Chavez's kill charges 'ridiculous'

[cal04]

THE US State Department today slammed as "ridiculous and untrue" Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's allegations that Washington is hatching a plot to have him killed.

Those allegations are "ridiculous and untrue," spokesman Richard Boucher said, asked about Mr Chavez's repeated allegations. Mr Chavez threatened on Sunday to suspend oil exports to the US if someone tries to assassinate him, adding that US President George W. Bush would be to blame.

"If they kill me, there will be a really guilty party on this planet whose name is the president of the United States, George Bush," Mr Chavez said on his weekly radio program."If, by the hand of the devil, those perverse plans succeed ... forget about Venezuelan oil, Mr Bush," he said.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12345289%255E1702,00.html



US calls Chavez's charges ridiculous
Boucher told reporters here that "the idea that we were out to get the president of Venezuela is just plain wrong. "What we do want to do is look at various policy issues that we have with the government of Venezuela, and policy issues that have arisen with others in the region, that we need to deal with. "The whole region has been concerned at times about some of the activities in Venezuela that we've noticed the (Colombian) FARC has had," Boucher added.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050222/pl_afp/usvenezuela_050222185753

[applegrove]

1. The point is that just putting it out there makes it harder to do. So I'm

sure Chavez doesn't care what the Bush Administration says, he was just reading the story on Rumsfields new 'special ops' and decided to speak up. They already tried to get rid of him once with a coup. What is so illogical?

[Say_What]

10. More than that, actually. The 2002 coup was only the beginning

Don't forget about the US-funded opposition trying to sabotage the country via a massive so-called oil strike just after the failed coup. Then it was the recall along which the *opposition* tried to push the country into chaos with physical attacks, demonstrations, and disturbances aimed at portraying Venezuela as *unstable*. Add to this numerous threats to assassinate Chavez and you have a cookie cutter approach exactly like what happened in Chile.

One of the most dispicable moves by the USSA, however, was the US preventing Chavez to travel to the US to speak at the UN:

<clips>

Letter condemning the US actions that prevented Venezuelan President Chavez from going to the US to speak at the UN

We, the undersigned, condemn the US actions that prevented Venezuelan President Chavez from coming to the US to speak at the United Nations

While heads of states and the people of the world have been able to hear President Bush address at the United Nations, they will not hear from the democratically elected Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. His trip has been cancelled due to ‘security concerns’. Not only is the US not offering protection, but has organized violence against him and the Venezuelan people. It is totally unacceptable that a head of state would have to risk his life to meet with other heads of state at the UN in New York.

Background: Venezuela is the world’s 5th largest oil supplier, yet 80% of its population lives in poverty. President Chavez was elected in a landslide in 1998, initiating a "peaceful and democratic process" aimed at making fundamental change, such as using the country’s oil revenue to end poverty & corruption, and tackling racism, sexism, & other forms of discrimination. In April 2002 the US backed a coup which kidnapped Pres. Chavez and overthrew the new democratically constructed constitution. But within three days, millions of people from the poorest areas took to the streets and, with the help of loyal soldiers, won both back. The wealthy white racist coup leaders now reside in Florida, Colombia, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic.

Days before President Chavez was forced to cancel his trip to New York, the US government sent a message when it refused to sign a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli threats to remove Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat by deportation or assassination: it wants us to accept its right to remove any head of state, democratically-elected or not, whom it does not want. The US administration together with the President of Colombia have decided to give amnesty to paramilitary death squad leaders, as a condition for receiving aid. Venezuelan airspace has been violated by 15 Black Hawk helicopters flying over the border from Colombia in a clear act of aggression.

These events, along with the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, another large oil-producing nation, and the violent overthrow of Chilean President Allende (that commemorated its 30th anniversary on Sept 11), are ever-present specters. Now Venezuelan intelligence reports that the CIA was plotting to bring down Pres Chavez’s airplane. No one who knows the CIA’s history will reject that possibility.

