US$20 million offered to Colombian paramilitaries to "work" in Venezuela

[seemslikeadream]

Ultimas Noticias reporters Tamoa Calzadilla and Jorge Chavez write: At a payments center in Medellin (Colombia), it was well-known that paramilitaries who received payment there for protection rackets, extortion, and contraband were offering US$20 million to take a group of mercenaries to Venezuela to accomplish various illegal operations.


A witness who asked that his identity be concealed told the Colombian authorities about the incident, and the information was given to Ultimas Noticias by Colombian Senator Gustavo Petro (PDI).

According to the witness, a group of 400 men were to be organized to go to Venezuela to assassinate for money. The Colombian Senator suspects that the group captured in Venezuela last Sunday could be the same as the group recruited by the paramilitaries, most of them reservists in the army, as has been officially verified.



But, that is not the only reason to believe this is true. Petro commented that in Colombia, information that could be key in the investigations being conducted in Venezuela hasn’t been made public yet. “Two months ago, telephone conversations of paramilitaries stationed in that region (the North of Santander), in which the irregulars speak of transporting male combatants to Venezuela to be kept for a while, in captivity,” were recorded by the order of a judge who was investigating a prosecutor in Cucuta.

The Senator states that the police recorded 40 hours of conversations, whose content revealed that Ana Maria Flores, regional director of the Attorney General’s office in the North of Santander, was implicated in collaborating with the illegal work of the paramilitaries in the region. Other sources comment that the woman has been living her double life for 8 years, and that her secretary, Magaly, is also implicated. The scandal exploded two months ago, and Flores escaped a few days ago. Today, here whereabouts are unknown.

more
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=21201

[bigbillhaywood]

1. Free the Colombia Three! Guilty of international solidarity. nt

[Just Me]

2. I want the American people to know that their gvt is funneling public $$$

to support corporate interests in such ways. "Dream",...you are the resource by which this information can be disseminated. I admire you.

[seemslikeadream]

3. “We kill them with a chainsaw.”

When we kill someone by shooting them, that’s a privilege. Later, we have to cut off their head. Then, we cut off the hands, the arms, the legs, the feet, we cut everything off.”

“For the guerrillas, after we torture them by taking out their fingernails, we burn their face with muriatic acid and kill them with a chainsaw.”

“We tie both hands, and with the chainsaw, PRRRRRRRRRRRRR… We cut them to pieces, but while they are alive. We also burn them with a strong fire, flames. Anyway, a guerrilla can’t be allowed to remain in the world of the living.”
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=21201

[seemslikeadream]

4. Foreign Minister: media have not played fair in paramilitaries' coverage

Foreign Minister Jesus Arnaldo Perez says Venezuelan private print & broadcast media have not been playing fair in their reporting of the Colombian paramilitaries' fiasco.

"They have sought any expression to damage and disqualify actions taken by the Government, which has been attempting by all means necessary to avoid a spillover of violence in Colombia, abort macabre plans to destabilize President Chavez Frias' government and to prevent assassination against the Head of State constitutionally elected by the majority of Venezuelans."

Perez states that the arrest of paramilitaries in the eastern part of Caracas is unquestionably serious ... "the group came to commit terrorist acts and sow death and chaos."

Minister Perez says the domestic press downplayed coverage of Colombian Foreign Minister Carolina Barco's visit and he spoke to Radio Caracol (Colombia) about the importance of the visit and both countries' political will to defuse the situation and adopt diplomatic dialog.

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=21197

[bemildred]

5. Well, it's not like it's a new idea.

Can you say "Contras"? One of a long list actually.
But it represents a certain level of desperation when
the US and it's stooges sink to these methods, it means
the subtler methods have failed, which is certainly true
in Venezuela, Hugo has outsmarted them many times now,
and he is working on engineering generational political
change. If he succeeds they will never get back the old
colonial arrangement. But, it is heartening to see that,
once again, they seem to stepped in shit, the opposition's
record of incompetence remains intact.

Edit: why I believe we just employed this technique in Haiti,
somewhat "successfully" it appears, although I don't think
that story is done yet.

