Venezuela Accuses ex Governor of Backing Flight (Carlos Ortega, 3 others)

[seafan]

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={7F65C8AF-32EE-4592-970D-1B50D1E99174})&language=EN">Venez Accuses ex Governor of Backing Flight

Prensa Latina
August 19, 2006

Caracas, Aug 19 (Prensa Latina) Enrique Mendoza, former governor of Miranda state, Venezuela, doled out the money ostensibly sent from the US for the escape of four conspirators from a military prison, VEA daily disclosed Saturday.

The paper noted that journalists of the police source identified Mendoza, who supported the April 2002 coup against President Hugo Chavez, as the intermediary among foreign agents and officials of Ramo Verde penitentiary.
Recently, Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez said the August 13 getaway was bankrolled with over 1,000 dollars and part of that money, through a well-known politician, was assigned to briberies.

VEA stressed the money came from people residing in the US that were interested in the breakout of ex union leader Carlos Ortega and three other officers.

Along with Ortega, who was serving 15 years for civil rebellion, instigation to break the law, and use of false public documents, also fled Col. Jesus Faria and Capt. Rafael Faria, serving a nine years for assisting Colombian paramilitary to enter the country, and Col. Dario Faria, awaiting trial for the stealing war weapons, among other charges.
The newspaper denounces that Ortega, as well as many other leaders of the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers, has been hired for years by agencies of the US government dedicated to influence worker organizations in Latin America.

It also points out that other US resources financed the post-escape covering up system, transportation and the linking staff.

snip

[cyberpj]

1. No doubt here of US involvement. It's (sadly) how we work. nt

[seafan]

2. Dept of Homeland Security link to 4 escapees in Venezuela

We need to pay close attention to this.


From August 15, 2006:


http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7BB71821D5-9281-48D3-98A0-58683A4E74E4%7D&language=EN">Venez Links Escape with Plots

Caracas, Aug 15 (Prensa Latina) Venezuelan police investigations into the escape of four conspirators from a military prison in Caracas Sunday, detected US electronic communications related to the perfectly-coordinated flight.

VEA daily s director Guillermo Garcia Ponce urged authorities to be alert in the face of possible attempts at destabilization, as he believes there is evidence of a counterrevolution and a fifth column in the nation..

The four fugitives are ex union leader Carlos Ortega, serving 15 years for civil rebellion, instigation to break the law, and use of false public documents, Col. Jesus Faria and Capt.Rafael Faria, serving a nine years for assisting Colombian paramilitary to enter the country, and Col. Dario Faria, awaiting trial for the stealing war weapons, among other charges.

In an interview with Confianza program on Venezolana de Television, Garcia Ponce pointed out the police detection of an e-mail sent by Leopoldo Torres, who works in the US Homeland Security, to Edith Ruiz, an assistant of Alberto Federico Ravell, director of opposition Globovision channel.

VEA revealed that Leopoldo Torres is the son of Betty Torres, a former judge sentimentally connected with Carlos Ortega.

It notes further that the e-mail included a sound archive with the voice of Col. Jesus Farias, read by Globovision, in which he addresses the nation to explain the causes of his getaway.

snip

[Judi Lynn]

3. Any information we get on this is going to have to come from outside

our country, as we know American taxpayers are the LAST to know, usually 30 years or more after the fact whenever these dirty, filthy schemes are played out.

I'm PRAYING somehow this story is going to get coverage they can't suppress.

Thank you, seafan~

[seafan]

4. Thanks, Judi Lynn. We are all archaeologists now. Never stop digging.

Another clip from the opening article:

To date, there are different versions on the fate of the four escapees, including their trip to Colombia or Curacao.

[formercia]

5. I'm sure the Knights of Malta

had the rat line all set up in advance.

[Peace Patriot]

6. Interesting article on contracting/labor tensions, in Venezuela's effort

to balance old-fashioned business models (top down management, finance-drive) with the participation and needs of local communities in construction projects. Unions are not always a benign influence in Venezuela (as evidenced by Carlos Ortega, the escaped coup leader, who led a "union" of oil professionals that tried to destroy Venezuela's government on behalf of the rich oil elite and oil giants/Bushites). The dispute described in this article may or may not be caused by malign parties but they clearly seem out to monopolize contracts by taking over social organizations and excluding community participation and social considerations in contracting, and their bullying methods certainly make them suspect. And this is not just any cooperative. As the article points out, it's the flagship cooperative of the Chavista movement. (I've wondered, too, about the AFL-CIO's participation in Bushite, US taxpayer funded backing of Chavez's rightwing political opposition, in violation of Venezuelan laws against foreign money in elections--and what their association might be with rightwing oil workers. What the hell is a U.S. union doing trying to undermine and destabilize a socialist government?)


Coup D’état in Venezuela’s Flagship Endogenous Development Center?

Tuesday, Aug 15, 2006

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1796

[seafan]

7. Interesting article. Lots of unanswered ?'s with these "unions".

Sounds like some *infiltration* going on...

