Venezuela Frees, Deports U.S. "Spy" Filmmaker (Updated)

U.S. filmmaker Timothy Tracy is expected to arrive in Los Angeles later today after Venezuelan officials freed and deported him.

“The gringo Timothy Hallet Tracy, captured committing espionage in our country, has been expelled from the national territory,” tweeted Interior Minister Miguel Rodríguez Torres this morning regarding the 35-year-old.  Furthermore, Tracy’s lawyer said that his client boarded a flight from Caracas to Miami this morning and was scheduled to fly on to Los Angeles.

"He's animated… (It) all worked out well in the end " attorney Daniel Rosales told USA TODAY.  He added that Tracy was treated well during the roughly six weeks he spent behind bars.

Tracy was detained on April 24th at Caracas’ international airport, and accused of inciting post-electoral violence and conspiring against the Venezuelan government.

“We have no doubt that he is an intelligence operative based on his training.  He knows how to infiltrate, recruit others and manage security information,” Rodriguez said at a press conference the day after Tracy was arrested.

Supporters of Tracy rejected the government’s accusations and alleged that he was in Venezuela since last October working on a documentary based on the deep political divisions in the country.

"They don't have CIA in custody. They don't have a journalist in custody. They have a kid with a camera," said Aengus James, a friend and associate of Tracy shortly after he was detained.

Tracy’s arrest was also denounced by the U.S. government including President Barack Obama who said, “The idea that this individual is a spy is ridiculous.”

Daily Headlines: June 3, 2013

* Chile: A judge issued an order for police to make a portrait of and look for the possible killer of famed Chilean poet Pablo Neruda who died days after a 1973 military coup.

* Venezuela: Timothy Tracy, a U.S. filmmaker detained last April and accused of spying against the Venezuelan government, was allegedly transferred to the El Rodeo prison.

* Brazil: The iconic Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro was reopened yesterday with a 2-2 tie between Brazil and England.

* Mexico: Mexican author turner peace activist Javier Sicilia praised a recent Organization of American States report on drugs as a tool that could “lead to the formulation and implementation of new drug policies”.

Video Source – YouTube via AFP (The body of famed Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was exhumed last April in order to examine if he was murdered via poison in September 1973).
 
Online Sources- Huffington Post; Fox News Latino; The Latin Americanist; BBC Sport; The Guardian

Daily Headlines: May 10, 2013

* Guatemala: Former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt took the witness stand for the first time in his genocide trial yesterday and alleged that he didn’t order the massacre of hundreds of indigenous Ixil.

* Venezuela: U.S. immigration officials were allegedly granted access to Timothy Tracy, a California filmmaker detained last month and accused of conspiring against Venezuelan government.

* Uruguay: Gen. Miguel Dalmao was convicted and sentenced to twenty-eight years in prison for the 1974 murder of professor and political activist Nibia Sabalsagaray.

* Panama: Panama Canal administrators announced a series of water-saving measures as part of energy rationing caused by a drought.

Video Source – YouTube via PBS News Hour

Online Sources- ABC News; The Guardian; Businessweek; The Latin Americanist

Obama Blasts Arrest of U.S. Filmmaker in Venezuela

U.S. President Barack Obama criticized the recent arrest of filmmaker Timothy Tracy who was accused of conspiring against the Venezuelan government.

“The idea that this individual is a spy is ridiculous,” said Obama during an interview with U.S. Spanish-language network Telemundo that first aired on Sunday.

“This U.S. citizen…should be treated like any other U.S. citizen who has been involved in a legal matter in a foreign country,” Obama added regarding Tracy who was accused of acting as a secret “intelligence operative.”

In a prior interview with Univision, Obama claimed that human rights, democracy, freedom of speech and assembly in Venezuela “have not been fully observed” since Nicolás Maduro was declared winner of the country’s highly contested April 14th election.

Several senior Venezuelan officials responded harshly to Obama’s remarks such as Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres who claimed to have video and e-mail evidence of Tracy meeting with opposition activists and plotting with student protesters.

