www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, March 09, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

US Ambassador to Venezuela Charles Shapiro has expressed his concern that international terrorist organizations have set up bases in Venezuela and other Latin American countries.

The comments echo those made by US General James Hill who earlier this week said several international terror groups, including Hezbollah, had set up bases in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and on Isla Margarita in Venezuela.

Following a meeting with Executive Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel, Shapiro said "I don't want to accuse anybody, but we are on alert ... we are ready to collaborate with the Venezuelan government to seek out terrorism that may exist in the country."

The pair also discussed the upcoming war on Iraq, and although on details of this conversation were made available the talks almost certainly addressed Venezuela's ability to raise its oil production to help meet an Iraqi shortfall.

www.sfgate.com Friday, March 7, 2003
(03-07) 15:58 PST CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) --

The United States is concerned that international terror groups have established bases in all Latin American countries, the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela said Friday.

Ambassador Charles Shapiro's comments follow those made Tuesday in Miami by the U.S. Southern Command's Gen. James Hill that terror organizations, including the militant Lebanese group Hezbollah, were operating in border areas of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay and on Venezuela's Margarita Island.

Hill said operatives were taking advantage of smuggling hotspots and weak institutions to channel funds to international terrorist groups.

"I don't want to accuse anybody but we are on alert," Shapiro said after meeting with Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel. "We are ready to collaborate with the Venezuelan government to seek out terrorism that may exist in this country."

Shapiro said he met with Rangel to discuss "the possible and very probable war against Iraq." He did not elaborate.

Venezuela, home to the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East, is a key oil supplier to the United States. Recent exports were hobbled, however, by a failed two-month strike demanding President Hugo Chavez's resignation or early elections.

On Thursday, Energy and Mines Minister Rafael Ramirez said Venezuela would abide by any Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decision to suspend its quota system during a war on Iraq. Venezuela is an OPEC member.

OPEC will meet Tuesday in Vienna, Austria, to evaluate production quotas.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Friday, March 07, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

Colombia's Ambassador to Venezuela Maria Angela Holguin says that the consulate has a video tape taken at the time of the bomb explosion outside the consulate last week that could help authorities in identifying the suspects and that this evidence will be shared with Venezuelan security forces. 

• The video apparently contains footage of several individuals acting suspiciously outside the consulate minutes before a bomb exploded on February 25, injuring four people.

Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez says investigations are now very advanced, although it is unclear if any arrests are being planned.

President Hugo Chavez Frias claims that he has photos of the suspects and that security forces are just waiting for them to raise their heads and then they will be arrested.

www.miami.com Posted on Fri, Mar. 07, 2003 BY ANDREA ELLIOTT aelliott@herald.com

SEEKING ASYLUM: Elias Halabi and his wife, Carmen Aponte de Halabi, say they fled after attacks by Chavez foes.

The peach stucco house fades into Kendall's landscape, not a hint of the politics humming inside.

Posters line a room in the back, bearing the likeness of embattled Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Red pins dot a U.S. map, marking this pro-Chávez base and others recently formed around the nation, known as Bolivarian Circles -- the controversial beating heart of Chávez's civic support.

One year ago, Jesús Soto's Kendall home became the first U.S. extension of the Chávez-organized groups. In Venezuela, critics claim, the groups are armed and trained by the government and strike out violently against journalists and civilians.

''We want to spread the circles abroad and defend them so people stop believing we are terror circles like they say -- armed to attack the wealthy,'' said Soto, 36, who inaugurated the circle in Bayfront Park wearing a red beret and fatigues on Feb. 4, 2002 -- the anniversary of Chávez' failed 1992 coup.

Since then, 17 other circles have sprung up from Connecticut to Wyoming.

That South Florida -- rich with anti-Chávez Venezuelans and Cuban exiles -- is hostile nesting ground for Chávez support is not lost on Soto.

''Our work is to try to change the image that Chávez is a dictator,'' Soto said. ``In Venezuela there is a deep democracy. We elected this president. . . . The opposition here is telling the media lies.''

