Venezuelan Terrorists Kidnap U.S. Colonel and Threaten Him ( Source NY Times)

CARACAS, Venezuela, Oct. 8 —The deputy chief of the United States Air Force mis­sion here was kidnapped at gun­point today by terrorists.

 

The officer, Lieut. Col. Mi­chael Smolen, was accosted by two men, one armed with a sub­machine gun, as he was enter­ at an automobile that was to take him to work. They forced the colonel to enter another car and immediately drove it away.

 

Several newspapers received anonymous telephone calls warn­ing that Colonel Smolen would be billed if South Vietnam car­ried out a plan to execute a 24‐year‐old prisoner accused of pro‐Communist terrorism.

 

The telephone callers identi­fied themselves as the kidnap­pers of the colonel. They alluded to the case of Nguyen Van Troi, who was arrested last May while installing a bomb under a bridge that was to be crossed

 

Troi has been sentenced to public execution, and United States officials in Saigon are reported to have urged that the execution be carried out privately instead.

 

Colonel Smolen, 45 years old, was in front of his home with, his chief, Col. Henry Lee Choate, when the attack occurred. Colo­nel Choate, who had come to pick him up, was apparently un­known to the attackers. He was not molested. Both officers were in uniform and unarmed.

 

A few hours later, the police found the automobile in which Colonel Smolen had been taken ­away. It had been abandoned several miles from the scene of the kidnapping, in the suburb

 

Last Nov. 27 the deputy chief of the United States Army mis­sion, Lieut. Col. James K. Chenault, was kidnapped, held for eight days and then released unharmed.

 

Speculation about the kid­nappers' motive centers on publicity. The aim, many sug­gested, is to give the impres­sion that the Communists are strong and that the Government is unable to stop them

 

The terrorists' other sensa­tional exploits here have in­cluded the theft of five world­ famous French paintings in January, 1863; the hijacking of the merchant ship Anzoategui, in February, 1963, and the kid­naping of an internationally known Spanish soccer star, Al­fredo di Stefano, in August, 1963.

Venezuela's President, Dr. Raul Leoni, and her Foreign Minister, Dr. Ignacio Irribarren Borges, were officially informed of Colonel Smolen's kidnapping, and they expressed regret. Dr. Leoni's pro‐Washington and anti‐Havana policies have been a particular target of Venezue­la's leftist groups.

 
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BBC Tiếng Việt tường thuật:

 

Trong tuần lễ Fidel Castro qua đời, người ta không thể không nhớ lại làn sóng cảm tình với Cộng sản Bắc Việt những năm 1960-1970 lan tỏa từ Cuba tới các nước Mỹ Latin khác.

Năm 1964, du kích cánh tả ở Caracas, Venezuela đã bắt cóc đại tá Michael Smolen, tùy viên quân sự Hoa Kỳ, nhằm đổi mạng tử tù Nguyễn Văn Trỗi.

Các bạn xem video để biết phi vụ đổi người này diễn ra thế nào nhé.

Người biệt động viên Nguyễn Văn Trỗi lúc đó đang chờ ngày bị tử hình vì đặt mìn mưu sát Bộ trưởng Quốc phòng Mỹ Robert McNamara trên cầu Công Lý ở Sài Gòn.

Vụ bắt cóc của du kích Caracas bất thành nhưng đã làm chấn động dư luận quốc tế lúc bấy giờ.

Nhân chứng duy nhất còn lại trong vụ bắt cóc, cựu du kích quân Carlos Argenis Martínez Villalta, 72 tuổi, thuật lại với Hồng Nga về những gì đã xảy ra: