Chavez Says He's Ready for U.S. to Expel Venezuelan Ambassador, Break Ties

[Judi Lynn]

Chavez Says He's Ready for U.S. to Expel Venezuelan Ambassador, Break Ties
By Charlie Devereux - Dec 28, 2010 6:51 PM CT

President Hugo Chavez said he’s ready for the U.S. to expel Venezuela’s ambassador to the U.S. and break off diplomatic ties as part of a five-month feud over the Obama administration’s choice to be its top envoy to Caracas.

“If the U.S. government is going to expel our ambassador there, then do it. If the U.S. government is going to break off diplomatic relations - do it,” Chavez said in comments carried on state television. “It’s not my fault. It’s theirs for naming an ambassador who immediately goes to the press to rant against the country where he is going as ambassador.”

State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said Dec. 20 “there will be consequences” to Venezuela’s decision to protest President Barack Obama’s nomination of diplomat Larry Palmer as the next American ambassador to Caracas.

Chavez rejected Palmer’s nomination after the career diplomat and former U.S. Ambassador to Honduras told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in July that the Venezuelan army has low morale and that members of the government have “clear ties” with terrorist organizations in neighboring Colombia.

More:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-29/chavez-says-he-s-ready-for-u-s-to-expel-venezuelan-ambassador-break-ties.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. How many countries would accept an ambassador who claimed his new host country

is involved with terrorist organizations?

He accused Venezuela of harboring FARC, the leftist guerrillas from Colombia, completely ignoring the fact that the same fighters have violated the borders of Ecuador, Brazil, Panama, and Peru.

US corporate media REFUSE to acknowledge that this has been a problem other countries have had, as well, preventing Colombia's guerrillas from crossing into their countries. By the way, Colombia had to apologize to Hugo Chavez in a multi-hour meeting after it was learned that Colombia's own head, Jorge Noguera, of its CIA/FBI spy organization was involved in a conspiracy to assassinate Hugo Chavez.

Upon a separate occasion, a tip led Venezuelan authorities to discover over 100 Colombian right-wing paramilitaries and former soldiers encamped at a ranch owned by a virulently anti-Chavez Cuban-Venezuelan, Miami-connected opposition leader, and proponent of "guarimba" (violent protest) Roberto Alonso, brother of US film actress, Maria Conchita Alonso.

They testified they had been hired by Venezuelan opposition members to break into a National Guard armory, steal enough guns to outfit 1,400 fighters, break into Miraflores Palace, and assassinate Hugo Chavez.

The murderous characters going into Venezuela seem to have mostly been the right-wingers, working for the right-wing Venezuelan opposition.

As I have stated, and it is commonly known, the leftist rebels also penetrate OTHER borders surrounding Colombia. They have never been given shelter by any of the other countries' Presidents. You may recall, Uribe, with the help of US forces at the airbase in Manta, Ecuador, dropped lots of bombs inside the Ecuadorian border and killed some rebels just less than a mile inside the country, without Ecuador's awareness until it was over, nearly kicking off a bona fide war with Ecuador.

Sending a loudmouth, aggressive, combative "diplomat" to Venezuela as its "ambassador" is one of the most obnoxious, disrespectful acts this country could manage, even though _{George W. Bush} did it, HIS ambassadors never insulted the host countries until they had already infested the host.

[Judi Lynn]

2. It was tremendous seeing Violet Crumble, in LBN, said that if the US sent someone like this dweeb

to them after he had lobbed the same kind of insults, they wouldn't accept him, either.

Common sense.

So glad to have heard her comment.

[rabs]

3. Did you see his wiki bio posted on LBN? Post #5.

It mentions that Palmer was ambassador to Honduras beginning in 2002. The next sentence says Obama nominated him to be ambassador to Ven. in 2010.

So, was Palmer ambassador to Honduras for EIGHT years?

Nope. Because in 2005 Palmer shows up as president of something called the Inter-American Foundation. To me it smacks of a CIA front working in Latin America.

