Colombian hitman: 2,500 paramilitary in Venezuela with goal of ‘taking down’ Chavez

By Stephen C. Webster
Saturday, September 26th, 2009 -- 1:53 pm
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chavez Colombian hitman: 2,500 paramilitary in Venezuela with goal of taking down ChavezA Colombian hitman recently disclosed to the Venezuelan government that over 2,500 paramilitary fighters are in the country, each chasing a $25 million bounty on the life of Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, according to Arab news network Al Jazeera.

The man, who is reportedly in the custody of Venezuelan officials, said the bounty was offered by Manuel Rosales, Chavez's most prominent political foe, during a secret meeting 10 years ago.

Rosales allegedly said "that he would give $25 million to kill [Chavez], but that he himself would not give the money directly," the man said, as translated by Al Jazeera.

Rosales fled into Peru in April after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He protested in the media, calling the corruption charges a political lynching.

"Right now, there are two thousand, five hundred paramilitaries from Colombia inside Venezuela with one objective: with the objective of taking down Chavez, with the objective of destabilizing him" a translator says on the video.

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The network was unable to obtain comment from Rosales, and the Venezuela attorney general's office would not confirm nor deny the veracity of the man's claims.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, speaking to a South American newspaper recently, claimed the United States may have been involved in an attempted overthrow of Chavez's regime.

"I think there is no doubt that in 2002, the United States had at the very least full knowledge about the coup, and could even have been directly involved," he told El Tiempo last week.

Carter told El Tiempo that he believed Chavez was elected in a "fair" vote in 1999, had carried out necessary reforms for Venezuela and ensured that "those who are traditionally excluded are able to get a larger share of the national wealth."

But he also said he was worried by the Venezuelan leader's drift towards "authoritarianism."

In August, Colombian officials announced a deal with the United States that will allow U.S. troops to be stationed at Colombian military bases, which will serve as a hub for remote surveillance in the region. Their mission will allegedly use advanced Predator drone technology to aid in fighting the drug trade and to combat terrorism, according to published reports in August.

In Venezuela, officials bristled at the news. Chavez warned: "The winds of war [are] beginning to blow."

Chavez has already accused Colombian troops of making an incursion over the border and regional tensions are running high.

This video is from Al Jazeera English, broadcast Sept. 26, 2009.

With AFP.

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Story comments are below...
  • this could be a [real time] chapter out of the book " confessions of an economic hit man" if the threat is from columbia, then the threat also comes from further north. the U.S. has been building bases in columbia, under the guise of the [drug war]. this is pure encroachment on venezuela, and chavez knows it. if the west wishes to light another fuse of [control via chaos] it will not be taken lightly this time.
  • Yep — one of the greatest books ever. Perkins has got a new one coming out Nov. 10th, about how we can resist the Empire — by controlling what we buy. I can hardly wait.
  • this article was written by john perkins, it is a must read in my opinion, enjoy.-----http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14862
  • I should mention, also, Alex Jones had Perkins on the phone on August 24th, and it's on YouTube in 4 parts, Part 1, Part 2,Part 3, Part 4.

    Perkins sounds like me about Obama, compared to Jones who has reverted to his right-wing roots now that obvious knuckle-dragger Bush is gone. I cancelled my PrisonPlanet.TV account after 3 years this summer, in time to avoid auto-renew.

    Still, I retain a love for Alex, and hope to see him be of great usefulness again. But I'm not buying it right now. I've still got money on BHO.
  • i am not a big fan of alex. he does bring out some useful info. but in general i find him to much of a sensationalist. he found a niche and filled it. lol i am sure he makes a good living off of what he does.
  • That's what Larisa said, in essence, in an email reply to one of my urgent requests to cover one of his issues, a couple of years ago. Maybe I was somewhat gullible, but, regardless of whatever feet of clay he may have, 9/11 was a goddam inside job, and he carried that movement in large part for a long time, bringing up Gladio and the USS Liberty and MKULTRA and all of it. Not that others weren't doing that, but I still give him credit for a lot of energy and devotion to right causes. I just think Obama is "a bridge too far" for him. Likewise Tarpley. But I have hopes they will be disproven, see it, and start wandering back this way.
  • Yes, I read that. I'm pretty sure that's where I got my "minimum wage" reference, because I recognize that phrase "Memories are short in the US, but not in Central America."