[seafan]

8. More information:

Chavez Opponent Escapes Venezuela Prison


Maria Faria, daughter of Col. Jesus Faria holds a protest poster showing three fugitive military officers, brothers Capt. Rafael Faria, left, Col. Jesus Faria, center, and Col. Dario Faria, right, seen in the home of Col. Jesus Faria in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Aug. 14, 2006, the day after the three escaped from a military prison along with Carlos Ortega, a labor leader who was serving a 16-year sentence for civil rebellion. Jesus and Rafael Faria were charged with military rebellion in October 2005 after being linked to a group of alleged Colombian paramilitaries which the government claims was plotting to assassinate President Hugo Chavez, and Dario Faria was arrested in April 2005 after a military assault rifle was found hidden in his car's fender and charged with theft of military equipment. (AP Photo/Gregorio Marrero)

Carlos Ortega escaped from a military prison over the weekend, and troops and police were ordered to guard ports, airports and embassies to prevent him from fleeing or seeking asylum. But those who know the 60-year-old Ortega think he might stay in hopes of reviving anti-Chavez protests before presidential elections in December.

"Carlos has always been a fighting man," Edgar Zambrano, an opposition politician who recently visited him in prison, said Monday. "I imagine if he decided to escape from prison, he's doing it to stay in the country and, while in hiding, begin a frontal fight against the regime."
A union leader who led a crippling national strike against Chavez and later became what many consider Venezuela's most prominent political prisoner, Ortega slipped out of the Ramo Verde prison west of Caracas, where he was serving a 16-year sentence for civil rebellion. Three convicted military officers also escaped.

Prison director Gustavo Busnego said 14 guards were being interrogated, and investigators believe some may have helped the men leave the prison. He said guards reported the escape Sunday after checking one bunk and finding only pillows under the sheet, arranged to look like a dozing inmate.

snip

Ortega was convicted last December of civil rebellion and instigation to commit illegal acts for his role in a 2002-2003 general strike that aimed to topple Chavez's government.
The two-month strike virtually shut down oil production in the world's No. 5 oil exporting country and cost Venezuela an estimated $7.5 billion, plunging the economy into recession. Chavez refused to step down and regained control of the oil industry by firing nearly half the work force at the state oil company.
The government also has linked Ortega, the leader of the million-member Venezuelan Workers Confederation, to an April 2002 coup that briefly ousted Chavez before street protests helped restore him to power.

snip

The three military officers who disappeared with Ortega include two brothers, Col. Jesus Faria and Col. Dario Faria, and their nephew, Capt. Rafael Faria.
Jesus and Rafael Faria were serving nine-year terms for military rebellion after being linked to reputed Colombian paramilitaries detained in 2004 for allegedly plotting to assassinate Chavez. Dario Faria was arrested for theft in 2005 after a military assault rifle was found hidden in his car's fender. All three maintained they were innocent.
A daughter of Jesus Faria, 23-year-old Maria Alejandrina, said her father revealed nothing of his plan when she visited him at the prison Saturday. She said she had no idea where her relatives went, but said they'll likely "continue with their mission" — opposing Chavez's government.

[Mika]

9. WTF? 8 posts and no bashing Chavez!!??!!

I guess I'll have to wait a little longer.

:popcorn:

[Say_What]

10. Golpista Mendoza sent police forces to occupy the state television

From a 2004 article.

One of the opposition’s potential candidates for the presidency, Miranda state governor Enrique Mendoza, is an old hand at such tactics. He had sent police forces to occupy the state television company immediately after the coup that temporarily deposed Chávez on 11 April 2002. Mendoza rules Miranda by terror. According to the state ombudsman, there have been more than 30 assassinations during Mendoza’s time as governor, and countless unjustified arrests. In May, 150 Colombian paramilitaries were discovered in Miranda; they had been hired to create a climate of instability that would benefit the opposition (3).

Mendoza's name is also linked to NED as is Rosales, Chavez's opponent:

It is noteworthy that the NED is giving its support only, and exclusively, to political programs in states led by opposition Governors. The list is as follows:

· Miranda State, Governor Enrique Mendoza, main leader of the Opposition Coordinating Body. He participated directly in the 2002 coup, and during those events he ordered the closing of the Government television channel, Venezolana de Televisión.

· Carabobo State, Governor Henrique Salas Feo, of the Proyecto Venezuela party.

· Zulia State, Governor Manuel Rosales, main leader of the opposition Coordinating Body in that State. He signed the “decree” of the coup leaders, purporting to represent the State Governors.

...The financing plan designed by the NED for the opposition groups in Venezuela in 2002 – the year during which the Coup d’Etat occurred – was called “Democratization of Semi-Authoritarian States.” To this end, 2 million 103 thousand 200 dollars were channeled through the State Department’s U.S. Information Agency (USIA).

http://www.venezuela-oas.org/SpeechAmbassadorValeroForeignagressionagainstvenezuela.htm