Sizing up the Venezuela threat

U.S. General Douglas Fraser yesterday backed up President Barack Obama’s assertion that Venezuela does not represent a threat to U.S. security. The Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, criticized Obama’s declaration, so Fraser’s phone call to the Associated Press was well-timed.

General Fraser (USAF) has consistently downplayed the Venezuela threat, even as many in Congress and the media have grown increasingly alarmed at what they see from Hugo Chávez’s hostile regime.

Under Fraser, Southern Command has focused on the narcotrafficking and organized crime in Latin America.

Here’s the problem.

Hugo Chávez has converted Venezuela into the greatest narcotrafficking, terrorism, and organized crime threat in the Americas. His minister of defense is among a dozen Venezuelan officials who have been sanctioned for their involvement in narcoterrorism. His military is not only compliant with the illicit drug trade, it is complicit with Colombian and Mexican crime syndicates.

Chávez has made Venezuela one of Iran’s most important allies. He has provided material and logistical support to Middle Eastern and Colombia terrorists, provides oil to Syria, and extends Iran the means to launder billions of dollars to support its illegal nuclear program. If terrorism, Syria, and Iran are threats, than so too is Venezuela.

Venezuela’s arms build up – at least $10 billion in Russian arms purchases – and production of assault rifles and ammunition gives it the means to sow mayhem in the country and beyond. Such conventional weaponry may not pose a threat to the United States, but it can be used as Chávez’s asymmetrical strategy to harm U.S. security and interests.

Such a threat requires an asymmetrical response. Fortunately, several U.S. law enforcement agencies have taken the lead in targeting the links in the narcoterrorist networks in Venezuela. As for General Fraser, he is set to retire this fall; he will be replaced by a Marine Corps general who will have to start from scratch in sizing up the Venezuela threat.

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Friday, August 3, 2012