www.insightmag.com Posted Feb. 19, 2003 By Martin Arostegui

If plans for an oil embargo fail, Chavez may look to repay Venezuela´s more-radical ´allies´ by assisting terrorists.

As Washington prepares a high-stakes military venture in the Persian Gulf, a growing physical threat is being posed by Iraq, Libya and Iran to the soft underbelly of the United States. Hundreds and possibly thousands of agents from rogue Arab nations are working hard to help President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela take control of South America's largest oil industry and create al-Qaeda-friendly terrorist bases just two hours' flying time from Miami.

Arab advisers now are reinforcing a sizable contingent of Cubans in efforts to reorganize Venezuela's security services, assimilate its industries based on totalitarian models and repress a popular opposition movement. "What happens in Venezuela may affect how you fight a war in Iraq," Gen. James Hill of U.S. Southern Command is reported recently to have told his colleague at U.S. Central Command, Gen. Tommy Franks.

"Chavez is planning to coordinate an anti-American strategy with terrorist states," says Venezuela's former ambassador to Libya, Julio Cesar Pineda, who reveals correspondence between the Venezuelan president and Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi about the need to "solidify" ties between liberation movements in the Middle East and Latin America and use oil as an economic weapon.

Exhorting his countrymen to return to their "Arab roots," Chavez has paid state visits to Libya, Iraq and Iran and signed a series of mutual-cooperation treaties with the rogue governments whose operatives now are flooding into Venezuela. There they can blend into an ethnic Arab community estimated at half-a-million.

Last Jan. 10, 18 Libyan technicians flying in from Tripoli via Frankfurt, Germany, were received at the Caracas airport by Ali Ahmed, head of Libya's "Commission" in Venezuela. He was accompanied by the parliamentary whip of the ruling Venezuelan Revolutionary Movement (MVR), Cilia Flores. Nicolas Maduro and Juan Baruto, two other bosses of the MVR party militias (the Circulos Bolivarianos) who had paid an extended visit to Tripoli in 2000, also were on hand to smooth the way for the Libyans coming off Lufthansa Flight 534.

The Libyan agents were identified as: Alsudik Alghariy, Elmabruk Najjar, Koaled Adun, Zeguera Adel, Sherif Nagib, Abubaker Benelfgh, Nabiel Bentahir, Abdulfat Enbia, Waldi Majrab, Amhamed Elkum, Abdulgha Nashnush, Mohamed Romia, Abdurao Shwich, Abdulnass Elghanud, Ezzedin Barhmi, Abdulssa Seleni, Hassan Gwile and Mhemmed Besha.

The high level of security provided for the Libyans' arrival was intended to avoid the havoc of previous days when the entry of Iraqi and Iranian groups touched off a riot. As word of the landing of 20 Iranians had spread through Simón Bolívar International Airport on Jan. 8, crowds of infuriated travelers banged counters and cigarette urns and chanted "Get out! Get out!" to protest what many Venezuelans perceive as foreign interference in their country's affairs.

The uproar became such that one delegation had to be ushered through the presidential ramp to avoid immigration or customs checks, sources in Venezuela's military-intelligence department, DIM, tell Insight. Some of the Iranians, now holed up at a Caracas hotel, are reported to be hesitant about conducting their mission of reactivating installations of Venezuela's recently nationalized oil company, PDVSA.

Meanwhile, Iraqi VIPs, moving under the protection of Chavez's secret police -- the Department of Intelligence Security and Prevention (DISIP) -- came to the attention of Venezuela's regular military when government agents tried to use air-force planes to fly five of Saddam Hussein's agents into the interior of the country. Military pilots requested special clearances before allowing the Iraqis onto the C-130s.

Military sources also report that the recently arrived group of Libyans is billeted at the Macuto Sheraton Hotel in La Guaira, which they share with Cuban commandos who have been conducting strike-breaking operations around the nation's oil ports. Local units of the National Guard, the branch of the Venezuelan armed forces responsible for internal security, were reported to be refusing government orders to repress strikers.

