AuGmENTor
07-15-2006, 08:11 AM
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Venezuela rebuffs U.S. requests for information on terror suspects
By Pablo Bachelet
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Stepping up complaints that Venezuela isn't cooperating in the war on terrorism, U.S. government officials say the country has provided no substantive response to about 130 written requests for information on terrorism suspects over the past three years.
In addition, socialist President Hugo Chavez's government has turned down 20 written requests by the U.S. Embassy in Caracas for interviews with senior Venezuelan counterterrorism authorities - without explanation, the U.S. officials said.
The refusals are fueling concerns that Venezuela, ruled by a president who's condemned the Bush administration while maintaining close ties with countries such as Cuba and Iran, is becoming a dangerous blind spot in international counterterrorism efforts.
"Unfortunately, today in Venezuela we see a regime that is increasingly out of step with the world," Frank Urbancic, the State Department's principal deputy coordinator for counterterrorism, told a hearing Thursday of the House Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation. He called Venezuela a liability in the fight against terrorism.
Charles Shapiro, another State Department official, told the panel that over the past three years the U.S. Embassy in Caracas had "submitted roughly 130 written requests for different types of biographical and immigration-related information on potential terror suspects."
Shapiro later told McClatchy Newspapers that just in the past year the embassy had asked for information on Middle Eastern and Chinese individuals suspected of smuggling foreigners into the United States "who could be trying to enter . . . for terrorist purposes."
"To date, they (U.S. Embassy officials) have not received one single substantive response," he said.
Shapiro, who was ambassador to Venezuela from 2002 to 2004, said some information requests had been submitted multiple times. They involve information on banking and telephone activities as well as entry and exit data from Venezuelan immigration authorities.
Most countries readily provide such data, but in Venezuela the few cooperative officials have been transferred, demoted or even fired, U.S. officials say. Relations have become so bad that the U.S. Embassy has resorted to the unusual step of submitting the requests in writing.
Venezuela's ambassador in Washington, Bernardo Alvarez, said the Foreign Ministry, the Interior Ministry and the police had never received such formal requests. "We have not received any note of any type," he told McClatchy Newspapers.
Venezuelan officials have long cited their own grievances against Washington, including its apparent reluctance to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, an anti-Castro activist who's accused of blowing up a Cuban airliner in 1976, killing all 73 on board.
In May, the Bush administration banned all weapons sales to Venezuela after designating the country as "not cooperating fully" with U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, one step below the designation of state sponsor of terrorism, which applies to countries such as Iran, Syria and Cuba.
Chavez has been a sharp critic of the United States, accusing President Bush of supporting a failed 2002 coup against him and even of plotting to invade Venezuela, both charges that Washington denies. But until 2004, the two governments quietly collaborated on most law enforcement issues, Shapiro said.
For instance, from 2002 to 2003, officials from the Superintendency of Banks, the Venezuelan government bank-watchdog agency, responded to all 19 information requests that the U.S. Embassy presented, Shapiro said.
But relations turned sour after a 2004 leadership change in the agency, he said. A Venezuelan prosecutor even asked for copies of all formal exchanges between the embassy and the agency, and U.S. officials think that agency officials may have come under investigation for their relationship with the embassy. The mission has since stopped submitting requests to the agency.
Venezuelan law-enforcement and ministry officials who've been designated as official liaisons with the U.S. government have become reluctant to share information because those who do often are fired or transferred, Shapiro said. One Interpol contact who provided information on fugitives was demoted and transferred, and another was forced into early retirement.
In contrast, the Venezuelans routinely receive data they ask for, such as U.S. business verifications and information on stolen vehicles, Shapiro added.
Ambassador Alvarez told a Caracas radio station Thursday that the U.S. government has been stepping up its criticism of the Chavez government to undermine its campaign to win a seat on the U.N. Security Council.
Urbancic said Thursday that "the negative impact of Venezuela's behavior would be amplified if it wins a nonpermanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, where it would have a voice in various subcommittees on terrorism."
