision could be damaging. The best decisions are those that take time," said Chaderton. "We want to avoid more deaths. Hurrying things could bring about more deaths." ***
o Fourth stereotype: that the opposition wants a coup d'état. ''Coup plotters use tanks and troops. They don't organize themselves to collect more than 2 million signatures for a petition asking for early elections,'' Jatar wrote. ``The true story is that despite having been elected, Chávez has broken the constitution and the law on many occasions.'' Chávez, who has stated that representative democracy ''is a farce,'' faces more than a dozen corruption and human rights accusations from the opposition in Venezuelan courts, including charges that he mismanaged millions of dollars from an economic stabilization fund and that his ''Bolivarian Circle'' militias were responsible for the killings of 19 people who were participating in an April 11 opposition march, she added.
Does this mean that we should support some opposition leaders' demands that Chávez resign immediately, or a coup d'état? I don't think so, and -- judging from what I heard from Jatar -- neither does she. Anything even closely resembling a coup would not only turn Chávez into a victim but would set a terrible precedent for Latin America's democracies. But Chávez critics have the right to demand -- within the law -- that their recently collected two million signatures be accepted as a legal step toward early elections. That's certainly more democratic than the attempt at a coup d'état Chávez led in 1992, his later glorification of that bloody uprising, or the gradual militarization of his government.***
Chavez repeatedly has said the only constitutional means of removing him from office is a binding plebiscite halfway through his term, or August. He was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000, and his term ends in 2007. Opponents accuse Chavez of running roughshod over democratic institutions and wrecking the economy with leftist policies. Venezuela's economy shrank 6 percent during the first nine months of 2002. Inflation has reached 30 percent, and unemployment 17 percent.***
Venezuelans, meanwhile, are learning unconventional leaders may not fulfill hopes either. The radical populist Hugo Chavez was elected president in 1998 and again in 2000, promising to remake society after a 40-year alternation of power between two corrupt, centrist political parties. But he has been unable to make the once envied oil-based economy grow and has seen unemployment and poverty rise. A powerful but confused opposition movement briefly ousted Chavez last April only to see him return two days later.
The country is now a month into a general strike and sometimes violent street protests aimed at ousting him. The protesters demonstrate in the name of democracy, despite the fact that Chavez's term lasts until 2007 and the constitution doesn't allow a referendum on his reign until August. "We all thought he'd bring prosperity, but he's making us poorer," said Eliezer Chavez, a 20-year-old computer consultant who voted for Chavez but has joined the demonstrations demanding his removal. He said the opposition movement is "totally democratic," because democracy for him means people can oust an elected leader they feel isn't doing a good job - whether the constitution allows it or not.
Part of the threat to the region's young democracies is that democracy in Latin America is largely superficial. There are elections, but leaders often do not serve all the people. The idea of a civic spirit is not deeply ingrained. "These societies have adopted some of the more superficial aspects of democracy and market economies," said Steve Johnson, a Latin American policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington. "You have electoral democracy, but you're basically still electing an autocrat." There is no indication that the region will reverse its economic slide - or that its institutions can stand up to the challenge. ***
As the population has steadily turned against him, so have most of the closest of his original collaborators, including many of the officers who were involved in his bloody failed 1992 coup attempt against the elected and legitimate government of Carlos Andres Perez. The latest to jump ship is his wife Marisabel, who after recently leaving him went on national TV and pleaded with him to "listen to the voice of the people." With gasoline depleted, food supplies running out and daily marches and street rallies, we have had no Christmas this year. But as most middle-class families here, we are more than willing to withstand whatever hardships are necessary during the general strike to peacefully rescue Venezuela from this madman.***
Chavez, a former paratrooper who was jailed after a botched coup in 1992 but was elected in 1998, has fought hard against the strike, firing executives from state oil giant PDVSA and ordering troops onto halted oil tankers. In a major role-reversal for the oil-rich nation, he has imported some gasoline to ease lines hundreds of cars long at filling stations. The government said that oil output would climb back to a third of normal next week, but PDVSA rebels said efforts to kick-start petroleum production were failing. ***
Strike leader Carlos Ortega, who leads Venezuela's largest labor federation, called on all citizens Monday to stop paying their taxes. The opposition, backed by business and unions, accuses Chavez of authoritarianism, corruption and economic incompetence in what they say is a quest to establish a Cuban-style dictatorship. Chavez has kicked many of the renegade officers out of the armed forces and threatened to chase them from the square, but detaining Martinez is the toughest act against them so far. Venezuela's opposition called the strike to force Chavez to call a Feb. 2 non-binding referendum on his presidency, which runs to 2007. Strike leaders hope a poor showing will increase pressure on Chavez to resign.***
______________________________________________________________________ *** The opposition could also call an assembly to rewrite the constitution, Fernandez said, adding that the law allows for such a move if it is clearly shown to be the will of the people.*** Source
Finding that alternative is going to be a real challenge for the opposition, says Mr. Welsch. "Someone with a little more expertise in public policy could do a far better job with less money, but they're not necessarily going to win over the poor," he says. "[The opposition] must start calming and hugging their souls, and then do something for their economical well being." Members of the almost 40 opposition groups that make up the Democratic Coordinator are acutely aware of this fact, recently declaring poverty to be their No. 1 issue once Chávez is ousted. But few so far have reached out to the impoverished, though yesterday, opponents held rallies in two of the capital's poorest neighborhoods.
