Venezuelan Minister of Internal Affairs Miguel Rodriguez Torres spoke on national television on a conspiracy of the ultra-right in Miami (U.S.A.), Panama and Colombia whose goal is the physical liquidation of President Nicolas Maduro. The minister named the terrorists, the date Operation Baby was to take place, and the cost of the weaponsthe conspirators have at their disposal (2.5 million dollars).
The portal of the radio station YVKE published data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the conspirators’ preparation of an “invasion army” of 800 men, part of whom were to operate on the territory of the oil state of Zulia, where separatist tendencies are strong, and part of whom were to be deployed in Caracas.
The invasion was to take place after the physical removal of Maduro during unrest and chaotic clashes between supporters of the Bolivarian government and the radical elements in the entourage of Enrique Capriles, which, like Capriles himself, cannot come to terms with their defeat at the presidential election on April 14.
To give the conspiracy a “patriotic tint”, its ideologists spread a false rumor on various networks that Maduro is not a “native Venezuelan”, but that he was born in Colombia and thus does not have the constitutional right to govern the country.
In order to secure foreign support in the case of the “predictable loss of control in Venezuela”, Capriles made a tour of several countries in the region. On the recommendation of the U.S. State Department, he was received by the presidents of Colombia, Chile, and others. However, this tour was not a success; Latin America does not want upheavals like those in Tunisia or Egypt.
Capriles is perceived as an “emissary of confrontation” even in such loyal countries to Washington as Mexico. The Bolivarian leadership is paying close attention to the State Department’s attempts to use Capriles and, with the help of the opposition, get President Maduro to change his oil policy, reduce “Cuban influence” in Venezuela, and abandon military and technical collaboration with Russia and China.
The President of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, has stated that the “inspirer” of the attempts on President Maduro is Posada Carriles. And that requires no interpretation: Posada is a veteran CIA agent. This fanatic used terrorist methods to fight the “Castro regime” and its allies, and in recent years has been focused on sabotaging Venezuela.
At first this was preparation for attempts on Hugo Chavez, and now the main target of the hunt is Nicolas Maduro. Despite his advanced age, Carriles maintains leading positions in U.S.-controlled terrorist organizations headquartered in Miami. He made a thorough study of the “Venezuelan theater of military operations” back in the ’80s and ’90s, when he was part of U.S. antiguerilla operations, and for a time he was the head of the DISIP secret police in Venezuela.
It has been proven that Carriles was the organizer of the bombing of a Cuban airplane, all of whose passengers – several dozen people – were killed. However, thanks to the efforts of the State Department and the CIA, this terrorist always avoided his just desserts.
Diosdado Cabello named Eduardo Macaya Alvarez, a businessman from Miami who was born in Cuba in 1949, as Posada’s main operative in preparing for the assassination of President Maduro. Macaya was an intelligence officer in the U.S. Marine Corps who participated in the Vietnam War and later in the first U.S. war against Iraq.
In Havana they believe that Macaya was involved in the murder of Felix Garcia, a Cuban UN diplomat, in 1980. However, U.S. authorities did not conduct a proper investigation, as American intelligence agencies were making use of Macaya’s “battle experience” in Special Forces operations in Latin America. Cabello urged the opposition to “have no dealings with this man and take the warnings which have been made regarding him very seriously.”
The President of the National Assembly warned that on the basis of the investigation there will be searches and arrests, “so as not to allow the conspirators, who did not win at the elections on April 14, to destabilize the situation by assassinating President Maduro. If these plans are successful, they will mean a declaration of war against Venezuela, and the reaction from the national government will be harsh and immediate.”
The conspiracy against Venezuela is ripening under the “umbrella” of the NSA.
One of the centers for intercepting electronic communication channels in the country is operating at the U.S. embassy in Caracas. There are backup stations in Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago and Curacao. Space surveillance capabilities are also being used. They track the contacts, conversations, and daily routes of Venezuelan leaders in real time.
In light of new information about the capabilities of the NSA control stations for tracking the movements of specific people in Venezuela, more and more often people speak of the need to reevaluate previous explanations of the deaths of some of the leaders of the Bolivarian regime.
Most often they name Willian Lara, a close associate of Hugo Chavez who was a politician, a member of parliament, the Minister of Communication and Information, and the governor of Guárico State. Political scientists considered him, along with Nicolas Maduro, a likely successor to Chavez. Dynamic, well-educated, of an analytical turn of mind, and skilled at persuasion, he had a brilliant future ahead.
And in the U.S. embassy he was perceived as a politician who was hostile to U.S. interests. In 2004-2006 he regularly spoke on national television, revealing the activities of the CIA in the country and naming their employees and agents. Lara was killed September 10, 2010 in a car crash near the city of San Juan de los Morros during a downpour.
The car “lost control” and fell into a river. To this day it is not clear who was behind the wheel, Lara himself, who was an experienced driver, or his chauffeur and bodyguard Mirabal. As a rule, Lara drove with no security; therefore there were no witnesses to the accident. Mirabal was able to get out of the car and save himself; Lara was carried away by the current. He was only found twelve hours later.
The staff of the U.S. embassy in Caracas is excessively large. Over two hundred diplomats, plus those who are “temporarily attached” and are clearly in no hurry to leave the country, are registered at the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry. A significant part of the personnel has connections with intelligence agencies.
A key figure in organizing activities at the U.S. embassy for destabilizing Venezuela is CIA staff member Kelly Keiderling-Franz.
After special training she started work at the State Department in 1988. She got her first foreign service experience in Africa. After taking Russian language courses, Keiderling was sent to Kyrgyzstan.
Then, after studying for a year at National Defense University (Washington), she served in Moldova. An important stage in her career was her work at the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba. Keiderling specialized in recruiting dissidents and political opponents of Castro. She would take her children with her to some strategic meetings “for cover”.
However, she was unlucky. One of her Cuban “charges” turned out to be a counterintelligence agent who dedicated several pages to her in his revelatory book.
Keiderling has been in Venezuela since July 2011. Now she is acting as a temporary charge d’affaires. According to the Cuban agent who outwitted Keiderling in Havana, she often quotes Machiavelli: “The ends justify the means”. The “temporary charge d’affaires” assists employees who mostly have an “imperial” way of thinking and a condescending attitude toward the “natives” and their claims to sovereignty, independence and defense of human rights.
The U.S. intelligence agencies and diplomats have the goal of “neutralizing” the Maduro government using any means, shaking up the situation in Venezuela, and creating conditions for direct interference in the country’s internal affairs. The more blood spilled, the better.
Therefore it is not hard to guess why the political dialog between Venezuela and the U.S. is not working out. Metaphorically speaking, as their main arguments the American negotiators have prepared poison, brass knuckles, canisters of paralyzing gas and guns in the best gangster traditions.
That is why consultations between Venezuela and the U.S. on normalizing relations were halted by the Venezuelan side. Washington is once again dissembling and biding its time. The Venezuelan leadership has no trust in the Obama administration. In Caracas they know that Washington only places its bets on force. The liquidation of undesirable political figures has also become commonplace. In the U.S. embassy in Caracas they know how that is done better than anywhere else.
Nil NIKANDROV | Strategic Culture Foundation