[Marita Lorenz]--My life changed the day my father was betrayed by the US government

VHeadline.com - My life changed the day my father was betrayed by the US government

Published: Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Bylined to: Monica Mercedes Perez Jimenez

My life changed overnight the day my father was betrayed by the US government

VHeadline's newest commentarist on the block writes: My name is Monica Mercedes Perez Jimenez and I am the daughter of President Marcos Perez Jimenez who was the Military Dictator of Venezuela from 1952 to 1958.

My mother is Marita Lorenz, a CIA agent sent by the US government to get cash from my father earmarked to help finance the US-backed anti-Castro movement ... the cash handover and subsequent liaison took place at my father's estate in Florida where he lived a comfortable life in exile.

I was born on March 9, 1962, in New York City. My earliest years were spent in relative comfort, living in a high rise apartment in Miami and later back in New York on the Upper East side. Life for my my mother and I was not too bad ... Marcos made sure that his "kept woman" and youngest daughter were comfortable, and held very separate from his wife and four legitimate daughters.

This all changed overnight the day that my father, Marcos Perez Jimenez was betrayed by the US government and extradited back to Venezuela on the orders of US Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and Secretary of State Dean Rusk.

* I now have no memories of my father ... but I was told that he was very fond of me and would take me around Miami in his convertible Mercedes roadster showing me off to his jet set friends.

I wish I could have remembered my father ... but maybe that was a good thing for, later in life, I would grow to understand that he was a lackey of the US government and US oil companies who were exploiting the huge oil reserves that lie under the lush rainforests of Venezuela.

For his cooperation he was given the Legion of Merit and was invited to 'black tie' galas in the Beltway and in Miami, while back in Venezuela thousands of people opposed to his regime simply disappeared, were tortured ... hundreds were systematically murdered and dumped in the back alleys of Caracas and the jungles by his new "oil-rich friends" in the US government and multinational oil conglomerates.

Many, including my father, profited from all this ... he stolen nearly a US$500,000,000with him on the midnight flight from Caracas after his ouster, right into the waiting hands of the US government.

* The money had the blood of thousands on it ... like so much oil money throughout history ... can you spell I-R-A-Q?

Things really do not change much in that business.

After his extradition from USA, my mother and I were left with nothing and went from comfort to misery overnight ... we lived from hand to mouth, barely getting by.

My mom's life was a dirty little secret of the CIA that would eventually catch up with her the day she was given a subpoena to appear before the Subcommittee on the Assassination of John F Kennedy on May 31, 1978 ... that day, our life became a living hell since my mother was a member of a covert CIA group that was led by Frank Sturgis and had ties with an individual known only as 'OZZY" a skinny weasel who you might know as Lee Harvey Oswald.

She was terrified to talk for already 14 people loosely connected to the assassination had met an untimely death due "natural causes." She knew she knew way too much and she was wide open to anything the government and its "contractors" -- another word for a CIA hired-gun -- could do to her. You can see this with all the privately contracted interrogators and hired guns working as "contractors" in Iraq ... when you do not directly work for an agency there is always "plausible deniability," if something does not go right ... history does repeat itself ... actually nothing has changed at all.

During this time my beloved grandmother met an untimely and sudden "natural death," my mother would receive midnight calls and threats telling her to say nothing at the hearing. She grew more distant from me and lived in secluded fear. I knew we were in great danger and decided unilaterally to take action ... my instincts told me that I had to protect us and at that time I acquired a small revolver.

A few days later Sturgis said he wanted to come by to "talk" to my mom. She was upstairs, helplessly terrified, but hopeful he just wanted to talk (without the ""). Unknown to my mom who thought I was at school, I lay in wait downstairs with the revolver and shot at Sturgis as he entered the apartment.

I did not even come close to hitting him but the next day my photo was on on the cover of the New York Daily News, and the NY Post as well as the NY Times ... Sturgis was later arrested for coercion and possession of a weapon at the time.

I left home after being expelled from my Catholic school and began to work waiting tables, working in retail and eventually had to go on welfare to live. I got involved in drugs, running with the wrong crowd, trying to find a father in every man I dated ... but he was never there.

After hitting rock bottom there are only two ways to go. I chose the right way and got involved in fitness and bodybuilding, eventually becoming a pioneering member of the women's bodybuilding community (competing in the first Miss Fitness World competition) and trained in dance and theater, even becoming a stunt woman.

Presently, I have an option for a feature movie and I'm in the process of writing a book as well as now, of course, contributing my thoughts on Venezuela past and present, here at VHeadline.com.

Monica Mercedes Perez Jimenez
monica.pj@vheadline.com