Friday, August 13, 2004

Spirit of Simon Bolivar FEATURED ARTICLES - Big Test for Embattled Populist, by Juan Gonzalez, New York Daily News - Contingency Plot to Overthrow Venezuela's President, Venezuela Headline News - The War On Democracy, By Greg Palast, Alternet QUOTE OF THE DAY "Here is Venezuela in the spirit of the Liberator Simon Bolivar to say NO to Yanqui interventionism, to say no to Mr. Bush, to his invading, imperialist and colonial regime ... and we will tell him that here is the people of Simon Bolivar and we will keep on telling him." - - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias KNOW YOUR HISTORY - August 13th 1963 - - In Saigon, South Vietnam, a 67 year-old Buddhist monk protests war by burning himself to death. 2000 -- President Chavez of Venezuela held talks in Libya with Moammar Khadafy. RHINO HERE: This coming Sunday is the recall referendum in Venezuela on if the country will keep it's democratically elected President, Hugo Chavez Frias, in power.  Very few Americans are aware of the history being made there and the stakes involved for not only the Venezuelan people but potentially for the poor of all Latin American countries as well as George W. Shrub and his gang of neo-robber barons. The 3 articles I offer below provide a wide backdrop of the events unfolding. As Greg Palast writes in today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE entitled, The War On Democracy, "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 its 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?" Big Test for Embattled Populist by Juan Gonzalez, New York Daily News, August 12, 2004 'Chavez has the votes," William Camacaro from Queens predicted yesterday as he boarded a plane at Kennedy Airport for his homeland of Venezuela.  The war in Iraq may get all the press attention these days but for Camacaro and thousands of New York Latinos, this week's big story is Sunday's recall referendum in Venezuela, where voters will decide the fate of President Hugo Chavez.  Not since Fidel Castro in the 1960s has Latin America produced a more controversial figure than Chavez.  A charismatic former army paratrooper who won landslide elections in both 1998 and 2000, Chavez has moved ahead with a populist program to improve conditions for the 80% of Venezuelans who live in poverty. The nation's tiny upper and middle classes, long accustomed to milking the country's huge oil revenues, have mounted a furious resistance to what Chavez calls his Bolivarian revolution.  Aided by constant favorable coverage from the country's private media companies, opposition leaders have sought repeatedly to topple Chavez from power. Two years ago, they even launched a military coup that won the initial backing of the Bush administration before collapsing. Chavez barely survived that coup and several national strikes that followed, and he now faces another test in this referendum. The vote comes at a time, however, when his popularity is on the rebound. White House officials have never hidden their disdain for Chavez, and several of his opponents have received financial backing from U.S.-connected groups like the National Endowment for Democracy, but the Bush administration has had to tread lightly.  Venezuela, after all, is our nation's third-largest supplier of oil - even with Chavez in power... MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0812-15.htm CIA executives Gathered in Santiago de Chile Revealed in Contingency Plot to Overthrow Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez Frias Venezuela Headline News, August 9, 2004 Venezuela state-owned news agency VENPRES is quoting an El Mundo de Madrid (Spain) report that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is set to put a contingency plan in motion in the (likely) event that President Hugo Chavez Frias wins next weekend's Recall Referendum. The Madrid newspaper says that the White House strategy is to avoid a regional expansion of the President Hugo Chavez Frias 'Bolivarian Revolution' which is seen by Washington D.C. as a direct step into the kind of socialism espoused by many European nations and envisaged in the United States if John Kerry wrests control of the White House from the Bush 2 administration this coming fall. El Mundo says the CIA plan appears to concede a Chavez Frias victory next weekend "for good or bad" and that Langley spooks are already working on a strategy to "neutralize" Chavez Frias by fair means or foul. CIA under secretary for southern hemispherical affairs, William Spencer, has been drafted to Santiago de Chile to analyze the "Venezuelan situation" with CIA country directors from Colombia, Ecuador, Brasil and Peru. Spencer is reportedly convinced that Chavez Frias intends (no matter how fanciful) to create two centers of "revolutionary focus" in South America in preparation to overthrow Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez and Bolivia's Head of State, Carlos Mesa. MORE: http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id?356 8:52:10 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - The War On Democracy "SEND THIS ARTICLE TO A REPUBLICAN!" The War On Democracy By Greg Palast, AlterNet, Posted August 12, 2004 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. READ IT ALL: http://www.alternet.org/story/19530/ "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 8:20:07 AM    comment

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