The Dominion - Venezuela

The Revolution Will Not Be Destabilized

dawn — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 06:45:42 +0000

Ottawa’s democracy promoters target Venezuela

As the country closer geographically, economically and militarily to the US than any other, Canada has often seen her foreign policy aspirations circumscribed by the whims of the world's lone Superpower.

Part of the 'hidden wiring' of the US-Canada relationship is premised on the belief that there is a role for Canada in places where the US carries a lot of counter-productive baggage. New records obtained by The Dominion show just how actively intertwined Canada's foreign policy is with the US-led 'democracy' promotion project in Venezuela.

Successive Canadian governments, beginning with Paul Martin's Liberals and gaining momentum under Harper's Tory minorities, have pushed full steam ahead with efforts to expand Canada's democracy promotion efforts globally. Canadian leadership in the regime change and military occupation of Haiti (2004-present) gave rise to a renewed emphasis on Canada as an emerging power, an idea fomented by the Harper government.

Democracy promotion is seldom discussed in the Canadian public sphere, even though it has been the subject of a multitude of federal-level conferences, reports and parliamentary hearings over the last five years. Over that same period, Canada has increasingly been integrating its instruments of democracy promotion with those of the US.

During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama quietly pledged to increase funding for the controversial National Endowment for Democracy (NED), despite scaling back the rhetoric used to describe continuing US aims to promote global, Western-style democracy. Obama has already fulfilled this pledge.

His Omnibus Appropriations Act allocates $115 million for NED's operations, increasing by $35 million the amount requested by Bush for 2009. All told, the requested 2009 budget for US democracy programs is the highest ever, at $1.72 billion. By contrast, Canada spent upwards of $650 million on democracy promotion in 2008.

The NED was formed in 1983 as a new tool to advance US foreign policy and business interests around the world. Nominally independent, NED receives the majority of its budget from Congress and each of its grants must be approved by the US State Department.

“One of the NED's first major successes...was helping to overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua,” wrote journalist Bart Jones in his authoritative biography of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. According to Jones, a couple of decades later, “the NED was rapidly infiltrating [Venezuelan] society in a way reminiscent of the Nicaragua experience.” Channelling money and resources to opposition NGOs has been a prime strategy of the NED in Venezuela.

Following a short-lived coup d'etat against Chavez in April 2002, Venezuelan-American attorney Eva Golinger and investigative journalist Jeremy Bigwood obtained a treasure trove of documents through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. These documents, released in conjunction with Golinger's 2004 book, The Chavez Code: Cracking US Intervention in Venezuela, exposed the NED's active role in the attempted subversion of Venezuela's democracy.

One of several Canadian NGOs whose activities are complementary to those of the NED is the Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL). Established by the Mulroney government in the 1990s, FOCAL is almost entirely dependent on government funding and is accountable to parliament.

A 2004 evaluation of FOCAL conducted by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) stated:

Stakeholders from every sector, and from the academic community in particular, indicated that FOCAL is already perceived as 'the right arm of the government,' echoing the perspective and beliefs of its funding bodies, rather than a truly independent, non-governmental organization.

"The US has been using Canadian and European foundations more frequently in recent years to filter funding to Venezuelan and other NGOs, and political parties that promote their mutual interests," said Golinger, whose most recent book is The Imperial Web: Encyclopedia of Interference and Subversion. "It's a way of covering up US meddling and making the sources of foreign funding for political objectives more difficult to detect. Canada has been a major ally of the US in this respect, particularly in the case of Venezuela."

Negative perceptions of the US indicate the necessity of “shifting responsibility for the [democracy] campaign to more local actors or other Western allies,” wrote Raymond Gastil, one of the theoreticians behind the US shift to democracy promotion, in 1988.

Although far from the first such instance, Canada began to adopt this notion of “responsibility” towards Venezuela in January 2005. DFAIT invited the head of a key opposition group in Venezuela, Sumate's Maria Corina Machado, to meet Ottawa lawmakers and officials, as well as to give a briefing on political rights in Venezuela.

Machado openly supported the 2002 coup against Chavez. In 2004, she was charged with conspiracy to commit treason for allegedly using NED funds to campaign against Chavez in a recall referendum organized by the opposition.

