Posted on Sun, Dec. 04, 2005
ECUADOR
Report: Diplomat met with rebels
An Ecuadorean military intelligence report alleges that a Venezuelan embassy official met regularly with Ecuadorean insurgents.
BY STEVEN DUDLEY
sdudley@herald.com
ECUADOR
Report: Diplomat met with rebels
An Ecuadorean military intelligence report alleges that a Venezuelan embassy official met regularly with Ecuadorean insurgents.
BY STEVEN DUDLEY
sdudley@herald.com
QUITO - A Venezuelan diplomat in Quito arranged to send members of a fledgling Ecuadorean rebel group for guerrilla training in Venezuela, two Ecuadorean military reports say.
The reports, obtained by The Herald, added that the diplomat, political attaché Gustavo Bastardo, advised the newborn Alfarist Liberation Army, known by its Spanish acronym as ELA, that the Cuban Embassy in Quito also could help.
Venezuela's embassy here and its Foreign Ministry in Caracas did not reply to Herald requests for comment.
But leftist President Hugo Chávez has denied prior allegations that his supporters provided guerrilla training in Venezuela for Ecuadorean and other Latin American radicals.
''Not one of those accusations has been proven . . . because they are absolutely false,'' Chávez declared in a speech last month, blaming the allegations on U.S. ``disinformation.''
But if the Ecuadorean intelligence reports prove true, they would bolster U.S. allegations that Chávez is trying to destabilize Latin America by aiding subversive groups in the region. In turn, Chávez has accused U.S. officials of plotting to topple him because of his opposition to U.S. policies.
Last month, reports by The Herald and the Quito newspaper El Comercio quoted a third Ecuadorean intelligence report as saying that three ELA members and 17 other Latin Americans underwent guerrilla training in Venezuela in April.
None of the three reports could be independently verified. But Ecuadorean military intelligence officers and a top government official confirmed that they were authentic products of the armed forces. They requested anonymity because they lacked permission to talk to the media.
According to the two Ecuadorean intelligence reports most recently obtained by The Herald, ELA members met with Bastardo three times to discuss traveling to Venezuela to undergo guerrilla training.
TRAINING BY ETA
One of them says that at a meeting at the embassy on Sept. 28, 2004, Bastardo told ELA militants that he had arranged for them to meet in Caracas with members of ETA, the violent Basque separatist group, who had ``specific instructions to coordinate the training that the Ecuadorean subversive group is looking for.''
The trip was supposed to occur in December during the ''Intellectual and Artists World Meeting,'' a Caracas gathering of leftist Latin American groups that included the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrillas, better known as FARC.
Bastardo told the ELA members to register at the forum as members of Ecuador's Agustín Cueva Cultural Center, according to the report. The cultural center's goal was described in forum materials as giving ``political instruction to Ecuadorean youth . . . taking into account the principal revolutionary thinkers embodied in historical figures like Bolívar, Alfaro, Ché.''
ELA draws its name from Eloy Alfaro, an Ecuadorean general and president who was assassinated in 1912. Andean independence hero Simón Bolívar is Chávez's icon, and Argentine-born Ernesto ''Ché'' Guevara was a hero of Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution.
One of them says that at a meeting at the embassy on Sept. 28, 2004, Bastardo told ELA militants that he had arranged for them to meet in Caracas with members of ETA, the violent Basque separatist group, who had ``specific instructions to coordinate the training that the Ecuadorean subversive group is looking for.''
The trip was supposed to occur in December during the ''Intellectual and Artists World Meeting,'' a Caracas gathering of leftist Latin American groups that included the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrillas, better known as FARC.
Bastardo told the ELA members to register at the forum as members of Ecuador's Agustín Cueva Cultural Center, according to the report. The cultural center's goal was described in forum materials as giving ``political instruction to Ecuadorean youth . . . taking into account the principal revolutionary thinkers embodied in historical figures like Bolívar, Alfaro, Ché.''
ELA draws its name from Eloy Alfaro, an Ecuadorean general and president who was assassinated in 1912. Andean independence hero Simón Bolívar is Chávez's icon, and Argentine-born Ernesto ''Ché'' Guevara was a hero of Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution.
CENTERS OF ASSISTANCE
The second Ecuadorean intelligence report says Bastardo met with ELA two more times in his embassy. On March 17, it says, ELA asked for money to launch a new magazine, but Bastardo told the Ecuadorans that they could also get assistance from others.
''For this work, there are three defined centers that push, assist, and direct this ideological process in Ecuador, which are: the Venezuelan embassy, the Cuban embassy, and the FARC,'' the report says Bastardo told the ELA members.
It's not known whether ELA in fact received help from either Cuba or the FARC. The Cuban Embassy in Quito did not reply to requests for comment.
On March 24, the report states, ELA and Bastardo met in the embassy again and talked about obtaining the funding to send four ELA members to Venezuela for ''training in urban guerrilla'' warfare in April.
The Ecuadorean government of President Alfredo Palacio has downplayed The Herald and El Comercio stories. Chávez has offered to help this country's economy by buying its bonds, providing it with cheap oil and building a refinery here. Bastardo was still assigned to the Venezuelan Embassy here as of early last month.
Chávez, a former army colonel who led a failed coup in 1992, was elected to the presidency in 1998 on a promise to launch a ''revolution'' to help the majority of Venezuelans who are poor despite the country's vast oil deposits.
The second Ecuadorean intelligence report says Bastardo met with ELA two more times in his embassy. On March 17, it says, ELA asked for money to launch a new magazine, but Bastardo told the Ecuadorans that they could also get assistance from others.
''For this work, there are three defined centers that push, assist, and direct this ideological process in Ecuador, which are: the Venezuelan embassy, the Cuban embassy, and the FARC,'' the report says Bastardo told the ELA members.
It's not known whether ELA in fact received help from either Cuba or the FARC. The Cuban Embassy in Quito did not reply to requests for comment.
On March 24, the report states, ELA and Bastardo met in the embassy again and talked about obtaining the funding to send four ELA members to Venezuela for ''training in urban guerrilla'' warfare in April.
The Ecuadorean government of President Alfredo Palacio has downplayed The Herald and El Comercio stories. Chávez has offered to help this country's economy by buying its bonds, providing it with cheap oil and building a refinery here. Bastardo was still assigned to the Venezuelan Embassy here as of early last month.
Chávez, a former army colonel who led a failed coup in 1992, was elected to the presidency in 1998 on a promise to launch a ''revolution'' to help the majority of Venezuelans who are poor despite the country's vast oil deposits.
AGAINST U.S. POLICY
Now flush with profits from high oil prices, he has begun to forge alliances with Latin American neighbors in a bid to create a regionwide bloc that would counterbalance U.S. policies in Latin America.
U.S. officials have privately accused him of financing radicals and some presidential candidates from Bolivia to Mexico, although so far, the only detailed allegations have come from the Ecuadorean intelligence reports.
Chávez ''has used his diplomatic delegation in coordination with the Cuban embassy, has strengthened incipient subversive movements with political-ideological training as well as financing,'' one of the reports says.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/13322868.htm
Now flush with profits from high oil prices, he has begun to forge alliances with Latin American neighbors in a bid to create a regionwide bloc that would counterbalance U.S. policies in Latin America.
U.S. officials have privately accused him of financing radicals and some presidential candidates from Bolivia to Mexico, although so far, the only detailed allegations have come from the Ecuadorean intelligence reports.
Chávez ''has used his diplomatic delegation in coordination with the Cuban embassy, has strengthened incipient subversive movements with political-ideological training as well as financing,'' one of the reports says.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/13322868.htm
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