One segment of the population that no amount of reaching out to will convert are the hard-core chavistas. According to Keller, 8 percent of the country says it would take up arms to defend Chávez. Among them are hundreds of members of the Bolivarian Circles, neighborhood groups set up by Chávez to do social work. The 'circles' are criticized by opponents as being a civil militia and are said to have opened fire on an opposition demonstration in April, killing 19, leading to the president's brief ouster. Though opposition marches tend to dominate the news, Chávez's popularity is also evident. His supporters still gather at his public appearances, holding up his portrait and reaching out to touch him. "He has shown that he cares about us," says taxi driver José Mora, "that he recognizes what we're going through and wants to help. Nobody else has shown us that they can do that."***
$1M for Al Qaeda to fight against the United States
But Chavez did not stop at merely praising the attacks and having his support groups burn the American flag. He wanted to do more. He wanted to help Al Qaeda and the Taliban in their coming war against the United States. Juan Diaz Castillo from Venezuela's Air Force, was given that job. The private pilot of Hugo Chavez, Major Diaz Castillo has since defected and has started to talk. As the trusted insider who flew the president's Airbus, he was an eye-witness to secret meetings between Chavez and some of the top dictators in the world. He was also in charge of organizing one million dollars worth of assistance from Chavez to Al Qaeda.
" - Chavez trusted me completely. So right after 9/11, when he decided to help Al Qaeda, he turned to Jorge Oropeza and to me. Jorge was my boss in the presidential air support unit, but he is just a political appointee, so I did all the actual work." The work, as ordered by Chavez, was to help Al Qaeda but to make it look like he was helping the Taliban, using humanitarian grounds as the excuse.***
Such fighting talk is characteristic of the frail 65-year-old. He is a former guerrilla fighter, reputedly one of the last to lay down his arms at the end of Venezuela's small-scale leftwing insurgency of the 1960s. Forty years later, Mr Rodríguez faces perhaps his most challenging struggle: to restart what a month ago was the world's fifth-largest oil exporter but is now a virtually paralysed network of derricks, pipelines and oil terminals. "Armed guerrilla action is one form of combat I've left behind, but this is a war to save democracy," he says as he reaches up with his cane to tap the pilot's window of the executive jet on the runway of an abandoned airfield near the refinery. A long-time friend of Cuba's Fidel Castro, Mr Rodríguez likens the tightening economic noose that is the oil strike with the long-time US-imposed trade embargo on the Caribbean island.***
Blowing whistles, waving national flags and setting off a thunderous barrage of fireworks, the anti-government protesters packed a multi-lane highway in eastern Caracas, clamoring for former paratrooper Chavez to resign and hold early elections. Earlier, the outspoken president told the nation in a New Year's broadcast his government was defeating the month-old strike, which has strangled oil output, gasoline supplies and crude shipments by the world's No. 5 petroleum exporter. ***
"Saddam Hussein is strong ... He won't just want to give up. There won't be a winner. A lot of innocent lives will be lost." He added "new types of chemical weapons" would be used. Osco, who says he is president of a 150-strong association of shamans, said he saw more fatal street protests against Venezuela's Hugo Chavez -- an opposition strike that has shut down shipments from the world's No. 5 oil exporter is now in its fourth week -- before the populist president caved in. "Hugo Chavez is going to give in to the will of the people. He'll call early elections for May, June or July," he said. In North Korea, Osco saw "a very delicate situation," though not yet war, after the secretive Stalinist state said it was throwing out international nuclear weapons inspectors. ***
Silva takes over Wednesday for outgoing president Fernando Henrique Cardoso in an inaugural ceremony expected to attract presidents from at least six other Latin American countries and 100,000 or more Brazilians. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was also expected to attend. But the four-week-old strike in Venezuela aimed at ousting him was expected to delay him. Earlier this month, Chavez said until the last minute that he would attend an economic summit in Brasilia, but never showed up. Silva, a 57-year-old former union leader, will govern Latin America's largest country and counts Castro and Chavez among his friends. [End]
……………..In the tri-border area of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, Middle East terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hizballah train terrorists and conduct fundraising activities in an area which has a growing population of Middle Eastern and South Asian immigrants. Funds raised in the tri-border area are sent directly to the Middle East to support the operation of these organization, possibly even the planning and execution of terrorist acts. I have no doubt that funds raised in the tri-border area have made it to the pockets of Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. Afghanistan produces 75 percent of the world's heroin. The Taliban reaps tremendous profits from such trade and use them to sponsor Osama Bin Laden and other terrorists. As Americans, we must recognize that fighting the war on drugs is tantamount to fighting the war on terrorism. Every time an American boy buys cocaine or heroin, they are directly funding the terrorists who are responsible for the deaths of over 6,000 innocent Americans.
Today, the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere will hear from a distinguished panel of official witnesses who will provide us with important testimony about the type of terrorist organizations operating in our hemisphere, the links between international terror and drug trafficking, and the efforts of the OAS and its member states to help our nation win the war on terrorism. While I have no doubt that these panelists will provide the Subcommittee with excellent testimony, I am profoundly troubled that Otto Reich has yet to be confirmed as the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. At this time, the President needs to have his nominee confirmed and in place to fight both drug trafficking and terrorism in Latin America.
……………..Mr. STRUBLE. There are large expatriate populations in a number of areas in Latin America. The tri-border region has been mentioned before. There is also Santa Margarita Island in Venezuela, the Colon Free Trade Zone in Panama, and then a number of others throughout the hemisphere. We are quite concerned about the possibility or in some instances the certainty of financial transactions from these areas supporting terrorist groups in the Middle East. Mr. Mack alluded before to the efforts of INL over a number of years to give countries the tools, help them develop the tools, and work multilaterally in this hemisphere to control money laundering through more effective sharing of financial transaction information.****
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.