Murder, Terror, and Marxist Gasoline
October 23, 2003
By Toby Westerman
Copyright 2003 International News Analysis Today
www.inatoday.com
The Marxist oriented government of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is supplying money and passports to Al Qaeda, and conducting a reign of terror against its own people, according to the pro-democracy group Militares Democraticos.
Chavez's activities are of particular importance to the American public, because Venezuela owns a 100 percent share in one of America's largest gasoline suppliers, CITGO. Money going to CITGO could find its way to the support of terror or Chavez's Marxist dreams.
Venezuela, one of the world's largest oil suppliers, is also participating in joint ventures with ExxonMobile, Amerada Hess, and ConocoPhillips.
Militares Democraticos, an association of military officers dedicated to the end of the Chavez regime, accused the Venezuelan government of providing money and 300 passports to Al Qaeda agents, and of giving the Marxist guerrilla's in neighboring Colombia safe haven from Colombian army attacks.
Chavez is also charged with the ambush of two dissident army officers, the murder of three others along with their girlfriends, and the jailing without specific charge of General Alfonzo Martinez, the oldest of Venezuela's active generals.
Martinez joined the anti-Chavez movement only after he attended a meeting with Chavez during which time plans were outlined for "turning Venezuela into a terrorist haven and Cuban-style dictatorship," according to Militares Democraticos.
Other Chavez dissidents are in exile or in hiding. One exile, Juan Diaz, told Militares Democraticos that as Chavez's personal pilot, he was present at a meeting during which Chavez agreed to send millions of dollars to Al Qaeda, disguised as humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
Another exile, Marcos Ferreira, is former head of Venezuela's Passport and Identification Card Administration. Ferreira revealed that the Chavez government provided false identities and Venezuelan passports to some 300 "Arab subversives." Among those receiving passports were individuals on the FBI's terror watch list who had received special protection from Chavez's secret police, according to Militares Democraticos.
Chavez is an open admirer of North Korea, as well as Castro's Cuba, and is believed to have aspirations to acquire nuclear weapons capability.
Riding a wave of leftist sentiment in Latin America, Chavez is in close contact with President Lula da Silva of Brazil and President Nestor Kirchner of Argentina, both recently elected and admirers of Communist Cuba.
Chavez is urging other Latin American leaders to unite into a single nation, a concept first advocated by the Latin American liberator, Simón Bolívar.
An admirer of Bolívar, Chavez changed the full name of Venezuela to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the name appearing on official CITGO corporate documents.
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