"When you want to do intelligence work in another country, all those big powers who do this type of spying, they often use the facade of a filmmaker, documentary-maker, photographer or journalist," said Rodriguez Torres who also alleged that Venezuelan intelligence had been tracking Tracy for the past few months.

Maduro, meanwhile, called Obama "the grand chief of devils" and issued a formal note of protest.

Friends and family of the thirty-five-year old Tracy have defended him as a documentarian interested in showing both sides of Venezuela’s deep political divide.  He also received support from a group of Venezuelan filmmakers who “urged the government to show maximum transparency and objectivity in his case.”

Diplomatic relations between Venezuela and the U.S. had been uneasy during the fifteen year Chávez regime.  Tensions continued in the weeks since Maduro was elected as president as the U.S. has yet to recognize him as Venezuela’s legitimate leader.

Obama wasn’t the only political figure from the Americas criticized by Maduro over the weekend:

Daily Headlines: April 30, 2013

* Peru: President Ollanta Humala indicated that he might pardon Alberto Fujimori, a disgraced former leader who is serving prison sentences for corruption and human rights abuses.

* Venezuela: A political ally of opposition leader Henrique Capriles was charged with promoting post-electoral violence days after U.S. filmmaker Timothy Tracy with conspiracy, falsifying public documents and other crimes.

* Bolivia: The Bolivian constitutional court gave the green light for President Evo Morales to run for a third term in elections scheduled for December 2014.

* Puerto Rico: Several Puerto Rican politicians backed presenting a resolution to the Congress aimed at “achieving the admission of Puerto Rico as a (U.S.) state”.

Video Source – YouTube via Associated Press (In 2009, “a special tribunal convicted former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori of murder and kidnapping on Tuesday and sentenced him to 25 years in prison for death squad activities during his autocratic 10-year rule”.)
 
Online Sources- Businessweek; Huffington Post; Al Jazeera English; The Latin Americanist; AFP

Venezuela Charges U.S. Filmmaker with Conspiracy

Is Timothy Tracy a U.S. spy who tried to promote violence Venezuela’s recent presidential election or does the government unfairly target him a scapegoat?  This is the question in the middle of the latest diplomatic disagreement between Venezuela and the U.S.

On Saturday night, a judge in Caracas charged Tracy with conspiracy, falsifying public documents
and other crimes.   

The 35-year-old has remained behind bars since Wednesday when he was arrested at the Simon Bolivar International Airport.  The next day, newly inaugurated President Nicolás Maduro accused Tracy of “creating violence in the cities of this country.”  Furthermore, interior minister Miguel Rodríguez Torres alleged to have over 500 videos demonstrating Tracy’s guilt including his meeting with members of the Venezuelan student protest movement.

“We have no doubt that he is an intelligence operative based on his training.  He knows how to infiltrate, recruit others and manage security information,” declared Rodriguez at a press conference.

“The documentaries he makes have nothing to do with national security.  They’re individual histories that try to understand the polarizing political climate of this country,” declared Gloria Stifano, Timothy Tracy’s attorney in Venezuela.  “He met with the Women With Chávez group, received authorization from several mayors and was approved by the national electoral council to act as an observer,” added Stifano.

Student protest activist Gaby Arellano denied the charges by the state against her cohorts and claimed that the Tracy affair is “like a big farce on the part of the government to distract attention.”  Tuki Jencquel, a Venezuelan filmmaker who reportedly became friends with Tracy, said that Tracy “seemed to be very evenhanded in his work and neutral in relation to what was happening in Venezuela”.

According to imdb.com, Tracy worked as a producer on several documentaries and television shows such as “Angry White Man,” “Madhouse” and “American Harmony.” 

U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell neglected to comment on whether Tracy had any connection with any U.S. government agency and he also rejected allegations that the U.S. is involved in any efforts to destabilize Venezuela. 

Diplomatic relations between Venezuela and the U.S. has been uneasy over the past fifteen years.  Last month, for instance, Venezuelan officials expelled a pair of U.S. diplomats charged with plotting against the government of then-President Hugo Chávez.