Threats
To Hugo Chavez As Venezuela's December Presidential Election Approaches
By Stephen Lendman
02 November, 2006
Countercurrents.org
On
December 3, 2006 voters in Venezuela will again get to choose who'll
lead them as President for the next six years. There's no doubt who
that will be as the people's choice is the same man they first elected
their leader in December, 1998 with 56% of the vote and reelected him
in July, 2000 after the adoption of the Bolivarian Republic's new Constitution
with a 60% total. They then saw him survive three failed US-directed
and funded attempts to unseat him beginning with the aborted two-day
coup in April, 2002, followed by the 2002-03 crippling oil strike, and
then the failed August, 2004 recall referendum. Chavistas must believe
the man they revere has at least more six lives and will use one of
them in a few weeks to continue in the job the Venezuelan people won't
entrust to anyone else as long as he wants the job.
They may also hope he has
as much good fortune and as many lives as his friend and ally Fidel
Castro who in nearly 48 years as Cuba's leader survived over 5,700 US-directed
terror attacks against his country and about 600 US attempts to kill
him - an astonishing survival record against a powerful and determined
foe still trying to remove him to reinstate oligarchic rule over the
island state. The Bush administration has the same fate in mind for
Hugo Chavez Frias and won't sit by quietly allowing Bolivarianism to
flourish and spread which it's doing as more people in the region and
beyond are fed up with the old order and want the same benefits Venezuelans
have. It's playing out now in Bolivia, on the streets of Mexico and
in the run-up to the December 3 Venezuelan presidential election where
the people show up in massive numbers most every time Chavez makes a
public campaign appearance.
Since beginning his presidency
in February, 1999, Hugo Chavez and his Movement for the Fifth Republic
Party (MVR) have transformed Venezuela from an oligarchy serving the
rich and powerful to a model democratic state serving all the people.
From the start, Chavez kept his campaign promise and began implementing
his vision for political and social change. He held a national referendum
through which the people decided to convene a National Constituent Assembly
to draft a new Constitution that was overwhelmingly approved in a nationwide
vote in December, 1999. It became effective a year later, changed the
country's name to the Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela, and mandated
Hugo Chavez's broad revolutionary vision for a system of participatory
democracy based on the principles of political, economic and social
justice. Ever since, the people of Venezuela haven't looked back and
won't now tolerate a return to the ugly past they'll never again accept
willingly.
The Chavez Campaign
Hugo Chavez began his reelection
campaign by registering his candidacy at the National Electoral Council
(CNE) on August 12, affirming his confidence in the country's electoral
process and saying that his campaign "must be above all a debate
about ideas, an opportunity to elevate the level of debate and the political
culture." Afterwards he addressed many thousands of his red-shirted
supporters in Caracas Square and told them the "Bolivarian hurricane"
was beginning with a goal of achieving 10 million votes that would assure
a convincing electoral victory in a nation of 27 million people and
just over 16 million registered voters according to the CNE as of September
4. If he achieves it, he'll have gotten the highest ever vote total
in the country's history. He sounded an optimistic note adding "The
Bolivarian hurricane will become a million hurricanes in all corners
of the country, carrying forward the Bolivarian project and defending
the revolution."
Two polls out in September
indicate he may be on track toward his goal although their results show
a wide variance. Datanalisis reported Chavez had a voter preference
of 58.2% (41% ahead of his closest rival) while IVAD's percentage was
76.9%. And the most recent October University of Miami School of Communication/Zogby
International poll shows Chavez with a 59% voter support compared to
24% for his only serious rival, Manuel Rosales (discussed more fully
below). The Zogby poll also gave Chavez an overwhelmingly popular approval
rating among Venezuelan voters based on his job performance. If the
median between these poll results is closest to the right number on
December 3 and the voter turnout is high enough, that would translate
to a stunning victory for Hugo Chavez whether or not it's with the 10
million vote total he hopes to get.
Chavez's current overwhelming
popularity is consistent with the results of the Chilean firm Latinobarometro
interviews conducted with 20,000 Latin Americans in 18 countries in
2005. It found a higher percentage of Venezuelans calling their government
"totally democratic" than any other nationality surveyed as
well as Venezuelans expressing the highest degree of optimism about
their country's future in the region. These results contrast to the
pre-Chavez era when the country was ruled by oligarchs, ordinary people
had no political rights and the level of poverty was extreme enough
to cause street riots the government chose to violently suppress. Hugo
Chavez changed all that, and he's campaigning now on his Bolivarian
record of accomplishment that made him a national hero to most Venezuelans
who only want him as their President as long as he wants the job.
