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Venezuela and state-sponsored terrorism
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Venezuela and state-sponsored terrorism
The governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro have provided economic, political and military support to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) and the National Liberation Army (ELN). The support of Colombian leftist guerrillas has continued during the government of Nicolás Maduro. By 2018, the investigative group InSight Crime reported that the ELN operated in at least 12 of Venezuela's 23 states. The Venezuelan NGO Fundación Redes (Fundaredes) in 2018 documented more than 250 reports of Venezuelans who were victims of recruitment by Colombian irregular groups. Recruitment has also been denounced by Colombian media.
Since the 1990s, the National Liberation Army (ELN) began to establish positions in the western border states of Venezuela. The ELN grew close to Venezuelan officials during the tenure of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, with Chávez approving relationships with the group.
The Colombian Army's military intelligence has intercepted FARC-EP communications in which they use the nickname El amigo (The friend) to refer to Hugo Chávez.[citation needed]
Before the 2002 coup attempt, discontent within the military started when President Hugo Chávez forced them to assist the FARC, a militant Colombian guerrilla group involved in illegal drug trade, with setting up camps in Venezuelan territories, providing ammunition to fight the Colombian government, supplying ID cards so they could move freely through Venezuela and sending members of Bolivarian Circles to their camps to receive guerilla training. The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) accused Chavez's government of funding FARC's Caracas office and giving it access to intelligence services, and said that during the 2002 coup attempt that, "FARC also responded to requests from (Venezuela's intelligence service) to provide training in urban terrorism involving targeted killings and the use of explosives." Venezuelan diplomats denounced the IISS' findings saying that they had "basic inaccuracies".
In 2002, Venezuelan journalists Marianella Salazar, Ibéyise Pacheco, Marta Colomina and Patricia Poleo presented a video of a meeting between the Venezuelan army and the FARC-EP recorded in June 2000. Pacheco declared that in the dialogue heard in the video between the Venezuelan operation commanding officer and the head of the FARC's 33rd front, Rubén Zamora, there is talk of good relations between the two parties. The chief general of the Armed Forces, Lucas Rincón, said that the recording showed only a humanitarian mission of the Army.
In 2006, the United States imposed an arms embargo on Venezuela that banned all U.S. commercial arms sales and re-transfers to Venezuela. The United States State Department argued that Venezuela was not fully cooperating with U.S. antiterrorism efforts.
In 2007, authorities in Colombia claimed that through laptops they had seized on a raid against Raúl Reyes, they found documents purporting to show that Hugo Chávez offered payments of as much as $300 million to the FARC "among other financial and political ties that date back years" and documents showing the FARC rebels sought Venezuelan assistance in acquiring surface-to-air missiles, and alleging that Chavez met personally with rebel leaders. According to Interpol, the files found by Colombian forces were considered to be authentic. Howerver, independent analyses of the documents by a number of U.S. academics and journalists have challenged the Colombian interpretation of the documents, accusing the Colombian government of exaggerating their contents. According to Greg Palast, the claim about Chavez's $300 million is based on the following (translated) sentence: "With relation to the 300, which from now on we will call 'dossier', efforts are now going forward at the instructions of the cojo [slang term for 'cripple'], which I will explain in a separate note." The separate note is allegedly speaking of a hostage exchange with the FARC that Chavez was supposedly helping to negotiate at that time. Palast suggests that the "300" is supposedly a reference to "300 prisoners" (the number involved in a FARC prisoner exchange) and not "300 million".
On 16 December 2007, journalist John Carlin published an article in the Spanish newspaper El País, citing four FARC defectors and several intelligence and diplomatic sources, describing an "extensive and systematic cooperation that certain Venezuelan authorities provide to the FARC in their drug trafficking operations". According to the defectors, Venezuelan authorities provided protection to at least four Colombian guerrilla camps in Venezuelan territory, with one saying that "the National Guard and the Army offer their services in exchange for money", and the intelligence sources said that they have "solid" information that Ingrid Betancourt, a Colombian presidential candidate kidnapped by the FARC, was in Venezuela.
