“Guerrilla Filmmaking – a True Story” Part II

But it did make sense to do it; the country’s crisis wasn’t just a local problem – the dictatorial regime itself might be, but Venezuela was the fourth largest crude exporter in the world, which meant that a prolonged strike by PDVSA could trigger a North American energy crisis only comparable to that of the seventies. And that, folks, was enough to raise more than a few eyebrows; after all, oil was everything to everybody. But I wasn’t interested in fighting over a story already being covered by the zillion reporters sitting outside the hotel, or the political angle that nobody really cared about – like the struggles of the Venezuelan people or the blatant violations of their human rights. The only people that cared about that were the generals inside the hotel and the victims themselves – and there were not my buyers. And for that, the political angle was dead too.

 

So I had to think really hard. There had to be something else… something no one was writing about… something everyone would really cared about that wasn’t oil, money or related to local politics. A new angle… something dark that could work as both, news and entertainment – and it had to be powerful because if I was going to commit to doing it, it had better be something worth returning to Venezuela for – after all, I did have a half finished script waiting for me back in New York.

 

I went back to my parents’ home with a lot on my mind. Truth be told, I could just go back to NY and let this thing sort itself out; after all I had no buyer, just a bunch of crazy generals that needed somebody just as nuts as they were to go out and shoot the damn thing for them. So, I talked it over with my wife and parents, and everyone agreed it wasn’t worth doing it – that is, until I got a late night call from my contact; a call that would dramatically change the course of my life for the next three years.

 

As a storyteller one has to make decisions, and commit to stories you feel passionate about – I did not care enough about the oil and/or the political story; somebody else can write about that – but I did care about the following story; enough to risk my life for it and become what I thought would be the conduit to show the world that something sinister was happening right under everyone’s noses.

So I stopped thinking about leaving and started to listen to my contact’s story…

 

The man who wanted to talk to me was General Marcos Ferreira, the head of DIEX – Venezuela’s immigration department – and his objective was to announce to the world that Venezuela, a long ally of the United States, was now aiding and abetting terrorists; that the Chavez government was helping terrorists from Al Qaeda and Hezbollah travel to Venezuela, cool off under its protection, launder their identities and issue them official Venezuelan identity papers to be used in their travels to the United States; and that the case that triggered his investigation involved an Arab of “Venezuelan nationality” found to be a member of one of the groups behind the September 11 attacks currently hiding in Venezuela

 

How was this even possible? Can Venezuela really be a gateway to terrorists into the U.S.? And who the hell is this terrorist we’ve never heard of before? How come is he back in Venezuela and not rotting away in a U.S. maximum-security prison?

 

This is as crazy as anything I had ever heard. I remember my adrenaline starting to kick in and my heart race a thousand miles an hour! This is exciting, I thought! This is a story worth chasing down! And the kicker was, Ferreira knew exactly where this terrorist was hiding. All I needed to do was get him on camera and show the US government Chavez was behind it all. Could this be Chavez’ Achilles’ heel?

 

But chasing a government-protected terrorist would prove to be harder than even originally thought. This would not only place my ass in the crosshairs of lots of unsavory characters, but also lead me to the discovery of a well-oiled machine that systematically moves dangerous types from Venezuela into the U.S. – and these dangerous types I talk about? They currently live amongst us waiting for the right time to strike.

 

Please join me next week for the third installment of “Guerrilla Filmmaking”

 

Have a great week,