President Chavez represents the growing global movement for economic and social justice, against US domination and for self-determination - beginning in Latin America. The people in the United States have been deprived of truth and of information about the new Venezuelan process, by a corporate media which has vilified and censored Pres. Chavez, and the movement he spearheads. Pres. Chavez has said he most regrets not being able to give a televised speech at Riverside Church where the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., a year to the day before he was assassinated, declared "{the Vietnam} war is the enemy of the poor."

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/docs.php?dno=1005

[Say_What]

12. The Assassination of Danilo Anderson (2002 coup investigator)

<clips>

The November 18 car bombing of Danilo Anderson in Caracas brought back vivid memories. When I read that two explosions tore through the Venezuelan prosecutor's SUV, I flashed back 28 years to a traumatic event in my life.

I met Orlando Letelier in 1971 when he served as President Allende's Ambassador in Washington. In 1972, he joined Allende's Cabinet until his arrest on September 11, 1973. Defense Minister Letelier knew General Augusto Pinochet, who led the coup that day and ordered Letelier's guards to arrest him. "An obsequious and untrustworthy man," Letelier described Pinochet, "the guy who earns tips in the barber shop by helping you into your jacket and brushing off the hair."

I didn't know Anderson. But like Letelier, he had information on coup plotters, those who tried to oust Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in April 2002. Neither Anderson's nor Letelier's assassination required Sherlock Homes to guide police in their hunt.

Letelier in exile represented elected and recognized government. For Pinochet, the illegitimate coup maker, Letelier loomed as commander of a massive exile army, not as a single individual trying to educate Congress and the public about massive human rights violations in Chile.

http://www.counterpunch.org/landau12022004.html

[Judi Lynn]

26. Isn't it odd learning Bush #41's friend, the impeached Carlos Perez

who stole over $17,000,000.00 from Venezuela, had his state police fire into crowds of protestors on the streets, in "El Caracazo," has been quoted claiming the following, mentioned in your article by Saul Landau:

"Chavez must die like a dog, because he deserves it," said two time Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez in a July 25, 2004 interview published in El Nacional, a Venezuelan daily. "I am working to remove Chavez ," Perez continued. "Violence will allow us to remove him."
(snip)

Absolutely despicable. Filthy man.

[Say_What]

30. Great photo!!

You always turn up the most amazing photos. Poppy and another one of his POS pals.

[AP]

28. If you want to hear a true story more intriguing than fiction...

...read up on the guy who killed Letelier.

He was an American -- a son of Ford Motor's head of Chilean (or SA'an?) operations. He lived in Chile when he was young. His first job was selling encyclopedias door to door. He married an older Chilean woman who already had a couple of kids. He started helping the anti-Allende forces by using his expertise in electronics -- he set up pirate radio stations which broadcast anti-government propaganda.

Allende's government set up equipment in their radio/tv stations to jam the pirate radio signals, so this guy broke into one of these stations one night to remove the jamming equipment. He tied up a homeless man who was sleeping in the station. He forgot to untie him when he left and the guy died of asphyxiation.

Chile issued a warrant for his arrest so he fled to Florida where he got to know some people in the anti-Castro community. Those people encouraged him to hook up with the CIA and offer his services to spy on Allende. The CIA thought he was a little too crazy -- they were put off by his un-ironic enthusiasm for fascism (he openly described himself as a fascist in his CIA interview).

When Allende was assassinated, the guy got a fake FL driver's license and then a passport, and returned to Chile. Since the Pinochet gov't vacated the murder charges against him, he approached the US State Dep't in Chile which promptly issued him a passport in his real name.

From then on, the guy became the Go-To guy for Pinochet's secret police. IIR the story C, he tried (but failed) to blow up a conference in Mexico City of former Allende gov't employees. He developed that gas that killed the people in that Tokyo subway, but never used it (he snuck the poison gas in a Chanel No. 5 atomizer with him on his flight to DC for the Letellier hit, but fell back on his bread-and-butter assassination method: car bomb). Despite missed opportunities with the poison gas and the Mexico City conference, he successfully assassinated anti-Pinochet Chileans (again, IIRC) in the US, Italy, Chile, and elsewhere in South America.

