Chavez's allegation of planned invasion based on war game (More M$M PUKE)

[Say_What]

More of the M$M's attempt to discredit Chavez. Check that remark about "no sabre rattling". Are they f*ck'n nuts? CondiSLEEZY, the pig Noriega, and Rummy have knocked Chavez at every opportunity.

<clips>

(KRT) - When Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez charged on ABC's "Nightline" last month that the U.S. military was planning to invade his country, he raised even Ted Koppel's eyebrows.

"I have evidence that there are plans to invade Venezuela," Chavez told a surprised Koppel. "Nobody can deny it because it, Plan Balboa, exists."

Yes, Plan Balboa does exist, but only as a war game - organized by Spain's military, not the U.S. military - of an attack on a Venezuela-like country and available on the Internet. Washington insists it has no plans to invade.

"I can't say if any other country in the world has a plan to invade Venezuela, but I can confirm that the United States of America did not, and does not, have any invasion plan," said U.S. Ambassador Bill Brownfield.

Unlike what happened in the period leading up to the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, there have been no media leaks of any such U.S. plans, no public saber-rattling.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/12822403.htm

[RethugAssKicker]

1. So, do you think the US governement is going to admit it?

[toopers]

41. Actually, I think they have already admitted it.

The pentagram, er pentagon, already has plans to invade every country in the world, including Vatican City (though I am not sure it is a country).

[bemildred]

2. War games are serious business. nt

[Say_What]

3. Particularly when the 'war games' happen just before the failed 2002 coup

on edit: and the 'war game' attacks coming from, where else? Colombia and Panama.

Interesting observation from the article: ..."You don't do a war game without any possibility of applying it," said Alberto Mueller, a retired army general who consults for the Venezuelan government on military matters.

[redqueen]

4. That coup has NEVER been investigated in the M$M

How I loathe those WHORES!

[day2]

5. Disagree on your tagline

I disagree on your tagline. Yes I agree the 19th century was Europe, the 20th the the US but the 21st centurey will be Asia- mainly China and India and all the pacific rim countries. Their economies are growing at 8-9% per year with no immediate end in site. R&D from every major company in the world is shifting to India and china.

[Say_What]

9. He was referring to the Western Hemisphere...

welcome to DU, Day2!! :hi:

[Say_What]

6. 2004 vheadline: Operation Balboa: NATO war games simulated attack on Venez

From May 2004 from Vheadline.com details of Plan Balboa.

<clips>

Operation Balboa: NATO war games simulated attack on Venezuela

Between May 3 and May 18, 2001, the Spanish Armed Forces, fed with abundant, detailed, and secret information about Venezuelan, Colombian, and Panamanian military and defense, conducted a simulated land, air, and sea assault in which US and allied countries, authorized by the United Nations, attacked the western part of Venezuela from bases in Panama and Colombia.

These are what military and geopolitical analysts call "war games," which simulate scenarios and situations that permit the participating forces to practice advanced attack and defensive techniques.

In this case, the exercise "presented a fictitious situation, the product of the evolution of imaginary happenings, although they are adapted to real-life situations," according the "General Rules of Simulation" and the "Specific Exercise Plan for Operation Balboa."

It's surprising to learn how much information, supposedly confidential and secret, about Venezuela, was provided by US officials to NATO and was used in this simulation conducted by 36 Lieutenant Colonels and other officials from the Spanish Air Force and other countries.

These and other participants in the "war games" were organized in two groups, and the ones in the Air Force were directed by Commanders Juan Ramon del Rio Nieto and Julian Roldan Martinez from the General Air Command in Moncloa. One can infer from the classified document to which we have access that the exercises were completed with the participation of land and sea forces.

Scenario: The participating countries are shown on a map: A blue country, the United States; a white country that needs to be protected, Colombia; a light blue neutral country dependent on the blue country, Panama; and purple, Venezuela; with a black zone of conflict. These countries are described with interesting deformations to exalt the blue and white countries, and indicate the negative aspects of the purple country. For example, it explains that by nationalizing the oil industry, Purple "needs foreign personnel, particularly from the Blue country, to
maintain the rhythm of production and operation of these installations."

http://www.arena.org.nz/venbalbo.htm

[northzax]

7. so because SPAIN drew up a war game

the US is planning to invade Venezuela? come on.

