Venezuela dismisses US concerns on Chavez

[Judi Lynn]

Venezuela dismisses US concerns on Chavez

Associated Press
Sunday, January 21, 2007 (Caracas):

Venezuela condemned the US government on Saturday for what it called unacceptable meddling after Washington raised concerns about a measure to grant President Hugo Chavez broad lawmaking powers.
(snip)

The National Assembly said in its statement that those remarks were "an unacceptable intervention in our nation's internal affairs" and demonstrated Casey's "crass ignorance" about a process that is spelled out in Venezuela's constitution.
(snip)

Vice President Jorge Rodriguez said the US "expresses worry every time Venezuela exercises its democracy," adding that Washington never objected when past Venezuelan governments approved the same sort of measures.

"The spokespeople of the US government have to calm down," Rodriguez said, suggesting they need some "sort of Valium."
(snip/)

http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?slug=Venezuela+dismisses+US+concerns+on+Chavez&id=99782

[Vidar]

1. Easy answer: Wahington hates democracy, but must pay it

lip service every two years.

[Peace Patriot]

2. I love Venezuelans! They tell it like it is. The Bushites need Valium!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Peace Patriot]

4. "Poll: Venezuelans Have Highest Regard for Their Democracy"

Poll: Venezuelans Have Highest Regard for Their Democracy
Wednesday, Dec 20, 2006
By: Gregory Wilpert - Venezuelanalysis.com
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2179

[gorbal]

20. For the confused...

Here is a great article for those who are starting to be swayed by the media's constant freakfest about Chavez-

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1933

I'm glad I read it. It reminded me of the lying world I live in and the media I constantly find myself swallowing no matter how often they lie to me.

[Judi Lynn]

23. Oh, yeah! The author has graciously offered the facts which have been missing

in the crap passed around by Washington-controlled sources here. Thank God.

If you only read the US press, you must be very confused about Venezuela. The extreme levels of distortion, lack of fact checking and source verification and outright manipulation of information in the US media on Venezuela is quite troubling and dangerous in a nation that has waged wars based on false data and misleading policies.

She's one brave character. So glad to see her comments any time they're offered.

[katsy]

3. valium...

bwa ha ha ha

Just what I was thinking!

Valium in DC's water may heal this country.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[haymark]

5. Chavez is democracy

The US should not bother Hugo when he asks for and gets power to rule by decree. This parliment stuff is too slow, Hugo writing all the laws by himself will bring needed reform to the poor people of Venezuela in a speedy manner. Hugo can build roads, schools and hospitals for his needy people and reform the economy too. He will nationalize media, oil industry, banking, just everything for his people. Everyone will be happy and cared for.

[ret5hd]

6. Well, assuming you're being sarcastic...

I think you'll be surprised when that is EXACTLY what happens. Maybe not (of course not) a utopia, but certainly a fairer and more just system than they have ever had in the past.

[Raydawg1234]

10. Hypocrisy, I bet that If Bush tried to rule by decree you would object

but no, since it is somone you agree with you are willing to throw democracy to the wind

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Contrite]

13. Look at what Bush does with his "unitary executive" powers

Compare to what Hugo does with his decree powers

Plus, it IS hypocrisy since Perez had exactly the same power--

Perez had an uneasy relationship with the United States, but it was nothing like the outright hatred Chavez harbors for the nation he calls “the evil empire.” That animosity was fanned in large part by the Bush administration’s gleeful reaction to — and Chavez’s belief of a U.S. role in — a coup that briefly deposed the Venezuelan leader in 2002.

