Lula urges Bush to respect sovereignty (Extra)

[Judi Lynn]

Lula urges Bush to respect sovereignty (Extra)

Mar 9, 2007, 20:19 GMT


Sao Paulo - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called upon his US counterpart George W Bush on Friday in Sao Paulo to cooperate in Latin America's social development while respecting the 'political decisions of each state.'

Without directly mentioning Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Lula said relations between Brazil and the US will be stronger insofar as they 'respect each other, each respects the sovereign political decisions of each state and they can build projects that may help third countries to get out of poverty.'

The meeting took place amidst street protests against Bush that brought demonstrators within 20 metres of the US delegation - a surge that police and military had to hustle to keep at bay.
(snip)

The Brazilian president further defended the integration of South American countries, and stressed that that process 'is taking place among independent nations.'
(snip/...)

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/americas/news/article_1275203.php/Lula_urges_Bush_to_respect_sovereignty__Extra_

[Dr Fate]

1. To "Sir", but not with Love. n/t

n/t

[katsy]

2. Idiots.

Flat earth - one world government of, for and by corporate elites.

That is what the chimp is peddling.

[rodeodance]

3. hey----Bushies-------can you read between the lines?????????????

[dkofos]

4. Maybe he should have put it in a way * could understand it.

I'm the decider in Brazil, Hugo is the decider in Venezuela and heh heh Evo is the decider in Ecuador.

[Say_What]

10. Well actually, Evo resides in Bolivia. You're thinking of President Rafael Correa

whose country just ratified the closing of a US military base in Quito. That base has been there forever. Can't make the NeoCons too happy. :evilgrin:


Ecuador's President Rafael Correa talks to supporters from a Governmental Palace's balcony in Quito, Friday, March 9, 2007. Dozens of police officers surrounded Ecuador's Congress Thursday to prevent 57 lawmakers from entering the building. The congressmen were suspended Wednesday by the same electoral judges they are seeking to impeach under the accusation of interfering with a referendum on whether to rewrite the constitution.(AP Photo/Patricio Realpe)

[dkofos]

14. Thanks for keeping me straight

[Kolesar]

5. does anybody have *the proof* that bush tried to oust Chavez in April 2002?

I have Google-searched this a few times. I have come up with articles saying that the other countries in Latin America would not recognize the installed government. Does anybody have anything more concrete that would *prove* that bush tried to overthrow Chavez?

I had to soft pedal a letter to the editor last month because I did not have the documentation.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Don't know if this will help you, but it's the first thing which popped up when I took a quick look:

Venezuela coup linked to Bush team


Specialists in the 'dirty wars' of the Eighties encouraged the plotters who tried to topple President Chavez

Observer Worldview

Ed Vulliamy in New York
Sunday April 21, 2002
The Observer


The failed coup in Venezuela was closely tied to senior officials in the US government, The Observer has established. They have long histories in the 'dirty wars' of the 1980s, and links to death squads working in Central America at that time.
Washington's involvement in the turbulent events that briefly removed left-wing leader Hugo Chavez from power last weekend resurrects fears about US ambitions in the hemisphere.

It also also deepens doubts about policy in the region being made by appointees to the Bush administration, all of whom owe their careers to serving in the dirty wars under President Reagan.

One of them, Elliot Abrams, who gave a nod to the attempted Venezuelan coup, has a conviction for misleading Congress over the infamous Iran-Contra affair.
The Bush administration has tried to distance itself from the coup. It immediately endorsed the new government under businessman Pedro Carmona. But the coup was sent dramatically into reverse after 48 hours.

Now officials at the Organisation of American States and other diplomatic sources, talking to The Observer, assert that the US administration was not only aware the coup was about to take place, but had sanctioned it, presuming it to be destined for success.

The visits by Venezuelans plotting a coup, including Carmona himself, began, say sources, 'several months ago', and continued until weeks before the putsch last weekend. The visitors were received at the White House by the man President George Bush tasked to be his key policy-maker for Latin America, Otto Reich.
(snip/...)

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,688071,00.html

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

Just keep searching. You won't regret your own efforts to inform yourself.