Of course the US has a plan on the shelf to invave Venezuela, the US has a plan on the Shelf to invade Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Ireland, Cambodia, Burkina Faso and even the Shetland Islands. There is an office in the Pentagon that does nothing but draw up plans for every possible scenario. I wager there's a plan to invade Easter Island and take all the big stone heads. Does this mean we're planning on doing it?

repeat: the US military has plans to invade everywhere. That's what they do, make plans for every possible scenario.

[day2]

8. They also have war game scenarios with the US attacking Britain

Every contingency is planned for.

[1932]

28. I'm positive they've never rehearsed that one.

But it looks like they have rehearsed the Venezuela attack.

Furthermore, I think I read somewhere that the more likely the scenario, the more often they update it. So I bet they haven't updated the the British invasion since Blair was elected. Just kidding. It probably hasn't been updated since WW2. I bet the venezuela invasion is at the top of the pile and is tweaked every couple months.

[bemildred]

10. True. But the US had done a good deal of invading in Latin America.

The fear is not without foundation. The War Game was
probably done more as a threat and a study for possible
future action, rather than because of any immediate plan
to attack Venezuela, but it does mean someone is thinking
about it. Games are expensive, we don't do games on the
invasion of Britain, but we do Korea a lot, and drug
interdiction, and things the military considers "interesting".

Edit: just to be clear, I'm not saying we don't have plans
for Britain, just that we don't do exercises for Britain.
Exercises are expensive.

[northzax]

11. and that is completely logical

it's not as if Chavez is all that friendly to the US is it? the street goes both ways. it;s a country, in our hemisphere, with an increasingly militarized government, good natural resources, and growing economic and military power. They are a logical target to practice against.

I repeat. the US is not going to invade Venezuela. Might a precise military strike be used to help a coup? not ruling that out at all, but a full scale invasion? with what, exactly?

[bemildred]

12. Yeah, we'll never invade Iraq. nt

[northzax]

13. oh, that is logical

maybe, just maybe, it's because of Iraq that we can't invade Venezuala? maybe it's Iraq that rules it out? the fact that our frontline combat troops are on the other side of the world mighy, just maybe, have something to do with it? the fact that it's a lot harder to invade jungle than desert?

or were we planning to invade venezuela with maybe the Lousiana National Guard?

if you're going to talk about it, at least have some modicum of information, about the real capabilities of the military, or at least be willing to listen to it.

I know I will never convince people of this, there are those who think we are going to simultaneosly invade Iran, Syria and Venezuela. guess what? WE CAN'T.

[bemildred]

14. Did you know Venezuela is almost the same size as Iraq? nt

[northzax]

15. did you know Iraq is a desert?

with large frontiers that border nations at least nominally friendly to the US? and that it had a military and infrastructure crippled by a decade of santions?

how is that similar to Venezuela in any way shape or form? maybe I have a bad atlas, but Venezeula is mostly covered land, or marshy, or mountainous. With a military that is strengthening, not weakening, and a population that may actually be loyal to the leadership? oh, and where were we invading from again? the narrow Panamanian border or the war torn Colombian one?

[bemildred]

16. And they both have oil. nt

[northzax]

17. which is their only similarity

invading Venezuela would take a million soldiers. last time I checked, we don't have a million to spare.

Canada, by the way, has oil as well. So does Mexico. both would be much easier to invade.

[bemildred]

19. And terrorists:

Venezuela harboring Al Qaeda's Mustafa Nasar:

http://www.vcrisis.com/index.php?content=letters/200510031402

[1932]

40. See post 39

[Judi Lynn]

23. Are you sure about that? A million soldiers? That's getting up there,

isn't it?

So you don't believe _Bush would enlist his friend Álvaro Uribe's assistance, after the BILLIONS of American taxpayers' dollars he has poured into Colombia, not to mention the advisors, troops, war materials, etc., etc. he has given them, and taken in for his own troops, to go in, as did the Colombian paramilitary troops last year, to back him up after a lot of creative bombing?

Richard M. Nixon had no problem whatsoever following the plan _Bush has used, employing funding groups to destabilize Allende, throw crippling strikes, propagandize, etc., etc., bribe military officials, organize them, then taking over Chile, after THEIR airforce bombed the holy bejesus out of the capital, and soldiers shot it up, etc., etc. _Bush has managed all of the early steps already. All that's missing is the violence.

You remember he already tried the coup, and knows that wouldn't work again.

I can see how you'd envision a MILLION soldiers being needed to take over Venezuela and remove the people's elected President.

