CARACAS, Venezuela - The U.S. government is spending millions of dollars in the name of democracy in Venezuela — bankrolling human rights seminars, training emerging leaders, advising political parties and giving to charities. But the money is raising deep suspicions among supporters of President Hugo Chavez, in part because the U.S. has refused to name many of the groups it's supporting.
Details of the spending emerge in 1,600 pages of grant contracts obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request. The U.S. Agency for International Development released copies of 132 contracts in all, but whited out the names and other identifying details of nearly half the grantees.
U.S. officials insist the aid is aboveboard and politically neutral, and say the Chavez government would harass or prosecute the grant recipients if they were identified.
Chavez, however, believes the United States is campaigning — overtly and covertly — to undermine his leftist government, which has crusaded against U.S. influence in Latin America and elsewhere.
"The empire pays its lackeys, and it pays them well," he said recently, accusing some of his opponents of taking "gringo money."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060826/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/dollars_for_democracy;_ylt=AlQZX7GUHxL51bwPiQI94Cqs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OTB1amhuBHNlYwNtdHM-
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