VENEZUELA: 2008 COUNTRY REPORT ON TERRORISM

UNCLAS CARACAS 001760 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR S/CT (SHORE) AND NCTC E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ASEC PTER VE SUBJECT: VENEZUELA: 2008 COUNTRY REPORT ON TERRORISM REF: STATE 120019 The following is post's submission for the 2008 Country Reports on Terrorism on Venezuela. Embassy point of contact is Political Officer Evan Owen (OwenE@state.gov). Begin Text In May 2008, Venezuela was re-certified as "not cooperating fully" with U.S. antiterrorism efforts under Section 40A of the Arms Export and Control Act, as amended (the "Act"). Pursuant to this certification, defense articles and services may not be sold or licensed for export to Venezuela from October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2009. This certification will lapse unless it is renewed by the Secretary of State by May 15, 2009. President Hugo Chavez persisted in his public criticism of U.S. counterterrorism efforts and deepened Venezuelan relationships with state sponsors of terrorism Iran and Cuba. Chavez brokered the unilateral release of six hostages from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in January and February. High levels of corruption among Venezuelan officials combined with Chavez's ideological sympathy for the FARC and the National Liberation Army (ELN) severely limited Venezuelan cooperation with Colombia in combating terrorism. In January, Chavez called for, and the Venezuelan National Assembly approved, a resolution that the FARC and ELN be recognized internationally as belligerent forces, not terrorist groups. In March, Chavez called FARC second-in-command Raul Reyes, "a good revolutionary" and held a national moment of silence following his death. Chavez also ordered ten Army battalions, tanks and fighter planes to the Venezuelan border with Colombia following the Colombian cross-border raid into Ecuador that killed Reyes. Two FARC fighters were apprehended in March while seeking medical treatment in Venezuela. The injured man was taken to a military hospital for treatment and his companion to a regional penitentiary. By May however, Venezuelan authorities could not account for the whereabouts of either man. Chavez reversed his policy towards Colombian guerrillas in June and called upon the FARC to unconditionally release all hostages announcing armed struggle is "out of place" in modern Latin America. FARC chief of borders and finance, Gabriel Culma Ortiz, was detained by the Venezuelan National Guard in July and turned over to Colombian authorities. The FARC, ELN and right-wing United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) regularly crossed into Venezuelan territory to rest and regroup as well as to extort protection money and kidnap Venezuelans to finance their operations. The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in June designated diplomat Ghazi Nasr al Din and travel impresario Fawzi Kan'an as Venezuelan Hizballah supporters. In September, OFAC designated two senior Venezuelan government officials, Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios and Henry de Jesus Rangel Silva, and the former Justice and Interior Minister, Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, for materially assisting the narcotics trafficking activities of the FARC. It remained unclear to what extent the Venezuelan government provided support to Colombian terrorist operations. However, limited amounts of weapons and ammunition, some from official Venezuelan stocks and facilities, have turned up in the hands of Colombian terrorist organizations. The Venezuelan government did not systematically police the 1,400-mile Venezuelan-Colombian border to prevent the movement of groups of armed terrorists or to interdict arms or the flow of narcotics. In another case, two self-proclaimed Islamic extremists were sentenced in December to 10 years each for placing a pair of pipe bombs outside the American Embassy in 2006. JosQ Miguel Rojas Espinoza was found guilty of constructing and placing the devices while Teodoro Rafael Darnott was culpable for planning the attack and instigating Rojas to carry it out. Iran and Venezuela continued weekly Iran Airlines flights connecting Tehran and Damascus with Caracas. Passengers on these flights were reportedly only subject to cursory immigration and customs controls at Simon Bolivar International Airport. Venezuelan citizenship, identity, and travel documents remained easy to obtain, making Venezuela a potentially attractive way station for terrorists. International authorities remained suspicious of the integrity of Venezuelan documents and their issuance process. End Text CAULFIELD