Venezuela Formally Submits Extradition Request to U.S.

[Judi Lynn]

Venezuela Formally Submits Extradition Request to U.S.

Wednesday, Jun 15, 2005

By: Venezuelanalysis.com

Caracas, Venezuela, June 15, 2005—Venezuela’s embassy in the U.S. announced that it delivered the formal extradition request for Luis Posada Carriles, the Cuban-Venezuelan accused of terrorism, to the U.S. State Department today. This move completes the the steps the Venezuelan government must undertake to have Posada Carriles extradited.

Last week, the Venezuelan embassy had submitted a dossier of documentation to supplement its earlier request for the U.S. government to arrest Posada Carriles. The Bush administration had turned down that earlier request on the grounds that insufficient documentation had been provided to justify Posada’s arrest. Venezuela and the U.S. have an extradition treat that dates back to 1923.

Posada Carriles is wanted by Venezuela in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner, in which 73 people were killed. Posada had been imprisoned for this crime, but escaped from prison while his case was on appeal. He is also suspected of having participated in the bombing of Cuban hotels and was charged of having planned the assassination of Fidel Castro in 2000.

U.S. immigration authorities detained Posada a few weeks ago, on the charge that he entered the country illegally. Since then he has applied for political asylum in the U.S. and he is waiting for his case to be heard. Venezuela argues that its extradition request should take precedence over the immigration case because, “Both the noted Extradition Treaty and State Department regulations establish that priority should be given to the extradition process.”
(snip/...)

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1663



Luis Posada + Mireya Moscoso, recently the President of Panama, who PARDONED him,
and Mireya Moscoso joining the Bushes for an evening of entertainment during a trip to Washington.

[Say_What]

1. Posada’s accomplices

<clips>

SO many things come to mind on reading a statement by the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF) published in the Miami press in August of 1997 unconditionally supporting terrorist attacks against Cuban tourist facilities that were occurring at the time.

In light of what we know today, so many lies can be seen in this document, signed by ringleaders of the Miami mafia who knew beforehand that more bombs would explode in other hotels because they had encouraged, guided and financed terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.

By November of 1996, as a prelude to what was going to occur, Miami’s Channel 23 was interviewing Posada live, together with Orlando Bosch, who stated their intention of carrying out more acts of terrorism against Cuba. Protected by FBI inertia, Posada used the following months to concretize, from his refuge in El Salvador, the announced attacks, without any interference whatsoever.

On April 12, 1997, a first explosion occurred, at the Hotel Meliá Cohiba in Vedado, Havana. On the 30th of that same month, a second bomb exploded in the same hotel.

Two-and-a-half months later, on July 12, bombs exploded in the Hotels Caprí and Nacional.

On August 4, a third explosion occurred at the Hotel Meliá Cohiba.

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/junio/mier15/25fnca.html

[Say_What]

2. The New CIA Revelations About Posada--Extradition US-Style

Ricardo Alarcon Quesada is Cuba's Vice President and President of its National Assembly.

<clips>

The secret documents recently disclosed by the National Security Archive throw new light on the responsibility of the government of the United States--and especially of the CIA, which was directed at that time by George H. W. Bush--in the horrendous mid-flight destruction on October 6, 1976 of a Cuban civilian airliner and the murder of all 73 people on board.

We already knew, by declassified documents published in May, that from at least June 1976 Washington was aware of the plan to carry out this terrible crime, had information about who its authors would be, and knew that the main guilty parties--Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles were seeking to escape Venezuelan justice.

But, what is now known via one of the documents published only two days ago, that's the last straw!: the US government itself sought to save the terrorists, with US diplomats in Caracas conspiring to do so with some local officials.

The document is a secret cable sent to Washington by the CIA station chief in Caracas on October 14 1976. The last paragraph refers in detail to the meetings of the morning of October 10, the afternoon of October 12, and again on the morning of October 13, that the US Embassy had with several individuals, including the Director of the DISIP (the Venezuelan secret police), Raúl Giménez Gainza, and Orlando García, advisor to then President Carlos Andrés Pérez.

The object of the meetings was the delivery of Orlando Bosch to the US authorities--without a diplomatic note, without an extradition request. Nothing of this appears in the report. In these three meetings those attending, who were supposedly speaking on behalf of the Venezuelan president, have promised to give up Bosch. It's that simple.

