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...Shapiro is no stranger to CIA-sponsored subversion and killings. His diplomatic career in the 1980s was centered in El Salvador. He first served as the State Department’s Salvadoran desk officer from 1983 to 1985, and then as the political consular at the US Embassy in San Salvador from 1985 to 1988. That position has commonly been used as a cover for the CIA’s chief of station in a given country.
This period spanned the height of the Salvadoran civil war and the wholesale massacres and assassinations carried out by the military-backed death squads. It also was when the US used El Salvador as a base of operations for its illegal “contra” war against neighboring Nicaragua.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/oct2003/vene-o08.shtml
Vheadline.com had also reported about the video on October 16.
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...Shortly after the Wall Street Journal article came out, the Venezuelan government made information available to the US Embassy in Venezuela, specifically detailing the activities carried out by these two groups.
The Venezuelan government did not receive a response from the US embassy at that time. It was not until plans to assassinate President Chavez surfaced, during his planned visit to Harlem, New York last September, that the Venezuelan government went public denouncing the plot and the existence of terrorist groups, training freely in Florida, conspiring to overthrow the government.
In addition, in a televised appearance before the international media, Chavez revealed that his government is in possession of a video, secretly recorded by his security forces, of a CIA officer giving a class to Venezuelans on surveillance.* Even though President Chavez did not cite the Wall Street Journal article specifically, the international media picked up the report and have challenged the US government to come forward with an explanation for its double standard on terrorism.
The United States was slow in responding. September 30, a few days after Chavez' statements, US Ambassador to Venezuela, Charles S. Shapiro stated "it is not necessarily a crime ... but we are in the full process of collecting information and we must follow all legal procedures ... if there is anyone to blame, our government knows what to do."
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=11400