According to records obtained by The Dominion via an Access to Information request, in 2005 FOCAL's chairman, John Graham, joined Machado for a high-level meeting Washington, D.C. In attendance were former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Roger Noriega. “An exchange of ideas as regards the relationships between the civil society and the governments for the strengthening of democracy in the region,” was the stated purpose of the meeting.

Shortly after Graham’s meeting with Rice and Machado, the NED approved a $94,516 grant for FOCAL to carry out democracy promotion work in and around Venezuela.

Using the NED funds, FOCAL was to commission a series of papers and organize a number of meetings in Ottawa, Venezuela and Ecuador "to discuss how to better collaborate in promoting an informed civil society that can strengthen democracy in the region."

But after Harper's Conservatives took power in early 2006, FOCAL abruptly cancelled the activities that were supposed to take place in Venezuela.

"After discussing this project with various people...[we] came to the conclusion that it was not in anybody's interest to organize such an activity while being financially associated with the NED,” reads a heavily censored memo sent by DFAIT official Flavie Major in July 2006.

"Since the project was originally drafted, the internal context in Venezuela has shifted, as has the domestic context in Canada, which could potentially alter the priority and focus of Canada's engagement in Venezuela," states a separate document obtained through a US FOIA request.

An example of the changing political context in Venezuela is the 2006 draft of the Law on International Co-operation, which limits the ability of local NGOs to receive funding from foreign governments. Although the law has yet to be enacted, Western-backed NGOs and their donors have launched a campaign to “push back” against what they describe as a “backlash” against democracy promoters in the region.

By late 2006, the Conservatives proclaimed that democracy promotion was a “fundamental part” of Canadian foreign policy objectives and “an eminently worthy and intrinsically Canadian endeavour.” One indication of the Conservative's commitment was seen in the appointment of a former NED board member as a top advisor to Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.

In late 2007, the Canadian government gave the NED $198,168 to produce a major report, which was entitled "Defending Civil Society: A Report of the World Movement for Democracy." The report attacks Venezuela for its efforts to limit Western-funded manipulation of its internal politics:

Venezuela’s would-be caudillo Hugo Chavez has a peculiar notion of democracy. His ‘Bolivarian revolution’ appears to be based on Chavista [sic] monopolizing the country’s political institutions, from an absence of parliamentary opposition to a hand-picked judiciary. In these circumstances...civil society provides the only countervailing power to the Chavista state and to Chavez’s Castroite aspirations.

DFAIT seems to have based their own talking points on Venezuela around the NED’s line. In an e-mail statement to The Dominion, a spokesperson for Canadian Minister of State for Latin America Peter Kent wrote: "Hugo Chavez has a history of weakening democratic institutions. Minister Kent is committed to furthering the government's Americas strategy, which is dedicated to promoting and enhancing democracy, freedom and the rule of law."

When asked to substantiate a claim about Chavez’s anti-democratic tendencies, Kent’s spokesperson stated: "Hugo Chavez has a history of concentrating power in the Executive which has undermined democratic institutions in Venezuela. Since taking office a decade ago, we've seen the politicization of the judiciary and harassment by government officials of the state-controlled media and NGOs."

One of the ways that Canada has tried to avoid drawing attention to its support for the Venezuelan opposition and collaboration with the NED is by carrying out activities outside of Venezuela and co-ordinating them through embassies. Indeed, such methods have a theoretical basis that Canada helped design.

In conjunction with the NED-linked Council for a Community of Democracies and the US State Department, in April 2008 DFAIT contributed $70,000 in financing to the publication of A Diplomat's Handbook for Democracy Development Support.

Canada has one of the few foreign services that trains diplomats in democracy promotion. The US Foreign Service Institute has already ordered at least 400 copies of the handbook, which aims to provide diplomats with “encouragement, counsel and a greater capacity to support democrats everywhere.”

“We have over many, many years and will continue to work with the United States in this regard in advancing our common goals, certainly to the benefit of both countries and to the benefit of the world in general,” said Canada's Consul-General in New York, Dan Sullivan, during a launch event for the handbook in early 2008.

One example of the handbook in action is Canada’s funding of the Venezuelan NGO Justice and Development Consortium (Asociación Civil Consorcio Desarrollo y Justicia). This group, which also receives funding from the NED, has made a name for itself by working to unite reactionary opposition movements throughout Latin America.