...Now, as then, the son like the father is an accomplice and a protector of murderers. This makes them terrorists as well ­ and just as guilty as those they shelter.

http://www.counterpunch.com/alarcon06142005.html

[peace_prevails]

3. extraord rendit...

I wonder if Posada was estraordinarily renditioned out of prison by the CIA... you know, to a country that can legally harbour terrorists...

[Say_What]

9. Interesting you should mention extraordinary rendition...

Welcome to DU, peace_prevails!! :hi:

Felix Rodriguez, CIA operative who murdered Che Guevara in Bolivia, harbored Posada-Carriles after the prison break. Rodriguez is pals with Old Bush

From a 1985 article:

<clips>

Bush ally harbored plane-bomb suspect

WASHINGTON - (UPI) - A key figure in the Iran-contra scandal with close ties to Vice President George Bush has acknowledged harboring a fugitive charged in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger plane in which 73 people died.

Felix Rodriguez, whose contacts with Bush initially drew the vice president into the Iran-contra affair, said in a series of recent interviews that he harbored the accused bomber, Luis Posada Carriles, shortly after his August 1985 escape from a Venezuelan prison.

Offering the first details of his involvement with Posada, Rodriguez said he agreed to "hide" the fugitive at the request of a wealthy Miami benefactor who he said financed Posada's prison escape. He would not identify the financier.

Senate investigators are pursuing allegations that Posada's prison escape was financed in part by Jorge Mas Canosa, with possible help from White House aide Oliver North. Mas, who heads the Cuban American National Foundation, an anti-Castro lobby group, denied any role in the escape.

Rodriguez, a former CIA operative, offered refuge to Posada while managing a secret White House operation based in El Salvador to ferry weapons to the Nicaraguan rebels.

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/posada/posada9-5-88.htm


Felix Rodriguez and Old Bush chilling in the Oval Office.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From Periodico:

Recently declassified US government documents reveal that the former president of the Miami-based Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF) made several trips to Venezuela where he organized the escape of arch-terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.

...On two previous occasions – in 1982 and 1984 – Posada Carriles had unsuccessfully tried to break out of Venezuelan jails. In 1985, however, he managed to escape with assistance from a secret network led by Colonel Oliver North and with the close collaboration of the CANF president, as both Cuban and now US sources have confirmed.

Miami extremists provided the money to bribe prison officials and pay for a twin-engine Cesna airplane which took Luis Posada Carriles to the Ilopango air base in El Salvador – a key logistical supply point for Nicaraguan contra troops.

While the terrorist was in jail, Mas Canosa sent Posada all sorts of goods directly to his jail cell, including money, food, and household appliances.

http://www.periodico26.cu/english_new/carriles/jail260505.htm

[pescao]

10. last line says it all

>Mas said he fought alongside Posada and Rodriguez during the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.

and then two years later they killed kennedy because he didn't give them air support. posada must have some really good dirt on bush...

[Cornjob]

4. This oughtta be good!

The High Priest of Terra Fighters has a convicted airline bomber on his hands!

What's a guy to do??????

I'll bet Bush will cave to the Anti-Castro forces!

Any bets?

BTW

I am certainly no fan of Castro. I spent too much time with Cuban refugees who had been imprisoned and tortured by his clan. But blowing up people on board an airliner is terrorism and murder.

Let's see if Bush can figure it out!

[pescao]

5. from today's morning star (uk)

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=37840

Will the CIA let Posada spill the beans on all their dirty tricks in Latin America?

edited to add original headline: When is a terrorist not a terrorist?

"We are going to hit a Cuban airplane," said Luis Posada in Caracas, Venezuela, according to a recently declassified CIA document. On October 6 1976, just days later, Cubana Airline flight 455 exploded off the coast of Barbados, killing all 73 passengers.

...

“The US government should not believe that, because it is delaying the process, the people are going to give in,” said Nicolas Maduro, president of the Venezuelan parliament. This week, Maduro announced that a parliamentary delegation had been sent to Washington to demand Posada’s extradition.

