Colombia: Venezuela Lurches Towards Collapse

In Venezuela the government use of force and media shutdowns have not halted the growing anti-government demonstrations. So far at least 15 (all demonstrators) have been killed and over 150 (mostly demonstrators) wounded. The government has arrested nearly 600 people. There are growing desertions from the security forces, because the demonstrations are caused by problems (inflation, unemployment, crime, shortages) that everyone can see but the government downplays and continues, as it has for years, to insist that solutions are just around the corner. The government refuses to respond to protestor demands that the government do something effective to address all these self-inflicted problems. Despite government efforts to play down a lot of these problems the growing shortages of staple goods (food products and even things like toilet paper) and the soaring crime rate are things people are forced to deal with every day. Most Venezuelans know that, government propaganda to the contrary, Venezuela has the highest murder rate in the world. Over 25,000 Venezuelans were murdered last year and there is growing popular anger against a government that will not or cannot act to make things better. The government is afraid of a revolution and may have made that more possible by forming a large armed militia to help deal with unrest. But many members of these militias, as well as soldiers and policemen, are also hurting from the crime and growing economic problems. At the moment, the situation for the Venezuelan government does not look promising.

 

 

In Cuba peace talks between FARC and Colombia resumed. The focus is now how to deal with the drug trade. FARC wants legalized production of coca leaf (for cocaine), opium poppies (for heroin) and marijuana as a way to deal with the drug problem.

 

 

Many in the government are sympathetic to this but realize that the U.S. and European countries that are on the receiving end of these powerful narcotics are not. FARC is desperate to maintain its income. Once the peace deal is done the government expects FARC to exit all its criminal activities (drugs, extortion, theft and kidnapping.) That will mean FARC will lose most of its personnel, as many members are mainly in it for the money.  But if some of FARC’s drug operations are legalized, the leftist group will be much better off.

 

 

FARC is eager to achieve a final peace deal sooner rather than later. That’s because the security forces continue to do major damage to FARC and the drugs gangs the leftist rebels work with. To make matters worse American efforts to cripple drug gang and FARC access to the international banking system continue to increase their effectiveness. FARC is not in imminent danger of falling apart, but the trends continue to work against long-term survival of the rebel group.

 

 

February 25, 2014: The U.S. expelled three Venezuelan diplomats in response to the February 17^th Venezuelan expulsion of three American diplomats. The Venezuelan government blames the United States, and other foreign agitators, for causing the growing anti-government demonstrations.

 

 

February 24, 2014:  Venezuela has shut down Internet access in an effort to halt the spread news of the growing anti-government demonstrations. The government has taken control of most electronic media, or shut down what it could not control. That left the Internet as the main source of information the government did not approve of. In addition to the Internet the government also shut down the few remaining independent media outlets that were reporting on the demonstrations along with foreign outlets that were allowed to broadcast in Venezuela.

 

 

February 21, 2014: The Venezuelan government expelled four CNN journalists and accused the American cable network of spreading lies about the escalating unrest in Venezuela. In effect, the government is telling foreign media to either adopt a pro-government line or face expulsion. For the last few weeks the best sources of what is happening in Venezuela is coming from news organizations outside the country.

In the east (near the Venezuelan border and the Atlantic coast) two bomb attacks on a new Colombian pipeline failed to do any damage.

 

 

February 19, 2014: In neighboring Venezuela the spreading anti-government demonstrations led the government to try violent suppression. Pro-government militias attacked the peaceful demonstrators and the security forces sought to arrest protest leaders. This left at least four demonstrators dead and many more wounded. This did not discourage the demonstrators and they kept assembling for daily protests and more and more towns and cities had demonstrations as well.

 

 

February 18, 2014: The commander of the Colombian military was fired because the hel was overheard in a phone conversation complaining about investigations and prosecutions of military personnel for corruption and abuse of power (especially the use of death squads). His phone was tapped because of a corruption investigation. There were also recent revelations of corruption in the military and of military personnel illegally eavesdropping on FARC negotiators to the peace talks. While the dismissed general was not personally accused of any wrongdoing, his management style and attitudes were deemed ineffective and unacceptable. Four other senior generals were also dismissed on suspicion of being involved in the corruption (kickbacks on contracts) or eavesdropping on the FARC peace negotiators. The elected politicians, particularly the president, are under pressure to continue and increase efforts to deal with corruption. This included unauthorized spying efforts by government intelligence agencies.

