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Revolutionary Venezuelan Youth Deserter Tells of Secret Training in Cuba
from Caracas Venevision Television on Friday, March 05, 2004
Article ID: D141093
Mauricio Caval interviews Humberto Jose Freites, a young man who belonged to the Francisco de Miranda Front of Revolutionary Venezuelan Youth. This group recruits young people, eager to make a difference, allegedly to carry out social work projects to help the poor, but they eventually find themselves in Cuba receiving training -- including "motivational speeches" from Fidel Castro himself -- in "Socialism or Death" in order to defend what is called the "process," in other words, the "revolution." This revolution, as Venezuelans have seen, especially in the last two years, has been carried out by a small group to the detriment of the rest of the people, especially the most poor.

Freites was recruited in the eastern part of the country, but they also recruit young people in Caracas and the western part of Venezuela.

Caval asks Freites about his training experience in Cuba.

Freites says he was working as a coordinator of the southern region of the Rivas Mission (meant to help high school dropouts graduate) and that he was called to Caracas to become part of what he calls the Group of 40. He said he was told that this group was going to be part of a secret, special mission, and that they were going to be trained in Fort Tiuna by Cuban personnel.

Video changes to an unidentified man stating that a group of Cubans was detected at Fort Tiuna, specifically at the 3101 Command Company of the 31st Infantry Brigade, carrying out activities yesterday (date unknown) . It was determined that they were Cubans because their shirts said "Bolivarian Force Social Workers" (Fuerza Bolivariana Forjadores Sociales). Video shows file footage from 5 December 2003, showing a group of people standing inside the base at night.

Freites says that once in Fort Tiuna he was given an ID card that allowed him to come and go without being bothered by anyone, and that when he found out what it was all about he used it to leave and that he is now in hiding.

When asked why he was in hiding, Freites says it is because he is afraid of the Cubans and the power they have in Venezuela, where he believes they are running things. He said the entire geopolitical scene in Venezuela is being monitored from Cuba.

Video changes to an interview from 5 December 2003 with Cuban journalist Uberto Mario Hernandez, who deserted in October 2003. Hernandez says that members of the Cuban Communist Party's Central Committee are operating in Venezuela, holding meetings.

Carval asks Freites how it was he came to be in Havana.

Freites states that he was unemployed and that he heard from a friend that a military front was providing employment, so he looked into it in hopes of a job. He says he was given an exam, and that this process was supervised by Hugo Cabezas, the director of the Directorate of Identification and Alien Affairs (Diex). After passing the exam, he says he traveled to Cuba with a group comprised of revolutionary youth, including from the Fifth Republic Movement (MVR) and communist and Tupamaro factions. The group gathered first in Caracas for about four days and then took flights to Havana. The government paid for all this, he stated. Once in Cuba, he says their passports were taken away, perhaps so no one could leave. He says there were minors in the group. He was registered in what used to be a social work school and with the others was made to sing the Cuban and Venezuelan national anthems every morning. He states that those in charge of the training were members of the UJC (Young Communists Union), the right hand of Fidel Castro, and other communist groups. He says the first group consisted of approximately 800 brigade members, as they were called, and that in the second group, his, there were some 1,600, and that the third group had more than 2,000. He states that all these youth are now back in Venezuelan territory. He says he spent a month or two in Cuba and that the traveling is done using military installations and that care is taken not to allow the press to film any of the comings or goings. He said that in Cuba they were given protection by the Cuban Revolutionary Police, a group Chavez wants to put in place in Venezuela in replacement of the police forces in Venezuela. He shows a certificate stating that he graduated from the "Training Course for Venezuelan Social Workers."

Asked about the training itself, Freites says that wakeup time was 0600 local, and that everyone had an instructor assigned to them to make sure they made their bed and did similar chores. The person assigned to him was a Cuban named Alberto Mesa. He says that this process of qualifying in tasks of this nature was entitled "Emulating Che (Guevara)," or being better every day, which was one of the many things of this nature imposed on the students. The idea was to see Che Guevara as an idol and example of the revolution.

Video returns to the archive interview with Cuban journalist Uberto Mario Hernandez. Hernandez says that the Communist Party is the only party in Cuba. It organizes and directs every activity in Cuba. Children are indoctrinated into Marxist-Leninist thought from the beginning. The party is behind all of the civic organizations and the people are brainwashed.

Freites states that Fidel told them several times that the revolution in Venezuela needed more blood and that they would be supported by the Army and weapons of Cuba and also have the backing of the Bolivarian Front of the Revolution, a guerrilla group here in Venezuela.

Video changes to an interview from 19 March 2003 with journalist Sandra Murillo, who writes for the newspaper Los Andes. Murillo says that the Bolivarian Freedom Force (Fuerza Bolivariana de Liberacion) is known to be operating in southern Tachira State and areas like Tres Esquinas, Puente Rojo, Chorrosquero, La Ceiba, and La Gabarra, though residents say nothing for fear of reprisals. These guerrillas are well-armed, with automatic, high-caliber weapons. In a communiqué delivered to the paper by the Bolivarian Freedom Force in early November, the group declared itself to be the armed wing of the sovereign people of Venezuela. Murillo says that despite this claim, in the areas in which they operate, they seem to be the armed wing of the national government. This front works with the Simon Bolivar Coordinating Board in Caracas and there are others in the eastern part of the country and in the border states. Video shows an interview with an anonymous young man testifying that these groups do exist because he has seen them in Chorrosquero, Valle Verde, and Guasgualito.