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LATIN AMERICA |
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Eight Colombians Arrested in Venezuela for
Paramilitary Activity
CARACAS – Venezuelan authorities arrested
eight Colombians, one of them identified as
a “paramilitary chief,” and two Venezuelans
in a western border city while they were
distributing pamphlets with threatening
messages for local businessmen.
Interior Minister Tarek El Aissami, in an
interview with state-run VTV television,
identified the presumed militia leader as
Jorge Roa Bolaños and said that he and the
other nine detainees were caught red-handed
in San Antonio del Tachira, a city 850
kilometers (528 miles) west of Caracas.
Different reports surfaced about the number
of establishments shuttered in that city on
Friday, with local media indicating as many
as a thousand kept their doors closed while
the interior minister said just a “limited
number” were not open for business.
“However, once we strengthened the (military
and police) presence, little by little calm
was restored and daily activity” resumed in
San Antonio, El Aissami said.
Both military authorities and the regional
heads of the Fedecamaras national business
federation concurred that paramilitaries
were behind the threats that disrupted
commercial activity Friday in the city.
It was unclear whether the threats were
related to the recent killings of 11 people
– nine Colombians, a Peruvian and a
Venezuelan – who had been kidnapped from a
soccer field in the same area.
The region bordering Colombia is one the
most violence-ridden areas of Venezuela,
according to authorities, who say that
Colombian guerrillas, militiamen, drug
traffickers and kidnapping gangs are all
active there.
Relations between Colombia and Venezuela
have deteriorated in recent months, with
Bogota accusing its neighbor of arming
Colombian leftist rebels – labeled as
terrorists by Bogota, Washington and the
European Union – and Venezuela irked over
those accusations and a deal signed this
week that gives U.S. troops access to
Colombian military bases.
Chavez, survivor of a 2002 coup attempt that
former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says took
place with Washington’s advance knowledge if
not active collusion, says the basing
agreement poses a threat to his “Bolivarian
Revolution.”
Venezuela’s socialist government, meanwhile,
on Thursday presented in Caracas what
officials called “irrefutable evidence” that
neighboring Colombia has dispatched spies to
Venezuela, Ecuador and Cuba as part of an
ambitious, CIA-financed operation.
El Aissami detailed the contents of
documents allegedly originating with
Colombia’s DAS security service and
unearthed since the apprehension of two
suspected Colombian on Venezuelan soil.
Caracas obtained the documents pursuant to
the capture of two DAS agents in Venezuela,
El Aissami told the National Assembly.
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