[seemslikeadream]

6. Conclusive Evidence of U.S. Role in Kidnapping and Coup

Conclusive Evidence of U.S. Role in Kidnapping and Coup


PRESS ADVISORY
Monday, April 4, 2004
Media Contact: Dustin Langley 212-633-6646

As Bush Administration Scrambles to Shore Up Appointed Haitian Regime Commission to Present Conclusive Evidence of U.S. Role in Kidnapping and Coup

Date: Wednesday, April 7
Time: 6:30- 9:30 pm
Location: The Whitman Theatre at Brooklyn College

Panel to include: Rep. Maxine Waters, Rep. Major Owens, Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Ossie Davis, Gil Noble, Amy Goodman, Ron Daniels, and other prominent activists and journalists

The Bush Administration is facing a growing crisis over its role in the coup in Haiti and the kidnapping of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who continues to speak out about his abduction by the U.S. The 15-member organization of Caribbean nations, CARICOM, has refused to recognize the U.S.-installed regime and has called for an investigation, despite intense pressure and threats from the U.S. The 53-member African Union has raised the same demand.

On Wednesday, April 7, the Haiti Commission of Inquiry will initiate a public inquiry of the role of the Bush Administration in the crisis in Haiti. Delegations that visited both the Central African Republic and the Dominican Republic will present conclusive evidence that U.S. Special Forces armed, trained, and directed the "rebels" and engineered the abduction of President Aristide.

The preliminary report from the Commission states, "two hundred U.S. Special Forces soldiers came to the Dominican Republic as part of 'Operation Jaded Task,' with special authorization from President Hipólito Mejia. We have received many reports that this operation was used to train Haitian rebels. We have received many consistent reports of Haitian rebel training centers at or near Dominican military facilities. We have received many consistent reports of guns transported from the Dominican Republic to Haiti, some across the land border, and others shipped by sea."

Johnnie Stevens of the International Action Center, a member of the delegation to the Central African Republic, said, "The U.S.-installed Prime Minister, Gerard Latortue, has hailed the paid mercenaries as freedom fighters, and had thus discredited himself among the Caribbean nations."

Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a desperate bid to lend some credibility to the Latortue government, is now visiting Haiti for the first time. This attempt to put U. S. weight behind the isolated colonial-style regime is a response to its growing isolation. Sara Flounders, of the International Action Center, said, "This visit by Powell is a sign of the Bush Administration’s growing isolation and disarray. The U.S. is desperately trying to shore up a discredited regime in the face of international opposition to the appointed government of Haiti after the stinging rebuke directed at the U.S. by the recent CARICOM meeting." Flounders is a member of the Haiti Commission of Inquiry and was part of the delegation to the Central African Republic, where she visited with President Aristide shortly after his kidnapping.

Kim Ives from Haiti Progres, who was part of the delegation to the Dominican Republic, told the media, "In the course of our investigation here, we met with many Haitians who were forced to flee Haiti following the coup d'etat of Feb. 29. Their testimony gave very concrete names and faces to the stories of violence which we have heard that the so-called rebels, trained and assembled in the Dominican Republic, have carried out in Haiti over the past month. We were also touched by the tears of refugees who told us of how they are apprehensive over the fate of their loved ones left behind in Haiti."

For more information, or to schedule an interview with a member of the Commission, call Dustin Langley at 212-633-6646.

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http://www.iacenter.org/haiti_0407press.htm

Operation Jaded Task

Once again, Pravda had it first -- last year.

From 2/23/2003:




US Troopers Secretly Land in Dominican Republic
http://english.pravda.ru/world/2003/02/20/43514.html
The military training operation nicknamed Jaded Task took by surprise Dominican Foreign Ministry.

The US Army started today a training operation in the Caribbean country as part of routine maneuvers of the Southern Command. The landing had been kept so secretly that Dominican Foreign Ministry Hugo Tolentino was reported... by the TV.

As per the first reports, the US troops are training Dominican soldiers on anti-terrorism operations in the north of the island. When the national media started announcing the landing, country's Foreign Minister was having a lunch. Tolentino said that, as chief of the Dominican diplomacy, he should have been formally advised, as personally requested to the Dominican Army and the US Embassy to Santo Domingo.

(snip)

However, the most interesting thing, here, is that the Communist Party of the Dominican Republic did know about the operations. This correspondent had access to two formal communications issued by the US Embassy including details of these activities, during the Communist summit held in Buenos Aires in January. There, the US ambassador to Santo Domingo reported about 10.000 soldiers coming to the Dominican Republic to take part of the training.

