US and Venezuela inch closer

[Say_What]

Bait and switch??? CondiSLEEZA playing nice and Rummy ramping up the bellicose BULLSHIT?? :wtf:


<clips>

The Venezuelan government praised the latest statements from Secretary of State Condolezza Rice who assured that “nobody” including the current administration in Washington wants to be “an enemy of Venezuela or its leaders”.

Delcy Rodriguez, head of the European Department in the Venezuelan Chancellery applauded Ms. Rice words and said Washington can count on Venezuela’s “reciprocity” as long as they have “a position of respect” towards the government headed by President Hugo Chavez.

“I can only but applaud her position regarding the legitimate, constitutional authorities of this country”, said Ms. Rodriguez in Caracas during a meeting with the press.
“We sincerely welcome an attitude of respect, because they (US government) can count on our reciprocity too”, she added.

In a long interview with The Washington Post, Secretary of State Rice said that “nobody” including President Bush’s administration “wants to be an enemy of Venezuela or its leaders”.

http://www.falkland-malvinas.com/Detalle.asp?NUM=5347

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<clips>

Washington Focuses on Cuba-Venezuela 'Axis of Evil'

While U.S. President George W. Bush played nice to a deeply frustrated Mexican President Vicente Fox at the North American Summit in Texas Wednesday, U.S. media attention was focused more on Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld's efforts to sound the alarm against Latin American troublemakers in his swing through the region this week.

Topping his list was populist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, followed by a nemesis from bygone days, former Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who was accused by an unnamed "senior official" in Rumsfeld's delegation of hoarding several hundred Russian-made surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) that Washington wants to see destroyed.

Indeed, at the start of Rumsfeld's trip, Washington announced the suspension of all U.S. military assistance to Nicaragua – about $2.3 million worth – pending the destruction of the missiles that Washington contend might be obtained by terrorists.

At the same time, the right-wing National Review published a cover story by Bush's top Latin America aide during his first term, Otto Reich, on "Latin America's Terrible Two," referring to Chavez and Cuban President Fidel Castro (not available online). The magazine's cover, with a photo of the two men in close conversation, featured a banner reading "The Axis of Evil … Western Hemisphere Version."

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1406

[peacetalksforall]

1. We can't trust the black is white white is black lying diplomats and

pnacers. Our only hope is education of more people.

It is tragic that only through a human interest story did a great per cent of citizens see the hypocrisy of Congress and the President during the last two weeks and we watched it backfire.

Give them Venzuela and Nicaragua and the oil and weapons market and they turn off.

How can they be educated? Through more deaths of their own children fighting for the corporations?

In addition to high rolling practices of oil and weapons, we have the secrecy of a web of companies, associations, and agreements to deal with.

It is obvious that MSM pretend not to understand it because of their dumbing down role in aiding the White House and pnacers.

Who is going to reach us and them and educate us?

[Say_What]

2. TELESUR.... if the Bushistas allows it to be shown in the USSA

<clips>

Telesur: A Counter-Hegemonic Project to Compete with CNN and Univisión

Paralleling the Arab Al Jazeera, Telesur will be something like Al Bolívar. Aram Aharonian, the Uruguayan journalist who will be the general director of this continental channel says it will be, "the first counter-hegemonic telecommunications project known in South America."

Telesur is intended to become a strong competitor to CNN and Univisión. Under the name Televisora del Sur (Television of the South), the Venezuelan-Argentinean-Brazilian-Uruguayan multinational will follow strict regulations regarding profit value, competitiveness and commercialization. According to plans, it will begin by broadcasting over one channel throughout South America, via satellite from its headquarters in Caracas in May.

Two veteran journalists involved in the direction of this project are touring México, in search of useful relations for a television channel that adheres to past and present values of progressive journalism: Aharonian, who fought in the struggles against the southern cone dictators, and who is now the director of the newspaper Questión of Caracas and a collaborator of the cyber-journal Red Voltaire and Jorge Enrique Botero, a Colombian television producer and author of two documentaries "Como voy a Olvidarte” (How Will I Forget You) and "Bacano salir en Diciembre" about those kidnapped by the FARC during the Colombian war. He won the Premio Nuevo Periodismo (New Journalism Award) for both.

Telesur, explains its director, is “a strategic project that was born out of the need to give voice to Latin Americans confronted by an accumulation of thoughts and images transmitted by commercial media and out of the urgency to see ourselves through our own eyes and to discover our own solutions to our problems. If we do not start there, the dream of Latin American integration will be no more than a salute to the flag.”

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1388

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Saturday's Oligarch Daily

<clips>

Network to be regional CNN look-alike

CARACAS, Venezuela - Loose computer cables, laptops and a video camera fill a cramped hotel room where a team of journalists is laying the groundwork for a new satellite television station that they say will be Latin America's alternative to CNN.

With financial backing from Venezuela's government, Telesur is scheduled to begin transmitting by satellite 24 hours a day within three or four months, offering news and opinion shows from a decidedly South American perspective.

"Telesur's reason for being is the need to see Latin America with Latin American eyes," director Aram Aharonian said Friday while taking a short break from his work planning programs and hiring staff.

"It's our right to have our own vision of what happens in Latin America, and not what Europeans or Americans, or whoever, tell us about how we are, who we are," said Aharonian, a 59-year-old Uruguayan who has worked for years as a print journalist.

