Venezuela: Spanish terrorist claims rejected

Issue 

Spanish judge Eloy Velasco accused the Venezuelan government of socialist President Hugo Chavez of supporting armed pro-self-determination Basque organisation ETA on March 8.

The March 9 Ulitimo Noticias said the Spanish government of President Jose Rodriguez Zapateros backed the judge's allegation and raised the issue formally via Spain's Caracas embassy.

Rejecting the allegation, Venezuelan foreign minister Nicolas Maduro said that Velasco is linked to "the mafia" of the former right-wing Popular Party government of Jose Maria Aznar.

"He is a judge who has worked for the Popular Party, the party of the right-wing, which has sectors from the ultra-right."

Maduro said elements of the PP were directly linked to the Franco dictatorship, which ended in 1975. "They are the direct descendants of Francoism."

PP European Parliament deputy Carlos Iturgaiz also accused Chavez of "complicity with the terrorists, who gives cover on Venezuelan soil to those terrorists, who helps the terrorists by giving them government posts.

"Definitely, Chavez is a collaborator of the criminals of ETA."

No evidence to back up these accusations has been given. It is widely considered in Venezuela to be part of a campaign by powerful governments in the West to undermine the left-wing Chavez government.

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