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

IAF’s New President Begins
News Releases - 8/2/2005 Download PDF
ARLINGTON, Va—Veteran diplomat and statesman Ambassador Larry L. Palmer yesterday became the seventh president of the Inter-American Foundation, a U.S. government foreign assistance agency supporting grassroots development in Latin America and the Caribbean.


http://www.iaf.gov/news_events/news_releases_text_en.asp?news_year=2005

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

Suspect that some of the Latam bloggers will catch up to this and have a different viewpoint from Washington's of what the IAF had done and does in Latin America.

[Judi Lynn]

4. That IAF thing isn't what it used to be, according to Sourcewatch, not since Reagan took over!

Inter-American Foundation during the Reagan era

~snip~
Reagan administration "take over" in 1983

After three years of attempts, by December 1983 President Ronald Reagan achieved "a majority on the seven-person Board. <2> The five appointees included Peter McPherson, USAID administrator; Langhorne A. Motley, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs <3>; Reagan-appointee Organization of American States (OAS) Ambassador J. William Middendorf II <4>; Harold K. Phillips, "a car salesman from Los Angeles with a long fundraising and recruitment record for the California Republican Party; and Victor Blanco "a right-wing Cuban-American California businessman selected by Reagan as the IAF's chairman." <5>

On December 5, 1983, Blanco "promptly fired" IAF president Peter D. Bell "for reasons of 'chemistry'" <6>, "stimulating widespread press coverage in the United States and angry protest from members of Congress." <7>

Rep. Dante Fascell (D-Fla.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that this "was 'the culmination of a three-year effort by the administration to re-cast the IAF in its own ideological mold." "Latin American leaders, development organizations and other members of Congress -- including moderate Republicans -- joined in the chorus of criticism, and three members of the IAF’s advisory council resigned in protest." <8>

According to Reagan's appointees, the "new policy" was "to involve the US embassies and Latin American governments in project selection", which "violates the Foundation’s mandate from Congress," according to the New Internationalist. <9In April 1984, the New Internationalist wrote that President Reagan had "taken over" the Inter-American Foundation and had "moved in to snuff out one of the few progressive initiatives that have appeared on the official US aid scene in many years."[br />
The Board had been "taken over by White House appointees," the New Internationalist wrote, "proof if proof were needed that the Foundation had become an effective channel for funds to progressive groups in Latin America." Previously, IAF funding "came from the US government" but was "administered by an independent Board outside the government aid machinery. So it could reach many small groups that governments would not normally deal with. Some 1,600 grants were made over its 13 years of existence and the 1983 budget was $23 millions." <10>

The move was suspect, the New Internationalist stated, as it was "difficult to believe that such an organisation could operate completely independently" and that the "channels" established "with peasant co-operatives ... could be used for the gathering of intelligence" by the CIA.]

More:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Inter-American_Foundation_during_the_Reagan_era

Palmer's Wiki was taken directly from the State Department official statement. It would be interesting to get the TRUE story on what this loon has done.

Here are Reagan's people placed on the IAF:

Reagan administration

• Elliott Abrams, "nominated as member of Board of Directors for the 1985–90 term " <5>
  
• Lynda Anne Barness, "appointed by President Reagan to the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Foundation, on which board she served from 1985-92." <6>
  
• Peter D. Bell, president 1980 through 1983; president of CARE 1995 to early 2006 <7><8>
  
• Victor Blanco, "a right-wing Cuban-American California businessman selected by Reagan as the IAF's chairman." <9>
  
• Shelton H. Davis, "Inter-American Foundation (Rosslyn, Virginia, 1985 and 1986)--Consultancies evaluating Inter-American Foundation-funded projects in Bolivia (Ayoreode-Zapoco Communal Sawmill, Department of Santa Cruz) and Colombia (Centro de Cooperacion Indígena, Bogota)." <10>
  
• Peter McPherson, former board member and USAID administrator <11>
  
• J. William Middendorf II: September 6, 1983, recess appointment to the IAB Board by President Reagan as Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the Organization of American States, with the rank of Ambassador, to be a member of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Foundation, for a term expiring September 20, 1988. He will succeed Marc Leland." <12>
  