Moreover, the communists and other leftist forces in the country made know such documents to the local media in November. According to the denounce, US soldiers can freely enter and leave the country without any kind of permission. Also, they can do it through owned means of conveyance.

(more at link)

The Black Commentator had this story up right at the coup!


http://www.blackcommentator.com/80/80_cover_haiti.html

and read this from the Boston Globe at http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/03/01/bush_administrat...

Bill Fletcher Jr., head of the TransAfrica Forum, a policy group focusing on African and Caribbean issues, was particularly critical of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's role in pursuing the Bush administration's policy on Haiti. Fletcher said black officials should not have expected Powell to urge the administration to move more forcefully in Haiti simply because he is black.

"We have to stop believing," Fletcher said. "We have to stop thinking that Colin Powell wants to do the right thing. If the brother wanted to do the right thing, he would have resigned."

Randall Robinson, former head of TransAfrica, was even more critical of Powell, calling him "the most powerful and damaging black to rise to influence in the world in my lifetime."

700+ dead, thousands wounded--Thanks, Ralph!


please watch this video


http://www.ericblumrich.com/pax.html





Haitian rebel leaders, Buteur Metayer, left, Guy Philippe, second from left, and T-Wil, right, along with an unidentified rebel, center, laugh during a rally in Gonaives, where the fighters announced a new name for their joint movement, the National Resistance Front To Liberate Haiti, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2004. An uprising aimed at ousting President Jean-Bertrand Aristide erupted in Gonaives, Haiti's fourth-largest city, on Feb. 5 and has spread to more than a dozen towns. Philippe was Aristide's police chief in Cap-Haitien until he was accused of fomenting a coup and fled to the Dominican Republic in 2002. (AP Photo/Walter Astrada)





Haitian rebel leader Peter Metayer (C) and other rebels patrol the streets of Gonaives, Haiti, Friday, February 13, 2004. (Reuters/Daniel Aguilar)



Conclusive Evidence of U.S. Role in Kidnapping and Coup.
http://www.iacenter.org/haiti_0407press.htm
April 7, Whitman Theater at Brooklyn College


The Fire This Time in Haiti was US-Fueled


The Bush Administration Appears to have Succeeded in its Long-Time Goal of Toppling Aristide Through Years of Blocking International Aid to his Impoverished Nation

by Jeffrey Sachs

Haiti, once again, is ablaze. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is widely blamed, and he may be toppled soon. Almost nobody, however, understands that today's chaos was made in Washington -- deliberately, cynically and steadfastly. History will bear this out. In the meantime, political, social, and economic chaos will deepen, and Haiti's impoverished people will suffer

The Bush administration has been pursuing policies likely to topple Aristide since 2001. The hatred began when Aristide, then a parish priest and democracy campaigner against Haiti's ruthless Duvalier dictatorship, preached liberation theology in the 1980s. Aristide's attacks led US conservatives to brand him as the next Fidel Castro.?

They floated stories that Aristide was mentally deranged. Conservative disdain multiplied several-fold when then-president Bill Clinton took up Aristide's cause after he was blocked from electoral victory in 1991 by a military coup. Clinton put Aristide into power in 1994, and conservatives mocked Clinton for wasting America's efforts on "nation building" in Haiti. This is the same right wing that has squandered US$160 billion on a far more violent and dubious effort at "nation building" in Iraq.?http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0301-10.htm

[seemslikeadream]

7. Venezuela's Opposition Denounces Chavez

Tuesday May 18, 2004 11:46 AM


AP Photo CAR108

By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER

Associated Press Writer

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela's opposition denounced President Hugo Chavez's plan to give civilians military training as a thinly disguised attempt to create pro-government militias.

Chavez announced the new civil defense force during a speech Sunday, saying ``imperialists'' in the United States plan to invade Venezuela to take over its abundant oil reserves.

He pointed to the arrests near Caracas last week of more than 100 alleged Colombia paramilitaries. Chavez claims his opponents enlisted the Colombian forces in a conspiracy to overthrow his leftist government.

