UPDATE: Venezuela will suspend all oil shipments to the US in the event of an attack

By Eva Golinger

Caracas, Sunday, July 25, 2010 - After Venezuelan President Chavez revealed intelligence data yesterday during a national address indicating the imminence of an aggression against his government via Colombia with support from the United States, the country is on maximum alert. Today, the Venezuelan President suspended an important trip to Cuba to celebrate the July 26th anniversary of the Moncada Battle. Chavez was to meet with Fidel Castro, recently recuperated and active again in his nation's politics, and was scheduled to give the key address at the Moncada commemoration.

"After reviewing intelligence reports and other information all night, I have decided to suspend my trip to Cuba", declared Chavez on Sunday before tens of thousands of members from the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). "The possibility of an armed attack against Venezuela from Colombia is too high, and therefore I will remain in the country".

Chávez also warned the US government that in the event of a military attack against Venezuela from Colombia or elsewhere, all oil supply will be suspended. "Let the United States know, that if any aggression is waged against us, we will cut off all oil supply to them. Not a single drop of oil for the United States!"

Venezuela currently supplies more than 15% of US oil needs, but also has seven oil refineries in US territory and over 14,000 gas stations run by CITGO, a Venezuelan-owned company. In January, the US Geological Survey (USGS) determined that Venezuela has the largest recoverable oil reserves in the world, with over 500 billion barrels and counting.

On July 1, Costa Rica, a nation whose constitution prohibits the presence of any armed forces, agreed to allow 46 warships and 7000 US marines inside its territory. Last October, Colombia signed a 10-year agreement permitting the US to occupy seven military bases and all civilian installations as necessary within its territory.

US Air Force documents from May 2009 revealed the intention behind the occupation of Colombian bases was to combat "the constant threat...of anti-US governments in the region", as well as to conduct "full spectrum military operations" throughout South America (see below).

Chavez: US and Colombia plan to attack Venezuela

By Eva Golinger

Caracas, July 24, 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.

VENEZUELA BREAKS RELATIONS WITH COLOMBIA

“For the dignity of Venezuela”

Venezuela and Colombia break relations




President Chavez ordered maximum alert on Venezuela’s border with Colombia after the Uribe administration made grave accusations against Venezuela claiming the Chavez government harbors terrorists and terrorist training camps

The outgoing government of Alvaro Uribe in Colombia gave a shameful presentation before member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) on Thursday, reminiscent of Colin Powell’s “weapons of mass destruction” power point evidence presented in 2003 before the United Nations Security Council to justify the war in Iraq.

Colombia alleged that Venezuela is harboring “terrorists” from the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) and hosting several “terrorist training camps” near the border region that divides the two nations.

During an extraordinary session convened at OAS headquarters in Washington on Thursday, upon request of the Uribe government, Colombia’s ambassador to the OAS, Luis Alfonso Hoyos, presented television and video images allegedly taken from computers confiscated during the illegal invasion of Ecuatorian territory on March 1, 2008, which resulted in the death of FARC leader Raul Reyes and a dozen other Colombian, Ecuatorian and Mexican citizens. Hoyos also presented several computer-generated maps and photographs of alleged members of the FARC, which he said were taken inside Venezuela.

NO REAL PROOF

Yet none of the images were authenticated or verified as reliable by any source other than the Colombian government. Colombia also used satellite map images, some from Google Earth, to show alleged “coordinates” where FARC members are in Venezuela.

Furthermore, the photographs presented by Hoyos had no source identification, dates or times, and merely showed alleged members of the FARC and ELN in different jungle and coastal areas.

Venezuela and Colombia share a porous, jungle and mountainous border and both countries have Caribbean coasts. The countries have similar vegetations, climates and scenery.

Venezuela’s ambassador to the OAS, Roy Chaderton said the photographs looked to him as though they had been taken in Colombia. “That looks like the beach in Santa Marta to me”, responded Chaderton, after Hoyos claimed a photo of a FARC member drinking a beer on the beach was taken at Chichirivichi, a Venezuelan beach town.

“There is no evidence, not a single piece of proof, of where those photographs were taken”, said Chaderton, adding that the “evidence” presented by Colombia was “confusing, imprecise and non-convincing”.

