Professional Soldiers ® - Venezuela

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- - Venezuela - Next Hot Spot? (http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8053)

Yaaaawwnn...

It's not the border they need to worry about, the FARC are already living in Caracas.

Have you read anything about Venezuelan National ID cards being outsourced to Cuba?

Quote:

Originally Posted by lrd

Have you read anything about Venezuelan National ID cards being outsourced to Cuba?

NO! Now that would be a development! If you see anything please post it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NousDefionsDoc

NO! Now that would be a development! If you see anything please post it.

This is what I was researching when I came across the other blurb.

Quote:

Cuban ID Cards

You want outrage? Take for example the announcement that the Government will give the contract for the National ID card system to the Cuban Government. First of all, “Cuban technology” sounds to me as much of an oxymoron as “competent Venezuelan Government”.

Second, it is extremely scary, I would say amazingly scary, to be informed that the ID system will be manufactured and designed by what is, after North Korea, the most efficient police state on this planet, at this time. But the news appears in print and it is as if nothing had happened. As if it were not enough that now Cuban agents can act freely in Venezuela, take depositions and do investigations after the two countries signed a treaty of mutual penal assistance. It is as if the Cuban police state will be moved to Caracas to help control people like me or those around me. The human rights implications of the whole thing are so freaky that I am not sure I know even where to begin writing about it.

I mean, this is the same Government who held a bidding process in 2001, in which three private companies competed for a contract to do the exactly same thing. A Korean company won the contract which later the Government tried to cancel due to charges made by one of the competitors who was theoretically very close to the Government. But it may have been just a rumor.

The Government not only cancelled the contract unilaterally, but it is being sued for the indemnization of US$ 68 million according to the contract. Of course, since the Supreme Court will decide the case, these silly and naive Koreans have the same chance of winning, that Carlos Ortega has of being found innocent of the charges against him.

So, in a country with strict laws that regulate how any Government contract has to be opened for bids, the Government argues that a treaty it signed with Cuba, approved by nobody, allows it to subscribe this contract without anyone having a say about it. I just wonder what the PC’s will be, old Russian 386’s?

http://blogs.salon.com/0001330/categories/venezuela/

I still haven't found anything specifically about the ID cards, but wonder if it's a part of this:

Quote:

Even more troubling, Miami’s El Nuevo Herald reported in January that Cuban judicial and security forces have arrived in Caracas wielding unusual inter-country police powers which allow them to abduct Venezuelan and Cuban citizens and transport them to Cuba without an extradition hearing. “Cubans are running Venezuelan intelligence services, indoctrinating and training the military, and now this. Whoever heard of one country allowing another country to have police powers?” said Otto Reich, the former ambassador to Venezuela under President Ronald Reagan.

http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Rea...e.asp?ID=17213

From The Early Bird:

Washington Post
March 30, 2005
Pg. 11

World In Brief

MADRID -- Spain this week will sign a deal to sell $1.7 billion in military and civilian equipment to Venezuela despite U.S. concerns over arms purchases by the country, a government source said.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is due to sign the deal with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday, the source said. The sale includes coastal patrol boats and transport and surveillance planes.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americ....ap/index.html

Venezuela's Chavez lashes back at cardinal

Tuesday, July 19, 2005; Posted: 9:25 a.m. EDT (13:25 GMT)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez has denied an outspoken cardinal's allegation that he is leading Venezuela toward a dictatorship as tensions mounted between the leftist leader and the Roman Catholic Church.

Chavez said anyone who thinks his "revolutionary" government is gradually turning into a dictatorial regime "is crazy enough to be tied up or just ignorant (and) doesn't know what's happening in Venezuela."

The statements made by Chavez in Lima, Peru, where he was attending an Andean summit meeting, were released by his press office in Caracas on Monday. A day earlier, Cardinal Rosalio Castillo Lara said Chavez's administration "has seized control of all the branches of government" in Venezuela.

The cardinal warned that "true democracy" does not exist in Venezuela, and said the president is steering the world's fifth largest oil exporter toward a Cuba-style dictatorship.

"The only solution is democratic, which must involve the resistance of all the people," Castillo Lara said.

The church has been one of the loudest critics of Chavez, a former paratroop commander and self-styled revolutionary. Chavez, in turn, has described the church leadership as a "tumor."

Castillo Lara's comments came after Chavez on his weekly radio program accused the cardinal of siding with Venezuela's "coup-plotting" opposition while neglecting the poor.

Chavez, a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro who frequently tells his supporters that Jesus Christ was a socialist and anti-imperialist, called Castillo Lara "a bandit" who "has the devil inside him."

Eduardo Fernandez, president of the Social Christian Party, criticized Chavez for "using vulgar and offensive language" in referring to "a respectable man who is adored by the Venezuelan people."

After months of keeping a low profile, the country's highest body of Catholic leaders, the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference, has recently renewed its criticism of Chavez and his left-leaning government.

The Roman Catholic Church is one of the most trusted institutions in the poverty-stricken South American nation. More than 90 percent of the population is Roman Catholic, and church leaders and local priests wield tremendous influence over many Venezuelans.

one good thing that you can say about Chavez: the man is quotable.

characterizing the Roman Catholic church as a "tumor" is, I have to say, hilarious.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americ....ap/index.html

Cardinal: Chavez needs 'exorcism'

Sunday, July 31, 2005; Posted: 1:51 p.m. EDT (17:51 GMT)

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- An outspoken Catholic cardinal took his war of words with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to a new level in an interview published Sunday, calling him "a paranoid dictator" who needs "an exorcism."

Rosalio Castillo, Venezuela's only cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, also accused Chavez of rounding up more than 100 political prisoners and torturing some captives.

"There is no democracy here (in Venezuela)," Castillo told Colombia's main newspaper, El Tiempo. "This is a despotic government."

Chavez, who insists he supports democracy, is up for re-election next year, and recent polls suggest he is strongly favored to win.

Earlier this month, Castillo warned that Chavez was gaining too much power and becoming a dictator. Chavez, in turn, called Castillo "a bandit" who "has the devil inside him."

In Sunday's interview, Castillo said his comments on Chavez are not personal, and said they fall in line with the opinions of other church leaders in Venezuela.

"The difference is in the way it's said. There are those who speak diplomatically, and others like me who speak clearly so that everyone understands," the 82-year-old cardinal said.

The Roman Catholic Church has been one of the most critical voices of Chavez, a former paratroop commander and self-styled "revolutionary."

The church is also one of the most trusted institutions in the poverty-stricken South American nation. More than 90 percent of Venezuela's population is Roman Catholic, and church leaders and local priests wield tremendous influence over many of its citizens.

Asked whether he would send a blessing to Chavez, Castillo said: "More than a blessing, I'd give him an exorcism."