I believe he was arrested in the US after the Letellier assasination.

This guy was one of the most successful terrorists in the Western Hemisphere pre-9/11. And he was an American.

USA! USA! USA!


I read about him in "The Pinochet Files" by Peter Kornbluh. He gets about 5 or 10 pages, but I bet a book-length version of these events would be more gripping than Scarface.

[Say_What]

29. CANF and the Letelier Assassination--First terrorist attack on US soil

Until 9/11, in the western hemisphere one thing was certain--that ultra RW Miami Cubans were always at the center of any terrorist attack.

Bombing of Cubana Airliner

The Bush dynasty and the Cuban criminals

The Bushies and Terrorist Bosch-Avila

---

CANF and the Letelier Assasination

<clips>

....The FBI found the Letelier-Moffitt killers and the Department of Justice indicted them, including Pinochet's secret police chief. But Pinochet, the terrorist in chief, eluded indictment. Even the FBI agents and the Assistant US Attorneys publicly stated that it is "inconceivable" that the Letelier assassination could have occurred without Pinochet's authorization. Yet, the indictment of Pinochet today sits unsigned on the desk of the Washington DC US Attorney. Why? President Bush's anti-Castro Cuban pals lobbied to free Virgilio Paz and Jose Dionisio Suarez, two of the Letelier-Moffitt killers who had pled guilty and served a few years. After the Supreme Court decided that the INS could not hold aliens indefinitely for deportation, they began walking the streets along with Michael Townley the bomber in chief for Pinochet's secret police. Townley boasted to the FBI of the multiple ways he knew to murder people. This terrorist enjoys US protection from extradition for his other terrorist crimes - including the 1974 car bombing in Buenos Aires of exiled Chilean Chief of Staff, General Carlos Prats and his wife and the 1975 shooting of exiled Chilean politician Bernardo Leighton and his wife in Rome. Orlando Bosch who boasted about his role in bombing a Cuban commercial airliner over Barbados with 73 people on board enjoys his Florida retirement thanks to President Bush the first, who welcomed this terrorist into our country from Venezuela where he faced charges for his dastardly deed. Then, of course, there's Kissinger - to be continued.


http://www.tni.org/archives/landau/25years.htm

---

<clips>

...One of the most startling attacks rocked Washington, DC on September 21, 1976. The car bombing on Embassy Row that killed Orlando Letelier, the former Chilean foreign minister who spoke out against the Pinochet regime, and his colleague, Ronni Moffitt, has been called one of the worst acts of state-sponsored terrorism carried out in the United States. The Chilean secret police (DINA) hired Cuban exile extremists, known to be sympathetic to the Pinochet government, to assassinate him. Five well-known exile terrorists were indicted: Jose Dionisio Suarez Esquivel (nicknamed 'Charco de Sangre'--Puddle of Blood), Virgilio Paz Romero, Alvin Ross and brothers Guillermo and Ignacio Novo.<10>

Suarez and Paz were fugitives from justice for twelve years until finally apprehended (Paz was featured on the television show "America's Most Wanted"). They both plead guilty to their involvement in the assassination and were sentenced to 12 years in jail and served half of that time.<11> Though U.S. law requires that non-U.S. citizens must be returned to their country of origin after incarceration, the two convicted terrorists were taken into INS custody because there is no deportation agreement with Cuba.

In August, Miami Herald columnist Liz Balmaseda noted that the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) had “diligently fought” to get Paz released from INS custody, adding that, "From the outside, it certainly appears like just another incident of terrorist coddling at the foundation. It's no secret that foundation veterans enjoy alliances with some of the exile community's most infamous terrorists."<12>

A CANF spokesman insisted that they did so because trying a harder case could clear the way for easier cases to be won.<13> This is a convoluted explanation, at best, which in no way changes the fact that CANF succeeded in setting free a convicted terrorist.

http://ciponline.org/cuba/cubaandterrorism/keepingthingsinperspective.htm

[meganmonkey]

2. Funny, Bush said the same thing about attacking Iran...

President Bush (news - web sites) said Tuesday that it is "simply ridiculous" to assume that the United States has plans to attack Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons program.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1257529


Considering all the other ridiculous things this administration has ALREADY done, I don't think this any kind of denial!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

4. Ridiculous must be their word of the day.

It suits them well.

