Mexico: Calderón tries to "isolate" Venezuela

[Judi Lynn]

Mexico: Calderón tries to "isolate" Venezuela

Submitted by Weekly News Update on Tue, 12/07/2010 - 10:03. Mexican president Felipe Calderón has been advising the US on how to fight the influence of leftist Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, according to a secret Oct. 23, 2009 US embassy cable that was made public by WikiLeaks on Dec. 2, 2010. During a meeting on Oct. 19, 2009 with US national intelligence director Dennis Blair, Calderón "emphasized that…Hugo Chávez is active everywhere, including Mexico," the embassy reported. "Calderon also commented that he is particularly concerned about Venezuela's relations with Iran, and that the Iranian embassy in Mexico is very active."

"The region needs a visible US presence, noted." The most important thing was for the US to be "ready to engage the next Brazilian president," who takes office in 2011. According to Calderón, Brazil "is key to restraining Chávez, but he lamented that President Lula has been reluctant to do so. The US needs to engage Brazil more and influence its outlook." Calderón has been trying to do his part in countering Chávez: according to the cable, he "said that Mexico is trying to isolate Venezuela through the Rio Group," an organization of 23 Latin American and Caribbean nations.

Calderón said he believed Chávez funded the 2006 presidential campaign of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the left-center candidate who narrowly missed beating Calderón according to the official results, which many Mexicans consider fraudulent. (El País, Madrid, Dec. 2; La Jornada, Mexico, Dec. 3) Shortly after the cable was made public on Dec. 2, López Obrador wrote in his Twitter account: "I demand that this compulsive liar Calderón demonstrate that Chávez financed our 2006 campaign." (El Universal, Mexico City, Dec. 2)

http://www.ww4report.com/node/9261

[Judi Lynn]

1. Messy Mexican election reemerges in leaked cables

Messy Mexican election reemerges in leaked cables
December 3, 2010 | 2:46 pm

The controversial 2006 presidential election that brought Felipe Calderon to power in Mexico reemerged in the secret U.S. diplomatic cables released this week, sparking a fresh controversy on Friday involving -- of all other world leaders -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. In a cable from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, dated October 2009, President Calderon is described as telling the former U.S. director of national intelligence, Dennis Blair, that he believed Chavez had "funded" his top opponent and nemesis in the race three years earlier, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Calderon ran with the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, while Lopez Obrador ran with the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD. The campaign was characterized by many at the time as the first "U.S.-style" race, with unprecedented levels of television spots. Some Calderon television ads in 2006 directly compared Lopez Obrador to Chavez, calling the leftist a "danger to Mexico."

From the cable:

Calderon emphasized that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is active everywhere, including Mexico. He went out of his way to highlight that he believes Chavez funded the PRD opposition during the Presidential campaign nearly four years ago. Chavez uses social programs, including sending doctors, to curry political influence, and there are governors in Mexico who may be friendly to him. Calderon said that Mexico is trying to isolate Venezuela through the Rio Group. Calderon also commented that he is particularly concerned about Venezuela's relations with Iran, and that the Iranian Embassy in Mexico is very active. Calderon underscored that Iran's growing influence in Latin American should be of considerable concern to the United States, and Chavez is doing all he can to aid and abet it.

Iran maintains an embassy in Mexico City, and its presence in Latin America is a point of concern for the United States, other leaked U.S. documents show, but other claims attributed to Calderon in the October 2009 cable were not immediately verifiable.

Calderon eventually won the 2006 race by less than 1% after a partial recount, a result which Lopez Obrador and his most ardent supporters refuse to recognize to this day. Mexican filmmaker Luis Mandoki later released a documentary film called "Fraude" on the 2006 race and the social movement that followed that sought to declare Lopez Obrador the "legitimate president."

More:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2010/12/wikileaks-cablegate-felipe-calderon-mexico-hugo-chavez.html

[social_critic]

3. Venezuelan interference in other nations is quite evident

I would have been surprised if they had said the Mexican government didn't feel a need to isolate Chavez. Chavez has gone out his way to insult the Mexican president, and there are many documented cases of Venezuelan interference in the internal affairs of other nations - including the suitcases full of cash sent to the Kirchners in Argentina.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Right. He sent money in a suitcase to Argentina through various other people,

when they could have simply taken it on the plane he and his entourage and officials were taking the very next day to Argentina, when they would all have simply gone through with NO CHECKS WHATSOEVER. Yeah, that sure makes sense.

We've discussed this with visiting rightists time after time since they published this story.

You're not going to sell any progressives, leftists on your anti-left world view.

[Peace Patriot]

6. The U.S. State Department and the Pentagon have a total budget of ONE BILLION DOLLARS just for

Latin America alone, devoted to interference and propaganda (lies, dirty tricks, funding and "training" rightwing groups, riots, destabilizaiton, coups, et al).

You are a laugh and half, with your petulant little posts about Chavez, but this one takes the cake.

Venezuela's "interference" in other nations.

:rofl:

And I didn't even mention the $7 BILLION to Colombia in military aid--for a government and military with one of the worst human rights records on earth.

Or the BILLIONS MORE for U.S. military bases in Colombia, Honduras, the Dutch islands right off Venezuela's oil coast, Panama and other places.

Or Iraq. ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND innocent people slaughtered, to steal their oil. BILLIONS AND BILLIONS looted from us and from the Iraqis.

No laughs on these.

:grouphug:

---------------------------------------

As for that CIA caper out of Miami--the "suitcase full of money" which a "two jaguars in the driveway" Miami mafioso name "Guido" took through customs in Buenos Aires IN ORDER TO GET CAUGHT and then was re-routed back to Miami to be the Bushbot U.S. Attorney's "star witness" against Chavez--hee-haw!

Falling on the floor here, social critic. You are a scream--a rather horrible scream, with an edge to it right out of a Pinochet torture chamber.

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

[social_critic]

7. So you think the suitcase guy was willing to go to jail?

Sounds weird.

I don't think the US should have a budget for anything close to $1 billion for Latin America at the same time we're borrowing money from the Chinese to sustain a huge deficit, most of which is spent trying to bring democracy to the Middle East and teaching Afghans how to behave - I think we could PAY them $1000 a year each to treat women properly and stop blowing up statues, and they will do it.

On the other hand, I don't agree with US foreign policy. I don't like Hillary Clinton, I thought Condi Rice was a witch, I hated Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright, and so on. So I'm sort of biased.

I do believe we should spend money to assist Mexico build an 8 lane superhighway from Mexico's border with Guatemala to El Paso, because this will really help small farmers and business owners in Southern Mexico get their stuff sold in the US. But this is a special case, I think the Mexicans will also buy our stuff, so everybody benefits.

[Peace Patriot]

10. Yeah, I figured you'd like assassination programs. "Teaching Afghans how to behave"?! Really,

social_critic! Is that like Kissinger/Friedman/Pinochet "making" Chile's economy "scream" to get rid of the socialists--the ones they hadn't thrown our of airplanes or rounded up in the stadium?

"...bringing democracy to the Middle East..."? Let's see, so far the toll of slaughtered people in Iraq alone is estimated by independent groups (cuz our government said they don't count Arabs) at one hundred thousand dead in the first weeks of bombing alone, and a million overall. A million dead "voters." That's some 'democracy.'

Your delusions are colossal.

[social_critic]

11. I have a huge tongue which I place in a huge cheek

If you don't understand subtle sarcasm, you are missing a lot of my creative input. It is well known the USA invaded Iraq to seek WMDs, but when Bush realized his lie was a real lie, he decided to bring democracy to the Iraqis. This they have done quite effectively, and today Iraq is ruled by Shiites loyal to the Ayatollah Ali Huseini al Sistani, an Iranin born cleric. This is a great success for US diplomacy, because these democratically elected Iraqi shiite radicals (whose three main parties are the Islamic Call Party, the Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, and the CIA-controlled al Jaafari alliance) are more likely to side with Iran than with Saudi Arabia. As we now know thanks to Wikileaks, the Saudis are the main financiers of Islamist terrorists.

