political campaigns within Venezuela. So, for one thing, Congress would be actively engaging in violating the quite reasonable laws (we have such laws here, too) of another country. There is an interesting case about it in the Venezuelan courts--dirty Bush junta/US money used by the opposition in the US-backed recall against Chavez (and there is a separate murder case involved as well--car bomb that killed an investigator who was looking into the Bush/US money connection).
Here's an excellent news/opinion web site: www.venezuelanalysis.com
And an article about the trial:
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1892The irony is that Hugo Chavez is far more elected than George Bush ever was. Chavez was elected, and then re-elected, by big majorities (56-58%--ish) in a US-supported recall election, the most heavily monitored election in the world, with hundreds of observers from the Carter Center, EU election groups, and the OAS--all of whom declared the election fair and square. They have OPEN SOURCE CODE in Venezuela's electronic voting system--that is, anyone may review the computer code by which the votes are tabulated, unlike in the U.S., where, ever since the electronic voting scam, the so-called "Help America Vote Act," brought to us by the two biggest crooks in Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney, during the 2001-2004 period, our votes have been "tabulated" by "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by two rightwing, Bushite corporations, Diebold and ES&S.
Transparent elections = good, leftist government, of, by and for the people.
Non-transparent elections = the Bush junta.
It's a no-brainer.
Anyway, Chavez is hugely popular in Venezuela because he is a believer in the Constitution and the rule of law, and is a socialist who believes that some of Venezuela's oil wealth should, at long last, be used to benefit Venezuela's vast poor population.
The Bush junta doesn't want anybody like that to have control of any oil anywhere. They want mean, greedy, blackhearted SOB's like themselves controlling all the oil.
That, too, is a no-brainer.
The revolution that has occurred in Latin America over the last several years is deeply rooted and unstoppable. It is profoundly democratic and peaceful. And it is historic. Virtually the entire map of South America has turned "blue', with leftist governments elected in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela and Bolivia. Peru will likely be next. And this revolution is moving north. Mexico will likely elect the leftist mayor of Mexico City as president this year. Chile just elected its first woman president, socialist Michele Batchelet, who was tortured by the US-supported dictator Pinochet. Bolivia just elected its first indigenous Indian president, socialist Evo Morales--after a grass roots uprising against Bechel, which had privatized the water in one Bolivian city and jacked up prices to the poor--for water! The Bolivians threw Bechtel out of their country, and elected former coca leaf grower Evo Morales, who also opposes the murderous US "war on drugs." All of these governments have a common theme--anti-imperialist and anti-Bush and his dirty war (but they are NOT especially anti-American--they are very familiar with dictatorships and are well aware that we are suffering under one).
Chavez is not alone. Billions and billions of South Americans share his views, and have done the hard civic work of establishing democracy and reclaiming their countries from those who would exploit and enslave them.
If the Bush junta--and its "pod people" in Congress--keep this anti-Chavez stuff up, they may get the U.S. boycotted by a Latin American trade alliance. Think about THAT!
Via Hugo! Viva Evo! Viva Michele! Viva Lulu! Viva Ollanta (Peru) and Amlo (Mexico)! Viva Latin America! Viva the revolution!
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