VHeadline editor & publisher Roy S. Carson writes: Former congressman and opposition Project Venezuela political party leader, Carlos Eduardo Berrizbeitia clutches a sheaf of documents alleged to be a compilation of what it costs, on a daily basis, to provide security for President Hugo Chavez Frias and claims more than Bs.F 80,000 (US$37,260 = Euros 24,325 = �19,167) is added to the annual budget each day totalling as much as US$13.8 million or more per year that, he says, could more readily be spent on policing to combat out-of-control criminality across Venezuela.
Berrizbeitia's 'bete noir' comes after Venezuela's National Assembly (AN) approved a Bs.F 29,700,000 budget to which is added the running costs for the Presidential jet which, although ordered by previous President Rafael Caldera, is seen by the diehard opposition as "an unnecessary luxury for a jumped-up Lt.Colonel" even if he (Chavez) is the Commander-in-Chief or 'El Comandante.'
Although the amount is 'peanuts' when compared with Secret Service expenditure-for-life on US ex-president Jimmy Carter and a reported $4 million a month for six-months SS security coverage for out-going US vice president Dick Cheney its more or less in line with disbursements for other Heads of State around the world, many of whom are NOT under immediate threat of assassination by covert CIA killers ... a string of Al Qaeda terrorists ... or Washington Beltway back-stabbers.
Enquiries made of the Buckingham Palace press office this morning reveal that "for security reasons" there's no available figures for how much it costs to keep Britain's Queen Elizabeth II secure and officials at the British Home Office and No.10 Downing Street said the same, referring to New Scotland Yard where budgets for Royal and Political protection units remain a closely guarded secret.
In Washington DC, it appears, such figures are not generally known although a VHeadline source acquainted with prevailing conditions under Bush 1 and Clinton said an elaborate syatem of Secret Service 'jump teams' would have cost anything in excess of $3 million a day TEN YEARS AGO!
Venezuela is facing the most difficult period of its history with honest reporters crippled by sectarianism on top of rampant corruption within the administration and beyond, aided and abetted by criminal forces in the US and Spanish governments which cannot accept the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people to decide over their own future.
