Venezuela: Counterattack

For more than a year, Venezuela’s Castroite F.A.L.N. has committed almost every misdeed in the book to embarrass President Romulo Betancourt. It has cold-bloodedly murdered some 50 policemen, staged an endless series of robberies, hijackings, kidnapings and bombings. Through it all, Betancourt kept a tight rein on his temper; he regarded the F.A.L.N. as a civil police matter, an annoyance to be handled by ordinary criminal procedure. But last week, the F.A.L.N. outdid itself: it took on the army, and Betancourt swiftly declared all-out war against Venezuela’s Communists.

Death in the Tunnel. The outrage that touched off the government reprisal was a vicious F.A.L.N. raid on an excursion train carrying picnickers to a park 25 miles from Caracas. Hearing rumors that the F.A.L.N. might dynamite the tracks, the army put eight soldiers from its elite National Guard aboard the train. But there was no dynamite; simple killing was the F.A.L.N.’s object. With the December elections so near, it is going to any lengths to undermine Betancourt’s government. As the ten-car train approached a tunnel, some 30 young terrorists aboard drew guns and went about their bloody business.

Within ten minutes, five guardsmen were fatally wounded. “We had no chance of fighting back,” said one of the survivors. “They shot at us at point-blank range, without mercy.” The raiders tossed their five victims off the moving train, stopped it long enough to daub F.A.L.N. slogans on the coaches, then backtracked a single coach to a rendezvous point. From there, they escaped in waiting cars.

Rumbles in the Barracks. In Venezuela, shooting up the Caracas police force is one thing, but killing soldiers is quite another. For almost five years, Venezuela’s powerful armed forces have gone along with Betancourt’s democratic leadership. But in recent months, there have been angry mutterings over Betancourt’s apparent inability to end the F.A.L.N.’s campaign of terror. Now, with the army under direct attack and with military coups exploding around the Caribbean, Betancourt decided to crack down on the Reds once and for all. He suspended the constitutional immunity of 23 Communist and Castroite Congressmen suspected of being the brains behind the F.A.L.N., ordered their arrest and the roundup of other Red leaders in Venezuela. Convoys of battle-ready infantrymen and paratroopers poured into Caracas to reinforce the police. At week’s end six of the 23 Congressmen had been arrested and turned over to the military for trial; another 200 far leftist leaders were rounded up.