[LisaLynne]

7. I was just going to post that.

Now, instead of a talking point of the day, they're just down to a single word? Hmm. Discipline must be breaking down. They aren't willing to learn an entire phrase anymore.

[Hand]

8. They must figure that it's less gay than "fabulous"... nt

[antigone382]

32. Yes, it would be ridiculous of them to do both.

But then, that's never stopped them before, has it?

[Blue to the bone]

3. Why doesn't Chavez just cut off all oil supplies to the U.S.? n/t

[cliss]

9. Why not?

I read a while back that Chavez signed a deal with China to supply them with oil.

Chavez doesn't need the US. The US needs him, more desperately than anyone can imagine.

(rubs hands together) this is going to get good.

[cal04]

5. they're definitely keeping their eyes open in Venezuela

Venezuela's Media Minister Andres Izarra has been doing his homework on the US State Department's new chess moves to destabilize Venezuela.

The US State Department, Izarra claims, is mounting a misinformation campaign with the aid of international media and Venezuelan newspapers.

The Minister cites the Miami Herald and its Venezuelan print media lackeys, El Universal and El Nacional as parties to the plan ... "I wouldn't be surprised if journalist Phil Gunson writing in El Nacional is receiving funds from the USA ... this is not a direct accusation but a presumption."

Continuing to drop names, Izarra points to the appointment of former US Ambassador to Iraq and precursor of HR violations in Central America in the 80s, John D. Negroponte as negative and recalls that Negroponte counted former Venezuelan Ambassador to the UN, Milos Alcalay as a close friend.


http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=25802

[Tempest]

6. Ask Castro if the claims are ridiculous

Or Kim Koo, Korean opposition leader
Or Mohammed Mossadegh, Prime Minister of Iran
Or Claro M. Recto, Philippines opposition leader
Or Gamal Abdul Nasser, President of Egypt
Or Norodom Sihanouk, leader of Cambodia
Or Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Kassem, leader of Iraq
Or José Figueres, President of Costa Rica
Or Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, leader of Haiti
Or Gen. Rafael Trujillo, leader of Dominican Republic
Or Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam
Or Francisco Caamaño, Dominican Republic opposition leader
Or Che Guevara, Cuban leader
Or Salvador Allende, President of Chile
Or General Omar Torrijos, leader of Panama
Or Muammar Qaddafi, leader of Libya
Or Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of Iran
Or Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, Lebanese Shiite leader
Or Slobodan Milosevic, President of Yugoslavia

[LibeMatt]

11. Just remember...

...some, though surely not all on the above list were unmitigated &#*!heads in their own right, and probably would have acted just like Bush* if given the chance and a country with enough power and wealth (e.g. Khomeini, Milosevic); some were even former U.S. clients (e.g. Duvalier, Diem). Of course, others were just trying to lead their countries justly as per their electoral mandates which included some measures that might put a tiny dent or scratch in various multinationals' profits (e.g. Mossadegh, Allende).

None of the above should be construed to mean that U.S. foreign policy is always generous, gentle, and open or that the essential point in this thread, that the U.S. government has aided anti-democratic coups and murders, is false. The historical record shows otherwise.

Of course, we could just act like conservatives/republicans and pretend otherwise. But, as I keep saying...reality by assertion is cute if anonoying if done by a four-year-old, but positively dangerous if practiced by a supposedly responsible adult in the face of overwhelmingly contradictory testable facts.

[Tempest]

13. What they were is not the issue

The fact that they were assassinated, or had attempts made on their lives, by the U.S. government is the issue.