[Say_What]

14. WTF: Chavez’s BELIEF of the US role in the failed coup??

:wtf: Anyone with half a brain knew the US was behind the failed coup. Later it was proved in declassified docs and Project Censored listed it as one of the most under-reported new items of that year:

<clips>

Bush Administration Behind
Failed Military Coup in Venezuela

The April 11, 2002 military coup in Venezuela was supported by the United States government. As early as last June, American military attaches had been in touch with members of the Venezuelan military to examine the possibility of a coup. During the coup, U.S military were stationed at the Colombia-Venezuela border to provide support, and to evacuate U.S. citizens if there were problems. According to intelligence analyst, Wayne Madsen, the CIA actively organized the coup. "The CIA provided Special Operations Group personnel, headed by a lieutenant colonel on loan from the U.S. Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to help organize the coup against Chavez,” he said.

Since his 1998 election, President Hugo Chavez has increasingly socialized the Venezuelan government. One of his most controversial moves was to nationalize Venezuela's oil company PDVSA. Venezuela is the fourth largest oil-producing nation, and the third largest oil provider to the U.S. As the leader of OPEC, Chavez has encouraged lowering oil production to raise prices. He also changed a 60 year-old agreement with oil companies that raised royalties for Venezuela.

Chavez has irritated the U.S. in many ways. He changed the Venezuelan Constitution in 1999, granting more land rights to the poor, who make up over half of the 24 million people in Venezuela. Chavez refused to allow U.S. planes to fly over Venezuela during their military activities in Colombia. President Chavez was also the first head of state to visit Saddam Hussein in Iraq since the embargoes in 1990.

Because of the close relationship that many of Venezuela’s wealthy have with the United States, the coup took place with little opposition from Venezuela’s long-established business and political community. The Bush administration was quick to endorse the change in government, which put Pedro Carmona, a wealthy businessman and former business associate of George Bush Sr., into office. Carmona's first move as president was to "dissolve the Constitution, national legislature, Supreme Court, attorney general's office, and comptroller's office."

In the United States, corporate press covered the coup from a sympathetic anti- Chavez perspective. The April 11th killing of 17 anti-Chavez protesters by snipers was pointed to as justification for Chavez's removal. Yet the two following days, which resulted in the killing of as many as 40 pro-Chavez protesters, the deaths were hardly mentioned.

Television stations in Venezuela refused to cover the anti-coup protests, choosing instead to run their regular program schedule. Five out of the six major networks are owned by a single owner, who supported U.S. involvement in Venezuela. CIA Special Operations psychological warfare (PSYOPs) produced television announcements, purportedly by Venezuelan political and business leaders, saying Chavez 'provoked' the crisis by ordering his supporters to fire on peaceful protestors in Caracas."

Despite the distorted media coverage in Venezuela, a huge anti-coup civil protest involving hundreds of thousands of people began. Several branches of the Venezuelan military join the anti-coup forces. The streets of Caracas were flooded with protestors and soldiers vehemently chanting anti-Carmona slogans. Within two days Carmona stepped down and Chavez returned to power.

http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2004/12.html

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[redqueen]

16. Chavez's belief? Are you frickin kiddin me?

:wow:

[Contrite]

17. Excuse me.

Strike "belief in" and substitute "knowledge of".

[Say_What]

18. Total bullshit about Perez...

Perez and Chavez are light years apart. Alexandra Starr, the corporate MSM shill who wrote that op/ed piece that you neglected to credit, is well known for her anti-Chavez pieces. Googling her name turns up pages of the same old tripe the MSM disseminates on a regular basis to US sheeple. So if you're gonna quote verbatim from her articles, you should at least provide quote marks.

Here's a bit about Perez for your information:

<clips>

...President Carlos Andrés Pérez implemented the deadly economic policies of neoliberalism in 1989, with the consequence of massive urban riots, looting, and violence. Thousands were killed in the streets and in their houses by the national army. Throughout the years, oil income and loans had allowed the state to provide minimal social supports for the general population. But in the 1980's, when oil prices dropped, and the national debt had reached an all time high, Pérez was forced to comply with the mandates of the international lenders; neoliberal economics. The result was a drastic increase in poverty and misery.(8)

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1942

[Judi Lynn]

19. You forgot to mention that Carlos Andres Perez was impeached,

and imprisoned for massive corruption and embezzlement, as well as El Caracazo, mentioned by Say_What.

