Chavez kicks out U.S. evangelists for 'spying'

[deadparrot]

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday ordered U.S. New Tribes evangelical missions working with indigenous groups to leave the country after accusing them of "imperialist infiltration" and spying.

Chavez, a former paratrooper who says his socialist revolution counters U.S. influence, briefly suspended foreign missionary permits in August after U.S. evangelist Pat Robertson called on Washington to assassinate the left-wing leader. Robertson later apologized.

"I have given the order, the New Tribes, the so-called New Tribes, are going to leave Venezuela. This is real imperialist penetration, it makes me ashamed," Chavez said, wearing a green military uniform and red army beret.

"It's real imperialist infiltration, the CIA, they are taking sensitive and strategic information, and besides they exploit our indigenous people," he said. "We don't want to abuse them, but simply give them a date to pack up and leave."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/venezuela_missionaries_dc

[leftchick]

1. GO HUGO!

I can not say as I blame him one bit!

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Evangelicals are going to have a tough time saying that Chavez

is anti-religion, since latin Americans have found a good balance between religion and government.

[Bacchus39]

10. yeah Catholicism is much more integrated into society

including government

[The Backlash Cometh]

18. Not the way you're thinking.

Socialism actually does the kind of good works that Catholicism requires. THAT's why there's such a good symbiotic relationship.

[Bacchus39]

22. if you are a "good" Catholic you would be doing those things

regardless of the government system.

[The Backlash Cometh]

25. It doesn't seem to be working in America.

I have my theories. In latin America, family members cross the social strata. Therefore, charity and good works goes further than here because it is more personalized. Smaller communities also means that rich pricks will eventually meet their comeuppance.

Up here, the evangelicals have successfully made the argument that good works isn't what is being asked by God, but acceptance of Jesus. In fact, you hear less of God, and more of Jesus in the U.S., than you do in latin America. So, you can be a total prick in the U.S., but as long as you accept Jesus, then you're spiritually safe.

[Bacchus39]

26. hmmm....OK

having lived in latin america for 10 years I would not say that families cross social strata, rather society is quite stratified. but in general families do take care of their own REGARDLESS of their social strata

not sure what you mean by smaller communities. isn't Mexico City the largest city in the world. Heck Sao Paulo, Rio, Caracas, Bogota are huge cities. Not sure where you are going with this.

but without out a doubt the culture takes care of family, and Catholicism is part of that culture.

[The Backlash Cometh]

52. Okay, I lived in a latin American community for 20 years, so my

experience trumps yours by 10 years.

Here's what you need to know. At least in the latin country I grew up in, everything revolved around the extended family. You would see them at least two times a month for some kind of special event. But in between those two events someone was always dropping in to chat.

When we went into the interior to visit the main relatives, I wasn't allowed to address a peasant (campesino) with the word "Tu" and was told to use the more respectful, "Usted" even if he was a stranger to me because, as my mother would tell me, "Puede ser me sobrino." He could be my nephew.

On these trips, we always took whatever we had to give, which wasn't much back in those days, to give to my aunt, who was a principal of a primary school. The school was/is small, but as a child, I remember the kitchen was adobe, and the floors were puddled clay mud. It's all cement now and looking quite nice. The people there were thankful to receive anything. And by anything, I mean if a shirt was mildly stained, or darned, they would happily accept it. And since it was all we had to give back then, we felt like we were helping.

I remember that the giving is what was important. For my wedding, I once received bookends from someone, and the hinges were rusted. I kept that gift for many, many years because it reminded me that most things in latin America go far deeper than they do here in America.

My mother said she would fill in as a God Mother for many peasant couples who needed a quick fill-in for their dying babies. They wanted their babies Christened before they died. "Me lo distes un Moro, de lo regreso un Christiano." You gave him to me as a Moor, and I return him to you as a Christian. That act alone bonds you to the people in the village.

All aspects of that small village (actually, two villages which began to grow close together) bled into the big city.

These constant visits that the aunts, uncles and cousins would do each month served as a grassroots communication network. You never wanted to get on anybody's bad side, because the family was everything, so you didn't mistreat anyone.

I know that my extended family loved it when we would invite an American in our midst because they regaled them. But showing them courtesies is never like actually living in that kind of community. I had many anglo American friends from my American school who later told me that they were jealous because I could go into the interior and I had these "connections." I never thought anything of them, but as an adult, I realize now that because I had those connections, I view the world much differently than they do. Foreign countries aren't "foreign" to me.

There are lots of aspects to any country which are negative. Mine was no different. As I matured, so did the country I lived in. The "peasant" population which at one time was happy to be relegated to peasant status suddenly became more organized and resentful to anyone who exploited their labor. We did have an upper class group called "rabi blancos" which did exploit the poor. I might even have an aunt that fits the description. They would be equivalent to American Republicans OF TODAY. The only ones who truly escaped the criticism, were people who truly lived a Christian life.

I don't blame the lower classes at all. The world became more complicated and expensive to live in. So a government had to respond to the needs of a growing population. Obviously, latin American countries don't have the resources, or access to the resources to solve all the poverty issues. Brazil is a disaster when it comes to handling their poor. I'd like to believe the country I grew up in, did better, but when times are hard, I imagine there's less to go around.

I'm glad that I was able to experience this world up close as I did when I was a child. I would hate to learn that it has been "Americanized."

[ninkasi]

74. Thanks for that look into your past

I really enjoyed reading your post, and about the greatly extended families in Latin American countries. My first husband was born in Mexico, came here as a child of 3, and was naturalized along with his family.

I got to learn about the complexities when my older brother married his childhood sweetheart. One day while visiting them, I met my sister-in-law's cousin, who became my husband. A few years later, my younger brother married, and at some family gathering, my sister-in-law's brother met my younger brother's sister-in-law (wife's sister) and they married!

Among our children, the various degrees of cousin-ship are sometimes hard to keep track of...for example, my daughter and my older brother's daughter are first cousins because of my brother and me, and third cousins because of my niece's mother and my first husband. We have some very, very wonderful family get-togethers.

[The Backlash Cometh]

78. I don't know anyone who broke the first cousin rule, but

But, there were very close ties. However, everyone that's "in the family" is called a sobrino or tia or tio, even if by blood they really aren't, exactly. Two families can be connected by one couple's marriage, and everyone on that side would consider the other side relatives.

[ninkasi]

79. Oh, sure...

For example, my younger second cousins call me aunt, simply because their mother and I are the same age. There were no first cousin marriages in this family, either, but the exact relationship was never emphasized as much as the fact that family is just family. I enjoy this kind of familial closeness, myself.

For one thing, it would be absolutely unthinkable for any family member to be homeless, for example. There would always be a relative they could live with for awhile until they got back on their feet, and there would be a lot of people helping them get there.

[The Backlash Cometh]

85. You got it.

On the other hand, someone in the family that was brought into an American family would be considered a bum and promptly thrown out after the third month.

There's lots of family chores in a latin American family and their concept of work and cooperation is much broader.

[Bacchus39]

91. sounds like Panama

yeah, you are not telling me anything I don't already know about the latin american culture and devotion to the family.

and I am not sure how this relates to the discussion about not being able to accuse Chavez of being anti-religion because the works of socialism are what Catholics should do too and therefore it is a symbiotic relationship. Castro was anti-relgion and implemented socialist policies. I'm not comparing him to Chavez just making the point that socialism doesn't go hand and hand with religion necessarily.

I am not sure what you mean by "puede ser mi sobrino" because if he were your nephew more than likely he would be younger and "tu" would be perfectly appropriate. or if it is your mother's nephew, it would be your "primo" and I still see no reason why you wouldn't use the familiar "tu" amongst your peers especially family members.

[The Backlash Cometh]

95. Okay, here we go.

I don't get the impression that Chavez is anti-religion. I believe he went to church when he was up here during the UN meetings. And that's what the right-wing loves to do, isn't it? Define socialist and communist as godless people who are anti-religion? They demonize them, but they're going to have trouble doing that to Chavez because I believe he's Catholic.

IF he is both a socialist AND a Christian, there would be a symbiotic relationship, since Christianity, the way it is taught in latin America involves giving to the poor, and socialism basically attempts to alleviate certain inequities in society that create poverty.

It was my mother who said, "Puede ser MI sobrino," so that would be the relationship to HER. Her nephew. And, I guess I was raised in a more formal, traditional setting, or to be more precise, my mother attempted to teach us to be more formal. Some things took, some things didn't, God bless her for trying. She sometimes called me and my sister macha de montes, and she was right. I was an unapologetic tomboy and did well bonding with the Americans when it came to sports.

I see no problem with using the word "usted" for strangers regardless of their age. Not too long ago, on a soccer field (in the U.S.), there were some Mexican boys playing soccer on the sidelines of a field where some girls were playing a game. They weren't interested in the girls, just looking for some open field where they could play, but they were playing directly in the view of the girls' parents who were sitting under trees a little distance away. The parents, who were anglo, were annoyed by the obstruction, but were afraid to create a racial moment. I was just walking by when I noticed it, and thinking that the boys did not understand English and I told them in Spanish to move a little further down because they were obstructing the view. The boy nearest me, (maybe 16 years old) looked at my knowingly, and kept playing with his friends. I realized then that he did understand English, but was intentionally trying to annoy the Lacoste and khaki set under the trees. So I used the word "usted," because I knew what drove them to be a nuisance. I said, "usted sabe come esta gente nos van ha ver. Por favor..." He picked up his ball and as he began to leave I bowed my head and said, "Muchisimas Gracias" and he responded in kind, "De nada, Senora."

That boy understood traditional courtesies, and all he needed was a gesture of respect to trigger them. So I will use "usted" in every occasion possible because I think our mothers taught us right, and it's just that we don't get enough opportunities in the American culture to use them and to respond accordingly.

[Oldtimeralso]

105. Why It doesn't seem to be working in America

It seem s that a lot of American "Christians" are not very Christ-like, if they were true christians and read their Bible (esp. the NT) they might find the Sermon on the Mount or learn about the eye of the needle. Christians need to be Christ-centric not egocentric

[LatinoSocialist]

2. for the sake of Chavez' reputation, and for the sake of fairness

I hope he's right. There's plenty of precedent to his charges (anyone questioning the CIA's tactics should read Killing Hope by William Blum...they're above NOTHING).

But, if he's doing this purely to react to Robertson's continued attacks against him, I fear this maybe one of those first steps that spoils his so-far clean revolution and starts it off on the path toward illegitimacy, as Castro's did.

[lumpy]

30. Chavez must know how evangelists

can screw up a country like they are doing in this country by becoming ultra political.

[IndianaGreen]

40. Personally, we should outlaw evangelism altogether

Look at the crimes committed by missionaries in our own country. Ask the Hawaiians about their experiences with the missionaries, and how they were exploited by them. Ask the Africans!

Remember that the Christian missionaries in Latin America, and elsewhere in this world, are spreading the same misogynist, homophobic, rightwing ideology of their patrons back in the United States.

Enough of their poison!

[ozone_man]

86. I'm afraid Africa is the latest victim

of these U.S. based evangelist religions, especially the Pentecostals, who are now the largest protestant sect in the world.

