Bolivarian Tentacles

Is Chavez seeking to light up the revolutionary flame around Latin America?

Colombia firmly believes so, and keeps blowing its trumpet about the laptop found in the Ecuadorian jungle that they say proves how the FARC's tentacles are entertwined with that of Chavez'. Now Peru claims Venezuela is scheming within its territory and
is even awakening the once dorment terrorist Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), which the government adds is reinventing itself through the CCB, the Continental Bolivarian Commitee - a group said also to have links with the FARC and found to have bases in several Latin American countries.

So paranoid is the Peruvian government that it is now on a campaign against all organisations that show solidarity towards a Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), which count to a total of about 110 groups in Peru alone. Special attention though is directed towards the "Casas del ALBA" or "ALBA centres", that openly show support for Chavez' regime, but have as yet only been involved in charity schemes to help the poor.

Opposition forces, as well as human rights movements, say what follows is a witch hunt on those who protest against neo-liberalist doctrines, in particular the country's new free market economic policies.

Next week, Peruvian Minister of defence Antero Flores Aráoz, who is at the heart of this investigation, claims he will proove that said organisations are receiving foreign financing from Venezuela. Of course Chavez has ridiculed all allegations.


Venezuelan embassy in Lima

Miami Herald, Andres Oppenheimer, places a further twist on the tale:

Peruvian officials say that Venezuela is funneling support for ALBA homes through Bolivia, Caracas' closest ally in the region.

Much of the support comes from a joint Venezuela-Cuba-Nicaragua embassy complex being completed in southern La Paz, Bolivia's capital, Peruvian officials say. The complex is also thought to house some Bolivian government offices.

The Peruvian officials believe the building, at 107-109 Costanerita Ave., in the Obraje neighborhood, has already become the headquarters for Chávez's revolutionary training and propaganda operations in the Andean region.

Among other things, the ''Bolivarian'' countries' regional headquarters has arranged for military training of young Indian people from southern Peru in Bolivia's military police academy, the officials say.

Asked about these reports, García said that he has heard about them, and that the La Paz-based embassy complex ``seems to be serving as a general Bolivarian headquarters.''

He added that there are indications that the Bolivarian headquarters may be supporting the ALBA homes in Peru, as part of a strategy to promote an Indian uprising in the region.

'There is talk that they want to create an `Aymara [Indian] nation', which would bring Bolivia, [southern] Peru and northern Chile together into one single nation,'' he said.