That message was echoed by protesters around the world, with millions taking to the streets in Cuba and Venezuela. Outside the El Paso courtroom on Monday and in 13 other cities across the US, demonstrations were held by anti-war coalition ANSWER.

On the same day, solidarity activists from Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia and Bolivia campaigns picketed the US embassy in London. Protests have also been held in Mexico, Spain, Portugal and the Philippines.

...

Luis Posada is an old man who has dedicated his life to terrorizing progressive movements in Latin America on behalf of the US. But one of the most dramatic allegations against him centres around some terrorism a little closer to home. Compelling evidence exists suggesting that Posada was part of the team that assassinated John F Kennedy, on whom he blamed the Bay of Pigs fiasco.

...

[pescao]

6. pix of london demo

report at http://www3.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/06/313423.html

[RalphReedsWreckedEm]

7. War on Terror? Oh wait, uh, it's the War on ISLAMIC Terror

Yeah, uh, we forgot to add that important word. It's only a War on ISLAMIC terror. Yeah, uh, that's it.

[pescao]

8. that will be the spin

"oh this sweet old man (think pinochet) couldn't possibly pose a threat to us here in good old america, why not let him live out the rest of his life in quiet dignity?"

:eyes: :puke:

[Say_What]

11. Progreso Weekly: Posada Carriles: The double acquittal myth

<clips>

CARACAS - The mass media repeats – in radio spots, television reports, wire services, and newspapers stories – the same news that “Luís Posada Carriles was twice acquitted in Venezuela.” We get the impression that Venezuela still persecutes an innocent man.

Google’s search engine yields 1,229 references to the terrorist's supposed double acquittal – 953 of these in English. A lie, if repeated often enough, turns into truth – the only truth.

A fallacious conclusion always follows from a false major premise. Does it matter that the premise is unsupported by the court files in Venezuela? Does it matter that recently declassified documents from the CIA and the FBI leave no doubt that Posada Carriles is guilty of the murder of 73 people aboard a civilian airliner – including an unborn child in a mother’s womb?

Posada Carriles’ own attorney, Eduardo Soto, fans the fallacy and says to the Miami Herald: “My client was acquitted twice in Venezuela.”

Hardly a coincidence, the State Department repeats the fallacy in a May 27 diplomatic note to the Venezuelan Embassy, when it rejected Venezuela's first request for the preventive detention of Luís Posada Carriles. “There is no mention,” says the State Department in the diplomatic note “of the fact that Posada Carriles was acquitted by a military tribunal in Venezuela in a previous prosecution, and the legal effect that that decision will have under Venezuelan law.”

Why is this false premise used so cavalierly by lawyers and the government alike? Why does the press today accept as gospel truth something that can so easily be shown to be false? What really happened in Venezuela in the case of Luis Posada Carriles?

http://www.progresoweekly.com/index.php?progreso=Jose_Pertierra&otherweek=1118898000

[Judi Lynn]

12. Excellent idea posting the facts of the case.Some brain stem

already tried that "so how could they keep him in jail if he had been acquited twice.." crap here.

Propagandists, and helpless freeps take advantage of the fact a lot of people not only have never heard of Luis Posada Carriles, so deeply was the news buried of the Cuban "exile's" airliner bombing, but they most surely never were acquainted with the details of the case brought against him by Venezuela. That's how propaganda works. They make the most of other people's ignorance.

The facts lurk within the declassified files the CIA had until very recently kept out of the hands and away from the eyes of the American taxpayers, and are available to anyone industrious enough to focus long enough to read them.



Young and old Luis Posada Carriles
Cuban-exile, right-wing mass-murderer,
hero of "exile" extremists in South Florida.

[Irmao]

13. I found this in Spanish

whereas it says Posada was absolved by a military court. But I say give him up to Venezuela although Ven has some serious problems with their justice system as well but the US certainly shouldn't be protecting him.