[northzax]

24. Colombia has soldiers to spare?

don't they have a little civil war going on?

Vietnam is half the size of Venezuela, and with 550,000 troops we couldn't conquer that hilly, vegetated country.

[Judi Lynn]

25. It could be arranged, easily, again.

Just like the 130 Colombian paramilitary troops who were found near Caracas last year. Some were reservists in the regular Colombian military:

The Venezuelan elite imports soldiers
by Marta Harnecker
May 23, 2004

If anything has become clear following the discovery of an incursion of a significantly large paramilitary group into the country, it is that the 'anti-Bolivarian and anti-Venezuelan oligarchy and its masters in the north' have not been able to recruit Venezuelan soldiers for their subversive objectives and 'have been forced to recruit them in another country,' as expressed President Chavez in front of tens of thousands of people, who gathered in Caracas this past Sunday, May 16th, to demonstrate their rejection of paramilitary activity and to express their support for peace.
(snip)

A week earlier, on the 9th of May, on the outskirts of Caracas, a paramilitary force was discovered, dressed in field uniforms. Later, more were found, raising the total to 130, leaving open the possibility that there are still more in the country. The three Colombian paramilitary leaders of the group are members of the Autonomous Self-Defense Forces (AUC) in Northern Santander state in Colombia.

Some of the captured Colombian fighters have a long history as members of paramilitary forces. Others are reservists of the Colombian army and yet others were specifically recruited for the task in Venezuela and were surely tricked. Among these there are several who are minors.
(snip/...)

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=5579

[northzax]

27. 130 people

working for hire are going to conquer a country. Sure thing, Lord Thatcher.

is what you're saying that if Chavez is somehow neutralized that the people of Venezuela will simply take the lead of whoever else is there? That Chavez is unpopular enough with Venezuelans that they would allow a coup d'etat with only 130 people to take over the entire country?

if he's that unpopular, if Venezuelans aren't interested in fighting for their duly elected government, then perhaps Chavez isn't as wonderful as you are painting him to be.

[Judi Lynn]

29. I don't understand your post. It doesn't seem connected to anything.

"is what you're saying that if Chavez is somehow neutralized that the people of Venezuela will simply take the lead of whoever else is there? That Chavez is unpopular enough with Venezuelans that they would allow a coup d'etat with only 130 people to take over the entire country?"

No.

[northzax]

32. so, if the populace would resist such an incursion

then your offering of 130 soldiers of fortune as evidence that Colombia could reasonably support an invasion of Venezuela is meaningless, right? Maybe if Colombia could spare 50,000 front line soldiers, you would make an argument that somehow they could be successful. Fact is, Colombia is having a low grade civil war against a very well funded opponent (since they have narco-dollars to spend) and cannot realisticly get involved in Venezeula beyond a low grade incursion of a few hundred people. Which leaves the US with four options for invasion:

a: via the mountainous jungle from Guyana.
b: Via the mountainous jungle from Brazil (don't see them playing, do you?)
c: amphibious assault through the caribbean (no major amphibious assult has ever been launched from farther than 60 miles away, maybe Trinidad and Tobago will help?) either way, we'd need a lot more capacity.
d: an airborne assault. maybe ten to twenty thousand, tops, against an army of a million. not a good bet.

So we have one very friendly neighbor (Brazil) one in a civil war (Colombia) and one without the infrastructure to help (Guyana) even if it wanted to. This is not a good invasion situation, still, it can be done with US military power.

Give me two aircraft carriers, b-1s and b-2s from the US, and a base somewhere, maybe the caribbean for shorter range bombers, unlimited financial resources and, with 100,000 marines, I will take Caracas, Valencia and Coro in 4 months. There won't be anything left of them, of course, and oil will be 100 bucks a barrel, but it can be done. Unless the country collapses, and everyone else simply accepts US rule (which I doubt) the rest of the country will never be taken and held. So for 200 billion dollars, you can take a couple of port cities, maybe. then what?

or do you have some other plan?

[1932]

35. Richard Gott said in the Mother Jones interview

that if Chavez had been deposed two years ago, much of what he had done up to that point could have been undone. Gott now says that much of it probably can't be undone and people accept they have to work with his government.

So, 130 to kill him two years could have stopped Chavez's "revolution." Now, even an occupation by the US and whomever else they got on board probably wouldn't last more than a couple weeks or months at the most.

Even the coup in 2003 was too late given that the people surrounded the palace and probably wouldn't have accepted the coup leaders' government.