The Venezuelan army verified and thoroughly inspected the locations and coordinates provided by the Uribe administration on Thursday and found none of the alleged “terrorist sites”, “camps” or “guerrilla presence” claimed by Colombia.

Upon arriving at the first coordinate indicated in Colombia’s report, identified as an alleged terrorist camp of alias Ruben Zamora, the Venezuelan army found a farm growing plantains, yucca and corn. The second coordinate, which was the alleged camp of FARC commander Ivan Marquez, was merely an extensive field with no structures or presence of anyone or anything.

INTERNATIONAL INTERVENTION

During his two-hour long flamboyant presentation, Hoyos called for “international intervention” in Venezuela to verify the campsites and gave Venezuela a “30-day ultimatum”.

“Colombia requests a commission of international members, including all those of the OAS, go to Venezuela and verify each of the terrorist camp sites and coordinates to see the truth”, said Hoyos, adding, “we give the Venezuelan government 30 days”, although he didn’t specify what could happen afterward.

Hoyos also accused the Venezuelan government of facilitating drug trafficking, money laundering, illegal arms trade, attacks against Colombian armed forces and even went so far as to allege the Chavez government “squashes its opposition”, “represses freedom of expression”, “insults other governments” and “violates principles of democracy”.

At the same time, Hoyos said his government would be unwilling to listen to or respond to any accusations, insults or offenses made by the Venezuelan government.

Colombia’s position is an echo of Washington’s, which has accused Venezuela of harboring and providing refuge to members of the FARC during the past seven years. But, the US government has also failed to present any evidence to back such claims, and often makes contradictory statements, which appear to confirm the lack of solid proof.

In March 2010, US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) chief General Douglas Fraser said that he had seen no evidence of any links between Venezuela and the FARC. “We have not seen any connections specifically that I can verify where there has been a direct government-to-terrorist connection”, declared Fraser during a hearing before the US Senate Armed Forces Committee.
However, the following day, General Fraser contradicted himself before the press, stating, “There is indeed clear and documented historical and ongoing evidence of the linkages between the Government of Venezuela and the FARC”.

Possibly, Fraser was referring to previous governments in Venezuela, such as those of Carlos Andres Perez (1989-1993) or Rafael Caldera (1994-1998), which actually housed an office of the FARC in the presidential palace. President Chavez shut down that office when he entered the presidency in early 1999.

Or maybe General Fraser was referring to the specific requests made by two Colombian presidents, Andres Pastrana and Alvaro Uribe, for Chavez to mediate the release of hostages held by the FARC.

With full disclosure and complete authority from President Alvaro Uribe, and based on his own personal request, in September 2007, President Chavez accepted the role as mediator in order to secure the release of several hostages held by the FARC inside Colombian territory. For that reason only, Chavez met with FARC commander Ivan Marquez and assured the release of Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez in January 2008.

But otherwise, the Venezuelan government has consistently and repeatedly denied any links or support given to the FARC or any other armed, irregular group from Colombia or elsewhere.

RELATIONS BROKEN

After Colombia’s presentation before the OAS, President Chavez announced a complete rupture in relations.
“It is with tears in my heart that I announce that we will break all relations with Colombia. We have no other choice, for our dignity and our sovereignty”.

Chavez also ordered troops to secure all border areas. “I have ordered a maximum alert on our borders. Uribe is a mafioso and a liar, and is capable of anything”, he said, recalling how Uribe ordered the invasion of Ecuador’s territory in 2008 and then lied to President Rafael Correa about what had happened.

Venezuela accused Colombia of failing to resolve its own internal conflicts, including a 60-year old civil war that has negatively impacted its neighbors with violence and drug trafficking spilling over the borders. More than 4 million Colombians, fleeing the violence in their country, live in Venezuela today.

The Colombian “show” appears to be an effort to justify preemptive war against Venezuela. Last year Colombia opened its territory to seven US military bases in an agreement that the US Air Force claimed was necessary in order to conduct “full spectrum military operations” throughout South America to “combat the constant threat of anti-American governments in the region”.

