Venezuela arrests two coup plotters

(Friday 06 February 2009)

TWO Venezuelan National Guard captains have been arrested on charges of plotting with the opposition to destabilise the government, President Hugo Chavez announced on Thursday.

President Chavez said that the officers had tracked his movements and maintained contact with former Venezuelan officers living in the US who have been accused of involvement in two Caracas bombings.

They were detained on Wednesday and are being held by the Military Intelligence Directorate.

Mr Chavez did not identify the officers, but he said they were conspiring with "political movements, contacting the United States, preparing destabilisation plans against the president."

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/world/venezuela_arrests_two_coup_plotters

When you think of how much danger Venezuela and their elected government, and their president, have been in for the last eight years, from Bushwhack coup plots and assassination operatives, you have really got to admire Venezuela's intelligence agency and security apparatus. I read an article that got 'disappeared' in the corpo/fascist media--an AP reporter (quite surprising)--who took a road trip with Chavez, and wrote about him sympathetically. Among other things, Chavez complained about the restrictions on his freedom (he said something like, "I can't have a normal life" due to security concerns), since the 2002 Bushwhack-supported coup attempt and kidnapping. But, despite known assassination plots (several hatched in Colombia--a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bush Cartel), and known coup plots, there have likely been threats we never hear about. The Bush Cartel has many resources, and can aim their plots through many different networks (Colombian military, Colombian rightwing paramilitary death squads, Blackwater (active in Colombia), Israeli security forces (active in Colombia), drug lords and weapons traffickers, USAID-funded fascist youth, 'brownshirt' thugs, the U.S. "war on drugs" military, CIA assets in the Venezuelan military, and so on.) But Chavez has remained alive; the plots have been foiled; and Venezuelan democracy remains in tact and thriving. These are huge accomplishments, and, while some of it can be attributed to the Venezuelan people themselves, and their commitment to their own sovereignty, there must surely be a lot of good police work and intelligence work going on.

I imagine, too, that the intelligence agencies of allied countries--Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile and others--are cooperating to prevent coups and assassinations. I was quite moved to read, the other day, of the emergency meeting of UNASUR, that Michele Batchelet of Chile called, to handle UNASUR's first crisis: The U.S. (Bushwhack)-funded and organized fascist coup against Evo Morales' government in Bolivia, this last September. Batchelet apparently took the representatives on a tour of the office where the CIA coup against Chile's previous president, Salvador Allende, unfolded, at the hands of the heinous, U.S.-supported dictator, Pinochet. Batchelet herself was tortured by Pinochet and lost family members to his death squads. Her message to the members of UNASUR: 'Never again will we let this happen to a South American leader and sit back and do nothing.' UNASUR then acted unanimously to strongly back Evo Morales and his elected government. Morales survived the coup (which, at one point, gained control of a provincial airport and denied the presidential plane the right to land), threw the U.S. ambassador and the DEA out of Bolivia, and Bolivia was able to hold its constitutional referendum (which Morales won with 61% of the vote) without incident.

Score one for UNASUR and South American solidarity (and the people of Bolivia!). I think we can be sure that there are a lot of eyes on various U.S.-connected networks around the continent that might threaten South American leaders and governments.

and military people who participated, even when they continued to make trouble long after the coup itself.

Can you imagine the same kind of treatment toward anyone in our own military if they tried that crap here? Holy smokes.

It's hard to believe. That would never have happened with a Democratic President in a million years.

What WOULD they have ever done if people like the Venezuelan fascists had started dragging around images like THIS in public? They couldn't have gotten them in jail nearly fast enough, and they'd STILL be there!

http://www.worldpress.org.nyud.net:8090/images/0902venezuela.jpg

Unnamed conspirators, no real evidence disclosed, etc. etc.