Hugo Chavez is a
leader I have long admired. He can walk unguarded amongst the people, fearless
and loved for his work on their behalf ~ and his warmth and obvious care for
their well being. Chavez stops to speak with
~ not to or at ~ the people.
Several years ago
when there were horrible mudslides displacing thousands of Venezuelans he
opened his palace and took in and hosted as many families as he could squeeze
in between the walls. He personally spent time with them, offering solace and
working on plans to improve their housing situation when the time came and he
has stuck to those plans.
Can you imagine one of OUR “leaders” doing such
things?
When Chavez was ill last year, Florencia Mijares, an office
worker who prayed for the president at a Caracas church spoke for most Venezuelans
when she said:
“We’d forgotten for so long that Chavez is simply a man like any other, a man of flesh and blood. For many Venezuelans, Chavez is a savior who arrived to help everybody else and now he’s the one who needs help, and many of us fear all will be lost if he dies.”
Heaven
forbid that Americans catch a whiff of what is REALLY going on down
there! They might get ideas...... of how things can and should be. No,
not perfect by a long shot... but life under a leader with a warm beating heart.
.
By Eva Golinger
July 19, 2012.
From the first time Hugo Chavez was elected
President of Venezuela in 1998, Washington and its allies have been trying to
undermine his government.
When Chavez was just a presidential candidate,
the US State Department denied his visa to participate in television interviews
in Miami. Later, when he won the presidential elections, Ambassador John Maisto
called him personally to congratulate him and offer him a visa.
The following months were filled with attempts
to “buy” the newly elected President of Venezuela. Businessmen, politicians and
heads of state from Washington and Spain pressured him to submit to their
agendas.
“Come with us”, urged Spanish Prime Minister
Jose Maria Aznar, trying to seduce him with offers of wealth and luxury in turn
for obeying orders.
When Chavez refused to be bought, he was
ousted in a coup d’état April 11, 2002, funded and planned by Washington. When
the coup failed and Chavez’s supporters rescued their democracy and president
in less than 48 hours, attempts to destabilize his government continued.
“We must make it difficult for him to govern”, said former US State Department chief Lawrence Eagleberger.
Soon, Venezuela was overrun with economic
sabotage, oil industry strikes, chaos in the streets and a brutal media war
that distorted the reality of the country on a national and international
level.
A plan to assassinate Chavez with Colombian
paramilitaries in May 2004 was impeded by state security forces. Months later,
the US-backed opposition tried to revoke his mandate in a recall referendum,
but again, the people saved him in a 60-40 landslide victory.
The more popular Chavez became, the more millions of dollars flowed from US agencies to anti-Chavez groups to destabilize, discredit, delegitimize, overthrow, assassinate or remove him from power by any means possible.
In December 2006, Chavez was reelected
president with 64% of the vote. His approval rating grew in Venezuela and
throughout Latin America. New governments in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia,
Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Uruguay and several Caribbean nations joined
regional initiatives of integration, cooperation, sovereignty and unity,
encouraged by Caracas.
Washington began to lose its influence and
control over its former “backyard”.
The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our
Americas (ALBA), the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), PetroCaribe,
PetroSur, TeleSUR, Bank of ALBA, Bank of the South and the Community of Latin
American and Caribbean States (CELAC) were created.
Washington isn’t included in any of these organizations, nor is the elite that previously dominated the region.
In January 2005, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice said Chavez was a “negative force” in the region.
In March, the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) placed Venezuela on their list of “Top 5 Hot Spots”. A few months later,
Reverend Pat Robertson publicly called for the assassination of Chavez,
claiming it would cost less than “a $2 billion war”.
That same year, when Venezuela suspended
cooperation with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) because it was
found committing acts of espionage and sabotage, Washington classified
Venezuela as a nation “not cooperating with counter-narcotics” efforts. No
evidence was presented to show alleged Venezuelan government ties to drug
trafficking.
In February 2006, Director of National
Intelligence John Negroponte referred to Venezuela as a “dangerous threat” to
the US.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld compared
Chavez to Hitler.
.
Excuse me, Rummy, but you are not fit to lick Chavez's boots clean.
That same year, Washington created a special intelligence mission dedicated to Venezuela and Cuba, increasing resources for operations against them.
