ON July 1, Posada Carriles’ buddy, Salvadoran Francisco Antonio Chávez Abarca, believing himself anointed with the greatest impunity in the world, attempted to enter Venezuela via Maiquetía airport. The prophecy: "It doesn’t matter if imperialism rises at dawn if the Revolution doesn’t sleep," was fulfilled there and then with his arrest by the Bolivarian authorities.

Barely six days later, the Salvadoran "Jackal" on INTERPOL’s most wanted list was extradited to Cuba, where he is to face charges for being one of the authors of a chain of bombings that occurred in hotels in Havana and Varadero in 1997.

In an example of what any government should do in terms of complying with international law, the Bolivarian Revolution immediately handed the terrorist over to the Cuban authorities, despite the fact that Chávez Abarca confessed that he had gone to Venezuela with the express purpose of conspiring to undermine the legislative elections of September 26 this year.

There is no doubt that, fearing the electoral results would go against them, the Venezuelan opposition and its sponsors in the U.S. government have once again turned to the worst of the terrorist fauna spawned by the Cuban-American mafia. These are desperate attempts that can only lead to the depths of the abyss in the failed undertaking to defeat the Bolivarian process and eliminate its maximum leader, President Hugo Chávez.

They have not learned any lessons since February 2, 1999, when Chávez assumed the leadership of Venezuela in the midst of the majority popular support of Venezuelans, who have consistently re-legitimated his mandates and given the victory to representatives of the revolutionary process at the polls.

As analysts and political observers have noted, the September 26 elections are not just another plebiscite of the Revolution, but contain the real possibility that the opposition will once again have to face the orphan status of its followers of the last 12 years, despite the million-dollar material and logistic support from various administrative departments of the United States and from certain European ones, not to mention the force of the media, which has become Venezuela’s central opposition party.

Undermining the September legislative elections has become the only means of survival for the Venezuelan opposition and extends to assassination attempts, the motive for utilizing Abarca to "study" the national scenario and instigate acts of conspiracy. Chávez Abarca himself made those revelations to the Venezuelan authorities, as circulated on the Venezolana de Televisión (VTV) website.

According to this source, the terrorist confessed that he had been hired to engage in acts of destabilization and that his contact was Guatemalan Daniel Barrundia, a man linked to the Mafiosi Cuban-American Foundation based in Miami.

The VTV website reports that Chávez Abarca admitted that "he received coded instructions via email mentioning the El Caney del Chivo restaurant located close to Maiquetía’s Simón Bolívar International Airport, specifically in Catia la Mar (north of Caracas), where he was to meet with three people, two of them Venezuelan, to initiate the destabilization plot."

One of the emails found in Chávez Abarca’s mailbox, adds VTV, says: "Tell the girl to bring driving license photos so that she can get to know the University quick" – referring to Venezuela – "because things are really difficult here," and the idea was to "plot chaos."

Finally, according to VTV, the terrorist assured his interrogators that "the people contracting these actions against the Venezuelan government were prepared to do what was necessary to achieve their mission."

The desperation of the Venezuelan opposition and, above all, of the most right-wing sectors of the U.S. government, has its basis and repercussions.

A recent report from German researcher Susanne Gratius of the Madrid-based FRIDE Foundation reveals: "The Venezuelan opposition is highly fragmented and divided into more than 30 political parties." At the same time, it admits: "Some opposition political parties are still identified with the Caracazo and the collapse of ‘puntofijismo’ and their credibility is very low in relation to social issues." It adds that, "despite progress toward a common strategy (the Unity Table), the opposition parties are divided into more than 30 groups and have not been able to define a common platform in order to achieve favorable electoral results."

Susanne Gratius is also a member of the Science and Policy Foundation, a public think tank that advises the German government, and its "fields of research" include, in addition to the Venezuela issue, "the fostering of democracy and processes of transformation in Cuba."

Her report was published on the Patria Grande publication’s website, detailing all the organizations, foundations and movements which, under the umbrella of U.S. capital, are dedicated to the destabilization of all governments that are not close allies of the empire.

And, if that was not enough, the war front is being maintained and extended to the use of military interference to strike the final blow when the moment comes. It was not enough for the empire to convert Colombia into a huge U.S. military base ready to do all the dirty work and provoke new tensions with its troops the shared border with Venezuela and Ecuador, actions rejected by the majority of governments in the region.

