Posted on 07/04/2005 1:11:41 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
BEJUMA, Venezuela - In this deceptively tranquil farming village, people still talk about the ''Bejuma massacre'' in a whisper, partly because one man who spoke out is in a grave, partly because the killers were allegedly policemen.
But the source of the fear can be summed up in a single word: drug trafficking, on the kind of massive level and involving corrupt government officials that has long been a profound problem in neighboring Colombia.
Drug seizures in Venezuela doubled in the past four years. There are mounting allegations of drug-fueled corruption at the highest levels of the security forces, accompanied by what appears to be official indifference. Just last month, a suspected Colombian trafficker wanted in the United States escaped from a Venezuelan police lockup after allegedly bribing his guards.
The rising drug trafficking has become yet another sore point in relations between the Bush administration and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, a fiery populist who has repeatedly accused the U.S. government of trying to topple him.
''There are a few people who see [drugs] as a global problem, but those people are few and far between,'' said one Western counter-drug official who asked for anonymity because he did not have official permission to speak publicly on the topic.
Venezuela has long been a transit country for illegal Colombian drugs. But record seizures in 2004 that reached 32 tons of cocaine and 12 tons of heroin and marijuana put authorities on the alert.
''The organizations have grown more sophisticated,'' Mildred Camero, former head of CONACUID, the drug-fighting arm of the Venezuelan government, told a news conference earlier this year.
CARTEL ALLEGATIONS
Still, CONACUID and other law enforcement agencies have arrested few major traffickers and say they know of no Venezuelan cartels -- information that numerous police and counter-drug officials in Colombia contradict.
Venezuelan authorities indeed at times blame their neighbors for the scourge. ''We have problems because we have countries that produce [drugs] along our border and there are weaknesses along that border because it's nearly 1,300 miles long,'' Camero told the news conference.
Colombia's drugs flow to other parts of the world on land and air routes through areas such as the Venezuelan state of Carabobo, where Bejuma is located, on the Caribbean Coast. Police describe Carabobo as a key link in the chain that sends tons of cocaine, marijuana and growing amounts of heroin to the United States and Europe.
And with the growing volume has come more drug-related violence and corruption at increasingly higher levels.
''There's been a huge transformation,'' said a foreign diplomat in Caracas who asked that he not be identified because of the sensitivity of his job. ``The corruption is reaching levels we've just never seen before.''
THE GONZALEZ CASE
The problem was nowhere more visible than in the case of suspected trafficker Eudo González, who according to neighbors often threw parties for police and allowed them to use a firing range on his Bejuma ranch.
But the heavily armed police and intelligence officers who showed up at his gate on Feb. 11, 2004, were not looking to party. By the time they were done, González and at least five of his employees were dead -- killed in a ''shootout'' that left not a scratch on any of the cops.
González and his brother Hermágoras were well known to counter-drug officials. A court in Virginia indicted Eudo on heroin charges in the mid-1990s. And officials of two foreign lawenforcement agencies told The Herald he was involved in drugs, gun-running and money-laundering, and could be Venezuela's top trafficker.
But the González brothers allegedly enjoyed the friendship of law enforcement officials far beyond the parties at Eudo's ranch.
When the police killed Eudo, he was carrying a National Guard identification card signed by the Guard's former head of intelligence, Gen. Alexis Maneiro, according to reports published by Mauro Marcano, a newspaper columnist and local radio program host in the small town of Maturín. Marcano also served as a municipal councilman in Maturín, a town in the region east of Bejuma where Maneiro once headed the National Guard detachment.
JOURNALIST KILLED
Marcano, 55, who was shot and killed by a gunman in September as he left his apartment, had long alleged the existence of a drug-smuggling group dubbed the Cartel of the Suns after the insignias of rank worn by Venezuelan generals -- as U.S. generals wear stars.
One foreign diplomat in Caracas familiar with anti-drug operations described the cartel as ``a large group of generals in the army and the National Guard, especially . . . They control a certain number of shipments out of Colombia, and they get a cut of those shipments.''
The Western counter-drug official who asked for anonymity estimated that the group might be responsible for three-to-five tons of cocaine a month and 20-30 kilograms of heroin.
Venezuelan government officials have said little on the topic.
After The Herald made several attempts to interview Gen. Frank Morgado, head of the National Guard's anti-narcotics command, about the Maneiro case, Morgado responded via fax that his unit ''has no information relating to that matter.'' He suggested consulting ``the relevant authorities.''
Maneiro did not return repeated Herald phone calls to his office.
