Caracas has denied it supports groups or organizations that use violence to achieve

political ends.

Its unbelievable that in this day and age anyone would seriously think
of using violence to attain political ends (other that us of course).
The nerve, the gall, how dare they !!!!

Captain Compassion wrote:

Venezuela getting ready to confront United States with military
training of left-wing groups
India Daily ^ | October 23 2005 | Sonia Joshi

Oil rich Venezuela scared of the same fate as Iraq, is planning some
extreme measures to confront United States in case it is attacked.
Venezuela is fast spreading arms, money and military training tactics
to left-wing groups in Ecuador and six other Latin American countries.
According to some international think tanks, the plan is to rage

insurgency from outside Venezuela in case Venezuela is attacked and
occupied.

According to media sources, left-wing groups in Ecuador and six other

Latin American countries have received training in urban guerrilla war
tactics from Venezuela this year, The Miami Herald reported Oct. 22,
citing an Ecuadorian military intelligence report. While the report
does not directly link Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to the
training, it does identify two Caracas installations -- one belonging
to the Venezuelan army and the other to the Ministry of Defense --
where the training took place. In the past, Caracas has denied it
supports groups or organizations that use violence to achieve
political ends.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/breaking_news/12972069.htm

Posted on Sun, Oct. 23, 2005

HERALD EXCLUSIVE

Report alleges rebels trained in Venezuela

Ecuadorean and other Latin American leftists received guerrilla
training in Caracas, an intelligence report shows.

BY STEVEN DUDLEY

sdudley@herald.com

QUITO - An Ecuadorean military intelligence report alleges that
leftists from Ecuador and seven other Latin American nations
received guerrilla training in Venezuela this year from backers
of President Hugo Ch=E1vez.

The report does not link Ch=E1vez personally to the training in
explosives, weapons and urban guerrilla tactics.

But it notes
that part of the training took place in two Caracas military
bases, one used by the army reserves and another that houses the
Defense Ministry.

And in a concluding section, it says that backers of the
Venezuelan president, ``with covert support from the government
of Hugo Ch=E1vez . . . have strengthened incipient subversive
movements.''

The Herald repeatedly sought the reaction of Venezuelan Vice
President Jos=E9 Vicente Rangel, who most often speaks for the
government, and Gen. Julio Quintero Viloria, commander of the
reserves. Neither responded.

However, after the Ecuadorean newspaper El Comercio broke the
story earlier this month, the Venezuelan Embassy here issued a
statement denying the story and saying Ch=E1vez ''is against all
groups or organizations that support the use of violence.'' The
president himself later dismissed the newspaper's story as part
of a U.S. government propaganda campaign against him.

If the allegations are proved to be true, however, they would
bolster a rash of recent U.S. complaints that Ch=E1vez's
self-proclaimed socialist and revolutionary government has
become a destabilizing factor around Latin America.

VENEZUELAN ROLE

In its story, El Comercio broadly cited military intelligence
documents but gave few details about the alleged Venezuelan
link.

The Herald independently obtained a copy of an intelligence
report that focuses on the Venezuelan link.

The report's key assertion of guerrilla training could not be
verified independently by The Herald. But a senior civilian

government official here with access to intelligence information
verified the existence of the report and described its contents
as ''undeniable.'' Several military intelligence personnel here
also told The Herald that the report was indeed the work of
their agency.

U.S. intelligence officials are known to be aware of the report
and to believe that its allegations are true.

Ecuador's intelligence agencies are considered relatively
reliable because they had Israeli and U.S. training during a

successful drive in the late 1980s to break up a leftist
guerrilla group, according to a U.S. security consultant, who
asked for anonymity because he often works here.

CONTACTS DISCUSSED

El Comercio's Oct. 2 story quoted a spokesman for the previously
unknown Alfarist Liberation Army, or ELA, an underground leftist

group, as stating that members had indeed traveled to Venezuela.

When asked if it was for military training, the spokesman was
quoted as responding: ``In our contacts, there are exchanges of
experiences, methods and mechanisms. And in fact one passes
through those experiences.''

But in a later interview with El Comercio, the spokesman, who
used only the nom de guerre Sebasti=E1n S=E1nchez, issued a
qualified denial. ''We've never received logistical or financial
support from the Ch=E1vez government,'' he said, not ruling out
support from Ch=E1vez's supporters. The Herald could not reach him
or other ELA members for comment.

Although the report does not implicate Ch=E1vez personally in the
guerrilla training, it argues that his leftist ideology is
allowing kindred Latin American groups to go to Venezuela and
``take advantage of the space and facilities that the government
. . . provides.''

''The Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement created by the
Venezuelan Republic,'' the report adds, ``is formalizing its
process of consolidation in Latin America, taking advantage of
the revival of the leftist political parties and popular
movements, with which . . . they are attempting to organize
paramilitary political forces that reach power.''

Ch=E1vez was democratically elected in 1998 on a promise to break
with Venezuela's historically corrupt and elitist politics and
launch a peaceful revolution on behalf of the country's poor
majority.

Since then, he has poured billions of dollars into health and
education programs, forged a tight alliance with Cuba, and
increased his country's economic ties to nations throughout
Latin America.

After handily winning a recall referendum last year, he declared
himself a socialist and stepped up a campaign to create a Latin
Americanwide bloc that opposes U.S. policy, which Ch=E1vez says
has only caused poverty. But he also became the target of
increasing U.S. complaints that he has been using the windfall
profits from high oil prices to support radical leftists in
neighboring countries.

OFFERS FROM CHAVEZ

Ecuadorean President Alfredo Palacio's government has downplayed
El Comercio's stories.

Ch=E1vez has offered to buy Ecuadorean
bonds, provide this country with oil and build a refinery here
-- and the leak of the intelligence report might indicate some
opposition to the relationship with Ch=E1vez.

The report obtained by The Herald does not identify whether the
information it contains came from a defector, an infiltrator or
another source.

But it tells a detailed story of subversion, outlining a
four-week training course in Venezuela for 20 unidentified
persons -- three from the ELA and 17 from Peru, Bolivia, Chile,
Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Venezuela.

Except for Colombia, none of those countries are known to have
guerrilla movements.