[NYTr] Disgruntled General Says Chavez "Politicizing" Armed Forces
 
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 15:05:36 -0500 (CDT)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
[In the 1970s, Chile's Armed Forces were never "politicized" by the
democratically elected government of Salvador Allende... they were
politicized by Henry Kissinger, ITT and the CIA, and officers who didn't
want to go along with Pinochet's coup were killed. Cuba, on the other
hand, has a "politicized" military, which supports the Cuban
Revolution.  Chavez will not be making the same mistakes Allende did.
-NY Transfer]

AP via Internationaol Herald Tribune - July 5, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/05/america/LA-GEN-Venezuela-Military.php

Disgruntled General Says Chavez Politicizing Armed Forces

By the Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela: A general who until recently was one of Hugo
Chavez's closest military advisers has publicly confronted the
president, saying he is injecting his socialist politics into
Venezuela's armed forces.

The conflict arose after retired Gen. Alberto Muller Rojas told the
Venezuelan newspaper Ultimas Noticias last weekend that the military
has been politicized under Chavez, a self-described revolutionary who
as an army paratrooper commander led a failed coup in 1992.

Chavez later disagreed in a speech, saying the military is not
politicized and that Muller's remarks were equivalent to "giving
weapons to the enemy."

"The one who is wrong is the president," Muller responded in comments
published Thursday in the El Nacional newspaper. "I don't get into that
game and unfortunately the president has taken it there. I won't be
insulted."

Until recently, Muller was a senior military adviser to Chavez. He
retired last month when Chavez approved his departure, and later said
he had been requesting retirement since December.

The general's assertions echo criticisms by government opponents who
take issue with Chavez's new orders that soldiers use the slogan
"Fatherland, socialism ? or death!" when saluting. The opposition calls
the phrase an improper political litmus test for a professional
military.

Chavez said Tuesday that the slogan reflects soldiers' patriotism, not
an affiliation to his socialist party.

Muller told Ultimas Noticias that he quit an organizing committee of
Chavez's United Socialist Party of Venezuela but remains a member. He
said there are not significant differences between him and Chavez, and
he continues to support the president's policies even though the two
have not spoken in nearly a year.
       
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