WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- The Venezuelan government President Hugo Chavez Frias believes that the Bush administration is plotting it, and Vheadlines.com reports that Venezuelan intelligence believes that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is preparing the ground for a coup.
Among the allegec contenders for leadership in Washington's post-Chavez contingency planning is billionaire Gustavo Cisneros. Cisneros is a media mogul whose holdings include Univision and Venevision television channels. Forbes magazine lists Cisneros as among the world's 100 richest men. Cisneros fears that the Chavez regime might nationalize his media holdings. Chavez calls Cisneros' TV station one of the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."
Cisneros has now shifted more than 80 percent of his operations to the United States.
A post-Chavez Cisneros administration would use former Petroleos de Venezuela President Luis Giusti as its White House liaison, according to the report.
Chavez administration officials believe that under Washington's scenario a "released-from-prison" Carlos Ortega would become labor minister while exiled Fedecamaras President Carlos Fernandez would become minister of trade.
According to Vheadlines.com Radio Caracas TV director Marcel Granier would become minister of communications and information in a reworked Central Office of Information. Independent democratic civil society group Sumate's Maria Corina Machado would be head of the Foreign Ministry.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, are reportedly making secret arrangements to force the closure of Jaffna University, student sources speaking on condition of anonymity said. The LTTE reportedly wants to shutter the university until the "iruthip pore" ("the ultimate war") against Sri Lanka's armed forces is over once and for all.
The Asian Tribune reported that the LTTE leadership is urging the college students to abandon their studies for the present and join the LTTE to fight government forces in a final campaign.
On Tuesday LTTE political wing head Sippiah Paramu Tamilselvan held a meeting with students from all of Jaffna University's facilities at Palai to discuss the current political situation. Tamilselvan said that political situation was worsening and stated that the LTTE needed every able-bodied Tamil of both genders to participate in the forthcoming final war against the Sri Lanka armed forces. The LTTE has been battling authorities in Colombo for three decades. More than 60,000 people have died in the violence.
Since 2001 both the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE have been observing a shaky ceasefire. The last month was the bloodiest since the ceasefire went into effect, with more than 100 people killed. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission issued a statement commenting, "It is safe to say that (LTTE) involvement cannot be ruled out and we find (their) indifference to these attacks worrying."
Tamilselvan justified closing the university because of the destructive capabilities of modern weaponry; in such a case Tamilselvan said that keeping the university open would be "suicidal," according to a student present at the meeting.
The students were reportedly divided over Tamilselvan's proposals. The LTTE will reportedly soon give the students a final decision about the proposal.
The Zagreb Croatian journal Globus is reporting that in August 1995 the Central Intelligence Agency secretly planned the "Operation Storm" military campaign to drive more than 200,000 ethnic Serbs from Croatia. Hundreds of Serbs died in the fighting.
The CIA reportedly planned the operation at the Sepurine military base near the Adriatic port of Zadar. The information, which came from Gen. Ante Gotovina's defense team, states that the operation was prepared with the knowledge of top Croatian leaders and then U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Globus reported that George Tenet, who later became CIA chief, had "directly" worked with Gotovina to prepare the military operation. Clinton allegedly wanted to punish the Serbs for their July 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims by crushing their revolt in Croatia.
In 1991, Serbs in Croatia rose up after Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia; four years later the Serbs controlled one-third of Croatia's territory, where they proclaimed the Republic of Srpska Krajina.
Globus reported that Tenet and at least 12 American military experts had worked with Gotovina in Sepurine in planning the military operations. Among the U.S. contributions were jamming Serb communication systems and reconnaissance flights for the Croats.
On Dec. 7 Gotovina was arrested in Spain and transferred to the custody of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. On Dec. 12 Gotovina pled not guilty to the charges against him.
