Sunday, October 26, 2003
From Reuters Oct. 23: CARACAS, Venezuela, Oct. 23 — U.S. congressmen and diplomats on Thursday dismissed allegations by Venezuelan officials and lawmakers that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency was trying to topple leftist President Hugo Chavez.
The accusation against the CIA, part of a recent war of words between Washington and Caracas, was made earlier this month by Chavez's Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel. It was repeated on Wednesday by two political allies of the president in the National Assembly.
Lawmakers Nicolas Maduro and Juan Barreto presented a video which they said showed an alleged CIA ''colonel'' instructing local recruits in subversion tactics. . . .
''The era of the CIA in its historical role of undermining governments in the world and especially in Latin America is over,'' Massachusetts Rep. William Delahunt, a Democrat, told reporters. He was accompanied by Rep. Cass Ballenger, a North Carolina Republican, and New York Democrat Rep. Gregory Meeks.
. . . AFP Oct. 8:Lawmaker Nicolas Maduro said he would lobby US legislators to open any CIA files on Venezuela.
"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.
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.
"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. UPDATE - From Associated Press Oct. 25:A Florida company accused of working with dissidents to overthrow the Venezuelan government rejected on Saturday videotape evidence allegedly linking them to subversive activities.
The Venezuelan unit of Florida-based security company Wackenhut denied that the video - presented Wednesday by legislators allied with President Hugo Chavez - showed CIA agents advising Venezuelans in June on how to destabilize the country later this year.
"The video was in reality filmed in the installations of Wackenhut Venezolana, C.A in September 2002. . .
Ruling party lawmaker Nicolas Maduro claimed the three men in the video were U.S. secret agents training dissident military officers and municipal police in espionage and "terrorist" tactics.
The U.S. Embassy said the video showed an event held by a private security company, not CIA agents. It added that the U.S. government did not participate in the event.
Wackenhut said that affirmations that one of the men in the video was a CIA agent and retired army colonel were "false and groundless." The company, which has worked in Venezuela since 1994 and has operations in six states, also denied that police officers were present at the meeting. TOTAL INFORMATION ANALYSIS: Note Wackenhut didn't deny any were military officers, heh heh. They're shocked, SHOCKED to be accused of being CIA. .....---
.....| Posted at 20:19 | PERMA-LINK |
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