Chavez's plan to continue
in office is part of his "Miranda Campaign" to go beyond the
traditional party structure by forming local "platoons" of
the "Miranda Campaign Command" across the country. It began
with the swearing in of 11,358 battalions and 44,698 squads nationwide
to mobilize all Venezuelans to vote on election day and to supervise
and handle security, logistics, vote tabulation and other aspects of
the voting process. Overall the aim is to bring together 200,000 grassroots
leaders of the Revolution who then will be assigned the task of convincing
10 others to vote for Chavez that would mean 2 million votes if successful.
In addition, other organizations representing social sectors, workers,
peasants, women, small business owners and indigenous groups will be
mobilized to support the campaign to build the "new socialism of
the 21st century." Chavez also wants to hold a nationwide recall
referendum half way through his next term in 2010, if he's reelected,
to let the Venezuelan people decide f the Constitution should be amended
to eliminate the current two-term presidential time in office limit.
He also announced his Simon Bolivar National Project which includes
the following:
-- a new socialist ethic
especially against corruption
-- a new socialist productive
model expanding the social economy
-- a revolutionary protagonist
democracy under which the highest priority would be power to the people
including through communal councils
-- the Bolivarian ideal of
supreme social happiness
-- a new internal geopolitics
(focused on internal development)
-- a new international geopolitics
based on a multipolar world focused against US hegemony, and
-- assuring Venezuela is
a global energy power by developing its Orinoco Belt extra-heavy reserves
and raising its daily oil production to six million barrels daily
Hugo Chavez was greeted on
September 1 by tens of thousands of supporters after returning from
his international diplomatic tour. He went seeking to establish and
solidify alliances and gain support for Venezuela's campaign for the
Latin American seat on the Security Council for which voting began on
October 16 in the General Assembly but that has been deadlocked since
because of US coercive tactics. Chavez told his supporters "This
is an election (for president) on whether we want to continue to be
an independent republic or return to being a North American colony."
He added: "For the first time in history, Venezuela is occupying
a privileged position in the world, a position of respect....because
we defend with a clear voice the interests of the countries of the Third
World and the sovereignty of the peoples." Chavez has a lot of
support to do it from most Venezuelans and the 25 political organizations
that nominated him including the MVR's coalition partner Patria Para
Todas, Podemos and several smaler parties. But Chavez also knows what
he's up against, and said he is "the candidate of the revolution....and
the national majority (and that other candidates are) tools of the US
government. In this electoral process there are two candidates only,
namely Hugo Chavez and George W. Bush."
On September 9, Chavez's
electoral campaign battalions and platoons were sworn in as part of
his "Miranda campaign" to confront "North American imperialism."
It was done at a huge rally and march of hundreds of thousands of supporters
in Caracas. Chavez used the occasion to propose the formation of a single
united political party of the Bolivarian Revolution to be formed in
2007 after the upcoming election. In a speech he called for unity to
further "consolidate and strengthen" the spirit of Bolivarianism.
He said he wanted it to be the "great party of the Bolivarian Revolution
(and that) it should represent the republic and the revolution to the
world and establish the strongest connections with the greatest revolutionary
parties throughout the world."
The Opposition
A final unknown number of
the currently 18 or so announced candidates will be on the ballot on
December 3 opposing Hugo Chavez, but only one is of consequence because
the US picked and backs him - Zulia state governor (who by law should
have relinquished his office to run for president but for whom the CNE
made an exception and allowed him to remain in office) and regional
Un Nuevo Tiempo party member Manuel Rosales. The other more prominent
ones, including Primero Justicia candidate Julio Borges, dropped out
to unite behind him as the main standard-bearer of the opposition thus
ruling out a primary the US-funded right wing NGO Sumate planned to
hold but then cancelled.