They don't respect other cultures and beliefs and sometimes with intent to exploit for profit, or paving the way for multinational corporations to move in on their land and resources, or in certain politically strategic areas, even espionage for the CIA.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4619733.stm

[Taverner]

119. HOO HAAA!!!!!

I'm with ya there!

[rucky]

46. Going tough (and public) against the Reich Wing is a good move...

no matter what the motivation.

It sounds more to me like he is trying to keep from being assassinated by being as public as possible about the CIA's intentions.

If anything happens to him, we'll all know where to look first.

[NorthernSpy]

50. ALL countries reserve the right to kick out foreigners for any reason...

... or no reason.

If you are not a citizen of the United States, you are NOT entitled to remain in this country. We can kick you out for any reason.

If you are not a citizen of Venezuela, you are NOT entitled to remain in that country. The Venezuelans can kick you out of their country for any reason.

You see how that works? The only thing that's "illegitimate" about this incident is the notion that a foreigner has any actual right to enter and remain within a country not his own. Entry into -- and staying within -- someone else's country is a privilege.

Unless the US is prepared to tolerate without question the missionary activities of possibly hostile non-citizens -- Wahabists, say -- on our own soil, then we simply have no business telling the Venezuelans that they must tolerate such things either.

[LatinoSocialist]

53. sounds to me like the left here on DU is apologizing for Chavez

Yeah, he can kick people out whenever he wants it. The U.S. can to. Is that right? Don't we get angry when the U.S. arbitrarily sends Cuban musicians back to Cuba just because they're Cubans. Or when for some stupid terrorism related charge, people are sent back to Europe?

All I'm saying is that Chavez BETTER be right about this, because if he isn't, it's not good for his reputation, but more importantly, it's not good for karma. The moment he starts acting like a tyrant is the moment his inspiration for a new socialist revolution, worthy of the respect and legitimacy of the people of Latin America, dies.

[NorthernSpy]

60. I don't dispute the authority of the US to deport foreigners

Yeah, he can kick people out whenever he wants it. The U.S. can to. Is that right? Don't we get angry when the U.S. arbitrarily sends Cuban musicians back to Cuba just because they're Cubans. Or when for some stupid terrorism related charge, people are sent back to Europe?

Maybe you get angry about those things, but I don't. In fact, I would repeal the policy that allows Cubans who make it to our shores to stay here, and I'm downright delighted when the government actually bothers to send hostile aliens back where they came from. I also think that we should put an end to illegal immigration and return all the illegals to their own countries. Secure borders are what I want for Christmas.

You may cherish the Doormat America principle. But I don't agree with you on that score, and don't see why I should.

All I'm saying is that Chavez BETTER be right about this, because if he isn't, it's not good for his reputation, but more importantly, it's not good for karma. The moment he starts acting like a tyrant is the moment his inspiration for a new socialist revolution, worthy of the respect and legitimacy of the people of Latin America, dies.

Except that this isn't an act of tyranny. I have no problem whatsoever accepting that I have no right to enter Venezuela, and I have no problem accepting that the people who run this New Tribes outfit have no right to enter Venezuela either.

And I'm not sure why anyone would have a problem with that concept.

[LatinoSocialist]

62. i have a problem with it

because when Chavez arbitrarily takes action to expel people from his country, purely on his suspicion that they may be CIA, it taints the legitimacy of his revolution. We don't know if they ARE spying. We don't know the reasons. all I said was that I support Chavez, and hope that what he is doing is based on sound reasons.

Expelling people left and right from any country, without any legitimate reason, is shameless. Legimate immigration policy...secure borders from HOSTILE aliens, sure. But, if these people's crime is that they preach Christianity too much, you know, I'm not so sure I can agree with Hugo on this one.

And I was talking about immigrant Cubans. I was talking about 80-year old Cuban musicians who get expelled just to snub Cuba, even when they're on trips to pick up Grammys for their work. That type of mean-spirited action by any government is condemnable.

[Pawel K]

64. I fully agree with you

As much as I respected Chavez I think he is taking things a little too far, this stepped over the line.

[NorthernSpy]

66. stepped over WHAT line?

ALL countries have the authority to deport aliens. Your approval is not strictly necessary, and your disapproval does not indicate that any "line" was crossed.

[Megahurtz]

87. I don't think he stepped over any line,

he's just playing it safe.

I think it's a very smart move on his part.

[NorthernSpy]

65. then you'll just have to speak for yourself

Venezuela is acting fully within its sovereign authority -- the sort of authority that ALL countries claim. There is nothing "illegitimate" or "shameless" (I think you meant to say 'shameful') about that.

when Chavez arbitrarily takes action to expel people from his country, purely on his suspicion that they may be CIA, it taints the legitimacy of his revolution.

Nice try. Any "revolution" in Venezuela is purely a figure of speech. Chavez does not in any sense "taint" the "legitimacy" of his government by acting within its authority under law -- as Venezuela has done in the case of the foreigners who were running this "New Tribes" outfit. Hugo Chavez' legitimacy as a leader comes from having been democratically elected. Don't forget it.

[LatinoSocialist]

76. I propose

that we deport any DUers who are publicly displaying a certain intellectual smugness. Purely on that. hey, I'm the President of the U.S, and I feel like deporting you just on the fact that your attitude offends me. Sounds fair by your logic, right?

Deporting people for no sound reason shouldn't be supported, no matter what the government.

And you're woefully misinformed about what's going on in Venezuela. Read Richard Gott's book on Venezuela, or anything about the new Socialist revolution in Venezuela.

[loudsue]

80. That's bogus logic! He's not deporting VENEZUELANS, he's deporting

American evangelicals...FOREIGNERS...and citizens of a country whose leaders have tried to bring down his government by a CIA coup...that luckily failed miserably.

Your logic is faulty when you say that the Pres of the US deporting "DUers" or anyone else who is an American citizen is ANYTHING like what Chavez is doing.

I have no doubt that Chavez has good reason to suspect that these "missionaries" are actually CIA infiltrators. In fact, I'd bet they, or at least some, probably ARE!! And he damn well SHOULD deport them!

[LatinoSocialist]

81. Folks,

why blame American evangelicals for the actions of the U.S. government or Pat Robertson. if they're doing bad stuff, deport them. If they're not, don't lump American citizens with their government.

I agree with you that it's likely they are. The CIA has used such tactics in the past, and there was a scandal about it in Iraq, when Christian missionaries were being sent to "christianize" Muslim Iraq. But, all I said, (and I keep repeating it), is that I hope Hugo Chavez is right. Because if he's wrong, and he knows it, it would taint his revolution's legitimacy.

Edit:

Post #48 has put up some proof that these groups were involved in nefarious activities. I'm solidly in support of Chavez, now that this proof has been brought forward.

[Bacchus39]

93. I agree with you, I don't want to be associated with the Bushie

administration or CIA either just because of a personal dispute. Heck, I am hoping to visit Venezuela (again) next year.

[1932]

116. Glad to see that you read the evidence and are convinced.

Have you read Confessions of an Economic Hit Man? Perkins talks about these groups too.

[hyphenate]

61. Let's say I was president of a country

and a religious leader in another country, associated with a wild-eyed, obsessive cult group, made a public comment that he wished I were dead.

Then, some missionaries from said cult came to my country purportedly to give aid to some impoverished groups. Now, knowing that their leader has already and publicly made death threats against me, should I, as leader, allow his followers into my country, knowing how fanatical they are? Am I not in one way or another inviting potential assassins into my country?

I would want them out as quickly as possible, too, regardless if they are truly after me or not. It's just being careful and showing some caution in the light of such viciousness of their leader.

[LatinoSocialist]

63. Are all evangelicals like Pat Robertson

I detest bible thumpers as much as the next DUer, but blanket labelling all Christian evangelicals and linking them with Pat Robertson is not only wrong, it's unfair.

Chavez is taking a lot of publicly anti-American steps as of late. Most are legitimate. Nationalizing the industries, forcing them to pay taxes, taking over unused land in an agrarian reform plan, etc. That's all good and dandy. So far, he hasn't stifled free speech, press, or assembly. I don't want him to stain the legitimacy of his revolution with petty expulsions of foreigners, possibly in retaliation to an evangelical leader. When he says they're CIA...for his honesty, his reputation, and for the sake of fairness and right, I hope he's telling the truth.

Could they be CIA? Sure...read William Blum's Killing Hope and you'll see that the CIA used to use religious organizations often. I'm just saying that I hope he's right. If he's wrong, he's starting Venezuela's decline into the Cuban Revolution's illegitimacy. I love the Cuban Revolution, and I love its ideals...but in practice, there are a lot of stains in Castro's rule. A lot of ugly shit, and I'm a socialist, a Latin American socialist (look at my name). I'm as Che Guevara as they may come, and yet, I'm afraid of issues of legitimacy, because it's hard to defend the Cuban Revolution when Castro has his committee's for the defense of the revolution going around his island rounding up people who disagree with his policies, or when he forces people into government buses for staged rallies by withholding food ration checks to those that don't get on them (I have a friend who went to Cuba and witnessed this first hand). Or, when he would ban Jazz music as too "liberatory" and a threat to his regime (I'm a musician, and that strikes me as really bad). Or when he refuses to all Cubans into tourist hotels so as to not disturb the tourists. They can't go to a hotel in their own country!? Like i said, and I'm making it clear, I'm a socialist, I support the Cuban Revolution and its ideals, but I'm really angered by some of its actions, and I don't want to see Venezuela's revolution, which has been the only inspiring revolution in Latin America since the 1980's Sandinista Revolution, go down the path of illegtimacy.

I'm saying, HUGO....thread carefully.

[NorthernSpy]

67. WHAT "revolution"? Chavez is a democratically elected leader!

Chavez is taking a lot of publicly anti-American steps as of late. Most are legitimate. Nationalizing the industries, forcing them to pay taxes, taking over unused land in an agrarian reform plan, etc. That's all good and dandy.

Again, nice try! How exactly do these features of Venezuela's domestic policy count as "anti-American"?

If he's wrong, he's starting Venezuela's decline into the Cuban Revolution's illegitimacy. I love the Cuban Revolution, and I love its ideals...but in practice, there are a lot of stains in Castro's rule. A lot of ugly shit, and I'm a socialist, a Latin American socialist (look at my name).

Yeah, I see your name. :eyes:

And again I'll remind you that Hugo Chavez is Venezuela's leader because he won an election. Fidel Castro came to power by force of arms. I'm starting to wonder why you keep equating the two.

[LatinoSocialist]

75. THAT"s the revolution

the poor saw in him a candidate willing to implement a revolution, and he has. Ask the traditional parties of the rich if he has implemented a revolution. The guy has transferred oil wealth to poor social services, initiated agrarian reform, modified the constitution (legally) to shift toward revolutionary priorities, and even publicly stated he intends to embark on a socialist revolution, and that's not enough to be a revolution?

Fidel Castro did come to power by force of arms, but there is no historical doubt that, at the time of his climb to power, he enjoyed overwhelming popularity. One could question his popularity now, but at the time of his climb, he climbed because the people rose up to help his 26th of July Movement. In my book, he enjoys the same legitimacy as Chavez does, at least when he started out. Later, without elections, with the one-party system, and with what he has done, he's lost a substantial amount of respect and support in Latin America.

oh, and lighten up with the "rolling eyes".