Florida's largely upper-middle class Venezuelan opposition showed its clout in January when an estimated 60,000 people -- the majority of them Venezuelan -- gathered on Calle Ocho to protest Chávez's leadership.

By comparison, the 180 members of Miami's Bolivarian Circle seem scant. An additional 23 members belong to circles in Tampa, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale.

SOURCE OF NAME

The groups take their name from Simón Bolívar, the South American general who liberated much of the region, including Venezuela, from Spain in the 1800s.

Changing Chávez's image ''is the work of ants,'' said Tahid Soto, Jesús Soto's wife, who helps coordinate the U.S. circles with those in Venezuela. ``Little by little, it's coming along.''

Fear could be the reason that membership is minimal compared to the sizable -- and very visible -- Venezuelan opposition in the United States, said Carlos Matamoros, a radio host.

''I have a lot of friends who support Chávez who live clandestinely. They are scared to express what they think out of fear of retaliation,'' said Matamoros, who hosts Hablando Claro, a program about Venezuela, on Union Radio, WOCN-AM 1450.

Circle leaders draw strength from what they say is a growing Bolivarian international network. The U.S. circle members will hold their first national assembly in New York in March, and Chávez representatives from Venezuela plan to attend.

The Venezuelan government also will host an international Bolivarian Circle meeting in April in Caracas. ''There are circles in Bilbao, Madrid, Denmark -- all over the place. It's really neat,'' said Guillermo García Ponce, Chávez advisory committee coordinator, in an interview with The Herald in Caracas. He acknowledged that South Florida has become an anti-Chávez stronghold.

''I suppose [the Miami circle] will have to keep a low profile,'' García said.

Anti-Chávez activists say they do not oppose the presence of a Bolivarian Circle in Miami as long as it doesn't instigate the violence they allege the circles have caused in Venezuela -- a claim Soto and others deny.

''The government has allowed the Bolivarian Circles to attack the newspapers, attack the reporters,'' said Raúl Leoni, a Venezuelan opposition leader who lives in Weston. ``The fact that you win an election doesn't make you eternal if you're not doing your job correctly.''

NO THREATS RECEIVED

Soto said no threats have been made against him or other members, though a fire bomb was placed under his car eight years ago after he made a television appearance supporting Chávez's unsuccessful coup. No one was injured and no arrests were made.

The Bolivarian Circles -- along with Chávez's controversial 1999 ''Bolivarian constitution'' -- are part of his overarching ``Bolivarian Revolution.''

Some 70,000 circles exist in Venezuela, made up largely of the working class. Typically, they meet weekly and engage in humanitarian projects such as providing food for the poor -- with military financing -- and building schools.

Critics compare the circles to Fidel Castro's Committees for the Defense of the Revolution.

Several of the Venezuelans present at a recent documentary screening sponsored by a Hialeah circle work at blue-collar jobs in Miami and drive older cars -- a clear distinction from the largely well-heeled protesters at January's march.

''The only way to understand Venezuela is to understand the deep divisions of race and class. It cuts that way,'' said Jerry Haar, a senior research associate at the University of Miami's North-South Center. ``The lighter-skinned you are, the higher level of income, education and prominence you have in party politics. Chávez, being none of those things, is the odd man out.''

Both sides vehemently dispute the notion that only the poor support Chávez and that only the rich oppose him. The opposition has increasingly cut across the social spectrum as more people lose faith in the shaky administration.

Chávez supporters simply point to the group Clase Media en Positiva -- a Venezuelan-based organization of working professionals who support Chávez -- to show diversity in their ranks.

Elias Halabi, who recently fled Valencia, Venezuela, for Miami Beach after his home and car dealership were bombed, is a member of the group. ''I am a prosperous businessman and I sympathize with the ideas of Chávez,'' said Halabi, 48. ``Revolution is change. It's not a process towards communism. It's a process towards democracy and participation. The government before was a mafia.''