    Virtually every word that appears on GlobalResearch is a must read. I also subscribe to RBN so I can hear their News Hour with Chossudovsky and Steve Lendman as hosts. I first encountered Lendman's excellent writing on VenezuelaAnalysis and VHeadline, as he is one of the foremost and most scholarly of Chavez's defenders.

    Speaking of VHeadline, here is a link to an article by Eva Golinger on that site, talking about this same Al Jazeera video above, which I just got as a Google Alert, since I'm wondering what happened to her .INFO page. In the article, she points out:

    This new revelation, from the mouth of one of the participants, confirms what Venezuela has been denouncing for some time: Colombia has been infiltrating paramilitary forces into the country to destabilize, from the inside, and assassinate the President, when and where possible. The information also confirms that Manuel Rosales did not flee Venezuela and request political asylum in Peru because he was facing corruption charges, but rather because he feared the truth would come out one day about his participation in a plot to assassinate the President.

    With this information, the Venezuelan government has the right to request Rosales' extradition from Peru, since political asylum cannot be granted to criminals.
    ·          ·          ·          ·          ·          ·          ·          ·          ·          ·          ·          ·          ·          ·          ·
  • Surprise, surprise!

    Carter says he was worried by the Venezuelan leader’s drift towards “authoritarianism.”

    Knowing that there are 2500 paramilitaries in your country each lusting after $25m to kill you, might make you drift toward authoritarianism.

    The US tried 100 ways to kill Castro, but he's still there. May whatever gods there be look out for Hugo too.
  • here is a quote by Gen. Smedley D. Butler `I spent 33 years in the Marines. Most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism. `I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenue in. I helped in the rape of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. `War is a racket.' – General Smedley Butler, former U.S. Marine Commandant, `Common Sense' in November 1935.

    some things never change.
  • Mr. Neutron
    The U.S. empire elite *wish* such things would not change, but unfortunately for them, the US is losing power compared to the rest of the world.

    See
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...

    Ecuador is kicking out the US from the Manta Air Base - those leases that previous Administrations thought we could always renew (with pressure), are now ending. Ecuador doesn't need the US's paltry $6.5 million/year from the base: they have a $6 billion oil refinery financed by Venezuela outside the base, and a Hong Kong company is building a $523 million deep water port nearby.

    Economically broke = less able to bribe/pressure the traditional victims.

    South/Central America is breaking away.
  • i agree that the u.s. and [tptb] --the powers that be-- are losing their influence and financial colonization of central and south america. that is what this is all about. what were formerly considered [banana republics] have had their share of the IMF, WORLD BANK, and other western financial saboteurs of their lands and natural resources. the tables have been turned. these energy producing sovereign countries do not want to be colonized any longer by a [hamburger helper republic] u.s.a.
  • tptb — αι ουσαι εξουσιαι (Romans 13:1)
  • Glory, Hallelujah!
  • Actually that magnificent quote is not from War Is A Racket but from a speech he gave that was published in the Socialist magazine, Common Sense, 1935.

    He goes on to say, "Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."
  • janet
    Hugo Chavez is doing just fine, thank you very much. Just imagine our country having a mega-power on our border with drones, weapons, military, etc. Chavez gave Pres Obama a book to read by Eduardo Galeano (Open Veins of Latin America) about "five centuries of the pillage of a continent). It presents a clear picture of how the US has exploited and colonized every country in Latin America without exception with nation building, foreign companies reaping huge profits through their operations and assassination attempts. Jimmy Carter just confirmed another attempted overthrow by the US. We need to get our collective butts out of other countries NOW. And does anyone wonder why our military has been in Germany for 60 years? Yes, 60 freakin' years. Throw in a bunch of other countries where we've set up shop. Stop the insanity.
  • Yes. Another great book on the subject is Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II by William Blum
  • AmericanDude
    And drugs will continue to come out of Columbia as they always have...even with a US presence there
  • dude; RE " even with a US presence there " [air america flew in nam, and in s/e asia. i am sure they have the flight plans for columbia at hand. from Heroin to coke.
  • Right. "Because of" the US presence there would have been more apt.

    Take a look at my placard, Narcotics and the CIA, especially the last paragraph, and the pics of the massive haul of cocaine from the CIA plane that crashed in the Yucatan, known by its tail numbers (photo of actual placard here)

    Click the JPEGs to expand.
  • Take a look at my placard, <a href=
    "http://www.proudprimate.com/Placards/narcoCIA.JPG">Narcotics and the CIA, especially the last paragraph, with pictures of the massive load of cocaine in the plane that crashed in the Yucatan with CIA tail numbers. (Photo of the actual placard here)
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