[Bacchus39]

92. yes, as in turn the other cheek

I think people have to remember Chavez is a politician and he does things for political reasons.

but the US is as much to blame as the US at least tacitly supported the 2002 coup attempt and would not criticize it. you reap what you sow.

[struggle4progress]

124. Do you remember the famous Tutu quote: "When the white man came, we ..

.. had the land and they had the Bible; they said 'let us pray' and we bowed our heads; when we looked up, WE had the Bible and THEY had the land."

NTM has a documented history of fomenting trouble among indigenous group -- and obtaining their land at the same time: see, for example, http://www.survival-international.org/tribes.php?tribe_id=16&PHPSESSID=c9a0d159af5ae80b0c95449aa5637405

And, what a coinky-dink! Here's a link from earlier this week:

Venezuela's Chavez grants land titles to indigenous groups

By IAN JAMES | Associated Press
October 12, 2005

BARRANCO YOPAL, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened to kick some Christian U.S. missionaries out of the country Wednesday, as he presented property titles to indigenous groups who he said had been robbed of their ancient homelands.

Hundreds of people from various indigenous groups, some who had traveled days across dirt roads and rivers, gathered in this small village in southern Apure state for a ceremony recognizing their ownership of thousands of hectares of land.

"We are doing justice," said Chavez, dressed in military fatigues and a red beret. "We can now start to say that there is a homeland for the Indians."

Chavez said that he was also ordering the expulsion of a group of Christian missionaries working with indigenous groups, called the New Tribes Mission, accusing the Sanford, Florida-based religious organization of cultural imperialism. <snip>

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/33600.html

[Missy M]

4. Good for Chavez - what the heck is New Tribes all about...

I don't think the indigenous people need to be preached to about changing their ways, specially by the US.

[LatinoSocialist]

5. sounds like yet another

Christianization wave...didn't the West have its fill with the Spanish's "civilizing" of the natives once?

[punpirate]

12. Here's a very interesting history of New Tribes...

... in Venezuela:

http://www.coha.org/NEW_PRESS_RELEASES/New_Press_Releases_2005/05.103_Venezuelan_Evangelicals_and_Robertson.html


It seems they have a very long history in that country, and a sufficiently suspicious background for Chavez to have acted as he did.

It's a long read, but a fascinating one. It's very clear that the news about this will be interpreted much differently in Venezuela than it will be here. I doubt many know of New Tribes at all, or what they've been up to over the years.

Cheers.

[Flanker]

28. Thanks for the article

Sadly I was not aware of this group, and after reading that report I am in agreement.

COHA is the best think tank on hemispheric affairs.

[54anickel]

37. Interesting link, thanks Punpirate. Weird, I know a few people that

are or were missionaries through New Tribes. Never thought of them as covert agents or anything like that, but I suppose New Tribes would make a pretty good front for gov't operatives.

[punpirate]

38. If not government...

... then operatives for commercial interests. As others have mentioned in this thread, one of the missionary groups identified in that linked article was also mentioned by John Perkins in his "Confessions of an Economic Hitman." Same modus operandi.

Perhaps the important thing that article makes clear is that the history of New Tribes is much more well-known in Venezuela than here. The press in this country, for that reason, will likely continue to see this as just one more irrational excess on Chavez' part, while the perception of that action in Venezuela is probably quite different.

One has to wonder, though--this group is dedicated to finding indigenous tribes all over the world and converting them. Where are all the indigenous tribes located? In places which largely have been unexplored.... :shrug:

Cheers.

[54anickel]

71. My X's uncle was a missionary in Brazil. I always wondered about

their "breaks" from the field. The missionaries down there would get vacations from their work in the field, and they would spend it with their family at a beautiful villa provided by the SC Johnson company. They thought they were blessed by the generosity of a large corporation that believed in their "good works".

This sort of "stuff" just validates the suspicions I had way back then that they were somehow being used as tools. I was just too politically naive at the time to figure out just how they were being used.

Makes me wonder what "God" thinks of all this shit being pulled on "his creation" in "his name". Do you think copping a plea of ignorance will fly in the "high court" come judgment day? :shrug:

My niece's husband grew up in Venezuela as a "missionary brat". I look forward to learning more about the missionary part his life there. I feel for his parents - do you know what New Tribes provide their missionaries in retirement? Absolutely nothing...but I digress.

[IndianaGreen]

42. before Chávez came to power in 1999, Christian radio and TV were outlawed

Thanks for the link, punpirate. We should share this information with our fellow DUers:

Chávez and Protestant Groups

On the other hand, according to David Zelenak, Director of the Resource Department at the evangelical New Tribes Mission which operates in Venezuela, Chávez was initially somewhat partial to Protestants and evangelical groups like his own. Zelenak says that before Chávez came to power in 1999, Christian radio and TV were outlawed, a policy reversed by Chávez. Robertson in fact broadcasts his 700 Club to Venezuela over TV station Televen. Ironically then, “Robertson’s program would never have been there if it wasn’t for Chávez.” Zelenak suggests that Chávez conducted a pro-Protestant policy as a way of sparring with the Catholic Church. Some Venezuelan Catholic bishops have accused Chávez of trying to create Cuban-style communism in the country. Chávez has countered by saying that he is a Catholic and that the bishops are siding with the rich to bring down his regime. What is more, Chávez accuses the Catholic hierarchy of supporting the aborted coup d’etat against him in April 2002.

http://www.coha.org/NEW_PRESS_RELEASES/New_Press_Releases_2005/05.103_Venezuelan_Evangelicals_and_Robertson.html

[pnorman]

51. "Summer Institute of Linguistics"

That was the first time I had ever heard of that outfit. Googling led to a string of hits, mostly laudatory, with the Christian missionary aspect almost muted. But this also came up:

Part VI: 1981-Present
excerpted from the book
Confession of an Economic Hit Man
by John Perkins
>
>
The oil companies reacted predictably -they pulled out all the stops. Their public relations people went to work to vilify Jaime Roldós, and their lobbyists swept into Quito and Washington, briefcases full of threats and payoffs. They tried to paint the first democratically elected president of Ecuador in modern times as another Castro. But Roldós would not cave in to intimidation. He responded by denouncing the conspiracy between politics and oil - and religion. He openly accused the Summer Institute of Linguistics of colluding with the oil companies and then, in an extremely bold -perhaps reckless - move, he ordered SIL out of the country.

Only weeks after sending his legislative package to Congress and a couple of days after expelling the SIL missionaries, Roldós warned all foreign interests, including but not limited to oil companies, that unless they implemented plans that would help Ecuador's people, they would be forced to leave his country. He delivered a major speech at the Atahualpa Olympic Stadium in Quito and then headed off to a small community in southern Ecuador.

He died there in a fiery helicopter crash, on May 24, 1981.
>
>

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Globalization/PartIV_CEHM.html

pnorman

[Igel]

73. SIL's a neat little group.

They do work that nobody else will do, and do it well; they take no definite side in the linguistics wars, instead doing linguistics, instead of preaching theory. (Not that they don't know theory. They just view it as secondary.)

Academic linguists have a mixed view of them: they're religious, so that's one strike; they seldom abide by a given academic's stricture on absolute truth, so that's a second strike. They don't seek tenure in most cases, or publish widely in the 'right' journals, third strike. They also tend to go in-country for years at a time and learn the languages, whereas most academic linguists would rather spend a few weeks on field trips, or work with native informants in the US. SIL folk, when they write up their descriptions, also don't stick to the prescribed boundaries within different disciplines in linguistics: three people in a village can't be specialists in just phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, or semantics, so they do all right with all of them. Unlike, say, Chomsky or Langacker, who have different pretensions to grandeur.

Then again, SIL workers write stellar grammars and dictionaries of languages never previously described or documented that fuels many an academic argument and paper, and equip the folk being studied with an orthography that usually does a damned good job for the language in question. They do it quickly and cheaply. Then they produce a new testament in the language, giving the people their first thing to read. They're probably responsible for giving more ethnicities the opportunity to be literate than any other organization on earth (except maybe the Anglicans, Catholics or Soviets, hard call, that one).

SIL produces the standard International Phonetic Alphabet fonts most people use, and lets them out for free. They produce Shoebox (ok, now it's called Toolbox), nifty software for producing dictionaries, grammars (within limits), and interlinear texts with glosses.

If SIL didn't exist, we'd have to produce one. And I don't think academic linguists could.

[Missy M]

55. Thank you for the article answering my question - very interesting...

reading. New Tribes is certainly backed by some large companies or the US government, or both. That seems to me the only way they could have the money to do what they do. It would be interesting to have an investigation into New Tribes originate from this country by some journalists.

[ozone_man]

14. Here is a good report on the New Tribes.

Should read the whole piece, but here are some key parts.

“I Speak To Caracas:” A Bombshell
Perhaps due to New Tribes’ far-flung infrastructure, by the 1970s the missionaries had come under widespread public fire. The first salvo came from Pablo Anduza, the former governor of Amazonas, who remarked in 1973 that missionary education was alien to Indian traditions and “…missionary teachings encourage the creation of an artificial society which separates children from parents.” The second blow came from Julio Jiménez, a Guajibo Indian. In 1976, Jiménez publicly disclosed that in 1958 he was sent by New Tribes to the U.S. to undertake specialized courses with the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Jiménez then disclosed that to his observation, missionary work had a pernicious effect upon the indigenous lifestyle. He remarked that, “New Tribes has done more harm than good, and they should be expelled.” On the main campus at the Central University of Caracas, things were heating up against the New Tribes Mission. At a seminar held at the School of Sociology and Anthropology, various indigenous leaders called for its expulsion.

But the public relations nightmare for New Tribes was just beginning. In late 1976, Carlos Azpurua released a new 18 minute short film, “I Speak To Caracas.” The film featured the historian and shaman of the Yecuana people, Barne Yavari, who tells the camera, “They prohibit all our customs…our drinks, our mythology, music and our form of life. I don’t mean that no North American has helped me spiritually. We don’t need spiritual help because we have our religion.” Yavari goes on to tell the people of Caracas that his people have their own God, Wanadi. “It’s not known how he began nor who made him,” says Yavari. “Wanadi has been my beginning.” “I Speak To Caracas” became a sensation, hitting the country like a bombshell. The film earned various prizes both in Venezuela and abroad. As a result of its screening, the role of New Tribes Mission and the plight of Venezuelan Indians hit the international stage. The film was shown at hundreds of forums held in universities, film clubs, unions, parishes, public libraries, legislative assemblies, and even border posts. Everyone from indigenous leaders to public law firms participated in the forums accompanying the film’s screenings. The organizers eventually published a document entitled, “Let Us Stop Ethnocide,” in which they called for an end to the war that “these missionaries carry out against culture and the lives of our Indians.”

For some prominent government figures, the issue of New Tribes and the abuse of indigenous peoples had become a matter of national pride. Simon Alberto Consalvi, the former Venezuelan chancellor, remarked that “The accusations about what is happening in Amazonas and some other Venezuelan regions…constitute a recurring theme. This is not a superficial matter…It’s not a secret to anyone that light aircraft go and come without oversight. Some time ago I accompanied the Mexican chancellor to a beautiful place in the Venezuelan Guayana. I was greatly surprised (certainly not very agreeably), when a Venezuelan Indian began to speak in English as if we were a group of tourists. The Indian was surrounded by Bibles…I had the impression that I was in some place in California, where they invent religions and cults in bulk.”

