Yesterday's news headlined Spanish judge accuses Venezuela of supporting ETA and FARC -- published in the vast majority of the Venezuelan and Spanish neo-liberal media -- is nothing more than an impressive though well-planned media drive against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
In the legal proceedings, the judge declared, that illegal collaboration between the Venezuelan government and both groups has been clearly documented. Apparently he gleaned the "information" from what was found in the Raul Reyes laptop and refers to ETA member, Arturo Cubillas Fontan who resides in Venezuela and was given a position in "public administration" as head of a Agriculture & Lands (MAT) rural office in 2005.
Why all this media manipulation being directed against Chavez?
Any Spaniard knows that under an agreement signed in 1989 by Felipe Gonzalez for the Spanish Government and then Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez, Venezuela accepted several alleged ETA members into political exile. Perez' political organization, the conservative Accion Democratica, is today a major participant in Venezuela'd political opposition in cahoots with Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol ... currently in the Spanish Government. The agreement stated that any of those deported to Venezuela were not to be extradited, if according to the two countries laws their alleged crimes were subject to the Statute of Limitations ... which they are!
Arturo Cubillas Fontan has resided in Venezuela since the agreement was enacted in 1989. Twelve months after arriving to 'safe haven' in Venezuela, he was married to a Venezuelan woman and could therefore claim legal Venezuelan citizenship since he had no criminal history and was not sought by the national court of Spain. He became a Venezuelan national before President Chavez came to power, although (in 2006) the nationality was reversed by order of the Chavez government at the request of Spain.
The minor employment that Arturo Cubillas Fontan had had in the Venezuelan administration simply shows that the Venezuelan government's acted in full accord with the 1989 agreement -- which was promoted by both Felipe Gonzalez and Carlos Andres Perez -- to also guarantee constitutional rights to all nationalized Venezuelans.
To back up my assertion with regard to media manipulation, I must remind VHeadline readers that Judge Velazco already knows that the Spanish Parliament previously approved legal limitations on international judicial action by Spain other than where there are Spanish victims, or where the perpetrators are subject to national (Spanish) jurisdiction ... neither of which apply to Cubillas Fontan.
Carlos M. Pietri
carlos@vheadline.com
