International Campaign Around Venezuela's Elections Has Begun [View All]

Posted: March 26, 2010 11:21 AM
International Campaign Around Venezuela's Elections Has Begun

Venezuela has an election for its National Assembly in September, and the campaign has begun in earnest. I am referring to the international campaign. This is carried out largely through the international media; although some will spill over into the Venezuelan media. It involves many public officials, especially in the U.S. The goal will be to generate as much bad press as possible about Venezuela, to discredit the government, and to de-legitimize the September elections - in case the opposition should choose to boycott, as they did in the last legislative elections, or refuse to recognize the results if they lose.

There's no need for conspiracy, since the principal actors all know what to do. Occasionally some will be off message due to lack of co-ordination. A fascinating example of this occurred last week when Sen. John McCain tried to get Gen. Doug Fraser of the U.S. Southern Command to back his accusations that Venezuela supports terrorist activities. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 11, General Fraser contradicted McCain:

"We have continued to watch very closely ... We have not seen any connections specifically that I can verify that there has been a direct government-to-terrorist connection."

Oops! Apparently Fraser didn't get the memo that the Obama team, not just McCain, is in full campaign mode against Venezuela. The next day, he issued a statement recanting his testimony:

"Assistant Secretary Valenzuela and I spoke this morning on the topic of linkages between the government of Venezuela and the FARC. There is zero daylight between our two positions, and we are in complete agreement.
There is indeed clear and documented historical and ongoing evidence of the linkages between the Government of Venezuela and the FARC . ... we are in direct alignment with our partners at the State Department and the Intelligence Community."

Well it's good to know that the United States still has civilian control over the military, at least in the Western Hemisphere. On the other hand, it would be even better if the truth counted for anything in these Congressional hearings or in Washington foreign policy circles generally. The general's awkward and seemingly forced reversal went unnoticed by the media.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-weisbrot/international-campaign-ar_b_514614.html