Mesa: “No Venezuela meddling in Bolivian affairs”

[bemildred]

Former Bolivian President Carlos Mesa said in an interview published Sunday in Mexico City that his administration found no evidence of meddling in Bolivia's internal affairs by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, as Washington charged.

“I did not have, while in office, intelligence information (about the alleged intervention by Caracas in Bolivia's conflict)" Mr. Mesa told Mexico City's El Universal newspaper.

Mr. Mesa, whose resignation was accepted last week by Congress and was replaced by Eduardo Rodriguez, said that, despite not having any evidence of "intervention" by president Chavez, he viewed the Venezuelan leader's support for leftist coca growers leader Evo Morales as "legitimate".

Morales and his Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) were among the main organizers of the anti-government protests that eventually pushed Mesa out of office.

MercoPress

[denverbill]

1. Well, obviously, his intelligence is faulty.

Who would know more about what's happening in Bolivia anyway? Someone who actually ran the country up til a week ago or some administration hack in Washington? Obviously, it's the paid political hack that has the inside scoop.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Obviously! How could the departing President have any grasp

of his own country, and not simply echo the views of this piece of crap from the mighty _Bush administration?



_Bush's "Mr. Latin America"

Roger "Can I really be this ugly" Noriega

From the article:

During the 35th General Assembly of the Organization of American States in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, last week, U.S. assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs Roger Noriega, implied that Chavez was somehow linked to the "worrisome" situation in Bolivia.

"Chavez's profile in Bolivia has been very apparent from the beginning" the U.S. diplomat told reporters at the gathering. "His record is apparent and speaks for itself".

[0rganism]

5. And all "faulty" intelligence must be "fixed"!

The truth is out there, we just need to ignore it where necessary to achieve the desired results.

[Say_What]

3. The Bushistas are getting bitchslapped regularly these days :-)

and then Hugo says:

“The President of the United States came to the OAS meeting to give a slovenly speech and, his face pale, he proposed a medicine of death: He said that the salvation of Latin America is in a free market.… It is this capitalism that is generating exclusion, misery and, as a consequence, destabilization. He’s like a doctor that knows that a medicine is poisoned, that it is killing people, but who keeps prescribing that medicine. That is what is killing the people of Latin America. That is what has been crushing the people, what has generated the largest inequalities we have ever known.

“We, the peoples of Latin America told him: ‘No, Mister Bush. No, Sir. I’m sorry for you. Thank you. But his theory of poisoned medicine has failed.

“What is the cause of what happened in Bolivia? Fidel? Chávez? No. It’s Bush. It is all that he represents. It is capitalism. Fortunately, the Bolivian people were able to open the door to a peaceful solution, but we were at the point of civil war.”

“I spoke with (Bolivian) President (Carlos) Mesa, a friend, a good man. He told me, ‘Chávez, well, I’ve come this far, I can’t go any farther. I tried.’ And I told him, ‘Here you have a friend, you have a brother country to Bolivia.’”

“Those who say that Evo Morales is responsible are lying. From the streets he prevented the installation of another military dictatorship. If not they would have gone into civil war.”

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/6/13/104041/293

[bemildred]

4. Damn.

“I spoke with (Bolivian) President (Carlos) Mesa, a friend, a good man. He told me, ‘Chávez, well, I’ve come this far, I can’t go any farther. I tried.’ And I told him, ‘Here you have a friend, you have a brother country to Bolivia.’”

Now THAT is a fucking leader.
:applause::applause::applause:

[The Magistrate]

6. Mr. Mesa, Sir, Sounds Like A Gentleman

[struggle4progress]

7. Ex-leader blames Bolivian woes on Colombia (Sanchez de Lozada)

<snip> In an exclusive interview with the BBC's Spanish-language service, de Lozada said Colombian cocaine traffickers were exploiting Bolivia's economic and ethnic divides by promoting coca cultivation.

There is a great division in Bolivia between the regions, between the ethnic groups and between the classes and this has been sustained and financed by dug trafficking, said de Lozada.

The former Bolivian leader, who fled the country amid widespread violent protests in October 2003, worked closely with the United States to eradicate coca in Bolivia. Local coca growers were among the tens of thousands who marched on Bolivian cities. Some 80 people were killed in those protests.

De Lozada is wanted in Bolivia on genocide charges in connection with the protests. <snip>

http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=88161&n_date=20050614&cat=World


If the Bushistas can't weasel in under a banner of "protecting Bolivia from Venezuelan interference," they're gonna try flying the "war on drugs" flag ...

[Say_What]

9. Goni--the ousted US shill who speaks Spanish with a gringo accent

Living--where else??? In Gusanoville aka Miami.

[bemildred]

10. "De Lozada is wanted in Bolivia on genocide charges"

Does this mean he doesn't get his pension?

[K-W]

8. So the US can support the oligarchs financially and verbally

and Chavez isnt allowed to verbally support the peasants.

Up yours Mesa.

[struggle4progress]

11. ".. Chavez has empathy and supports Evo. That's clear and it even ..

.. seems legitimate to me' admitted Mr. Mesa ..."

Why does this statement upset you?

[K-W]

12. The word despite.

Mr. Mesa, whose resignation was accepted last week by Congress and was replaced by Eduardo Rodriguez, said that, despite not having any evidence of "intervention" by president Chavez, he viewed the Venezuelan leader's support for leftist coca growers leader Evo Morales as "legitimate".

With the despite in there it very much reads like legitimate means the support was in fact intervention.

If that is just bad phrasing I certainly take my comment back.

[bemildred]

13. I rather thought it was bad translation.

As English it's a bit incoherent.

[IndianaGreen]

14. The U.S. people, with whom we share dreams and ideals, must free themselve

Here are some words from Bush's nemesis in Latin America, Hugo Chavez:

Despite the repeated provocations and aggressive conduct of US imperialism, the Venezuelan President always distinguishes carefully between the people of the USA and their rulers. Pointing out that all empires come to an end, he said. “One day the decay inside U.S. imperialism will end up toppling it, and the great people of Martin Luther King will be set free. The great people of the United States are our brothers, my salute to them.”

The President continued:

“We must start talking again about equality. The U.S. government talks about freedom and liberty, but never about equality. They are not interested in equality. This is a distorted concept of liberty. The U.S. people, with whom we share dreams and ideals, must free themselves... A country of heroes, dreamers, and fighters, the people of Martin Luther King, and Cesar Chavez.”

He also said: “We can’t wait for a sustained economic growth of 10 years in order to start reducing poverty through the trickledown effect, as the neoliberal economic theories propose.” The President lambasted the US-sponsored Free Trade of the Americas Agreement (FTAA). He told the closing meeting: “The FTAA is death, what they go was mini-FTAA’s because U.S. imperialism did not have the strength to impose the neocolonial model of the FTAA.”

http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=161&Itemid=43