American TFP – Communiqué on Resistencia, No. 2

As reported by the TFP Press Service:  

IZVESTIA is the official publication of the Soviet government. Along with Pravda (publication of the Communist Party), it shares an absolute primacy of importance among communist newspapers and reaches the whole Russian public. Besides this immense ambit of internal influence, Izvestia also enjoys wide circulation in international communist milieus. And it makes known what the Kremlin wants to be known to both publics. It applauds whenever its applause will benefit the Kremlin, and it attacks whenever its attack will benefit the Kremlin. The intensity of those applause and attacks is gauged for the docile adepts of communism not only in the terms used by the newspaper, but also in the greater or lesser emphasis given in presenting the matter.

Of course, everything is meticulously coordinated according to the conveniences of Soviet world imperialism.

On the international news page of its November 20, 1984 edition, the publication of the Kremlin exhibits its full solidarity with the Venezuelan media uproar against Resistencia (Resistance Civic Society — an autonomous kindred society of the TFPs), an uproar which right from the start urged the Caracas government to proscribe the upright and well-deserving organization, as in fact later happened.

Remaining silent throughout the course of events, once Resistencia was closed down on November 13, the Kremlin dropped its mask and cried victory.

In its official publication, the Russian communist government shows how much its propaganda benefits from Resistencia having been the object of an arbitrary and tyrannical measure of the Caracas government (which is entirely controlled by the Democratic Action Party, officially affiliated with the Socialist International). It leads its readers throughout the vast territory of Russia and the world over to applaud that act and to support analogous campaigns that spring up against the TFPs in one place or another.

The symptomatic exultation of the Kremlin should serve to open the eyes of the useful innocents, in Venezuela and elsewhere, who could inadvertently allow themselves to become involved in such campaigns. It should also serve to curb the influence of those who, often acting as if they were useful innocents, are nothing but players in the communist game, typical wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Here we present an English translation of the full text from the Kremlin publication.

We shall abstain from refuting the many calumnies since these have been essentially dealt with in our previous communiqué, Ideological-Religious Persecution in Venezuela — A Black Cloud Descends Upon That Nation.

IZVESTIA, 11/20/84

International Sensation

The Demented Kidnappers From Villa Morella 

The snow-white Villa Morella is located, behind high solid walls, in one of the most fashionable neighborhoods of Caracas, the Country Club, known for its luxurious mansions and well-manicured golf courses. It is there that the religious paramilitary cult of fascist leanings called the Asociación Civil Resistencia has taken up residence. It is an affiliate of the international terrorist organization that hides under the motto Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), active in more than twenty countries throughout the world.

The main goal of the TFP is to unite youths between 13 and 20 years of age in the “movement fighting for the purity of Christianity;” then comes psychological preparation given to these “fighters,” the formation of these religious fanatics into detachments of terrorists, in order to rebuild the world by force and by the “crushing of communism.”

The progressive forces (1) of Venezuela attempted repeatedly to obtain a prohibition of the criminal activities of the TFP in their country. Nevertheless, every attempt clashed with the contrary action of the reactionary forces of the extreme right. Who could say how many tears of hundreds of Venezuelan mothers who had their sons kidnapped, would not also have been shed if the information that the members of Resistencia were planning to assassinate John Paul II on his next trip to Venezuela early next year, had not gradually penetrated the press? (2)

The scandal broke. The National Congress of the Republic demanded the setting up of a special investigation of the leaders of the TFP in Venezuela. A list of more than 2,500 businessmen who, seduced by the anticommunist slogans of the cult, had been financing its activities, fell into the hands of the commission of inquiry.

The newspaper, Tribuna Popular, reports that the CIA was not far away from them. Furthermore, through its affiliate, the Venezuelan TFP, it inspired all over the country a so-called demonstration against the USSR, Cuba, and Nicaragua. What is shocking about these events is that at the very moment that world progressive society was indignant at the United States’ shame less aggression in Grenada, members of the TFP were carrying on a campaign collecting signatures (on a declaration) thanking the Reagan Administration  for crushing communism near the coast of Venezuela.

Through many depositions of parents and former members of the organization, its methods of recruitment of adolescents became known. They were usually sought out in private schools. Representatives of the TFP, who usually had a foreign accent, would invite the youths to visit the Villa Morella, where they would be shown harmless films that showed some aspects of the activity of the cult and where political discussions would also be organized.

“At the beginning, it seemed to me and many others that we had fallen into an ordinary youth club,” an ex-member of the TFP writes in the pages of the newspaper El Universal. “Those who lived in the Villa Morella were required to be courteous in their manners and to wear a black and red uniform.

Those who came to the Villa Morella once a week were assigned spiritual directors who methodically brainwashed them. The idea was inculcated in us that all the evils in the world come from the ‘Revolution.’ The contagion penetrated our heads and was everywhere — in school, in college, in the political parties and in the state itself. One could not fight victoriously against it because of the infiltration of communism.” With complete freedom, the members of Resistencia inculcated in the youths the idea that only those who broke away entirely from their families, friends, and studies could stay. And they were told it was better if they killed some close relative. When the parents, concerned about the long absence of their sons, would phone them at the Villa Morella, their harsh reply was that if they did not stop bothering, they would never see them again.

Once having gotten the youths to break completely away from their usual ways of living, the chiefs of the cult would proceed to the second stage of their work. Along with physical punishment for the disobedient, they included a method of psychological influence, many hours of military marching, and special readings of literature and prayers. Special attention was paid above all to teaching the members of the cult a spirit of blind fanaticism and absolute submission to the chiefs of the TFP.

Some were sent abroad under the guise of tourism for the continuation of their “instruction.” Many did not return, but remained in special camps for military terrorist preparation in order to be later placed in the “international army of the TFP.” According  to their dogmas, on the day of the “terrible judgment of God,” when a great part of mankind is to die, the TFP will have to chastise the enemies who are left.

When details of these doubtful activities of the “kidnappers” appeared in the pages of the newspapers, an enormous wave of indignation rose up among Venezuelans. A special investigation carried out by members of the current National Congress showed that the activities of the TFP were unconstitutional and contradicted the laws of the republic. On November 14, the government of Venezuela decided to forbid the activities of the cult there. The leaders of the terrorist organization living in the Villa Morella will have to appear for trial.

(Signed) B. Spasskii, correspondent of Izvestia in Caracas.

COMMENTS OF THE TFP

(1) “Progressive forces”: These words designate, in communist jargon, either the Communist Party alone, or the CP and its cohort of auxiliary organizations under various labels, i.e. Trotskyites, socialists, populists, etc., and more recently, their valuable fellow-travelers of the “Catholic left.”

(2) On October 28, 1984, the well-known Madrid daily, ABC, published (pp. 56-57) an extensive and substantial report titled The Soviet Union Spends US $3 Billion Per Year to Poison the West. The article describes how the services of the KGB invest  fabulous sums of money to spread all kinds of false reports in the Western press. And on the same day, ABC comments on the editorial page (p. 15) that “the assassination of John Paul II (in St. Peter’s Square) was plotted in Moscow, and at any other time they may decide to assassinate any other chief of state. But in such a case, as in the attempt against the Pope’s life, they will say immediately afterwards through the journalistic terminals of the KGB, that it is a conspiracy of the extreme right.” (Emphasis is ours)

A word to the wise is sufficient.