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Edited on Sat Jun-16-07 07:51 PM by Peace Patriot
and its global corporate predator allies will stop at nothing to destroy democracy in Venezuela and the Andes region, and to kill the notion that poor people should benefit from a country's resources. Venezuela is one of the main leaders of the opposition in South America to the ruinous policies of the World Bank/IMF, of "free trade" (global corporate piracy) and the murderous U.S. "war on drugs." Zoellick is known operative of these corporate predators. I would expect nothing less from him than lies, disinformation and conspiracy with the worst elements of South American society.
But you have to laugh at his word "healthy" (Venezuela is not headed in "healthy" direction). Let's see, is Venezuela refusing a broadcast license renewal to a TV station (RCTV) that actively participated in the U.S.-backed violent military coup attempt in 2002, and its replacement by a public-run station that is inviting independent producers to diversify that airwave, and is opening access to this formerly rightwing monopolized public airwave, to the viewpoints of the poor, of racial minorities, of the indigenous, of small business people and peasant farmers, and all other previously excluded groups, healthy or unhealthy, bearing in mind that ALL OTHER TV/radio stations in Venezuela are still completely dominated by rightwing views and canned corporate entertainment?
Seems pretty "healthy" to me--especially when you consider the danger to all living things of relentless, 24/7 rightwing corporate propaganda and fascist militarism.
We could use some of that truly "healthy direction" here, with the dismantling of our corporate news monopolies, and giving the license to use our PUBLIC airwaves to small, independent, creative and competitive businesses, non-profits, worker coops and government funded broadcasting. That is "health." Corporate monopolies are the ones who are sick, and sickening.
His assertion that Venezuela is in economic trouble is also just plain wrong. All economic indicators are up, with the biggest growth in the private sector. The poor and the poorest of the poor (about 50% of the population) have made big gains in income and quality of life, including the long range social indicators that will foster future prosperity--the complete elimination of illiteracy (at 40% when Chavez was first elected), more schools and teachers and more kids and adults in school than ever before, and greatly increased citizen participation in government, which government programs encourage. These improvements have not been at anyone's expense. The rich are still rich, and still have their big fancy houses and their jaguars. Land reform (to encourage peasant farmers to remain on the land producing food, discourage their migration to urban poverty, and help solve Venezuela's food self-sufficiency problems) is being carefully done to avoid confiscation without compensation. A plan by the mayor of Caracas to confiscate two urban country clubs/golf courses for low cost housing was nixed by the Chavez government, because of Constitutional protections for private property. The country has the liveliest political culture in the western hemisphere, and the people are free--free to dissent without fear, free to engage in private business, free to vote without fear of bullying or stolen elections (highly monitored elections), and free to seek and achieve political leadership and public office, no matter their financial or social status.
There is, in fact, NO SIGN of "economic trouble" or trouble of any kind. The only trouble comes when people like Bush and Zoellick seek to destabilize and topple legitimate government, and impose rightwing dictatorships in the interest of global corporate predators. That's when there is oppression and suffering in Latin America. We would be seeing it now, in Venezuela, if the RCTV coup had succeeded. You think people would be free to dissent if that coup--which suspended the Constitution, shut down the National Assembly (Congress) and the courts, and kidnapped the elected President--had won the day? People would dead for daring to speak out against the coup. Torture and mass graves for union organizers, peasants and leftists--as is happening in Colombia. And all the progress that has been made toward social justice would be undone.
One reason for Zoellick's hostility to Chavez and Venezuela is that they have been quite innovative, for instance, in their creation of the Bank of the South (Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay), in finding ways to push the World Bank/IMF and its predatory practices out of the region. World Bank financiers have been sucking the life out of Latin America's economies with big loans on onerous terms (for instance, de-funding social programs) incurred by corrupt governments; the rich rip off the money and the poor are left to pay the debt. These dreadful practices are combined with "free trade" deals that open the country to resource exploitation, sweatshops and first world country agricultural dumping and other destruction of local businesses (not to mention GM crops, pesticide poisoning, and heavy duty logging and mining, and significant loss of sovereignty to regulate these impacts). Argentina's economy went into meltdown due to these predatory practices, and was only saved by the uprising of its people, the new leftist government (headed by Nestor Kirchner) and Venezuela's easy term loan help (the seed of the Bank of the South). Argentina is now well on its way to recovery, no thanks to the fucking World Bank!
Zoellick wants to bust this movement for independence and self-determination. That is the reason he and all big corporate players waste no opportunity to badmouth Chavez and Venezuela. They despise democracy!
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