This analysis was prepared by COHA Senior Research Fellow Nikolas Kozloff.

Nikolas Kozloff's forthcoming book, Hugo Chavez and His Vision for South America, is forthcoming from St. Martin's Press.

September 19, 2005

The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, founded in 1975, is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt research and information organization. It has been described on the Senate floor as being “one of the nation’s most respected bodies of scholars and policy makers.” For more information, please see our web page at www.coha.org; or contact our Washington offices by phone [phone], fax [phone], or email [e-mail].

http://www.coha.org/NEW_PRESS_RELEASES/New_Press_Releases_2005/05.103_Venezuelan_Evangelicals_and_Robertson.html

[1932]

24. Summer Institute of Linguistics -- that's the group Perkins writes about

in Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, IIRC. According to Perkins, they helped the oil companies clear the land of indigenous people so the oil companies would have less resistance when they moved in. See below.

[punpirate]

36. Thought they sounded familiar...

... it's been a number of months since I read Perkins' book.

[Judi Lynn]

32. Excellent link. Going to re-read it later. Thanks. n/t

[ozone_man]

19. For a more in depth study

Thy Will be Done is an expose of the evangelist movement and it's collusion with corporate interests (especially Rockefeller) and the CIA in South America and the Brazilian basin in particular. I would suggest starting here with this excellent book review. Their work is referenced in the COHA analysis.

http://www.cephas-library.com/church_n_state_rockefeller_and_evangelism.html

NELSON ROCKEFELLER and Evangelism in the Age of Oil

"Thy Will Be Done", The Conquest of the Amazon:

by Gerard Colby with Charlotte Dennett
Harper Collins, 1995. 960 pages

reviewed by Carmelo Ruiz

Carmelo Ruiz is a Puerto Rican journalist and research associate at the institute for Social Ecology, email ise@ igc.apc.org at Goddard College, Vermont. Connect: ernail: carrneloruiz@hotmailcom

In 1976, reporters Gerard Colby and Charlotte Dennett traveled to Brazil as part of a journalistic team to write stories about the work of Christian missionaries in the Amazon basin. High on Colby and Dennett's list of priorities was to learn about a mysterious missionary organization called the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). This outfit, also known as the Wycliffe Bible Translators, had gotten kudos from both conservatives and liberals for translating the Bible into hundreds of indigenous languages in Central and South America and helping native peoples cope with the intrusion of Western civilization into their lives.

However, Colby and Dennett had heard of a darker side to SIL. Numerous critics had alleged that SIL was the vanguard of the destruction of both the rainforests and their native inhabitants. They had heard from Latin American acquaintances that SIL was, in military fashion, a scouting party that surveyed the Amazonian hinterlands for potential sources of opposition to natural resource exploitation (read cattle ranching, clearcutting and strip mining) among native peoples and that it employed a virulent brand of Christian fundamentalism that relied on linguistics to undermine the social cohesion of aboriginal communities and accelerate their assimilation into Western culture. In addition to all this, numerous articles in the Latin American press accused SIL of being funded by the American intelligence community.

[Judi Lynn]

45. You've made at least one more sale for this book!

I bought it after having read your review. It's about time the public started finding out what has been happening hidden behind so many layers of secrecy, and what it means.

What a shame we can only find out about it so late in the game.

Thanks for the review.

[LeighAnn]

41. Missionary Killed in Phillipines was part of this bunch

Remember the guy and his wife that were being held hostage? Apparently, he was part of this outfit. Here's an article about his funeral

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2002/jun/14/funeral_honors_martin/

The top dog at New Tribes spoke at his funeral

[Judi Lynn]

44. Thanks for taking the time to locate the info. on the Burnhams.

I'm so glad to see some missing pieces provided for their odd story. It gives that event far more depth and leads me to believe it probably wasn't simple coincidence they were taken as hostages.

Ordinary U.S. accounts have been notably empty of anything substantial about any part of the kidnapping.

[NVMojo]

59. he's talking about kicking the WHITE "new tribes" out, invaders ...

ask the Native Americans about "new tribes" ...

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. yugo hugo! and with robertson seeking your untimely death, bravo.

I wonder.
Is it tinfoil hat to ask whether (given the evangelical brain-washing they did at the Air Force Academy) some parts of our government ARE using evangelicals as spies?

Heck, that practice is actually many centuries old. The Catholic Church concocted the The Order of Loyola (Jesuits) in order to send their brightest, best trained and most mutli-lingual and literate soldiers to hear confessions of their potential enemies.

[wakeme2008]

7. Sounds like a good cover for the CIA

New Tribes..... :rofl:

[Union Thug]

8. I'd vote for Chavez! GO GO GO!

[earth mom]

9. Go Hugo! eom

[VegasWolf]

11. Why can't we do that? nt

[ladjf]

34. Now you are talking! America would be better off if certain

treasonous evangelical preachers were deported.

[madrchsod]

13. they have a nice headquarters in florida

http://www.ntm.org/
NTM - missionaries planting tribal churches

[Tanuki]

15. More about New Tribes

(deleted-duplicated something already posted)

[goforit]

16. Don't blame him!!!...After Robertson comments, I'd do the same.

[alcibiades_mystery]

17. 1) Blame Robertson

If leader of Group X called for my assassination, and members of Group X were in my living room, I would surely ask them to depart. As would any reasonable person.

2) Chavez is, of course, probably right. The paper tries to make it sound ridiculous by quoting "imperialist infiltration," because the word "imperialist" is only uttered by lunatics apparently, though the practice of imperialism is of course alive and well. The best trick of the imperialists was to discredit the word "imperialism," just as the best strategy of thieves would be to discredit the word "thief." How could you alert one to a thief if the very word were a joke? See how that works? Perhaps the reporter should stop joking around with Chavez's words and actually investigate the allegation?

[klebean]

20. watch for orgs like CESNUR

an international center for the study of New Religions,
to issue a critique against Chavez and his current action.
They have offered legal support to groups like Falun Gong
and Aum Shrinikyo under the pretext of religious freedoms.

[AX10]

21. Hugo, Hugo, Hugo, Hugo, Hugo, Hugo,!!!!!!

:bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce:

Kickem' out Hugo, save your country! :kick:

[1932]

23. Perkins says they did this in Ecuador (in Confessions of Ec. Hit Man)

He said that there was a religious organization that was a front group for the oil companies. They'd go into the jungle and "help" the indigenous people transition into "normal" life far from their homelands.

Guess how the picked which native groups to help? Well, if you lived on oil rich land, they were very interesting in helping you so that nobody lived on the land when the oil companies came with their machinery to take the nation's oil resources.

[callady]

27. Thy Will Be Done- In the Amazon

Find this book if you can. You will learn precisely how it is done.


In 1976, reporters Gerard Colby and Charlotte Dennett traveled to Brazil as part of a journalistic team to write stories about the work of Christian missionaries in the Amazon basin. High on Colby and Dennett's list of priorities was to learn about a mysterious missionary organization called the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). This outfit, also known as the Wycliffe Bible Translators, had gotten kudos from both conservatives and liberals for translating the Bible into hundreds of indigenous languages in Central and South America and helping native peoples cope with the intrusion of Western civilization into their lives.

However, Colby and Dennett had heard of a darker side to SIL. Numerous critics had alleged that SIL was the vanguard of the destruction of both the rainforests and their native inhabitants. They had heard from Latin American acquaintances that SIL was, in military fashion, a scouting party that surveyed the Amazonian hinterlands for potential sources of opposition to natural resource exploitation (read cattle ranching, clearcutting and strip mining) among native peoples and that it employed a virulent brand of Christian fundamentalism that relied on linguistics to undermine the social cohesion of aboriginal communities and accelerate their assimilation into Western culture. In addition to all this, numerous articles in the Latin American press accused 511. of being funded by the American intelligence community.

That last charge sounded particularly believable, since the authors' trip took place in the wake of recent revelations by the Church Committee of the US Senate, which investigated the activities of US intelligence agencies. It bears mentioning that Colby was by then no stranger to corporate and political intrigue. In 19 74, writing as Gerard Colby Zilg, he published Dupont: Behind the Nylon Curtain, a 600+ page tome that narrated the Dupont family's corrupt history, from its profiteering on gunpowder sales to its manufacture of ozone-depleting gases. However, don't expect to see it in bookstores. When a Dupont PR representative said the book was scurrilous and actionable, publisher Prentice Hall was intimidated into letting Dupont go out of print. (In 1984, an expanded and updated 900 page-long edition of the book was published, which included, among other things, the Dupont's little-known connection to the Nicaraguan contras. Unfortunately, it met the same fate as the previous edition.)

<snip>

Thy Will be Done is a very challenging and deeply disturbing book. Although much lip service has been paid to the concept of holistic thinking, Colby and Dennett do actually put together the pieces of the macabre puzzle of the destruction of the Amazon rain-forest and the genocide of its indigenous dwellers and reach conclusions that are unsettling for conservatives and liberals alike. All or most environmentalists agree that the destruction of the Amazon rainforest can't be seen as separate from a host of social, political and economic factors in South America as well as in industrialized countries like the US, but it takes nothing less than a book like Thy Will be Done to show what this actually means.
Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)

http://www.cephas-library.com/church_n_state_rockefeller_and_evangelism.html

Colby, Gerard with Dennett, Charlotte. Thy Will Be Done -- The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil. New York: HarperCollins, 1995. 960 pages.
This book began when the authors traveled to the Amazon in 1976 to gather material on the Summer Institute of Linguistics, also known as the Wycliffe Bible Translators. SIL, founded in the 1930s by William Cameron (Cam) Townsend, was known throughout the Cold War for its pioneering linguistics and missionary work in remote places. Five years after their trip, the authors decided to put Nelson Rockefeller in the book. Rocky was involved with an Amazon development plan during World War II, when he was Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. This position gave Rocky, with the help of Hoover's FBI, jurisdiction over all U.S. intelligence in Latin America. Rocky's spook credentials proved useful throughout his career.

The authors ended up with two books in one, as they weave between SIL and Rocky, using this as a literary hook to describe how American religious and economic imperialism conquered the Amazon. There are some loose funding connections between SIL and Rocky, but the major link is their willingness to encourage exploitive U.S. aid, including CIA covert actions, to keep the world safe for Jesus and Big Oil. In addition to the Amazon (Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia), some attention is paid to other places where SIL was active, such as Guatemala, Mexico, and Southeast Asia.
ISBN 0-06-016764-5

http://www.namebase.org/sources/XS.html

[Minstrel Boy]

39. Glad to see this book mentioned

When I saw this thread I immediately thought of it. Very important work.

