Operation Pliers, also known as Operación Tenaza or Operation Pincers is the name of an alleged CIA plan to incite insurrection following the December 2, 2007 referendum on constitutional changes in Venezuela. According to the Venezuelan government, the plan was discovered in an internal memo uncovered by Venezuelan counter-intelligence operatives on 26 November 2007; thus far the text of the memo has been published in Spanish only. The memo purports to be a communication from a CIA officer named Michael Middleton Steere, employed at the US embassy in Caracas, to CIA DirectorGeneral Michael Hayden in Washington, D.C.. It allegedly details measures taken and planned to destabilize Venezuela during and after the referendum. The document is dated November 20.
The memo apparently emphasises the success and importance of the public relations of the opposition campaign, funding over 8 million dollars through USAID contracted company Development Alternatives Inc., specifically referring to the public relations campaign as "psychological operations". The document mentions coordination with a team of journalists in Venezuela organized by Globovision president Alberto Federico Ravell, the release of data during the early hours of the afternoon on Sunday that favor the NO vote, using polling companies contracted by the CIA to generate a sensation of fraud, and the use of a team of experts from the universities that will talk about how the data from the electoral registry have been manipulated with the goal of building distrust in the voting system as well as discrediting the National Electoral Council.
Tactics and actions
According to the memo, Operation Pliers entails a two-pronged strategy of impeding the referendum, rejecting the outcome, and at the same time calling for a 'no' vote. In the run up to the referendum, the operation includes running phony polls, attacking electoral officials and running propaganda through the private media accusing the government of fraud and calling for a 'no' vote. Contradictions, the memo emphasizes, are of no matter. Tactics also include a "plan to implode" the voting centers on the day of the referendum by encouraging opposition voters to "VOTE and REMAIN" in their centers to agitate others, to take to the streets and protest with violent, disruptive actions across the nation and incite a general uprising in a considerable portion of the population. This would culminate in the mobilization of students at private universities, backed by top administrators, to attack key government buildings including the Presidential Palace, Supreme Court and the National Electoral Council. The ultimate objective of the operation as outlined in the memo is to seize a territorial or institutional base with the "massive support" of the defeated electoral minority within three or four days, presumably after the elections, backed by an uprising by oppositionist military officers principally in the National Guard. The Embassy operative concede that the military plotters have run into serious problems as key intelligence operatives were detected, stores of arms were decommissioned and several plotters are under tight surveillance. Apart from the deep involvement of the US, the primary organization of the Venezuelan business elite, as well as all the major private television, radio and newspaper outlets have been engaged in a campaign of fear and intimidation campaign against the referendum and any results thereof.
Military measures are mentioned, coordination with ex-military officers and "coupsters" Pena Esclusa and Guyon Cellis through the Military Attaché for Defense and Army at the US Embassy in CaracasDefense Attaché Office, encouraging a possible military rebellion inside the National Guard. The document also mentions a possible US attack of Venezuela by asking to complete the operative preparations on the US military bases in Curaçao and Colombia to provide support to actions in Venezuela.
US and Venezuelan response
Venezuelan response
The response of the Venezuelan government to the alleged discovery of the memo has been to attempt to dissuade the US from bringing the plan into action by threatening to cut off oil supplies if it does so.
US response
The US has called Venezuelan accusations of a CIA conspiracy "ridiculous" . According to the International Herald Tribune, an embassy spokesman said "We reject and are disappointed in the Venezuelan government's allegations that the United States is involved in any type of conspiracy to affect the outcome of the constitutional referendum" and a CIA spokesman called the memo "a fake".