Most were assassinated simply because they espoused policies which the U.S. government saw as against U.S. (business) interests, not that they were a threat to the U.S.

Which is exactly why Chavez rightfully should fear an assassination attempt.

[LibeMatt]

16. Which is...

...essentially what I said in the second paragraph.

But sometimes, the U.S. and its villain-of-the-week, it's like me being a Giants fan and watching the Cowboys and the Redskins in the NFC championship. I just want a way for both of them to lose.

Or, if you prefer historical analogies, think Hitler and Stalin and their long and weird dance.

My (other) point being that sometimes there are no good guys to root for.

[LibeMatt]

17. Another for the list...

...that I didn't see, but maybe missed:

Arbenz of Guatemala. After a fascist dictator, Ubico, was overthrown in 1944 (a good thing in WWII, right?), a basically democratic system was set up. Arbenz got in in the early '50s (don't know exactly, and we can look it up later), and decided to help alleviate the crushing poverty in his country by means of land reform. Specifically, he would appropriate some land from United Fruit, which was being left fallow, and probably was meant to be uncultivated for a long time, and donate it to landless peasants who needed to, oh, grow their own food maybe. However, being fair-minded, he offered to compensate them at the declared tax value of the land (which was a bit low, perhaps, to help save United Fruit money on the tax bill). United Fruit then complained to the U.S. Gov't, and, on the grounds that Arbenz didn't reject the Communists out of hand, and allowed a few into his government (he was a moderate social democrat himself), the CIA sponsored a coup in 1954 which replaced the legitimate Arbenz government with 40 years of murderous dictators who were responsible for , it is estimated, roughly 200,000 of their own people dying in any number of brutal and gruesome ways.

But United Fruit got its land back, so everything was OK.

[Say_What]

20. United Fruit was owned by the John and Allen Dulles-Allen was CIA Director

<clips>

CIA covert Operation PB Success successfully removes Arbenz from power. The CIA director at this time, Allen Dulles, was formerly the president of the United Fruit Fruit Company (UFCO) and the previous CIA director and under-secretary of state, General Walter Bedell Smith, is on the company's board of directors. Smith will become UFCO's president following the overthrow. Allen Dulles' brother, John Dulles, who is Secretary of State, previously worked as a lawyer defending the United Fruit Company.
People and organizations involved: Walter Bedell Smith, Allen Welsh Dulles, John Foster Dulles

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=guatemala

[LibeMatt]

21. Not surprising...

...however, I never quite realized how close the connections were between UFCO and the CIA.

[Say_What]

22. and history not that different than 1973 Chile or 2005 Venezuela

or any of the other 30+ major coups that were backed by the US all over LatAm.

<clips>

....Zemurray funded a public relations campaign to portray Arbenz as a dangerous Communist. United Fruit could count on the support of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his brother CIA Director Allen Dulles: both had investments in firms with heavy investments in United Fruit. The American ambassador to the UN, Henry Cabot Lodge, was a shareholder. Anne Whitman, the wife of the United Fruit's public relations director, was President Eisenhower's personal secretary. The Dulles brothers convinced Eisenhower that Arbenz was a real threat to American national security and got his approval for a CIA campaign to remove him.

United Fruit supplied boats to transport troops and ammunition. Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza leased his country out as a base for an army of Guatemalan rebels and mercenaries, backed by a CIA air force. CIA aircraft dropped anti-communist leaflets and strafed and bombed government targets. CIA leaflets were supplemented by anti-communist pastoral letters, read in Catholic churches to the largely illiterate but very religious Guatemalan peasantry, which had been supplied by the CIA through their Church contact, the rabidly anti-communist Francis Cardinal Spellman of New York.

In 1954, the legally elected government was overthrown, and power was assumed by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas, who had at one time received military training at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Armas gave United Fruit its land back, banned banana workers unions, abolished the tax on interest and dividends to foreign investors, and jailed thousands. The CIA provided lists of alleged "communists", including union leaders, who were promptly executed. Castillo Arma's brutal crackdown touched off the civil war in 1960 which dragged on for 36 years and killed over one hundred thousand (100,000) people --in a country with a current population of only 13 million.