It still remains to be seen
what strategy the opposition will decide on or even which, if any, of
them will show up on election day. Already Accion Democratica, Venezuela's
largest opposition party in size of membership, at first refused to
back any candidate. The AD's General Secretary, Henry Ramos Allup, said
the only option is to abstain from the election and that Rosales, Borges
(before he dropped out of the race) and other candidates are "like
drunks fighting over an empty bottle." Others in his party disagree
though calling for an exercise of "democratic resistance."
Still it's clear to all in the opposition, Chavez is so far ahead in
the polls there's no chance anyone can defeat him in a free, fair and
open election so it's likely Rosales was chosen to run with something
else in mind, and his strategy will show it as the campaign unfolds
and especially as election day approaches.
Clearly the US had the final
say in picking him for whatever strategy is planned that may have a
lot to do with the fact that he's the governor of the state of Zulia
that has 40% of Venezuela's oil and where in the past energy elites
there supported the state's independence to free it from the government
in Caracas. Rosales also favors this idea (likely with a little coaxing
from his US allies) and has called for a referendum to let the people
of Zulia decide. He's also very close to the Bush administration and
was the only governor to sign the infamous "(Pedro) Carmona Estanga
Decree" after the 2002 coup that dissolved the elected National
Assembly and Supreme Court and effectively ended the Bolivarian Revolution
and all the benefits it gave the Venezuelan people (for two days).
Rosales' electoral plan,
with considerable US National Endowment for Democracy (NED)-funded through
Sumate support, should become clear close to or right after the December
3 election if he's able to win a majority of the votes in his own state.
He may then try to go ahead with an independence referendum, claim fraud
in the rest of the country, and make plans to declare himself president
of the independent state of Zulia if he, in fact, moves to break away
and form it. The Chavez government, of course, will never accept this,
and the Sumate/Rosales/Bush administration opposition may use this as
as justification to confront it violently when any attempt is made to
stop them. This could provide the US a pretext it may be seeking to
intervene militarily for whatever reasons it gives such as protecting
the lives of US citizens and defending democracy and human rights. If
it happens, it would be the same kind of stunt Ronald Reagan used to
invade Grenada in 1983 and GHW Bush used to do the same thing agains
Panama in 1989. On both those occasions, the US acted against leaders
who never threatened the US or its citizens. They were forcibly deposed
solely because they were unwilling to obey "the lord and master
of the universe" from el norte. The same scenario may be planned
for Venezuela after the upcoming election. It won't be long before we
find out.
Another possible strategy
planned may be similar to what happened in the 2005 National Assembly
elections. When it was clear then the major opposition candidates couldn't
win, they dropped out claiming fraud that didn't exist. It was a cheap
transparent stunt decided on a few days before the vote as a way to
avoid a humiliating defeat, but it gave the corporate-run media a chance
to trumpet their black propaganda and characterize a free and fair election
as tainted. The tone out of Washington is always antagonistic and grabbed
on to this and at other times with oxymoronic language like Venezuela
under Chavez is an "authoritarian democracy, an elected authoritarianism,
a threat to democracy, (and) an elected dictatorship," all of it
said without a touch of irony. It also gave the opposition a chance
to chime in and say voter turnout was low (mostly because opposition
supporters had no one to vote for and stayed home) and the results thus
had no legitimacy. So it organized street demonstrations in upscal neighborhoods
and suburbs to create a false sense of turmoil and disorder.
There was also evidence uncovered
at the time that violence was planned for around the time of the election
to create unrest and further delegitimate the results. This is how an
oligarchy puppet regime in the wings allied with the power structure
in Washington operates. They have no respect for the law or norms of
conduct and will use any means including murder to try to regain the
power they lost to Hugo Chavez democratically. There's no doubt schemes
have already been cooked up quietly that will be sprung between now
and the election period. Already on September 2, Caracas Diario Vea
reported it learned about a plot involving the right wing opposition.
It's called Plan Alcatraz and is aimed at making unacceptable demands
on the National Electoral Council (CNE) sure to be rejected so as to
allege fraud and then organize street actions in protest including occupying
CNE offices. Manuel Rosales is part of the scheme to lead the protests
but he'd have to withdraw from the race to do it, which so far hes unwilling
to do. He has been willing to consult with representatives of the Bush
administration and met with them recently on a trip he made to south
Florida where he reportedly met with the president's brother, Governor
Jeb Bush.
