American arrested in Venezuela for involvement in destabilization plot ala Libya

[mavs>spurs]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_VENEZUELA_US_DETAINED_AMERICAN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-09-20-46-08


CHAVEZ: AMERICAN MAN DETAINED IN VENEZUELA
BY CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER
ASSOCIATED PRESS


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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez announced Thursday that Venezuelan security forces have arrested a U.S. citizen and suspect he is a mercenary who could be involved in an alleged plot to destabilize the country if the opposition's candidate loses the upcoming presidential election.

Chavez said the Hispanic man was detained Aug. 4 while crossing into Venezuela from Colombia. The president said the man was carrying a U.S. passport with entrance and exit stamps from countries including Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya as well as a notebook containing geographical coordinates.

The man's identity was not released. Chavez did not say where he was being interrogated.

An official from the U.S. Embassy in Caracas did not answer repeated telephone calls seeking comment on Chavez's announcement.

"He has all the appearance of a mercenary," Chavez said, speaking during a campaign rally in the coastal state of Vargas. "We are interrogating him."

The man tore up part of the notebook in his possession when he was detained, Chavez said.

Chavez suggested, without offering evidence, the American might have been recruited by government opponents to instigate violent protests if opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles loses the Oct. 7 election. Chavez has repeatedly vowed to win re-election and continue trying to steer Venezuela toward socialism.

The president has repeatedly claimed the opposition plans to accuse election officials of rigging the vote and refuse to accept the results if he is victorious - an allegation that Capriles and fellow opposition leaders deny.

"A group of the bourgeoisie is preparing to reject the people's triumph, that's very clear," Chavez told the crowd of cheering supporters.

Opposition leaders are going "to try to plunge the country into a political crisis and fill the country with violence," Chavez warned. "I urge everybody to be very alert."

Anti-Chavez politicians also reject the president's allegations they are trying to stir up trouble by campaigning in areas that have been bastions of support for Chavez or conspiring with U.S. officials to provoke upheaval if Capriles fails to defeat the incumbent in his bid for a fresh six-year term in presidency.

[ElNono]

Call me skeptic... Not that the US hasn't done shit like that before, but Chavez loves to use allegations like this to rile up their people.

Frankly, the guy has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, so all the US needs to do is wait.

[Wild Cobra]

Call me skeptic... Not that the US hasn't done shit like that before, but Chavez loves to use allegations like this to rile up their people.

Frankly, the guy has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, so all the US needs to do is wait.
I'm completely with you on that thought.

[mavs>spurs]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/10/us-venezuela-usa-idUSBRE8790WH20120810


(Reuters) - An American arrested in Venezuela while entering illegally from Colombia is a former U.S. Marine and is refusing to explain himself under interrogation, President Hugo Chavez said on Friday.

The United States is expressing skepticism over the latest incident between the two ideologically opposed nations, but says its diplomats should be given access to the man if Chavez's statements are true.

The socialist Chavez is running for re-election at an October 7 vote and has been frequently invoking the possibility of violent actions by Venezuela's opposition with U.S. blessing.

"I'm struck by the fact that just a few weeks before the election, this has happened," he said, giving the latest details about the unnamed man in Venezuelan custody.

Opponents say Chavez, like Cuba's Castro brothers, likes to play up the idea of an external threat to bolster his own standing at home. His predictions of violence are, they say, particularly cynical given his own history of a failed military coup against then-President Carlos Andres Perez in 1992.

Venezuela says the American, of Hispanic origin, was arrested earlier this month crossing into Venezuela from Colombia with a notebook full of geographic coordinates that he tried to destroy.

RESISTING INTERROGATION

Having originally said the man appeared to be a mercenary, Chavez added on Friday that he was largely resisting questioning by security forces though he had acknowledged being a Marine.

"He has military background, he confessed to being a Marine ... to having served in the Marines," Chavez said in brief remarks to journalists, adding that nothing had been proved against the man yet.

"He refused to give information."

An official at the U.S. Embassy said it still had no official information about the supposed arrest.

"We have not been notified by the government of Venezuela about the arrest of this alleged U.S. citizen," said the official, who was not authorized to give his name.

"If in fact Venezuela has detained a U.S. citizen, we are confident that Venezuela will uphold its obligations under the Vienna convention on consular relations and grant U.S. consular office access to any detained U.S. citizen without delay."

According to Chavez, the arrested man's passport shows he has traveled extensively in the Middle East and Asia - Iraq in 2006, Afghanistan various times around 2004, and Jordan in 2007.

"We are not making anything up," he said in response to Washington's doubts.

Chavez is the United States' principal irritant in the region, and U.S. President Barack Obama's government would undoubtedly be pleased should he lose the election in October.

Chavez, though, is looking like a winner.

Back on the campaign trail after two bouts with cancer in a year, the president is leading his opponent, former state governor Henrique Capriles, by double digits in most polls.

Chavez's nearly 14-year-rule of South America's top oil exporter has been punctuated by diplomatic spats with the United States. His fierce "anti-imperialist" rhetoric has played well with his power-base among Venezuela's poor majority, and made him one of the world's most controversial leaders.