Opposition leaders denied involvement in any such plot and said Chavez's plan to train civilians amounts to an intimidation campaign directed at foes pushing for a presidential recall vote.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4103500,00.html

[bemildred]

8. The opposition doesn't like Hugo stealing their methods.

This is just professional jealousy. BTW, it's not "thinly
disguised", it's right out in the open, just like the National
Guard in the US. Is the Venezuelan government supposed to
create "anti-government militias"?

[Paco]

9. Brilliant Idea !!

I think President Chavez has been reading up on the U.S. Constitution.

Amendment II

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

:kick:

[seemslikeadream]

10. Colombian paramilitaries: A sub-command group of 20 people served as slave

Published: Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Bylined to: Philip Stinard


Colombian paramilitaries: A sub-command group of 20 people served as slaves

Panorama (Maracaibo) reports: Commissioner David Colmenares, head of investigations for DISIP, told Panorama by telephone that to date, 122 irregulars have been detained, as well as eight officers active in the Air Force and Armed Forces of Venezuela, in the case of the Colombian paramilitaries captured in Venezuela.

Click here for the original Spanish text

“We’re analyzing telephone evidence and witnesses’ testimony. We can say that there are a number of prisoners, minors, people who once they were baited with a ‘real’ reason to go, were then forcibly taken to Venezuela. Some of them were deceived into going to Venezuela.”



Colmenares explained, “One of these youths stated on a TV channel that they had brought him here to Venezuela, and had gotten him an ID to vote for President Chavez, but that is totally contradictory. How are you going to believe that Robert Alonso, an anti-Chavez and anti-Castro extremist, is going to bring someone here to vote for Chavez? Undoubtedly, they deceived this young man.”

The head of DISIP continued, “At least 20 were deceived. They were held as slaves. We’ve determined that they weren’t in Group A, rather in a group that they vulgarly called ‘The Gonorrhea’…. They were kept for domestic labor, always watched by others so they wouldn’t try to escape.”

It’s thought that the person whose cadaver was found was part of this sub command group.

more
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=21208

[seemslikeadream]

11. Bay of Croissants - a bit o'musment from SA

they also found many croissants from the known Danubio pastry shop.



Other episodes have not been successful
Counter-intelligence in Venezuela


It is a group of "peasants, as they themselves have said," said the intelligence police's head (Photo: Venancio Alcázares)

The government statements on the capture of the suspected Colombian paramilitaries in the south of Caracas were quite abundant. The government admitted that except for one pistol, there were no guns. An alarmed Interior and Justice Minister Lucas Rincón, however, said that they also found many croissants from the known Danubio pastry shop


GIULIANA CHIAPPE
EL UNIVERSAL

The paramilitaries fell from heaven - or from hell, who knows? Whatever your view is, the truth is that they were found at a moment when the scandal for the Fuerte Mara fire and Súmate's successful pre-claim campaign needed to be minimized.

The biggest question is who brought them to Venezuela in such an inefficient way. The only certainty is that they did not come alone. One theory, defended by the government, insists that it is a destabilizing strategy of the opposition. Another version is that

it's a government montage, a theatrical representation as many others that the nation has witnessed before.

The creation of this kind of smoke screen, or the use of controlled situations to obtain concrete goals, are part of counter-intelligence, an activity in which the Cubans have acquired a vast experience. Just as any other simulation of the recent years, the case of the paramilitaries captured in Caracas on May 9 shows some clues that indicate that it might be an intelligence operation.

Bay of Croissants

The government statements on the capture of the suspected Colombian paramilitaries in the south of Caracas were quite abundant. The government admitted that except for one pistol, there were no guns. An alarmed Interior and Justice Minister Lucas Rincón, however, said that they also found many croissants from the known Danubio pastry shop.

[seemslikeadream]

12. Some similarities

1991 president bush BCCI Iraq War Haiti

2000 president bush Riggs Iraq War Haiti

Am I leaving anything out?



Oh this is in the wrong thread, I've gotten my coups mixed up

[seemslikeadream]

13. Colombian paramilitaries in Caracas: background information timeline

Diario Panorama/VTV report: Panorama (Maracaibo) has published background information related to the events last Sunday on the outskirts of Caracas, when a group of at least 79 paramilitaries were seized at a ranch owned by opposition leader Roberto Alonso. In order to obtain a broader overview of the facts and activities preceding the events of the past few days, the list has been combined with another compilation published by Venezolana de Television on its website.



