Venezuela
Gets The Florida Treatment
By Greg Palast
12 August, 2004
CommonDreams.org
Hugo
Chavez drives George Bush crazy. Maybe it's jealousy: Unlike Mr. Bush,
Chavez, in Venezuela, won his Presidency by a majority of the vote.
Or maybe it's the
oil: Venezuela sits atop a reserve rivaling Iraq's. And Hugo thinks
the US and British oil companies that pump the crude ought to pay more
than a 16% royalty to his nation for the stuff. Hey, sixteen percent
isn't even acceptable as a tip at a New York diner.
Whatever it is,
OUR President has decided that THEIR president has to go. This is none
too easy given that Chavez is backed by Venezuela's poor. And the US
oil industry, joined with local oligarchs, has made sure a vast majority
of Venezuelans remain poor.
Therefore, Chavez
is expected to win this coming Sunday's recall vote. That is, if the
elections are free and fair.
They won't be. Some
months ago, a little birdie faxed to me what appeared to be confidential
pages from a contract between John Ashcroft's Justice Department and
a company called ChoicePoint, Inc., of Atlanta. The deal is part of
the War on Terror.
Justice offered
up to $67 million, of our taxpayer money, to ChoicePoint in a no-bid
deal, for computer profiles with private information on every citizen
of half a dozen nations. The choice of which nation's citizens to spy
on caught my eye. While the September 11th highjackers came from Saudi
Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and the Arab Emirates, ChoicePoint's menu offered
records on Venezuelans, Brazilians, Nicaraguans, Mexicans and Argentines.
How odd. Had the CIA uncovered a Latin plot to sneak suicide tango dancers
across the border with exploding enchiladas?
What do these nations
have in common besides a lack of involvement in the September 11th attacks?
Coincidentally, each is in the throes of major electoral contests in
which the leading candidates -- presidents Lula Ignacio da Silva of
Brazil, Nestor Kirschner of Argentina, Mexico City mayor Andres Lopez
Obrador and Venezuela's Chavez -- have the nerve to challenge the globalization
demands of George W. Bush.
The last time ChoicePoint
sold voter files to our government it was to help Governor Jeb Bush
locate and purge felons on Florida voter rolls. Turns out ChoicePoint's
felons were merely Democrats guilty only of V.W.B., Voting While Black.
That little 'error' cost Al Gore the White House.
It looks like the
Bush Administration is taking the Florida show for a tour south of the
border.
However, when Mexico
discovered ChoicePoint had its citizen files, the nation threatened
company executives with criminal charges. ChoicePoint protested its
innocence and offered to destroy the files of any nation that requests
it.
But ChoicePoint,
apparently, presented no such offer to the government of Venezuela's
Chavez.
In Caracas, I showed
Congressman Nicolas Maduro the ChoicePoint-Ashcroft agreement. Maduro,
a leader of Chavez' political party, was unaware that his nation's citizen
files were for sale to U.S. intelligence. But he understood their value
to make mischief.
If the lists somehow
fell into the hands of the Venezuelan opposition, it could immeasurably
help their computer-aided drive to recall and remove Chavez. A ChoicePoint
flak said the Bush administration told the company they haven't used
the lists that way. The PR man didn't say if the Bush spooks laughed
when they said it.
Our team located
a $53,000 payment from our government to Chavez' recall organizers,
who claim to be armed with computer lists of the registered. How did
they get those lists? The fix that was practiced in Florida, with ChoicePoint's
help, deliberate or not, appears to be retooled for Venezuela, then
Brazil, Mexico and who knows where else.
Here's what it comes
down to: The Justice Department averts it's gaze from Saudi Arabia but
shoplifts voter records in Venezuela. So it's only fair to ask: Is Mr.
Bush fighting a war on terror -- or a war on democracy?
Greg Palast is author
of the New York Times bestseller, 'The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.'
This commentary is based on 'Tango Terrorists,' in the new chapter of
the book's Expanded Election Edition (Penguin 2004). For Palast's reports
on Venezuela for the Guardian of Britain and his exclusive interview
for BBC Television with President Hugo Chavez, go to www.GregPalast.com