Posted on 04/18/2003 12:41:05 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - A bomb exploded in western Venezuela near the frontier with Colombia on Wednesday, damaging the headquarters of a local ranchers' association which had denounced cross-border activity by leftist Colombian rebels, witnesses and police said.
No one was injured in the early morning explosion which tore through the car park and the entrance of the building in San Cristobal in Tachira state, shattering windows and scattering debris.
Officials said two men were arrested in connection with the explosion.
The blast came four days after a bomb badly damaged a Caracas office building where Venezuelan government and opposition leaders have held talks to try to end their bitter feud over the rule of leftist President Hugo Chavez.
Venezuela has been shaken by political tensions and violence for more than a year as Chavez and his opponents feud over his self-styled "revolution." Opposition leaders are demanding the former paratrooper allow early elections.
Five people were injured last month when two bombs exploded at the Spanish Embassy cooperation office and the Colombian consulate building in Caracas. No-one claimed responsibility for those bomb attacks.
Ranchers and landowners in Tachira, on Venezuela's porous frontier with Colombia, complain the government has not done enough to stop leftist Colombian guerrillas and crime gangs from carrying out killings, kidnappings and extortion.
The government has denied persistent allegations by Colombian officials, and by domestic political foes, that it allows guerrillas to operate in Venezuelan territory. Caracas says Colombia is not doing its part to protect its border.
Repeated tit-for-tat accusations over frontier security have soured relations between the Andean neighbors ahead of a scheduled meeting next week between Chavez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in Puerto Ordaz in eastern Venezuela.
Nine hurt in car bomb blast*** A CAR bomb has exploded just blocks away from a Chevron office in a Venezuelan oil field, officials said. Local firefighter chief Ali Gil said nine people, among them a local strike leader, were injured in the blast at the Maracaibo field. The car, which was said to be "full of explosives", was parked outside the home of Antonio Melian. He participated in the crippling oil workers' strike designed to oust President Hugo Chavez, and police described him as "a very controversial figure" in the area.***
Panic As Blast Destroys Venezuela Office Building Site of Negotiations *** CARACAS, Venezuela - A pre-dawn bomb blast ripped through the building where Venezuela's government and opposition have been negotiating a peace agreement, destroying three floors but injuring no one. The attack at about 2:45 a.m. Saturday came one day after the Organization of American States brokered a deal between the government and opposition to work toward a referendum on President Hugo Chavez's rule. Federal police chief Carlos Medina said the attack may have been politically motivated. An opposition negotiator said the blast was intended to intimidate his delegation at the talks, while the government blamed "coup-plotting" sectors of the opposition.
The explosion destroyed the first three floors of the Teleport building in central Caracas, shattering windows, destroying the entrance and twisting steel gates. Elevator cables hung from the facade and broken glass, roof tiles and light fixtures littered the ground. ***
Authorities investigate terror link - Venezuelan al-Qaida operative***Latin America's loose borders, weak legal systems and poor regional cooperation have long allowed some areas to become minor havens for activities linked to international terrorism. Venezuela's Margarita Island, a tourist destination with a large Arab population, has been identified as a source of funding and site of money laundering for the Hezbollah and Hamas militant groups.
Venezuela - Colombian consulate and Spain's Embassy hit by blasts*** Explosions hit a Spanish Embassy building and the Colombian consulate just a day after President Hugo Chavez, whose self-styled 'Bolivarian Revolution' aims to help the poor, accused the United States and Spain of siding with his enemies and warned Colombia he might break off diplomatic relations. There were no immediate reports of casualties. ***
***The terrorist bombings at the Spanish Embassy and Colombian Embassy yesterday were also perpetrated in Mr. Chavez's name. Leaflets scattered at both sites said, "Our revolution will not be negotiated, only deepened." Interestingly, Mr. Chavez had recently lashed out against the governments of Spain, the United States and Colombia for criticizing the Chavez administration. "I ask of all of the countries of this continent and the world . . . Are you going to stop this meddling?" He said, "It's worth remembering that the Spanish ambassador was here, in this room, applauding the [April] coup," and added, "We say the same thing to the government in Washington. Stop making mistakes." ***
A Venezuelan police state***The timing of the bombings, which injured five persons, was not lost on the White House. "We note that these bombings followed the sharp verbal attacks by President Chavez on the international community as well as Venezuelans," said State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker.
Any of these recent incidents is worrisome enough. Collectively, they suggest that the current Venezuelan government is not merely a left-wing populist regime, but may be evolving into a police state. If Mr. Chavez does not pull back into constitutional government, it will be a tragedy for the Venezuelan people and the beginning of a substantial foreign-policy danger for the hemisphere.***
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A Terrorist Regime Waits In The Wings
Venezuela Military Becomes Embroiled in Colombian War - Bombs Village In Support of FARC*** LA GABARRA, Colombia -- Maria, a wizened 57-year-old farmer's wife, lives in a plank-board shack in Santa Isabel, a village on the River of Gold that serves as Colombia's muddy border with Venezuela. Shortly after breakfast one day last month, she and several dozen families watched grimly as Colombia's long war arrived swiftly along Santa Isabel's single dirt street. Violence has washed over the village for years, but never in the way she witnessed that sweltering March 21.
Maria and a dozen frightened neighbors said hundreds of guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) attacked their town from Venezuela, crossing the river to engage an anti-guerrilla paramilitary force occupying several riverside villages. Within an hour, Maria saw Venezuelan military aircraft swoop over her village to bomb paramilitary positions inside Colombia supporting the rebel advance.***
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