[pnorman]

56. "Thy Will Be Done"

SHEESH!! Amazon lists it as starting at $43.95!!! But reading all the reviews there as well as this DU thread, makes me say: "I WANT IT!". I'll give it very serious thought. I've already put it in the Shopping Cart, and then hit the Save For Later box.

pnorman
On edit: Further Googling led me to a Democracy Now! interview with the authors of that book: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/07/0326259

[saltara]

70. Author's problems with keeping book in print

Gerard Colby, coauthor of Thy Will Be Done and author of Du Pont Dynasty: Behind the Nylon Curtain (1984), discusses how books are suppressed "in varying ways, sometimes by the subjects of books, sometimes by publishers, and sometimes by authors succumbing to self-censorship out of fear of repercussions for telling the truth" in an essay entitled "The Price of Liberty" (Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press, ed. Kristina Borjesson, 2002):

"In 1995, we finally published Thy Will Be Done, the Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil. We immediately encountered problems with distribution and marketing."

"... Despite great reviews and acclaim by scholars, within three years of its publication in hardcover and two years after its publication as a HarperPerennial softcover, the book was no longer available for sale to the public. It can now only be found in libraries, despite the fact that we continue to receive requests from academics and the general public for copies."

Get it while you can - I paid far more for my copy.

[pnorman]

89. Thanks for the warning.

I just ordered it, and am hoping that the seller still has it in stock. If not, there are still a few others at reasonable prices listed at Amazon.

In connection with an earlier dialog I had on DU a while back about Kropotkin's "Mutual Aid", I also ordered "Evolution of Cooperation" and "Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology".

pnorman

[gulfcoastliberal]

29. Throw the creeps out! Good riddance!

NT

[Judi Lynn]

31. I'm looking for a story we all heard fairly recently (year or two ago)

Does this seem to be the one, or was it another? I just started looking, after seeing this story and thread:;

Gun-Toting Missionaries Given Light Sentences
by Odhiambo Okite


The trial in Zimbabwe of three American missionaries accused of possessing weapons of war has turned into a power struggle between the executive and judicial branches of the Zimbabwe government.

Citing evidence that the three American defendants were tortured while incarcerated, Judge Ismael Adams gave them unusually light sentences in mid-September. The government quickly announced its intention to appeal.

On March 7, authorities arrested Gary Blanchard, John Lamonte Dixon, and Joseph Wendell Pettyjohn, all missionaries with Indianapolis-based Harvestfield Minis tries, at Harare Airport (CT, May 24, 1999, p. 28).

The men carried a cache of weaponry in their suitcases and in a vehicle they left in a public parking lot, including 21 rifles, two automatic assault rifles, 22 handguns, 31 bayonets, nine silencers, seven telescopic sights, machine-gun ammunition, and four machine-gun stands. The collection also included 70 knives and three devices for administering electric shocks.

The Americans did not deny possessing the firearms or trying to smuggle them onto an airliner. Jonathan Wallace, the organization's leader in Indianapolis, says that the men did "nothing more than deliver medicine, clothing, and seeds to poor Africans." He says the men needed the guns for protection, hunting, and recreation.
(snip/...)

http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/1999/november15/9td28a.html

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

SHARING THE VISION MISSIONARY:

Family decries arrest in Haiti
HOOSIER MISSIONARY WAS FALSELY ACCUSED OF SMUGGLING GUNS, HIS RELATIVES INSIST.
16 mai 2003

NEW CASTLE, Ind. — A missionary from Indiana arrested in Haiti on charges of smuggling weapons into that country has been falsely accused, family members said.

James Glenn White, 57, was arrested May 9 in the coastal city of Gonaives, accused of possessing army uniforms, assault weapons, munitions and grenade launchers.

Family and friends of the Fortville native and former New Castle resident say he has committed no crimes.

"This is crazy," his wife, Teresa White, told The Courier-Times of New Castle. "This has been absolutely blown out of proportion. Jim didn’t do anything wrong."

James White is president of Sharing the Vision Ministries in Haiti. Two Henry County churches support his ministries.
(snip/...)

http://www.haiti-info.com/article.php3?id_article=224

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

Clerical Imposters (8/99)
Written by ODHIAMBO OKITE

In the days of ragtag freebooters like "mad" Mike Hoare, Jacques Schramm, and Bob Denaed, the term "Dogs of War" had a romantic ring. Some White mercenaries fighting in Africa's many conflicts even wore it as a badge of honor. But the old image of this once "dark continent" is changing fast with the persistent calls for transparency in all aspects of international relations. Yet, even though foreign mercenaries have curbed their barks and claim they're now only guard dogs, they remain among the continent's most detested instruments of instability and carnage.

For a while now, there has been growing public awareness that multinational corporations and even foreign governments employ mercenaries both to protect their legitimate interests and handle the dirty work with which they can't openly be associated. Mainly, the mercs help spark and maintain conflicts by offering military skills, sophisticated killing tools, and what turns out, in many cases, to be only the illusion of security. They usually come as smooth-talking businessmen selling services at competitive prices. But sometimes they may also come in the guise of "missionaries."

In March, when three US citizens turned up in Harare, Zimbabwe - claiming to be men of God on missionary duties, but possessing an arsenal of military-style weapons and equipment - churches reacted promptly and sharply. The Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ), which usually avoids controversial political matters, was the first to express "horror at the abuse of the term 'Christian work' by people who have allegedly been involved in illegal arms smuggling ... . The pursuit of violence in the name of any Christian cause is a perversion of true Christianity and we vehemently protest this abuse of the name of the Church," said EFZ president Reverend Andrew Wutawunashe.
(snip/...)

http://www.towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/103/63/

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

Sorry, I don't have time to search more right now, but I think you can see there are reasons people have started suspecting what certain kinds of "missionaries" are doing in their countries, when they are discovered lugging around artillery!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

33. They sound like the missionaries in the novel Hawaii

trying to turn suppress every aspect of "heathen" culture.

I was a linguistics major in graduate school, and I had a fundamentalist acquaintance who kept trying to persuade me to sign up with the SIL. I don't take heat and humidity well, and I knew that they worked almost entirely in the Amazon and New Guinea, so I basically told him to go pick on someone else.

But the SIL has long been accused of having an intelligence gathering role. I don't think that that's what the recruits sign up for. I think they genuinely think of themselves as "saving souls." However, the type of person who truly thinks that all non-fundamentalist Christians are damned for eternity is also likely to be thoroughly acculturated into believing that the middle-class suburban American way of life is the essence of Christianity, and is therefore more willing than average to work for "American interests."

They have done respectable work in documenting previously unwritten indigenous languages throughout the world, and their founder, Eugene Nida, was a major figure in descriptive linguistics, the school that prevailed in the 1940s and 1950s. However, it sounds as if they have turned from merely presenting Christianity to the indigenous people to moving in and taking over their lives.

[Bridget Burke]

69. The Catholic Church in Latin America....

Long ago learned to allow certain older traditions to co-exist with Christianity. The Catholics had done this in Europe, too--a practice offensive to the blue-nosed Puritans. (And Jesuit linguists have a long history.)

The NTM opposes this "syncretism": www.ntm.org/news/srclear_01.php?page=syncretism

"The mixing of beliefs – syncretism – can easily occur. For the most part, missionaries today are aware of the danger of syncretism and try to avoid it from happening. Sometimes new missionaries are assigned to tribal works where syncretism took place years ago. Such is the case with Chris and Peggy Bittner, God's ambassadors to the Madak tribe of Papua New Guinea."

There is only ONE WAY!

[Tight_rope]

35. Good for you Chavez....Kick those fuckers outta there....

Chavez has given good insight to just how spys get into other countries and obtain sensitive information.

And here we were thinking they were down there doing God's work.:spank: :spank: :spank:

[IndianaGreen]

43. BBC: Chavez moves against US preachers

Chavez moves against US preachers

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said he is about to expel a US missionary group, New Tribes Mission.

The leftist leader said the group were "imperialists" and that he felt "ashamed" at their presence in indigenous areas of Venezuela.

He accused the Florida-based group of making unauthorised flights and setting up luxurious camps amid poverty.

<snip>

"The New Tribes are leaving Venezuela," Mr Chavez said at a ceremony to present land titles and farming equipment to members of Venezuela's indigenous population.

"This is an irreversible decision that I have made. We don't want the New Tribes here. Enough colonialism!"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4336660.stm

[Pachamama]

47. Hmmm....a Florida based group eh?

Enough said....

PS: I spent a lot of time in various parts of the Amazon of Colombia, Equador and Peru and I can say that in my opinion that while there may have been well-intentioned missionaries, the vast majority (like 99.99%) screwed up the lives of the various tribes I came into contact with and spent time with. Most of them are in "recovery" now....The good news is that they are taking back their "religion" and don't want the missionaries around either....

[Judi Lynn]

48. This article will explain why Venezuelans have reason to dislike New Tribe

This is really creepy:

Chávez and Protestant Groups
On the other hand, according to David Zelenak, Director of the Resource Department at the evangelical New Tribes Mission which operates in Venezuela, Chávez was initially somewhat partial to Protestants and evangelical groups like his own. Zelenak says that before Chávez came to power in 1999, Christian radio and TV were outlawed, a policy reversed by Chávez. Robertson in fact broadcasts his 700 Club to Venezuela over TV station Televen. Ironically then, “Robertson’s program would never have been there if it wasn’t for Chávez.”
(snip)

The Evangelical Connection: The Arrival of The New Tribes Mission
One strand of the often unsavory and arcane history of U.S. evangelicals in Venezuela goes back decades. In 1946, members of the North American based New Tribes Mission, a fundamentalist Protestant sect, entered Venezuela from across the Colombian border. Posing as tourists and “curious explorers,” they settled along the Negro River in the region known as Casiquiare. At the time, the area was used for the exploitation of natural rubber which had not yet been replicated as a synthetic fiber and was, as such, still a vital strategic material. The arriving missionaries were not given a particularly warm welcome by the indigenous peoples living in the immediate area. The Aquencwa Indians, then led by their leader Horacio Acisa, soon began to violently resist their unwelcomed northern visitors.

Curiously, in that same year, the New Tribes missionaries abandoned their villages along the Negro River and settled in the Guayana Shield, where deposits of radioactive minerals had been discovered. What is more, a tantalizing tidbit was provided by muckraking journalists Charlotte Dennett and Gerard Colby: “On Brazil’s border with Venezuela were uranium deposits that the regime had targeted for the development of nuclear energy and, some feared, nuclear bombs.” They also claimed that the presence of uranium ore was found on the traditional lands of the Yanomami, the largest unacculturated tribe in the Brazilian Amazon. Also present in the adjoining area was the Summer Institute of Linguistics, a New Tribes ally as well as an evangelical missionary organization in its own right, that specialized in translating the Bible into local dialects. Its adherents could be found among the Yanomami in Venezuela, where they were studying the languages of the region from their Porto Velho base in Brazil. Writing to Venezuela’s Minister of Justice, Justo expressed his concerns about the New Tribes. In the course of six years of residence, according to the official, the missionaries had nothing to show for their work and had not accomplished anything for the Indians. Justo was openly suspicious of the evangelicals, who would inexplicably abandon sites and move to other areas. “It makes one suspect,” he wrote, “that they have another objective.”
(snip)

It was at this time that two anthropologists dropped a bombshell by charging that New Tribes was trying to create a state within a state by turning the Indians against the Venezuelan military. According to their findings, the missionaries had circulated flyers amongst the Panare Indians, written in the E’napa tongue but edited in the United States. The literature attempted to discredit the National Guard and sought to pit the Indians against its local units.
(snip/...)

http://www.williambowles.info/venezuela/2005/evangelicals.html

Pages of photos of New Tribes men, women, children:
http://images.google.com/images?q=New+Tribes+missionaries&hl=en

(It appears each photo has a website you might want to examine to assist in developing your own view of their work.)