It was because of the hideous actions taken by his government that a movement was consolidated in Venezuela among the poor which continued to build until they finally were able to seat a President who represents them, with February 29, 1989 being a day from which there would be no turning back.

[gorbal]

21. Who's artwork is that?

It's amazing!

[Judi Lynn]

22. I've got the link, but can't actually read it very well, as it's in Spanish,

but I think you can probably tell what it is, at this address. It's composed of many, many different paintings, and appears to illustrate the entire range of history after Colombus, in Venezuela:
http://encontrarte.aporrea.org/expo/e7.html

Here's the article explaning it, in Spanish.
http://encontrarte.aporrea.org/expo/t7.html





Does this mean they "freed" the Venezuelan slaves in 1854? That was long before the U.S., if it does!

[Say_What]

25. Beautiful... “Venezuela a living memory” done by a Chilean artist Ian Pierce with help from others..

[Say_What]

26. Chilean artist Ian Pierce...

...Images by the Chilean artist Ian Pierce. They are taken from a huge mural, Venezuela – a living memory, which is 75 metres long by 5 metres high and painted on the exterior walls of the Andrés Bello school in central Caracas. Felix Coraspe, Osvaldo Cuicas and students at the school also helped with the project. Sadly, there weren’t enough funds to apply a protective varnish, and the mural is decaying. Reproduced with permission from ENcontrArte, an alterative cultural magazine. The entire mural can be viewed at http://encontrarte.aporrea.org/expo/e7.html



Here's an article about the mural.

<clips>

A short history of Venezuela

1. Conquest

There were no great monumental cultures, like the Aztec, Maya or Inca, among the original inhabitants of Venezuela. Instead, there was a great variety of independently minded peoples. Some were nomadic, others practised advanced agricultural techniques. The Timoto-Cuica in the Andes built roads and traded with the llanos (central plains) and Maracaibo. Christopher Columbus, who sighted the Orinoco Delta on his third voyage to the ‘New World’ in 1498, believed that he had discovered the Garden of Eden. One year later, Amerigo Vespucci was reminded of Venice by houses built on stilts over Lake Maracaibo.

Venezuela’s value to Spain lay in its long Caribbean coastline, which offered protection for the imperial gold-bullion fleet. Slave-raiding by the Spanish provoked intense hatred among the indigenous peoples, fuelling more than a century of warfare. After a decade of fierce fighting, forces under Diego de Losada finally established the settlement of Santiago de León de Caracas in 1567. Franciscan and Capuchin missionaries evangelized to the east and west of Caracas during the 17th and 18th centuries. Much of the western llanos and the south bank of the Orinoco remained unknown to the Spanish even at the close of the colonial period.

2. Empire

In 1528 a consortium of German bankers, searching for the fabled riches of El Dorado, was granted by the Spanish Crown a concession to govern western Venezuela. The bankers were so ruthless – even by Spanish standards – that in 1556 the concession was withdrawn. Rich farmlands made Venezuela self-sufficient in food. From the early 17th century cocoa cultivation and export flourished. Its profits attracted immigrants from Spain, including relatively poor Canary Islanders. Africans enslaved on the cocoa plantations did the work.

These two groups completed a hierarchy resembling a caste system. On top were the white peninsulares (born in Spain) and criollos (born in America of Spanish parentage). Below them were the white Canary Islanders, who typically worked as wage labourers. Then came a large group of racially mixed pardos, followed by African slaves and, at the bottom, the indigenous peoples, decimated by slavery and disease. In 1728 the Spanish Crown granted exclusive trading rights to a Basque corporation, the Real Compaña Guipuzcoana de Caracas. Cocoa growers were angered by its monopoly, and in 1749 an immigrant cocoa grower from the Canary Islands, Juan Francisco de León, led a rebellion. It was crushed by troops from Santo Domingo and Spain. Caracas became the seat of the Captaincy General of Venezuela in 1777 – the first recognition of Venezuela as a political entity. A slave uprising led by José Leonardo Chirinos in 1795 was also crushed.

http://www.newint.org/features/2006/06/01/history/

[Judi Lynn]

27. Wow. This is great. Just opened the link you found.

Exceptional.

