CHAVEZ-FARC-HEZBOLLAH CONNECTION

DIOS LOS CRIA Y ELLOS SE JUNTAN.....

From Washington DC.
A May 2006 report written by Andy Webb-Vidal (1) illustrates how Venezuela has become an important transit point for drugs leaving Colombia, due to the tolerance shown to FARC and ELN guerrilla leaders by the government of Hugo Chavez. The government has allegedly resisted the extradition of prominent Colombian drug trafficker Mateo Holguin Ovalle while other FARC leaders, including Diego Montoya Sanchez, Wilber Varela Fajardo, Juan Carlos Ramírez and Salomon Camacho Mora are thought to be based in Venezuela. Webb-Vidal adds that Venezuelan National Guard Generals Alex Maneiro and Frank Morgado have been denied U.S. visas because of their involvement with drug trafficking. Former member of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Julio Montoya, affirms (2): “there are as many as 500 FARC members residing in Venezuela” and claims that these members have been nationalized and carry Venezuelan identification. The same report says that, in October 20, 2006, Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Consuelo Araujo accused Venezuela of “harboring FARC Field Commander Luciano Marín Arango”.
The Rodrigo Granda Affair.
The strength of this connection was brought forcefully to light in downtown Caracas, December 13, 2004, when “Foreign Minister” of FARC, Rodrigo Granda, was grabbed by Colombian and Venezuelan bounty hunters and taken to Colombia. Granda had been attending the Second Bolivarian People’s Congress when he was kidnapped. He had been living in Caracas for two years and had been given Venezuelan citizenship by the government, even voting for Chavez during the 2004 presidential referendum (3). From his Venezuelan haven Granda traveled all over Latin America, asking for support for the Colombian terrorist guerrillas. Granda is still being sought by Paraguayan authorities for the kidnapping and assassination of the daughter of former Paraguayan President Raul Cubas.
Ideological and operational affinities.
The ideological affinity of Hugo Chavez and the Colombian terrorists has been openly admitted by number-two leader of FARC Raul Reyes, in an interview given to Argentinean newspaper “Clarin”, (4). He said: “I admire the Venezuelan government, a revolutionary government that wants to become socialist and has significant resources that are using very well”. This ideological affinity and operational connections have been well documented by a U.S. News and World Report (5) that cites the intense shipment of weapons from Venezuela to FARC and how the Colombian guerrillas find sanctuary in Venezuela and are actually trained in Venezuelan soil by Venezuelan army officers. Guns, the report adds, are frequently traded for drugs by the Venezuelan armed forces, while some of the Chavez’s violent Bolivarian circles are trained by FARC. Human Rights Watch Executive Director Jose Miguel Vivanco, interviewed by the Voice of America in 2005 (6), said that he had tried, unsuccesfully, to impress upon Chavez the inconvenience of his connection with FARC. Still today Venezuela does not consider FARC a terrorist organization.
Chavez’s former top military adviser Alberto Muller Rojas does not deny that FARC uses Venezuela as a haven, but he says (7): “Stopping them is not our job. We don’t have to incur expenses to contain an enemy that is not our enemy. That is their job [meaning the Colombian government]”.
Chavez’s connection with terrorism extends beyond Colombia.
A report presented to the U.S. Congress by the House Homeland Security sub-committee (8), stated: “The Venezuelan government has issued thousands of identity cards to people from places such as Cuba, Colombia and Middle Eastern nations that host foreign terrorist organizations”. These documents, adds the report, can be used to obtain Venezuelan passports and American visas so that holders can enter the United States. Chairman of the sub-committee Michael McCaul, R-Texas, says: “We know that Hezbollah operatives have been given safe haven in Venezuela” and added: “We apprehended five Pakistanis on the U.S.-Mexico border with fraudulent Venezuelan documents”.
The Chavez’s regime is providing a refuge for Colombian terrorist and drug trafficking organizations and seems to be promoting significant illicit drug and human traffic into the United States. These activities represent a major threat both to hemispheric political stability and to U.S. national security.

References.
1. Andy Webb Vidal, “South American Cocaine trafficking shifts operations towards Venezuela”, Jane’s Intelligence Review, May 2006.
2. “Power and Interest News Report”, “FARC’s Presence outside Colombia has not diminished”, November 10, 2006.
3. Juan Forero, “Capture of Rebel divides Latin American Neighbors”, The New York Times, January 23, 2005.
4. CLARIN, Buenos Aires. “Las FARC expresan apoyo al Polo Democrático”, Septiembre 24, 2007.
5. Linda Robinson, “In oil-rich Venezuela, a volatile leader befriends bad actors from the Mideast, Colombia and Cuba”, U.S. News and World Report, September 28, 2007.
6. News VOA.com, “Venezuela-The New Cuba?” March 2, 2005, interview with Jose Miguel; Vivanco, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch.
7. Los Angeles Times, “Intrigues of Colombia-Venezuela relations”, June 15, 2007.
8. WorldNetDaily.com, “Invasion USA”, October 26, 2006.