Peru Shaman Sees Iraq War, Venezuela Vote in 2003

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - A Peruvian shaman seeking to divine the future staged an elaborate ritual on Monday with potions, skulls and incantations, and came up with what many people have gathered from watching television -- war with Iraq is almost certain in 2003.

Juan Osco, dubbed the "Shaman of the Andes," led six other poncho-clad soothsayers in a New Year's ritual of invoking the gods, spitting and spraying garishly colored potions and strewing flower petals to the beats of drums and rattles on a hill overlooking Lima decked with skulls, shells and beads.

The shamans, from various parts of Peru, gathered on Sunday night to drink potions made of the hallucinogenic tropical vine ayahuasca and the cactus San Pedro -- brews which they say tap into the spiritual and allow "maestros" to see the future.

Then, in Monday's brilliant sunshine with their charms laid out on the ground and fragrant smoke filling the air, they gathered with hands outstretched to the sky to urge the gods to grant a peaceful 2003. Onlookers watched, mostly bemused.

The omens are not good. "War (in Iraq) is almost inevitable, that's what the United States wants," said the black-bearded Osco, wearing colorful poncho, a black hat and a necklace of large lizard's teeth to ward off evil.

"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.

As for the U.S.-led war on terror, the shamans beat and set fire to an effigy of Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born militant whose al Qaeda network is blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States and other strikes, in a symbolic punishment.

But Osco said: "He (bin Laden) won't be captured or handed over to the United States. He's going to remain a mystery."

The shamans also cast petals over photographs of famous people -- including Brazilian soccer star Ronaldo and Zarai, Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo's newly acknowledged teen-age daughter -- to bring them good fortune in 2003.

Osco, who says there are 4,000 shamans in this Andean country where traditional spiritualism coexists with fervent Roman Catholicism, said his 2002 forecasts were 80 percent accurate, but stressed: "We're not infallible."

Castro and Chavez compare good luck necklaces.

Hugo Chavez - Venezuela

Fidel Castro - Cuba

Grass-roots support for Chávez feeds his resolve - "He cares about us."

Sept. 30, 2001- Petroleum World - Chavez's New Situation For President Chávez, the decision is awfully difficult. He is of the conviction that he is one of the main political players of the world. That he's recognized as a leader called upon to promote the universal struggle against globalization and neoliberalism.

No one ignores that his efforts helped in the rebuilding of OPEC, whose head, Alí Rodríguez, -a man of his trust- was his choice for the position. To bring OPEC back to life he went to Baghdad to talk to Saddan Hussein andto condemn the embargo against Irak. He went to Libya to meet with Gaddafi at the residential ruins because of U. S. missiles in 1989 and to offer his fraternal solidarity. He brought Mohammed Khatami to Caracas and later visited him in Teheran, in the process of reaching concrete and strong agreements with Iran. The most important was the making of the axis of a powerful alliance to turn oil into a strategic element against globalization.

A momentous choice is before him. As President he has journeyed the entire planet blaming globalization and neoliberalism as the root of the pain of peoples. In all scenarios he has said that savage capitalism breeds on the power of an empire who practices it and imposes it on others. A new balance in world power is indispensable to humanize globalization and slow down neoliberalism. He believes to have conquered universal admiration in the frontal, daily battle against unipolarity. Does the empire hope to have us bring down the flags?

In the 48 hours following the terrorist attack he vanishes from sight. He would later say that he was in meditation. How can he forget that Fidel has delivered to him the relay symbols, ushering him as the rising leader in the battle against the empire? How can it be forgotten that Ghadaffi has pointed to him as the head of a new movement to conquer the dignity of imperialism's oppressed peoples? How not to recall that wondrous day in Malaysia, when rulers of 77 countries asked him to lead Southern nations in their renewed efforts towards justice and equity? Or the mail exchange with famous fellow Venezuelan Carlos Ilich Ramírez -"EL Chacal"- for whose extradiction so much has been done by the Ambassador to Paris? In his lonely reflection he turns his sight onto a magazine on his desk: The New Yorker with the 22 page report written by Jon Lee Anderson. The President has read it several times. He reads again the final paragraphs.

"Chávez acknowledged that there is still misunderstanding and confusion in the U. S. over his policies. On this he said: "Until recently, what was under discussion, here and abroad, was to appease Chávez." Let's be nice to him to see if we can tame him" easily.

