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So much stuff, so little
time. The last 72 hours have been whirlwind of events and information to
digest, but it becomes simply impossible to write about everything going on.
While everyone has concentrated on Chavez kicking out the US Ambassador,
nobody seems to wonder why it is that Hugo always kicks out Ambassadors over
fuzzy issues which you can blame on anyone but the Ambassador, but continues
having relations, commercial and otherwise with the respective countries, only
to later kiss and make up in each case.
The answer is obvious;
because Chavez would not dare t break relations that could have a real impact.
In fact, the silly communiqu issued by the Foreign Minister gives Chavez 72
hours to leave the country from almost the second the autocrat ordered it, but
waitthis just in
US Ambassador Frank Duddy
was not in Venezuela
and the Chavez administration knew it, but you have to get theatrical over the
whole thing and that was all they were really doing.
And from all that I have
gathered, it was all first class theater. You see, it appears as if somehow
with the aid of the Cuban G2, the Chavez Government got wind of the sanctions against
the heads of the Civilian and Military Intelligence services of Venezuela and
Chavez Minister of the Interior (when he found out what was coming he removed
him). Thus, in the face of this possibility Chavez decided to act first, to
make it look as if the sanctions were coming in retaliation to Chavez
expulsion of Ambassador Duddy and his not so friendly speech on nationwide TV.
Thus, while Chavez may be
indeed planning to stop the elections somehow, and we may see a link to this
accusation of someone trying to ill him as the basis for arrests that will lead
to a scenario of no elections, the truth is that the theatrics surrounding
Duddys expulsion seemed exclusively aimed at diluting the impact of the
accusations against.
Because the sanctions
against the trio of Venezuelan high officials originate in the infamous Reyes
computer where the three are named in various sections. In fact, I have covered
before in these pages how deeply involved Venezuelas former Minister of the
Interior (twice) Ramon Rodriguez Chain has been involved with the FARC. His
contacts and connections with the FARC date to the 80s and there has been
ample documentation on it, including him publicly welcoming FARC leaders to
Venezuela, getting them Venezuelan papers and his now infamous words of
encouragement to the FARC guerrillas as he led the rescue of some hostages,
which was covered by a Telesur video camera.
We had mentioned before
that FARC papers explicitly mentioned Rodriguez Chacin for offering the FARC
weapons in exchange for training, as well as a famous note by the FARC, saying
that Rodriguez Chacin was truly a badass, which must have some meaning coming
from such badasses as the FARC.
Well, here is the what the
Treasury Department had to say about Rodriguez Chacin, who BTW, in his
first installment as Minister of the Interior was later found to have two sets
of Venezuelan cedula umber and under the second one he held an account in a
local bank with something like one and a half million dollars at the official
rate of exchange:
Ramon Emilio Rodriguez
Chacin, who was Venezuela’s
Minister of Interior and Justice until September 8, is the Venezuelan
government’s main weapons contact for the FARC. The FARC uses its proceeds from
narcotics sales to purchase weapons from the Venezuelan government.
Rodriguez Chacin has held numerous meetings with senior FARC members, one of
which occurred at the Venezuelan government’s Miraflores Palace
in late 2007. Rodriguez Chacin has also assisted the FARC by trying to
facilitate a $250 million dollar loan from the Venezuelan government to the
FARC in late 2007. We cannot confirm whether the loan materialized.
And then there is the Head
of the Civilian Intelligence Police General Henry Rangel Silva, who has held
the position for the last three years and who has appeared prominently in the
Maletagate trial as having been in charge of solving the case for Chavez and
PDVSA. Rangel has been involved in rescuing Venezuelan cattlemen who later
turned out to have been kidnapped by the FARC, He also appeared in some
documents where he was supposedly coordinating attacks on Colombian
paramilitary with the FARC. Here is the accusation against him by the Treasury
Department:
Henry de Jesus Rangel
Silva, the Director of Venezuela’s Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention
Services or DISIP, is in charge of intelligence and counterintelligence
activities for the Venezuelan government. Rangel Silva has
materially assisted the narcotics trafficking activities of the FARC. He
has also pushed for greater cooperation between the Venezuelan government and
the FARC.
Note in particular the
statement that General Rangel Silva has materially assisted the trafficking of
narcotics by the FARC. Now, may skeptics may suggest this are trumped up
charges, but given the dramatic increase in drug trafficking via Venezuela in
the last ten years, it is clear some higher ups have to be helping it.
Finally, there are the
accusations against the Head of the Military Intelligence Services General
Carvajal Barrios, who has been part of that service for the last eight years.
He has been in charge of the accusations of assassination attempts and coup
plots, producing not a single convicted person in the previous 28 cases
investigated and this week is the first time that he has found someone he could
detain. (They could still be set free!):
Hugo Armando Carvajal
Barrios is the Director of Venezuela’s
Military Intelligence Directorate (DGIM). His assistance to the FARC
includes protecting drug shipments from seizure by Venezuelan anti-narcotics
authorities and providing weapons to the FARC, allowing them to maintain their
stronghold of the coveted Arauca Department. Arauca, which is
located on the Colombia/Venezuela border, is known for coca cultivation and
cocaine production. Carvajal Barrios also provides the FARC with official
Venezuelan government identification documents that allow FARC members to
travel to and from Venezuela
with ease.
Carvajals case was
documented from Reyes computers, which has been certified by Interpol as not
having any evidence of tampering, but has also led to arrests of FARC
collaborators in Colombia, Thailand and Central
America.
What is
most interesting about these sanctions is that it orders the assets of the
three men in the US frozen, something that should really instill fear in those
robolutionaries who maintain significant assets in the US (It is not that
they are dumb, they thought they were untouchable!) and could show up in a list
at any time, either via the Miami trial or further evidence from the FARC. You
see, the Miami trial involves not only corrupt civilians that paid commissions
to Government officials for contracts, bank deposits and influence, but these
guys in turn acted as fronts for many of the same officials and managed their
money for a nice fee of 20% per year. Many of these guys thought they were set
for life even if Chavez
The Devil's Excrement 