What happened to the Magnicidio conspiracy?

By this blog’s count, July 3 was the last day an important government official mentioned the plot to kill president Maduro. Since then, conspiracy claims by the Venezuelan government have focused on the Economic War, and more specifically on the supposed links between the opposition and “smuggling mafias.”

Claims by the government that the opposition and the Empire were plotting to kill the President have been recurrent since Chávez. Last year the end of July saw a surge of magnicidio plots claims by government officials and public media. Almost daily revelations of details of a plot to kill Maduro continued during September, but then faded and by October 2013 gave way to a change of focus on the Economic War.

I expect the stories of magnicidio plots to come up again in the next few months; perhaps if street protests flare up again, or the “anti-smuggling crusade” runs out of steam...

In the meantime, here is a translation of a remarkable press note published by Telesur  in its Web page back in 28 May this year. It presents a “timeline” form of the magnicidio plot to kill Maduro, from May 2013 to May 2014.

Especially noteworthy is how the report is framed in the first paragraph: the “extreme Right” has seen its plans fail and therefore it has little option but to resort to a magnicidio. Since it covers up to May, it does not include the June and July story, but it ends with a foreboding “Latent conspiracy” entry.

The glossary presented at the end, serving as “historical context” for the note, is also very interesting. The author of the article felt the need to include, not only terms strictly related to the magnicidio narrative, but also other issues and people mentioned in other government conspiracy theories, such as the “Fiesta Mexicana”, Vicente Fox, Leopoldo López, and even the Aviador. Old stories, such as the paracachitos of 2004, are also included as the first signs of subversive plots.

In all, the article is a very complete report on the magnicidio story from the government’s perspective.

Historical timeline: The magnicidio plan against Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela

May 28, 2014

Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro has been the focus of magnicidio conspiracies since he took power. The extreme Right –both national and international- has realized the total failure of its interventionist and disruptive plans against the Bolivarian Revolution, therefore attempting to kill the head of State is the only option left for them.

2013

Uribe implicated: May 3. President Nicolás Maduro announced that he has information about magnicidio plans against him, and directly blamed the rightist Colombian ex-president Álvaro Uribe. He also pointed to Roger Noriega and Otto Reich as part of the plan from Miami.

Paramilitaries: July 10. Venezuela’s Interior minister, Miguel Rodríguez Torres, informed that according to investigations, the two Colombian paramilitary groups that had been arrested the week before had plans to try to kill Maduro.

More implicated: July 31. Diosdado Cabello informed that businessman Eduardo Macaya Álvarez, the terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, and Álvaro Uribe are some of the persons that are plotting magnicidio plans against Nicolás Maduro. Rodríguez Torres also informed that the first meetings of the conspirators were in Miami and Bogota in April. Uribe, the de facto ex-president of Honduras Roberto Micheletti, an envoy of Posada Carriles, a Colombian active armed forces officer, and a CIA officer, participated in those meetings.

Sicarios: August 26. Two Colombian nationals–Victor Joan Gueche Mosquera and Erick Leonardo Huerta Rios- are detained on August 15 near Caracas carrying orders to assassinate Maduro, or if that were not possible, assassinate the president of Parliament (Diosdado Cabello). The name of the operation was “Carpeta Amarilla”.

Officers expelled: September 30. Maduro orders the expulsion of three officers from the US embassy –Elizabeth Hundeland, David Mutt, and Kelly Kaiderlinh- for their implication in destabilizing actions against the country.

New arrests: December 20. The Colombian police arrests Alejandro Caicedo Alfonso, alias “Scooby” in Antioquia (Colombia). He stands accused of participation in a plot to assassinate Nicolás maduro and Diosdado Cabello in August 2013.

2014

Generals Implicated: March 25. Maduro announces the arrest of three Air Force generals, allied to the Venezuelan extreme right, who were planning to execute a coup d’état against his government.

Latent conspiracy: May 28. Mayor of Libertador municipality Jorge Rodríguez presented evidence of a plan to assassinate Maduro and other high executive officials. The plot includes Venezuelan opposition members and business people with the support of the US Department of State and the Ambassador of the US in Colombia.

Historical context:

Plan País: a plan by Humberto Prado (director of the NGO Observatorio de Prisiones) to destabilize the country from prison facilities.

Foreign groups: NED, Freedom House, Canvas, AEI, and OTPER, all finance destabilization plans.

Fiesta Mexicana: A meeting of extremist organizations: JAVU (Juventud Activa Venezuela Unida), Movimiento 13, and element s of Voluntad Poplar, including the ex-mayor of Táchira [sic] Daniel Ceballos.

Leopoldo López: Chosen as leader to unite the opposition.

Vicente Fox: Photographs link rightist leaders with the ex-president of México, Vicente Fox. Gustavo Tovar Arrollo, a Venezuelan lawyer that is seen in the pictures, also has links to Uribe.

Tew Cardenas Law Firm: Has a team linked to the US extreme right, works or the Republican Party, and give legal counseling to extremists.

Daktari Camp (2004): Was a magnicidio plan that included 100 paramilitaries. It was one of the first signals of subversive actions.

JAVU Camp (2012): The purpose of the camp was to topple the Chavez government. They were trying to stage a second coup d’état to weaken Chávez in the presidential elections of that year.

Funding: The authorities have seized envelopes with money to finance the so called “guarimbas”. The money is to pay violent protestors to destabilize the country under the leadership of “El Aviador”.