• Langhorne A. Motley, an Assistant Secretary of State (Inter-American Affairs): September 6, 1983, recess appointment to the IAB Board by President Reagan, "to be a member of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Foundation, for the remainder of the term expiring September 20, 1984. He will succeed Thomas O. Enders." <13>
  
• Thomas W. Pauken, nominated April 22, 1987, by President Ronald Reagan "to be a member of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Foundation for the term expiring October 6, 1992. He would succeed Luis Guerrero Nogales. ... Mr. Pauken is vice president and corporate counsel of Garvon, Inc., in Dallas, TX." <14>; Thomas W. Pauken in the Wikipedia.
  Harold K. Phillips, former board member: "a car salesman from Los Angeles with a long fundraising and recruitment record for the California Republican Party" <15>
  
• José Sorzano was a candidate for president of Inter-American Foundation in June 1984: "White House-favorite Jose Sorzano, another right-wing Cuban-American and a long-time aide to United Nations Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, who withdrew after a press report labelled him the leading candidate." <16>
  
• Deborah Szekely, 78, ran as a Republican candidate in San Diego, CA, for Congress in 1982, "lost but went to Washington anyway. There President Reagan put her in charge of the Inter-American Foundation" <17>; has "been the President and CEO" of IAF <18>
  
  ~~~~~
  From "Former IAF personnel and directors," same source, pointing out this one item:
  
• William Doherty, "was identified by Philip Agee, former CIA agent, as a 'CIA agent in labor operations.' ... He is on the advisory board of the Inter-American Foundation, a quasi-private foundation that uses AID funds for development programs in Latin America." <35>

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Inter-American_Foundation/Former_Personnel_and_Directors

Looks as if you had their number, rabs. It probably gets pretty hairy looking more deeply into these guys.

[ChangoLoa]

6. Do you think Latin Americans are naive concerning Washington's role? nt

[rabs]

7. I would flip the tortilla ...

... and say it is the vast majority of people in the United States who are not aware of Washington's role in Latin America -- beginning in the 1800s, especially in the 1900s and continuing to today.

Reasons: Most people are not interested in Latin America (it is another dark continent to them) and 2. the U.S. media has always been biased in its reporting about Latin America. So people who are interested usually get a skewed viewpoint, especially from today's corpo-media outlets.

On the other hand, Latin Americans, from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego, are much more aware because their nations have have suffered the consequences of yankee imperialism over the decades.

A starting point for this awareness in the past 60 years may have begun with Arbenz in 1954, the Bay of Pigs, Allende in Chile, the refusal of the United States to invoke the Monroe Doctrine in favor of Argentina during the Malvinas conflict, Reagan's brutal wars in Central America, Plan Colombia, and today the arremetidas against the more radical leftist leaders.

So to answer your question, I think Latin Americans as a whole are NOT naive, especially now with tons of information about Washington's shenanigans readily available from the Internet and other alternative media.

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Quiero tomar la oportunidad de desearte a vos y tu famila una Feliz Navidad Y Prospero Año Nuevo!

[ChangoLoa]

8. Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo para ti tambien!

A ti y a tus seres queridos, les deseo mucha paz y felicidad.

Un abrazo.

[Judi Lynn]

5. US says it wants to maintain diplomatic relations with Venezuela

US says it wants to maintain diplomatic relations with Venezuela
12/29/2010 9:30:00 PM

WASHINGTON, Dec 29 (KUNA) -- The United States affirmed on Wednesday that it wants to maintain diplomatic representation in Caracas as tensions between the two countries continue over the newly-appointed US ambassador to Venezuela.

"We regret the Venezuelan government's decision to withdraw agreement for Ambassador designee Palmer. We have said that many times.

We believe that it is precisely because there is tension in the relationship that it is important to maintain diplomatic communications at the highest level," said State Department spokesman Mark Toner in a conference call briefing.

"It is in our national interest to do so," he added while declining to respond directly to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's remarks.

http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2134583&Language=en