[Say_What]

12. Here you go.... declassified docs and other info

If you ask MSM about the overthrow of Allende they'll tell you there's no proof, but anyone with half a brain knows the US engineered that coup just the way they did dozens of other coups in LatAm and the failed coup in Venezuela.


http://venezuelafoia.info/english.html

http://venezuelafoia.info/articulos.html

[Judi Lynn]

13. Excellent information in those links. Thanks for sharing them with DU'ers who can use them. n/t

[Kolesar]

15. Clinton-era democracy-building efforts in Russia involved developing a free and open press

Eva had an interesting angle on it. There is definitely a story of how US funds were diverted to revolutionary activities. I tried to find anything contrary and only found a lame website bitching about how Eva edited a few of her pages.

I am going to have to spend more time on this when I get a chance. I have another activist program in wholly a different area that is taking my attention at the moment. Thanks a bunch!

[denverbill]

6. Sorry Lula. Not intervening is what we tell other countries not to do.

Like Iran in Iraq or Syria in Lebanon or Venezuela in Columbia. We, on the other hand, can invade Iraq, Panama, Vietnam, Grenada, Afghanistan, and anywhere else we feel like, and completely ignore the 'political decisions of each state'. If Venezuela wants to nationalize it's oil company, it takes away money from the oligarchs, and that is grounds for any intervention we choose, from covert military coups to funding recall elections to direct military intervention.

[daleo]

8. I only saw a bit of the press conference

But I thought Lula pretty much gave Bush a stern lecture. I watched Bush gurgle in response for a bit, but couldn't handle it for long.

[MasonJar]

9. It is the same thing that happened to the democratically elected

government in Haiti. Also we don't recognize the democratically elected government of Palestinians. The US thought it had overthrown Chavez, but the army's lower level soldiers decided to NOT go along. It was filmed and shown on tv.

[Peace Patriot]

11. It wasn't just the army's lower level (and many officers as well), including the presidential

guard (akin to the Secret Service), but it was also--and critically--the million Venezuelans who flooded into the streets around Miraflores Palace (the seat of government) demanding, 1) the restoration of Constitutional government (--the coup had suspended the elected National Assembly, the Supreme Court and every legal officer of the government), and 2) the return of their elected president. The coup leaders got scared and sneaked out of the Palace. The majority of the military did not support the coup. The coupsters, working directly with a corporate TV station (RCTV), tried to create the impression of a bigger coup, and spread the disinformation that Chavez had resigned, and also that the police had fired on rightwing opposition demonstrators (both things were lies). But the truth was getting around by word of mouth. The presidential guard and the huge crowd of citizens outside reclaimed the Palace, and brought the vice president and members of Chavez's cabinet out of hiding to the Palace, got the one government TV station back on line, swore the VP in as president in Chavez's absence, restored order, and negotiated with the coupsters for Chavez's release. What was pivotal in all this was the widespread literacy that the Chavez government had fostered with adult literacy and other education programs, so that people had actually read their Constitution and felt allegiance to it. It had been popularly voted on. They were outraged as much by the violation of Constitutional order as they were by Chavez's kidnapping.

See, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," a wonderful documentary by an Irish film crew, who just happened to be in Venezuela and inside Miraflores Palace when all this happened. You can get a copy at Axisoflogic.com, and contribute to a good cause. (Chavez's calm, measured statement to the people, after he is returned to office, is a wonderful thing to behold. He says that anyone is free to disagree with him, but they must respect Constitutional order. Then he smiles--and you can feel the entire country burst into tears of joy. It is perhaps the most important turning point in South American history. The rightwing coup failed! The Constitution, backed by the people, held firm.)

Chavez has been accused--by the rightwing, course--of "authoritarianism" because his government has decided not to renew the license to use the public airwaves of the worst offender, RCTV, which openly supported and colluded with this violent military coup. They say it is a violation of civil rights (--of a corporation!). What a laugh! If Faux News called for the kidnapping of Nancy Pelosi, and the shutdown of Congress, and colluded with those who were doing so, would you be in favor of pulling their license to use the public airwaves? That's all this means. The other corporate news monopolies are alive and well in Venezuela, and control almost all news and opinion. It is one of the miracles of Venezuelan democracy that the great majority of Venezuelans, while many of them like the soap operas, simply ignore the rightwing political tripe. It's getting to be that way here, too. 75% of the American people aren't buying the rightwing crap that is shoveled at them every day by our corporate news monopolies about the Iraq War. The corporate news monopolies have lost all credibility on that subject, and are fast losing credibility on the "war on terra" and every other rightwing agenda item. People may love "24" for its excitement--as a sort of dark fairy tale with which to deal with their worst fears--but they tune out the rightwing news/political jabber slant. And maybe, one day soon, they'll even read our Constitution.