Colombian Paramilitary
Threaten Venezuela
Having emerged in the
context of an over
50-year old war,
paramilitarism crossed
the borders of Colombia
and is currently a main
worry for Venezuelan
authorities.
The detention in 2004 of
a group of
paramilitaries near
Caracas who were
planning to assassinate
President Hugo Chavez
showed the political
intention of the heirs
of the so-called United
Self-Defenses of
Colombia.
Situation complicates
because it is an open
secret, denounced at the
National Assembly
(Parliament), that
Colombian paramilitary
groups are taking part
in drug trafficking from
Colombia to the United
States through
Venezuelan territory.
This element gets
prominence in the
context of US harassment
of Chavez, whom they
want to link to drug
trafficking to justify a
military action against
Venezuela, as they did
in Panama with Antonio
Noriega.
A new element denounced
by Chavez is that they
are not only using
Colombians, but also
citizens from other
countries called private
"contractors," as they
have done in Iraq and
other countries.
According to Venezuelan
authorities, these
paramilitary forces are
introduced in Venezuela
by Colombian war
supporting sectors
backed by US private
firms.
A consequence of this
action was the emergence
of kidnapping in the
last few years, a
practice spreading from
states bordering
Colombia to other
regions of Venezuela
(there were 382 cases
registered at the end of
2007), mostly in border
areas.
Actions against Chavez
are a well-defined
tactic of the
opposition, in a year of
elections of governors
and majors, which Chavez
himself has described as
essential for the future
of the process of
changes he has been
leading since 1998. |
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