Special correspondent Phil Gunson contributed to this report.

frontpagemag.com By Candie Gibson Lemaire FrontPageMagazine.com | March 7, 2003

When your own words come back and leave you with egg on your face, it is called blowback. Senator John Kerry's recent defense of Columbia's FARC terrorists, and their "legitimate complaints" should elicit significant political blowback from the American people.

John Kerry made these remarks after a February speech in Boston, where he replied to a question about the U.S. war on drugs by saying, "It seems to be a renewal of a kind of chaos fueled partly by guerrillas who have legitimate complaints and the combination of drugs and war and the drug lord." Any red-blooded American has to ponder how Senator John "F." Kerry, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, could form such solidarity with a guerrilla terrorist group - a Colombian terrorist group that took three captured Americans as "prisoners of war." We're not talking about a small terrorist uprising. This group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), have a vast stronghold in the mountains and jungles of Colombia, and control a prime cocaine-producing region of the country.

Truthfully, terrorism stemming from South America looms as a force to be reckoned with. However, the U.S. cannot sleepwalk around it and still press on to wage a fight on terror. Much of the unease stems from the presence of three insurgent groups operating within Colombia. Though formally a democracy, Colombia remains a violent society, teeming with corruption, and driven by the special fuel of drug trafficking. Of the three guerilla organizations, FARC has clearly been on the forefront. Colombia's President Uribe's pledge to eradicate FARC terror  won him the presidential election; however, threats from FARC on attempts to eradicate President Uribe materialized in the southern city of Neiva, where a powerful bomb killed 18 people just one day before Uribe's planned visit to that city. Undaunted, Uribe made an appearnce in Neiva to offer condolences to relatives of those killed in the blast.

In addition to FARC, two other twin terrorist groups are gaining ground. The ELN, or National Liberation Army, and the A-U-C, or United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, are garnering their own distinctions. On September 10, 2001, one day in advance of the infamous New York attack of terror, the State Department officially added the name of A-U-C to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO). The FTO is updated every two years by the State Department's Coordinator for Counterterrorism. FARC, the largest guerrilla group, controls substantial areas of Colombia’s eastern lowlands and rain forest (a cocaine processing region of the country) while the ELN has been functioning primarily within the central area of the region, (a prime opium growing district). They have also reached up to the northeastern border near Venezuela.

Unfortunately, FARC's control has not been lessened, even with the recent U.S. expansion of assistance, which has taken in the form of both U.S. deployment of military personnel and millions of U.S. dollars to combat terrorism on the southern front. President Bush's Colombian aid package, "Plan Colombia," has been deemed a failure in making much of a dent in the day-to-day operations of Colombian terrorists. The plan's strategy to use fumigation for the coca fields and plants ended up creating animosity toward the U.S. by farmers who were left with no way to make a living; and, in the end, this may have given more credence to the guerilla groups such as FARC and the A-U-C.

On the positive side of the ledger, there has been limited Colombian government cooperation. Even with limited resources, the Colombian government under President Alvaro Uribe has tried to stand tall against FARC terrorism, and remains eager to resolve the ongoing civil war in a country where terrorism is homegrown.

However, drug thugs and the trade they create do not exist in a vacuum. Thus, the  U.S. should be ever mindful of the common goals terrorists share. America must include in this war on terrorism limits on the conditions that permit this southern front to escalate, namely the conditions of "loose borders" and a huge demand in the U.S. for drugs.

The impending threat from the southern front is not only from Colombia and Venezuela, but also Paraguay and Brazil, which have long been hotbeds and havens for rampant drugs and terrorism. According to joint testimony submitted in March 2002 by State Department officials before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism, and Government Information, a "historic link" was noted in the Western Hemisphere between various terrorist groups and narcotics trafficking.

Colombia, Peru, Paraguay and Brazil were all citied to be of imminent and growing concern. Testimony pointed out that FARC units throughout southern Colombia continue to raise cash via extortion to support their activities. The Justice Department’s DEA Administrator indicated continued unease with regard to the role of drug profits, especifically from FARC narco-terrorism activities, and the far-reaching tentacles of global terrorism.

