Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez secretly is using a Latin American terrorist group whose members have teamed up with notorious drug lords in Mexico to try to raise the threat level against the United States, according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
Chavez is close to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia), a far-left terrorist group that has worked with Mexican drug cartels to attack Mexican officials in a campaign of general destabilization of the region.
In turn, the drug lords are using Mexico as a base from which to mount offensive operations along the U.S.-Mexican border and in large U.S. cities.
(Story continues below)
FARC seeks to overthrow the democratically elected Colombian government, which Chavez also opposes. The U.S. State Department has designated FARC as a foreign terrorist organization.
The late FARC leader Raul Reyes, who was its second-in-command until he was killed in 2008, had confirmed in a letter to his commanders FARC's relationship with Mexican drug lords. He also confirmed FARC's relationship with Chavez.
"We have rid ourselves of several burdens and shored up our policy vis-à-vis President Chavez," Reyes said in a February 2008 address to the FARC secretariat.
Security analysts say Chavez sees FARC as a tool to hit back at the U.S. without any direct fingers being pointed at him. Washington is very aware of Chavez's relationship to FARC. Analysts do not believe, however, that the terrorist organization has any intention of mounting attacks directly on targets in the U.S., although they cannot be ruled out.