T/ Eva Golinger

Documents reveal multimillion-dollar funding to journalists and media in Venezuela

Buying the Press



By Eva Golinger
Documents reveal multimillion-dollar funding to journalists and media in Venezuela

US State Department documents declassified under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) evidence more than $4 million USD in funding to journalists and private media in Venezuela during the last three years. This funding is part of the more than $40 million USD international agencies are investing annually in anti-Chavez groups in Venezuela in an attempt to provoke regime change

The funding has been channeled directly by the State Department through three US agencies: Panamerican Development Foundation (PADF), Freedom House, and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

In a blatant attempt to hide their activities, the State Department has censored the names of organizations and journalists receiving these multimillion-dollar funds. However, one document dated July 2008 mistakenly left unveiled the names of the principal Venezuelan groups receiving the funds: Espacio Publico (Public Space) and Instituto de Prensa y Sociedad (Institute for Press and Society “IPYS”).

Espacio Publico and IPYS are the entities charged with coordinating the distribution of the millions in State Department funds to private media outlets and Venezuelan journalists working to promote US agenda.

The documents evidence that PADF has implemented programs in Venezuela dedicated to “enhancing media freedom and democratic institutions” and training workshops for journalists in the development and use of “innovative media technologies”, due to the alleged “threats to freedom of expression” and “the climate of intimidation and self-censorship among journalists and the media”.

According to the documents, PADF’s objective is to “strengthen independent journalists by providing them with training, technical assistance, materials and greater access to innovative internet-based technologies that expand and diversify media coverage and increase their capacity to inform the public on a timely basis about the most critical policy issues impacting Venezuela”.

However, while on paper this may appear benign, in reality, Venezuela’s corporate media outlets and journalists, together with US agencies, actively manipulate and distort information in order to portray the Venezuelan government as a “communist dictatorship” that “violates basic human rights and freedoms”.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Not only do media and journalists in Venezuela have a near-absolute freedom of expression, during the past decade, under the Chavez administration, hundreds of new media outlets, many community-based, have been created in order to foster and expand citizens’ access to media. Community media was prohibited under prior governments, which only gave broadcasting access to corporations willing to pay big money to maintain information monopolies in the country.

Today, corporate media outlets and their journalists use communications power to publicly promote the overthrow of the Venezuelan government. The owners and executives of these media corporations form part of the Venezuelan elite that, under the reigns of Washington, ran the country for forty years before Chavez won the presidency in 1998.

What these documents demonstrate is that Washington not only is funding Venezuelan media, in clear violation of laws that prohibit this type of “propaganda” and “foreign interference”, but also is influencing the way Venezuelan journalists perceive their profession and their political reality.

The State Department funding not only is used to create and aid media outlets that promote anti-Chavez propaganda, but also to capture Venezuelan journalists at the core - as students - in order to shape their vision of journalism and ensure their loyalty early on to US agenda.

FUNDING FOR ANTI-CHAVEZ WEB PAGES

One of the PADF programs, which received $699,996 USD from the State Department in 2007, “supported the development of independent media in Venezuela” and “journalism via innovative media technologies”. The documents evidence that more than 150 Venezuelan journalists were trained by US agencies and at least 25 web pages were created with US funding.

During the past two years, there has been a proliferation of web pages, blogs, and Twitter, MySpace and Facebook users in Venezuela, the majority of whom use these media outlets to promote anti-Chavez messages and disseminate distorted and false information about the country’s political and economic reality.

Other programs run by the State Department have selected Venezuelan students and youth to receive training in the use of these new media technologies in order to create what they call a “network of cyber-dissidents” against the Venezuelan government.

For example, in April 2010, the George W. Bush Institute, together with Freedom House and the State Department, organized an encounter of “activists for freedom and human rights” and “experts in Internet” to analyze the “global movement of cyber-dissidents”. Rodrigo Diamanti, anti-Chavez youth activist, was present at the event, which took place in Dallas, Texas and was presided over by George W. Bush himself, along with “dissidents” invited from Iran, Syria, Cuba, Russia and China.

In October last year, Mexico City hosted the II Summit of the Alliance of Youth Movements (AYM), an organization created by the State Department to bring together select youth activists from countries of strategic importance to the US, along with the founders of new media technologies and representatives from different US agencies. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presided over the event, and anti-Chavez youth activists Yon Goicochea (Primero Justicia), Rafael Delgado, and Geraldine Alvarez, attended as special guests. All three are members of Futuro Presente, an organization created in Venezuela in 2008 with funding from the Cato Institute in Washington.