But Venezuela certainly isn't the throne of justice. a little reciprocity from Mr. Chavez would probably aid in the "quest for justice" rather than blanket condemnation. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050613/wl_nm/crime_venezuela_escape_dc_1

[Judi Lynn]

14. Didn't read SayWhat's link? It reveals the facts behind deliberate lies...

It goes to great pains to correct the disinformation some people have planted concerning the military court, which was not the appropriate court in which to try this case, and was corrected:

The facts

The plot was carried out by two Venezuelans named Freddy Lugo and Hernán Ricardo who boarded a Cuban passenger plane in Trinidad on October 6, 1976. They hid C-4 explosives in a camera that Mr. Ricardo placed in the rear bathroom of the plane. Both men deplaned in Barbados, and the ill fated plane took off, exploding soon after in midair off the sandy beaches of Barbados, killing all 73 aboard, including a pregnant passenger.

Police in Barbados immediately focused their investigation on Lugo and Ricardo and arrested them a few hours after the attack. Under interrogation, both confessed and implicated two others in the plot: Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch. Venezuelan authorities arrested Posada and Bosch in Caracas. During a search of Posada Carriles´ home and business, police found evidence corroborating the confessions of the men in Barbados.
On August 25, 1977, Judge Delia Estava Moreno referred the case to a military tribunal, charging all four co-conspirators with treason. The military court absolved them, thus giving rise to the origin of the acquittal myth. But that is not the end of the story. Later, the Military Court of Appeals found that the military tribunal lacked jurisdiction to try the men, and nullified the previous proceedings. The Judge ruled that “those prosecuted in the case of the Cubana flight, brought down off Barbados on October 6, 1976, are civilians and the crimes imputed to them are governed by the penal (and not the military) code.” “Military jurisdiction,” said the Court, “is applicable to the military for military infractions. Civilians and common law crimes are not subject to the dispositions of the Code of Military Justice... The Military Court considers it necessary to clarify that it does not possess the subjective procedural capacity to take on the current judicial process.”

The meaning of the court’s ruling

What did the Court mean that it has no “procedural capacity” to try the case? And that the lower Court’s decision is annulled, and that the entire record of the case is void, much akin to the legal effect that an annulment has on an attempt at a marital union. For example, a divorce legally tears asunder a marriage, whereas an annulment legally declares that the marriage never happened.

The four were then charged with aggravated homicide and treason before a Civilian Court: the 10th Superior Court in the Judicial District of the State of Miranda. The litigation began as if for the first time.

The evidence on file and in the Venezuelan press

The evidence from that trial is voluminous and is now corroborated by documents recently declassified by the CIA and the FBI by the National Security Archives of George Washington University. Posada Carriles admitted a scant few days before the downing of the plane, “We are going to attack a Cuban plan, and Orlando (Bosh) has all the details.” Venezuelan court files contain affidavits confirming that the person who actually planted the bomb in the rear bathroom of the plane, Hernán Ricardo, admitted to calling Luis Posada Carriles long distance from Barbados to inform him that the mission to blow up the plane had been accomplished, referring to the murdered passengers as “dogs.”

According to an FBI document dated October 21, 1976, the organization responsible for the bombing of the plane is CORU, a terrorist organization founded a few weeks earlier to carry out terrorist attacks throughout the Western Hemisphere. One of the members of CORU, Secundino Carrera, declared that the “bombing and the resulting deaths were fully justified because CORU was at war against the regimen of Fidel Castro.”

Posada’s escape from prison

On the eve of the pronouncement of his sentence on August 8, 1985, he fled from the San Juan de los Morros penitentiary, located in the State of Guárico, where he had been confined after two previous failed escape attempts. No verdict was entered against Posada Carriles because according to the Venezuelan Penal Code judicial proceedings cannot continue without the presence of the accused. The court issued an arrest warrant against him.
(snip/...)

This information reiterated here:

Published: Thursday, June 16, 2005
Bylined to: Dawn Gable


10 Myths & Realities about Luis Posada Carriles extradition/asylum affair

1. Myth: Luis Posada Carriles is not at terrorist.

Reality: “…In a series of tape-recorded interviews at a walled Caribbean compound, Mr. Posada said he organized a wave of bombings in Cuba last year at hotels, restaurants and discotheques, killing an Italian tourist…” (New York Times July 12,1998 Sunday, Late Edition-Final Section 1;Page 1;Column 1;Foreign Desk Headline: A BOMBERS TALE: Taking Aim at Castro: Key Cuba Foe Claims Exiles’ Backing. By Ann Louise Bardach and Larry Rohter)


2. Myth: LPC was acquitted twice of the airliner bombing and escaped while awaiting an appeal prosecution.

Reality: The first “acquittal”, was a case nullified because the military court that tried him had no jurisdiction over the case. The case then went to criminal court and Posada escaped from prison before a verdict was reached.
(snip)

6. Myth: LPC who was in prison in Panama for an attempt on the life of President Fidel Castro in Panama (that would have killed thousands of students it he had succeeded) was pardoned by outgoing Panamanian president 2004 because she was concerned that the incoming president would extradite LPC to Venezuela where he might be executed.

