Hugo Chavez -- drug thug or patsy? (Drugs, planes and spooks)

'Tis election season, and Cannonfire has neglected its usual fare: Covert ops, mysteries and scandals. Daniel Hopsicker, by contrast, keeps flooring it. I (belatedly) direct your attention to this piece from half-a-month ago.

Over the past two months, two American turbo prop aircraft have been forced down in Venezuela. The most recent one carried a nice amount of cocaine; the first one is also thought (for reasons discussed below) to have been involved in the drug trade.

That first aircraft was "registered to a Houston firm widely thought to serve as a front to hide CIA planes."

That firm is called Aircraft Guaranty, which serves as the "owner of record" for a number of aircraft spotted in the CIA rendition scandal. In fact, Aircraft Guaranty acts on behalf of parties who prefer to keep their names out of the public eye. The actual owner of the crashed drug plane was something called 700 Aviation, LLC. I've not been able to find any website representing this firm or mentioning it in any way.

The second plane was registered to an entity called Cheyenne Air LLC, in Ellensburg, WA. Again, I can find no website representing this company or even mentioning it -- aside from those sites which carry Hopsicker's work. (A firm called Cheyenne Air in PA does aircraft maintenance.)

(I can't help pointing out that the area around Ellensburg is known for strange flying objects. Kucinich had his sighting about fifty miles away.)

Although Hugo Chavez remains popular within the American left, we have seen a disturbingly high number of drug trans-shipment stories involving Venezuela -- a country which stopped cooperating with American DEA agents some time ago. Why? Supposedly because agents had spied on Hugo Chevez.

The pilot of the first crashed plane was a fellow named Mario Donadi, who was supposed to be in a Venezuelan prison doing an eight-year stretch for drug trafficking. Someone allowed him to walk out of prison to do this job.

That first crash had a passenger every bit as intriguing as the pilot:

The crash killed five people on the ground, as well as three men onboard, including passenger Alfredo Anzola, a 34-year old software engineer and a founder of Smartmatic. Anzola's election code is embedded in thousands of electronic voting machines across America, through the company’s former subsidiary, Sequoia Pacific, a company with a rap sheet as long as a Gambino foot soldier.

Sequoia was also the election company largely responsible for the Florida vote snafu after the 2000 Presidential election.

Allegations that Smartmatic was controlled by that proud wearer of the Raspberry Beret that makes the Bush Administration see red, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, forced Smartmatic to divest itself of Sequoia in 2006.

What I find particularly mysterious about this story is the American response. Normally, one would expect the Bush administration to use Venezuelan drug running as a political cudgel against Hugo Chavez. After all, someone in Venezuela's government allowed Mario Donadi to hop out of jail in order to fly that aircraft. Previous "drug flight" tales covered in this blog have had connections to Venezuela.

So far, we've heard nothing from Bushco on the subject of these drug-laden aircraft, although the administration has sought to label Venezuela a terrorist nation based on evidence of weapons smuggling.

So just what is going on?

What can it tell us about the current strained relations between the Bush Administration and Chavez?

Might their relationship be a little closer than either man is letting on?

Conceivably, Chavez is being framed by American covert operators, in preparation for another coup attempt. Arguing in favor of this theory: The fact that so many of these Venezuela-linked drug planes keep crashing. Arguing against the theory: The Donadi connection.

Bill Conroy of Narco News Bulletin has also been uncovering the Venezuelan connection:

Two Florida-based companies that have exported a total of at least 11 aircraft to Venezuelan buyers since 2003 are linked to four cocaine planes and what appears to be an elaborate covert intelligence operation, an ongoing Narco News investigation shows.

The covert program, law enforcement sources contend, likely involves the CIA and components of Defense Department intelligence agencies, and is focused, in part, on penetrating, or even propping up, narco-trafficking groups in Venezuela.

Conroy also seems confused: Is Chavez a knowing participant in this scheme, or is a he a potential victim? Is he being set up to receive the "Noriega" treatment?

I can't leave this story without noting an amusing coincidence. As mentioned above, the first aircraft was owned (on paper) by something calling itself "700 Aviation." As you may recall, Pat Robertson of the 700 Club came in for a good deal of criticism when he suggested that the U.S. government assassinate Hugo Chavez. Perhaps the employees of 700 Aviation wear buttons bearing the initials WWJW -- "Who Would Jesus Whack"?