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U.S. threats to Venezuela’s revolution escalate
By W. T. Whitney Jr.
02/09/06 "PWW" -- -- Aggressive maneuvers against Venezuela
from the Bush government have reached new heights. Here are some
indicators.
That a coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was under
way when opposition parties opted out of Venezuela’s December
parliamentary elections was not obvious. But at the time Vice
President José Vicente Rangel alleged that the U.S. Embassy was
“extremely active” behind the scenes.
During the elections, explosions went off, an oil pipeline was
blown up and electric substations were burned. Almost 100,000
soldiers were deployed to protect polling places. Authorities
unearthed caches of weapons and ammunition. Two U.S. warships
were cruising off the Venezuelan coast.
In fact Venezuelan authorities already knew of a coup planning
meeting in Bogotá, Colombia, attended by a U.S. government
official named “Thomas,” plus dissident Venezuelan military
figures and Colombian intelligence officers. Some 500 Colombian
paramilitary troops crossed the Colombian-Venezuelan border
prior to the elections.
On Jan. 27, the Venezuelan government expelled naval attaché
John Correa, stationed at the U.S. Embassy. Security personnel
had infiltrated the group of Venezuelan junior officers
recruited by Correa. The Bush government retaliated by sending a
Venezuelan diplomat back to Caracas.
Another item: the Bush administration is blocking Spain’s $1.7
billion sale of military aircraft and boats to Venezuela. It
claims that U.S. technology was used in the planes’ manufacture.
According to Chávez, Venezuela may end up buying planes from
China or Russia. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has
berated Venezuela for spending on military hardware rather than
provide for people’s needs.
Rumsfeld on Feb. 2 compared Hugo Chávez to Hitler, declaring,
“We’ve got Chávez in Venezuela. … He’s a person who was elected
legally, just as Adolf Hitler was elected legally. ... He is
working closely with Fidel Castro and Mr. Morales and others. It
concerns me.”
Intelligence director John Negroponte is worried too. In recent
Senate testimony, he warned that if Chávez wins re-election this
year, he will “use his control of the legislature and other
institutions to continue to stifle the opposition, reduce press
freedom, and entrench himself through measures that are
technically legal, but which nonetheless constrict democracy.”
Lawyer Eva Golinger, writing in venezuelanalysis.com, sees “a
scary escalation of aggression ... Rumsfeld and Negroponte
represent the two entities in the United States that wage war:
Defense and Intelligence.”
She reports that the U.S. government will be sending $9 million
this year to opposition groups in Venezuela. She refers to an
October 2005 U.S. Army publication, “Doctrine for Asymmetric War
Against Venezuela,” in which Chávez and the Bolivarian
Revolution were labeled as the “largest threat since the Soviet
Union and communism.”
The Arabic news service Aljazeera has recently opened an office
in Caracas and announced plans for cooperation with Telesur, the
new Latin American news agency funded by Venezuela, Argentina,
Uruguay and Brazil. Florida Republican Rep Connie Mack (R-Fla.)
could hardly contain himself: “Today Chávez has gone even
further. It wasn’t enough for him to spread his socialist
propaganda throughout Latin America. Now he’s in cahoots with
the original terrorist TV.”
Mack introduced House Resolution 328 last month. In the name of
“true democracy,” it asks for “assistance and material support”
for opposition groups in Venezuela, the funding to be funneled
through U.S. Agency for International Development and the
National Endowment for Democracy.
The Bush administration has found one overseas ally. Former
Spanish president and right-winger José María Aznar now heads up
the Foundation for Social Studies and Analysis. That
well-financed group recently announced that it is concentrating
this year on “a region caught up in populism and indigenous
stirrings in the dark shadow of an alliance between Fidel Castro
and the Venezuelan Hugo Chávez,” something it called an
“explosive situation.” That would be Latin America.
atwhit@megalink.net
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