BRV REACTS TO COUNTRY REPORT ON TERRORISM

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CARACAS 001199

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/05/2026
TAGS: PGOV PTER PREL VE
SUBJECT: BRV REACTS TO COUNTRY REPORT ON TERRORISM


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Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ROBERT R. DOWNES FOR 1.4 (D)

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Summary
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1. (C) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez blasted the
Department's Country Report on Terrorism in almost real time
April 28, claiming that the USG was the real terrorist state.
The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry followed his remarks April
29 with a communique detailing alleged U.S. "terrorist"
abuses in extravagant prose. The quickness of the BRV
response to our written report was atypical, but the
hysterical contents of the communique have become
commonplace. End Summary.


2. (U) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez lashed out at the
Department's Country Report on Terrorism during a ceremony
kicking off Venezuelan Labor Day events in Caracas April 28,
the date of the U.S. report's release. Upon receiving a note
about the report during his speech, Chavez extemporaneously
began accusing the USG of harboring terrorists for not
extraditing accused Cuban airline bomber Luis Posada
Carriles. Chavez recalled that April 28 was the 41st
anniversary of U.S. military intervention in the Dominican
Republic, which he described as another example of U.S.
terrorism. On 30 April, Chavez and Bolivian President Evo
Morales attended a ceremony in Havana celebrating the first
anniversary of Chavez' "Bolivarian Alternative for the
Americas," in which Cuban leader Fidel Castro called the Cuba
section of the report "crap."


3. (U) The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry released to the
press on April 29 a communique that condemned the report with
the flowery language typical of Bolivarian documents. The
communique referred to the USG as the "imperial center." It
said, "a cold and immoral shamelessness impregnates all of
this report about Venezuela." According to the Venezuelan
report, the "shamelessness" was the USG's opposition to BRV
arms procurement allegedly necessary to patrol borders. The
purported "immorality" consisted of alleged "Bush
administration" support offered to asylum seekers Luis Posada
Carriles, Jose Antonio Colina, and German Varela. The USG's
Iraq policy, it said, was "shameless AND immoral." The
communique continued, "the painful experience that many Latin
American countries have lived through teaches (that the)
imperial center unleashes these campaigns of false
accusations...to prepare the political environment for a
calculated attack." The Venezuelan report called the U.S.
report's allowance that the BRV targeted Colombian
paramilitaries a "contradiction." Pro-BRV tabloid Diario Vea
ran a story the same day on the response of Venezuelan
Ambassador to the United States Bernardo Alvarez, who adhered
to the same themes. Alvarez argued that the claims that
terrorists used Venezuelan territory as safehaven were
inaccurate because the BRV had handed paramilitaries over to
Colombian authorities.

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Comment
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4. (C) We can expect future BRV reactions to criticism of
its counterterrorism record to center on these same
counteraccusations, all of which are part of Chavez' regular
repertoire. Venezuelan documents such as this communique
seem to try outdo each other with their Chavista rhetoric.
Not much free thinking is occurring in Venezuelan
institutions. The BRV's quick reaction is noteworthy. The
Venezuelan Government often has to wait for the press to
translate excerpts of U.S. reports before criticizing them,

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but the BRV appears to have tracked this one down and
translated it on its own. Given the incompetence of the
Foreign Ministry here in Caracas, Chavez can probably credit
his Embassy and lobbying machinery in Washington for his
quick notification on this issue.

BROWNFIELD