In November 2007, DFAIT gave the Justice and Development Consortium $94,580 "to consolidate and expand the democracy network in Latin America and the Caribbean" at an assembly held in Panama City in the spring of 2008. This meeting, co-hosted by the Canadian Embassy in Panama and the NED, attracted prominent members of (often NED-funded) opposition movements in Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, and Ecuador. It was convened in response to "the usher[ing] in [of] a new era of populism and authoritarianism in Latin America."

Flying in the face of the North American interpretation of Venezuelan democracy is the latest report by the non-partisan Chilean Latinobarometro, which shows that 79 per cent of Venezuelans polled are satisfied with their democracy.

"Venezuela has a poor image in the rest of the world...but the perception of Venezuelans is positive,” states the report. “They say they like their democracy as it is now, or, at least, much more than the citizens of other countries like their democracies which, by contrast, are not criticized by the outside world for lack of freedom and harassment of institutions.”

Colombia, Peru, Mexico and Chile are considered Canada’s strongest allies in the region and are also countries where people’s support for their government tends to be lower than it is in Venezuela. The subversion of Venezuelan democracy and the laissez-faire attitude towards the regimes of Felipe Caldéron in Mexico, Alan Garcia in Peru and Álvaro Uribe in Colombia demonstrates that building popular democracies is not the sought-after end result of democracy promotion activities.

The governments of Colombia, Peru, Mexico and Chile have already entered into Free-Trade deals with Canada and each receives high levels of Canadian outward foreign direct investment, particularly in the extractive sector.

Canadian trade with Venezuela is second only to trade with Brazil in South and Central America. Venezuela is the tenth-largest provider of Canada's considerable foreign oil needs. In 2008, Canada imported $1.36 billion worth of Venezuelan crude. The North Atlantic Refinery in Newfoundland, home of Premier Danny “Chavez” Williams, refines the oil.

Anthony Fenton is an independent researcher and journalist based in British Columbia. He has travelled to Venezuela several times. Some material in this article is drawn from a forthcoming book on Canadian foreign policy. He can be contacted at fentona[at]shaw.ca.

FOCAL document

Canada will Represent Israel in Venezuela: Minister

dawn — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Canada extends diplomatic representation from Cuba to Venezuela

VANCOUVER–During a recent trip to the Americas, Canadian Minister of State for Latin America Peter Kent confirmed that Canada will represent Israel's diplomatic interests in Venezuela.

Following Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip in January, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expelled Israeli diplomats from the country. Chavez called the assault a Palestinian "holocaust."

"The President of Israel at this moment should be taken to the International Criminal Court together with the President of the United States," said Chavez in a statement on January 6.

On January 14, as the air and ground invasion into Gaza continued, Venezuela cut all diplomatic ties with Israel.

President Chavez was hailed as a hero in the Arab world for standing up to Israel. Similar diplomatic moves were subsequently made by Bolivia and Ecuador.

Israel waited almost two weeks before responding. On January 28, Israel expelled Venezuela's diplomats.

"We're proud that the State of Israel that exists today, led by these criminals, made this decision," said Venezuela's Foreign Minister, Nicolas Maduro.

On the same day that Israel barred Venezuela's diplomatic corps, the Jerusalem Post reported that "Israel's interests in Caracas will now be represented by the Canadian Embassy."

A Canadian official has since confirmed that Canadian diplomats will represent Israel at the Israeli Embassy in the upscale Altamira district of Caracas.

"Canada has agreed to represent Israel's interests in Venezuela," wrote Kent in an e-mail response to The Dominion during his trip to the Caribbean on February 17.

Kent added that Canada is also "currently doing this for Israel in Cuba."

Kent did not respond to a follow-up query seeking clarification on when Canada began representing Israel's interests in Cuba.

Canada was the only member of United Nations Human Rights Council to vote against a January 12 resolution condemning Israel for its invasion of Gaza.

The resolution, put forward by the Cuban government, called on Israel to "bring an end to the collective punishment of the Palestinian people and to the excessive use of force."

UPDATE:

"In Venezuela, we are currently defining what services will be offered through the Canadian Embassy," wrote Eleanor Johnston, Kent's Senior Special Assistant, in an e-mail to The Dominion after this story went to press. "Canada has been asked by Israel to represent that country's interests in Venezuela and has agreed to do so."

