Venezuela's Fight for U.N. Seat Divides

[cal04]

Venezuela's quest for a U.N. Security Council seat, in the teeth of U.S. opposition, is approaching the decisive moment and putting increasing pressure on Latin American and Caribbean countries to choose sides.

The United States is campaigning behind the scenes to boost Guatemala and prevent Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez from winning a platform to influence world affairs. Chavez, a fierce U.S. critic, is circling the globe collecting promises for votes.

Lobbying is expected to surge at the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement starting Sept. 11 in Havana with up to 120 nations attending.

If the Latin American and Caribbean countries have a consensus, the Oct. 16 vote by the U.N. General Assembly becomes a foregone conclusion. Otherwise the result won't be known until the secret ballots are counted. A two-thirds majority among the 192 members worldwide is needed to win.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6057898,00.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Hoping Bush's backing Guatemala will fail altogether.

It's time leaders told _Bush and his right-wing death merchants he's not going to rule the world.

[stepnw1f]

2. Here Here (nt)

[dipsydoodle]

3. Can't think of any earthly reason

as to why Guatemala would back the USA on anything unless they've short memories of those two ****s the Dulles Bros.

[rman]

4. Guatemala economy totally dominated by United Fruit Company...

Overthrow - America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq
Democracy Now
Friday, April 21st, 2006

part 1
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/21/132247&mode=thread&tid=25
part 2
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/08/1353206
(video, audio, transcript)

<snip>

In Guatemala, economic life was totally dominated by one American company: the United Fruit Company. It was a uniquely powerful company, had great ties in Washington. Many of the senior people in the Eisenhower administration were either stockholders or former board members or otherwise closely connected with United Fruit. Now, in Guatemala, not only was United Fruit producing most of that country's banana exports, but it also owned more than half a million acres of land, some of the richest land in the country, that it didn't use. It was just holding this land for some potential future use.

Now, President Arbenz, who was in power in Guatemala in the early 1950s, wanted to take that land and use it to divide up among starving Guatemalan peasants. And with a democratic vote of the elected Guatemalan congress, a land reform law was passed that required the United Fruit Company to sell its unused land to the Guatemalan government at the price that United Fruit had declared on its last years tax returns as the value of that land. Well, naturally the fruit company went crazy when they got this request and said, Of course, nobody puts down the real value of the land on their tax returns, and really the price should be about ten times higher than that. But the government said, I'm sorry. This is the way you have, yourself, valued the land, and so we're insisting that you sell it to us at this price.

Well, this is what set the United Fruit Company in operation in Washington. It persuaded the Eisenhower administration that the Arbenz government would not have been taking steps like this, would not have launched a land reform program, would not have tried to take land from the United Fruit Company, if it were not fundamentally anti-American. In addition, there was the overlay of the Cold War. So the United Fruit Company was able to persuade the U.S. government that not only was this government hostile to an American corporate interest in Guatemala, but it was undoubtedly a tool of the Kremlin which was, as Americans then thought, working all over the world to undermine American interests.

Now, during the run-up to the Guatemala coup, the Brazilian ambassador actually came in to see Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and asked him if he was sure, if he had proof that the Soviets were manipulating Guatemala, and Dulles very frankly answered, We do not have that proof, but we are proceeding as if it must be so. So the United States with relative ease overthrew the government of Guatemala.

Also see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala/History#Operation_PBSUCCESS

--

United Fruit Company, Zapata and Chiquita
It's a small world after all...

Zapata Oil was formed in 1953 by George H.W. Bush and Brown Brothers Harriman. Later George H.W. Bush bought the subsidiary Zapata Off-Shore and went into business for himself. It merged in 1963 with Penn to form Pennzoil. Even though Zapata never found any oil, it was successfully sold in 1966 to Robert Gow. (All SEC filings between 1960 and 1966 were sadly destroyed in 1981)

In 1969 Zapata bought the United Fruit Company. On the board of directors was Ralph Gow, Robert Gow's father. Later that year on sept. 24. Eli Black makes the third largest transaction in Wall Street history up to that moment by buying 733,000 shares of United Fruit in a single day. Black becomes the largest shareholder of the company. In June 1970 United Fruit merges with AMK-John Morrell to become the United Brands Company.

After Eli Black's spectacular suicide on February 3, 1975 he jumped out of the window of his New York City office on the 44th floor of the Pan Am Building Cincinnati-based American Financial, one of millionarie Carl H. Lindner, Jr.'s companies, bought into United Fruit. In August 1984, Lindner took control of the company and renamed it Chiquita Brands International.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company

There is a beautiful promotional movie of United Fruit at archive.org

The beauty is brilliant techni color of the movie. The message is very paternalistic and slightly racist as well. They really act like they owned the country.
http://www.archive.org/details/Journeyt1950

[Judi Lynn]

5. I can't believe all this information has been concealed so well!

You have absolutely opened my eyes. I had NO idea Zapata bought United Fruit.

Things just get uglier, and uglier, don't they? Thanks so much for posting this information you probably learned long ago, because I can assure you, many of probably have NEVER known, not until now!

I'm bookmarking your post. Thank you so much.

[Robbien]

9. Thanks for this interesting background

I was wondering what was behind the overthrow of the Guatamalan government and it becoming such a poor country.

Variations of this story plays out all over Latin America.

[leesa]

12. Thanks for this info. What the Bush and Dulles boys have done to this

country and the world is heartbreaking. They are pure greed.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Bad things happen to Guatemalans when they don't love their US right-wing-

backed leaders. These people disappointed Ronald Reagan's friend, Efraín Ríos Montt, also a close friend of evangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.

[Vidar]

7. Hang tough, Hugo. Perhaps justice will prevail for once.

[Say_What]

8. " But some nations say Washington's lobbying for Guatemala isn't helping."

from the article:

...``In some countries I have to admit the U.S. has come on too strong in its opposition to Venezuela,'' Rosenthal said. ``We would be happier if they would not promote our cause so much because we would like to be our own promoter.''

Washington's pitch is that Guatemala is a founding U.N. member, provides peacekeeping troops and has never sat on the Security Council, whereas Venezuela had four stints. It also contends that Venezuela under Chavez will undermine the council's efforts to halt Iran's nuclear program and resolve the conflict in Sudan.

``They are a country whose behavior has been disruptive,'' and ``unlikely to be a positive member of the Security Council,'' said U.S. State Department spokesman Eric Watnik.

Chavez promises to advocate change, including revoking the permanent members' vetoes.

He predicts Washington's ``battle for the world'' will backfire, since many governments ``realize it's immoral for the U.S. empire to try to keep a small, modest country like Venezuela from entering a body, whatever it is.''

[rman]

10. kick

[hogwyld]

11. Hopefully, Hugo will rally the rest of the world

against the U.S. and, for once, let the rest of the earth's people finally have a voice in the U.N., and also Veto any U.S. plans for action.