According to Capt. Jose Ballabes of the merchant-marine union, the Cubans improvised floating concentration camps on board oil tankers, threatening officers and crews to get them to move the paralyzed vessels. When the Venezuelans still resisted, "such methods as sleep deprivation, often used against political dissidents in Cuba, are being systematically employed against our people," says Ballabes.

Sources in Venezuela's merchant navy name two of the Cuban agents on the tankers as Arturo Escobar and Carlos Valdez, who were presented as "presidential advisers" operating with DISIP. Venezuela's internal-security organization now is reported to be controlled by a command cell of undercover officers from Fidel Castro's military-intelligence service. Venezuelan sources say the Cuban operatives also run a computerized war room inside Chavez's presidential palace, Miraflores. It is in this war room that the repressive policies now afflicting the country have been planned, according to serving officers in the Venezuelan army, navy and national guard consulted by Insight.

The Libyans, like the Cubans, are specialists in military intelligence and security, but are described as computer specialists brought in to operate and reprogram crashed systems at the oil refineries, according to industry sources.

"The West must expect deepening relations between Venezuela and Islamic states," says professor Elie Habalian, a specialist in petroleum economics and a consultant to PDVSA President Ali Rodriguez Araque, who is identified by Venezuelan military sources as a one-time communist guerrilla chief. Aided by Cuban intelligence and Islamic workers, the government has managed to get oil production back up to 34 percent, a level sufficient to supply basic domestic needs. "It's a war between two models," continues Habalian, "one seeking total control over oil policy and the liberal international policy represented by PDVSA's previous management" effectively eliminated by the government, which has ordered the mass dismissal of 7,000 oil-company employees.

Interfacing of Venezuela's oil industry with the radical state systems also facilitates plans for a possible oil embargo against the United States in the event the military assault on Iraq is prolonged. While international oil experts consider such a scenario unlikely due to Venezuela's desperate need for export earnings, Venezuelan opposition leaders fear that Chavez could take advantage of a conflagration in the gulf to consolidate his dictatorship with the support of Cuban and Arab agents already in place.

"Chavez has violated the constitution on 34 counts and is moving to nationalize banking," says a leading member of Venezuela's business community. "He has packed the high courts with his judges, neutralized the army and turned the national assembly into a rubber-stamp parliament. All that's left to do is shut down the independent media and decapitate the opposition." According to this source, Chavez is most likely to move when world attention is fixed on Iraq.

If the strike temporarily has undercut Venezuela's capacity to use the oil weapon, Chavez can pay back his radical Arab allies by supporting terrorist attacks against the United States. In the wake of claims by former presidential pilot Maj. Juan Diaz Castillo that Chavez contributed $1 million to al-Qaeda, police sources in Caracas tell Insight that a highly fanatical cell of Islamic activists already is operating from a sports complex in the old downtown section of the capital protected by armed units of the Circulos Bolivarianos.

Undercover police officers report that the group has ties to a Hezbollah financial network operating from the Caribbean island of Margarita under Mohammed al Din, an important Chavez backer and a close friend of hard-line MVR deputy Adel el Zabayar Samara, a key link between Islam and Latin America's radical left.

The Caracas cell is involved in recruiting Venezuelan Arabs for terrorist indoctrination and military training at isolated camps in the country's interior and on islands off the coast, according to intelligence officers who claim that members of al-Qaeda are hiding out in Margarita. They say these members include Diab Fattah, who was deported from the United States for his possible connections with the Sept. 11 hijackers. Four Venezuelan officers investigating terrorist activities on the resort island were killed in 2001 when Chavez moved to dissolve DISIP Section 11, which had targeted radical Arabs.

