Hugo Chavez's comrades behind drugs seized in Mexico
By Aleksander Boyd
London 14.04.06 | Jeremy McDermott with The Scotsman reports the following article from Bogota:
MEXICAN authorities yesterday began investigations into the involvement of Colombian guerrillas in the shipment of 5.5 tons of cocaine seized from a commercial aircraft.
The high-purity cocaine, the biggest seizure in recent years, was found amid 128 pieces of luggage on a US passenger airline, Aero Flight, which left Caracas in Venezuela and made an unregistered stop in Ciudad de Carmen, Mexico, where soldiers found the drugs. The cocaine is valued at £70 million.
Santiago Vasconcelos, of the Mexican attorney general's office, said there was evidence that the drugs came from guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who have long-standing agreements with Mexican drug cartels to supply cocaine in exchange for weapons and ammunition. The two pilots, Poot Pérez and Pérez de Gracia, have been arrested before in connections with a drug flight, but managed to escape prosecution. They are unlikely to do so again.
These 5.5 tons make up the first major shipment linked to the FARC since the US attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, issued 50 indictments covering most of the FARC senior command structure, on charges of drug-trafficking.
"We believe these men are responsible for not only manufacturing and exporting devastating amounts of cocaine, but enforcing their criminal regime with violence," Mr Gonzales said.
It is significant that the drugs came via Venezuela, because the Colombian army has long alleged that Venezuela's socialist president, Hugo Chavez, is sympathetic to the Marxist rebels.
At last someone starts connecting the dots. Once upon a time, Hugo Chavez allowed to be interviewed by what he considers the hostile media. In one such interview, given to Andrés Mata Osorio and published in El Universal 23 of May 1999, Chavez affirmed "I will not permit US overflights in Venezuela." May 1999 folks. There's a whole series of comments, articles, interviews and so on given on the topic by high officials of the Chavez regime (search words "sobrevuelos dea chavez"). The point I am trying to get at is, that since the very beginning, Hugo Chavez's commitment to the drug trade has been steadfast and open. One could call it a state policy of ensuring that US military or DEA planes could not shoot down, or chase, drug dealing activities carried out in Venezuela. Raping, yet again, the sovereignty discourse, Hugo Chavez keeps claiming that his regime does more than enough to combat and eradicate drug trade and narcoguerrillas.
Evidence, as is often the case with his 'revolution,' indicates that since Chavez's arrival in power, Venezuela has become the favourite launching pad for Colombia's drug traffickers. It is argued that +80% of the cocaine produced in neighbouring Colombia and the region enters the international markets via Venezuela, as heretofore unseen quantities have been seized in various countries.
On the other hand Chavez's cozy relationship with the FARC is no secret. So much so that the deranged president disrupted ties with Colombia, Venezuela's second largest commercial partner, over the capture in Caracas of FARC's leader Rodrigo Granda, who had Venezuelan citizenship, whose wife and step-daughter were welcomed by close associates of Chavez -read Rodriguez Chacin, and who was a guest of honor in one of his Bolivarian get-togethers.
As I keep saying, continental revolutions are extremely costly enterprises and PDVSA's moneys can take him only so far. The drug trade, pretty much controlled regionally by his FARC mates, is another source of incredible dividends. The quid pro quo is obviously total freedom to FARC and drug dealers to operate and move huge amounts of dope in, through and from Venezuela. And to make sure that nothing gets in the way of his guerrilla friends Chavez bought +100.000 AK-47s and the license to produce ammunition.
Gossip has it that someone I know personally, Ronald Moret, is back in business. Moret, if memory serves well, was caught in Canada, carrying DISIP credentials, in the early 90ies with more than 1 ton of cocaine concealed in off-board marine engines. He did some 9 years for it. Back in the days, Moret had some very powerful connections and it appears that in this revolutionary times he has gained anew some leverage with DISIP.
Ergo it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest that either FARC or Venezuelan operatives high up in the Chavez administration or both were behind this operation. Never in history had criminals had it so easy as in today's Venezuela.
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