[minorl]

20. As a USMC Planner in SOUTHCOM AOR...

I can confirm you are right...for the most part. The only concern for Venezuela in the Southcom AOR is that they will funnel money to the FARC in Colombia to further finance the Coke wars down there. That's a war that has been going on for 40 years...they quit counting the casualties a long time ago.

As far a Chavez...he isn't the angel that his PR campaign is trying to make him out to be. Legitimately elected, true...but I can't believe the hype reading the intel reports I see daily. I wish it were true...the world needs some honest altruism.

[bemildred]

21. Yeah, mostly drug war related that I can remember. nt

[Judi Lynn]

22. It would be helpful to concerned DU'ers if you would provide

more information on Venezuela's financing Colombian FARCs. We would really need to see this, considering the fairly recent discovery of over 100 armed Colombian paramilitaries at the ranch of Cuban-Venezuelan Roberto Alonso, next-door neighbor of Gustavo Cisneros, friend of the elder _Bush, and billionaire Venezuelan media owner, Gustavo Cisneros, near Caracas.

You would have seen this, no doubt in your local paper:

Venezuela Plans To Ask US To Extradite Coup Plot Suspect

CARACAS (AP)--Venezuela will ask the U.S. to extradite a Cuban exile wanted
by authorities for his alleged role in a plot to topple President Hugo
Chavez, Venezuela 's information minister said Thursday.

Robert Alonso owns the farm outside Caracas where suspected paramilitaries
involved in a coup plot were detained in May. Authorities aren't certain
where Alonso is, but they have information that he was recently in Florida,
Information Minister Andres Izarra said.

"Venezuela is going to request that the government of the U.S. take actions
to honor the cooperation treaty existing between both nations in judicial
matters," Izarra said.

Alonso, who is a Venezuelan citizen, denied claims by Chavez that he was
behind a purported coup plot involving more than 100 suspected paramilitary
fighters, who remain in Venezuelan custody.

Chavez says the U.S., along with Venezuelan and Cuban exiles in Miami,
supported the alleged plot. U.S. officials have denied the allegations.
Alonso has a Web site on which he urges an uprising against Chavez and
accuses the president of trying to impose Cuba-style communism in Venezuela.
(snip)

http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20041004/007313.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Venezuelan elite imports soldiers
by Marta Harnecker
May 23, 2004

If anything has become clear following the discovery of an incursion of a significantly large paramilitary group into the country, it is that the 'anti-Bolivarian and anti-Venezuelan oligarchy and its masters in the north' have not been able to recruit Venezuelan soldiers for their subversive objectives and 'have been forced to recruit them in another country,' as expressed President Chavez in front of tens of thousands of people, who gathered in Caracas this past Sunday, May 16th, to demonstrate their rejection of paramilitary activity and to express their support for peace.
(snip)

A week earlier, on the 9th of May, on the outskirts of Caracas, a paramilitary force was discovered, dressed in field uniforms. Later, more were found, raising the total to 130, leaving open the possibility that there are still more in the country. The three Colombian paramilitary leaders of the group are members of the Autonomous Self-Defense Forces (AUC) in Northern Santander state in Colombia.

Some of the captured Colombian fighters have a long history as members of paramilitary forces. Others are reservists of the Colombian army and yet others were specifically recruited for the task in Venezuela and were surely tricked. Among these there are several who are minors.

A colonel of the Venezuelan air force was also detained, as well as seven officers of the National Guard. Among those implicated in the plot is a group of civilians headed by the Cuban Roberto Alonso, creator of the 'guarimbas,'<1> and Gustavo Quintero Machado, a Venezuelan, both who are currently wanted by the Venezuelan justice system.
(snip/...)

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=5579

[minorl]

26. Out of my purview...but.

...allow me to clarify on my professional scope. I deploy Marines, and plan for the deployment of Marines in Central/South American and the Caribbean. Mostly, building schools and digging wells as part of the Developing Countries Campaign Plan. Colombia is the "hot bed" in the AOR. Venezuela is the red-headed stepchild of the SOUTHAM family. Anyone with anti-US agendas and considerable money to throw around becomes a "concern" because that money may fund anti-US and anti-US allies activities.

What Bush sr. and the paramilitary "organizations" do, who they cohort with and the underlying intentions are beyond my scope. There is a reason I read DU. Call me a "lurker," but I don't trust big-coorporations, and the present administration scares me. I plan legitimate operations, with Marines who care about the jobs they do. We are not drones, not baby-killers, not mindless automatons. We know how to voice our loyal dissent when it is necessary.