A 40-hectare estate on the sparsely populated peninsula of La Guajira near the border with Colombia is another suspected training base for Islamic terrorists. Equipped with highly modern communications systems, including satellite dishes and parabolic antennae, the complex belongs to an Arab-owned company called Jihad, which is registered as a home-appliance dealership.

Chavez's international plans may have suffered a diplomatic setback recently when he failed in an effort to include any of his rogue allies in a "Group of Friends of Venezuela." He wanted Cuba, Algeria and China to form part of the U.S.-backed watchdog committee of governments designed to support efforts by the Organization of American States to guarantee democratic liberties and future elections. But as war in the gulf absorbs U.S. attention, the group may come under the decisive influence of its other senior partner, Brazil. While that country's elected president, Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva, appears to have put himself in the center-left and to be aligning his policies with the West, some of his key advisers object.

Chief among them is Marco Aurelio Garcia, a hard-line Marxist with close ties to Cuba and Colombian narco-guerrilla organizations, who is slotted for a top job in the foreign ministry. He already has used his influence to secure delivery of more than 500,000 barrels of oil to Venezuela to help Chavez get through the most critical moments of the strike. One of Aurelio Garcia's closest contacts is Mohammed Latifi, a powerful figure in Tehran's ruling circles who proposes an international oil boycott of the United States and is connected with terrorist networks.

Martin Arostegui is a free-lance writer for Insight magazine.

www.adn.com By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER, Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela (February 18, 4:16 p.m. AST) - The bodies of three soldiers who had called for "civic disobedience" against President Hugo Chavez's government have been found with their hands tied and faces wrapped with tape, forensic police said Tuesday.

No arrests had been made and authorities were still trying to determine a motive behind the killings of the three soldiers, Erwin Arguello, Angel Salas and Felix Pinto.

The bodies were found in Guarenas, 18 miles from Caracas, said Cesar Hernandez, chief of forensics homicide division. Two of the bodies were found with multiple bullets wounds, Hernandez said, refusing further explanation. He said an autopsy on the three bodies was pending.

Hernandez said investigators have information linking the three soldiers to a group of over 100 dissident officers who seized a Caracas plaza on Oct. 23 and declared it "liberated territory," Hernandez said.

"We know they visited the plaza. We also know they were missing since Thursday. We presume they were slain the same day in different locations," said Hernandez.

Dissident officers supported a nationwide strike called Dec. 2 to demand Chavez's resignation or early elections. But its leaders - business groups, labor unions and leftist and conservative politicians - agreed to end the protest Feb. 3 in all areas but the crucial oil industry.

Some of the dissident officers participated in a mid-April coup last year that briefly ousted Chavez. Loyalists in the military returned Chavez to power two days after the uprising.

Chavez, a former paratrooper, accuses dissidents of attempting to provoke widespread lawlessness in an effort to spur another rebellion against his government.

Over 300 dissident officers were discharged, suspended from their posts or transferred to rural garrisons after the April coup.

Chavez was first elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000. He promised to wipe out the corruption of previous governments and redistribute the country's vast oil wealth to the poor majority.

His critics charge he has mismanaged the economy, tried to grab authoritarian powers and split the country along class lines with his fiery rhetoric.

abcnews.go.com Feb. 18 — By Phil Stewart

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Three military dissidents and a female protester opposed to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have been killed execution-style after being kidnapped, bound and gagged, police said on Tuesday.

Police refused to comment on the investigation, or to discuss possible motives or suspects.

All four victims frequented Plaza Altamira, the site of more than 120 days of protests against Chavez' government. The dead military men had also joined a call for popular resistance led by anti-Chavez Gen. Enrique Medina.

A 14-year-old girl who apparently witnessed at least one of the killings was hospitalized after being shot, but is talking, police said.

Raul Yepez, deputy director of the Caracas police homicide division, said the four victims had been fired upon with shotguns. It appeared that all of them went missing last week.

"We are conducting the investigation to try to answer these questions," he said.