[ozone_man]

72. "We don’t need spiritual help because we have our religion"

I'd like to see this film.

But the public relations nightmare for New Tribes was just beginning. In late 1976, Carlos Azpurua released a new 18 minute short film, “I Speak To Caracas.” The film featured the historian and shaman of the Yecuana people, Barne Yavari, who tells the camera, “They prohibit all our customs…our drinks, our mythology, music and our form of life. I don’t mean that no North American has helped me spiritually. We don’t need spiritual help because we have our religion.” Yavari goes on to tell the people of Caracas that his people have their own God, Wanadi. “It’s not known how he began nor who made him,” says Yavari. “Wanadi has been my beginning.” “I Speak To Caracas” became a sensation, hitting the country like a space shot. The film earned various prizes both in Venezuela and abroad. As a result of its screening, the role of New Tribes Mission and the plight of Venezuelan Indians hit the international stage. The film was shown at hundreds of forums held in universities, film clubs, unions, parishes, public libraries, legislative assemblies, and even border posts. Everyone from indigenous leaders to public law firms participated in the forums accompanying the film’s screenings. The organizers eventually published a document entitled, “Let Us Stop Ethnocide,” in which they called for an end to the war that “these missionaries carry out against culture and the lives of our Indians.”

[LatinoSocialist]

82. now...

THIS IS PROOF. Now I'm solidly behind Chavez' decision to expel the missionaries. If they're sowing internal strife between the indigenous Venezuelans and the military, then they need to be thrown out.

[MADem]

49. These guys have a MIGHTY SLICK website

Their HQ is in Sanford, FL. http://www.ntm.org/

I would not put it past our covert types to slide people in via this outfit, or even to have established the outfit, populated it with innocents, and used it as a vehicle to get that broad reach under the umbrella of Jeeeeeeesus. It is as good a cover as selling farm equipment, or doing specialized engineering work, and it requires a heck of lot less study to craft an adequate cover story.

They also have an AVIATION AND RADIO DIVISION... http://www.ntm.org/ntmaviation/?page=ntm%20aviation

Very slick, very slick indeed.

[LatinoSocialist]

54. standard CIA fare

work via front organizations. Read Killing Hope by William Blum. Best book on the subject, bar none.

[MADem]

57. Believe me, I know that!!!! nt

[Tight_rope]

68. Oh!...I love just love their mission statement....

"Millions of tribal men, women and children are still isolated from the Gospel."....

"Someone must go tell them about God's gift of salvation. Someone needs to live among them, love them with Jesus' love, learn their culture and language, and then teach the people in their own language about the Savior.

NTM coordinates missionaries, sent by local churches, to take the Gospel to tribal people. Missionaries then plant churches. They disciple believers, translate the Scriptures (into what they want the tribel people to believe the bible says:spank:) , and train teachers and leaders, who in turn reach out to their own people and to neighboring tribes."

[IndianaGreen]

84. When US whites destroyed the tribal religions of their African slaves

and gave them a white Jesus for a god, they forever imprisoned African-Americans in a theology that made them more easily manipulated. To truly break with the legacy of racism and slavery, African-Americans must throw out their adopted religion and seek their African spiritual roots.

[NVMojo]

58. should have been done in Amerika too!!

damn, I love Hugo!!!

[info being]

77. Good decision Hugo

Who needs these religious nuts infiltrating the minds of your people.

[Toucano]

83. Did Pat Robertson actually apologize?

"...after U.S. evangelist Pat Robertson called on Washington to assassinate the left-wing leader. Robertson later apologized."

I seem to recall he equivocated and tried to weasel out of his statement, but don't remember an actual apology wherein someone says that what they did was wrong and asks for forgiveness.

Did I miss something?

[Judi Lynn]

88. Venezuela's Vice President Defends Decision to Expel U.S. Missionary Group

Venezuela's Vice President Defends Decision to Expel U.S. Missionary Group

By Marcel Honore Associated Press Writer

Published: Oct 13, 2005

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela's vice president defended a decision to expel a U.S.-based Christian missionary group from the country Thursday, saying members of the New Tribes Mission had links to the CIA - a charge the organization strongly denied.

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel spoke a day after President Hugo Chavez announced he was ordering the group to leave, citing U.S. "imperialist infiltration."

"We have intelligence reports that that some of them are CIA," Rangel told reporters. "The president's decision was based on reports that their actions create situations that compromise the country's sovereignty."

Rangel described the missionaries as "people who operate on the edge of legal boundaries." He said the Justice Ministry was working on a plan to expel the group in a "peaceful" way and that the government was not threatening missionaries.
(snip/...)

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB6CNEFREE.html

[Judi Lynn]

90. Kick!

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[happydreams]

94. I like it when Pat and his Cretin Coalition get smacked

upside the head. Chavez's actions in Venezuela are one of the few bright spots in the news.

[undergroundpanther]

96. When I was in the

Assemblies of Gawd,cult..I remember they had "evangelists" down south in brazil and other places,and I met CiA operatives in our"prayer meetings" in our Cell group.The church and the CIA do alot of clandestine operations. These christians are fascists ,very well funded and very well organized ..What the people(congregants) caught up in the beliefs don't get is with the right manipulations and games they too can be convinced to become deployable agents for:culture war". I was deluded by the Assemblies of God and I got messed up and luckily got out. Evangelism is evil,especially when it's got other unspoken agendas,and truthfully most evangelists have dual agendas it isn't for the religion that they go to south america it's for money sex power and control...

[brentspeak]

97. Chavez is simply paranoid

New Tribes Ministries is a firmly apolitical ministry. It's missionaries span the theological range from Baptist conservatives to mainline denomination liberals. If he doesn't want them there to evangelize, he should say so, instead of subscribing to conspiracy theories.

[PATRICK]

98. Before we start talking about 'theories"

how about the fact that very prominent labor leaders were acting as agents of the CIA in South America during the Cold War? it was a broad based mutual objective: to fight communism and enlist people to support democratic institutions. Then there is a boundary into spookier stuff that is easily crossed. getting information. Working contacts. Scoping out the politics and influencing the country. ostensibly the unions were down there to promote American style unions. But the trust in the intelligence community and the rivalry with communism made crossing the first line, becoming agents of US policy very easy and patriotic. It was also secret.

I don't know the facts in this case though i would suppose the broad based mutual connection between these ministries, especially if connected to Robertson, crossed the first line of integrity and neutrality. Most of the people involved would not be trained agents or zealots for subterfuge but simply a natural offshoot of convivial US(Bush regime) and Fundie missionaries(American RW). After that I think any number of lines could be crossed very naturally by individuals or group policy or language. Any number of concrete examples of this can be proved already, not to mention
the gold mines in Liberia(Robertson?).

Yes there is a bias, one involving Chavez' track record and that of his
avowed enemies. Those with a bias in the other direction have part of their underwear crimped in the confines of PNAC whether they know it or not. If any of the missionaries have become part of the agency of an extremely hostile US regime it would be better to send them packing than wait for it to get worse.

[brentspeak]

101. If this was a Robertson-linked ministry

or some brand new ministry without a past, then Chavez would be justified in his accusations. NTM is well known as a just a plain old evangelical ministry. Occasionally, some of its more conservative missionaries have annoyed locals by denigrating native religious beliefs. It goes no deeper than that.

[podnoi]

109. I have to agree

One can disagree with their "work", but there could be many explanations for their contacts with Westerners in the back country. Having travelled to other countries I know from experience you drop your guard to talk to someone in your own language or from your own country. They could have travelled together out of convenience, etc.

On their web site they firmly critisize Robertson's actions:

“We are putting out large articles in the two major newspapers here in Venezuela this week stating very clearly that we do not share views, and in fact find them totally reprehensible and offensive,” wrote NTM missionary Merrill Dyck.

Pray that the authorities involved in reviewing missionary activity in Venezuela will see that Robertson’s comments do not reflect the opinions of the missionary community, and that the Gospel will be unhindered.

Pray too that missionaries will be sensitive to the situation, having wisdom in all their affairs, and be a positive example of Christ’s love and grace.

[callady]

99. New Tribes Mission is far from apolitical

Evangelicals in Venezuela: Robertson Only the Latest Controversy


The Evangelical Connection: The Arrival of The New Tribes Mission
One strand of the often unsavory and arcane history of U.S. evangelicals in Venezuela goes back decades. In 1946, members of the North American based New Tribes Mission, a fundamentalist Protestant sect, entered Venezuela from across the Colombian border. Posing as tourists and “curious explorers,” they settled along the Negro River in the region known as Casiquiare. At the time, the area was used for the exploitation of natural rubber which had not yet been replicated as a synthetic fiber and was, as such, still a vital strategic material. The arriving missionaries were not given a particularly warm welcome by the indigenous peoples living in the immediate area. The Aquencwa Indians, then led by their leader Horacio Acisa, soon began to violently resist their unwelcomed northern visitors.

<snip>

Curiously, in that same year, the New Tribes missionaries abandoned their villages along the Negro River and settled in the Guayana Shield, where deposits of radioactive minerals had been discovered. What is more, a tantalizing tidbit was provided by muckraking journalists Charlotte Dennett and Gerard Colby: “On Brazil’s border with Venezuela were uranium deposits that the regime had targeted for the development of nuclear energy and, some feared, nuclear bombs.” They also claimed that the presence of uranium ore was found on the traditional lands of the Yanomami, the largest unacculturated tribe in the Brazilian Amazon. Also present in the adjoining area was the Summer Institute of Linguistics, a New Tribes ally as well as an evangelical missionary organization in its own right, that specialized in translating the Bible into local dialects. Its adherents could be found among the Yanomami in Venezuela, where they were studying the languages of the region from their Porto Velho base in Brazil. Writing to Venezuela’s Minister of Justice, Justo expressed his concerns about the New Tribes. In the course of six years of residence, according to the official, the missionaries had nothing to show for their work and had not accomplished anything for the Indians. Justo was openly suspicious of the evangelicals, who would inexplicably abandon sites and move to other areas. “It makes one suspect,” he wrote, “that they have another objective.”

<snip>

The Plot Thickens: New Tribes Accused of Espionage
Though New Tribes had come under fire from leftist university professors and the capital’s intellectual elite, criticism would shortly come from yet another, but unexpected quarter: the military. In 1976, Tomas Antonio Mariño Blanco, a navy captain and commander of the Federal Territory of Amazonas military garrison, ordered the detention of two American engineers bearing identification cards from Westinghouse, a leading U.S. defense contractor, and General Dynamics, which produces military jet aircraft. The engineers were carrying out mineral prospecting and were in the company of a missionary working for New Tribes Mission.