Johnston also confirmed on behalf of her "colleagues in policy" that Canada has been providing Israeli citizens in Cuba with consular services since 1973, and that this service is provided on a cost-recovery basis.

Anthony Fenton is a researcher and writer who lives near Vancouver.

Canadian Embassy in Venezuela

Breaking the Propaganda Model: Colombia, Venezuela and Canada

dawn — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:29:47 +0000

203452312_e161849a4c.jpg

A couple of new pieces up recently by the North American Congress on Latin America shine a necessary light on political happenings in Colombia and Venezuela.

Colombia and Venezuela: Testing the Propaganda Model looks at the two countries vis-a-vis coverage in the NY Times and Washington Post, and effectively advances the hypothesis put forth by Chomsky and Herman in their classic Manufacturing Consent.

In Free Trade, the Good Cop, and Other Myths, Pablo Vivanco examines the Canada - Colombia Free Trade Agreement through a critical lens.

Finally, NACLA has published the full text of an excellent open letter to Human Rights Watch criticizing HRW's recent report on Venezuela. "By publishing such a grossly flawed report, and acknowledging a political motivation in doing so, [Jose Miguel Vivanco, the lead author of the report] has undermined the credibility of an important human rights organization," reads the letter.

Image: "Parodia de propaganda militar en la novela de ficción 1984" by Jaume d'Urgell.

Venezuelan Cooperatives

dru — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:21:17 +0000

The excellent Upside Down World has an interesting, critical take on the Venezuelan cooperative movement.

Venezuela government supports community television in response to “savage” opposition media campaign

Michael Lithgow — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:33:38 +0000

catiatv.jpg

In a surprise move, the Venezuela government has donated audio-visual production equipment to 69 community television facilities across the country. The Communication and Information Minister Andres Izarra, speaking to over 400 community television representatives in Caracas, said that community television has a crucial role to play in the struggle for truth. The donation comes in response to what has been described as a “savage” opposition media campaign currently underway by Globovision.

The donation has been well received by community television producers, according to Jhonny Pancho, representative of Catia TV, one of Venezuela's oldest community television stations. As for any perceived influence peddling by the government, Pancho and Caita TV president Gabriel Gil were adamant that community television remains independent of government.

Community television responds to people's needs rather than government needs, said Gil. More than 70 per cent of the programming is produced by community collectives.

Go to venezuelanalysis.com for the more story.

Also, for some background check out Justin Podur's piece on Znet.

News item: Polls can be faked

dru — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 08:39:45 +0000

Venezuela Analysis: "This opens up the possibility for the use of fake polling, as was done in the last (2004) referendum, to cast doubt on the results if the proposed constitutional reforms are approved"

More RCTV

dru — Mon, 28 May 2007 19:58:22 +0000

BoingBoing calls the RCTV decision "a political decision through which Chavez seeks to gain total control of the basic freedoms of the country's citizens."

Is that sort of like a military coup that overthrows a democratically elected government?

Reporting and Credibility: RCTV

dru — Mon, 28 May 2007 17:23:04 +0000

There's another round of coverage of the expiry of RCTV's broadcast license in Venezuela.

It's entirely understandable that there would be concern about this, but news agencies are only damaging their own credibility by not reporting the relevant facts.

Chavez: rule by decree or fast track to revolution?

dru — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 00:31:20 +0000

Democracy Now did what media are supposed to do when contentious topics are in play, and hosted a debate about the granting of "rule by decree" powers by Venezuela's legislative assembly to President Hugo Chavez.

RSF and Free Speech in Venezuela

dru — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 20:51:33 +0000

There has been some fuss about the Venezuelan government's plan to remove the license for the Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) network. Rabble.ca even linked to it.

The main problem seems to be that an organization that receive funding from the US State Department, the National Endowment for Democracy and the International Republican Institute (and then refuse to disclose the details) is calling it a crackdown on freedom of speech.

Recognition and little else

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 10:27:46 +0000

Canada's Anti-Venezuela Diplomacy

Venezuela is vying for a seat on the UN Security Council. photo: UN

Since Venezuela elected a government led by Hugo Chavez in 1998, the South American country has frequently been on the receiving end of US-backed attempts to destabilize its government. Some say Canada has tacitly or openly supported the US campaign to replace the government of Venezuela.