Reality: Venezuela does not have a death penalty.
(more....)

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=37905

[Irmao]

15. the inefficiencies of the Venezuelan court

system does not surprise me. and as the link I posted indicates, continues to this day.

I do not believe this is the issue. The issue is that Posada should be handed over DESPITE problems with Venezuelan justice.

[1932]

21. In other words, if they had been convicted of treason in the military crt.

they still would have had that decision annulled, and they still would have been tried for murder in the civilian court.

Furthermore, it's probably the case that even if the military court had jurisdiction over the treason charge, they still could have been tried for murder in the civilian court. I presume those aren't the same crimes, even if you had to prove the murders occurred to get the treason conviction.

I presume it's similar to a military prison guard getting convincted for breaching duties as a soldier by torturing and murdering a guy in a bar, and then also being subject to a criminal prosecution in a state court for the murder.

Hey. By the way. I wonder when they even tried him in a military court in the first place? Perhaps because they knew it was his only chance of aquittal. Why was running the military and the government back then?

[pescao]

20. wow, finally this rather important factoid even hits the herald...

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11931130.htm

Posted on Sun, Jun. 19, 2005

LUIS POSADA CARRILES CASE

Debate focuses on escape

The circumstances of Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles' escape from a Venezuelan prison were a point of contention between Posada and the Venezuelan government.

BY OSCAR CORRAL

[e-mail]

Did Luis Posada Carriles escape from a Venezuelan prison in frustration after twice being vindicated on terrorism charges? Or did he cut and run before justice had run its course?

That question has emerged as a high-profile point of debate between Posada and the Venezuelan government, which wants to try Posada again on charges that he participated in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner that killed 73 people.

Amid worldwide publicity about the case, the media -- including The Herald, which based its reporting on earlier articles -- have reported that Posada was acquitted twice. But a review of the case, which has been clouded by politics and nearly 30 years' time, shows the truth is more complicated than that.

...

The first known mention of two acquittals in the media was made by The Herald in a November 1997 article detailing Posada's involvement in planning a string of bombings at Cuban tourist sites that year. That same day, the Associated Press also wrote that Posada had been acquitted twice. Since then, media outlets around the world have repeated the two-acquittal version.

[Judi Lynn]

22. They tried as hard as possible to keep the truth buried,having a heavy

Cuban "exile" readership, and now a loud, angry Venezuelan emigre population which has bonded totally with the Cuban right-wing extremists, even to the point of throwing a joint anti-Chavez parade sometime back on a day the entire world was protesting _{George W. Bush's} filthy war on Iraq.

They got Carlos Ortega, the successfully bribed Venezuelan union boss, and some other genius, like Pedro Carmona to walk at the head of their parade.

Learned a LOT of wealthy Cubans moved to Venezuela right after the Cuban revolution, where they're hard at work plotting against Hugo Chavez. It's a confederacy of violent hogs. _Bush would see them as part of his "base."

Did you note that the Herald employed Phil Gunson, the completely twisted anti-Chavez "writer" to help scribble that article? That guy works overtime trying to destroy Chavez's rep among American news readers. He's a feverish propagandist.

[struggle4progress]

16. kick

[pescao]

17. good analysis on what's coming up...

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=37972

Published: Friday, June 17, 2005
Bylined to: Arthur Shaw

Arthur Shaw: Where CIA terrorist Luis Posada Carriles seems to be going...

VHeadline.com guest commentarist Arthur Shaw writes: The Luis Posada Carriles case is fairly complex. It seems to have two separate but interrelated sides, an immigration side and an extradition side. I do not disregard or belittle the additional political side of the case. But it this rap, I don't want to stray for a technical discussion of the case.

