At OAS, Venezuela's draft of rights charter irks U.S.

From the Oligarchs Daily...

<clips>

The U.S. and Venezuelan governments are waging an ideological battle at the OAS over a proposed Social Charter for member countries.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez wants all Latin American governments to promise that no family will ever have to spend more than 25 percent of income on housing. President Bush, clearly, disagrees.

Chávez, a fiery populist leading a self-styled ''Bolivarian revolution'' on behalf of the poor, has long been at odds with Bush, a conservative who believes that an investment-friendly environment is needed to eliminate poverty.

But now the sharpest ideological divide to hit Latin America since the Cold War has reached the inner halls of the Organization of American States, where diplomats are struggling to write a Social Charter -- a declaration of social goals.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/11283059.htm

Chavez should point that out.

I like this Chavez guy.

:eyes:

Look at us! We're all living like kings! No poverty here!
:sarcasm:

"Chávez wants all Latin American governments to promise that no family will ever have to spend more than 25 percent of income on housing."

If I was the Leader of a Latin American government, I would gladly agree with Chavez on this.

Why does Bush do this?

and my disgust for the bush cabal couldn't grow anymore, it is at it's utmost already.

All they here over there on all four major channels is how bad Chavez is. The major papers are also anti-Chavez. The only station which airs Chavez's policies is a much smaller State-owned channel.

Chavez’s well-funded opposition also appears to be receiving the tacit stamp of approval from Henry Kissinger and his international consulting firm, Kissinger and Associates. In late January, while the national elections council was preparing to evaluate the authenticity of the over two million petition signatures handed in by the opposition, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was presenting an award to Venezuelan billionaire, Gustavo Cisneros, chair & CEO of the Cisneros Group of Companies. According to the Green Left Weekly, Cisneros has been “identified by Newsweek and Venezuelan publications as one of the protagonists and financiers of the April 11, 2002, coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.”
<snip>
According to the Green Left Weekly, however, Cisneros is “credited with being a driving force behind the December 2002 nationwide lock-out and sabotage of the oil industry, which drove the Venezuelan economy into the ground by causing a historical drop of 27 percent in the country’s GDP in the first trimester of 2003.” The U.S.-based NGO Global Strike for Women condemned the IAEC’s decision to give Cisneros the award, charging that he was a leader of the lock out “aimed at forcing President Chávez from office” and that “he played a similar role in the more recent oil lock out orchestrated by the CIA and aimed at paralyzing the whole country.”

Cisneros owns one of the largest privately held media, entertainment, technology, and consumer products organizations in the world. His holdings include Univision Communications, Inc., AOL Latin America, DIRECTV Latin America, Claxson Interactive Group, Venevisión (Venezuela’s largest television network), Los Leones del Caracas, Regional Brewing Company, Backus & Johnston Brewing Company, and Pueblo International, LLC.

It should be remembered that two days after the aborted coup, Kissinger partner Thomas “Mack” McLarty, vice chair of Kissinger McLarty Associates and former President Clinton’s top adviser on Latin America, penned an op-ed piece that issued a stern warning to Brazilian leftist Luiz Igacio Lula da Silva: “hat happened in Venezuela could be perceived as a sign that messianic solutions, as opposed to genuine reform measures, lead to disaster. It bodes well for those in the region who advocate for open markets in the region. I don’t think this is a net positive for Lula’s candidacy.” Despite the warning, six months later Lula was overwhelmingly elected president of Brazil.
http://zmagsite.zmag.org/May2004/berkowitz0504.html


Published on Tuesday, June 1, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
Even worse than most news stories on Venezuela are the editorials of major newspapers, where factual errors have become commonplace. The Washington Post has accused Chavez of holding political prisoners and having "muzzled the press," (3) and referred to the Electoral Commission as "Mr. Chavez' appointees." (4) All of these allegations are incontestably false.

According to the U.S. State Department, "There (are) no reports of political prisoners in Venezuela." (5) And far from being "muzzled," the press in Venezuela is one of the most furiously partisan anti-government medias in the entire world. Two months ago one of Venezuela's most influential newspapers actually used a doctored version of a New York Times' article to allege that the Chavez government was implicated in the Madrid terrorist bombing! (6) But the media has never been censored by the Chavez government. (7)

To be sure, President Chavez has made himself an easy target by slinging a lot of fiery rhetoric and accusations at President Bush and Washington. But even these diplomatic blunders could use some context: the Bush Administration did, after all, endorse a military coup against Chavez two years ago. (8) And the US continues to fund his political opponents, including leaders of the failed coup and organizers of the recall effort. (9) Imagine what Mr. Bush might say about the French President and government if they did those things to him.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0601-13.htm

What happened to Chavez, also happened to Aristide of Haiti,
except that in the case of Chavez,
the coup was reversed by popular demand.
(as was the Diebold election in the Ukraine.)

anti-Chavez papers are coming from the US taxpayers, sadly. I was glad to read that the government is looking to set up a media outlet that resembles the CBC and the BBC, both of those who legitimately criticize their governments when needed but report the news accurately.

"At stake is more than a tug of war between Chávez and Bush over social policies. If Chávez's ideas take hold in Latin America, they will make it harder for Bush to promote his economic agenda in the region, including free trade, flexible labor markets, less business regulation and more fiscal responsibility. :eyes:

<snip>

"But the Bush administration has flatly rejected the Venezuelan draft and refused to let one of Venezuela's diplomats lead the working group that would write a final draft, although the country that promotes an initiative usually gets that honor."

Do as I say not as I do.

a conservative who believes that an investment-friendly environment is needed to eliminate poverty.

Ha ha! Bush has never done anything, not one thing, to try and eliminate poverty. Poverty has gotten worse during his terms. Bush sides with the rich and powerful, and against the poor, EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Chavez for US President.

Viva Chavez!!!!

:applause: :applause: :applause:

that the U.S. does not meet this standard of people paying no more than 25% of their income for housing.

I didn't know he was president of Venezuela, too, and all of Latin America. Oh wait - he's president of the WORLD now, I forgot.

He makes me sick.

I have a clearer and clearer picture....I will have to leave this country. I knoe we toss it around and joke about it, in a dark comedy way, but the US really, really IS becoming a truly fascist country complete w/ all the signs. The serious dismantling of what is left of the judiciary is underway. Once the tort 'reform' is in place, we will no longer need a jury system either. Judges R currently hampered by mandatory sentencing. And the drum beating this past week is getting louder. Educators & Professors R under assault. Everything is for and by the corporations. The EO to quarantine persons under the cover of 'bird flu' opens the door 2 'disappear' people.

It is all moving so much faster than I ever thought. Most of the US population doesn't want 2 B bothered w/ the tales of torture at gitmo, at the prison camps we have set up in Afghanistan or the out-of-control human rights violations taking place in Iraq. They don't even give a rats ass that WE R starving Iraqi children!!

I dare not stay any longer.

If you decide to move elsewhere, a LOT of thought would have to go into finding a place _Bush and our fascist right wouldn't want to invade, or destabilize and seize, in the interest of "freedom" for the citizens.

Good luck. You'd probably find you've got a lot of company right behind you.

people will suffer and die because you didn't. Leave and your selfish action mearly gives you, yourself, a few more years of peace, but not peace of mind.

:kick: