FIGHTERS IN ACTION IN VENEZUELA
On September 21, President Leoni told a French correspondent that "scarcely any guerrilla actions or terrorist attempts had occur= red for six months" in Venezuela, a
A little more than two weeks. later, the Leoni government had 10,000 men scouring the country, searching for clues that might lead. them to Lt. Col, Michael Smolen.: The deputy head of the U.S. Air Force mission in Venezuela had been kidnapped in Caracas by four armed men on October 9. More than one hundred "suspects," mostly students, were arrested, ; ;
At the height of the publicity over the affair, Lt. Col. Smolen was released. He said that he had. been courteously treated and well fed, that no harm had been done him and no threats had been made against him, sensational rumors to the contrary which were publicized in the Venezuelan press, .
The lieutenant colonel had been taken by the FALN [armed Forces.of National Liberation]. The publicity stunt was fresh evi- . dence that the guerrilla movement in Venezuela has not been liquidated, as the Leoni government boasts, a
The truth is that the guerrilla fighters ordered a unilateral ceasefire last January. They did this out of deference to the wish of currents in the radical movement who hoped that the Leoni govern-~ ment would grant an amnesty, free the some 1,500 political. prisoners, permit the ‘legally elected deputies of the Left Revolutionary Move-=ment. [MIR]. and the Communist party to resume their seats in. parliament, and. restore constitutional guarantees in the country.
“The. government answer was to step up the repression and order the armed forces into the field in a major effort to stamp out resistance,
In. June, the guerrilla command drew up a balance sheet and. decided that there was no choice but to end the. ceasefire,
a ‘series of incidents have occurred since, of which the kidnapping of the American officer is but the most recent and most spectacular, -
ar -2o ted
POLICE TERROR _IN SOUTH AFRICA .
LUSAKA, Northern Rhodesia -- Verwoerd's police have now turned their vicious attention in a big way on those organisations affiliated. to the All-African Convention and the Unity Movement: of South Africa.
The week end of September 26 they arrested Mr.W.M.Tsotsi, Vice- President of the Unity Movement, just outside Basutoland and detained him in a Bloemfontein prison under the 90-day law. Mr, Tsotsi has been practising as an attorney in Basutoland since 1961. He had a Basutoland passport and a permit to enter South Africa when the police arrested him.
During the: following week they” arrested Mr. JL: Mkentane, Vice- President of the All-African Convention and a lawyer in King william's Town, Cape Province. He, too, is detained. under the 90-day. law. Like Mr. Tsotsi, Mr..Mkentane is a leading member of the, African . People's Democratic Union of Southern Africa [APDUSA]. .
Before these two leading members: of ‘the unity Movement were . arrested, the Special Branch [Security Police] had. Mr.. A. Wilcox dismissed from his job. at the. Simonstown docks as a "security risk," — An Assistant Secretary of APDUSA, Mr. Wilcox is now banned for five years and confined,
Mr.G.Qaba, Acting Secretary of the Unity Movement and Execu-. tive member of the APDUSA, has been served with a notice to leave ~ Cape Town where he works and lives with his family. He has been deported to. the Transkei where he is not assured of a place to live. The Native Commissioner or a chief may decide that he is an "undesirable person" and, he will be compelled to leave. If this happens, as it has many times. before, Mr... Qaba. and. his family will be homeless wanderers with no one, not even their parents, allowed to house them, no Mr .D .Nyamela, Chairman of. the Cape Town Branch of APDUSA, and two brothers =-- Eric and. Ernest Jama -- who are leading members of the Cape Town Branch of APDUSA, have been served with deportation orders to leave Cape Town for the: Transkei. They, too, lose their employment. _In addition there is a.whole layer of ordinary members of organisations affiliated. to the Unity Movement who have been sub-. jected to intimidation throughout the country.
» Every official of the ‘All-African Convention to a man has. either been put under house arrest, banned and confined or simply — banned and deported, The same applies to the Unity Movement. Now — the fascist..