THE IMMIGRATION SIDE

The June 13 hearing in El Paso, Texas before US Immigration Judge William L.. Abbott, on the charge on illegal entry into the United States, seems to aired out a few questions in Posada's case:

(1) will Posada be released on bond, hearing set June 24;

(2) did Posada abandon his US permanent resident status when he became a Venezuelan citizen, hearing set for Aug 29;

(3) will court grant a change of venue to Miami, no hearing date set so far;

(4) will the court give political asylum to Posada, now that his lawyer has refiled for asylum, no date set for a hearing.

The whole immigration side of the case is possibly a stalling tactic and a trick by the imperialist Bush regime to calm the international outcry over the case while effectively doing nothing. But this is no reason not to pay attention to the immigration side because there is a real potential for dramatic developments on this side on the case.

...

[Judi Lynn]

18. Anyone wanting to see a great ground-breaking speech by a union official?

AFL-CIO Foreign Policy in Venezuela
by Fred Hirsch
June 18, 2005


{Speech made at a Labor Assembly in Geneva, June 12, 2005}

Brothers, Sisters, Friends and Comrades in the unending struggle for the rights of workers, equality, peace and democracy,

Thank you for this great honor of speaking here today with such a working class international assembly. I come to you with letters of representation from my own union, Plumbers and Fitters Local 393 in San Jose, California, the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council in San Jose, and the San Francisco Labor Council. I am pleased beyond words to have been invited to participate here by leaders of the Union Nacional de Trabajadores de Venezuela (UNT) (Venezuelas’ National Workers Union) - to join them in their struggle against the complaint raised by the joint voice of FEDECAMARAS, the Federation of Chambers of Commerce in Venezuela and the CTV, that nation’s old labor federation. Their boss-union collaboration is a marriage that could never be heaven blessed and can only be consummated in a warmer, subterranean climate.

I am Vice President of a 2500 member local union of pipe trades workers. I’m a plumber by trade, retired after thirty eight years as a rank-and-file worker in construction. I’m not a scholar. I have no university degrees, but for many years I have and worked on the issue of AFL-CIO intervention in the political and trade union life of sovereign nations, with most attention to the effect on workers and their organizations in Latin America. Whatever other factors may be involved, the FEDECAMARAS-CTV collusion against the UNT and the Bolivarian Republic, led President Hugo Chavez, is an ugly outgrowth of intervention by ACILS, the AFL-CIO’s American Center for International Labor Solidarity subsidized by the Bush administration, whose policy, in Venezuela, it parallels.

For over fifty years the interventionist work of the AFL-CIO has been financed by agencies of the U.S. Government. Among those agencies are the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of State, the Department of Labor, the U.S. Agency for International Development and some other agencies. In recent years, most ACILS funding comes from U.S. taxpayers through NED, the National Endowment for Democracy. Formerly, Latin American labor intervention operations were manipulated by AIFLD, the American Institute for Free Labor Development, which worked hand-in-hand with ORIT, the InterAmerican Regional Labor Organization. Three other AFL-CIO “institutes” operated on other continents. AIFLD operations, strengthened sellout unions and attacked militant unions, paving the way for transnational corporate globalization and influencing regime changes with disastrous results for workers.

An AFL operative, Serafino Romualdi, was a founder of ORIT. His clandestine work in Guatemala, fifty one years ago, was pivotal in the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Jacobo Arbenz. It resulted, through ensuing decades, in the deaths of uncounted tens of thousands of workers. Romualdi later set up AIFLD, whose work under his protege, William C. Doherty Jr., was critical to the Pinochet putch against democracy in Chile, unleashing terror, torture and death for seventeen years. Over three thousand lives were taken. I fear that US. government manipulations in Venezuela duplicate its work in Chile in 1973.
(snip)

Bush strategy is to isolate, demonize and destroy the government of Hugo Chavez . They supported and lost the coup, the oil lockout, the Referendum. Now they claim denial of workers Πrights. They do what they can to undercut the support given the Chavez government by the Venezuelan working class, led by the UNT. It is the same pattern cut by Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and AIFLD in Chile.
(snip/...)

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=8107

[XemaSab]

19. Are they bookended

by Powell and Condi?