Despite US and Corporate Media support for the illegal coup
plotters, the people and Hugo Chávez refuse to budge. Lula to the rescue - or
OAS War Crimes?
On Monday, Gen. Julio Garcia Montoya, the head of the army, appeared to be
preparing the ground for a possible suspension of the constitution. The general
denounced the near-total shutdown of the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de
Venezuela SA, by dissident executives and technicians as "sabotage against the
principal source of wealth in Venezuela." http://www.vheadline.com/p1
"It's time to show the Bush Administration and its marionette "mediator" in
Venezuela - Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American
States (OAS) - what Authentic Democracy sounds like!" Al Giordano, Narco News
"The national and international media have been the most important
instruments of this coup d' etat orchestrated by the wealthy elite classes with
the direct support of the United States." - Maximilien Averlaiz, Caracas April,
2002. [Here we go again…] (http://www.anncol.com/april/1304EYEWITNESS-THE-PLOT.htm)
CLASS CONFLICT AND LESSONS FROM VENEZUELA – Hugo Chávez y La Gente v. Spoiled
Brats and US-Global Corporate Hege-Money – By Karmen Selis, reporter at large,
Andes Libre News Service.
The attempts against Venezuelan democracy by the upper class and the US
intelligence agencies may become a problem in other countries like Brazil and
Ecuador. Just as the right wing in the US has adopted the get-out-the-vote
tactics of the US left, similarly in Latin America, the middle and upper classes
there can use protest tactics to cause disruption and bad publicity for leftist
governments with staged media events and hyped-up lock-outs masquerading as
popular general strikes.
Read Their Lips: Sixteen members of the US Congress want Bush to say he
“opposes any attempt to remove the democratically elected government of
Venezuela by a military coup or other unconstitutional means … the White House
should affirm that the United States would not have normal diplomatic relations
with a coup-installed government.”
They are concerned that the US is again deeply involved in a Venezuelan coup
much as it was in April – and historically all over Latin America.
Bush says: “We note the Secretary General's recent public warning on the need
to negotiate soon, in the next few days, or risk further polarization that could
erupt into violence… The United States is convinced that the only peaceful and
politically viable path to moving out of the crisis is through the holding of
early elections.”
Early elections are not constitutional or legal.
Chávez says: "I will not give in to blackmail nor pressures of any kind. I
swear to you that I will be with the people my entire life. You brought me here
and you are the only ones who can get rid of me. Nobody else is going to take me
out of here." December 7, 2002. (http://www.narconews.com/)
Uruguayan congressman, Jose Nayardi, says that he has information implicating
the CIA in a long planned coup attempt against President Chávez. He says that
the Venezuelan media is full of lies and the whole situation worries him and
reminds one of Chile in 1973. December 12, 2002 (http://www.vheadline.com/0212/14248.asp)
The CIA has nothing to say.
My girlfriend in Maracay, Venezuela says: “Chávez is winning on all sides and
the longer the Paro (phony strike) goes on, the longer the people suffer and
dirty the name of the opposition. Chávez saw it all coming and is sticking it to
them hard by doing nothing now… just letting the spoiled ones ruin the country.
We'll see if it works. It’s all really fun and exciting to see the CIA, media
oligarchy and the multinationals lose.”
What does Lula have to say?
History in an Age of Immediacy When Hugo Chávez was kidnapped by US-backed
billionaires in April 2002, former Venezuelan President Andres Perez said: "The
fall of Caracas will be violent. Today the firearms spoke. The mask of
dictatorship was removed, but Chávez is going to jail… he destroyed the
institutions and divided the country between rich and poor." (http://www.narconews.com/venezuelacoup1.html)
The next day a million Venezuelans came down from the hills and Ranchos to
rescue Chávez and return him to power.
When Andres Perez tried to give the country away to the rich in 1989 the poor
complained and Perez had 1000 of them gunned down in the riots called the
Caracazo. Chávez led a coup against Perez in 1992. Perez was impeached for
corruption in 1994 and Chávez was freed from jail.