Witness to the events in Guatemala was a 25 year old doctor from Argentina named Ernesto Guevara. Young Guevara (later known as el "Che") was living in Guatemala at the time of the CIA-backed coup, working as a doctor and book-seller. Guevara organized resistance militias against Castillo's CIA-backed mercenary army. Facing capture, he escaped to Mexico where he met another political refugee who would become one of his closest friends: Cuban Fidel Castro.

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=962298

[daleo]

23. Or JFK, RFK, MLK. n/t

[Say_What]

36. or Malcolm X n/t

[HuckleB]

37. Or Omar Torrijos, Salvador Allende... etc... -nt-

[TahitiNut]

38. That doesn't look like a "frequent White House visitors" list.

I haven't seen Chavez being hosted at a White House dinner. The Bushwhackers have hosted Musharrif, even though he's a repressive military dictator. The Bushwhackers have hosted the dictators from the People's Republic of China and other repressive regimes.

When they host and fete Chavez, an elected head of state far more liberal than those already hosted, I might be more acommodating of their protestations that they're not targeting him.

[applegrove]

14. Chavez is right on. Speak your fear and put it out in the open. Clip some

wings and we may yet see some oil dollars making their way to the poor in Venezuela instead of buying that third fur coat for some missy in Texas ... where you don't actually need the first fur coat.

[TexasLawyer]

15. Another "ridiculous"

somebody buy those people a thesaurus!!!

Bush Says Notion of Attack on Iran "Ridiculous" By VOA News
22 February 2005

http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-02-22-voa55.cfm


President Bush has forcefully dismissed any idea the United States has any plans for attacking Iran to keep its government from developing nuclear arms.

Speaking after talks in Brussels with top leaders of the 25 European Union countries, Mr. Bush said blocking Iran's development of nuclear weapons is a common U.S. and EU goal. But he called the notion of an attack on Iran simply ridiculous.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said the sides had agreed to co-host an international conference on reconstruction of Iraq if the government of that country seeks such a meeting.

Earlier, after talks with NATO leaders, Mr. Bush reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to the alliance, calling it the cornerstone of transatlantic relations. His comments came as he continues his European visit aimed at rebuilding ties strained by disagreements, including those over the U.S.-led war in Iraq,

<snip>

[cthrumatrix]

18. keep these comments archived --- these liars have a track record

[Inland]

19. "But all options on table"--Chavez, keep your head down.

[winston61]

24. Oh Yeah?

Tell that to all the folks in Nicaragua and Honduras

[LibeMatt]

25. ...and El Salvador, Guatemala, and even Panama...

...Costa Rica and Belize seem to be the only Central American countries not to have suffered bloody-handed interventions since WWII.

(Keyword here is 'bloody-handed', I think there were certain 'operations' in Costa Rica for some time as well.)

[AP]

27. ...and Chile.

[Say_What]

31. Venezuela: Revolution Extends Free Speech

In response to a Washington Post article that attacked Venezuela.

<clips>

Venezuela: Revolution Extends Free Speech

In an editorial on January 14 attacking the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the Washington Post wrote, “Mr. Chavez has pushed through a new law that allows the government to fine or shut down private media for vaguely defined offenses against 'public order'.”

That this is not true has not stopped repeated claims in the US media that the “authoritarian” Chavez is attempting to “silence critics”. Such claims have become a standard feature of US media articles about Venezuela.

The law referred to by the Washington Post is the Law on the Responsibility of Radio and Television passed by the National Assembly in November. It does not allow for the silencing of dissent, but merely introduces the same type of regulation of content that exists in most countries in the world. The law regulates when sexual and violent content can be shown, prevents slander against public officials and private citizens and seeks to guarantee space in the media market for independent media. The law does provide for fines and the suspension of broadcasting for 48 hours for repeated violations, but the law is not administered by the government, but by an independent body.