The great success in Iraq, where we keep tens of thousand of troops to provide friendly assistance to our democratic brothers, is now extended to Afghanistan, where victorious US troops go from town to town, destroying it and saving it for democracy. This policy, coupled to very thorough shake downs implemented by the Afghan government (which happens to be run by an ex Taliban who reached office via democratic elections), are helping the friendly NATO occupation forces become the most beloved invasion force in Afghanistan since Alexander crossed the Oxus.

I get so emotional thinking about our brave soldiers who fight and die for democracy and imposing the American way of life on those poor Iraqis and Afghans, I just had to blow my nose using my confederate flag. So please excuse me, I got to go wash it.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Mexico prez: Latam needs visible US presence

Mexico prez: Latam needs visible US presence
(AP) – 4 days ago

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Felipe Calderon told a U.S. official last year that Latin America "needs a visible U.S. presence" to counter Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's growing influence in the region, according to a U.S. State Department cable leaked to WikiLeaks and posted online Thursday.

Calderon told then-U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair that Chavez uses social programs, including sending doctors to Mexico, to gain political influence in the country, according to the memo dated Oct. 23, 2009.

Calderon told Blair he was trying to isolate Venezuela through the Rio Group and added that the United States needed to engage Brazil because the South American country "is key in restraining Chavez."

"Calderon lamented that President (Luiz Inacio) Lula (da Silva) has been reluctant to do so," the cable reads.

More:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gXR0KvYKKyfInJUibLOijZxME4jg?docId=da30756f319140c780de1c35a8682bfe

http://2.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_FxCl-zDjIOQ/RfiV2ZgyaOI/AAAAAAAAA9k/mhuMlmVorSM/s400/Bush-1.jpg http://cdn.wn.com.nyud.net:8090/pd/08/2d/7163ecea4d737e0458fac6c9efdd_grande.jpg

Apparently Calderon creeps out even _{George W. Bush.}
July 17, 2009 · 9:58 am ↓
Lost In Translation–Calderon’s Narcoguerra/Bush’s War on Terror

Like a subtitled remake of a disaster movie, Felipe Calderon’s “Narcoguerra” looks more and more like George W. Bush’s “War on Terror”–especially as Bush and company waged it in Iraq. Calderon seems to share the former US president’s self-righteous stubborn pursuit of failed policies regardless of outcome.

~snip~
With Calderon steaming ahead with his new “surge” this weekend, it might be good to revisit the simialrities.

The two of them–Bush and Calderon–plunged into their respective, self-proclaimed “wars” with eyes wide shut.

Similarities? Here are a few.

• A full-bore military occupation that kills maims and alienates the noncombatant civilian population.
  
• Abrogation of civil rights in pursuit of “security.”
  
• Systemic human rights abuses and torture.
  
• Failure to recognize, acknowledge and address social, cultural and economic realities of the communities.
  
• Failure to heed reasonable intelligence.
  
• Creation of insurgencies where there were none that leads to further destabilization.
  
• Hemorrhaging of taxpayers’ money and resources.
  
• Unmonitored “outsourcing” that ignores corruption and fraud and sends windfall profits to private contractors.

https://narcoguerratimes.wordpress.com/2009/07/17/lost-in-translation-calderons-narcoguerrabushs-war-on-terror/

[bemildred]

4. Very funny.

Caldron giving advice, I mean. The overt tool-ness of this is sort of stunning.

[social_critic]

8. Anybody can give advice to the US

It's easy, isn't it?

[bemildred]

9. "The region needs a visible US presence".

"I for one welcome our new Chinese overlords!"

What a weasel. You are quite correct that his frantic attempts to manipulate the US State Dept. are transparent, and that they lap it up.

[social_critic]

12. The region does need a visible US presence

But that's already visible. Every time I see the US space station fly overhead, I get goosebumps, and wonder what they do with all the frozen pee they put out into space.

[bemildred]

13. Just so long as nobody steals the pee. They might get your DNA from it or something. nt