|

Terrorist Accomplice Supports Venezuelan Opposition Candidate

Ricardo Koesling, the leader of opposition political party Piedra (“Rock” in English) who declared “we’ll use bullets, fists, kicks, everything we’ve got, to force the Chavistas out” and publicly reiterated his ongoing support for right-wing candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski, just happens to be the top Caraca sbased boss of Miami’s Cuban- American Mafia and the Venezuelan link in Luis Posada Carriles’ international terrorist network.

ricardo_koesling1209

The Rock Star

Koesling was absolutely hysterical last week after his party announced its break with Capriles Radonski, a decision made public by Piedra Secretary General Leonardo Chirinos.

Insisting that he continues to serve as the group’s lawyer and finance secretary, Koesling issued a rage-filled tirade during an interview on Radio Caracas, promising to “force out” Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez no matter what the results of this year’s presidential election.

Close to high-level officials in the government of President Jaime Lusinchi (1984- 89), Koesling helped Miami based terrorist Luis Posada Carriles escape from Venezuela’s San Juan de los Morros Prison in 1985. His links to Cuban-American terrorism, however, date back to the 1970’s.

On April 12, 2002, as part of the right-wing coup d’etat against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Koesling led an assault on the Cuban Embassy in Caracas. Koesling’s attack on the embassy was supported, on the ground, by Salvador Romani, now exiled in Miami with the complacency of the US State Department.

Another active participant in this act of terrorism against a country’s sovereign diplomatic mission (in this case Cuba’s) was none other than right-wing candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski – then mayor of the Caracas municipality of Baruta.

The international, Cuban- American terrorist network coordinated by Luis Posada Carriles includes Francisco Pimentel, an accomplice in the terrorist attacks across Havana in 1997, and Hermes Rojas, known to have tortured innocents alongside Posada while in El Salvador.

Among others visited by Koesling in Caracas is Henry Lopez Sisco, the most notorious torturer and assassin for Venezuela’s secret police (Disip) under former President Carlos Andres Perez (1974-79, 1989-93). Exiled in Costa Rica, the now elderly Sisco facilitated private meetings, in August 1975, between state agents of the Perez government and Manuel Contreras, then Chief of Pinochet’s secret police (DINA).

Another member of Koesling’s inner circle worth mentioning is coup-monger Alejandro Peña Exclusa, now head of the Latin American fascist organization UnoAmerica, a group backed by ex military officials tied to Operation Condor and other accomplices of terrorist attacks.

Two years ago, Peña Exclusa was found in possession of illegal explosives after admitted Salvadorian terrorist Francisco “El Panzon” Chavez Abarca confessed to Venezuelan authorities of plans to violently disrupt the 2010 parliamentary elections. No one should forget that Chavez Abarca’s confessions, after his arrest in Caracas, linked him directly to international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.

In 1997, Francisco Chavez Abarca was contracted by Posada, entered Cuba, and committed three bomb attacks aimed at putting a violent end to tourism on the island. While in Havana, he also organized a series of parallel bombings carried out by fellow Salvadorian Ernesto Cruz Leon, one of which, on September 14th, resulted in the death of Fabio di Celma, a young Italian tourist. Chavez Abarca, extradited to Cuba by Venezuelan authorities, later described how he recruited, trained, and sent a number of other mercenaries into Havana.

Koesling: “You Will All Burn Alive”

Speaking to Radio Caracas last week, Koesling declared, “Capriles is going to be President, and we’ll use bullets, fists, kicks, everything we’ve got, to force the Chavistas out”. He also called the decision by Piedra Secretary General Leonardo Chirinos “illegal” and accused Chirinos of “receiving $200,000 dollars to pull support” from the opposition candidate.

In an interview with Caracas daily CiudadCCS, Chirinos quickly denied Koesling’s claims, confirmed Piedra’s decision to withdraw its support for Capriles, and reminded readers that Koesling left the party on September 11, 2012, a decision made public in right-wing daily El Nacional that same day.

According to Chirinos, Koesling ordered his name be removed from the Piedra website and threatened to “burn all of us alive if we did not do what he asked”, words that are reflective of the violent nature of a veteran of imperial terror.

Mobster Troops of Capriles

Ever since the initial triumph of Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution (1998- present), the Miami-based mafia – which for decades executed CIA plans to destroy the Cuban Revolution – opened up its membership to a gang of Venezuelans that made opposing the Venezuelan President a business of its own.

These Venezuelans are now modeling themselves after what the Cuban- Americans have done since 1959, serving as accomplices of former Dictator Fulgencio Batista, receiving both open and discrete support of different US administrations.

Towards the end of February, 2009, at the request of Posada Carriles and Angel De Fana Serrano, a group of Miami-based terrorists and Cuban-American mobsters held a public meeting alongside Venezuelan coup-mongers including Patricia Poleo and exiled Venezuelan military officers.

De Fana, linked to the 1997 plot to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro during the Ibero-American Summit, was seated next to Patricia Poleo, wanted by Venezuelan authorities for her role in the cowardly killing of prosecutor Danilo Anderson. Next to them both was none other than former Venezuelan Colonel Gustavo Diaz, one of Pedro Carmona’s loyal soldiers during the short-lived 2002 coup against President Chavez.

Also present was National Guard Captain Javier Nieto Quintero, tied to the 2004 case of Colombian paramilitaries planning to assassinate President Chavez while dressed as members of the Venezuelan Armed Forces, and Lieutenant Jose Antonio Colina Pulido, responsible for the 2003 bombings of Spanish and Colombian diplomatic missions in Caracas. Another “soldier” present was former Disip Chief Joaquim Chaffardet, a fellow resident of Florida, found in 2009 to possess explosives as well as other materials linked to the 1976 downing of a Cuban airliner.

Miami is now home to numerous other Venezuelan delinquents, corrupt officials, and fugitives of justice including Guillermo Zuloaga, former head of news corporation Globovision, and Raul Diaz Peña, Colina Pulido’s fugitive accomplice. This brotherhood of criminals, with whom Koesling identifies, represents the current, not-so-desirable US-based support for opposition candidate Capriles Radonski.