But it seems this beast is not too easy to tame." He lowered his voice and, this time, he did not smile. "This is an ideological conviction of mine and nothing will change that."***

Fidel, Saddam and Hugo --An improbable but growing friendship of three military revolutionaries*** Mr. Chávez is the most intriguing new leader to emerge in Latin America since Mr. Castro - and he is the lynchpin between Mr. Castro and Mr. Saddam. Although Cuba had been sending doctors and health workers to Iraq for years, there had not been any major contacts between the two countries until Mr. Chávez appeared on the scene. This fall, Mr. Chávez became the first democratically elected foreign head of state to visit Iraq since the Gulf War, ostensibly to invite Mr. Saddam to a summit of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. But it also was an in-your face gesture toward the United States.***

Crude oil prices decline, but worries remain*** The threat of simultaneous supply disruptions pulled world oil prices to two-year highs on Monday, but news that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries was ready to raise output sparked a selloff that some analysts said was to be expected. "You have war and Venezuela premiums of $6 to $8 dollars built in," said analyst Bill O'Grady with AG Edwards. "Eventually, someone is going to take their money off the table." After markets closed, the American Petroleum Institute reported that crude inventories and imports fell sharply last week, sending a strong signal about the impact of the nationwide strike in oil-rich Venezuela.***

9/11: Chavez financed Al Qaeda, details of $1M donation emerge***The day after the attack, September 12, Chavez supporters publicly burned the Stars and Stripes in the main square of Caracas in an outburst of gleeful satisfaction over the attacks. The organizer of the Plaza Bolivar protest, Lina Ron (a.k.a. "Rosa", born 9/23/59 in Anaco, Anzoátegui state), received public praise from Chavez. Unknown to the press, Lina Ninette Ron Pereira had been on the payroll of Caracas governor Hernan Gruber Odreman, ever since Chavez appointed him head of the Distrito Federal in 1999. She is still employed by Chavez, today working for Caracas borough mayor Freddy Bernal of Chavez's MVR party. There, she is in charge of a "cultural center" which mobilizes masses for pro-Chavez demonstrations and is active in breaking up opposition events.

$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.***

Ah, Miss Cleo. I hear her pockets are quite a bit lighter these days. It's amazing how many people believe in this nonsence but they do and that makes it worth watching.

Chavez's image taken off altars *** Lately, Chavez declared himself a member of a charismatic congregation, thus allegedly belonging to his country's fastest-growing branch of Christianity. But then he angered the country's National Catholic Bishops Conference by communing at a Mass organized by a priest of pro-Communist leanings.***

CASTRO'S FEAR OF SANTERO'S PROPHECY: If Elian remains in exile, Fidel Castro will fall ***As soon as the Santeros learned of Elian's fate (the boy had been rescued at sea, saved from sharks by the appearance of dolphins and after 48 hours in the water under a blazing sun did not show the burns and sores typical of those rescued at sea), they declared that he was a divine Elegua and that if he remained in Miami -- in other words, in exile -- Fidel Castro ``would fall.'' The Elegua had to be returned to Cuba for the protection of an atheist dictator who believes all of the Santeros' prophecies. Soon after these predictions became known, Castro began his speeches, roaring threateningly, as he always does. Then the marches began, with thousands of little flags suddenly appearing, in addition to (another miracle) identical T-shirts with a likeness of the boy's face, so that he could appear over every Cuban's heart (or at least on their shirts). All sorts of Cubans, captive and free, marched.

As time goes by, the prophecies of the Santeros are becoming increasingly gloomy: Without the child there will be no Castro. Is anyone surprised that an erstwhile Marxist-Leninist believes in prophecies? Hitler, no less a secularist, believed in the auguries of his personal astrologer. We must remember that it is Fidel Castro and his squandering of lives and property that has caused millions of Cubans to flee, dividing not only families but also the Cuban people. He did not react this furiously when one of his torpedo boats attacked and sank the tugboat Trece de Marzo just off the Cuban coast. Forty persons drowned in this unnatural disaster, among them 10 children. The government has not expressed a single regret over the tragedy.

Why all the noise and all the threats this time, over the return of a boy who was saved from drowning? The only explanation is the incoherence of a man who is struggling with the inevitable: his disappearance and the end of his tyranny and his life. After all, other Cuban dictators, from Gen. Gerardo Machado to Juan Batista, also turned to acts of sorcery in their hours of need. ***

Michael Kelly: 2003 Through the Looking Glass ***Carter Returns Nobel Peace Prize 'Too, Too Ridiculous,' Ex-Prez Says PLAINS, Ga., March 17 -- In a move that stunned veteran narcissistic personality disorder observers, a smiling Jimmy Carter today announced that he had decided to return the coveted Peace Prize awarded to him last year by the Nobel Committee. "I may be the most vainglorious, self-regarding, preachifying old coot since Henry Ward Beecher, but even I know when a joke has gone too far," said Carter. "Let's consider my contributions to world peace. In 1991, as the United States was on the very verge of war, I secretly lobbied the presidents of the United Nations Security Council nations, and also the heads of the Arab nations, to try to persuade them to scuttle my own country's efforts to build a coalition and defeat Iraq. Imagine if I had succeeded -- why, we now know Iraq was within months of building its first nuclear weapon when the war began!

