Thirty-seven Colombians deported for alleged complot against Chávez

[Judi Lynn]

CARACAS, Monday March 09, 2009

Thirty-seven Colombians deported for alleged complot against Chávez

Politics
A group of 37 Colombians, who were deported from Venezuela for allegedly being members of a paramilitary group that attempted to assassinate President Hugo Chávez, complained of mistreatment. The Colombians, some of them considered as illegal aliens in Venezuela, were arrested by members of the Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (Disip), which is the intelligence police in Venezuela, from January 27 to Friday, March 6. They were accused of forging a plot to assassinate Chávez.

One of the deportees complained to Colombian newspaper La Opinión, published in the city of Cúcuta, that they were beaten in the house where they lived in Caracas. "They told us that we were there to kill President Chávez", EFE reported. "We were locked in a room. They did not allow us to make phone calls. The food was a mess." The fact was reported when a Colombian national learned about the detention of his fellow citizens.

http://english.eluniversal.com/2009/03/09/en_pol_art_thirty-seven-colombi_09A2247843.shtml

[Judi Lynn]

1. To refresh memory for people who've forgotten who these mercenaries are:

Barracs at the property of opposition activist Robert Alonso located in the outskirts of Caracas. Colombian paramilitaries lived there for 46 days in preparation for attacks on military bases.
Credit: Carlos Rios - Radio Nacional de Venezuela

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Is Washington planning a bloodbath in Caracas?
by Stuart Munckton
April 05, 2005

The Venezuelan government headed by President Hugo Chavez repeatedly accused the US government of planning a “new aggression” against Venezuela, including a plot to assassinate Chavez, despite pro-Chavez forces winning nine national elections in six years. Caracas claims to have information of an assassination plot to be carried out “within 100 days” against Chavez, although the government has refused to reveal its sources.*

While Washington has dismissed the accusations as “ridiculous”, further evidence was provided by a mid-March interview on Miami’s Channel 22 TV station with former CIA agent Felix Rodriguez.

A March 17 /Washington Post/ article, entitled “Anti-Bush fears assassination”, reported that the previous week “former CIA operative and prominent Bush supporter” Rodriguez, when asked by his interviewer about the assassination plot accusations, stated ‘‘that he had information about the administration's plans to 'bring about a change' in Venezuela, possibly through 'military measures’”.

Rodriguez went as far as to set out possible scenarios. He said that an air-strike aiming to kill Chavez was one possibility, pointing to the bombing raid then US President Ronald Reagan ordered in 1986 to kill Libyan President Muammer Qadhafi (Qadhafi survived the raid, but his daughter was killed). The Cuban news agency Prensa Latina reported on March 15 that in the interview Rodriguez had stated that he personally expected to participate in a CIA operation to kill Chavez.

The /Washington Post/ pointed out that “Rodriguez's remarks cannot be dismissed as bombast. He is well known in Latin America for his role advising a Bolivian military unit that captured and executed Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara in 1967. He is well-connected with the Bush family. The memory of various White House-approved, CIA-sponsored conspiracies to assassinate Fidel Castro in the 1960s may have faded in Washington but they have not in Havana or Caracas.”
(snip/…)

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=7579

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The Venezuelan elite imports soldiers
by Marta Harnecker
May 23, 2004

venezuelanalysis.com

If anything has become clear following the discovery of an incursion of a significantly large paramilitary group into the country, it is that the 'anti-Bolivarian and anti-Venezuelan oligarchy and its masters in the north' have not been able to recruit Venezuelan soldiers for their subversive objectives and 'have been forced to recruit them in another country,' as expressed President Chavez in front of tens of thousands of people, who gathered in Caracas this past Sunday, May 16th, to demonstrate their rejection of paramilitary activity and to express their support for peace.

Since 'the conspiracies against Venezuela do not end with the capture of mercenaries in Caracas,' there must be many other infiltrators in other areas of the country; since this is not an isolated action, but one whose efforts to stop the process continue, one can reach but only one conclusion: it is necessary to prepare oneself for self-defense. This is why the President considered it opportune to take advantage of the occasion and to announce three strategic lines for defending the country. The most radical proposal was a call for the population to massively participate in the defense of the nation.
A week earlier, on the 9th of May, on the outskirts of Caracas, a paramilitary force was discovered, dressed in field uniforms. Later, more were found, raising the total to 130, leaving open the possibility that there are still more in the country. The three Colombian paramilitary leaders of the group are members of the Autonomous Self-Defense Forces (AUC) in Northern Santander state in Colombia.

Some of the captured Colombian fighters have a long history as members of paramilitary forces. Others are reservists of the Colombian army and yet others were specifically recruited for the task in Venezuela and were surely tricked. Among these there are several who are minors.
(snip)
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=5579
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Uribe admits anti-Chavez plot planned in Colombia

AFP, SANTA MARTA, COLOMBIA
Monday, Dec 19, 2005, Page 7
Venezuelan former soldiers plotted against President Hugo Chavez's government at a Colombian military building, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said.
Uribe made the stunning disclosure on Saturday at the Caribbean resort town of Santa Marta where he is meeting with Chavez, and after analyzing documents furnished by Chavez.

"The Venezuelan soldiers who are in Bogota went to a building to meet with members of the Colombian military. President Chavez gave us these documents ... we analyzed them and this morning I said to President Chavez: `I must tell you the truth: this is a building of Colombia's public forces,'" he said.

Uribe said that intelligence efforts against the Venezuelan government are conducted in the building, and took full responsibility for the affair.
The two presidents met for six hours amid a climate of unusual goodwill on Saturday to discuss the purported Bogota-based conspiracy against the Venezuelan president, which Chavez first disclosed to his Colombian counterpart during a meeting in Venezuela on Nov. 24.

Seven Venezuelans involved in a 48-hour coup against Chavez in April 2002 have been linked to the new plot. Businessman Pedro Carmona, leader of the failed military-civilian coup, enjoys political asylum in Colombia, where he is working as a university professor.
(snip)

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/12/19/2003285082

[Bacchus39]

2. I believe this is the group just arrested in January, not from 4 years ago

n/t

[Bacchus39]

3. yep, you're wrong again. that large group had already been sent back in 2007

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/audio/4184

IV. Presumed Colombian Paramilitary Forces Detained in Venezuelan Capital
Venezuela's vice president, Ramon Carrizalez, announced last week that
31 Colombians, presumed to be paramilitary forces, had been detained in the Caracas suburb of Petare. Carrizalez said they were investigating the motives of their presence. The detention comes less than two weeks after six other presumed paramilitaries were detained in the nearby city of Maracay, along with weapons, grenades and, two kilograms of explosives. In May 2004 the Venezuelan government announced the detention of a group of 130 Colombian paramilitaries, most of them on a large estate near Caracas owned by opposition leader Roberto Alonso. According to President Hugo Chavez the detainees were training to lead a military uprising and assassinate him. In 2007 the last of these detainees were pardoned by Chavez and sent to Colombia as a gesture of good faith