Venezuela: líder tupamaro promete luchas ilegales y violentas para defender al gobierno

infobae

Alberto "El Chino" Carías. Aquí, sosteniendo una ametralladora

"Si la democracia venezolana, al igual que en el 2002, se ve afectada por un golpe de estado, lo digo de manera responsable, como presidente del MRTA, nosotros vamos a sacar nuestras armas, nuestras capuchas", afirmó Carías durante una entrevista con EUTV.net.

"Tenemos las armas, pero las tenemos guardadas. Están en manos de otras organizaciones revolucionarias del hemisferio", agregó.

El dirigente chavista aseguró que durante los sangrientos enfrentamientos del jueves, que terminaron con tres personas muertas, dos de ellas, estudiantes, su organización estuvo presente, pero sin armamento. Sin embargo, las imágenes televisivas y el registro fotográfico captaron a presuntos integrantes de los Tupamaros disparando contra la multitud, que protestaba contra el gobierno de Nicolás Maduro.

Pero lejos de reconocer su participación en los hechos de violencia, "El Chino" acusó a la dirigencia opositora. "Teníamos información desde dentro de la marcha de la oposición, que venía liderando (Henrique) Capriles Radonski, Leopoldo López, María Corina Machado, Cerro Prendío y Bam Bam de Bandera Roja, que traían armas de mediano y largo alcance, bombas molotov y objetos contundentes para generar la violencia que sucedió", dijo durante la entrevista.

Sin embargo, en una implícita refutación a sí mismo, reconoció que el MRTA permaneció en el lugar "como un solo bloque para defender las instituciones, la democracia, por encima de todo, y tratando de evitar que se reeditara el 11 de abril (de 2002, cuando un intento de golpe de Estado desalojó temporalmente a Hugo Chávez del Palacio de Miraflores)".

"Nosotros estábamos tratando de contener (...) porque el objetivo de ellos era avanzar hasta Miraflores y crear un enfrentamiento entre el pueblo chavista y el opositor", dijo. No precisó qué medios utilizaron para lograr esa "contención".

Cuando le preguntaron por los muertos, no supo precisar quién pudo haberlos asesinado. "Nosotros no te podemos decir si fue el Sebin, si fue la Guardia, o quien haya sido, lo lamentable son las tres muertes. Evidentemente que las autoridades nacionales tienen que investigar y tienen que ir presos los culpables".

A pesar de todas las evidencias que muestran sus lazos con los poderes gubernamentales, Carías desmintió que recibieran financiamiento. "A nosotros nadie nos paga, nosotros somos revolucionarios de convicción. El Gobierno no apoya lo que hacemos", sostuvo.

Pero volvió a ratificar que son un grupo violento al reconocer que dos de sus miembros están procesados por posesión de armas. ¿Dónde las obtienen? "Eso es secreto militar", respondió.

Por último, aseguró: "Nosotros, como movimiento revolucionario, vamos a estar en la calle defendiendo la revolución".

"El Chino" Carias y los Tupamaros

El nombre oficial de la organización es Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amarú (MRTA), pero se lo conoce comúnmente como Tupamaros. Es un homenaje a la histórica guerrilla que operó en Uruguay en las décadas del 60 y del 70, cometiendo atroces actos terroristas.

Su líder, Alberto "Chino" Carías, es un hombre de 57 años que, a pesar de negar sus vínculos con el Gobierno, tiene una oficina junto a la Comisión de Ciencia y Tecnología del Parlamento.

En una entrevista concedida en 2012 al diario Clarín, de la Argentina, aseguraba sin ruborizarse que entre sus principales objetivos figuraba "echar plomo a la oposición si no acepta la victoria segura de Chávez".

"¿Qué cómo lo haremos? Pues como siempre en moto y en coche. Si vemos una guarimba (foco de violencia), sacamos las armas que tenemos escondidas en el coche, nos ponemos el pasamontañas y disparamos contra los opositores", aseguraba entonces. La similitud entre lo que anunciaba hace dos años y los hechos ocurridos el jueves es escalofriante.

El origen de los Tupamaros se remonta a 1992, año del frustrado golpe de Estado de Hugo Chávez contra el gobierno de Carlos Andrés Pérez. Con el tiempo, empezaron a ganar terreno en el populoso barrio 23 de enero del Municipio Libertador (oeste de Caracas). Con el ascenso del chavismo, su influencia se expandió.

