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Jon8503 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-10-06 06:54 AM
Original message
U.S. More Intent on Blocking Chavez
Venezuela's leader seeks to rally opposition to Washington as elections near in the region.
By Paul Richter, Times Staff Writer
March 10, 2006


WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is stepping up efforts to counter leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as he builds opposition to U.S. influence in Latin America.

U.S. diplomats have sought in recent years to mute their conflicts with Chavez, fearing that a war of words with the flamboyant populist could raise his stature at home and abroad. But in recent months, as Chavez has sharpened his attacks — and touched American nerves by increasing ties with Iran — American officials have become more outspoken about their intention to isolate him.

Signaling the shift, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Congress last month that the United States was actively organizing other countries to carry out an "inoculation strategy" against what it sees as meddling by Chavez.

U.S. officials believe Chavez uses his oil wealth to reward governments that share his anti-American views and to foment change in those that don't.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-uslatin10mar10,0,2226304.story?coll=la-home-headlines
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peacebird Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-10-06 07:02 AM
Response to Original message
1. so it's okay for US to reward govts that share our views and try to foment
Edited on Fri Mar-10-06 07:02 AM by peacebird
change in those that don't but when someone else does the same thing we call it "meddling"?

:eyes:
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0007 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-10-06 08:54 AM
Response to Reply #1
3. In other words we can meddle but no else can?
Since taking office in 1999, Chavez has been trying to build a left-leaning alliance and has offered cut-rate oil and other inducements through a foreign aid program some believe to be worth billions of dollars annually. His stated aim is to push an alternative development model that eases the sting of globalism and favors the interests of the poor, who make up about 40% of the region's population.

Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuela's ambassador to the United States, defended his country's policies, saying they respond to failed economic models that have increased poverty and social exclusion. "Chavez and Evo Morales are not accidents of history," Alvarez said.

In a recent interview, Alvarez defended Venezuela's relationship with Iran, saying the two nations had forged strong ties as co-founders of OPEC in 1960. He said his government's repeated efforts to improve relations with Washington have been met with indifference.

"Any time we try to open a dialogue, there are people who act to sabotage it," Alvarez said.
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katsy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-10-06 08:59 AM
Response to Reply #1
4. Sounds about right to me.
They were never taught The Golden Rule... they live by the "greedy" rule.

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Mika Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-10-06 08:46 AM
Response to Original message
2. Spin spin spin..
U.S. diplomats have sought in recent years to mute their conflicts with Chavez..

Really? Hmmm.. That's not what we've been reading. How many negative charges have US "diplomats" made against Chavez in the last year? Dozens?



..fearing that a war of words with the flamboyant populist could raise his stature at home and abroad.

IOW, unlike US "diplomats" he makes sense and is popular at home (as well as in the Latin Americas & Caribbean).



But in recent months, as Chavez has sharpened his attacks — and touched American nerves by increasing ties with Iran — American officials have become more outspoken about their intention to isolate him.


Ok. So let's see.. US "diplomats" are muting their charges but at the same time are becoming more outspoken in their intentions to isolate him.

Who wrote this psycho trash? :crazy:

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Peace Patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-10-06 10:51 AM
Response to Reply #2
6. Shame, shame, shame on the L.A. Times & Paul Richter!
We haven't seen anything like this since Judith Miller was writing her NYT hit pieces about Iraq--dictated by Ahmad Chalabi on behalf of Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. I thought the L.A. Times was better than this--at least that they were were not taking dictation directly from the Bush junta, transcribing "talking points" right off the junta's desks.

"Who wrote this psycho trash" indeed? We need a new word for so-called journalists who write tripe like this. How about "journal-heist Paul Richter"?

Shame on the L.A. Times and journal-heist Paul Richter!

Nope, that's too good for him. This is not a heist; it is something less glamorous.

It's demoralizing--and destructive of faith in the human race, in democracy and progress--what some people will do for scraps of meat from the top dogs. They'll sniff their butts. They'll fall down on their backs and get mounted. They'll lower their eyes, offering not the slightest challenge. And, although they are hungry, they'll sit back on their haunches, deferentially, and wait for the entrails--the intestines, the dregs.

