RUMORS STILL SPINNING ON APURE AMBUSH

C O N F I D E N T I A L CARACAS 003173

SIPDIS


NSC FOR CBARTON
HQSOUTHCOM FOR POLAD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/22/2014
TAGS: PGOV MOPS VE
SUBJECT: RUMORS STILL SPINNING ON APURE AMBUSH

REF: CARACAS 03032

Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ABELARDO A. ARIAS FOR 1.4 (D)

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Summary
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1. (C) Summary: The media has continued to report on the
killing of a PDVSA engineer and five soldiers in Apure State.
The opposition and the Colombian Government continue to
fault the government for complicity in border violence. The
GOV and its supporters have blamed the United States and
Colombia for the attacks. Former PDVSA workers have cast
doubt on the official line that the victims constituted an
oil exploration team. Both the opposition and the GOV likely
expect to benefit from the publicity. The true identity of
the attackers may never surface publicly. End summary.


2. (C) The media has stretched the news thin to keep the
story on the September 17 Apure State ambush (REFTEL)
running. The national press has begun to report even the
discovery of corpses in neighboring Tachira state in order to
continue the body count. On September 30, the press ran a
story simply to say that the National Assembly's defense
committee continued to investigate the murders.

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Trading Accusations
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3. (C) Accusations leveled by the Venezuelan and Colombian
Governments continued to give life to the story. In the
latest round of a verbal row between Venezuelan Vice
President Jose Vicente Rangel and Colombian members of
congress, Rangel, accused of engaging in "verbal terrorism,"
blamed Colombians on September 29 for ignoring the border
problem. The Governor of Colombia's Arauca department, which
borders Apure, blamed the GOV on 30 September for supporting
the Colombian insurgency. On October 5, secretary of the
Venezuelan National Defense Council (CDN) Gen. Melvin Lopez
Hidalgo said at a university forum on Plan Colombia that he
suspected Colombian paramilitaries were receiving US
training, although he stopped short of indicating that
Washington intended to use such forces.


4. (C) GOV press outlets have also kept the story alive.
The Bolivarian Liberation Forces (FBL) garnered front-page
coverage in the pro-Government tabloid Diario Vea October 1
by announcing they would suspend operations, adding that the
"empire" was blaming the FBL for its own bloody attacks. A
pro-Chavez website on September 29 cited a joint declaration
by Colombian social organizations blaming the White House for
the ambush. The FARC, meanwhile, has sent a communique to
the press accusing the Colombian Army.


5. (U) The pro-opposition media, meanwhile, has cited local
ranchers, indigenous people, and clergy who fault the
government for the lack of security at the border states.
The CD on October 8 responded to the FBL's article by asking
the Attorney General's office to investigate links between
the FBL, Diario Vea, and the government. Striking a less
confrontational tone, ranching association FEDENAGA during a
September 30 press conference said Chavez's September 22
speech to troops in Apure opened space for dialog after 28
years of insecurity in the region. (The first kidnapping
took place in 1976, according to FEDENAGA.)

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Oil exploration?
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6. (C) A former PDVSA executive told PolOff September 29
that the victims probably were not in the area for oil
exploration. A larger group with seismic equipment would
have characterized a true exploration mission, he said,
adding that even a less formal scouting party would have had
experienced geologists. Defense Minister Gen. Garcia
Carneiro told the press that authorities were seeking a
member of the group who incriminated himself in the attack
because he fled the scene just prior to the ambush.

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Comment

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7. (C) As noted by the NGOs, the attack is representative
of the everyday violence in Venezuela's "wild west," which is
rarely publicized at a national level and almost never
punished. This time, however, the attacks have become a
publicity bonanza for both the GOV and the opposition. The
opposition is using the incident to blame the government for
harboring terrorists, ignoring border violence, and damaging
military morale. The border problem has also become the
latest GOV bugbear, serving as a convenient reminder to the
Venezuelan public that it has an external enemy in the United
States, Plan Colombia, and ill-defined "neoliberal" plotting.
The GOV also continues to treat the issue in attempts to
reassure the public it controls both the border and its own
troops.


8. (C) The GOV's unwillingness to rule out the FARC as the
culprit in these attacks suggest that the Colombian
guerrillas really were at fault and that the GOV knows it.
If the PDVSA official's comments and the account of the
fleeing victim are true, the soldiers likely were in the
region to conduct some kind of business with one of the armed
groups.
Brownfield


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2004CARACA03173 - CONFIDENTIAL