How Not to Win Friends in Latin America
How Not to Win Friends in Latin America
What motivated the Obama administration's new sanctions on Venezuela?
By Mark Weisbrot
March 18, 2015 | 2:40 p.m. EDT
Since the Obama administration decided last week to impose new sanctions on Venezuela, many people, including journalists, have inquired as to what motivated them to do this. Some are curious as to the apparent incongruity between this move and the White House decision in December to begin the process of normalizing relations with Cuba. Others are wondering why the administration would do something that so obviously hurts the opposition in Venezuela, at least in the short run. The main opposition group, the Democratic Unity Roundtable, issued a statement that did not support the sanctions: “Venezuela is not a threat to anyone,” it said in response to the White House’s absurd claim that Venezuela posed an “extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security. And then there is the problem of Washington’s isolation in the hemisphere, which has certainly increased with this latest move.
The contradiction between the Venezuela sanctions and the opening to Cuba is probably more apparent than real. A majority of the U.S. foreign policy establishment has wanted to normalize relations with Cuba since at least the 1990s. There is money to be made there, and most of those interested in getting rid of the Cuban government seem to believe – correctly or not – that it will be easier to do so if the island is opened up to commercial relations with the U.S. So beginning to normalize relations with Cuba is generally consistent with the broader strategy of opposition to Venezuela and other left governments that have been elected and re-elected since 1998.
It is only inconsistent if one sees the opening to Cuba as the beginning of a change in overall U.S. strategy for the region, one that seeks to reconcile with the huge hemispheric political shift that has taken place in the 21st century, and is sometimes known as Latin America’s “second independence.” President Rafael Correa of Ecuador succinctly expressed the regional governments’ disgust with the latest sanctions, saying that it “reminds us of the darkest hours of our America, when we received invasions and dictatorships imposed by the imperialists.” He then asked, “Can’t they understand that Latin America has changed?” The short answer to his question is no. Washington is still some ways away from the hemispheric equivalent of Nixon’s trip to China in 1972, which was not just about beginning a process of opening diplomatic or commercial relations but also about coming to grips with the new reality that an independent “Communist China” was here to stay.
Even as the normalization of relations with Cuba proceeds, the White House plans to continue funding “democracy promotion” programs within the country – as well as numerous others in the region.
The explanation of what the White House – or whoever influenced them – hopes to get out of these new Venezuela sanctions is less obvious. During the Obama presidency, there has been some struggle over Latin America policy among the various decision-makers. For example, when President Barack Obama wanted to restore ambassadorial relations with Venezuela in 2010, he was sabotaged by right-wing congressional offices and probably their allies in the State Department. Last summer, the administration moved a step closer to full diplomatic relations with Venezuela by receiving a Venezuelan chargé d’affaires – one step below ambassador – in Washington. This, too, was met with some resistance and attempts from the right to blow up relations, in order to cut off the natural progress toward full diplomatic relations.
More:
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/world-report/2015/03/18/new-us-sanctions-on-venezuela-represent-a-miscalculation
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Anyone with an opinion about USA's relations with Venezuela's thriving democracy owes it to themselves to watch this first-hand real time documentary of Bush's CIA's 2002 coup attempt.
I know Judi Lynn that you've probably already seen this, but I'm posting it for others who would benefit from seeing it.
cheers
was the funny trip taken to Venezuela by Eisenhower's Vice President Richard Nixon who got chased around, his car surrounded, and the holy bejesus scared out of him by protesters.
The corporate media presented it as a deadly attack on a fine US official by madmen who just went berserk for no reason at all. Figures, doesn't it?
They left readers simply bewildered, wondering if the mysterious Latin American world was going to rise against the poor, little frightened US population and slaughter everyone.
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I didn't know that about Nixon...actually, I did.
The comedian David Frye had a routine in his record “I am the president” where (he plays both voices) Nelson Rockefeller comes back from South America, complaining about being pelted by ripe guavas, and Nixon remarked: "I was stoned in Venezuela", and Rocky replies: "I didn't have time for that!"
By WILLIAM GRIMESJAN. 29, 2011
David Frye, whose wicked send-ups of political figures like Lyndon B. Johnson, Hubert H. Humphrey and, above all, Richard M. Nixon, made him one of the most popular comedians in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, died on Monday in Las Vegas, where he lived. He was 77.
The cause was cardiopulmonary arrest, a spokeswoman for the Clark County coroner’s office in Nevada said.