From Alonso’s website: “Since December 2nd, 2002, the day on which the national strike began, Roberto Alonso began his campaign of ‘Alerts’, sending his articles to over 80,000 e-mail addresses, which receive these essays almost daily, alerting about the danger that Venezuela is in of falling into the eternal and international trap of Castro-communism”

From one of the “Alerts”, titled “The problem isn’t getting rid of Chavez”, we take an excerpt: “Let’s talk straight. Getting rid of Mr. Chavez could be easier than peeling tangerines with long fingernails. It happened once, and that was done “accidentally, but on purpose”…. After much evaluation, there is no doubt that the only thing we need would be to create a crisis similar to the one on April 11th, where we could even prevent deaths.”

“…To prevent deaths – at least in large quantities – an anarchic explosion is required; uncontrolled, unarmed, in the largest cities of Venezuela, under the condition that it would happen, or in the worst case, that it starts and people would start joining in without hesitating too much.”

Guarimbose code:

In May 2003 and February 2004, Roberto Alonso wrote about the guarimba ... he reported in his essays that there is a Radical Defense Movement (MDR), but that it would not be the one making guarimbas happen. “Our job, for now, is simply suggesting it and explaining the plan… The Guarimba will last as long as it needs to in order to get rid of an unconstitutional government… The best thing that could happen in Venezuela is for us to topple an illegitimate president by means of the guarimba. The guarimba is very charming ... there isn’t enough military personnel or bullets in the Venezuelan Armed Forces to stop it. If applied correctly against the regime, it would not be able to resist an afternoon.”


more
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_7843.shtml

[seemslikeadream]

14. Venezuelan gov’t arrests Colombian coup plotters

Venezuelan gov’t arrests
Colombian coup plotters
Mass protest denounces U.S.-backed plan to oust gov’t
lead article

BY MARTÍN KOPPEL
AND MARION TALBOT


Speaking to the crowd at the conclusion of the march, Chávez said, “I’m calling for the massive integration of the people into the defense of the nation.” This is in addition to steps by the government to expand the size of the regular army and reserves. The Venezuelan president announced that retired and reserve officers would be named to head up a campaign of military training “in every neighborhood, field, university, and factory for the territorial defense” of the country. He said such a step was provided for in the Venezuelan constitution.

Sharpening confrontation
Many demonstrators interviewed by the Militant pointed out that the U.S. government has been escalating its campaign of threats against Venezuela. Through Plan Colombia, which funnels billions in aid to the Colombian military, Washington has encouraged the Colombian army to carry out provocative maneuvers near the Venezuelan border. The sharpening confrontation between most capitalists here, who have Washington’s support, and working people in Venezuela is intertwined with the latest moves by the U.S. government to tighten its four-decade-long economic war against revolutionary Cuba (see article on front page). One target of the U.S. rulers’ offensive is the fact that Cuba has sent thousands of doctors, teachers, agricultural technicians, and other volunteers to Venezuela.

Venezuelan officials said the individuals arrested had been undergoing military training at the ranch after they secretly entered Venezuela in March. In a May 14 press conference, Chávez said that among the arrested were Rafael Omaña and José Ernesto Ayala, two commanders of Colombia’s banned ultrarightist group United Self-Defense (AUC), who led forces near the Colombia-Venezuela border.

The term “paramilitary” is widely used in Colombia and elsewhere to describe these forces. This is done in order to hide the fact that these are simply units of Colombia’s military spun from the army to have a freer hand to carry out killings of peasants and other atrocities, while letting the right-wing government save face publicly. Chávez stated that the plot originated with right-wing Venezuelans living in Miami and that the U.S. government knew about it, an accusation U.S. officials denied. “There are people in the United States who keep thinking of how to start a war in Venezuela so that they can justify an invasion,” Chávez said.