As far as a coup attempt...I can safely say there has never been any Marine involvement in any BS like that. No US government involvement as far as I know. I have a TS clearance and I sit in on SOUTHCOM briefings every week. US commercial entities backing some anti-Chavez shenanigans...perhaps, but to suggest some US General was sitting around a conference table with big-oil exec planning a coup, it would not be in any professional capacity. This is just MHO, based on 14 years as a operational/tactical planner.

[Judi Lynn]

30. Glad to read you're not involved in overthrowing elected leaders.Thanks.nt

[1932]

31. Tell us more.

What intelligence do you see that makes you think Chavez isn't so great? Considering the great efforts made to undermine him, I personally find it hard to believe that there is anything very incriminating. If there were, it would have been used by now. And I think if there is gossip being quietly spread, the reason it hasn't come out is that it's more effective as rumor and the fear is that if released, it would be rubutted. That was the impression I got recently reading Kornbluh's book on Chile -- many people within the state department and CIA, even during Republican administrations, had intelligence that suggested Nixon and Ford were way off base with their motivation and planning. Meanwhile, everyone under the umbrella of the Pentagon was all for undermining Allende, and had the intelligence to support their political goals (intelligence which contradicted state department and CIA intelligence). I also think Kornbluh's book gives examples of, IIRC, Naval intelligence officers "sitting arround the table" with coup plotters. So, even if you can't imagine anyone from the Marines doing that, I do believe that Chile is an example (I grant, older than 14 years) where the US military did assist in the planning.

What are some anti-US activities that money could be funding in South America? What are our interests in Venezuela and South America?

Of whom is Chavez a red-headed step-child? Brazil? Aregentina? It seems to me that everyone in that family is adopted and has red hair!

[minorl]

37. See post #19...not the first time I've read that.

[1932]

39. The circumstances surrounding that information seem so much more

likely to suggest it's not credible than it is credible. Guess who was assassinated in Venezuela? The prosecutor looking into terrorist activities not by Mustafa Nasar, but by the very former military officers associated with this source. And guess where they're hiding out?


Venezuela Asks Interpol to Help Capture Terror Suspects Seeking Asylum in the US
Tuesday, Dec 30, 2003

Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 30 (Venezuelanalysis.com).- Venezuelan police authorities have requested the cooperation of Interpol in the United States for the capture of fugitive anti-government military rebels German Rodolfo Varela and Jose Antonio Colina.

The rebels have been charged in connection with the terrorist attacks to the Embassy of Spain and the Consulate of Colombia in Caracas, on February 26, 2003.

Both Varela and Colina are part of a group of rebel military officers who openly oppose the government of President Hugo Chavez, and who set up a protest camp at the Francia Square in the affluent eastern Caracas neighborhood of Altamira, to give anti-government speeches and make calls to overthrow the President.

According to a report by the El Nuevo Herald of Miami, the two officers managed to elude Venezuelan police authorities and escaped to Colombia. Later, on December 19th, they arrived in the US in a flight coming from Bogota, Colombia, and requested political asylum in Miami. They remain under the custody of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.

Suspects charged with "terrorism"

According to the public prosecutor in charge of the case, Danilo Anderson, the main reason for the arrest orders against the two suspects was the testimony given last November by Silvio Daniel Merida, who was one of the bodyguards of the accused. Merida, who confessed helping set up the bombs, described in detail all the planning of the attacks and how the bombs were detonated via cell phone by Colina and Varela. Investigators determined that C4 explosives were used in the attacks.

{snip}

Another military rebel, retired General Nestor Gonzalez Gonzalez, was also accused by Merida, but the Attorney General's office is seeking to collect more evidence before issuing an arrest order.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1147

Do these sound like people who would tell the truth about terrorism?

[Judi Lynn]

38. Adding photos of Robert Alonso, and the Colombian paramilitaries

found on his ranch near Caracas. Bonus photos, his sister, Maria Conchita Alonso, who became an "actress" in the U.S., and worked in a Schwarzenegger movie. :eyes:


Robert Alonso, Cuban-Venezuelan, who ran off and is hiding in the U.S., hiding from the Venezuelan government after they found he was organizing and holding these paramilitaries on his ranch.



