Venezuela's Chavez Asks US: 'Treat us as an Equal'

[Say_What]

<clips>

... Last week, the U.S government dismissed allegations by Venezuelan officials and lawmakers that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was directing bomb attacks in Venezuela and subversive activities aimed at toppling Chavez.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere Roger Noriega called on the Venezuelan leader to use diplomatic channels to deal "seriously" with bilateral issues.

Chavez said he agreed with Noriega. I "welcome that idea," he said, pronouncing the phrase in English.

"But what we don't want is someone up there popping up all the time and saying 'Chavez is a friend of the terrorists and Chavez is this and that'," he added.

<http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters10-26-130942.asp?reg=AMERICAS>

[raifield]

1. They have GOT to be kidding!

They are talking to AMERICA, where no one is an equal because no one is as good as we are, since we're SUPERIOR to everyone else.

</sarcasm>

Man, imagine the world if countries were actually treated as equals? Wow.

Imagine if the US jacked up UN contributions, hell, imagine if the US treated the UN like an equal? The world, quite literally, could be a better place for it.

[Say_What]

6. The U.S. Response to Bolivia and Venezuela:

A Study in Opposites

<clips>

Hoping for consistency from the Bush administration is something like playing the lottery: You play the game, but deep down, you know you're going to lose. But even for this administration, the U.S. response to recent events in Bolivia and Venezuela reveals cynical and transparent contradictions.

Last year on April 11, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela was overthrown in a short-lived coup. In less than two days he was returned to power due to the overwhelming support of Venezuelans, who had voted him into office by a landslide. President Chávez was, and still is, a democratically elected president.

Last week in Bolivia, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to demand the resignation of an unpopular president, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada. They won that resignation. President Sánchez de Lozada was a democratically elected president.

When it became clear that Bolivia's leader was in political trouble, the U.S. made strong statements in support of him and of Bolivia's democracy.

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1025-02.htm

[Judi Lynn]

7. Well done

(snip) The U.S. government has a long track record of defending democratically elected leaders only when it serves their interests. This time, they could take a lesson in democracy from both Bolivia and Venezuela, where the will of the people prevailed. Perhaps that's what the Bush administration fears most. (snip/)

Hope more people start watching Bush vs. Latin America.

[mutus_frutex]

9. Regretfully, Latin America is a non-issue right now.

I think this administration is simply ignoring South America hoping it will go away. What they are accomplishing is the (even more) complete alienation of those countries.

After pushing the economic policies of the IMF and the World Bank (since the Reagan and Bush the 1st admins), and seeing them fails completely (looks at the crises in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil), they are simply trying to forget the problem..

This, at least, at the higher levels of diplomacy. At lower levels things look like during the Reagan years. Take a look at these articles:

http://www.fpif.org/papers/latam2003.html

http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2003/0310argdefault.html

I really don't have any hope that this is going to come to the surface, to the mainstream unless something really big explodes and wakes up the public in the US.

Cheers..

[LeighAnn]

2. >>>>Flashback<<<<<

April, 2001 (link's no good any more)

Senate to Investigate US Involvement in Venezuelan Coup
From MSNBC / Newsweek
The Coup Failed—And The Fallout Goes On
The fallout from the Bush administration’s initial embrace of last week’s aborted coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is far from over. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee plans to investigate and is seeking documents detailing contacts between U.S. officials and the Venezuelan military officers involved in the botched takeover.
Those contacts, NEWSWEEK has learned, are more extensive than the White House has acknowledged. Among those suspected of financing the plot is Gustavo Cisneros, a media tycoon and fishing buddy of former president George H.W. Bush. (Cisneros denies any role. But Pedro Carmona, who was sworn in as Chavez’s replacement on April 12, was seen coming directly from Cisneros’s office.) Otto Reich, the State Department’s Latin American affairs chief, said he spoke with Cisneros “two or three times” during the coup; the businessman says they spoke once. Reich said he was using Cisneros only as a source of information. “We had absolutely nothing to do with this,” said Reich. Senate investigators believe that at a minimum the Bush administration had ample warnings a plot was in the works—and didn’t act forcefully enough. <snip>— Michael Isikoff and Joseph Contreras

[Judi Lynn]

5. Thanks for the info. on the Senate hearing

Can't wait until more, and more comes out on this subject. It would be unfogiveable if the Bush roughriders are allowed to emerge unscathed from their twisted, evil, dishonest plotting against the twice elected President of Venezuela.

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

New story on a bold and legal move by Hugo Chavez:

Venezuela's Chavez says mining revocations "legal"
Reuters, 10.26.03, 2:54 PM ET

By Pascal Fletcher

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Sunday defended his government's recent cancellation of mining concessions as "absolutely legal", saying some foreign miners and their local business allies were stealing gold and diamonds without paying taxes.