 

 

February 17, 2014: In the north (Antioquia province) FARC gunmen attacked a group of police engaged in destroying coca (the source of cocaine) plants. The ambush left five policemen dead and three wounded.

 

 

February 15, 2014: In Venezuela the government has been limiting the ability of people to use the Internet. The government is trying to prevent images of the demonstrations from spreading. The official government line is that the demonstrations are a minor nuisance and not worthy of any media attention. A popular TV news channel from Colombia was also blocked.

 

 

February 12, 2014: In Venezuela large demonstrations began in the capital, to protest the growing inflation, unemployment and shortages of staple goods. Opposition politicians called for similar demonstrations all over the country. A growing number of Venezuelans are fed up with the inept government response to all the economic problems (caused by 15 years of efforts to create a state controlled economy).

 

 

February 6, 2014: Colombia has agreed to cooperate with Venezuela to curb smuggling operations along their mutual border. This is more symbolic than real because the border is vast, largely in thinly populated forest areas and the smugglers have been at it for generations and are quick to adapt. Venezuela has long resisted calls for joint efforts but now, with the growing shortages inside Venezuela the smugglers are seen as a political threat because the smugglers are providing what the government cannot and getting rich at it.

 

 

February 1, 2014: In the southwest (Narino), navy security personnel seized twenty hand grenades destined for use in FARC terror attacks. A local government policy of paying cash rewards (up to $5,000) for information on FARC activities apparently played a role in this particular operation.

"The Cuban Missile Crisis: at the Brink" - from PBS

How Castro recruited former members of the Nazi SS to train troops during Cuban Missile Crisis

Two former SS officers trained Cuban troops during the Cold War.

Fidel Castro also bought arms from weapons-traffickers linked to the German extreme-right

Fidel Castro recruited former members of the Nazi SS to train Cuban troops during the Cold War, newly released German secret service files have revealed.

The then Communist President of Cuba also bought Belgian-fabricated arms from two middle-men who had strong links to the extreme German right.

It sheds light on the extent Castro, who in public was stringently committed to socialism, was willing to go in order to further his grip on the island nation and prevent an invasion from the U.S.

Bodo Hechelhammer, historical investigations director at German foreign intelligence agency Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) said: 'Evidently, the Cuban revolutionary army did not fear contagion from personal links to Nazism, so long as it served its objectives.'

The documents, released by the BND and published online by German newspaper Die Welt, show a series of plans developed in October 1962 - at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

They reveal that two of the four former SS officers invited to La Havana had taken up the offer - and that they would receive 'substantial wages' of more than four times the average German salary at that time.

And regarding the purchase of right-wing linked arms, they show how Castro had dealt with two traffickers - Otto Ernst Remer and Ernst Wilhelm Springer - in buying 4,000 pistols.

The conclusion drawn by German secret service officials was that the Cuban regime wanted to lessen its dependence on buying Soviet-produced arms.

Right-wing weapons: Fidel Castro, seen here giving a speech in Cuba in October 1962, also bought 4,000 pistols from men with links to the German extreme-right

 

Right-wing weapons: Fidel Castro, seen here giving a speech in Cuba in October 1962, also bought 4,000 pistols from men with links to the German extreme-right

October 1962 was the month that the U.S. and the USSR came close to going to war over Russian missiles stationed on the Caribbean island.

The 13-day confrontation, between October 16 and 28, ended when a secret deal was reached between U.S. President John F Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

Publicly, the Soviets agreed to dismantle the weapons in Cuba and return them to the Soviet Union, subject to United Nations verification.

In turn, the U.S. agreed to declare that it would never invade Cuba. Secretly, the U.S. also agreed it would dismantle all U.S.-built Jupiter IRBMs deployed in Turkey and Italy.

This comes as thousands of documents authored by Robert F Kennedy during the years 1961-1964 were made public, including plans to assassinate Fidel Castro.

Training for war: Fidel Castro, center, speaks with ally Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, right, at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in 1960 as the Cold War gripped the world

 Training for war: Fidel Castro, center, speaks with ally Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, right, at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in 1960 as the Cold War gripped the world

During these years Robert F. Kennedy was the closest advisor to his brother John  and the 2,700 pages offers an insight into U.S. government’s decision-making during the Cold War.