Despite occasional violence in Venezuela's political standoff, there have been no confirmed selective killings of Chavez's allies or enemies. Still, street clashes have claimed at least seven lives and left scores injured since December.

The Venezuelan leader says his self-styled "revolution" for the poor is a peaceful one. His opponents, however, blame his aggressive class-warfare rhetoric for inspiring his supporters to take up arms.

Police said the victims were army soldier Darwin Arguello, marine infantry corporal Angel Salas and air force soldier Felix Pinto.

FORENSICS REPORT

A forensics report seen by Reuters indicated that a least of two of soldiers had been dead for about 72 hours. Their bodies were abandoned on the side of a multi-lane highway heading out of Caracas.

Yepez said at least one other victim was found on a farm on the outskirts of the capital.

The civilian victim, Zaida Perozo, had been wounded during a Dec. 6 shooting at Plaza Altamira, where she was protesting, said Carlos Bastidas, a lawyer for the dissident military officers.

At least one gunmen left three people dead and more than 20 injured in that attack which opposition leaders blamed on the government. Pinto was a material witness to the incident and had been considering testifying against the alleged shooter, Joao de Gouveia, said Bastides.

"It's very easy to put forward ideas or personal judgments ... but there is an element between this case and the case of Joao de Gouveia: that is one of the victims and a witness to Dec. 6 have died," Bastidas said.

Chavez is struggling to consolidate his power after surviving a coup last year. He has rebuffed calls by his opponents for early elections to cut short his term in office, which is set to end in 2007.

reuters.com Tue February 18, 2003 08:32 PM ET By Phil Stewart

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Three military dissidents and a female protester opposed to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have been killed execution-style after being kidnapped, bound and gagged, police said on Tuesday.

Police refused to comment on the investigation, or to discuss possible motives or suspects.

All four victims frequented Plaza Altamira, the site of more than 120 days of protests against Chavez' government. The dead military men had also joined a call for popular resistance led by anti-Chavez Gen. Enrique Medina.

A 14-year-old girl who apparently witnessed at least one of the killings was hospitalized after being shot, but is talking, police said.

Raul Yepez, deputy director of the Caracas police homicide division, said the four victims had been fired upon with shotguns. It appeared that all of them went missing last week.

"We are conducting the investigation to try to answer these questions," he said.

Despite occasional violence in Venezuela's political standoff, there have been no confirmed selective killings of Chavez's allies or enemies. Still, street clashes have claimed at least seven lives and left scores injured since December.

The Venezuelan leader says his self-styled "revolution" for the poor is a peaceful one. His opponents, however, blame his aggressive class-warfare rhetoric for inspiring his supporters to take up arms.

Police said the victims were army soldier Darwin Arguello, marine infantry corporal Angel Salas and air force soldier Felix Pinto.

FORENSICS REPORT

A forensics report seen by Reuters indicated that a least of two of soldiers had been dead for about 72 hours. Their bodies were abandoned on the side of a multi-lane highway heading out of Caracas.

Yepez said at least one other victim was found on a farm on the outskirts of the capital.

The civilian victim, Zaida Perozo, had been wounded during a Dec. 6 shooting at Plaza Altamira, where she was protesting, said Carlos Bastidas, a lawyer for the dissident military officers.

At least one gunmen left three people dead and more than 20 injured in that attack which opposition leaders blamed on the government. Pinto was a material witness to the incident and had been considering testifying against the alleged shooter, Joao de Gouveia, said Bastides.

"It's very easy to put forward ideas or personal judgments ... but there is an element between this case and the case of Joao de Gouveia: that is one of the victims and a witness to Dec. 6 have died," Bastidas said.