In June 2006, the White House placed Venezuela
on a list of countries “not cooperating sufficiently with the war on terror”.
The classification included a sanction prohibiting the sale of military and
defense equipment from the US and US companies or those using US technology to
Venezuela. No evidence was ever shown to back such serious claims.
In 2008, the Pentagon reactivated its Fourth
Fleet, the regional command in charge of Latin America and the Caribbean. It
had been deactivated in 1950 and hadn’t functioned since then, until Washington
decided it was necessary to increase its presence and “force” in the region.
In 2010, the US established an agreement with
Colombia to set up 7 military bases in its territory. An official US Air Force
document justified the budget increase for these bases in order to counter the
“threat from anti-American governments in the region”.
International media call Chavez a dictator, tyrant, authoritarian, narco, anti-American, terrorist, but they never present proof for such dangerous titles.They have converted the image of Venezuela into violence, insecurity, crime, corruption and chaos, failing to mention the incredible achievements and social advances during the last decade, or the causes of the social inequalities left behind from previous governments.
For years, a group of US congress members ~ democrats
and republicans ~ have tried to place Venezuela on their list of “state sponsors
of terrorism”. They claim the relationships between Venezuela and Iran,
Venezuela and Cuba, and even Venezuela and China evidence the “grave threat”
represented by the South American nation to Washington.
They say again and again that Venezuela and Chavez are threats to the US. “He must be stopped”, they say, before he “launches Iranian bombs against us”.
In an interview a few days ago, President
Barack Obama said Chavez was not a threat to US security. Republican
presidential candidate Mitt Romney said he was.
The ire of the Miami Cuban-Venezuelan
community came down upon Obama. But they shouldn’t worry, because Obama
increased funding to anti-Chavez groups this year.
More than $20 million in US taxpayer dollars have been channeled from US agencies to help fund the opposition’s campaign in Venezuela.
Is Venezuela a threat to Washington?
In Venezuela, the only “terrorists” are the
groups trying to destabilize the country, the majority with political and
financial support from the US.
The drug traffickers are in Colombia, where
the production and transit of drugs has increased during the US invasion
disguised as Plan Colombia. Relations with Iran, Cuba, China, Russia and the
rest of the world are normal bilateral ~ and multilateral ~ ties between
countries.
There are no bombs, no attack plans, no
sinister secrets.
No, Venezuela is not that
kind of threat to Washington.
Poverty has been reduced by more than 50%
since Chavez came to power in 1998. The inclusionary policies of his government
have created a society with mass participation in economic, political and
social decisions.
His social programs ~ called missions ~ have
guaranteed free medical care and education, from basic to advanced levels, and
provided basic food items at affordable costs, along with tools to create and
maintain cooperatives, small and medium businesses, community organizations and
communes.
Venezuelan culture has been rescued and
treasured, recovering national pride and identity, and creating a sentiment of
dignity instead of inferiority. Communication media have proliferated during
the last decade, assuring spaces for the expression of all.
The oil industry, nationalized in 1976 but
operating as a private company, has been recuperated for the benefit of the
country, and not for multinationals and the elite. Over 60% of the annual
budget is dedicated to social programs in the country, with the principal focus
on eradicating poverty.
Caracas, the capital, has been beautified.
Parks and plazas have turned into spaces for gatherings, enjoyment and safety
for visitors. There’s music in the streets, art on the walls and a rich debate
of ideas amongst inhabitants. The new communal police work with neighborhoods
to battle crime and violence, addressing problems from the root cause.
The awakening in Venezuela has expanded
throughout the continent and northward into the Caribbean.
The sensation of sovereignty, independence and union in the region has buried the shadow of sub development and subordination imposed by colonial powers during centuries past.
No, Venezuela is not a threat to US security.
Venezuela is an example of how a rising people, facing the most difficult
obstacles and the brutal force of empire, can build a model where social
justice reigns, and human prosperity is cherished above economic wealth.
Venezuela is a country where millions once
invisible are today, visible.
Today they have a voice and the power to
decide the future of their country, without being strangled by foreign hands.
Today, thanks to the
revolution led by President Chavez,
Venezuela is one of the
happiest countries in the world.
That is the threat Chavez
and Venezuela represent to Washington:
The threat of a good
example.
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