Chavez Under Fire For Al Qaeda Financing

$1M to Al Qaeda: Front page news

All over Venezuela, ordinary voters are outraged by the latest proof of terrorist connections between their country's ruler Hugo Chavez and Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden's global terrorist network.

Sunday, the nation awoke to find the scandal top news in all states. "Financing of terrorists", screamed the huge headline of La Voz, from Miranda state. In Aragua state, El Siglo announced on its front page that "Chavez gave one million dollars to Al Qaeda". And in Carabobo state, Notitarde came out with an "Edicion Extraordinaria", a special edition, which was headlined: "Chavez gave 900 thousand dollars to Bin Laden's terrorist network". The paper referred to the $900,000 in cash for Al Qaeda and later mentioned the additional $100,000 in food and tents for the Taliban, for a total of one million in assistance. El Nacional, in Caracas, reported that the records of the investigation will be shared with the U.S. State Department in its fight against international terrorism and rogue states sponsoring terrorism.

Faced with the proof of his Al Qaeda financing, Hugo Chavez has so far maintained a complete silence. The "no comment" order extends to his entire inner circle: None of his other collaborators named in the Al Qaeda files have yet commented either. This curious silence follows the pattern of the 9/11 aftermath, when he vanished from sight for days and was the last Latin leader to make a statement.

But to the nation's press, the Chavez / Al Qaeda connection is front page news, and the embattled leader is drawing fire for not wanting to face his actions. " - Zany dictator Hugo Chavez has really gone off the rails this time," said Caracas street vendor Felipe Lopez, 28, while studying the documentation published by dozens of the country's newspapers. "Dictatorial thugs like Hugo Chavez are dangerous to his own people and to the rest of the world."

Desperate for change, voters have renewed their call for free and democratic elections. Hugo Chavez, showing his dictatorial streak, has publicly announced that he will not call elections anytime soon, that he will not finance such elections, and in the event that elections were to be held anyway, he will not abide by their outcome.

Soledad Bravo, a popular Venezuelan folk singer and former Chavez supporter, distanced herself from the strongman, and urged the world to act: " - Freeing ourselves from Chavez is our duty to history."