Hoy cuentan con radios y canales de televisión y controlan diversas zonas carenciadas de Caracas. Allí actúan como juez y policía, ofreciendo "protección" ilegal contra delincuentes y narcotraficantes, aunque en reiteradas ocasiones ellos mimos han sido acusados por ataques a comercios e importantes edificios por considerarlos oligarcas y burgueses.

Obama's ' civilian national security force '

theodoresworld.net

WND/ By Joseph Farah

With all the reporters covering the major presidential candidates, it amazes me no one ever seems to ask the right questions.

For several days now, WND has been hounding Barack Obama’s campaign about a statement he made July 2 in Colorado Springs – a statement that blew my mind, one that has had me scratching my head ever since.

In talking about his plans to double the size of the Peace Corps and nearly quadruple the size of AmeriCorps and the size of the nation’s military services, he made this rather shocking (and chilling) pledge: “We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”

Now, since I’ve never heard anyone inside or out of government use the phrase “civilian national security force” before, I was more than a little curious about what he has in mind.

Is it possible I am the only journalist in America who sought clarification on this campaign promise?

What does it mean?

If we’re going to create some kind of national police force as big, powerful and well-funded as our combined U.S. military forces, isn’t this rather a big deal?

I thought Democrats generally believed the U.S. spent too much on the military. How is it possible their candidate is seeking to create some kind of massive but secret national police force that will be even bigger than the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force put together?

Now, maybe he was misquoted by the Congressional Quarterly and the Chicago Tribune. I guess it’s possible. If so, you would think he would want to set the record straight. Maybe he misspoke. That has certainly happened before. Again, why wouldn’t the rest of my colleagues show some curiosity about such a major and, frankly, bone-chilling proposition?

Are we talking about creating a police state here?

The U.S. Army alone has nearly 500,000 troops. That doesn’t count reserves or National Guard. In 2007, the U.S. Defense budget was $439 billion.

Is Obama serious about creating some kind of domestic security force bigger and more expensive than that?

If not, why did he say it? What did he mean?

So far, despite our attempts to find out, the Obama campaign is not talking.

At this point all I can do is enlist your help – and the help of every other journalist who still thinks the American people have a right to know the specifics about a presidential candidate’s biggest and boldest initiatives before the election. I also want to ask radio talk-show hosts across America to start asking this same question. I have a feeling if others join our quest, we might yet get clarification on this proposal from Obama.

Who will Obama appoint to administer this new “civilian national security force”? Where will the money come from? Where in the Constitution does he see justification for the federal government creating such a domestic army?

The questions are endless.

But before we can hope to get to the specifics, we need much more in the way of generalizations from Obama.

Certainly there have been initiatives like this elsewhere – Cuba, the Soviet Union, China, Venezuela, North Korea. But has anything like this ever been proposed in a free country?

I have a feeling there would be more questions from the press if I myself had proposed the creation of something as preposterous as a “civilian national security force” than there has been about this proposal by the presidential candidate currently leading in most of the polls. I’m quite sure I would be hung out to dry as some kind of Nazi thug. Meanwhile, Obama makes this wild suggestion and it is met with a collective yawn from the watchdogs.

Help me out here. What am I missing?

Can I get a hand?

"Godfather" of Colombian Army Intelligence Acquitted in Palace of Justice Case

 

The "Godfather" of Colombian Army intelligence, Gen. Iván Ramírez Quintero (Photo: COLPRENSA)

http://www.nsarchive.org

Washington, D.C. , December 16, 2011 - A Colombian army general acquitted today in one of the country's most infamous human rights cases "actively" collaborated with paramilitary death squads responsible for dozens of massacres, according to formerly secret U.S. records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive.

Once the third-highest-ranking officer in the Colombian military and later a top adviser to President Álvaro Uribe's Department of Administrative Security (DAS), Iván Ramírez Quintero was acquitted today in the torture and disappearance of Irma Franco, one of several people detained by the army during the November 1985 Palace of Justice disaster.

The exoneration comes despite substantial evidence, including declassified U.S. embassy cables, linking Ramírez to the disappearances. Among the documents are reports that the missing individuals were "tortured and killed" by members of the Charry Solano Brigade, the unit led by Ramírez at that time.

Two former senior army officers, Col. Alfonso Plazas Vega and Gen. Jesús Armando Arias Cabrales, have already been convicted in the Palace of Justice disaster and remain the only people sentenced in the now more than 25-year-old case. More than 100 people, including 11 Supreme Court justices, perished during military operations to retake the Palace of Justice from M-19 insurgents who seized the building in November 1985. A document previously published by the Archive blamed "soldiers under the command of Col. Alfonso Plazas Vega" for the deaths of individuals detained by the army following the raid.

