Screwing Around With Venezuelan Elections.

[reprehensor]

Do Foreign Governments Have a "Human Right" to Buy Venezuela Elections?

As court proceedings begin this month against four Venezuelans from an election campaign group that accepted donations from a foreign government – something that is indisputably a federal crime under both U.S. and Venezuelan law – it’s no surprise that members of the Bush administration in Washington cry that the sky is falling.

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Let’s take a short walk down amnesia lane: A little over a year ago, U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry found himself in a firestorm of (Bush campaign-generated) controversy over the acceptance of a mere $2,000 campaign check from a Korean citizen (not the South Korean government, just a citizen, mind you). Conservative news agency Newsmax, among others, reported that Kerry immediately returned the contribution, and that the foreign government under suspicion - South Korea - called its diplomat home...

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Contrast Kerry’s response with that of the Venezuelan group Súmate – architects of last year’s presidential recall referendum in Venezuela – which pocketed not $2,000 but $31,000 (that's $66,557,000, yes, sixty-six million plus Venezuelan Bolivares) from the US-funded “National Endowment for Democracy.” This is the group that authored the August 15, 2004 referendum seeking to remove President Hugo Chávez, collected the signatures to place it on the ballot, hired Washington political consultants to front for its August 15 “exit poll,” and then screamed “fraud” when its dubious and poorly collected exit poll stood alone and opposite the results of all other polls, including the most important one: that of the ballot box.

That the Bush administration has a foreign policy based on double standards is hardly a shock to anyone. But when it comes to Venezuela, Bush counts with a reliable ally for his simulation campaigns to paint an imprimatur of “human rights” upon what are, in fact, violations of the human rights of a people to have clean elections uncorrupted by foreign funds.

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And people wonder why Chavez doesn't trust the US.