The postures of journalists like Richter are no different than those of lower order dogs.

---------------

The item that stuck out to me is this: Chavez "touched American nerves by increasing ties with Iran." China? Russia? The EU? All have "ties with Iran." It is the NORMAL BUSINESS of sovereign governments to HAVE TIES WITH OTHER COUNTRIES. Venezuela is a member of OPEC. Having "ties" with Iran is important to their economic and diplomatic well-being. Look at the Bush junta with its "ties" to Saudi Arabia and the UAE--spawners of the 9/11 hijackers! "Ties to Iran"! What crap! Right off of Condo's desk, Richter! Cut and pasted!

---------------

But, never fear! The leftist revolution in Latin America is unstoppable. Over the last several years, leftist governments have been elected, often by big majorities, in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Venezuela and Bolivia, virtually the entire map of South America. Peru will likely be next. And the revolution is moving north--Mexico is likely going to elect the leftist mayor of Mexico City as president this year.

Chavez is not alone. In Chile, they just elected the first woman president, socialist Michele Batchelet--who was tortured by the US-backed dictator Pinochet. In Bolivia, they just elected the first indigenous Indian, Evo Morales, as president--a former coca leaf grower, and leader of a grass roots rebellion against Bechtel corporation (which had privatized the water in a Bolivian city and then jacked up the price of water to the poor). In Brazil, the president is a former steel worker who led the "third world" rebellion at the World Trade Organization meeting in Cancun (in alliance with India and dozens of other countries).

This has not all happened overnight. It is the result of years of work by grass roots activists, local civic groups, the OAS, EU election monitoring groups and the Carter Center. TRANSPARENT elections are one of the keys. If you count votes honestly, leftists will always win--because only leftists represent all of the people.

US citizens, take note!

Transparent elections = good, leftist government.

Non-transparent elections = the Bush junta.*

The Latin Americans have had it with us--with our assassinations of their elected leaders, our death squads, our US-installed dictators, our political interference, our economic exploitation, our murderous "war on drugs," our evil trade agreements, and our US-dominated World Bank and global free piracy. They have revolted en masse--peacefully, democratically, through TRANSPARENT elections. Condoleeza Rice, the Bush junta and its quivering journalistic dogs, cannot assassinate this revolution. They cannot stop it. The people of Latin America don't care a damn what the L.A. Times thinks--or the N.Y. Times or the Wall Street Journal. They have their own word-of-mouth news networks like we are now having to develop (with the internet as our new "Committees of Correspondence"). Our greedbag Corporate Rulers and their Bush junta war profiteers have in fact so disgraced the words "capitalism" and "America" that the "third world" wants nothing more to do with us. They are going their own way--toward a mixed economy with strong socialist elements; regional economic, political and security alliances, and independent alliances abroad. Some are deliberately inflicting pain on themselves in order to rid themselves of US domination (Argentina, for instance, paid off its World Bank loans very quickly--this year--and has vowed NEVER to get in hock to US/1st world financial interests again).

They can defame Chavez all they want. They can try to personalize this profound rebellion, involving billions of people--like they tried to do, decades back, with Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. It is NOT personal. It is not just about oil. And it is not stoppable this time. It is a profound and historic change, brought about by peaceful and democratic means.

It may be that our Corporate Rulers themselves are dumping the Bush junta, which has so alienated the entire world--and which is depriving them of their easy cash cows among the poor and brown worldwide. They are not even bothering to fiddle their Bush/Cheney approval polls that much any more. (If they say 35% approval, figure 20% or less.) We shall see what they do. (Personally, I think they've settled upon Hillary, and Bill/Hillary have made their deal with the fascists--something I don't particularly despise them for--it's just the way of things in an entirely corporate-corrupted political system. I hope they know what they're getting into--four years of the war profiteering corporate news monopolies blaming the Democrats for Bush's financial and foreign policy disasters. And I hope we can use the respite to repair our election system!*)

-------------------------------------

*Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!



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Sensitivity Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-10-06 09:01 AM
Response to Original message
5. Is it time to shut down the Venezuelan port operations leases in U.S.?
Edited on Fri Mar-10-06 09:02 AM by Sensitivity
Sure the NeoCons would love to pursue that one.
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