In the early 1960s Mr. Frye was a struggling impressionist working the clubs of Greenwich Village, relying on a fairly standard repertoire of Hollywood actors. Then he slipped Robert F. Kennedy into his act, basing his impression on a girlfriend’s comment that Kennedy sounded like Bugs Bunny.
Audiences loved it, and Mr. Frye began adding other politicians, capturing not just their vocal peculiarities but also their body language and facial expressions. His L.B.J., with a lugubrious hound-dog face and a Texas twang rich in slushy “s” sounds, became a trademark, as did his bouncy Hubert Humphrey.
David Frye in 1969, performing in character as President Richard M. Nixon on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.” Credit CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images
But it was Nixon who made his career. Shoulders hunched, his deep-set eyes glowering, Mr. Frye captured the insecure, neurotic Nixon to perfection. “I am the president” — his blustery tag line and the title of a 1969 comedy album he recorded for Elektra — seemed to get at the essence of a powerful politician in desperate need of validation.
“I do Nixon not by copying his real actions but by feeling his attitude, which is that he cannot believe that he really is president,” Mr. Frye told Esquire magazine in 1971. Nixon also played the starring role in Mr. Frye’s later albums “Radio Free Nixon” (1971), “Richard Nixon Superstar” (1971) and the Watergate satire “Richard Nixon: A Fantasy” (1973).
Mr. Frye added a panoply of political and cultural figures to his act. His William F. Buckley Jr., all darting tongue and wildly searching eyes, was stellar, but he also worked up dead-on impressions of George Wallace, Nelson Rockefeller, David Susskind, Billy Graham, Howard Cosell and a long list of film actors.
It was Nixon, however, who kept Mr. Frye a regular on the top television variety shows and at the big Las Vegas casinos, perhaps because he was one of the few politicians with a truly Shakespearean richness of character. In one skit Mr. Frye even had the president smoking marijuana and reporting, in hushed tones, “I see spacious skies and fruited plains and amber waves of grain.”
David Shapiro was born in Brooklyn and attended James Madison High School there. His father, who owned a highly successful office-cleaning business, was dead set against his son’s going into show business, but even at the University of Miami, David was already doing mime impressions in campus productions. Soon he discovered he had an ear for distinctive Hollywood voices like Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant and began doing vocal impressions as well.
After serving with an Army Special Services unit in France, he returned to New York and developed his act at small clubs while working as a salesman for his father’s company. At the Village Gate, where he was filling in for a regular in early 1966, talent scouts saw his Bobby Kennedy imitation and booked him on “The Merv Griffin Show.” Soon he was appearing on “The Leslie Uggams Show,” “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” and “The Tonight Show.”
Nixon came as a gift, but mastering the impression was a struggle. “It took me a long time to get Nixon — but it took the country a long time to get Nixon,” Mr. Frye told Esquire. “Nixon has these brooding eyes that look like my eyes. That helped a lot. But the voice is still the main thing. He has a radio announcer’s evenness of speech, very well modulated, and you can’t pick out any highs and lows. If I hadn’t had to do him, I wouldn’t have tried.”
Nixon’s departure from the scene took most of the air out of Mr. Frye’s career. He capitalized on Watergate, although some radio stations refused to play material from “Richard Nixon: A Fantasy,” which they thought cut a little too close to the bone for some listeners.
“Today I have regretfully been forced to accept the resignations of 1,541 of the finest public servants it has ever been my privilege to know,” Mr. Frye’s Nixon intones on the album. “As the man in charge, I must accept full responsibility, but not the blame. Let me explain the difference. People who are to blame lose their jobs; people who are responsible do not.”
In another skit, Nixon goes to the Godfather for help. “You want justice?” the Godfather asks. “Not necessarily,” Nixon replies.
With Nixon’s resignation in August 1974, Mr. Frye lost the best friend an impressionist ever had. He continued to perform and to add new impressions to his act: Jimmy Carter, Anwar El Sadat and Menachim Begin, among others. He recorded the comedy albums “David Frye Presents the Great Debate” (1980) and “Clinton: An Oral History” (1998). But he never enjoyed anything approaching the fame that the Johnson and Nixon years had given him.
He could see the end quite clearly.
“It’s a weird feeling, knowing that you can lose the guts of your act at any time,” he told Time in 1974. Nixon’s presidential successor, Gerald R. Ford, offered scant hope. “He looks like the guy in a science fiction movie who is the first one to see The Creature,” Mr. Frye said.
He is survived by a sister, Ruth.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/29/arts/29frye.html?_r=0
And carrying water for the Bush Crime Family's global agenda.
Un-fucking-believable. 
