Chavez caught shipping rifles ammo to FARC

NY Times:

On the same day Colombia said it had captured a Venezuelan national guard officer carrying 40,000 AK-47 assault rifle cartridges believed to be intended for leftist guerrillas, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela said Saturday he would withdraw a decree overhauling intelligence policies that he had made earlier that week.

The rare reversal by Mr. Chávez came amid intensifying criticism in Venezuela from human rights groups.

The capture of the Venezuelan officer in eastern Colombia could reignite tensions between the neighboring countries over Venezuela’s support for the rebel group FARC.

Colombia’s attorney general, Mario Iguarán, said Saturday that security forces had captured the national guard officer carrying cartridges that the Colombian authorities believe were intended for the FARC.

While Mr. Chávez’s government did not immediately comment on the arrest of the Venezuelan officer, who was identified as Manuel Teobaldo Agudo Escalona, the episode suggests that pressure could mount in Washington to add Venezuela to the list of countries that are state sponsors of terrorism.

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Amid festering tension with Colombia, including claims that Colombian paramilitaries were fomenting destabilization plots, President Chávez quietly unveiled his intelligence law in late May, which would have abolished the DISIP secret police and DIM military intelligence, replacing them with new intelligence and counterintelligence agencies.

But in a rare act of self-criticism on Saturday, Mr. Chávez acknowledged the ire that his intelligence overhaul had provoked among legal scholars and human rights groups, which said Mr. Chávez was attempting to introduce a police state by forcing judges to cooperate with intelligence services and criminalizing dissent.

“Where we made mistakes we must accept that and not defend the indefensible,” Mr. Chávez said at a campaign rally in Zulia State for gubernatorial and mayoral candidates from his Socialist party. “There is no dictatorship here,” he continued. “No one here is coerced into saying more than they want to say.”

Reeling from the defeat of a constitutional reform in December that would have expanded his powers, Mr. Chávez, in his 10th year in power, is facing multiple challenges as a reinvigorated opposition fields candidates in regional elections this year and Venezuela’s economic growth slows despite record oil prices.

Chavez should be more concerned about the OAS than being on the US list of state sponsors of terror. He is liable to be hoist on the same petard that he attempted to use against Colombia after the attack on FARC in a Ecuador sanctuary.

Colombia appears to have penetrated Venezuela's communications or has established an effective cordon along their common border. It is possible they have done both. A communications breach will ratchet up Chavez's paranoia a few clicks.

That FARC is running out of ammo is another good sign for Colombia's counter insurgent operations.

The Houston Chronicle has more on the capture. The Chavez government has now heatedly denied any knowledge of the captured man with the National Guard ID.

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Iguaran's office published photos of the four men being transferred to Bogota. Two of the men had close-cropped military-style haircuts while the other two wore sunglasses and baseball caps.

The men were captured in Puerto Nariño, a remote jungle town which sits just across the Orinoco River from Venezuela. With few roads and little government presence, the region has become a haven for drug traffickers and guerrillas.

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I think Colombia has developed some intelligence resources in the area.