Subscribe to our BlogGoing from Bad to Worse for Hugo Chavez
By William Tucker
Terrorism experts have long lamented the support for terrorism provided by the Chavez regime in Venezuela and the lack of condemnation from the United States. Earlier this week a Spanish Judge accused Venezuela of actively supporting the Basque separatist group ETA. This is, of course, in addition to accusations of supporting FARC in Colombia, which was verified by Interpol, and support for Lebanon's Hezbollah. Furthermore, a Venezuela defector, who also happened to be Chavez's personal pilot, fingered Caracas for supporting al-Qaeda and the Taliban in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
International pressure on Chavez for supporting terrorist groups has been virtually nonexistent, but another opportunity has arisen to persuade Caracas to step away from supporting non-state actors. In an earlier post, Another Test for Hugo Chavez, I discussed the situation Venezuela was facing with its failing ability to generate electrical power. Since that writing things have degraded significantly. The Guri dam, which supplies approximately 63 percent of Venezuela's power, has had its water level drop to the breaking point. If the water level continues to drop Venezuela could lose about 40 percent of its power - and that's just the beginning.
Venezuela does have a short term solution to its electricity problem, but it will come at a stiff political price and will be an uncomfortable pill for Chavez to swallow. Colombia, which is usually bear's the brunt of Venezuela's terror support, has offered to supply Venezuela with enough power to fill some of the void left by Guri dam. While we may not know everything that Colombia will ask for in return for supplying power we can be sure Bogotá will bring up the FARC issue. Now that the Spanish are involved the pressure on Chavez will only increase which could provide an opening for other nations that are concerned with Venezuela's activities.
Video credit: NTDTV