The idea has long been discussed across Latin America and is now receiving a boost from governments like Venezuela that are concerned with increasing their countries' cultural independence.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called Telesur an important step toward Latin American integration.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment/11235559.htm


http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/11238816.htm

[peacetalksforall]

9. Thanks for sharing this. I didn't know about this. Good news.

There have been too many decades of bank dominance and corrupt, in-the-same-bed leaders of those countries.

[Say_What]

10. You gotta know that somewhere

Salvador Allende is smiling about the integration of Latin America. Meanwhile, Kissinger's world gets smaller and smaller.

On edit: Add Orlando Letelier who smiles alongside Allende.




The remains of the car in which Orlando Letelier and Ronnie Moffit were killed by a bomb planted by Cuban-American terrorists later pardoned by George Bush senior.

[reprobate]

13. Hope they have an english service. Dishnet will likely carry it.

[Spazito]

3. LOL, Chavez is playing this perfectly...

He speaks out immediately when the bush admin administers the 'stick' and compliments the 'carrot' comments while continuing to work with other Latin American leaders to detach their countries from American influence.

My respect for Chavez grows more and more every day.

[anarchy1999]

7. I think he's doing a great job. I think he probably plays alot of chess.

Check and Checkmate!

[Robeson]

16. Yes, he does seem to be incredibly astute, and certainly seems...

...to be the one who is acting, instead of being reactive. Who could blame him? He's having to deal with people in Washington who tried to kill him.

[Al-CIAda]

4. Thanks -n/t

[0007]

5. It ain't what it looks like

One minute Rummy looks like a duck and the next Condi looks like a rabbit

[Judi Lynn]

17. Now you're just scaring us, 0007.

That's a outstanding image!

[catastrophicsuccess]

6. Maybe she really does have a crush on Chavez

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35193-2005Mar14_2.html

"Chavez has saved some of his most biting sarcasm for Rice, whom he refers to as "Condolencia," which means "condolence." In speeches, he has called her "pathetic" and illiterate and made oblique sexual references to her. "I cannot marry Condolencia, because I am much too busy," he said in a recent speech. "I have been told that she dreams about me," he said on another occasion. "

[anarchy1999]

8. All nice reasons to like him.

His sarcasm is biting, while he travels the world making deals. Giving back to the people in the country. I'm not surprised the rich are not happy with his style.

[Say_What]

11. I thought that was great when he called her an illiterate--he was right!

LOL Welcome to DU, catastrophicsuccess! :hi:

[Judi Lynn]

15. Eeee-yup! She's got to keep her brain uncluttered by facts

to be able to sustain that slipshod view of Venezuela, as seen through the eyes of the Venezuelan racist elitists and their peers in Washington.

[Vladimir]

18. In speeches, eh?

I love this propaganda man... the imagery is just too damn obvious. A third-world leader making sexual references to the most powerful woman in America... forgive me if I take this with a pinch of salt.

PS Welcome to DU!

[Judi Lynn]

19. The whole article has a condescending tone, doesn't it?

Very, very odd. Some odd quotes, like this one, which seems so unlikely to be attributed to anyone specific:"

Many here say they believe Chavez dreams of the day he can cut off the United States and sell to countries he considers more friendly.

You would remember this quote:

Gerver Torres, a former Venezuelan government minister who now runs a private development agency, said such statements illustrate one of Chavez's key goals. "His main motivation now is to do everything he possibly can to negatively affect the United States, Bush in particular," Torres said. "He is trying to bring together all the enemies of the United States. He believes the United States is the devil."
(snip)

The quote the author grabbed from Gerber Torres may seem a little anti-Chavez, as Gerber Torres is a proud recipient of U.S. taxpayers' hard-earned tax dollars through an anti-Chavez N.E.D. grant:

Gerver Torres, head of the Civil Association of Leadership and Vision, a non-profit group that received about $42,000 for police training, is so troubled by Chavez's policies that he is considering a presidential bid. Yet, Torres argued that his own views did not prejudice the endowment-funded work, which provided citizenship and ethics training to 700 officers in the Caracas metropolitan police, a force under the authority of a staunch Chavez foe.
(snip)

http://www.rethinkvenezuela.com/news/news02.html

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What HAS happened to our media, or are we just all waking up?

[Vladimir]

20. NED = CIA n/t

[Say_What]

12. RELATED: US – Venezuela Relations Thaw over Easter

The view from Venezuela...

<clips>

US – Venezuela Relations Thaw over Easter

US-Venezuelan relations may be thawing after the first positive rhetorical exchange between the two countries in 2005 took place over the holiday weekend. Recent comments by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and the response of Venezuela’s foreign ministry reveal at least a momentary détente, with a significant calming of both nations’ rhetoric.

Secretary Rice toned down her usually harsh words for Chávez in an interview with the Washington Post last Friday. “When it comes to Venezuela we have our differences. Nobody wants to be an enemy of Venezuela or of its leadership,” said Rice, “we can have good relations with Venezuela at any time.”

Delcy Rodriguez, Venezuelan Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs (Europe), reacted to Rice, saying “we salute position with respect to the legitimate and constitutional authorities of this country…we sincerely salute this attitude of respect, and can count on our reciprocity.”

Venezuela’s plans to buy 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles and 10 military helicopters from Russia, along with rumors about the possibility of purchasing MiG fighter jets, have recently sparked harsh criticism from US officials for the apparent lack of transparency in the arms purchases.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1561

[TroubleMan]

14. Plate tectonics?

sorry, horrible attempt at humor

[charlie]

21. LOL

Well, I thought it was funny :thumbsup: