"Venezuela Under Attack Again"... (Surprise....surprise)
Under attack "AGAIN"????
I wasn't aware that the forces of the Elite 1%, Wall Street, the Global Banks, and the Global Resource Extraction Corporations had ever relented in their continuous attacks on the Venezuelan Government and the Populist Reforms that diverted a percentage of the Profits from Venezuelan Resource Extraction to actually helping the People of Venezuela since the election of Hugo Chavez in 1998.
The tactics are the same that the un-democratic opposition has tried for 15 years ever since the first election of President Hugo Chávez. Such tactics have been used in the so-called Rainbow Revolutions in Eastern Europe, Libya, in Syria, in Egypt and now in Ukraine. The object is to give a semblance of chaos, to provoke the forces of public order, to discredit the government through the compliant international media, to foster civil unrest, even civil war (as it successfully happened in Syria), and ultimately to promote conditions for international intervention and even occupation.
<snip>
The attack on Venezuela, aimed to create popular discontent has had the following features:
*Monetary warfare
This started with run on the currency, the manipulation of the black market dollar, obtaining dollars at preferential price from the government under false reasons. Maduro did not hesitate: he regulated prices and changed the monetary exchange rules and 70% approved of his response.[ii]
*False Scarcity
(see link)
*Attack on Venezuela’s petroleum company PDVSA
(see link)
*Campaign to discredit the economy
The international media has been predicting doom and gloom for Venezuela for years! The Venezuelan economy is doing very well. Its oil exports last year amounted to $94 billons while the imports only reached $59.3 billons – a historically low record. The national reserves are at $22 billons and the economy has a surplus (not a deficit) of 2.9% of GDP. The country has no significantly onerous national or foreign debts.
*Exaggeration of Security risks.
Venezuela has high crime rate, unfortunately, just like most countries in Latin America.
<more>
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/02/17/venezuela-under-attack-again/
An interesting article, well worth the read.
Since the election of Reform President Hugo Chavez in 1998,
Venezuela has diverted a percentage of the Corporate Profits from the extraction of their natural resources to:
*Heal their Sick
*Feed their Hungry
*Educate their Ignorant
*House their Homeless
*Empower their Disenfranchised
You can understand WHY the Global 1% and their Mouth Pieces HATE these reforms. This is NOT an example that they want the World to see.
This kind of thing could catch on!!!
Recently, they spent lavishly on Marketing, Image Control, Media Domination, Message Control, Propaganda, and Vote Buying for their opposition candidate (Henrique Capriles), in a transparent attempt to take over the Venezuelan government and return control to the 1%.
But the People of Venezuela stood behind their Reform Government,
and sent the Global 1% packing.
Naturally, the Global 1% are carrying a load of Butt Hurt from their failure to BUY the government Venezuela, and have intensified their propaganda campaign to demonize the fairly elected government of Venezuela.
Some of their mouth pieces are even here on DU.
In a country that pays so much Lip Service to words like "Democracy", and "Transparent Elections", and "Government OF of the people", you would think that there would be more respect for the REAL THING.
But No.
Both the Democratic Party Leadership and Republican party absolutely AGREE
that these Populist economic reforms MUST be DEMONIZED, attacked, and rejected.... no matter what the cost,
even if this drives these new Populist Democracies and their emerging MARKETS straight into the arms of China and Russia. QED
Not. Very. Smart.
We should be doing everything we can to support these new democracies, not trying to overthrow them.
Viva Democracy!
I pray we get some here soon!
You will know them by their WORKS!
= new reply since forum marked as read
There was an ongoing Civil War in Libya for many years, mostly limited to the Eastern Provinces
and fueled by Al Qaeda among other sources.
This is far different from the spontaneous civilian uprisings of the Arab Spring.
The Intervention in the Libyan Civil War piggy-backed on the legitimate popular uprisings of the Arab Spring,
and removed the only serious roadblock separating the the IMF and Global Resource Extraction Corporations from the resource riches of North Africa.
Gaddafi, warts and all, was a firm advocate of
[font size=3] Africa for Africans, NOT Western Corporations (Pan-Africa)[/font]
...and now.. that is gone.
If you really believe the Bombing of Libya was about freeing the civilians,
then I take back what I said above.
Lets see if you can spot the difference:
[font size=3]Arab Spring in Egypt
Arab Spring in Tunesia
Libyan Civil War[/font]
Spot the difference?
Need some hints?
Do you KNOW what is happening in Libya today?
Who really WON in Libya?
In the first year of Allende's term, the short-term economic results of Minister of the Economy Pedro Vuskovic's expansive monetary policy were highly favorable: 12% industrial growth and an 8.6% increase in GDP, accompanied by major declines in inflation (down from 34.9% to 22.1%) and unemployment (down to 3.8%).
However by 1972, the Chilean escudo had an inflation rate of 140%. The average Real GDP contracted between 1971 and 1973 at an annual rate of 5.6% ("negative growth"
; and the government's fiscal deficit soared while foreign reserves declined.[42]
The combination of inflation and government-mandated price-fixing, together with the "disappearance" of basic commodities from supermarket shelves, led to the rise of black markets in rice, beans, sugar, and flour.[43] The Chilean economy also suffered as a result of a US campaign against the Allende government.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Allende
After 50 years, you start to notice the pattern if you're reasonably intelligent.
...the very same people who tried (and still try) to demonize OWS and anybody else who tries to speak for the Americans who have NOT benefited from this marvelous recovery!
The Totally Unfair And Bitterly Uneven 'Recovery,' In 12 Charts – HuffPo
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023662029
95 percent of the economy’s gains have gone to the top 1 percent
http://billmoyers.com/2014/01/10/why-conservatives-old-divide-and-conquer-strategy-%E2%80%94-setting-working-class-against-the-poor-%E2%80%94-is-backfiring/
Billionaire wealth doubles since financial crisis
http://www.upi.com/blog/2013/11/12/Billionaire-wealth-doubles-since-financial-crisis/5011384268135/?spt=hts&or=12
US Wealthy Have Biggest Piece of Pie Ever Recorded
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/09/11-6
Study: "Trade" Deal Would Mean a Pay Cut for 90% of U.S. Workers
http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2013/09/the-verdict-is-in-the-trans-pacific-partnership-tpp-a-sweeping-free-trade-deal-under-negotiation-with-11-pacific-rim-coun.html
Wall Street will get away with massive wave of criminality of 2008 - Statute of Limitations
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022516719
Older Workers:.Set Back by Recession, and Shut Out of Rebound
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/booming/for-laid-off-older-workers-age-bias-is-pervasive.html?smid=tw-share&_r=3&
[/div
THAT doesn't happen by accident!
IT is ALL connected, not just here at home,
but in what is happening around the World.
Does ANYBODY here really believe that US Billionaire Corporate 1% Money did NOT find its way into the pockets of the Opposition during the last election in Resource Rich Venezuela?
...and is NOT financing the relentless attacks on the Populist Reforms spreading across Latin America and putting downward pressure on Corporate profits for an entire continent??
If so, then there is a bridge yadda...yadda...yadda.....
Anyway, this guy and the Koch Brothers will be sure to thank them,
and let them into their Country Club at the very first opportunity!
Thank you.
What pains me about our covert undermining of other countries and our relentless propaganda in branding everyone who doesn't play ball with us as tyrants is that all too often it becomes self-fulfilling. The governments under attack ultimately become paranoid and repressive.
In Iran in the 1950s, Mossadegh knew his opposition was being funded by the CIA but he was such a believer in our principle of free speech that he let it go on. Look where it got him. And where it ultimately got us!