Colombian right wing paramilitaries
are also known to be involved and would be brought in to commit terrorist
attacks along the border and in other parts of the country. If that
happens, it won't be the first time as this tactic has been used before
and foiled by Venezuelan police when a plot was uncovered and arrests
were made. This kind of state-directed terrorism should come as no surprise
to those familiar with the government and ideological position of Colombian
President Alvaro Uribe that's hard right and in line with neocon Bush
administration policy. Uribe comes from a wealthy land-owning family,
has a history of links to the country's paramilitary death squads and
drug cartels, and engaged in state terrorism in the various government
positions he held for over 20 years that included kidnappings and assassinations
of trade unionists, peasants in opposition groups, social and human
rights activists, journalists and others. He's also committed gross
violations of Venezuelan sovereignty and apparenly still is doing it
egged on by his US ally. In spite of it, or maybe in praise for it,
the Wall Street Journal calls Uribe "(maybe) the most clear-thinking,
courageous ally in the war on terror that the US has in Latin America."
The Journal writer would have been right if she changed the preposition
"on" to "of," and the adjectives "courageous"
to "outrageous," and "clear-thinking" to "obedient."
In spite of his dubious background,
Uribe was elected and then reelected the country's president (in elections
heavily tainted with fraud) and was the only South American leader to
support the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq. He even invited
the US to "invade" Colombia to help it double the size of
its military and supply it with weapons and intelligence. He already
benefits hugely from the billions of dollars his government gets in
"Plan Colombia" military aid that's used to fight the FARC
and ELN resistance and has little to do with its supposed aim to eradicate
coca cultivation except in areas controlled by those two groups. He's
now the Bush administration's strongest and most subservient ally in
the region, and thus it backs the right Uribe claims he has to intervene
militarily in violation of another country's sovereignty - with bordering
Venezuela as the main target.
Reports are increasing that
Uribe is directing his policy of state terrorism against Venezuela by
continuing to send Colombian paramilitary hired assassins illegally
across the border. They're apparently responsible for a large number
of deaths in the countryside, and some have even infiltrated into metropolitan
Caracas. High profile figures are also becoming targets as was state
prosecutor Danilo Anderson who was killed in a December, 2004 car bombing
likely because he headed an investigation of the hundreds of individuals
(all from the opposition) suspected of being involved in the 2002 aborted
coup attempt. More recently National Assembly (AN) for the Movement
for the Fifth Republic, campesino leader, and Chavez supporter Braulio
Alvarez escaped a second assassination attempt when his car was attacked
and riddled with bullets. Alvarez is working with the government to
implement its land reform law that redistributes large, underused land
from the latifundistas (large land owners) to landless campesins that
surely is angering the rich landowners who now with Uribe's help are
striking back.
One of Hugo Chavez's top
priorities when first taking office in 1999 was land reform in a country
run by oligarchs including rich land owners. He's been determined to
rectify the inequality of land distribution the 1997 agricultural census
revealed - that 5% of the largest landowners control 75% of the land
and 75% of the smallest ones only 6% of it. His plan led to the current
confrontation, but Hugo Chavez is now responding more forcefully and
on August 18 announced the creation of civilian/military security units
in the large farms that have been taken over in Barinas, Apure and Tachina
states. He's doing it to combat the wave of kidnappings and assassinations
especially in areas bordering Colombia that are linked to paramilitary
death squads infiltrating into the country. They likely are dispatched
by Alvaro Uribe and are employed by the latifundistas. Tachina has been
particularly hard hit by this invasion as the number of killings there
rose from 81 in 1999 to 93 in 2001, 212 in 2002 and explodedto 566 in
2005 for a total of 2037 deaths in the last seven years. In addition,
the Caracas Daily Ultimas Noticias reported in July that 70% of businesses
in Tachina bordering Colombia have to pay the paramilitaries a vacuna
(vaccine) as protection money to keep from being attacked.
All this is mounting evidence
that Hugo Chavez has every reason to fear the Colombian president and
sees his close ties to the Bush administration as part of a greater
strategy to provoke a confrontation giving the US a pretext to intervene
to try to oust and assassinate him. This also seems to be Uribe's aim
as Colombia and Venezuela share a common border, and he fears for his
own survival in a country plagued by poverty and violence. Uribe has
an ugly record supporting the concentration of wealth and power while
cutting vitally needed social services. He's also allowed his military
and paramilitary assassins to displace three million peasants, has one
of the worst records of state-directed terrorism in the world, and has
a long-term disregard for democracy and human rights. Just across the
border his people can see how the Bolivarian Revolution has benefitted
Venezuelans and many of them have emigrated there to take advantage
of it. It's hard to imagine those staying behind don't want the same
thingsand may one day act in their own self-interest to demand them.