In January of 2005, Foreign Affairs officials invited Maria Corina Machado to Ottawa. "While the Government of Canada recognizes the legitimacy of the democratically elected government of Venezuela," the invitation explained, "Súmate's visit to Canada will provide a useful opportunity to hear about the human rights situation in Venezuela from a different perspective."

Why was it necessary to note Canada's recognition of Venezuela's government? Machado is the head of Súmate, an organization that is nominally an NGO, but has been at the forefront of anti-Chavez political campaigns. The NDP has called on the government to invite Chavez for an official visit, but the president was passed over in favour of the leader of the US-funded opposition group.

Súmate was most recently at the head of an unsuccessful campaign to recall Chavez through a referendum. Before that, however, Machado's name appeared on a list of people endorsing a 2002 military coup that took Chavez prisoner and imposed a new, unelected government in Venezuela. The coup only lasted two days, before popular demonstrations and a split within the army forced the return of the elected government. But, that proved time enough to incur strong condemnation of the coup frommost Latin American and Caribbean countries -- and for the US to announce its recognition of the short-lived government. Canadian diplomats were silent.

Now, Machado faces charges of treason; if convicted, she could spend as long as 28 years in prison for her involvement in the coup. She denies signing the now-infamous Carmona Decree, which suspended the elected government, and annulled land reforms and increases in royalties paid by oil companies passed by the Chavez-led government. Machado now claims she only visited the presidential palace during the coup and entered her name on a sign-in sheet.

Súmate receives as much as six per cent of its funding from the National Endowment for Democracy, an arm's-length satellite of the US State Department and USAID.

Canada has also supported Súmate.

According to disclosures made in response to a question by NDP Foreign Affairs critic Alexa Mcdonnough, Canada gave Súmate $22,000 in 2005-06. Minister of International Co-operation Jose Verner explained that "Canada considered Súmate to be an experienced NGO with the capability to promote respect for democracy, particularly a free and fair electoral process in Venezuela."

After meeting with NGOs, officials and members of Parliament in Canada, Machado went south, where she was granted an hour-long meeting with George W. Bush and met with other officials and NGOs.

Canada has also taken sides in the diplomatic row between the US and Venezuela over the Western Hemisphere Security Council seat vacated by Argentina. The US is backing Guatemala, while Venezuela is seen as a protest vote by developing countries fed up with US policy.

Some observers have called the US backing of Guatemala a bizarre choice, given the country's dismal human rights record. Before voting began on October 16, 90 NGOs from Guatemala sent a letter to members of the UN General Assembly opposing Guatemala's candidacy.

"Guatemala has allowed, and occasionally has contributed to, the deterioration of the situation of human rights and the proliferation of violence, again making these issues a matter of profound concern for the international community," the letter read.

A second letter, signed by Guatemalan human rights groups and two hundred prominent figures, explained that "little has been done to combat impunity and strengthen the judicial system to prevent the reoccurrence of genocide, crimes against humanity and serious human rights violations carried out during the conflict."

US diplomats have been pushing other countries hard to vote for Guatemala. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, for example, announced in early October that Chile would vote for Venezuela. After pressure from Washington, Chile backed off, deciding to abstain in the charged Security Council vote. The Los Angeles Times reported that the US had sold fighter jets to Chile, but Chilean pilots "will not be trained to fly them if the government supports Venezuela's bid." Evidence points to similar diplomatic pressure in other countries that might consider voting for Venezuela.

In the face of this pressure, many governments have continued to support Venezuela. The 15-member Caribbean Community, for example, has thrown its support and 14 General Assembly votes to Venezuela.

What would a Venezuelan Security Council seat mean? According to Venezuela's UN ambassador, it would give impoverished nations "an independent voice needed on the Security Council to fight against the power of money."

While Venezuela would not be able to veto any resolutions, it would have an effective platform from which to criticize US interventions in places like Iran, Iraq, Korea and Israel. Given the myriad of double standards enshrined in US foreign policy on human rights standards, war crimes, possession and use of weapons of mass destruction and violations of sovereignty, Venezuelan diplomats would not lack opportunities to embarrass the US.

By contrast, no observers are suggesting that Guatemala would be a critical voice. Given a lack of awareness of Canadian diplomacy inside Canada, and taking into account American pressure, that makes the small Central American country a safer place for Canada to place its support, for the moment.

Critics say Canada has tacitly or openly supported the US campaign to replace the government of Venezuela. Yves Engler asks why.