Paramilitaries



His sister, Maria

[Judi Lynn]

36. You may find this article on Bush's Latin American specialist, Roger

Noriega, especially interesting. When I saw it posted in Say_What's post on another thread, I knew instantly you'd probably want to see it:

...Rather than policy maker, Noriega then became a launching pad for unconfirmed, if not entirely spurious, charges that the Venezuelan leader was intent on destabilizing the region by supporting rebels in neighboring Colombia’s civil war, as well as egging on the indigenous populations of Bolivia and Ecuador against their governments. While scripting snarling critiques of the Chávez administration without a sliver of incriminating evidence, Noriega continued Reich’s strategies of trying to subvert the Venezuelan government by funneling funds to opposition groups in the country...

The article ends:

Upon resigning to move to the private sector, Noriega was quoted as saying that it “seemed like a good time to make a change.” But that change could not come soon enough for those who watched his incompetence, hyperbole and the almost perfect illiteracy regarding Latin American issues that he manifested in office to the detriment of the general welfare of all the peoples of the Americas.

http://www.coha.org/NEW_PRESS_RELEASES/New_Press_Releases_2005/COHA_Opinion_05.23_Noriega%27s_Latin_American_Policy.html

This fine man has been in charge of Latin American policy for _{George W. Bush} ever since _Bush's first choice, who was COMPLETELY disgusting, and was never accepted, Otto Reich, had to leave his recess appointment job, and leave Roger in charge. Can you believe some people are STILL handing out acknowledged crap from his office, fresh from his scheming, lying, feverish brain to American citizens, and expecting them to swallow it? Who could be that disrespectful of his fellow citizens?



It's Roger Time!

[Judi Lynn]

18. Venezuela Discovers More Oil - Bush Plans Invasion

Venezuela Discovers More Oil - Bush Plans Invasion
Clif Ross
07/11/05

MÉRIDA, VENEZUELA - The State oil company of Venezuela, PDVSA, confirmed today the discovery of four billion square feet of natural gas in western Venezuela, believed in June to have only been 2 billion square feet. It also confirmed that it possesses the largest single reserve of oil in the world. In addition to the estimated 78 billion barrels of conventional oil reserves, there are 235 billion more barrels of heavy and extra-heavy crude, known as Orimulsion, in the Rio Orinoco region. This means that Venezuela possesses under her soil nearly fifty percent of the total amount of oil in the entire Middle East. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Iran and Qatar have a combined total of 676 billion barrels while Venezuela´s total alone is 313 billion barrels.

This might go a long way in explaining why the Bush Administration has made extensive plans for an the invasion of Venezuela. Plans for a joint U.S.-NATO invasion of Venezuela date back to May 3, 2001, according to an article published in last week´s edition of Venezuelan weekly "Las Verdades de Miguel." The plan was dubbed "Operation Balboa" and drawn up by the Southern Command under George Bush, according to the report, written by José Luis Carpio. The invasion had as its objective to "remove Hugo Chavez from power, using the same strategy employed in the war against Iraq" with a massive midnight bombing campaign, followed by an invasion and occupation of the country.

President Hugo Chavez had mentioned Operation Balboa on Sunday, July 3, in his weekly television show, Alo Presidente, but without offering details. At that time Chavez said he knew "in detail" about the plan and he also proposed an "Operation Counter Balboa," an operation which may already be underway.

For several months now the Venezuelan Military has been conducting joint exercises with the civilian population in preparation for national emergencies like "earthquakes, tsunamis and invasions by foreign forces." They have also made recent purchases of 100,000 small arms and helicopters from Russia and begun developing plans to build up a national civilian defense force to repel any foreign aggression.

"Operation Balboa" appears not to have been implemented beyond the design stage, but neither have the plans been scrapped. According to Carpio, "The plans presented by the North Americans continue in effect and the possibility remains, according to the sources of information that have been consulted, of the appearance of unidentified groups attacking U.S. citizens or interests, which would give greater justification for an intervention." This latter scenario may already be in the works and has historical precedents dating back all the way to the Mexican American War.
(snip/...)

http://www.eastbaynews.org/stages/word_stage1.php?EBN=050711_1_word

Excerpted from: http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2005/07/1717188_comment.php

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

34. Not necessarily paranoid

Before the invasion of Grenada, there was a war game about invading a fictitious Caribbean island very much like Grenada.

Before Panama and Iraq, this was one of the chapters in recent American history that I was most ashamed of--the U.S. beating up on an island country thirty miles long.