Hugo Chavez also needs to
be wary of the major new base the US is building in Mariscal Estigarribia,
Paraguay, 200 kilometers from the Bolivian border even though it's far
south of Venezuela. Reportedly the base will be able to handle large
aircraft and house up to 16,000 troops. Since July, 2005 small numbers
of fully-equipped US forces have been in Paraguay and have been conducting
secretive operations there. It's led some military analysts and human
rights groups to suspect an interventionist operation is planned, likely
directed at Bolivia and its president Evo Morales some of whose policies
mirror those of his friend and ally Hugo Chavez. But with enough troops
and long-range large aircraft in the region, the base could also be
used as a staging area for an operation anywhere within its range that
easily could include Venezuela. The human rights group Servicio Paz
y Justicia (SERPAJ) in Paraguay believes the US wants the country to
be what Panama once was, and to be able to operate there to contro the
southern cone region of the continent.
It's also been reported that
George Bush recently bought a 98,842 acre farm in Paraguay to go along
with the 173,000 acres his father already owns there. Both properties
border Bolivia and Brazil and comprise 2.7% of the whole country that
comprises an area the size of the state of California. It's not known
what the Bush family has in mind there or whether it may have any connection
to a planned US military intervention in the region. It is known Paraguay
has no laws criminalizing money-laundering, anti-terrorism or terrorist
financing even though if does have an extradition treaty with the US.
It's also important to be mindful of the fact that a dominant US family
of two US presidents now owns a sizable piece of real estate in a country
able to domicile a large number of US forces. It may only be for whatever
personal use they have in mind, but it may not be and we can only speculate
on what that may be.
We don't have to speculate
that the US also has another major military base in Manta, Ecuador that's
much closer to Venezuela on Colombia's southern border and is part of
the US's increasing militarization of the southern continent. The Pentagon
says it's tasked to carry out a variety of security-related missions,
but that's just code language for interventionist ones. Ecuadorian presidential
hopeful, Rafael Correa, who'll now face a runoff vote on November 26
after a tainted first round spoiled his victory, responded to a question
recently that he'd allow the base to remain in his country provided
the Bush administration gave Ecuador the same basing rights in Miami.
But even if this base is closed, the US is currently building another
new one in the Dutch colony of Curacao (a popular vacation destination
that will be tainted by it) that's located near the Venezuelan coast
and near the oil-rich state of Zulia.
It remains to be seen if
he'll follow through if he wins the presidency, but one positive development
to watch is Paraguay's decision not to renew a defense cooperation agreement
with the US for 2007 because it's unwilling to grant US troops immunity
from prosecution by the International Criminal Court in the Hague (ICC).
The Court was established to assure perpetrators of war crimes, crimes
against humanity and genocide are brought to justice. Foreign Minister
Ruben Ramirez announced his country's decision on October 2 saying his
government concluded under international treaty law, exceptions to immunity
are only permissible for foreign diplomats and administrative personnel.
Paraguay is a member of the South American Mercosur trade block that
also includes Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela. These countries
have also refused to grant US troops such immunity in another sign the
US is losing influence in the region as more leaders in it are standing
firm against unreasonable demands from Washingtonas well as its failed
policies. Hopefully the spirit and influence of Hugo Chavez is spreading.
US Intervention in
Venezuela's Political Process - Again
It's no secret the Bush administration
wants to oust Hugo Chavez, has already tried and failed three times
to do it, and is now planning another attempt at whatever time and by
whatever means it has in mind. It may be staged in connection with the
upcoming December election and likely will be a reworked version of
what was tried earlier and failed but this time with some new twists
and going further than before.