US refuses to reveal groups receiving funding in Venezuela

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 06:15:27 +0000

Members of Venezuela's government are calling for full disclosure of US
funding to opposition groups in Venezuela. Documents acquired by the
Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act listed 132
contracts totalling in the millions of dollars, but more than half of the names
and other identifying information had been redacted, rendering the
recipients anonymous.

The programs, which are funded by the National Endowment for Democracy
(NED) and USAID's "Office of Transition Initiatives," are ostensibly
aimed at promoting democracy and human rights.

According to a USAID official, the funding will go to "a wide range of
seminars, educational programs and even public service TV commercials
aimed at promoting dialogue between pro- and anti-Chavez camps. Other
projects include workshops on conflict resolution, efforts to promote
human rights, and training for positive citizen involvement in their
communities."

Chavez supporters and some observers claim that funding for "democracy
promotion" is a way to channel funds to political groups that carry out a
political agenda set by the US. Through USAID and NED, the US government
has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to opposition groups and civil society
organizations in hundreds of countries. Notably, the programs have
achieved success in Serbia, Montenegro, Georgia, Haiti and Ukraine, among
others, where US-funded opposition groups have come to power, though not
always through elections.

"Can you imagine the Venezuelan government financing a project in the
US to evaluate the effectiveness of the US Constitution?" asked
journalist Eva Golinger, referring to one US-funded program in Venezuela.
"It's total intervention." The US government was among the first to
recognize a military coup that removed Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's elected
president, and provided funding to many of the groups that backed the coup.
The coup, however, was overturned by popular demonstrations and
diplomatic pressure.

One USAID official said, "We're happy to make known the types of
grants, the kinds of things that we're doing... All we've done is try to
withhold the names of the groups."

For Venezuelan lawmakers, that is not enough. "We want everything to
come out publicly," said congressman Jose Albornoz, "where those funds go
and what they're used for." The Venezuelan Congress has proposed
legislation aimed at cracking down on foreign funding of local organizations,
sparking criticism from some groups.

Kumi Naidoo of CIVICUS, an alliance of non-profit groups based in South
Africa, said the legislation could "endanger the existence of an
independent civil society." He added, however, that the US policy "reeks of
double standards" and is "giving ammunition" to the government, "an
excuse for a . . . broader-based intervention."

The US government has a multi-decade record of opposing democratically
elected governments in Latin America, and favouring military juntas,
dictators like Augusto Pinochet, and paramilitaries with foreign aid,
often in the form of military equipment and training. For example, according to
declassified documents, in 1975, then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger met
with heads of secret police from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and
Uruguay to co-ordinate "Operation Condor." According to some estimates,
50,000 people were murdered, 30,000 "disappeared" and 400,000 were
incarcerated during the seven-year "anti-communist" crackdown which officially
ended with the fall of the military junta in Argentina in 1983.

By many accounts, the NED is the heir to the CIA covert operations of the Cold War era. Writing in the New York Times, David K. Shipler noted that the NED's funding program "resembles the aid given by the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1950s, 60s and 70s to bolster pro-American political groups." Speaking to the Washington Post, NED founder Allen Weinstein said that "a lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."

Dru Oja Jay

» Associated Press: U.S. Aid Stirring Suspicion in Venezuela

» Guardian: US accused of bid to oust Chávez with secret funds

» Associated Press: Chavez allies say Venezuelan recipients of U.S. funding should be public, NGO agrees

» Al-Jazeera: Chavez suspicious of US aid

Coverage of Chávez's 'devil' speech ignores call for UN reform

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 00:43:05 +0000

In his address to the 61st session of the United Nations General Assembly last week, on Wednesday, September 20, a member of the "axis of evil" called US President George Bush "the devil." In the same speech, Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela, argued for UN reform, claiming that the General Assembly has degenerated into "a merely deliberative organ" lacking any real power.

Media coverage of the speech latched onto Chávez's incendiary rhetoric, largely ignoring the substance of his speech. In particular, little mention was made of Chávez's five proposals for a "re-established" United Nations:

(1) giving nations from the global south (especially "LDCs", or "Least Developed Countries") expanded access to security council seats;
(2) generating effective methods to address and resolve conflicts and increasing the transparency of such decisions;
(3) immediately divesting the five permanent seats on the security council of veto power (which, since 1972, the US has exercised most frequently, most recently to allow the Israeli bombing of Lebanon);
(4) increasing the powers of the UN secretary general;
(5) moving the UN to a city in the global south.