But the National Guard's own commitment to the fight against drugs has come under question.
EXITING THE TASK FORCE
Earlier this year, Guardsmen unexpectedly seized U.S.-donated equipment and vehicles from a mixed police-and-judicial investigative unit and withdrew from the task force, which works closely with U.S. officials. After several weeks of haggling, the Guard returned the equipment but has not rejoined the task force.
And last month, the government abruptly removed Camero -- one of the key U.S. allies in the government, according to officials at the American embassy here -- from her post at CONACUID. Also ousted were two senior officials in the prosecutor's office with oversight of drug cases.
''There have been some recent bumps in the road,'' U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela William Brownfield acknowledged to The Herald last month.
Gen. Maneiro's career has not prospered since the Marcano killing. Shortly afterward, he was removed from his post as commander of the Guard's 7th Region, which includes Maturín, and assigned to run the National Guard academy in Caracas.
But investigators have not questioned him or any other senior military and police figures previously fingered by Marcano, according to Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based independent group that tracks abuses against journalists.
''The investigation,'' said one of its recent reports, ``has come to a complete halt.''
Marcano, 55, who was shot and killed by a gunman in September as he left his apartment, had long alleged the existence of a drug-smuggling group dubbed the Cartel of the Suns after the insignias of rank worn by Venezuelan generals -- as U.S. generals wear stars.
Hugo Chavez
Venezuela Outsources Intelligence Activities to Cuba ***The chummy relationship between President Chavez and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro seems to be growing even closer. Venezuela is outsourcing to Cuba two important government functions: publicizing the regime abroad, and secretly policing it at home.
On December 22,Venezuela enacted a law granting Cuban judicial and security forces extensive police powers within Venezuela, Miami's El Nuevo Herald reported Sunday. Under the new code, Cuban officials are allowed to investigate, seize, detain, and interrogate Venezuelans and Cubans living in the Bolivarian Republic. Suspects taken into Cuban custody in Venezuela could be extradited to the island and tried there without any assurance that they would be returned to Venezuela.
Allowing officials in Mr. Castro's dictatorship authority to conduct police operations in Venezuela, reported the Spanish-language Herald, has raised concern that Venezuela is no longer safe for the 30,000 Cubans living there, especially members of the anti-Castro opposition.
To Cuban-American Otto Reich, who has served at the State Department and as the American ambassador to Venezuela under President Reagan, the new law also bodes ill for Venezuelan sovereignty.
"Cubans are running Venezuelan intelligence services, indoctrinating and training the military - and now this," Mr. Reich told The New York Sun on Monday. "Whoever heard of one country allowing another country to have police powers? It's one thing to have extradition; it's another to have this," Mr. Reich added.............***
You're kidding! Drugs linked to the Venezuelan Communists. Perish the thought! In other news, Russia and China just put out a joint declaration that the USA shouldn't meddle in other nations affairs. Do you suppose they're connected???
Welcome to the new Guajira.
And we all know what happened to him.
Cali dope used to flow out of Puerto Cabello frequently back 15 years ago.
It goes on and on.
This ship was loaded in Puerto Cabello, VZ. Got bagged for unloading 5 tons of blow off the Jersey Coast to a Gambino Crew that had a rat in the bunch.
The reward for the snitch was around 2M. Largest maritime bust in US history at the time. The ship unloaded the dope and went down to Delaware River to wait for the Port Captain. (who was totally ignorant of the side venture) The ship was scheduled for drydock.
The crew all got 15-20 years no parole.
One of the Gambinos killed himself in the joint so I heard.
That boat came out of Puerto Cabello with a legit cargo as cover chartered by a shipping agent out of Baranquilla Colombia who was a front for the Cali-Orejuela-Rodriguez-Urdinola gang. (all now bagged except Urdinola who is still thriving I hear)....which all means that dope had to get from the llanos of Colombia to the Venezuelan coastline somehow eh?
Shipping anywhere in Latin America or the Caribbean means dope is around...it's that simple. I bet those NAFTA trucks are doing the same whether they know it or not
Here's the ship now....relaxing...lol
http://www.njscuba.net/reefs/chart_09_atlantic_city.html#BlueCrown
Thanks for the details.
When consensual acts are criminalized, inflated profits wind up in criminal hands and bribes are paid and taken ... it's an iron law of human nature.
Let me guess....
You want legalization of drugs.
LOL! I hope Chavez likes loud music.
Wouldn't the lefties just have an absolute stroke?
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