Hugo Chavez knows it's coming,
has taken steps to counter it when it does, and has a hard-to-trump
ace in his deck - the many millions of Venezuelans who've already shown
they'll come out in force to support him, especially if the stakes are
to keep him as their president. Chavez witnessed some of that support
when he spoke at an October mass rally in Valencia in the state of Carabobo
and sounded the alarm about the Bush administration's plot to destabilize
the election and assassinate him. He indicated to the crowd that "friendly
nations" have warned him about this and said: "With God's
favour this will not happen, but if it (did) you know what you would
have to do; the Bolivarian Revolution at this stage does not depend
on one man." Chavez also said he's preparing for what he expects
will happen and "we are going to hit back so hard that they will
not stop running until they reach Miami. Chavez may not have long to
wait to find out if his plan can best the one Washington has cooked
up.
In the lead-up to whatever
is planned, the Bush administration is relying on the usual kind of
covert mischief from the CIA that specializes in it. It's been at it
all over the world for nearly 50 years and in Venezuela since Hugo Chavez
was first elected. Author and international human rights attorney Eva
Golinger obtained top-secret CIA documents through Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) requests showing the Agency had prior knowledge and was complicit
in the two-day 2002 aborted coup attempt to unseat President Chavez
and that the Bush administration provided over $30 million in funding
aid to opposition groups to help do it.
It began in 2001 involving
the same quasi-governmental agencies that are always part of these kinds
of schemes - the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), International
Republican Institute (IRI), National Democratic Institute (NDI), and
US Agency for International Development (USAID) which did its work through
its Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI). These agencies funded and
worked with the opposition staging mass violent street protests leading
up to the day of the coup. The documents also showed NED and USAID funded
and were otherwise involved in staging the 2002-03 crippling oil strike
and the failed August, 2004 recall referendum. The US State Department,
National Security Agency (NSA) and White House had full knowledge of
and had to have approved each coup attempt.
Most people have some idea
how the CIA operates covertly but few know much about the National Endowment
for Democracy that was (in language Orwell would have loved) established
to "support democratic institutions throughout the world through
private, nongovernmental efforts." If fact, its very much a part
of government and its purpose is to be the somewhat overt counterpart
to the CIA, and in that capacity its hands are almost as dirty as the
spy agency short of having actual blood on them. The one objective it
pursues above all others is the subversion of democracy including supporting
the removal of democratically elected leaders unwilling to allow their
countries to become submissive US client states.
It's already been learned
from information made public, including NED Quarterly Reports, that
this agency actively supports anti-Chavez organizations in Venezuela
and that removal of Hugo Chavez is one of its top priorities. It will
also be reported soon in a new book by Eva Golinger called Bush v. Chavez:
Washington's War on Venezuela that the Bush administration since 2005
has increased its (anti-Chavez) "interference by providing funding,
training, guidance, and other contacts, and other strategically important
ways to support the opposition's presidential campaign here." Golinger
also reports the US anti-Chavez campaign includes the use of "psychological
warfare within Venezuela, but also in the international arena, and in
the United States." It's trying "to make people think that
Venezuela is a failed or failing state with a dictator, which is how
the US government refers to him."
NED is an old hand at this
kind of dirty business since it was established in November, 1982 by
statute as a supposedly private non-profit organization. It's hardly
that as Congress approves its funding as part of the Department of State
budget going to its sister USAID agency. NED also gets some private
aid from several well-known right wing organizations including supportive
think tanks that provide considerable funding for ultraconservative
and business-friendly enterprises.
USAID has considerably greater
resources than NED to pursue its activities which supposedly are to
function as an independent federal agency providing non-military foreign
aid. In fact, however, it's a thinly disguised instrument of US foreign
policy able to do its dirty work while avoiding congressional scrutiny.
It, like NED, has in the past been an instrument of US efforts to oust
Hugo Chavez, and in the run-up to the December election is likely to
be working with the opposition again as it was learned it did in the
other three attempts to oust the Venezuelan leader. We'll have to wait
to learn more about what schemes CIA, NED, USAID and other US-related
agencies are planning until they begin unfolding or are exposed in advance
and are headed off before any harm is done.
The Role of Sumate
Sumate is a nominal non-governmental
organization (NGO) founded in 2002 by a group of Venezuelans led by
Maria Corina Machado and Alejandro Plaz and now headed by Ms. Machado.
It's true purpose and activities belie the claims it makes to be an
organization of independent citizens supporting the democratic process
and promoting the political rights of Venezuelans under the country's
Constitution. In fact, it's a US-supported and funded anti-governmental
organization dedicated to the overthrow of the Chavez government and
the return of the country to its ugly past ruled by the former oligarchs
and the interests of capital.
