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| Latin America |
| Chavez accuses CIA as bombings rock Venezuela |
| 2003-10-09 |
| EFL Taipei Times from WND Tensions mounted in Venezuela Monday after bombings rocked the capital and an ally of Presi-dent Hugo Chavez accused the CIA of backing opponents trying to oust the beleaguered leader. Two fuel tankers exploded late Sunday at the capital’s municipal airport, 36 hours after the presidential guard barracks and the national telecommunications offices were bombed. Lawmaker Nicolas Maduro said he would lobby US legislators to open any CIA files on Venezuela. He demands that China not be privledge to secret information that is denied to Venezuala. "Let them declassify the secret documents on CIA involvement and their financing of undercover activities during 2002-2003 because we have hard evidence that the terrorist attacks were planned," he said. He did not mention which US lawmakers would be asked to help. I think we can gin up a short list of suspects off the top of our heads. He said the records would reveal CIA funding links to Vene-zuelan opposition groups seeking to oust Chavez. Maduro also said he will seek US congressional approval for access to any CIA records related to a failed coup in April last year, which swept Chavez from power for less than two days. I’m sure the US thought that throwing one of our top oil producers into total chaos would be an excellent idea? "A group of legislators will go to Washington so that the secret documents on the coup d’etat are declassified so that we can know the names of those who have received money from the CIA to create this chaos in Venezuela," Maduro said. Maduro is smoking something. Or maybe he is a Wizards fan. Can’t Chavez stick with the standard arguments: I have trashed the economy so badly that we can’t afford a recall, my oppoent is a chicken-choking woman groper, and poor people will be disenfranchised by the recall process. After the coup, opposition political parties, business leaders and labor agreed to use only legal means to oust Chavez. The deal was brokered by former US president Jimmy Carter and the Organization of American States. Jimmy gets around. Venezuela’s Constitution allows voters to recall the president at any time after the halfway point of the term, which Chavez has already passed. He rejected all the original signatures becasue they were collected before the midpoint of his term. Electoral authorities last week set the rules governing the collection of signatures to petition the government for a recall ballot. Chavez is trying to limit the signature collection process to 1 day. Opponents must gather 12 million signatures, some 20 percent of the electorate, to petition for the recall referendum. Could another possible explanation be that the fired petrolium industry workers didn’t like being evicted from government quarters? |
| Posted by:Superhose |
| #6 Don't let a groper abuse recall. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-12-18 2:42:05 PM |
| #5 Actually, given recent news about Chavez' support for Islamacist terror groups, including allowing training camps there and providing false papers allowing them to travel as if they were Venezuelan .... well, I would be worried about CIA help for his opposition too. |
| Posted by: rkb 2003-10-9 1:54:11 PM |
| #4 To: Robert Novak From: Re: CIA Involvement in Venezuela Bob, You didn't hear this from me, but Valerie Plame is working on this right now. |
| Posted by: snellenr 2003-10-9 1:18:19 PM |
| #3 How about "NO", Hugo? |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-10-9 1:06:22 PM |
| #2 --CIA of backing opponents trying to oust the beleaguered leader.-- BWAHAHAHAHA! Anyone who's paying attention |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-10-9 1:01:42 PM |
| #1 To: Chavez, Hugo From: IndyMedia / Terry McAuliffe RE: Talking Points Old conspiracy theory: The CIA New conspiracy theory: The Mossad Thanks, The Management |
| Posted by: Raj 2003-10-9 12:51:57 PM |