One CIA document offers a profile of Castro: It calls him intelligent but 'not very stable' and 'touchy, impatient and rash,’ whilst another one outlines a 1964 plan to assassinate the Cuban leader using ‘the mafia’.

The mob and 'patriotic Cuban exiles' eventually settled on a payment of $100,000 for assassinating Castro, $20,000 for his brother Raul and $20,000 for revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, plus $2,500 for expenses.

Another prominent thread throughout the documents is the 13-day missile stand-off.

On one white page from a meeting on Oct. 16, 1962, the first day of the crisis, Kennedy wrote out two columns: proponents of a blockade against Cuba and supporters of a military strike.

Cuban missile crisis: Really touch-and-go?

Source - By Rick Hanson - USA Today

The forgotten man of the Cuban missile crisis was once its hero — the only American to perish in a conflict that could have killed millions.

Maj. Rudolf Anderson was “the martyr who died for us all,” said Eric Sevareid, the CBS Evening News analyst. Future generations would lay flowers at Anderson’s grave, he predicted, in thanks for the “hosts of others who did not die.”

The crisis, the closest the planet has come to nuclear war, took place over 13 days — Oct. 16-28, 1962. It started after aerial photos showed the Soviet Union was deploying nuclear missiles in Cuba in order to bolster its communist ally, Fidel Castro, and its own ability to strike the United States.

Armed only with a camera, Anderson flew an unescorted U-2 spy plane over the island more times in the crisis than any other pilot. He and his comrades took the photos that the U.S. used to show the world the Soviets had nuclear missiles 90 miles from Florida.

After Anderson was shot down by a Soviet missile — without permission from leaders in the Kremlin — President Kennedy and his Soviet counterpart, Nikita Khrushchev realized they had to end the crisis before their underlings pushed them into war. Within 24 hours, they did.

Yet 50 years later, Anderson’s memory has faded, along with that of the crisis itself.

There are unforgettable moments — Kennedy on TV telling the nation about the missiles and announcing a quarantine around Cuba; U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson unveiling photos of the missile sites and offering to wait “until hell freezes over” for a Soviet response; Soviet ships in the Atlantic turning back from the quarantine line.

But the crisis that historian James Blight calls “the most dangerous moment in modern history” is hazy to young Americans and widely misunderstood by their elders.

Despite revelations since the end of the Cold War, the crisis is encrusted by myth: of a cool, hard-line Kennedy, a bellicose Khrushchev and a resolution in which the Americans stood firm and the Russians backed down.

Alice George, author of a social history of the crisis, says its memory was diminished by subsequent traumas, especially the assassination of Kennedy a year later. And the end of the Cold War two decades ago deprived the crisis of its doomsday context.

“If you were alive in 1962, you have a story about the crisis,” George says. “If you weren’t, you have no clear idea what happened.”

Here in Anderson’s hometown, however, some people want to change that. One is Jack Parillo, a retired architect who learned of Anderson only when he stumbled on his memorial. “People don’t realize Rudy’s importance to history,” he says. “Without him, there might not be any history.”

‘A taste of death row’

By 9 a.m. on Sept. 27, 1962, Rudolf Anderson was 72,000 feet above Cuba, on the blue-black edge of space, snug in a pressurized flight suit, flying an aircraft that did not officially exist. In addition to the top-secret target list, he carried photos of his two sons and his wife, two months’ pregnant with what he was hoping would be a girl.

The U-2 was one of the most exotic aircraft ever made. Fly too fast at this altitude (twice that of a commercial jetliner’s) and the wings and tail break off; fly too slow, and the engine stalls. The difference between the two extremes: 7 mph.

It was Day 12 in the crisis. With the Soviet missiles in place, says Alice George, “everyone in America got a taste of death row.” The nation’s southeastern quarter, including Greenville, was in range of warheads 70 times more powerful than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.

Day and night, U.S. military forces moved toward Florida. The Strategic Air Command, which controlled the nation’s nuclear arsenal, moved to DEFCON2, one alert level short of war. It dispersed 183 B-47 bombers to 33 civilian and military airfields and kept 60 B-52 bombers, most carrying atomic bombs, aloft at all times. About 130 long-range nuclear missiles were ready to be fired; their silo hatches were open, and the Soviets could see it.

