President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that Venezuelan police had arrested at least 77 suspected Colombian paramilitary members who were allegedly training to strike against his government. Opposition leaders said the raids were a government-hatched scheme meant to divert attention from their presidential recall effort.
Chavez said 53 Colombian paramilitary members were arrested in a raid on a farm early Sunday, and another 24 paramilitary recruits were caught after fleeing into the countryside. However. one of those arrested said the detained men did not belong to any organized right-wing Colombian paramilitary group.
In his weekly Hello President radio and TV broadcast, Chavez said federal agents were uncovering additional clues and searching for more suspected paramilitary members. He said the arrests were proof of a conspiracy against the government of this leading oil-producing nation, involving Cuban and Venezuelan exiles in Florida and neighboring Colombia.
PHOTO: AFP
The allegations come at a time when an opposition petition campaign to force a recall election against Chavez is entering a decisive phase.
Chavez claimed that the plot was backed by Venezuela's mostly pro-opposition news media, adding that the raids had "eliminated the seed of a terrorist group."
"Now they are importing terrorists," Chavez said of his opponents, "and they are looking for people here."
Henrique Capriles, a mayor who supports the opposition, rejected Chavez's allegations that the captured men were being financed by opposition. He called the raids "a show organized by the government" to turn attention away from efforts to hold a presidential recall vote.
Capriles said municipal police were the first to discover the alleged paramilitaries, and then tipped off federal agents.
In Colombia, President Alvaro Uribe praised Venezuela for the arrests.
"What we need is that the governments of both neighboring countries help each other capture criminals from Colombia, guerrillas or paramilitaries operating over there," Uribe said.
A right-wing Colombian paramilitary leader, Salvador Mancuso, denied his United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia were involved.
"We deny the accusations against us by Venezuelan leaders," Mancuso said.
Mancuso claimed that Chavez was working with Colombia's two largest leftist rebel groups.
Chavez has denied this allegation, which was also raised in a recent US State Department report on terrorism.
The leftist Chavez -- who was briefly ousted in a 2002 coup -- said he had ordered police to capture "each and every one of the terrorists" involved in the alleged plot.
VAGUE: The criteria of the amnesty remain unclear, but it would cover political violence from 1999 to today, and those convicted of murder or drug trafficking would not qualify Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. Rodriguez also announced the shutdown
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
China executed 11 people linked to Myanmar criminal gangs, including “key members” of telecom scam operations, state media reported yesterday, as Beijing toughens its response to the sprawling, transnational industry. Fraud compounds where scammers lure Internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments have flourished across Southeast Asia, including in Myanmar. Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers, the criminal groups behind the compounds have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal from victims around the world. Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, and other times trafficked foreign nationals forced to work. In the past few years, Beijing has stepped up cooperation
RSS