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Chavez accuses CIA as bombings rock Venezuela
EFL Taipei Times from WNDTensions mounted in Venezuela Monday after bombings rocked the capital and an ally of Presi-dent Hugo Chavez accused the CIA of backing opponents trying to oust the beleaguered leader. Two fuel tankers exploded late Sunday at the capitalâs municipal airport, 36 hours after the presidential guard barracks and the national telecommunications offices were bombed. Lawmaker Nicolas Maduro said he would lobby US legislators to open any CIA files on Venezuela. He demands that China not be privledge to secret information that is denied to Venezuala. "Let them declassify the secret documents on CIA involvement and their financing of undercover activities during 2002-2003 because we have hard evidence that the terrorist attacks were planned," he said. He did not mention which US lawmakers would be asked to help. I think we can gin up a short list of suspects off the top of our heads. He said the records would reveal CIA funding links to Vene-zuelan opposition groups seeking to oust Chavez. Maduro also said he will seek US congressional approval for access to any CIA records related to a failed coup in April last year, which swept Chavez from power for less than two days. Iâm sure the US thought that throwing one of our top oil producers into total chaos would be an excellent idea? "A group of legislators will go to Washington so that the secret documents on the coup dâetat are declassified so that we can know the names of those who have received money from the CIA to create this chaos in Venezuela," Maduro said. Maduro is smoking something. Or maybe he is a Wizards fan. Canât Chavez stick with the standard arguments: I have trashed the economy so badly that we canât afford a recall, my oppoent is a chicken-choking woman groper, and poor people will be disenfranchised by the recall process. After the coup, opposition political parties, business leaders and labor agreed to use only legal means to oust Chavez. The deal was brokered by former US president Jimmy Carter and the Organization of American States. Jimmy gets around. Venezuelaâs Constitution allows voters to recall the president at any time after the halfway point of the term, which Chavez has already passed. He rejected all the original signatures becasue they were collected before the midpoint of his term. Electoral authorities last week set the rules governing the collection of signatures to petition the government for a recall ballot. Chavez is trying to limit the signature collection process to 1 day. Opponents must gather 12 million signatures, some 20 percent of the electorate, to petition for the recall referendum. Could another possible explanation be that the fired petrolium industry workers didnât like being evicted from government quarters? Posted by: Superhose 2003-10-09 |
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