To justify Washington’s campaign against the Venezuelan government, U.S. officials have declared that Cuban advisors are being placed in key positions in government ministries. The May 8 Miami Herald quoted an unnamed U.S. State Department official, who said, “We see a very worrisome spread in Castro’s infiltration of Venezuela under Chávez.” The Herald cited unnamed officials claiming that Cuban advisors are now in Venezuela’s secret police, DISIP, the Interior Ministry, the Central Bank, and the immigration service.

more
http://www.themilitant.com/2004/6821/682101.html


Venezuela: Strange figures from the Central Bank

The Central Bank reports that oil exports came to $6.907 billion in the first quarter of 2004, which, at an average price of $28.73 per barrel, gives an export volume of 2,642,000 barrels a day. However, if to that figure the 400,000 b/d consumed by the domestic market is added, one concludes that the Central bank is saying that production was more than 3 million b/d. Both the International Energy Agency and Gente del Petrólo put oil production at nearly 2.6 million (400,000 b/d less).

For the first time in the 64 years since the Central Bank was founded, there may be grounds for doubting the veracity of its statistics. The figures issued by the Central Bank are supposedly obtained from PDVSA. What is surprising is not so much that PDVSA is padding the figures, but that the Central Bank’s technicians have not made the necessary corrections.

It looks as though the Central Bank’s figures are no longer to be trusted.
http://www.vcrisis.com/index.php?content=letters/200405210445

[bemildred]

15. Vcrisis generally tends to be full of shit.

But you know that.

[seemslikeadream]

17. Thanks for being so kind

that has not always been the case with one or two others who take it upon themselves to trash me just because I post a story from a news source that may not be "credible" to them. I post a story and link. I'm sure of the intelligence here at DU, like yourself to point out, politely I might add, a good opinion of it. Just because I post a story do you believe that automatically means it is my opinion? I would be thankful for your response.

I try to post as much info I can on certain subjects and there is not a whole lot to choose from at times. Should I censor news that I read or post it and let others decided for themselves?

[bemildred]

19. "Just because I post a story do you believe that automatically means it is

my opinion?"

Nope, your posting history is pretty clear, and that would not
appear to anything near your opinion, that's why I noticed
when you put up this idle speculating blather from Vcrisis,
which seems to be a propaganda site.

FWIW I meant to criticize Vcrisis, not you.

[seemslikeadream]

21. I thank you

for your thoughts. I did not think you were critizing me and I glad to know about Vcrisis. Sorry maybe I sounded sarcastic, I didn't mean to be, I was thinking of someone else!

Here's to beautiful Venezuela :toast:

[bemildred]

23. Only your due.

Here's to beautiful Venezuela :toast:

[pescao]

16. chomsky on venezuela

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/05/291950.html

Question: Professor Chomsky, does the recent discovery and arrest of over a hundred Colombian paramilitaries in a ranch just outside of Caracas, many of them wearing Venezuelan military uniforms, does that signify a new phase in Washington's aggression towards the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and do you see any kind of military intervention, perhaps through Colombia, as being likely?

Noam Chomsky: It's not impossible, we really don't know, we don't have the details, but that the United States is trying to overthrow the Venezuelan government is not at all in question. In fact there was a military coup two years ago, which overthrew the government for a couple of days. The US welcomed it at once. It had to back down because of the overwhelming objection of the rest of Latin America, where they had this odd, old-fashioned idea about democratically-elected governments. And then the population immediately overthrew the coup-leaders.

There's a further consequence to that. The Venezuelan Supreme Court, which represents the old regime, the elite regime, determined that they could not be brought to trial, and the Venezuelan government, allegedly a totalitarian government, amazingly accepted the Supreme Court judgment, and did not bring them to trial.

Shortly after that, there was a terrorist bombing in Caracas, and two of the military officers who had been coup-leaders were implicated in the bombing. They fled to the United States, where they requested asylum. Venezuela called for extradition. That's where it stands right now, it's been about two months. The US has not given an official answer, as far as I know, to the call for extradition.

Incidentally, it's very hard to follow any of this because none of it ever gets reported, by the usual principals. But is this a further attempt? Your guess is as good as mine.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2004/05/291952.mp3

[Tommy_Douglas]

18. How long before Chavez...

Views these little activities by the Bush Regime as acts of war and turns off the spigots like they threatened to a few months ago.

The United States power is waning in South America. People there are sick of U.S. interference and pro-american fascist dictators.

You know it might not be long before America has a middle east on this side of the world.

[bemildred]

20. Chavez will keep taking our money and using it to build schools.

No need to turn off the spigots as long as the attacks on
his government remain as incompetent as they have been so far.

[AP]

22. Money Talks. Democracy Walks.