Americans reacted with a mixture of anxiety and resignation. Some hoarded canned food and built fallout shelters. Millions of city dwellers decided it was a good time for a trip to the country. In Memphis, a man told police who found him lifting a manhole cover that he was seeking a bomb shelter for his family.

Bunkers outside Washington were readied for government officials, and federal agencies made plans for emergency wage-price controls, rationing and censorship.

Anderson’s hometown was jittery, especially after the state civil defense director told local officials there was emergency shelter space for only 7% of the population.

A 16-year-old called the Marine recruiter in Greenville to ask whether the president had lowered the enlistment age. Ed Smith, American Legion district commander, said he had volunteered for World War I and was ready again.

No one knew that Greenville already was represented by Rudy Anderson.

He’d always wanted to fly. As a kid, he built model airplanes, and once got in trouble in school for using his pencil to trace in the air the flight of a fly.

He was something of a daredevil. At Clemson, he was so intent on catching a pigeon that had gotten loose in his dorm that he chased it down a hallway and out a second-story window, breaking a few bones in the fall. Later, his buddies would call it “Rudy’s first flight.”

As an officer, he was both top gun and by-the-book, a pilot’s pilot who was selected to evaluate his peers. All agreed he’d make general. “He wanted to keep climbing the wall to be the leader,” recalls Jim Black, a fellow Korean War reconnaissance pilot. “He was strong-headed. It was his way or no way.”

He wanted as many flights as he could get, even if it created jealousy in the competitive U-2 brotherhood. “Hot to go all the time,” Black says. “He was bent on being in the middle of whatever was going on.”

He’d jockeyed for this flight over Cuba, his sixth in the crisis, even though two days earlier another pilot reported being fired on by Soviet surface-to-air missiles — the first time any of the U-2 flights had drawn fire.

He didn’t seem worried. The night before, he called his mother in Greenville and told her not to worry, he was doing what he loved.

After 10 a.m., Anderson completed his pass over the eastern end of Cuba — his plane’s camera clicking, Soviet radar watching — and turned toward Florida. But a Soviet general, absent his commander and for reasons still unclear, ordered two surface-to-air missiles fired at the U-2.

One exploded behind Anderson, sending shrapnel into the cockpit and through his pressurized suit. He probably was dead before the plane hit the ground, 13 miles below. He was 35.

Capriles pledges support for peace talks in Colombia and distance from Iran

Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles pledged to help Colombia in its peace talks with rebels and distance himself from Iran should he defeat President Hugo Chávez in an increasingly tight race ahead of Sunday's election.

The opposition candidate also wants to talk with Raul Castro over the presence of 40.000 Cuban workers in Venezuela

The government of neighbouring Colombia is due to start talks with FARC guerrillas this month in Oslo to try to end five decades of conflict. Chavez’s government, accused by Bogotá of backing the rebels in the past, supports the talks.

That has led to speculation that an opposition victory in Venezuela on Oct. 7 could damage prospects for peace in Colombia. But Capriles denied that was the case.

“A government led by us would accelerate the Colombia peace process. A progressive government in Venezuela will stop being a refuge for rebels, for armed groups,” he told a news conference in Caracas on Monday.

“We have a government that is an accomplice of the Colombian guerrillas. That will change.”

Capriles, who has mounted the strongest electoral challenge Chávez has faced during his 14 years in power, recently met Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos in Bogotá.

The opposition candidate also said that if he won he would demand the freedom of some 30 Venezuelans kidnapped in Colombia, and end any direct contacts with the rebels so as to not confuse the negotiations.

Among the half-a-dozen or so major local pollsters, most put Chávez ahead. But Capriles has been creeping up thanks to an energetic campaign, and two surveys give him a slight edge.

The 40-year-old governor, who would be Venezuela's youngest president, also said he would steer foreign relations away from Chávez's alliances with nations such as Iran and Belarus that the West views with suspicion.

“What do we have in common with Iran apart from producing oil? Or Belarus?” Capriles asked. ”Isn't its president a dictator? You tell me! We honoured (late Libyan leader Muammar) Gaddafi twice. Are those the relations Venezuelans want? No!“

Capriles said he would also try to sit down with Cuban President Raúl Castro to review the presence of more than 40,000 Cuban workers who are in Venezuela in exchange for oil supplies.

”And I've told the Russian ambassador here that we are going to stop buying weapons from Russia,” he added, referring to Chávez's multibillion-dollar arms purchases from Moscow.