Venezuela: revolutionaries and a country on the edge

[NNN0LHI]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article307975.ece

Venezuela: revolutionaries and a country on the edge

Venezuelans were hardly surprised by an American preacher's call to kill their President. After all, the US funded a coup attempt against him

By Johann Hari
Published: 25 August 2005

Venezuela is living in the shadow of the other 11 September. In 1972, on a day synonymous with death, Salvador Allende - the democratically elected left-wing President of Chile - was bombed and blasted from power. The CIA and the US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, had decided the "irresponsibility" of the Chilean people at the ballot box needed to be "rectified" - so they installed a fascist general, Augusto Pinochet. He "disappeared" at least 3,000 people and tortured 27,000 more as he clung to power right up to 1990.

Since the Venezuelans elected Hugo Chavez, their own left-wing democrat, in a 1998 landslide, they have been waiting for their 11 September. That's why it did not surprise anyone here this week when Pat Robertson - one of America's leading evangelicals and a friend of George Bush - openly called for a US-backed murder of their President.

The coup, the coup. Everybody here has their stories about the 2002 coup d'état, and the strange 47-hour Presidency of Pedro Carmona Estanga, the head of Venezuela's equivalent of the Confederation of British Industry. (Pat Robertson's call caused a cascade of memories to burst across the streets of Caracas.) That April, Chavez was kidnapped and removed from power in a decapitation of democracy orchestrated by the media, a few generals and the wealthy. Carmona dissolved the Supreme Court, the Constitution and the elected National Assembly and assumed control of the country. This was immediately welcomed by the Bush administration.

Washington was eager to ensure the largest pot of oil outside the Middle East - providing 10 per cent of US domestic imports - was placed back under the control of US corporations, rather than a left-winger with his own ideas about oil revenue. It later emerged the US had been funding the coup leaders. Only the story didn't end there. Venezuela refused to be Chile. Judith Patino, a 57-year-old grandmother and street-seller who lives in one of the shanty-towns in the west of Caracas, explains: "We would not let our democracy be destroyed. We refused. Everybody from this barrio , everybody from all the barrios, went on to the streets of Caracas. We were afraid, we thought there would be massacres, but we had chosen our President and we were governing our own country and we would not surrender."

[Dave Reynolds]

1. I see a parallel,

the rich elite wanting it all, and the poor folks being screwed. Where oh where else could such a thing be happening?

We need a Chavez.

[Robeson]

13. And a media controlled by the wealthy and spewing their message.....

...gosh, just where else is that happening?....

[Judi Lynn]

2. This is a tremendous article. I have stashed it away for future reference.

Very well done. It should be read by everyone who even hopes to know about US/Latin American policy.

[fearnobush]

3. The Revolution will be printed... But only in the UK.

"Chavez has been approved in polls or referenda no less than seven times, and there is more substantial free speech than in Britain. In Venezuela, people can (and, every night, do) call on television for the President to be killed. Indeed, Chavez has been so reluctant to commit a crackdown that the leaders of the coup are still free and unpunished. Venezuelans are still nervously waiting for them to return, in the form of another coup - or a CIA bullet."

<>

[silverlib]

4. and many call him a dictator...

now how can a dictator be elected by the people?

Oops - only in America?

I certainly wish this was an article made in the USA. The people here are so mislead by the media and this and many other important issues - I hope Chavez survives and that the Amercia who so blindly follow the corporate media survive to open their minds to what is going on in the world and in their own country.

There I go - preaching to the choir again.

[phusion]

5. My sister, who opposes the Iraq war...

has heard all the anti-Chavez rhetoric. She said she heard that Chavez was in cahoots with Saddam Hussein and Castro. As far as Castro, I explained that being relative neighbors they have cooperated on some economic and social issues. For Hussein I really had no response and I highly doubt that it is true...Anyone know if Chavez worked with Hussein recently?

Either way, I could care less. Lots of people did business with Hussein shortly before Bush moved into Iraq.

Chavez has a wonderful vision for his country and the region and I hope he can fulfill it.

Viva Chavez!

[Melodybe]

6. Send your sister this article: Chavez want to help American Poor

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/08/23/chavez.gasoline.reut/?section=cnn_latest

I don't see Bush offering to do this.

Viva Chavez

[phusion]

9. Thx!

Great article...

:toast:

[beetbox]

7. This quote from an anti-Chavez Venezuelan says alot-

He says: "There are really only two classes in this country - the educated, and the stupid. The poor are poor because they are incredibly ignorant. But Chavez tells them it is because we are taking the oil money. It's ridiculous! He is giving the poor money for nothing." Yet there is an irony here: while lambasting the poor as ignorant, it turns out the couple are entirely ignorant of life in their own country. They have never been to a barrio, and they say I am "insane" to visit one.


Elitist bastard

[Robeson]

8. Sounds just like the wealthy speaking in our country. How many of them...

...have driven through our barrios?

[Robeson]

10. Wonderful article. Everyone read this entire article. It is both....

...inspiring, and sad. Inspiring for the work he is doing, and sad because of the opposition he is getting from the wealthy. And the upper classes there, sound as misguided and as ignorant as those in this country.

Also, it is interesting to note that it goes into how the media is controlled by the elite in Venezuela, just like here. And that they are anti-Chavez, because he wants to help the poor.

This is a great article. Everyone read it.

Thanks for posting it.

I am reminded of the quote:

"When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist". Brazilian Bishop, Dom Helder Camara.

[slay]

11. Chavez seems to care about all people of his country

Can't say the same of Bush.

[me b zola]

12. Great article.

Once upon a time in America, there were journalists.




Viva Chavez!!

[Kicked in the Taco]

14. Terrific article

Chavez is making life better for people in such obvious, basic and tangible ways that it says everything about Bush, Robertson and their ilk that they would spread lies about and seek to demonise him. Despicable as most of the Venezuelan "elite" clearly are, they're only saying what most of their counterparts in the USA and Britain are thinking. The difference is, the people of Venezuela aren't going to stand around getting shafted anymore.

Viva Chavez!

[Surya Gayatri]

15. Inspiring words from Judith Patino, the real grassroots...

"We would not surrender..." Her words could well become an inspiration for all of us Americans struggling to get our own government back. How ironic that a former "banana republic" has come to teach us lessons in good governance and democracy. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Another wonderful irony was Chavez offering cheap gas to the poor of the USA!

[sarcasmo]

16. Key phrase in this story "placed back under the control of

U.S. Corporations" AKA the new Amerika.

VIVA CHAVES