Chávez was elected President in 1998 and 2000 by landslide votes.
In 1998 Chávez had the luxury of a mandate to purge and restructure the
judicial, military and administrative branches of the government. Even the right
wing in the US applauded some of these efforts. Voters overwhelmingly endorsed
Chávez's new constitution. Cleaning up the vastly larger bureaucracy of Brazil
will cost Lula some time and many resources (money, personnel, headaches, strife
and political favors).
Once Chávez passed a moderate reform package of 38 laws the US and its
wealthy friends in Venezuela – went literally ballistic and decided that Chávez
had to go.
Social Peace Versus the US Development Model: Death Squads, Corruption, And
Money-Coated Fake Democracy There are death squads working for corrupt
businessmen in Venezuela. There are US spies, spooks and provocateurs cruising
the avenues of Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. The Portuguese sniper arrested on
Friday, December 6 - who arrived in Venezuela the same day - confessed he was
hired by right wing coup leader General Medina Gomez (http://www.aporrea.org/)). The dishonest
media blamed the shooting on Chávez and had "prepared programming" ready before
the shootings even happened!
The same thing happened during the coup attempt in April where right wing
snipers killed many people, the Caracas police joined in the shooting and when
the Chávez supporters returned fire, the media ran continuous video of only the
Chávez people shooting. Even more condemning are the reports that the right wing
generals produced video footage where they lamented the killings by Chávez
before the shootings even occurred! The snipers captured in the April shootings
were quickly escorted out of the country by the right wing coup plotters. Also
another sniper from the December shootings was seen earlier in the day with the
anti-Chávez mayor of Caracas, Mr. Pena.
There are also many confused white-collar management types on strike against
Chávez and his efforts to clean up and reign in the state oil company, PdVSA.
Many of these strikers don’t understand democracy and they have been fooled by
their bosses to support a strike and an elite group of coup plotters. They may
very well end up losing everything: their jobs, their wealth and their country.
The deceptive and anti-democaratic nature of the right wing in Venezuela is
palpable. With US and corporate media support the right wing bosses and a few
corrupt unions sustain the appearance of a real strike and uprising long enough
to create chaos and scare people who had no intention of getting involved to
join the protest. A vicious cycle of lies and fear takes hold and enlightened
discourse becomes impossible.
Cooperating with Chávez would have been safer and more profitable for the
upper classes and the multinationals; now the potential for civil war increases.
Almost everyone loses in a civil war and afterward the poor will still be angry
and foreign aid no longer really exists. In 1998, Chávez led the way for Latin
American nations to reclaim a popular democracy that listens to the vast
majority who are poor and getting poorer every day. Now he must lead the way in
the defense of democracy and Lula, Gutierrez, Castro and hundreds of millions of
people are watching anxiously. Bankers too…
Angered at these repeated interventions by the US in support of the
Venezuelan upper classes, some radical community organizations want to move
beyond Chávez into open revolutionary conflict against the rich. "It is time to
mobilize the full force of the masses… this time the movement must not stop half
way. It is necessary to destroy the social and economic base of the
counterrevolution. This means expropriating the land, the banks and the big
businesses, along with all the property of known counterrevolutionaries and that
of US imperialists," said Marina Salvatore of Caracas.
Is this what the middle class wants? - if not, then they should switch sides
quickly and support the moderate - Hugo Chávez.
The reactionary behavior of some oil union workers in Venezuela and factions
in the military has complicated politics and increased tensions unfairly. In
Brazil, Lula needs to cut back the military budget and direct resources to
social investments, but this is a large problem to tackle as well and the
military in Brazil is tied into a vast military-industrial complex. Brazil is a
major weapons and fighter aircraft producer.
Chávez has shown remarkable ingenuity and patience in his confrontations with
the US-backed upper classes. Rather than confront them directly he allows them
to throw temper tantrums and expose themselves as the spoiled brats they are.
The first day of the bosses' fake strike, December 2, the Venezuelan government
trumped the right wing by announcing an open-air market day on the main
boulevard. Many thousands showed up to enjoy the vendors and repudiate the rich.