"Then, I butted into Clinton's disaster in Somalia, to put together the surrender to that charmer Mohamed Farah Aideed after his boys killed 18 of our soldiers and dragged their beaten bodies through the streets. And we now know that the spectacle of the Great Satan knuckling under to a guy whose entire army consisted of 10 second-hand Jeeps directly encouraged Osama bin Laden to believe that America was ripe for capitulation on a much greater scale -- if you killed enough Americans.

"And the clincher -- Korea. Yep, I'm the boy who freelanced the 1994 agreement with the head-case of that horror show to stop his nuclear bomb program, in exchange for a whole bunch of aid from us. When reporters asked me then if it was really reasonable to expect Kim Il Sung to keep his word, given that he never had before, I said: 'This is something that's not for me to judge.' Well, of course, neither that nut-job nor his nut-job son honored the deal for one second. So now, eight years later, another American president has inherited another fine mess I got us in. "Please, take it back, and stop me before I negotiate again."***

News

9/11: Chavez financed Al Qaeda, details of $1M donation emerge

Osama Bin Laden:
9/11 made Chavez
happy.

Hugo Chavez:
Terrorism sponsor,
$1M to Al Qaeda.

His Ambassador,
Walter Marquez:
Bin Laden's link.

His pilot, Maj. Juan
Diaz Castillo: Planned
the operation, then
defected.

By Johan Freitas, in Caracas, with Luis Garcia, in Miami

High-level military defectors reveal new terrorist links between Al Qaeda and Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez. The man who control's the largest oil reserves in the Western hemisphere gave $1 million to the world's most wanted terrorist right after the 9/11 attacks.

Hugo Chavez would not admit it publicly, but in private, he was very impressed with Osama Bin Laden's work. The Venezuelan strongman publicly rails against the United States and "neo-liberal capitalism" which, according to him, represents "hell on earth". He has never visited the White House, but has instead been to China, Libya, Iraq, and Havana, Cuba.

The doublespeak of Hugo Chavez served him particularly well in the aftermath of 9/11. When he spoke to the foreign press in the days immediately after, he assured them that he was against terrorism. But locally, in his first TV broadcast, he stated that "The United States brought the attacks upon itself, for their arrogant imperialist foreign policy."
And in private, he went further still; proclaiming admiration for the terrorist attacks.
" - With 9/11, Bin Laden showed the whole world that he was a force to be reckoned with. This impressed Hugo to no end," remembers General Pedro Pereira, the highest-ranking general in the Venezuelan airforce, who was still a Chavez loyalist in 2001.

The day after the attack, September 12, Chavez supporters publicly burned the Stars and Stripes in the main square of Caracas in an outburst of gleeful satisfaction over the attacks.
The organizer of the Plaza Bolivar protest, Lina Ron (a.k.a. "Rosa", born 9/23/59 in Anaco, Anzoátegui state), received public praise from Chavez. Unknown to the press, Lina Ninette Ron Pereira had been on the payroll of Caracas governor Hernan Gruber Odreman, ever since Chavez appointed him head of the Distrito Federal in 1999. She is still employed by Chavez, today working for Caracas borough mayor Freddy Bernal of Chavez's MVR party. There, she is in charge of a "cultural center" which mobilizes masses for pro-Chavez demonstrations and is active in breaking up opposition events.

$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 me."

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.

" - Initially, the plan was not to give them money. Instead, I was asked to organize a shipment of food and clothing and send it to the government of Afghanistan."
At that time, the government of Afghanistan was the Taliban. But everyone knew that the Taliban and Al Qaeda were just two sides of the same coin. The Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan had emerged as the breeding ground for terrorists and extremist groups and the largest source of opium productions and illegal flow of narcotics in the world, posing a serious threat to the peace and stability of the whole region.
" - Chavez saw in Afghanistan a mirror of what he was trying to implement in Venezuela, and wanted a more direct opening with the Al Qaeda organization," says the Major. "He had already tried to contact them once before, in Libya, but when he personally visited Tripoli, Col. Muammar Qaddafi told Chavez that there was no direct channel of communications between him and Al Qaeda."

