Is The
CIA Trying to Kill Hugo Chávez?
By Chris Carlson
04/19/07 "ICH
"
-- -- "I want to kill that son of a bitch," said the
Capitan of the Venezuelan National Guard, Thomas Guillen
in a recorded telephone call with his wife. In the call,
played on Venezuela's state TV channel last month, the
Capitan reveals his and his father's plans to kill
President Hugo Chávez. The next day, the Capitan and his
father, retired General Ramon Guillén Dávila, were
arrested and taken into custody for conspiring to kill
the President of Venezuela. [1]
In recent weeks, Hugo Chávez has increasingly warned
that the United States has plans to kill him and is
stepping up its activity against him and his
government. Chávez has also claimed that the CIA is
working with associates of the famous Cuban terrorist
and CIA agent Posada Carriles, designing plans for his
assassination. But could there be any truth to all of
this? Could this be a classic CIA-conspiracy to kill
another official "enemy" of the United States? A quick
look at the connections between the CIA and the General
Ramon Guillén Dávila shows that it definitely is a
possibility.
The United States manages to spread its tentacles into
different countries around the world in various ways,
influencing and intervening in the politics of sovereign
nations. In Latin America, one of the most common ways
is through supposed "drug operations." The CIA has been
known to run "anti-drug" operations in countries like
Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador.
In Venezuela, such CIA-created "anti-drug" operations
were led in the 1980's by the same General Ramon Guillén
Dávila who was recently planning to kill Chávez.
According to the Miami Herald, Guillen was the CIA's
most trusted man in Venezuela and the senior official
collaborating with the CIA during the 1980's. [2]
As head of the Venezuela National Guard, Guillén worked
closely with the CIA to infiltrate and gather
information about Colombian drug trafficking operations.
But instead of curbing drug operations, Guillén and the
CIA ended up smuggling cocaine themselves, and the whole
thing exploded when 60 Minutes aired an expose in 1993.
The CIA had collaborated with Guillén to smuggle the
incredible sum of 22 tons of cocaine into the United
States. [3]
After US customs intercepted a shipment of cocaine
entering the country through Miami Internatoinal
Airport, an official investigation revealed that General
Guillén was responsible. But according to investigative
journalist Michael Levine, Guillén was a CIA "asset"
operating under CIA orders and protection, a fact that
was later admitted by the CIA. General Guillén was
never extradited for trial in the U.S. [4]
So is General Ramon Guillén Dávila still a CIA "asset"
working to knock off the Venezuelan President? Whether
or not the General maintains ties with the CIA, it does
seem that he would be a likely candidate for
destabilization efforts against the Chávez government.
According to the web page School of the Americas Watch,
General Guillén graduated from the infamous U.S. combat
training school in 1967. [5] The School of the Americas,
renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security
Cooperation in 2001, is a US military facility that is
used to train Latin American soldiers in
counterinsurgency techniques and interrogation tactics.
As another of the many tentacles of the U.S. Empire, the
School of the Americas has been called the "biggest base
for destabilization in Latin America." Located in Fort
Benning, Georgia, the school sends its graduates
throughout the region to repress left-wing and communist
movements and to influence the political situations in
Latin American countries. The school has frequently
supported regimes with a history of employing death
squads and torture to repress their populations.
Last week, during the 5th anniversary of the 2002
U.S.-supported coup attempt against the Venezuelan
government, Chávez emphasized that "the empire never
rests." He assured that the United States, along with
the Venezuelan elite will continue conspiring in order
to remove him from power, and that they would never
accept the Bolivarian Revolution.
It would be no surprise, however, if the CIA were
planning to kill or overthrow Hugo Chávez. The criminal
organization has a long and dirty history of covert
operations including assassinations, economic warfare,
and rigged elections. In Latin America alone the CIA has
overthrown numerous regimes in places like Nicaragua,
Chile, Panama, Brazil, Grenada, Dominican Republic,
Guatemala, and, most recently, Haiti in 2004.
What would be more surprising is if the CIA is not
searching for a way to get rid of the popular Venezuelan
President. After all, Chávez has proven to be quite a
threat to the interests of the U.S. Empire and their
corporate sponsors. Chávez has sharply rejected
Washington's neo-liberal agenda, nationalized major
sectors of the economy, freed his country from IMF and
World Bank mandates, strengthened OPEC, taken control of
the nation's oil industry, and strengthened south-south
integration across the world.
However, what is even more threatening to the interests
of the empire is that the revolution in Venezuela serves
as an example in the region, and is now spreading to
other places. Countries like Bolivia and Ecuador are
now living their own revolutions, replicating the
Venezuelan experience.
It seems feasible that former CIA "asset" General Ramon
Guillén Dávila was conspiring with the CIA to get rid of
the most consolidated leftist movement in Latin America
today. But regardless of whether or not the CIA can
manage to extinguish the fire in Venezuela, it might be
too late for them to control the growing wave of leftist
revolutions in the region.
Notes
1. "Presentan grabación sobre supuesto plan de
magnicidio contra Chávez," ABN /
Aporrea.org, 07/03/07
http://www.aporrea.org/actualidad/n91527.html
2. Jerry Meldon, Contra-Crack Guide: Reading Between
the Lines, 1998.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/crack10.html
3. Howard G. Chua-Eoan, "Confidence Games," Time
Magazine, Monday, Nov. 29, 1993,
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,979669,00.html?iid=chix-sphere
4. Michael Levine, "Mainstream Media: The Drug War
Shills?,"
http://www.expertwitnessradio.org/essays/e6.htm
5. School of the Americas Watch, Notorious
Graduates from Venezuela,
http://www.soaw.org/article.php?id=248
Chris Carlson is a freelance journalist and activist
living in Venezuela. See his personal blog at:
www.gringoinvenezuela.com