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Venezuela and state-sponsored terrorism
The governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro have provided economic, political and military support to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) and the National Liberation Army (ELN). The support of Colombian leftist guerrillas has continued during the government of Nicolás Maduro. By 2018, the investigative group InSight Crime reported that the ELN operated in at least 12 of Venezuela's 23 states. The Venezuelan NGO Fundación Redes (Fundaredes) in 2018 documented more than 250 reports of Venezuelans who were victims of recruitment by Colombian irregular groups. Recruitment has also been denounced by Colombian media.
Since the 1990s, the National Liberation Army (ELN) began to establish positions in the western border states of Venezuela. The ELN grew close to Venezuelan officials during the tenure of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, with Chávez approving relationships with the group.
The Colombian Army's military intelligence has intercepted FARC-EP communications in which they use the nickname El amigo (The friend) to refer to Hugo Chávez.[citation needed]
Before the 2002 coup attempt, discontent within the military started when President Hugo Chávez forced them to assist the FARC, a militant Colombian guerrilla group involved in illegal drug trade, with setting up camps in Venezuelan territories, providing ammunition to fight the Colombian government, supplying ID cards so they could move freely through Venezuela and sending members of Bolivarian Circles to their camps to receive guerilla training. The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) accused Chavez's government of funding FARC's Caracas office and giving it access to intelligence services, and said that during the 2002 coup attempt that, "FARC also responded to requests from (Venezuela's intelligence service) to provide training in urban terrorism involving targeted killings and the use of explosives." Venezuelan diplomats denounced the IISS' findings saying that they had "basic inaccuracies".
In 2002, Venezuelan journalists Marianella Salazar, Ibéyise Pacheco, Marta Colomina and Patricia Poleo presented a video of a meeting between the Venezuelan army and the FARC-EP recorded in June 2000. Pacheco declared that in the dialogue heard in the video between the Venezuelan operation commanding officer and the head of the FARC's 33rd front, Rubén Zamora, there is talk of good relations between the two parties. The chief general of the Armed Forces, Lucas Rincón, said that the recording showed only a humanitarian mission of the Army.
In 2006, the United States imposed an arms embargo on Venezuela that banned all U.S. commercial arms sales and re-transfers to Venezuela. The United States State Department argued that Venezuela was not fully cooperating with U.S. antiterrorism efforts.
In 2007, authorities in Colombia claimed that through laptops they had seized on a raid against Raúl Reyes, they found documents purporting to show that Hugo Chávez offered payments of as much as $300 million to the FARC "among other financial and political ties that date back years" and documents showing the FARC rebels sought Venezuelan assistance in acquiring surface-to-air missiles, and alleging that Chavez met personally with rebel leaders. According to Interpol, the files found by Colombian forces were considered to be authentic. Howerver, independent analyses of the documents by a number of U.S. academics and journalists have challenged the Colombian interpretation of the documents, accusing the Colombian government of exaggerating their contents. According to Greg Palast, the claim about Chavez's $300 million is based on the following (translated) sentence: "With relation to the 300, which from now on we will call 'dossier', efforts are now going forward at the instructions of the cojo [slang term for 'cripple'], which I will explain in a separate note." The separate note is allegedly speaking of a hostage exchange with the FARC that Chavez was supposedly helping to negotiate at that time. Palast suggests that the "300" is supposedly a reference to "300 prisoners" (the number involved in a FARC prisoner exchange) and not "300 million".
On 16 December 2007, journalist John Carlin published an article in the Spanish newspaper El País, citing four FARC defectors and several intelligence and diplomatic sources, describing an "extensive and systematic cooperation that certain Venezuelan authorities provide to the FARC in their drug trafficking operations". According to the defectors, Venezuelan authorities provided protection to at least four Colombian guerrilla camps in Venezuelan territory, with one saying that "the National Guard and the Army offer their services in exchange for money", and the intelligence sources said that they have "solid" information that Ingrid Betancourt, a Colombian presidential candidate kidnapped by the FARC, was in Venezuela.