The aid to the Al Qaeda's camps was supposed to open the channel of communications directly. It was a way of telling Osama Bin Laden that he had a friend in Hugo Chavez.

Air Force Major Diaz Castillo started planning the logistics of sending three Hercules C-130 cargo planes from Venezuela to Afghanistan. The effort would require a large investment in time and personnel, with refueling stops on the way. He came to the conclusion that to transport the cargo to the Taliban and Al Qaeda would be more expensive than the cargo itself.

Involved in the plan was Diosdado Cabello, at the time Chavez's Chief of Staff, the foreign minister and the defense minister. They had a number of meetings, among others with the director of Civil Defense. After hearing from Diaz Castillo of the difficulties with the C-130's, Diosdado Cabello then decided to instead send $1M in cash to Venezuela's ambassador for the region, Dr Walter Marquez. He would then be entrusted with bringing it to Afghanistan.
The doctor - a sinister, wheelchair-bound figure - operates out of an office located at N-114, Panchshila Park, New Delhi, in India. He received the cash in the last week of September, 2001.

When asked at the time about his involvement, Marquez confirmed that he was in charge. " - Venezuela does not have diplomatic representation in Pakistan or Afghanistan but it is within my purview."

On October 3, 2001, a representative of the Venezuelan government then contacted Kris Janowski of the UNHCR in Pakistan. The purpose: To create a cover story of humanitarian help for the Taliban, so that there would be plausible deniability in case anyone asked about the Al Qaeda money.
According to the plan, Walter Marquez would buy and transport food from New Delhi (India) or Teheran (Iran) where Venezuela has embassies.

False identities for terrorist operatives
After Walter Marquez completed his mission, the million-dollar financing bore fruit. A line of communication to Caracas opened up.

" - The handling was then taken over by Carlos Otaiza [brother of Army Captain Elieza Otaiza Castillo, former head of Chavez's DISIP secret service.] So after that, I no longer dealt with them," says Major Diaz Castillo. But from his vantage point in the presidential palace, he still saw a lot of what was going on:
" - In the last few months of 2001, and all throughout 2002, more and more Arabs started arriving. They were always given special treatment by Chavez, Otaiza and Ramon Rodriguez Chacin". Rodriguez Chacin a Chavez-government cabinet member, and headed the Interior and Justice Ministry until the press proved that he operated with multiple identities. He is currently a party boss in the Chavez political machine.

The "special treatment" afforded to visiting Arabs even extended to fugitives. As documented by General Marcos Ferreira former head of the Onidex passport and ID-card administration and now a member of the country's pro-democracy resistance movement, Chavez-minister Rodriguez Chacin ordered him to provide false ID's to named members of foreign terrorist organizations listed by the FBI.

Now, these facts are coming out, and the military resisters are in danger. Major Juan Diaz Castillo and fellow pro-democracy resister General Nestor Gonzalez Gonzalez were the victims of a trap set by Chavez DISIP (Secret Service) agents on December 21, 2002, on the freeway between Valencia and Caracas, near the town of Guacara.
Immediately following the attempt on his life, Juan Diaz Castillo went underground. Friends in the resistence movement smuggled him out of the country the night before Christmas, in the hull of a fishing boat leaving Venezuela for Curazao, in the Dutch Antilles. There, he stayed until he could arrange safe passage to the United States. Today, safely out of reach of the Chavez death squads, he can now talk freely.

" - I must warn America about Chavez. He is a danger, not just to his own people but to the whole region," says Diaz Castillo.

Hugo Chavez is growing increasingly desperate in his hold on power, in Venezuela where a month-long general strike has cut off oil exports and his source of income.
He refuses to hold free and democratic elections, and has publicly vowed to stay in power until "at least 2021". To Chavez, it matters not what his people think:
" - Referendum to remove me? That is not possible, don't waste time. I will not go in a referendum, I say that to the country and the world. It's like this: I won't go," Hugo Chavez said in November.
" - Ah, no, no, forget about fairytales."
" - Not even if we suppose that they hold that referendum and get 90% of the votes, I will not leave. Forget it. I will not leave."
This, all, from the man who personally visited Saddam Hussein in Iraq, hugged him, and called him "my brother," and then gave one million dollars to Al Qaeda right after 9/11.

More information: MilitaresDemocraticos.com

Note: Juan Diaz Castillo, who is quoted in this article, just arrived in the United States. He can be contacted at aguila@MilitaresDemocraticos.com

December 31, 2002

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