FUNDING TO UNIVERSITIES

The declassified State Department documents also reveal more than $716,346 USD in funding via Freedom House in 2008, for an 18-month project seeking to “strengthen independent media in Venezuela”. This project also funded the creation of a “resource center for journalists” in an unnamed Venezuelan university. “The center will develop a community radio, website and training workshops”, all funded by the State Department.

Another $706,998 USD was channeled through PADF to “promote freedom of expression in Venezuela” through a two-year project focusing on “new media technologies and investigative journalism”. “Specifically, PADF and its local partner will provide training and follow-up support in innovative media technologies and formats in several regions throughout Venezuela…This training will be compiled and developed into a university-level curriculum”.

Another document evidences three Venezuelan universities, Universidad Central de Venezuela (Central University of Venezuela “UCV”), Universidad Metropolitana (Metropolitan University) and Universidad Santa Maria (St. Mary’s University), which incorporated courses on media studies into their curriculums, designed and funded by the State Department. These three universities have been the principal launching pad for the anti-Chavez student movements during the past three years.

PADF also received $545,804 USD for a program titled “Venezuela: The Voices of the Future”. This project, which allegedly lasted one year, was devoted to “developing a new generation of independent journalists through a focus on new media technologies”. PADF also funded various blogs, newspapers, radio stations and television stations in regions throughout Venezuela, to ensure the “publication” of reports and articles by the “participants” in the program.

USAID and PADF

More funds have been distributed to anti-Chavez political groups in Venezuela through USAID’s Office for Transition Initiatives (OTI) in Caracas, which has an annual budget between $5-7 million USD. These millions form part of the more than $40 million USD given annually to opposition organizations in Venezuela by US, European and Canadian agencies, as evidenced in the May 2010 report, “Venezuela: Assessing Democracy Assistance” published by the National Edowment for Democracy’s World Movement for Democracy (WMD) and Spain’s FRIDE Institute.

PADF has been active in Venezuela since 2005 as one of USAID’s principal contractors. PADF was created by the State Department in 1962 and is “affiliated” with the Organization of American States (OAS). In Venezuela, PADF has been working to “strengthen local civil society groups”, and is “one of few major international groups that have been able to provide significant cash grants and technical assistance to Venezuelan NGOs”.

Venezuela captures a top Latin American terrorist

Plans to commit terrorist acts in Venezuela were impeded

Venezuela captures a top Latin American terrorist

By Jean-Guy Allard and Eva Golinger


Francisco Chavez Abarca was captured entering Venezuela with a falsified passport. The El Salvadoran is known as the “right hand” of Cuban terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, responsible for bombings and terrorist acts against Cuba and its allies during the past 40 years

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez announced the capture of Salvadoran terrorist Francisco Chavez Abarca after he attempted to enter Venezuela’s international airport with a false passport last Thursday.

The Salvadoran criminal nicknamed "El Panzon" not only organized a series of explosions that killed young Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo in 1997, he also recruited, trained and dispatched several other mercenaries to Havana, in addition to personally making three trips to the island to conduct several attacks against Cuban installations.

President Chavez revealed that the arrest of "El Panzon" was made during an intelligence operation on the evening of July 1 when the offender tried to enter Venezuela. Abarca was arrested at the airport in Maiquetia after arriving on a commercial airliner from Costa Rica and was immediately transferred to the headquarters of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin).

"What did Chavez Abarca plan to do in Venezuela? Who was waiting for him?" asked President Chavez before announcing that the terrorist would be deported to Cuba based on an Interpol request seeking his arrest.

"This gentleman came here to kill me, my heart tells me so", said President Chavez, referring to the Salvadoran’s mission in the South American nation.

"Posada Carriles must be very nervous because we’ve captured one of his main cohorts", exclaimed the Venezuelan leader. Venezuela has an outstanding extradition request for Luis Posada Carriles, who has been protected by the US government since his illegal entry via Texas in May 2005. Posada Carriles, a naturalized Venezuelan citizen, is a fugitive from Venezuela’s justice system, having escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 after his arrest for his role in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed all 73 passengers on board.

The Salvadoran criminal Luis Posada Carriles hired in 1997 is a known criminal gang leader who for years made the headlines in El Salvador for his illicit activities, including car theft, drug trafficking and money laundering.

