Eva Golinger / Global Research – 2010-08-04 23:00:41
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20271
CARACAS (August 3, 2010) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denounced this Saturday US plans to attack his country and overthrow his government. During a ceremony celebrating the 227th birthday of Independence hero Simon Bolivar, Chavez read from a secret memo he had been sent from an unnamed source inside the United States.
“Old friend, I haven’t seen you in years. As I said to you in my three prior letters, the idea remains the generation of a conflict on your western border,” read Chavez from the secret missive.
“The latest events confirm all, or almost all, of what those here discussed as well as other information that I have obtained from above,” the letter continued.
“The preparation phase in the international community, with the help of Colombia, is in plain execution,” manifested the text, referring to last Thursday’s session in the Organization of American States (OAS), during which the Colombia government accused Venezuela of harboring “terrorists” and “terrorist training camps” and gave the Chavez government a “30-day ultimatum” to allow for international intervention.
The letter continued with more details, “I told you before that the events wouldn’t begin before the 26th, but for some reason they have moved forward several actions that were supposed to be executed afterward.”
“In the United States, the execution phase is accelerating, together with a contention force, as they call it, towards Costa Rica with the pretext of fighting drug trafficking.”
On July 1, the Costan Rican government authorized 46 US war ships and 7,000 marines into their maritime and land territory.
The true objective of this military mobilization, said the letter, is to “support military operations” against Venezuela.
Assassination and Overthrow
“There is an agreement between Colombia and the US with two objectives: one is Mauricio and the other is the overthrow of the government,” revealed the document. President Chavez explained that “Mauricio” is a pseudynom used in these communications.
“The military operation is going to happen,” warned the text, “and those from the north will do it, but not directly in Caracas.”
“They will hunt ‘Mauricio’ down outside Caracas, this is very important, I repeat, this is very important.”
President Chavez revealed that he had received similar letters from the same source alerting him to dangerous threats. He received one right before the capture of more than 100 Colombian paramilitaries in the outskirts of Caracas that were part of an assassination plan against the Venezuelan head of state, and another in 2002, just days before the coup d’etat that briefly outsted him from power. “The letter warned of snipers and the coup,” explained Chavez, “and it was right, the information was true, but we were unable to act to prevent it.”
US Military Expansion
This information comes on the heels of the decision last Thursday to break relations between Colombia and Venezuela, made by President Chavez after Colombia’s “show†in the OAS.
“Uribe is capable of anything,” warned Chavez, announcing that the country was on maximum altert and the borders were being reinforced.
Last October, Colombia and the US signed a military agreement permitting the US to occupy seven Colombian bases and to use all Colombian territory as needed to complete missions. One of the bases in the agreement, Palanquero, was cited in May 2009 US Air Force documents as necessary to “conduct full spectrum military operations” in South America and combat the threat of “anti-US governments” in the region.
Palanquero was also signaled as critical to the Pentagon’s Global Mobility Strategy, as outlined in the February 2009 White Paper: Air Mobility Command Global En Route Strategy, “USSOUTHCOM has identified Palanquero, Colombia (German Olano Airfield SKPQ), as a cooperative security location (CSL). From this location nearly half of the continent can be covered by a C-17 without refueling.”
The 2010 Pentagon budget included a $46 million USD request to improve the installations at Palanquero, in order to support the Command Combatant’s “Theater Posture Strategy” and “provide for a unique opportunity for full spectrum operations in a critical sub region of our hemisphere where security and stability is under constant threat from narcotics funded terrorist insurgencies, anti-US governments, endemic poverty and recurring natural disasters.”
The May 2009 Air Force document further added that Palanquero would be used to “increase our capacity to conduct Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), improve global reach… and expand expeditionary warfare capability.”
In February 2010, the US National Directorate of Intelligence (NDI) classified Venezuela as “Anti-US Leader” in the region in its annual threat assessment.
The US also maintains forward operation locations (small military bases) in Aruba and Curazao, just miles off the Venezuelan coast. In recent months, the Venezuelan government has denounced unauthorized incursions of drone planes and other military aircraft into Venezuelan territory, originating from the US bases.
These latest revelations evidence that a serious, and unjustified conflict is brewing fast against Venezuela, a country with a vibrant democracy and the largest oil reserves in the world.
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Colombia Denies Chávez’s Accusations that it Plans to Invade Venezuela
Arthur Bright / Christian Science Monitor
(August 1, 2010) — Colombia has denied Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s accusations that Colombian forces plan to invade his country amid an escalating diplomatic row.
“Colombia has never thought of attacking its brother nation [Venezuela] as the president of that country says, in a clear political deception of his own country,” Colombian President Ãlvaro Uribe’s office said in a statement issued Saturday.
Colombia will, however, continue to insist that Venezuela stop harboring members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), even though Chávez has consistently denied any collusion with the leftist rebels that have fought the Colombian government for decades.
“Colombia has gone to the channels of international law and will continue insisting on those mechanisms so there is an instrument to make the Venezuelan government comply with its obligations not to harbor Colombian terrorists,” said the statement.
Relations between the two nations have soured in recent days after Mr. Uribe presented evidence that Mr. Chávez is harboring the FARC. On Friday, Chávez declared that he had ordered Venezuelan troops to the border in response to a perceived threat from Colombian forces.
The latest round of sabre-rattling between Uribe and Chávez was spurred ten days ago when Colombia presented evidence to the Organization of American States (OAS) of FARC forces camped within Venezuelan borders. The Christian Science Monitor reported that the tensions were such that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for restraint and several South American nations offered to mediate the dispute.
But The Washington Post reported yesterday that an emergency meeting of South American foreign ministers in Quito, Ecuador, ended Friday without resolution of the diplomatic crisis, and that the relationship between the two nations is “in tatters.”
According to Colombia’s foreign minister, Venezuela’s El Universal writes, the UNASUR ministers present had agreed on a declaration that would have included commitment to creating a “mechanism for effective cooperation and monitoring” of the FARC’s presence within Venezuela, but that Venezuela vetoed the declaration “at the last minute.”
El Universal also reports that Venezuela denied that it had torpedoed a final declaration at the meeting, which Venezuela’s foreign minister insisted was not the meeting’s purpose.
FARC wants to talk?
Ironically, the ongoing spat between Chávez and Uribe comes amid modest signs of hope for a resolution between the FARC and the incoming administration of President-elect Juan Manuel Santos, who is set to enter office on August 7. BBC News reports that FARC leader Alfonso Cano offered in a recently broadcast videotape to talk to Mr. Santos’s administration in an effort to find a political resolution to the guerrilla war the FARC has been waging since the 1960s.
“Between all of us, we have to find common ground and, with the input of a majority of Colombians, we have to identify the difficulties, the problems and contradictions, and create perspectives and a way out of the armed conflict,” Mr. Cano said.
But Mr. Cano also criticized Santos, who served as defense minister under Uribe, and warned that the FARC would have “no other option but to continue the armed struggle” if Colombia continued its military campaign against the group.
Agence France-Presse reports that Vice-president elect Angelino Garzon responded to Cano’s offer by insisting that the FARC must release its prisoners and cease its military operations before any talks can be held.
“The government of Juan Manuel Santos has not closed the door to peace, but we’re demanding that the guerrillas release all the people they’ve kidnapped, stop their terrorist activities … and free the children they’ve recruited by force,” he said.
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Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