And now they want to corral Venezuela from the Central American flank. They have removed the democratic and popular government of José Manuel Zelaya in Honduras and are now asking more favors from the genuflecting government of Costa Rica, which has inherited the servility of Oscar Arias.

This "favorite" is part of the repercussions of this interference and conspiracy against the Bolivarian Revolution.

An exposé recently circulated by Costa Rica’s Socialist Revolution League states: "in the evening of 29/6 the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly approved the entry into the country’s territorial waters of 46 U.S. warships with a transport capacity for 200 military helicopters. Together with this arsenal, 7,000 U.S. soldiers have been granted permission to ‘enjoy freedom of movement and the right to carry out any activities that they consider necessary for undertaking their mission,’ with the excuse of combating drug trafficking, offering humanitarian support and ‘building schools.’"

One does not have to be an expert on international politics to realize that those actions in Costa Rica are part of U.S. military strategy in the region, the objective of which is to restore its lost hegemony on the continent and crush the national liberation processes which are being so successfully developed in various countries of the area.

Latin America has already suffered from Plan Colombia and Plan Mérida, via which not only is the regional scenario being militarized but protest, social movements and all human rights and civil organizations opposing them are being criminalized. Both Plan Colombia and Plan Mérida serve as a screen for the U.S. rescue of its "backyard" under a systematic campaign of fighting drug trafficking while maintaining campaigns of defamation against Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and other nations defending their sovereignty and abundant natural resources, which they are after like hunting dogs.

According to the Costa Rica Socialist League, the new government of Laura Chinchilla is facilitating imperialism a new possession in the region, where it can open up another flank for penetrating South America, fundamentally Venezuela.

Costa Rican press sources are saying that the majority of the warships are "frigates of 135 meters in length, with a transport capacity for two SH-60 helicopter gunships or HH-60B Blackhawks, in addition to 200 marines and 15 officers in each one."

They add: "Other ships and aircraft carriers, like the USS Makin Island, have the capacity to transport 102 officers and almost 1,500 troops, and are intensive-combat gunboats. They can transport 42 CH-46 helicopters, five combat aircraft, five heavy combat AV-8B Harriers and six Blackhawk helicopters, without needing authorization for hunter submarines, catamarans, a naval hospital, and land and sea reconnaissance and combat vehicles."

In order to achieve its objective, the United States has used media backup constantly reiterating the presence in that Central American country of capos and representatives of the drug cartels and, on that assumption, has secured the consent of the Costa Rican authorities to convert the country into a new yanki aircraft carrier against its sister nations in the region.

Meanwhile, the strength of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela is continuing its work of informing the people of the importance of the Bolivarian forces winning a majority in the September 26 elections. Achieving that would contribute to creating a more profound Revolution and socialism in Venezuela and would also be the guarantee and containing wall against yanki pretensions to re-colonize the region. •

ACTS OF TERRORISM AGAINST CUBA

• April 2, 1997. Chávez Abarca planted an explosive device that resulted in serious damage to the Meliá Cohíba Hotel’s Aché nightclub in Havana. The bomb contained C-4 explosive, a favorite of the CIA. He also planted another device on the 15th floor of the hotel.

• April 30, 1997. He is suspected of planting an explosive device in the Mexican offices of the island’s Cubanacán tourism agency.

• He is an expert in making and handling explosive charges, a sniper and terrorist.

• His criminal record dates back to the 90s, when he was involved in drug trafficking and the sale of arms and counterfeit money in Guatemala and El Salvador. During that period he was recruited by the notorious terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, and became his right-hand man in the 1997-8 anti-Cuba terror campaign, given that he is the son of Posada’s old drug trafficking partner, Antonio Chávez Díaz.

• On a second trip to Cuba he planned the third attack, this time accompanied by Raúl Cruz León, a Salvadoran criminal whom he had known since 1995. He recruited and trained him. On July 12, 1997, four people were injured by bombs placed in Havana’s Capri and Nacional Hotels by Cruz León.

• On September 4, during the third trip to Cuba, Raúl Cruz León was responsible for the attack on the Copacabana Hotel which resulted in the death of Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo. Cruz Leon is serving a prison term in Cuba for those crimes.

• Chávez Abarca is also known by the aliases and pseudonyms "El gordito", "El panzón", Manuel González, Roberto Solorzano and William González.