The declassified file on Gen. Iván Ramírez Quintero, the so-called "godfather of army intelligence," portrays him as a shrewd and corrupt spymaster who shared sensitive intelligence with illegal militia groups, cultivated relationships with drug traffickers and notorious paramilitary figures, and engaged in "scare tactics" to take down his political enemies.

"Portrait of a Corrupt General"

The declassified reports focus on ties between Ramírez, narco-traffickers, and the country's illegal paramilitary groups in the 1990s, particularly while he was in charge of the army's First Division, along Colombia's Atlantic coast, where he maintained "direct links with paramilitaries," according to intelligence sources cited in a 1996 Embassy cable. The following year, a special Defense Intelligence Agency report pictured Ramírez beneath the heading, "Portrait of a Corrupt General," and next to a picture of "Drug Trafficker-Backed Paramilitary Forces."

U.S. Ambassador Myles Frechette spoke with at least two different Colombian defense ministers about the general's "suspected ties to narcotraffickers and paramilitaries." In a November 1997 meeting with Colombian minister of defense Gilberto Echeverri, Frechette cited "more evidence suggesting that Ramirez is passing military intelligence to the paramilitaries, and that the intelligence is being used against the guerrillas." Frechette had good reason for concern. A new U.S. law linking foreign military assistance to human rights performance had heightened the embassy's focus on abusive officers, and Ramírez, despite pressure from the U.S. over his human rights record, had just been designated as the next army inspector general. Frechette bluntly told the defense minister "that if Ramirez were to attain higher rank or position, it would seriously compromise the USG's [United States Government's] ability to cooperate with the Colombian military." 

"Godfather of army intelligence"

U.S. contacts in the Colombian military took a similarly dim view of Ramírez. One former colonel said he was "convinced [that Ramírez] has gone far beyond the passive phase with paramilitaries and is actively supporting them." The colonel was "concerned about the potential direction the Colar [Colombian army] could take if Ramirez abuses his position as IG [inspector general] or, worse, if he is allowed to rise to even higher positions in the armed forces hierarchy." Ramírez is repeatedly characterized as the "godfather of army intelligence" with influence "so pervasive within the military intelligence community" that he maintained control over intelligence assignments even from non-intelligence posts.

Another retired Colombian officer told the Embassy that Ramírez had been the "godfather" of Colombia's "intelligence mafia" for more than 20 years. The general "surrounded himself with loyal subordinates who 'covered up for him'" and was connected to "shady elements" inside the army's 20^th Military Intelligence Brigade," according to a cable reporting on the meeting.

The 20^th Brigade was established in 1990 on the recommendations of a U.S. intelligence team, and Ramírez was its first commander. "Fundamentally designed for covert operations," the brigade's members were attached to army units across the country, according to a U.S. Army report (See page 79.). Personnel worked "undercover and in civilian clothes," reporting only to division commanders and other intelligence officers.

The brigade became the most visible symbol of Colombia's corrupt and abusive intelligence establishment, and was tied to political assassinations, the torture of suspected guerrillas, and Colombia's brutal paramilitary forces. The State Department's human rights report for 1997 singled out the intelligence brigade for "death squad activity," a charge also leveled by Ambassador Frechette as he left the Bogotá post late that year.

Pulling the strings was the "godfather" Ramírez. One report addressed to the State Department's under secretary for political affairs, Thomas Pickering, asserted that "Ramirez and some elements of the Bogota-based 20^th Intelligence Brigade actively collaborate with paramilitaries by providing intelligence and other support." The CIA connected Ramírez to Carlos Castaño, notorious head of the powerful United Self-defense Forces of Córdoba and Urabá (ACCU). A U.S. Embassy report from 1998 noted the army's "new-found effectiveness in curbing the paramilitaries" since Ramírez had been removed from the First Division, adding that it seemed "more than coincidental that the recent anti-paramilitary actions have all taken place since the departure from northern Colombia of military personnel believed to favor paramilitaries."

In May 1998, shortly before Colombia announced plans to dismantle the 20^th Brigade, the State Department cancelled Ramírez's U.S. visa. In an unusually passionate memo on the moral dilemma faced by U.S. policymakers in Colombia, the State Department's desk officer for Andean Affairs, David Passage, made a rhetorical plea for self-reflection on the part of the Colombian army and the military intelligence system in particular. Colombia needed to develop "credible and defensible intelligence gathering techniques instead of 12-volt batteries and rubber hoses," Passage asserted, strongly implying the Colombian military's penchant for torture techniques.

More >>

REC:Los Guardianes de Chávez/ Video