In the US this kind of activity
or any foreign interference in elections would never be tolerated. US
election law specifically prohibits foreign nationals or corporations
from contributing to any federal, state or local political campaign,
and it would be unthinkable to imagine there being any tolerance if
it was learned a foreign government attempted to influence the electoral
process here. None of this, however, applies to what the US does all
over the world rountinely. At least post WW II, this country has a tainted
history of meddling in the affairs of other countries almost like we
had a birthright to do it. Put another way, according to "Washington-think,"
what's good for the US "goose" isn't allowed for any other
country's "gander."
It's thus no surprise Sumate
went on the Bush administration payroll when it first gained prominence
in late 2003 becoming involved in organizing and providing support for
the 2004 failed recall referendum signature collection process. Ever
since it's been at the center of anti-Chavez activities and is liberally
funded to do it by US agencies like NED and USAID. As mentioned above,
it cancelled a primary it planned to hold after the main opposition
candidates dropped out so Manuel Rosales could run unopposed against
Hugo Chavez in the December election. It's now moving ahead with the
help of millions of dollars of Washington-supplied opposition candidate
bankrolling. This was recently revealed in 132 USAID contracts made
public that claimed the funding to be politically neutral but which
Hugo Chavez believes is being used overtly and covertly to undermine
his government. USAID and NED now admit they're spending (at least)
$26 million on the December election, and those organizations never
support democatically elected leaders running for office who don't obey
US neoliberal diktats.
Chavez has lots of past experience
to back up his claim of US interference and an added new one now after
the Bush administration named career CIA agent Patrick Maher as the
"mission manager" to oversee US intelligence on Venezuela
and Cuba. His previous job was as deputy director of the CIA's Office
of Policy Support and his background includes having been an architect
of the counter-insurgency strategy in Colombia as well as managing the
agency's operations in the Caribbean region. William Izarra, a former
MVR Party leader and the national coordinator of the Centres for Ideological
Formation that organizes grassroots discussions about the Bolivarian
Revolution, believes this move elevates Venezuela and Cuba into the
"axis of evil" category along with Iran and North Korea, and
that heightens the risk of trouble ahead.
The Chavez government knows
something is afoot and is taking preventive action by having Venezuelan
prosecutors bring conspiracy charges against Sumate leaders. If convicted,
Maria Corina Machado could face up to 16 years in prison, and three
other Sumate members also face charges. The National Assembly also intends
to require "non-profit" groups like Sumate to reveal their
funding sources. In addition, it's recommending Sumate be investigated
for currency and tax law violations, and Chavez has threatened to expel
US Ambassador William Brownfield whom he accuses of causing trouble
as he's done in the past. All this is playing out in a highly-charged
atmosphere of mistrust that's well-founded according to Eva Golinger
who wrote "The Chavez Code: Cracking US Intervention in Venezuela."
The book cited clear evidence of the Bush administration's intent to
overthrow the Chavez government, and Golinger recently said Washington
is "trying to implement regime change. There's no doubt about it
(even though it) ries to mask it saying it's a noble mission."
The Prospect for
Fall Fireworks in Venezuela
The Bush administration must
believe while it's often wrong it's never in doubt. It's already dealing
with two out of control conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and has blood-stained
hands from its complicity with Israel on their co-sponsored conflicts
against Lebanon and the one still raging in Palestine. Undeterred, it
seems determined to become even more embroiled in the Middle East by
planning a possible attack against Iran according to some reliable reports
(or at least putting up a good bluff to do it), even though the US public
has grown disenchanted with George Bush's wars and it shows in his low
public approval rating. He's even now drawing flack within his own party,
and many Republican candidates for Congress on November 7 see him as
radioactive and don't want him around. So why would this administration
be willing to risk making things even worse by trying to forcibly remove
a democratically elected leader revered by his people who will never
stand by and allow their Bolivarian Revolution to e taken away from
them.
Here's why. Soon after the
Bush administration came to power, Vice President (and de facto head
of state) Dick Cheney said the US must "make energy security a
(top) priority of our trade and foreign policy." The Iraq and Afghanistan
wars followed what, in fact, was "boss" Cheney's diktat with
control of energy and its security one of several key reasons why we're
now embroiled in the greater Middle East.