These proposals echo Chávez's call last year for a "new international order" .

Venezuela is currently seeking a seat in the UN Security Council. The United States and Canada are backing the rival South American candidate, Guatemala, for the rotating seat. Venezuela will need a two-thirds majority to win the non-permanent seat, which it has previously occupied four times. According to Cyril Mychalenjko (upsidedownworld.org), the US opposes Venezuela's candidacy because Chávez has now twice argued for radical UN reform.

Note: though the text of Chávez's address has yet to be posted on the
UN website, it can be read at counterpunch.org.

National Housewives' Union Established in Venezuela

Thu, 05 May 2005 11:10:19 +0000

Changes made in 1999 to Venezuela's constitution resulted in the recognition of women's unwaged housework as economically productive, and as a result, Venezuelan housewives became entitled to social security benefits.

These unprecedented changes, according to Selma James of the Global Women's Strike, have led to the empowerment of women, who are now becoming key participants in the grassroots developments associated with the Bolivarian Revolution and the government of Hugo Chavez.

This progress has been taken a step further with the development of a National Housewives' Union, which, independent journalist Benjamin Bangl explains, "provides legal support to their members and informs them of the free educational, medical and subsidized food programs the government provides."

Adopted in 1999 after a long consultative process, Venezuela's "Bolivarian Constitution" institutionalizes a broad range of progressive measures. Under the constitution, "The state recognizes work at home as an economic activity that creates added value and produces social welfare and wealth," and guarantees housewives' social security.

The union is also involved in efforts to push the government to provide pensions to all housewives over fifty. Educational efforts on the part of the union have sought to teach women how to establish small businesses and community work cooperatives and to provide them with diplomas indicating their expertise in certain areas of domestic work.

Lizarde Prada, General Coordinator for the Housewives' Union in the State of Merida, explained the goals behind the Union's establishment: "Our union helps to empower the housewives. Many of them were stuck in their homes, they didn't have time to read or write, they were always cooking and cleaning, they weren't informed. Many of our women are opening their eyes now."

Sandy Hager

» Upside Down World: The Housewives' Union in Venezuela

» Venezuelanalysis.com: Venezuela's Antidote for Apathy

» Venezuelanalysis.com: Women and Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution

» Green Left Weekly: Bolivarian Revolution: A People's Win

» Venezuelan US Embassy: Bolivarian Constitution, Title III: Duties, Human Rights and Guarantees

Venezuela petitions US to stop funding coup supporters

Wed, 21 Jul 2004 21:15:13 +0000

Venezuelans take to the streets against military and business coup organizers that temporarily deposed democratically-elected President Hugo Chavez in 2002.

In a June 22nd letter, Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuelan ambassador to the United States, asked U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to direct the National Endowment for Democracy to stop funding political opponents of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. The letter claims that the NED, which is supported by money from the U.S. Congress, is violating Venezuela's campaign finance laws and the endowment's own regulations by giving grants to organizations and people that supported the failed 2002 coup against the country's democratically elected leader.

"We would ask that, in supporting democracy in Venezuela, the United States take care not to violate Venezuela's election laws or other Venezuelan laws; and take care not to assist or facilitate the violation of such laws by Venezuelan citizens," read the letter. It also highlighted General Powell's own condemnation of the U.S.'s support of the 1973 Chilean coup and contrasted this with White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer's apparent endorsement of the Venezuelan coup when, at the time, he suggested that President Chavez had resigned.
The U.S. has been openly hostile towards Mr. Chavez since his landslide election victory in 1998. Mr. Chavez, socialist president of Venezuela and admirer of Fidel Castro, maintains popular support in the country by villainizing the wealthy business class, depicting them in speeches as living in "luxury chalets where they perform orgies, drinking whisky." The 2002 coup by military and business leaders that followed his attempt to nationalize the country's oil industry-the world's fifth largest-is widely understood to have been supported by the U.S. government.

» Richard Bennett: US Support for the April Coup in Venezuela

» Venezuelanalysis.com Venezuela Asks U.S. to Stop Funding Opposition and Coup Supporters

» BBC: Profile: Hugo Chavez