Venezuela rebuffs U.S. requests for information on terror suspects
By Pablo Bachelet
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Stepping up complaints that Venezuela isn't cooperating in the war on terrorism, U.S. government officials say the country has provided no substantive response to about 130 written requests for information on terrorism suspects over the past three years.
In addition, socialist President Hugo Chavez's government has turned down 20 written requests by the U.S. Embassy in Caracas for interviews with senior Venezuelan counterterrorism authorities - without explanation, the U.S. officials said.
The refusals are fueling concerns that Venezuela, ruled by a president who's condemned the Bush administration while maintaining close ties with countries such as Cuba and Iran, is becoming a dangerous blind spot in international counterterrorism efforts.
"Unfortunately, today in Venezuela we see a regime that is increasingly out of step with the world," Frank Urbancic, the State Department's principal deputy coordinator for counterterrorism, told a hearing Thursday of the House Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation. He called Venezuela a liability in the fight against terrorism.
Charles Shapiro, another State Department official, told the panel that over the past three years the U.S. Embassy in Caracas had "submitted roughly 130 written requests for different types of biographical and immigration-related information on potential terror suspects."
Shapiro later told McClatchy Newspapers that just in the past year the embassy had asked for information on Middle Eastern and Chinese individuals suspected of smuggling foreigners into the United States "who could be trying to enter . . . for terrorist purposes."
"To date, they (U.S. Embassy officials) have not received one single substantive response," he said.
Shapiro, who was ambassador to Venezuela from 2002 to 2004, said some information requests had been submitted multiple times. They involve information on banking and telephone activities as well as entry and exit data from Venezuelan immigration authorities.
Most countries readily provide such data, but in Venezuela the few cooperative officials have been transferred, demoted or even fired, U.S. officials say. Relations have become so bad that the U.S. Embassy has resorted to the unusual step of submitting the requests in writing.
Venezuela's ambassador in Washington, Bernardo Alvarez, said the Foreign Ministry, the Interior Ministry and the police had never received such formal requests. "We have not received any note of any type," he told McClatchy Newspapers.
Venezuelan officials have long cited their own grievances against Washington, including its apparent reluctance to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, an anti-Castro activist who's accused of blowing up a Cuban airliner in 1976, killing all 73 on board.
In May, the Bush administration banned all weapons sales to Venezuela after designating the country as "not cooperating fully" with U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, one step below the designation of state sponsor of terrorism, which applies to countries such as Iran, Syria and Cuba.
Chavez has been a sharp critic of the United States, accusing President Bush of supporting a failed 2002 coup against him and even of plotting to invade Venezuela, both charges that Washington denies. But until 2004, the two governments quietly collaborated on most law enforcement issues, Shapiro said.
For instance, from 2002 to 2003, officials from the Superintendency of Banks, the Venezuelan government bank-watchdog agency, responded to all 19 information requests that the U.S. Embassy presented, Shapiro said.
But relations turned sour after a 2004 leadership change in the agency, he said. A Venezuelan prosecutor even asked for copies of all formal exchanges between the embassy and the agency, and U.S. officials think that agency officials may have come under investigation for their relationship with the embassy. The mission has since stopped submitting requests to the agency.
Venezuelan law-enforcement and ministry officials who've been designated as official liaisons with the U.S. government have become reluctant to share information because those who do often are fired or transferred, Shapiro said. One Interpol contact who provided information on fugitives was demoted and transferred, and another was forced into early retirement.
In contrast, the Venezuelans routinely receive data they ask for, such as U.S. business verifications and information on stolen vehicles, Shapiro added.
Ambassador Alvarez told a Caracas radio station Thursday that the U.S. government has been stepping up its criticism of the Chavez government to undermine its campaign to win a seat on the U.N. Security Council.
Urbancic said Thursday that "the negative impact of Venezuela's behavior would be amplified if it wins a nonpermanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, where it would have a voice in various subcommittees on terrorism."