Jaime Bou, the New Tribes Mission head in Venezuela, intervened on behalf of the Americans. After staff members from the U.S. Embassy later joined Bou’s efforts, the two were released and the case was closed. However, Antonio Mariño reported that the missionary organization had been financed by General Dynamics, which had sent funds and pilots from California. According to Mariño’s investigation, New Tribes was also linked to a shadowy California foundation called District 1355 as well as the evangelical sect, Summer Institute of Linguistics. All New Tribes missionaries had taken courses with the Summer Institute of Linguistics, an organization repeatedly accused of ethnocide and espionage in other Latin American countries. Antonio Mariño had determined that District 1355 had sought to acquire a concession in Colombia to cultivate rice and other crops, which it proposed flying out of the region in a fleet of C-141 planes.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1561

[podnoi]

110. Read the article, it carries some bias

"Curiously, in that same year, the New Tribes missionaries abandoned their villages along the Negro River and settled in the Guayana Shield, where deposits of radioactive minerals had been discovered."

I think it is ignorant to assume one led to another. They were in the bush. Obviously when the region is being explored by mining companies it opens up new areas for them to work in, maps are made, etc.

Once again you can not care for what they do but to ascribe their actions as these theories do is disingenious.

We, who watch the media and right wingers distort actions and reputations of Democratic figures should of all people keep a somewhat open mind about these things. Believing these tales of CIA and Corporate involvement is little different than believing what was said about John Kerry, as long as their is not direct proof of the allegations.

Not saying it is impossible that they could have a shady side. I just don't see any real evidence that leads me to have any confidence in what these stories purport.

[callady]

112. All the evidence you need

you will find in Colby and Dennett's massive book a 17 year project in which they lived, investigated the Corporate/Missionary interests and activities throughout the Amazon, it's titled "Thy Will Be Done". Read it. There is no question about New Tribes Mission' real mission. Also look into Robertson's interests in gold and diamond mines in Africa. connect the dots.

[PATRICK]

121. Very good

What I originally meant was that in the absence of evidence or background I(and many others) trust Chavez, sorry missionaries. The kind of research needed for background has been given some meat by reference works while presumptions and benefits for the new Tribes are based on a well-meaning bias.

I interjected Robertson badly I suppose. As an outside factor directly frosting Chavez he may have nothing directly to do with new Tribes. I was merely pointing out how Robertson's group, as an example, is definitely into serious serious crap with our regime and into economic investments(Mammon) as much as spiritual mining. Old evidence concerning new Tribes is somewhat worse than the example I used of American union reps acting as secret ops for the CIA while performing their role as unionist, anti-marxist missionaries. Chavez is definitely accusing New Tribes of things now which are more spook specific and new. As a reaction to another "Christian" Mammon imperialist, he is pushing back by being given the opportunity for Robertson having crossed another BIG line with his big mouth.

There are many curious stories of missionaries, not all of them so pure and brave, even if at heart they were honest, such as the Franciscans who accompanied the neocon Conquistadors. When they naturally failed to mitigate the exploitation of the natives the Jesuit Reductions attempted a smart resistance to power. As always, governments quashed rivals they could not use. Now as to who are the good guys you need to really study the situation. When a missionary stands alone, much rarer than one would think in history, at least he/she has integrity, but more often than not they rely on protection, often from an invasive force, and join together their home culture/politics with the faith message. When the Jesuits again attempted to work in China they adapted everything to that culture- and were quashed again(by the Vatican itself). The simpler, blinder missionaries such as one might remember in the movie "Hawaii" had diverse reactions and were quashed individually if they took sides with the native culture.

So my post was generalist, siding with the extreme likelihood that, at the very least, New Tribes was an opportunity for hostile US penetration by agents using the name- or much more broader collusion in an ideological "war".

At best, someone is trying to make the other case that dictators use innocent people to make a point, with annoying foreigners preaching reform an easy target. Obviously, given the Robertson Deathwish words, that is at least credible and based on fact.

Whatever your bias before the complete facts though, it is always good to start digging at the truth and not go ballistic about first presumptions. I would tend to doubt ALL New Tribe missionaries or even most, are specifically insidious, but once there is a place for CIA infestation, trust is gone. And so should the organization from the host country- which is not a "pagan culture lost in darkness" OR a Marxist slave state.

The heated exchanges about pre-judgments are not a complete waste of time, but they are a waste of time. Those coming up with respectable documentation naturally have an advantage which does get us closer to something more useful.

[1932]

100. You haven't read Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, have you?

See above.

[brentspeak]

102. I'll get around to reading it, one of these days

I hear about it alot.

[1932]

104. Pay particular attention to the part about the Summer Inst. of Linguistics

[KentonF]

103. He should eject them simply to protect his people.

You are not Hugo and therefore do not know what he knows. You are not qualified from your perspective to determine that he is "simply paranoid" even if that is how it appears to you. He may not be.

However, that being said Chaves SHOULD kick them out. Non-Christian indigenous people's the world over should be respected as they are and left alone with their beliefs intact. They should not be Christianized. Christian beliefs are no better than anyone else's. What is being done by evangelists is nothing short of cultural and religious supplantation and that needs to stop.

[Dr Fate]

106. Problem is, Dumbass Robertson (R) gave him the opening to do this.

It does not sound like a conspiracy to lot of those people, after hearing Robertson & his apologists.

[Judi Lynn]

107. If you'd taken the time to read info. posted upstream in this thread

you would have noted that the same group was kicked out of Venezuela years ago by another administration. Hardly apolitical.

This may help shine a bit of light:

Chávez and Protestant Groups
On the other hand, according to David Zelenak, Director of the Resource Department at the evangelical New Tribes Mission which operates in Venezuela, Chávez was initially somewhat partial to Protestants and evangelical groups like his own. Zelenak says that before Chávez came to power in 1999, Christian radio and TV were outlawed, a policy reversed by Chávez. Robertson in fact broadcasts his 700 Club to Venezuela over TV station Televen. Ironically then, “Robertson’s program would never have been there if it wasn’t for Chávez.”
(snip)

The Evangelical Connection: The Arrival of The New Tribes Mission
One strand of the often unsavory and arcane history of U.S. evangelicals in Venezuela goes back decades. In 1946, members of the North American based New Tribes Mission, a fundamentalist Protestant sect, entered Venezuela from across the Colombian border. Posing as tourists and “curious explorers,” they settled along the Negro River in the region known as Casiquiare. At the time, the area was used for the exploitation of natural rubber which had not yet been replicated as a synthetic fiber and was, as such, still a vital strategic material. The arriving missionaries were not given a particularly warm welcome by the indigenous peoples living in the immediate area. The Aquencwa Indians, then led by their leader Horacio Acisa, soon began to violently resist their unwelcomed northern visitors.

Curiously, in that same year, the New Tribes missionaries abandoned their villages along the Negro River and settled in the Guayana Shield, where deposits of radioactive minerals had been discovered. What is more, a tantalizing tidbit was provided by muckraking journalists Charlotte Dennett and Gerard Colby: “On Brazil’s border with Venezuela were uranium deposits that the regime had targeted for the development of nuclear energy and, some feared, nuclear bombs.” They also claimed that the presence of uranium ore was found on the traditional lands of the Yanomami, the largest unacculturated tribe in the Brazilian Amazon. Also present in the adjoining area was the Summer Institute of Linguistics, a New Tribes ally as well as an evangelical missionary organization in its own right, that specialized in translating the Bible into local dialects. Its adherents could be found among the Yanomami in Venezuela, where they were studying the languages of the region from their Porto Velho base in Brazil. Writing to Venezuela’s Minister of Justice, Justo expressed his concerns about the New Tribes. In the course of six years of residence, according to the official, the missionaries had nothing to show for their work and had not accomplished anything for the Indians. Justo was openly suspicious of the evangelicals, who would inexplicably abandon sites and move to other areas. “It makes one suspect,” he wrote, “that they have another objective.”
(snip)

It was at this time that two anthropologists dropped a bombshell by charging that New Tribes was trying to create a state within a state by turning the Indians against the Venezuelan military. According to their findings, the missionaries had circulated flyers amongst the Panare Indians, written in the E’napa tongue but edited in the United States. The literature attempted to discredit the National Guard and sought to pit the Indians against its local units.
(snip/...)

http://www.williambowles.info/venezuela/2005/evangelicals.html

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

It would assist you enormously if you took the time to study some of the info. on this thread. I know Ozone Man posted a couple of important ones, and there is other info. which would help fill the void.

[K-W]

113. Nothing in your post rebuts Venezuala's accusation.

There are US agents working both known and unknown in businesses and organizations all over the place. You are niave if you think it is a conspiricy theory that the US is spying on Venezuala.

[Bacchus39]

114. yep, he often makes wild accusations

remember plan Barbosa, the fictitious war game scenario that the Spaniards used. Chavez claims it is "proof" the USA plans to attack Ven.

also, he claims the US is trying to assassinate him but voluntarily travel to NY last month and returns home safely.

many here just have blind admiration.

[Judi Lynn]

115. Make that "Plan Balboa." DU'ers discussed this a little over a week ago.

Say_What (1000+ posts) Wed Oct-05-05 10:33 AM
Original message
Chavez's allegation of planned invasion based on war game
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1828266#1828404

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

Say_What (1000+ posts) Wed Oct-05-05 11:26 AM
Response to Original message
6. 2004 vheadline: Operation Balboa: NATO war games simulated attack on Venez
From May 2004 from Vheadline.com details of Plan Balboa.

<clips>

Operation Balboa: NATO war games simulated attack on Venezuela

Between May 3 and May 18, 2001, the Spanish Armed Forces, fed with abundant, detailed, and secret information about Venezuelan, Colombian, and Panamanian military and defense, conducted a simulated land, air, and sea assault in which US and allied countries, authorized by the United Nations, attacked the western part of Venezuela from bases in Panama and Colombia.

These are what military and geopolitical analysts call "war games," which simulate scenarios and situations that permit the participating forces to practice advanced attack and defensive techniques.

In this case, the exercise "presented a fictitious situation, the product of the evolution of imaginary happenings, although they are adapted to real-life situations," according the "General Rules of Simulation" and the "Specific Exercise Plan for Operation Balboa."

It's surprising to learn how much information, supposedly confidential and secret, about Venezuela, was provided by US officials to NATO and was used in this simulation conducted by 36 Lieutenant Colonels and other officials from the Spanish Air Force and other countries.

These and other participants in the "war games" were organized in two groups, and the ones in the Air Force were directed by Commanders Juan Ramon del Rio Nieto and Julian Roldan Martinez from the General Air Command in Moncloa. One can infer from the classified document to which we have access that the exercises were completed with the participation of land and sea forces.

Scenario: The participating countries are shown on a map: A blue country, the United States; a white country that needs to be protected, Colombia; a light blue neutral country dependent on the blue country, Panama; and purple, Venezuela; with a black zone of conflict. These countries are described with interesting deformations to exalt the blue and white countries, and indicate the negative aspects of the purple country. For example, it explains that by nationalizing the oil industry, Purple "needs foreign personnel, particularly from the Blue country, to
maintain the rhythm of production and operation of these installations."

http://www.arena.org.nz/venbalbo.htm

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

Lydia Leftcoast (1000+ posts) Wed Oct-05-05 06:43 PM
Response to Original message
34. Not necessarily paranoid
Before the invasion of Grenada, there was a war game about invading a fictitious Caribbean island very much like Grenada.

Before Panama and Iraq, this was one of the chapters in recent American history that I was most ashamed of--the U.S. beating up on an island country thirty miles long.