In 2002, debate at the UN’s 57th General Assembly meeting brought about a discussion on terrorism and illicit drug trafficking within the South American region. A Brazilian representative told the Committee about stepped-up initiatives to combat criminal activity. Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti of Brazil stated that the fight in opposition to transnational organized crime was one of Brazil’s top priorities.

This South American region, commonly known as the tri-border, has increasingly drawn the interest of antiterrorism experts. This area is where the countries of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina come together. Counter-terrorism police have stated that evidence indicates terrorist activity has now dispersed east from Argentina to the isolated Brazilian jungles, and even to Sao Paulo, Brazil's financial capital. Experts agree that Brazil and its surrounding area have all the ingredients for a large-scale hotspot, including the fact that the region is also known for its leaky borders. A variety of Middle Easterners have been pouring in for some time.

Additionally, problems in Venezuela with Hugo Chavez prompted the Bush White House to put aside personal distaste for the elected leader and his policies, which resulted in widespread condemnation of the U.S. to seek a more peaceful conclusion to the dilemma. It should be noted that Bill Clinton's political strategist, James Carville, was a key manager in the Chavez election in Venezuela. Once elected, Chavez began to impose a dictatorship reign, inspired in large measure by Fidel Castro. Chavez sought out countries such as Libya and the People's Republic of China for alliances. A glaring and alarming fact is that Venezuela is currently South America's largest supplier of oil, which presents a looming global terrorism labyrinth. Given these clear and present concerns, the U.S. War on Terrorism must include a tactic to include awareness of the terrorist threats from our southern flank. In other words, we must connect the terrorist dots.

Clearly, South America's narcotics industry coupling with a terrorist threat serves as a loud wakeup call. It is a bona fide menace -- a menace on the move and gaining momentum. What once was a worrisome corrupt drug trade has now become toxic terrorism, laced with political dimensions. Exhibit A was the capture of three Americans in Colombia by FARC. FARC rebels accused the three Americans of being agents of the CIA, and considered U.S. involvement in Colombia an act of war. Well, war it is, and it would be prudent for the U.S. to be more mindful of this supplying region which harbors terrorism with a narcotics panache.

Certainly, any campaign to diminish the terrorist threat from the southern front must confront our identifiable immigration problems. Our overwhelmed immigration system is the primary lure -- both to immigrants who desire to come to “the promised land” and also to those who need an accessible viaduct for illegal business. Simply put, our borders are wide open spaces.

So, how then, if America’s objective is national security, can we ignore a vigorous measure of implemented homeland border protection? The events of September 11th still speak in moving terms that the breadth of protection must include full border restraint. Without immigration control, America faces a domestic cataclysm. Some discussion may be in order regarding specific global fronts where American troops are now deployed - and whether they might be better used to protect “the land of the free and home of the brave.”

Terrorism cannot be contained without a mandate on immigration restrictions coupled with border protection, and the implementation should come immediately.

Senator Kerry's vocalized rationale for rebels with terror tactics that are now slick enough to grease their way deep into the Colombian narco-democracy, is counterproductive; and sympathies, implied or expressed, by any U.S. representative to provide justification for rebel terror -- especially following September 11, 2001 -- is untenable. It is a line of thinking which surely should leave any presidential hopeful on a slippery slope of credibility.

Democracy and the freedoms we savor every day are indeed worth this fight on terrorism. It’s a fight looming both the Middle East and our Southern Front. Rooting out terrorism is not for the faint of heart. Whether it's a shoulder-to-shoulder hunt, or simply the watchful eye of a vigilant citizen, it is a non-stop duty for all of the nation. That’s why any misguided rhetoric expressed as sanctioning rebel terrorist activities in Colombia, such as those made by Senator Kerry, is indefensible. Not only is it a disservice to our men and women in uniform, both current and former, but it is not in keeping with our basic American principles. Most of those who noticed Senator Kerry's remarks are humming out a sour note, which may become Kerry's own swan song.