Chávez turned a protest strike into a carnival fiesta!
The right wing coup plotters are afraid that they will lose badly if they
follow the legal means of a referendum to removes Chávez from office. They are
desperate to get rid of Chávez before his new laws take effect in January. Their
fanatical drive to protect their wealth, has become terrorism and also treason,
using snipers to kill their own followers and paying tanker-ship captains to
hijack ships. Tensions mount and Chávez will be forced to move quickly and
decisively to jail many opponents and replace hundreds of white-collar workers
in the state oil industry.
Wear Them Down, Threaten and Make Them Eat Our Exports - A GW Bush Wet Dream
-"Watch out for his big stick and the BIG LIE! Hoping to wear down the
downtrodden, the US plays the Sandinista Game as it prods the Venezuelan
business class to extend the bosses-strike indefinitely. The tactics of the
right wing strikers and their media-mogul buddies are often illegal and would
never be tolerated if the left did them. A small minority is promoting violence,
sabotaging the PdVSA and desperately trying to create chaos in this poor
country. They want to subvert democracy and the will of the people – just as
they proposed to do in the April US-supported coup when they took Chávez
hostage. They hope that the military intervenes, intimidates the people and
restores law and order for profitability. Fascist one and all they have climbed
into bed with Colombia’s crooked ex-president Cesar Gavaria – the OAS Chief –
and are sleeping with the US intelligence community (and Jimmy Carter) who now
owns them lock, stock and soul (well the first two anyway – the rich can’t have
souls can they?).
Once again the poor of Caracas vote "a pies" - by their feet - and on
December 10, thousands surrounded the corporate media stations in noisy but
disciplined protest against the constant lies of the coup plotters who are in
alliance with the major media in Venezuela.
This is a good example of a public good: the airwaves and the right to
complete information in a democracy. If broadcasts are to be private then a
large collective editorial board should run them who are held responsible to
present the unbiased news. A democratic media would show a diversity of
programming with slots on all channels for unedited commentary and video
presentations from all sectors of society.
The only evidence given by the right wing for wanting to depose Chávez is
that he gives long and lousy speeches. He has been a popular leader for four
years and listens to the poor majority who expect him to help them. The crime
which Chávez has committed was the 39 laws he passed. These laws include
increased spending on education, health care, modest land reforms, free
elections for unions and higher oil royalties. The interventions of the US, the
silence of the world and the CIA will come back to haunt the rich one day.
The threat of coup, sabotage or assassination remains as long as Gavaria is
at the helm of the OAS and GW Bush remains the illegitimate president of the US.
Watch out and prepare Ecuador and Brazil… you are surely next.
- "The PdVSA oil company is the heart of our country. Nobody stops Venezuela…
I call on all the people to defend our industry." Hugo Chávez, December 14, 2002
- One of the losers of this week's skirmishes is U.S. State Department fixer
Otto Reich. (We note that Secretary of State Colin Powell was, surprisingly, not
accompanied by Reich in his trip last week to Colombia, an indication that
Reich's extremist brinkmanship in South America is increasingly viewed as
counter-productive even among moderates, like Powell, in the Bush
administration.) The events of the next few days could accomplish the "two-fer"
of putting to rest delusional coup fantasies by anti-democracy forces in
Venezuela and also be the final nail in the coffin of Reich's reign over U.S.
Latin America policy.
Thought Structure and Praxis or Pranks? "A liberal, an anarchist and a
(r)evolutionary, in a box. Who is the first to open the lid?" The liberal thinks
up new ways to live inside the box. The Anarchist thinks the lock, outside the
box holding the lid shut doesn't matter, and he sits there trying to force it
open. The Revolutionary considers the specific structure of the box, then he
decides how to get out based upon the box's build. But they all get out in the
end, the revolutionary just has to fight the liberal, (because he favors the box
to begin with,) and shut the anarchist the hell up because he's unable to see
anything but the GOAL, and it's the METHOD which is necessary
http://www.vheadline.com/