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

Venezuela Discovers More Oil - Bush Plans Invasion
Clif Ross
07/11/05

MÉRIDA, VENEZUELA - The State oil company of Venezuela, PDVSA, confirmed today the discovery of four billion square feet of natural gas in western Venezuela, believed in June to have only been 2 billion square feet. It also confirmed that it possesses the largest single reserve of oil in the world. In addition to the estimated 78 billion barrels of conventional oil reserves, there are 235 billion more barrels of heavy and extra-heavy crude, known as Orimulsion, in the Rio Orinoco region. This means that Venezuela possesses under her soil nearly fifty percent of the total amount of oil in the entire Middle East. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Iran and Qatar have a combined total of 676 billion barrels while Venezuela´s total alone is 313 billion barrels.

This might go a long way in explaining why the Bush Administration has made extensive plans for an the invasion of Venezuela. Plans for a joint U.S.-NATO invasion of Venezuela date back to May 3, 2001, according to an article published in last week´s edition of Venezuelan weekly "Las Verdades de Miguel." The plan was dubbed "Operation Balboa" and drawn up by the Southern Command under George Bush, according to the report, written by José Luis Carpio. The invasion had as its objective to "remove Hugo Chavez from power, using the same strategy employed in the war against Iraq" with a massive midnight bombing campaign, followed by an invasion and occupation of the country.
(snip/...)

http://www.eastbaynews.org/stages/word_stage1.php?EBN=050711_1_word

[K-W]

118. You are blindly believing US government spin.

We are analyzing the evidence critically.

Chavez did not claim Barbosa was proof the USA plans to attack Venezuala. He claimed he had proof of a plan to attack Venezuala, which was true. It was, in fact a Nato war game. You may choose to believe the US government that its motives are pure if you would like, but forgive Chavez if he doesnt.

also, he claims the US is trying to assassinate him but voluntarily travel to NY last month and returns home safely.

How stupid do you think the people reading your posts are?

The fact that the US didnt assassinate him in New York during a diplomatic event does not prove that the US is not trying to assassinate him. I would hope you can see the difference between killing a foriegn head of state on our soil during a diplomatic event, and say having a venezualan soldier plant a bomb on Chavez's helicopter.

All New York proves is that the US doesnt want Chavez dead so badly that they would committ an act of tactical stupidity that would hurt every aspect of our diplomacy.

Meanwhile the US has assassinated populist Latin American leaders before, so Chavez's concerns are hardly wild.

[onager]

108. And it gets deeper...

From a review of Thy Will Be Done: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil. I've read the book. It's excellent:

However, Colby and Dennett had heard of a darker side to SIL. Numerous critics had alleged that SIL was the vanguard of the destruction of both the rainforests and their native inhabitants.

They had heard from Latin American acquaintances that SIL was, in military fashion, a scouting party that surveyed the Amazonian hinterlands for potential sources of opposition to natural resource exploitation (read cattle ranching, clearcutting and strip mining) among native peoples and that it employed a virulent brand of Christian fundamentalism that relied on linguistics to undermine the social cohesion of aboriginal communities and accelerate their assimilation into Western culture. In addition to all this, numerous articles in the Latin American press accused (SIL) of being funded by the American intelligence community...

The Rockefeller-led effort to conquer the Amazon and exploit its natural riches had been made possible in no small measure by SIL's missionary activities.

Colby and Dennett found a historic parallel in John D. Rockefeller, Sr.'s support for Christian missionaries in the American west, who were compiling extremely useful information on Native American communities, which were potential sources of opposition to the entrance of Standard Oil into their lands.

Edit to add link:

http://www.cephas-library.com/church_n_state_rockefeller_and_evangelism.html

[Judi Lynn]

111. More from a quick search on New Tribes:

The New Tribes Mission (NTM), set up in 1942, is one of many fundamentalist christian missions that is trying to peddle its message to vulnerable groups, in this case the remaining tribal peoples of the world. It sets itself the ambitious and frightening target of continuing with this "until the last tribe is reached". It is active in nineteen countries

The role of a missionary is to infiltrate a tribe, and convince or coerce them into rejecting their own indigenous spiritual beliefs in favour of the christian church. Many times much more than this is lost, as people are 'educated' by missionaries, or missionary activity is the harbinger of further economic development Indigenous people find themselves suddenly brought in to the global economy with a bump, totally exploitable and the bottom of a pile. What's more, the people who are targetted are certainly those who are living in the most ecological manner possible, and where they do not face problems from other development projects, are also the most free.

The work of missionaries has since the start of the colonial era been as an initial subjugating force to herald the arrival of civilisation, and this continues to be the case today, as ideologially-charged missionaries raid the world's remaining ecological frontiers in search of new blood.

Nowhere in its statement of core values, or anywhere on its many websites, does the NTM claim any concern for the welfare of the people it is targetting. Even oil companies can usually manage some sort of greenwash bullshit, but the approach of NTM clearly defines indigenous people as 'savages' (it has even used this word in its literature) to be converted.
(snip)

But none of this is new. Sporadic stories of abuse from the NTM have been emerging for years, despite the fact that most of their activities take place well hidden from outside scrutiny. Many stories have come from the rainforests of South America where the missionaries found that the only ways to convert nomadic communities was to force them into camps, or reservations, driving out into the forest to roundup those who do not come.

When Norman Lewis was researching his book "The Missionaries: God against the Indians" in 1988, he visited one such camp in Paraguay to find "...two old ladies lying on some rags on the ground in the last stages of emaciation and clearly on the verge of death. One was unconscious, the second in what was evidently a state of catalepsy...In the second hut lay another woman, also in a desperate condition and with untreated wounds on her legs. A small, naked, tearful boy, sat at her side... The three women and the boy had been taken in a recent forest roundup, the third woman having being shot in the side while attempting to escape."

In Paraguay, the NTM acted in collusion with the dictator Stroessner, for who the policy of settlement camps and conversion fitted in nicely with his plans for opening up the forest to mining and logging interests.
(snip/...)

http://www.eco-action.org/mission/ntm.html

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

There's not much to admire in anything I've seen yet about them, and I applaud the Democrats who don't accept everything at face value, and want to find out more about these people and what they are doing in our names.

Time to do our research, for sure.

[ozone_man]

117. Here's a good summary quote.

The authors quote Baptist reverend Frederick Gates, who for many years was John D. Sr.'s right-hand man, as saying that "We are only in the very dawn of commerce, and we owe that dawn to the channels opened up by Christian missionaries.... The effect of the missionary enterprise of the English speaking peoples will be to bring them the peaceful conquest of the world."

http://www.cephas-library.com/church_n_state_rockefeller_and_evangelism.html

[Judi Lynn]

120. Simply horrid. It's spelled out so clearly. I hope humanity will win,

instead.

Your link shows us certain elements in government have been working behind everyone's back at this far longer than anyone would have guessed.

It shows how it happened that John F. Kennedy got some strange advice. He had some ugly people "helping" him, according to your link:

The participants included men who would later become instrumental in developing the Kennedy administration's counterinsurgency doctrine, such as Eugene Rostow, Edward Lansdale, Paul Nitze, Adolf Berle, McGeorge Bundy, Walt Rostow, Henry Kissinger and Dean Rusk (who was then president of the Rockefeller Foundation and would become Kennedy's Secretary of State).

Thanks for providing this information which is completely new for some of us. It's REALLY time to find out what's been going on.

[callady]

122. For further treatment on this topic

though not directly connected delve into the history and origins of the Pinkerton Agency and think in terms of todays mercenaries as well as secret service orgs. Allen Pinkerton liked to agitate to create business.

See J. Sayles film Matewan.

There are some who thnk of the CIA etc. as "spy business" or for national security neither of which is accurate.

If you haven't already do read "Thy Will Be Done", it is one of THE seminal books written in the 20th century about how politics really works. You will see it all and then be able to easily, if painfully, be able to disect virtually any of the political theatre be it in Venezuela or Iraq or Rwanda.

Speed be in your feet.

[ozone_man]

123. Another article

Venezuela to Expel U.S. Evangelical Group
Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Oct 12 (IPS) - Venezuela will expel the U.S. evangelical group New Tribes Mission, which has been active in indigenous communities along the southern border with Colombia and Brazil since 1946, President Hugo Chávez announced Wednesday.

"They will leave Venezuela," said the president. "They are agents of imperialist penetration. They gather sensitive and strategic information and are exploiting the Indians. So they will leave, and I don't care two hoots about the international consequences that this decision could bring."

New Tribes, an evangelical organisation that has long had close ties with the U.S.-based Summer Institute of Linguistics, is active in a number of countries in Asia and Latin America, and in Venezuela has focused its efforts on the Yanomami, Ye'kuana and Panare indigenous groups and other ethnic communities in the southern part of the country.

The Summer Institute of Linguistics was founded in 1934 with the declared purpose of translating the Bible into indigenous languages.

Chávez was delivering collective land titles, boat motors, vehicles and credits to indigenous communities in the plains region in southern Venezuela on Wednesday, the date he had declared "day of indigenous resistance," when he made the surprising announcement on the New Tribes Mission in a nationally broadcast speech.

"I have seen reports and videos on the activity of these New Tribes. We don't want them here; we all form part of an old tribe," Chávez quipped.

"New Tribes has westernized indigenous people by force, while spreading a sense of shame and guilt, disguised as teaching the gospel: they taught the Panares that Satan had turned into a Panare Indian and that they were guilty of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ," said Luzardo.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30610

[Judi Lynn]

125. Stupendous article. So glad to see it. Hope the DU'ers from earlier

in this thread will see it, too.

By the way, would like to take the time to thank you for recommending to DU'ers the book, Thy Will Be Done, The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil. by Gerard Colby with Charlotte Dennett.

I just received mine, and was surprised to see they had to find a retired library book to get this one to me, since they're not in print any longer! It looks just wonderful. Thanks for helping our educations along.

[Kailassa]

126. Satan is a Panare Indian?

Venezuela to Expel U.S. Evangelical Group
Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Oct 12 (IPS)

Since the 1970s, New Tribes has drawn heavy criticism from many quarters, including leftist political groups, environmentalists, indigenous organisations, academics, Catholic Church leaders and even members of the military. The controversial group has been accused of prospecting for strategic minerals on behalf of transnational corporations and of the forced acculturation and conversion of indigenous people. ...

"New Tribes has westernized indigenous people by force, while spreading a sense of shame and guilt, disguised as teaching the gospel: they taught the Panares that Satan had turned into a Panare Indian and that they were guilty of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ," said Luzardo. ...

This area is believed to be rich in minerals like uranium. For many years, New Tribes built airstrips and modern installations that contrasted sharply with the rustic constructions in the indigenous communities they ministered to.

The now defunct National Identity Movement, which grouped together cultural, environmental and indigenous organisations in the 1980s, maintained that New Tribes acted as a cover for the prospecting of geological and mineral wealth coveted by corporations that provided funding for the Summer Institute of Linguistics. These included General Dynamics, a defence industry contractor, and Ford.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30610

[Algorem]

127. went to a Citgo the other day,had lowest gas prices AND the LOWEST

BEER PRICES!I'm Hugo agog-o baby!