A slow coup in Venezuela
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 11:00
By W. T. Whitney
~snip~
The Miami El Nuevo Herald recently published a prison interview with ex-Colombian paramilitary fighter Geovanny Velasquez Zambrano. He said he attended two meetings almost 10 years ago at which Manuel Rosales, then mayor of Maracaibo in the Venezuelan state of Zulia, offered US$25 million for killing Chavez.
Rosales hinted at US sources.
Velasquez said paramilitary chieftain Jorge Ivan Laverde, known as "el Iguano", accepted the offer: "I have the guys to kill this gentleman."
The plotters established a training camp in Catatumbo in Colombia to prepare for forays into Venezuela. Velasquez's own group entered Venezuela in 2000.
El Nuevo Herald said Laverde, also a prisoner, accused high Colombian Army officers of orchestrating paramilitary ventures.
From 2000 to 2008, Rosales governed Zulia. In 2006 he was the right-wing opposition's candidate in a losing bid for the presidency and that year allegedly met Colombian paramilitaries again in a border town.
More:
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/42635