To understand why the Venezuelan government has felt it necessary to introduce this law, it is important to understand the role of the private media in Venezuela since Chavez came to power six years ago. The overwhelming majority of private TV, radio and print media have not only made no pretense at impartiality — they have led the campaign to overthrow the legitimately elected Chavez government.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1382

---

<clips>

Coup? Not Cisneros's Style. But Power? Oh, Yes.

By SIMON ROMERO

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Only Gustavo A. Cisneros could have
orchestrated sucha scene: President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and
President Jiang Zemin ofChina joined Julio Iglesias in singing a few
verses of "When I Left Cuba" during Mr. Jiang's visit here last year.

Mr. Cisneros, a media tycoon and one of Latin America's most powerful
figures, had discreetly arranged for Mr. Iglesias, a close friend, to
smooth relations between the leaders. Mr. Jiang used the trip to
announce investments by several Chinese companies in Venezuela's
energy industry.

That was before Mr. Chavez, who once enjoyed Mr. Cisneros's support,
was briefly ousted in an uprising this month that has this nation of
24 million swirling with theories about its conspirators. Much
attention has been focused on Mr. Cisneros, who is 56. He owns one of
the nation's most influential television networks as well as
Venezuelan companies like Cervecerna Regional, a brewery, and Los
Leones, a popular Caracas baseball team.

Mr. Cisneros, a multibillionaire whose international conglomerate of
70 companies relies on unfettered access to high-ranking political
and economic officials in nearly 40 countries, said in an interview
on Wednesday that he had no involvement in the planning behind the
president's 48-hour intermission from power. Some of Mr. Chavez's
allies have also rejected speculation that Mr. Cisneros played such a
role.

http://www.blythe.org/nytransfer-subs/Covert_Actions/Caracas_Coup:_Not_Gustavo_Cisneros's_Style_

[Judi Lynn]

33. Isn't it hypocritical that the same people in the States

who went beserk over Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl a year ago,who would have gleefully seen her burned at the stake, who have howled about it since then continually, are the same ones pretending that the move in Venezuela to put Venezuela's media content on a level with "most countries in the world" is an attempt to censor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Great photo of the lovely little Cuban-Venezuelan media tycoon, Gustavo Cisneros and his buddy. Here he is, kidding around with a little bat, like the ones his team, the Leones, uses. His pal, _{George H. W.,} loves to pitch!

[Judi Lynn]

34. Women support Chavez

Women support Chavez


Friday February 25, 2005
The Guardian

It is appropriate for women to comment on plots against Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, since women have most to lose from his assassination (Bush is plotting to kill me, says Chavez, February 22).
Behind the elected military man there is a women's revolution. Women are the majority, as users and service providers, in all government social programmes to tackle poverty - literacy, education, health, water, housing, and land rights.

Venezuela's crime is its refusal to privatise oil and hand it over to US corporations. Behind this refusal are economic priorities diametrically opposed to those of the would-be US assassins. Women are least likely to accept defeat when loved ones are kidnapped, murdered and disappeared - we have been the hidden majority in human rights organisations everywhere. Women were the majority to come out demanding the return of Chavez, which reversed the 2002 coup. They have been the majority in the electoral battle units which ensured his victory in the 2004 referendum and regional elections that followed.

Latin America will go up in flames if Chavez is killed. And Europe? Will it allow the US government to get away with preaching democracy while assassinating popular elected governments?
Nina Lopez
Global Women's Strike
Cristina Navarrete
Sara de Witt
Latin American Group for Venezuela
Maggie Ronayne
National University of Ireland

http://www.guardian.co.uk/venezuela/story/0,12716,1424852,00.html

[Say_What]

35. Venezuela's crime: refusal to privatise oil....

Venezuela's crime is its refusal to privatise oil and hand it over to US corporations.

Now ain't that the truth!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

39. "That being said, all options are on the table," he continued.