Venezuela's Chavez pardons Colombian prisoners accused in plot

[Judi Lynn]

Source: International Herald Tribune/Associated Press

Venezuela's Chavez pardons Colombian prisoners accused in plot
The Associated Press
Published: August 30, 2007

CARACAS, Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez on Thursday pardoned dozens of Colombians imprisoned in Venezuela on charges of involvement in an alleged 2004 plot against his government.

The order to free the 41 prisoners took effect with its publication in the government's official gazette that dismissed their convictions on charges of military rebellion.

Chavez announced his decision to free the prisoners last week as a goodwill gesture as he tries to help broker an unrelated prisoner and hostage exchange between Colombia's government and leftist rebels.

In May 2004, 118 Colombians were arrested at a ranch outside Caracas. Authorities said they were wearing Venezuelan military uniforms and were suspected of belonging to paramilitary group that was plotting to create chaos in the country and assassinate Chavez.



Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/30/america/LA-GEN-Venezuela-Colombia.php

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Some of the alleged Colombian paramilitaries allegedly caught in Venezuela





Their temporary quarters on the ranch
of Cuban-Venezuelan (with Miami ties)
Roberto Alonso, brother of actress Maria Conchita Alonso.

[EFerrari]

1. Wait -- he's not flying them to black sites to torture them?

Dictator!

:sarcasm:

[redqueen]

6. ...

:rofl:

[BlackHawk706867]

2. This man is one of the greatest humanitarians on the planet...

"If Only" we could be so lucky in this country.... Bush would have had them all shot by now.

ww

[EFerrari]

8. Shot, disappeared and forgotten.

No kidding.

One of my comedian friends said of 2000, "for a moment, we were Guatemala".

He was wrong. We MADE Guatemala. We've been "Guatemala" for a long time.

[BlackHawk706867]

3. One other comment, Sure hope this doesn't come back to bite him

in the ass!

ww

[Judi Lynn]

4. To refresh your memories on this story DU'ers discussed long ago.....

One of the paramilitaries gave details of the opposition's plans, but asked that his face not be seen fearing retaliations against his family in Colombia
Credit: Venpres

~snip~
Linked to larger group

One of the detainees confessed to a TV reporter that the owner of the farm offered them 500 thousand Colombian pesos to come and work there. When they arrived 46 days ago, they were greeted by men in camouflage uniforms, who told them they would receive training for attacks to National Guard bases.

"Eight days after we arrived, they told us that we could not escape, that we cannot give information to anybody, and that we could not see or talk to any civilians, otherwise they would kill our families," said the detainee in a thick Colombian accent. The man was wearing a sky mask in order to avoid being identified.

The group planned to concentrate near a Caracas military base -presumably the National Guard Urban Security Command- and assault it next Wednesday. The witness explained that the goal of the operation was to steal weapons from a arms depot at the base in order to arm a militia of three to four thousand paramilitaries who would come to Venezuela.

About 100 of the irregulars are members of the Colombian military reserve, according the authorities' analysis of Colombian documents found in the farm, and according to testimony by some of the men captured.

According to the detainee, on Saturday afternoon, some "generals and colonels", organizers of the operation brought Venezuelan army uniforms, boots, and food. "We could not see them because we they only allowed us to see them from afar."

"When we knew about the plan, some of us tried to escape. One of the Colombians rebelled and managed to escape, but he was caught 100 meters away. They tied him and told him that next time he tried to escape, he would be killed. They then took away our ID cards and documents," said the detainee.

According to the witness, they held regular target practices, but access to weapons was limited, perhaps due to the fact that some have tried to escape. Part of the training consisted of a drill in which they entered into a house and killed some people.
(snip)

Media questioned

In contrast with other events, the local media, which openly opposes the government, has given little coverage to the capture of the paramilitaries. Among the media trying to downplay the events is Venevision, Venezuela’s largest commercial TV network, which is owned by billionaire Gustavo Cisneros. Only the local news network Globovision covered the news to some extend using TV footage from the state TV station.

President Chavez lamented the media’s attitude and said that "they have set this important event aside, denying society its right to be informed.” Only the state media has properly informed about the raids.

The Minister of Communication and Information Jesee Chacon condenmed the media's attitude towards an event "without precedent in recent history in Venezuela".

Lawmaker Saab also criticized the local commercial media for not covering the event and just giving TV space to opposition leaders who dismissed the raid as "a show created by the government".
(snip/...)

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1267

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If the opposition media is correct, then when these paramilitaries are released, they won't go to Colombia (home), will they, since it was all theater!

[Joanne98]

5. I hope he tortured them first!

[Judi Lynn]

7. They got far better than they were planning to give.

It's absolutely filthy that these men point out that the ones who ultimately were responsible for getting them there, and hiring them to commit really SERIOUS problems were from the Venezuelan oligarchy, and then the oligarchy media claims the Chavez administration concocted the whole thing as a publicity stunt.

Those right-wing, oligarchy maggots are so damned filthy. They ALL should be sent packing. All of them.

There's absolutely no way to believe the paramilitary plotters weren't working hand in glove with Americans, either. After all, the man who owned the ranch where they were being housed was a Cuban-Venezuelan "opposition" activist with direct ties to the right-wing Cuban exiles in Miami, and a skanky American actress sister, Maria Conchita Alonso who acted in a Schwarzenegger movie or two, and HE lived immediately next door to media mogul, Gustavo Cisneros, one of the coup plotters who stole the government for a couple of days, and who is the "fishing buddy" of _{George H. W. Bush.}

They got them all dead to rights. They are too lucky to be given their freedom.

[BlackHawk706867]

9. I only hope that President Chavez begins to get tough with the bunch...

of right wing scum bags that were involved in the plot. He needs to stay alive and healthy for the good of both his country and his people.

ww

[Judi Lynn]

13. You're right. He should stay alive and well for a very long time in order to bring the change

the oligarchy refused to allow all these long, long years when the masses of Venezuela suffered.

The oligarchy should simply all move out of the country to Miami, where they come to do their fun shopping, except for the fact South Florida is already crammed with the absolute crap from previous violent and deadly right-wing puppet governments who don't feel safe in the countries they screwed so badly any longer.

When these murderous, greedy scums move to South Florida, they just become typical Republicans! At least, when that happens, the people of their old countries get a chance to heal, and start building a better world.

[ProudDad]

16. Wha? Why?

:shrug:

Are you serious?

[StClone]

10. Chavez so maligned

Who has a puny army and as such is seen as dangerous to Bush-- Chavez.
Who gave millions of gallons of free oil to poor in the U.S. -- Chavez.
Who is rising the social well-being of most every Venezuelan -- Chavez.
Who has never invaded another country -- Chavez
who took natural resources back from Big Oil and gave it to his countrymen -- Chavez.
Who will work closely with the U.S. once Bush is gone -- Chavez.
Who was Democratically elected twice by a wide margin -- Chavez.
On an on and I still hear David Letterman humorously call him a Commie the likes of Kim Jong-il. Ha ha the demonization of Chavez is working.

[Greyhound]

11. See? You just can't trust those dirty dictators.

:kick: & R

[bemildred]

12. It's a trick!!!! It's all just for propaganda purposes!!!

Hugo continues to stay three steps ahead of his "enemies".
:rofl::rofl:

[Peace Patriot]

14. Gee, imagine "Give peace a chance" as a government policy! Imagine! nt

[ProudDad]

15. Oh, that evil dictator

that "thug"...

Oh, the humanity!!!!

What horror will that man cook up next!!!!