"This is a country that is recovering its independence little by little, bit by bit (from) the oligarchy and their transnational allies," the left-wing president said during his weekly "Hello President" television and radio show.

Chavez, a tough-talking nationalist who has proclaimed a self-styled "revolution" in the world's No. 5 oil exporter, said he recently authorized the revocation of a big diamond concession situated in Venezuela's Amazonas state.

"The minister brought me the revocation order, all absolutely legal ... so I said 'Go on, I authorize it, revoke the concession'," the president said. He did not identify the company or companies involved by name. (snip/...)

http://www.forbes.com/markets/newswire/2003/10/26/rtr1123153.html

[Voltaire99]

3. Rest assured, President Chavez...

...with all your oil, you shall be the equal of our appetites.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Venezuelan police kill seven Colombian drug traffickers

Venezuelan police active against Colombian druggers, contrary to bogus charges flung by our own propagandists:

(snip)
Posted :Sat, 25 Oct 2003 16:08 AEST

Venezuelan police kill seven Colombian drug traffickers
Venezuelan police and troops have killed seven heavily armed Colombian drug traffickers in the eastern Sucre state, officials said.

Venezuelan police deputy inspector Raul Yepez said the gang had taken over Guarataro village to protect their cocaine and marijuana smuggling operation on the isolated Paria peninsula near Trinidad and Tobago.

"They were Colombian irregulars protecting and charging for the kilos of drugs taken out to other parts of the world, Europe and the United States," Mr Yepez told Reuters by telephone from the village.

"Special forces brigades went in yesterday and there was a gun battle. Seven of these men were killed," he said.

Officials say Venezuela's Sucre state, with its sparsely populated coastline, is a major shipping point for Colombian cocaine and, more increasingly heroin, through the Caribbean islands to Europe and the United States.

Guarataro residents called the group "Paracos," referring to right-wing Colombian paramilitaries. (snip/...)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/justin/weekly/newsnat-25oct2003-30.htm


(Will this hack off our right-wing Bushies, if the Venezuelans go after the right-wing Colombian paramilitary druggers? From most of the garbage we read here, we're left to believe only the left-wing rebels deal with drugs in Colombia!)

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

Detailed description of the oil lust central to the all-out war launched against Hugo Chavez-Frias by certain "elite" Venezuelans and U.S. oil interests:

http://www.petroleumworld.com/SDY102603.htm

[htuttle]

8. Venezuela IS treated as an equal

The Bush Crime Family is trying to subvert democracies in BOTH the US and Venezuela.

It's just that they've been more successful in the US. The People of Venezuela wouldn't put up with the Bush Syndicate overthrowing their government, unlike the people of the US...

[DeathvadeR]

10. Wouldn't this be considered terrorism??????

I mean if Chavez went to the UN with proof, What would happen?

o thats right the US is the only one to define terrorism....my bad

[Judi Lynn]

11. `Megarecall' may backfire on opposition (anti-Chavistas)

VENEZUELA: `Megarecall' may backfire on opposition

BY CHRISTANO KERRILA

According to the October 16 Venezuelanalysis.com, Venezuela is to face “Megarecall” on March 27 next year. On that day, there is likely to be opposition-instigated referenda on whether President Hugo Chavez and 34 other members of his government should be recalled. At the same time, there may also be referenda to recall 38 right-wing opposition mayors, governors and parliamentarians. The votes are dependent on the required signatures being gathered in the respective electorates.

The regulations regarding the recall petitions and referenda are considered favourable to the government, according to Venezuelanalysis.com, because they minimise the chances of fraud. Venezuelanalysis.com reported on October 17 that there will be more than 19,000 observers to supervise the process.

While the government had demanded that the National Electoral Council, the independent body that oversees elections in Venezuela, allow the opposition only one day to collect the around 2.3 million signatures required for a presidential recall, the NEC decided to give the opposition four days to collect them. The revolutionary movement will have the same amount of time to collect signatures to bring about referenda to remove opposition leaders.

According to VHeadline.com, anti-Chavez governors and mayors are accused of using money meant for social programs to fund opposition campaigns. Many Bolivarian activists see right-wing opposition-run city and local governments as major obstacles to the fulfilment of the Chavez government's reforms.

The removal of these oligarchy-linked politicians, and their replacement with radical leaders, would help the national government's social programs be implemented on a local scale and open more space for the movements of the oppressed to struggle for their rights. While the Venezuelan capitalist class would retain control of the private mass media and much of the economy, it would lose its last remaining footholds in government. (snip/...)

http://www.greenleft.org.au/current/559p18b.htm