Colombian contract killer detailing an alleged $25 million plot to kill Hugo Chavez

[Joanne98]

Run time: 02:22 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc5rYMIyFDs   Posted on YouTube: September 26, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: September 26, 2009 By DU Member: Joanne98 Views on DU: 1209

 
Al Jazeera has obtained exclusive footage of a Colombian contract killer detailing an alleged $25 million plot to kill Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president.

Geovanny Velasquez Zambrano says the money was offered by Manuel Rosales, one of Chavez's main political rivals, during a secret meeting in 1999.

A Colombian paramilitary group took up the offer, according to Zambrano.

Chavez has long said there is a plot by Colombia to kill him, and relations between the two countries are tense.

Francisco Dominguez, head of the Centre of Brazil and Latin American Studies at UK's Middlesex University, told Al Jazeera that so far, it has been impossible for Chavez's opponents to bring him down by political means.

"He's very popular. He's lost one of 16 elections only. So if anyone is desperate to get rid of him, the
one neat mechanism to get rid of him would be assassination," Dominquez said.

"Chavez is pretty justified in thinking this guy's claims were credible. It is credible that Rosales could have offered $25 million."

[justinaforjustice]

1. Many Colombian Paramilitaries in Venezuela.

Within the past two years while I have been living in Venezuela, there have been several news stories about raids on houses and apartments around Caracas and in Zulia State (where Manuel Rosales was formerly governor) in which groups of Colombian paramilitaries, armed with sophisticated weapons, have been arrested. Some news reports suggested that they were in Venezuela to assassinate President Chavez, but never has there been such a clear connection reported between Rosales and the assassination plans.

It is highly likely that funds from the U.S.'s "Plan Colombia" have supported these efforts. Now President Obama plans to finance 7 new U.S. military bases in Colombia, yet another threat to the Chavez government. How dare the U.S. complain that Venezuela is augmenting its military forces, when it is the U.S. and its Colombia puppet, Uribe, that is actively working to destabilize the democratically elected Chavez government. The U.S. military budget is over 800 billion dollars a year, and that is only the publicly revealed figure, not the money hidden in other federal department's budgets. Venezuela's military budget is around 5 billion, a fraction of the U.S.''s, and less than Brazil, Chile and Colombia.

[Judi Lynn]

2. So glad this video is getting some attention, Joanne98. We've heard this is going on for years.

No surprise whatsoever that Manuel Rosales is the one who made this contract on Chavez. He is pure filth.

In time his whole story is going to be public knowledge. He'd better stay in hiding in Peru.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01388/Manuel-Rosales_1388811c.jpg http://cache.daylife.com.nyud.net:8090/imageserve/001h9hs62v7Ej/340x.jpg

Assassin names Manuel Rosales, ex-mayor of Maracaibo.

[Judi Lynn]

3. This material sounds similar to other informtion, like this thread I missed the first time:

We were so aware of over 100 caught several years ago on the ranch near Caracas belonging to Roberto Alonso, Cuban-Venezuelan hate activist and proponent of the violent nasty actions they term "guarimba," who has since fled to the bosom of his kindred spirits in Miami after being discovered.

No doubt you may remember the pages of discussion we had during that time.

Here's something I just ran across which I never saw before. Wish I'd seen it when it was posted:

US$20 million offered to Colombian paramilitaries to "work" in Venezuela
seemslikeadream (1000+ posts) Mon May-17-04 08:34 PM

http://www.vheadline.com.nyud.net:8090/graf/040509_paramilitaries_02.jpg

Ultimas Noticias reporters Tamoa Calzadilla and Jorge Chavez write: At a payments center in Medellin (Colombia), it was well-known that paramilitaries who received payment there for protection rackets, extortion, and contraband were offering US$20 million to take a group of mercenaries to Venezuela to accomplish various illegal operations.


A witness who asked that his identity be concealed told the Colombian authorities about the incident, and the information was given to Ultimas Noticias by Colombian Senator Gustavo Petro (PDI).

According to the witness, a group of 400 men were to be organized to go to Venezuela to assassinate for money. The Colombian Senator suspects that the group captured in Venezuela last Sunday could be the same as the group recruited by the paramilitaries, most of them reservists in the army, as has been officially verified.


But, that is not the only reason to believe this is true. Petro commented that in Colombia, information that could be key in the investigations being conducted in Venezuela hasn’t been made public yet. “Two months ago, telephone conversations of paramilitaries stationed in that region (the North of Santander), in which the irregulars speak of transporting male combatants to Venezuela to be kept for a while, in captivity,” were recorded by the order of a judge who was investigating a prosecutor in Cucuta.

The Senator states that the police recorded 40 hours of conversations, whose content revealed that Ana Maria Flores, regional director of the Attorney General’s office in the North of Santander, was implicated in collaborating with the illegal work of the paramilitaries in the region. Other sources comment that the woman has been living her double life for 8 years, and that her secretary, Magaly, is also implicated. The scandal exploded two months ago, and Flores escaped a few days ago. Today, here whereabouts are unknown.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x562085

Thanks, Joanne98!

[ro1942]

4. Chavez against the oligarchy

thanks for posting

[L. Coyote]

5. K & Rec #5 === Viva Hugo!!

[Divine Discontent]

6. it's almost as if he has to govern the way he has, for now, to secure the country from massive

corruption.

I know he may be considered a tad nutty, but I think, 'well, he's not an American, they act differently in every country around the world", and although he does some things that people don't like, I think he has a lot of valid points, too.

[dotymed]

7. The world needs

leaders like President Chavez.