[Mb-civic] Former CIA Agent Affirms Possibility of Chavez's Assassination in Venezuela

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

Ongoing News and Analysis from Venezuela
www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1549

Former CIA Agent Affirms Possibility of Chavez’s 
Assassination in Venezuela

Tuesday, Mar 15, 2005 		
By: Gregory Wilpert – Venezuelanalysis.com

Former CIA agent Felix Rodriguez talked about Venezuela on the talk 
show "Maria Elvira Confronta."
Credit: Channel 22, Miami

Caracas, Venezuela, March 15, 2005—In an interview on Miami’s 
Spanish-language channel 22, the former CIA agent Felix Rodriguez 
said that the U.S. government has plans to “bring about a change in 
Venezuela.” When pressed as to what type of plans these might be, 
Rodriguez responded that the Bush administration “could do it with a 
military strike, with a plane.”

The former CIA agent’s comments were made last week, on Thursday, 
during the talk show of a well-known supporter of the anti-Castro 
movement, Maria Elvira Salazar. Rodriguez affirmed during the 
program, “According to information I have about what is happening in 
Venezuela, it is possible that at some moment they [the Bush 
administration] will see itself obliged, for national security reasons and 
because of problems they have in Colombia, to implement a series of 
measures that will bring about a change in Venezuela.”

The moderator, not satisfied with his vague answer, asked Rodriguez 
what kind of measures these might be and he responded, “They could 
be economic measures and at some point they could be military 
measures.” He then added, “If at some point they are going to do it, 
they will do it openly.” As an example, Rodriguez gave the Reagan 
administration’s strike against Khadafi, whose residence was bombed 
and whose adoptive daughter was killed in the process.

Felix Rodriguez is presumed to have been one of the CIA agents who 
captured Ernesto “Ché” Guevara in Bolivia and who was involved in his 
assassination in 1962.

For the past several weeks, President Chavez has been saying that he 
has evidence that the Bush administration is planning his 
assassination. Bush spokespersons, such as Secretary of State 
Condoleezza Rice, have dismissed the charge, calling it “absurd.” 
Chavez and officials from his government, however, have insisted that 
they have intelligence information about a possible assassination, but 
that they cannot reveal their sources, as this would ruin their 
investigations.

Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez has also pointed out that 
the U.S. denied for a long time its involvement in the overthrow of the 
governments of Chile in 1973 or of Guatemala in 1954, but that their 
involvement was eventually proven.

Yesterday, the British newspaper Financial Times reported that, 
"Senior US administration officials are working on a policy to 'contain' 
President Hugo Chavez." the report went on to say, "A strategy aimed 
at fencing in the Chávez government is being prepared at the behest 
of President George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of 
state, senior US officials say."

The Financial Times quoted Roger Pardo-Maurer, deputy assistant 
secretary for western hemisphere affairs, as saying that, "Chavez is a 
problem because he is clearly using his oil money and influence to 
introduce his conflictive style into the politics of other countries."

Roger Pardo-Mauro became known during the Reagan 
administration's Iran-Contra scandal, when he was a spokesperson for 
the Nicaraguan Contras. He is also said to have met with Venezuela's 
top general, Lucas Rincon Romero, in the weeks prior to the April 2002 
coup.



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