Hugo Chavez Accused of Ties to Terrorists

Newsmax: Venezuela has sheltered groups with ties to Middle East terrorists and allows its weapons to reach Colombian guerrillas, a senior U.S. official said.

Those are among the reasons why the Bush administration announced on Monday that it banned Venezuela from purchasing U.S. weapons, saying it has failed to fully cooperate on counterterrorism, Thomas A. Shannon, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, told editors and reporters at The Washington Times.

"Cuban intelligence has effectively cloned itself inside Venezuelan intelligence to the point that [our] ability to cooperate and have a relationship with Venezuela on the intelligence side is very difficult," Shannon said. "We are worried about the kind of relationship [Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez] wants to have with Iran on the intelligence side," he added.

Shannon also expressed concern about "groups and individuals" in Venezuela with "links to terrorist organizations in the Middle East."

U.S. military officials have noted the presence in Latin America of groups linked to Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based terrorist organization, according to the Times.

In addition, Shannon said, members of Colombian guerrilla groups like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army have "moved with a certain amount of ease" in parts of Venezuela.

"Over time, we've seen what appears to be a more structured relationship," he said. "There appears to be more movement of weapons across the frontier into Colombia, and some of it comes from official Venezuelan stockpiles, and it almost certainly involves the participation of Venezuelan officials, either corrupted or not."