Valentin Vasilescu
With Venezuela’s acquisition of the su-30 aircraft, S-300 anti-aircraft systems, T-72 tanks and Russian coastal bastion batteries, the Pentagon headquarters (USSOUTHCOM) in charge of Central and South America has deployed Technology Espionage (TECHINT) capabilities to assess, analyze and interpret information related to Venezuelan army combat equipment.
They are MASINT (Measurement and signature intelligence) devices that receive vibrations, pressure and caloric energy produced by combat systems from a distance. There are also other resources (ELINT) concerning electronic emissions from radar and radionavigation systems used in Venezuela’s ground-to-air missile systems, aircraft and military vessels.
But most espionage methods have been used to intercept communication networks (COMINT). The National Electronic Intelligence Agency (NSA) has a network called ECHELON, designed to intercept and record telephone, fax, radio and data traffic using US spy satellites.
USSOUTHCOM was able to assess, through COMINT, the state of mind, loyalty or dissatisfaction of army commanders and heads of central and local political authorities. Russia and China’s official version, which is difficult to believe, is that they have not deployed experts in espionage and counter-espionage to Venezuela. Contrary to this version, since January, when the United States introduced the self-proclaimed President Juan Guaido, Venezuela’s counter-intelligence leadership seems to have been taken over by a super James Bond. One of the Pentagon’s findings is the interruption of data collection by the NSA through the COMINT process. However, Venezuela does not have the advanced technology to block the reception of NSA satellites.
In response to this situation, the initiative in Venezuela was taken over by the CIA, which specializes in HUMINT (Human inteligence). That is, espionage conducted with undercover American agents, who in turn have networks of local informants. But shortly afterwards, the small Venezuelan counter-intelligence service (SEBIN: Servicio Boliviariano de Intellicia Nacional) succeeded in humiliating the CIA. It is only now that the Americans have learned that the Caracas government’s opposition groups have all been infiltrated by SEBIN counterintelligence agents.
With the help of undercover SEBIN officers in the US-funded press, there was an operation to select and publish the most mysterious but unreliable news related to political developments in Venezuela. There have been several “leaks” that have been delivered to the CIA, such as, for example, the intention of some generals in the first Venezuelan working group to betray Maduro and release arrested political opponents.
In order to gain the confidence of CIA operatives, SEBIN members even organized conspiracy meetings with Venezuelan generals, under full informational control of SEBIN and military counterintelligence. The “desertion” of General Manuel Figuera, head of SEBIN, the release of Leopoldo Lopez from house arrest, and the provision, for Juan Guaido, of a platoon of SEBIN soldiers to take the Carlota garrison in Caracas, more than 1,000 soldiers, were part of the CIA agents’ intoxication operation to persuade Washington of the success of the coup d’état.
The White House finally gave the green light to the April 30 action, which has become the CIA’s greatest failure in recent decades. Venezuela has proven that fighting with patriotism and professionalism, even for an embargoed South American country, can shatter the CIA’s schemes.
Translation by Internationalist 360°
INTERNATIONALIST 360° 