While Posada, the continent's most notorious terrorist, is in the United States, under the protection of the Obama administration - with a trial that never seems to happen - and a hero of the Miami mafia, Chavez Abarca was imprisoned for two years in El Salvador, not for terrorism, but for his role as head of a Central American network of car thieves.

CRIMINAL MAFIA
In the early 90s, Francisco "El Panzon" Chavez Abarca was involved in drug trafficking and the sale of weapons and counterfeit money in Guatemala. Through these illicit operations, which were all overseen by Posada, he gradually became his confidant.

"El Panzon" was linked in the early 90s with Posada Carriles through his father, the arms dealer Antonio Chavez Diaz, who was involved during the 1980s buying weapons captured by the Salvadoran army in counterinsurgency operations while Posada, his client, "ran" drug operations and transported arms for the US-backed and funded Nicaraguan Contras.

TERRORISM
The 1997 plot to sow terror in Cuba was generated in the offices of the US-funded Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), founded in September 1981 under the guidance of the Reagan-Bush administration, and run by CIA agent Jorge Mas Canosa.

Chavez Abarca was publicly linked to Posada Carriles by the Salvadoran mercenary Ernesto Cruz Leon, when he was arrested in Havana after the attacks that resulted in the death of Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo, and the damage against several major tourist installations in Cuba. Cruz Leon confessed to working under the guidance of Posada Carriles. Cruz Leon also admitted he had been trained by Chavez Abarca to place explosives in Cuba.

The Salvadoran terrorist made three trips to Cuba in April and May 1997, all very brief, during which he placed the first explosive that initiated the terror campaign of 1997. A bomb made of 600 grams of C-4, placed by Chavez Abarca in the bathroom at the Hotel Melia Cohiba, exploded on April 12, 1997, causing material damage to the tourist installation and frightening the hundreds of visitors and guests at the Spanish-owned hotel.

Additionally, on May 24, 1997, while Chavez Abarca was in Mexico, a bomb exploded at the entrance to the offices of the corporation Cubanacan, a Cuban tourist agency.

Chavez Abarca also collaborated with Posada Carriles to recruit other terrorists in Central America, including the Guatemalan Maria Elena Gonzalez, Nader Kamal Musalam Barakat, also known as Miguel Abraham Herrera Morales, and Jazid Ivan Fernandez Mendoza, all arrested in Havana in March 1998, when they tried to bring explosives into Cuba.

Kamal Nadel revealed at his trial how Chavez Abarca provided him with explosive material, detonators and showed him how to make bombs. Chavez Abarca also recruited Otto Rene Rodriguez Llerena, who traveled to Havana on August 3, 1997 with 1519 kilograms of plastic explosive C-4, and placed a bomb in the lobby of the Hotel Melia Cohiba. He was captured upon arrival in Havana on June 10, 1998, from Guatemala.

VENEZUELA
On Wednesday, Francisco Chavez Abarca was deported to Cuba, after days of interrogation conducted by Venezuela’s intelligence agency, Sebin. The Salvadoran revealed details of how he was scheduled to meet with two Venezuelans, who would provide him with instructions regarding where to place bombs in the Venezuelan capital. The objective was to provoke an atmosphere of panic and fear during the upcoming campaign for legislative elections set to take place in September.

Before his deportation, Chavez Abarca also confessed that he was paid “a lot of money” by his Venezuelan counterparts, and was going to help them plan “attacks against political parties” to create conflicts and divisions and disrupt the electoral process. He spoke of “burning tires in the streets”, “setting off explosives” at different installations throughout the country and creating a “wave of terror” in the country that would impede and discredit the upcoming elections as well as portray the Venezuelan government as “incapable of defending its territory”.

The Central American terrorist admitted he was acting on orders from his boss, Luis Posada Carriles, currently residing freely in Miami despite the criminal processes and extradition request against him in Venezuela. He said he communicated with Posada Carriles via “Daniel”, a third party who relayed the message to go to Venezuela, where he would meet with “two Venezuelans at a restaurant near the airport, in Catia la Mar”.

Last week, the US Department of Justice sent its first response to the Venezuelan government in the Posada case, requesting further evidence of his “terrorist activity”. Declassified FBI documents list the Cuban-born Posada as a “terrorist”, but also reveal his former work with the CIA, which many speculate is the reason for his protected status in the US.