Too bad the mural won't last very long. Maybe someone will come along at the last moment and save it.

Going to study the info. in the link. Beautiful. Thanks for posting this.

[Judi Lynn]

28. Great link. Learned a lot of new stuff, of course, too!

Who would have dreamed as many as 50,000 people could be lost simultaneously in a mud slide, like the ones which threaten all the tin and plywood shanties on the hills around Caracas, etc. No WONDER some Venezuelans are desperate to find a way to move some of the people to the safety of the flat land, when they can work it out.

Great getting a look at what may be ALL of that mural through the link at the bottom. Had no idea from the little I saw earlier, there was so MUCH painting done there. What a tremendous idea.

I'll just bet teachers take their grade school classes there, to assist their history lessons.

[Raydawg1234]

11. If by democracy you mean that one person has all the power.

i take it you don't understand democracy

[Say_What]

7. Venezuelan Legislature Rejects US Official’s Comments on Enabling Law

Check that remark about "ignorance of Venezuela's constitution". That statement applies to plenty of so-called informed Dems on DU as well.

<clips>

Caracas, January 23, 2007 (venezuelanalysis.com)— Reacting to comments by Tom Casey, the spokesman of the U.S. State Department, Venezuela’s National Assembly issued a strongly worded statement last Saturday, rejecting his assessment of the so-called enabling law the legislature is about to pass. Last Friday, Casey had said that the enabling law has “caused us some concern” and that it “is a bit odd in terms of a democratic system.”

Casey had commented on Chavez’s announcement that he wants the Venezuelan National Assembly to pass an “enabling law” that would allow him to issue law-decrees in ten different areas over the next 18 months.

The National Assembly issued a formal statement on Saturday, saying that Casey’s remark represented an unacceptable intromission in Venezuela’s internal affairs that is typical of the U.S.’s “imperialist vocation.”

The statement went on to say that Casey’s statement demonstrated his ignorance of Venezuela’s constitution, which specifically permits enabling laws—as long as 60% of the legislature approves it—adding, that Chavez was recently reelected with a strong mandate to deepen his socialist program.

For the National Assembly, it is far more “odd” in which the U.S. government bases its legitimacy “to intervene in the internal affairs of the Venezuelan people, to decide to invade countries, to impose destructive economic policies onto nations of the South…”

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2200

[Judi Lynn]

8. As the Vice President Rodriguez said in the last few days, it's so odd

that the U.S. didn't get livid the OTHER times the same measures were taken by previous Venezuelan administrations. Looks as they generallly all, until now, have been in the U.S. right-wing's pocket, too.

When any country elect a liberal president, all bets are off. Hostilities grow, until a coup can be arranged and a right-wing puppet installed who's happy to give away his country's resources to the U.S. favored bidnesses.

I hope Latin America is finding the strength it has wanted all those years our right-wing Presidents have been dividing and conquering them all, picking off one at a time until they had complete control of Latin America and the Caribbean, and the people lived with horrendous deprivation, dying young, never rising above deepest poverty.

Right-wingers want to turn back the clock and bring back those good old days, and many Latin Americans claim that's just not in the cards. God, I hope they're right.



Mercosur summit Presidents. Who on earth would
have ever imagined that there would be TWO people
in this group who were tortured by right-wing
administrations in their own countries in the 1970's?

[Say_What]

9. That is exactly what happens and you summed it up perfectly!! n/t

[MasonJar]

24. How the current US government has the gall to criticize any other

nation or administration for assuming broad powers is so ingenuous and totally laughable.