State Political & Security Police chief says those who say the new intelligence law will create a society of snitchers don't have a clue!

State Political & Security Police (DISIP) General Henry Rangel Silva has defended the implementation of a controversial new Intelligence & Counter Intelligence Act which defines state security surveillance operations in Venezuela. He says that those who say the new law will create a society of snitchers don't have a clue, since the existing organization already has "a large network of collaborators who inform us about everything that government (Chavista) and opposition candidates get up to."

Rangel Silva says that he receives regular reports on what is said and done but that it is all part of normal State security operations conceived both from the standpoint of security of the state as the territory, population and government. He adds that "there is no culture of intelligence for the preservation of the state in Venezuela ... intelligence and counterintelligence are a fundamental weapon for the defense and overall development of the nation. The new law is directed primarily at the field of state security."

Rangel Silva says it is not surprising that the law is under attack from some quarters: "It is not something new, because in 2000, when Eliecer Otaiza was director of the DISIP and presented an intelligence bill to the National Assembly it was also attacked. "

"Talk of a new intelligence system has caused reactions in opposition groups but all this is dictated by a degree of ignorance about what intelligence and counterintelligence contribute to the security of the state ... some have a concept of the shady sort of intelligence that they applied during the Fourth Republic, which had its ultimate expression in the coup d'etat in of April 2002."

"The draft of this law began many years ago when proposals were first raised and for the last two and a half years a group of representatives drafted the principles of a national system of intelligence and counterintelligence which we now have before us. The Act provides for the integration and professionalization of agencies in the field of intelligence, adding that the legal mechanism to develop the organization, the functioning and powers of a national system of intelligence and counterintelligence based on rules, principles and values set out in the Constitution."

"The concept is to expect of agents, collaborators and other officials to handle intelligence that will be properly prepared and to provide them with adequate tools to discover many things but not to give people authority to take repressive actions."

Fending off oppositiion criticism that the Intelligence & Counterintelligence Act is based on similar legislation in Cuba, Rangel Silva clarifies "this law has nothing to do with the laws of Cuba ... it was conceived according to the values and principles of the Venezuelan Constitution althnough we did consult laws in many countries, such as the United States, Great Britain. The new legislation will help to make the government more efficient, not only because it highlights external factors that may be a threat to the nation or a specific political class, but there are internal factors that often prove to be a greater threat than a political opposition ... for us, from the standpoint of security, threats go beyond individual actors or political parties."