Chavez is struggling to consolidate his power after surviving a coup last year. He has rebuffed calls by his opponents for early elections to cut short his term in office, which is set to end in 2007.

ipsnews.net Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Feb 18 (IPS) - The government and the opposition in Venezuela signed a joint declaration Tuesday against political violence, the first tangible achievement since César Gaviria, secretary-general of the Organisation of American States, began as mediator more than three months ago in negotiations for a way out of the country's political crisis. In the eight-point ”Declaration against violence and in favour of peace and democracy”, the two sides announce their commitment to dismantle the tensions that have pervaded the political sphere in Venezuela over the last few years, and reiterate their commitment to the Constitution and democratic law. In the statement, representatives of the Hugo Chávez administration and of the opposition reject verbal ”intemperance”, mutual recriminations, hurtful language and ”rhetoric that in any way encourages confrontation.” The two sides propose instead ”a language of mutual respect, tolerance, consideration of others' ideas, and the supreme appreciation of human life and dignity.” The tripartite group, comprising the OAS, the U.S.-based Carter Centre, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which is facilitating the dialogue, had repeatedly urged the two sides to ”lower their tone” and ”moderate the language” of their political discourse. Similar efforts were made by the so-called ”Group of Friends”, countries backing the OAS effort in Venezuela. The group was established in January by the foreign ministries of Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and the United States. The second point of Tuesday's joint declaration states that violence in any form, regardless of who perpetrates it, is ”absolutely unjustifiable”. The two sides ”summon all authorities and competent administrative and juridical bodies to act to investigate and penalise the loss of human lives.” In the last year, the death toll resulting from political violence in Venezuela has reached more than 80, with hundreds of people injured. During the social chaos associated with the failed coup d'état in April 2002, 61 people died, according to the non-governmental Venezuelan Human Rights Education-Action Programme. Street demonstrations or political rallies in Caracas, whether supporting the Chávez government or the opposition, another 10 people have died. In rural Venezuela, several peasant leaders have been assassinated. Tuesday's declaration rejects all expressions of violence, intolerance or vengeance. Six government delegates and six delegates from the opposition Democratic Coordinator, the document's signatories, exhorted the Venezuelan people to cease any ”direct or indirect attitude of aggression, threat, harassment or violence,” and urged churches, trade unions and all social organisations to help in the effort. During the past year, opposition protesters and pro-Chávez demonstrators have clashed in the streets of Caracas, and military officials are staying away from certain public places, such as restaurants in middle-class neighbourhoods, because they are subjected to insults or surrounded by crowds of residents banging pots and pans. The point in the declaration that required most effort to achieve consensus is about the communications media. The text calls on journalistic enterprises to ”promote peace, tolerance and peaceful coexistence” in their programming and to comply with and exercise their constitutional and legal rights and duties. The privately owned media championed the cause of the opposition during the two-month anti-Chávez strike that ended earlier this month. Television stations, for example, replaced normal advertising for political propaganda against the government. And the government followed suit, using state-run television and radio stations to disseminate its messages. The declaration's signatories are now obligated ”to maintain and improve the work” of the negotiations panel, which ”with this declaration approaches the possibility of an electoral way out” of the crisis, opposition leader Humberto Calderón told IPS. The delegates also agree to take up related issues, such as setting up a Truth Commission to clear up the events surrounding the April 2002 coup and deaths, and disarming the civilian population -- demanded by the opposition, which claims that many government supporters are carrying weapons illegally. ”The dialogue had started at the end, and with the Tuesday declaration we have returned to the beginning, and the road has been cleared so we can discuss anything,” commented Vice-President José Vicente Rangel. He was referring to the opposition's insistence on an ”electoral” way out of the political crisis -- such as a referendum on Chávez's mandate --, while the word order in the declaration is ”peaceful, democratic, constitutional and electoral”. Andrés Cova, representing the anti-Chávez trade unions in the negotiations, says he is confident that ”with this accord we can find an electoral solution in the middle term.” The opposition is seeking a constitutional amendment to declare an end to Chávez's presidential term, which lasts until 2006, and to convene new elections this year. After the six delegates from each side signed the joint declaration, representatives from the OAS, the Carter Centre and UNDP added their signatures. (END/2003)