Now fast forward to June,
2006 and it gets more chilling. The US Southern (military) Command in
Latin America (that has no business meddling in affairs of state) concluded
that efforts by Venezuela, Bolivia and Equador to extend state control
over their oil and gas reserves threatens US oil security. A study it
conducted states: "A re-emergence of state control of the energy
sector (in those countries) will likely increase inefficiencies and....will
hamper efforts to increase long-term supplies and production."
Even though the region produces only 8.4% of the world's oil output,
it accounts for 30% of US consumption, and most of that comes from Venezuela
and Mexico with each of these countries supplying about an equal percentage
of our needs.
A secure supply and firm
control of oil from the region is crucial to the US, but most of all
from Venezuela because of its vast reserves (including its immense untapped
amount of Orinco Basin super-heavy tar oil) that potentially are even
greater than what's now available from Saudi Arabia - although that's
debatable and merely suggesting it will open up a torrent of disagreement
that may be right. Still, Venezuela, by any measure, has the greatest
hydrocarbon reserves in the hemisphere, and that makes the country and
Hugo Chavez target number one in this part of the world for US energy
security importance and second only after the greater Middle East that
includes the Caspian Basin in Central Asia. Couple that with the fact
that the US sees Hugo Chavez as the greatest of all threats it faces
anywhere - a good example that may and is spreading throughout the region
threatening US dominance over it and you have a recipe for a determined
effort to oust him by any means including assassination and armed intrvention.
Chavez, of course, knows
the risk and so do the Venezuelan people who proved in 2002 they will
rally en masse as they did then to restore their president to office
after the US-staged two-day April coup that year briefly removed him.
It's certain any attempt to oust him again will be met with the same
resistance, and it's hard to imagine how intense it may be if the US
succeeds in killing him. There's no question Washington wants to avoid
six more years of Chavez rule and officials there have said it in so
many words. They call Hugo Chavez "a clear and present danger to
peace and democracy in the hemisphere (and) US strategy must be to help
Venezuela accomplish peaceful change (before 2007)." Heinz Dieterich,
a Chavez consultant, believes, as does Hugo Chavez, the Bush administration
is plotting to assassinate him to prevent his serving another term in
office.
So far there's been nothing
more dramatic than the usual US Chavez-bashing especially after his
September 20 tour de force at the UN General Assembly when the Venezuelan
President had the courage to say what most other world leaders think
but only speak about privately. The Bush administration responds claiming
the Chavez government is a dictatorship that supports terrorism. It
also unjustifiably accuses him suppressing the media and repressing
his opposition, and it's guaranteed a Chavez victory will be challenged
with outrageous accusations of electoral fraud arranged by a state-controlled
CNE.
The truth on all counts is
the opposite of the rhetoric, yet the vitriol continues unabated from
Washington and is heard over the corporate-controlled media in both
countries. What should be reported (but never is) is that the fairness
of the Venezuelan electoral system shames the corrupted one in the US
that's now run by corporate-owned and controlled electronic voting machines
manipulated to assure enough business-friendly candidates win even when
they're not the choice of the majority of US voters. Venezuela has real
democracy while what's called that in the US is just a shameless mirage
of one - an illusion the public hasn't caught onto yet. The Venezuelan
people know the difference between that and the real thing and will
fight to keep it. Sadly, most people in the US are kept uninformed,
don't know what they've lost, and can't even imagine the kind of country
they'd have if they had an enlightened leader like Hugo Chavez instead
of the appalling one they're stuck with for two more years.
Things are certain to heat
up in Venezuela between now and December 3 as the Bush administration
tries to impose on the Venezuelan people what's it's already done here
at home, and it will be relentless and ruthless about the way it does
it. And if covert efforts are afoot, as almost for sure they are, we'll
likely see them unveiled during the election period and they may be
ugly. Hugo Chavez expects them, is surely ready to confront them when
they're sprung, and it now remains to be seen how the latest chapter
in the Bush administration vs. Hugo Chavez will play out. Stay closely
tuned. It won't be long before the fireworks begin.
Stephen Lendman
lives in Chicago and can be reached at [email protected].
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Leave
A Comment
&
Share Your Insights