Cuba, Venezuela, And Farc -- A Latin American Axis

(Photo from Latin American Studies)

Cuba, FARC May Be Training Guerrillas
At Venezuelan Camp -- Miami Herald

Cuban advisors and Colombian rebels are helping train paramilitary fighters, critics and former participants say.

SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela -- The Venezuelan government, with help from Cuban military advisors and leftist Colombian guerrillas, is operating a secret paramilitary training camp in a closed-off tourist campground near here, former participants and government critics say.

The camp offers six-week courses for a rolling contingent of 400 to 1,000 participants, including a first-phase political indoctrination with texts printed in Cuba and a second phase of guerrilla training for the most loyal students that includes the use of light and heavy weaponry and use of explosives, they added.

One complaint filed in April with a prosecutor's office in the surrounding state of Tachira requested an investigation of the secret operations conducted by the Cubans, including ideological instructions based on the philosophy of Ché Guevara and Fidel Castro as well as speeches by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

If the allegations are confirmed, it would heighten tensions between Chávez's leftist government, the conservative government of President Alvaro Uribe in neighboring Colombia and the Bush administration in Washington.

Although the Chávez government has not responded to the allegations, local officials in the area have acknowledged the existence of the camp and the presence of Cubans, while denying that the activities at the Tapo-Caparo National Park involve paramilitary activities.

Read more ....

My Comment: I guess Hugo Chavez wants to continue the legacy of Che Guevara .... but as I had mentioned in the previous post there are always consequences to these actions. Venezuela is too small for Chavez .... Latin America is his playground. But to go about actively interfering in the internal affairs of other countries will bring about a severe response from other governments.

With oil prices collapsing, and with oil production now in decline for Venezuela, the government will soon be confronted with its own pressures and stresses. Fermenting war against your neighbours may take the people away from focusing on their problems .... but this will only be a temporary solution.