President Hugo Chavez Frias rejects US News & World Report disinformation

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...The anti-Venezuelan propaganda in the US media appears to be in response to President Chavez Frias earlier rejection of USA meddling in Venezuela's domestic political affairs ... especially related to US Ambassador Charles S. Shapiro's open bias on behalf of radical opposition elements who staged a USA-backed coup d'etat in April 2002 which installed USA-puppet dictator Pedro Carmona Estanga for two days before millions of angry Venezuelans threw him out on his neck. Carmona Estanga now lives in exile in Bogota where he sought political asylum after sneaking away from where he was being held in luxury house arrest pending trial.

It is also seen as a response to Chavez Frias' last-week reproaching of the United States for harboring Venezuelan terrorists shown by intelligence agencies to have been plotting to bring down his plane en route to speak at the United Nations in New York. The United States continues to harbor anti-Venezuelan terrorists such as corruption-convicted ex-President Carlos Andres Perez (CAP) who maintains a luxury apartment in Manhattan, New York and a multi-$ million residence with the direct blessing of Bush aides in Washington.

Chavez Frias said the obvious aim of the allegations published in this week's US News & World Report is to create a pretext for Venezuela's foes to continue with their subversive conspiracy to overthrow his reform government through assassination, a repeat of the April coup d'etat is a direct USA-led invasion of Venezuela's sovereign territory under the pretext of securing critical oil supplies to North America. "The suggestion is that I am a terrorist and should be aggressively pursued ... the CIA used similar arguments in their 1973 coup d'etat against Chile's President Salvador Allende!"

Chavez Frias also denies any links between his government and radical Middle Eastern groups, although nameless US military officials quoted in US News & World Report claim there are "active support cells" on Venezuela's paradise island Margarita. Admittedly there is a relatively large Arab community in Isla de Margarita, but the same could easily be said of neighboring Aruba and Curacao in the Dutch Windward Islands to the west of Margarita or in Trinidad & Tobago directly west.

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=11255

Allende would have been proud of Chavez. I hope he and Lula (President fo Brazil) live through this onslaught.

:-)

heads-in-the-sand folks ;-)

today. Transcrips are posted after the interview. Should be interesting.

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last week called on the United States to crack down on what he described as Cuban and Venezuelan terrorists training in Florida to kill him.

Last week Chavez canceled a planned trip to the United States because of security threats.

Meanwhile a recent report in US News and World Reports tiled “Terror Close to Home” charges that Venezuela is emerging as “a potential hub of terrorism in the Western Hemisphere.” The article claims Chavez has provided assistance to Islamic fundamentalists.

The magazine claims that Venezuela has given social security-like cards to thousands of foreigners including many from Middle Eastern nations including Syria, Pakistan, Egypt and Lebanon. The U.S. government has warned that by giving out these ID documents, terrorists could more easily obtain Venezuelan passports and U.S. visas.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/10/03/1531245

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AMY GOODMAN: Can you start off telling us why president Chavez did not come as was planned to the United Nations to address the general assembly?

BERNARDO ALVAREZ: Well, you know, there are of course always evaluations that the head of state, in that case the information we have from the palace, in Venezuela, that there were some security concerns. And that came along with few months ago and recently there were some reports in Florida newspapers all for former Venezuelan military and training camps in Florida, this is what the newspapers said. I don't know to, promote invasion to, promote any actions against Venezuela. We have sent the U.S., ambassador that information and we are waiting for response from the U.S. government.

If you remember few months ago there was a report that an organization called Judicial Watch was suing the Venezuelan government on behalf of the victims of September 11th because they say that president Chavez has given a million dollars to Al Qaeda. Venezuelan ambassador to India came here to the U.S. to United Nations to Washington and even to Miami to present the proof that we in fact gave a million dollars to the United Nations office for the refugees.

Totally the contrary. And we also get that information to the F.B.I. and we're still waiting for an investigation from the F.B.I. because that was some news coming from the people in Florida.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/10/03/1531245

From www.venezuelanalysis.com

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By: Gregory Wilpert

An article recently appeared in one of the largest U.S. news magazines, an article which will remind well-informed readers of a typical disinformation campaign. The article in question, “Terror Close to Home,” by Linda Robinson, appeared in U.S. News and World Report (10/6/03) and claims to have evidence that Venezuela’s President, Hugo Chavez, is “flirting with terrorism.” The appearance of a baseless article like this, combined with recent statements by Gen. James Hill, head of the Southern Command, that Venezuela’s Margarita Island is a haven for Islamic terrorist groups, suggests that the Bush administration is setting the stage for declaring Venezuela a “rogue” state.

However, the article is so full of false conclusions, unnamed “U.S. government sources,” distortions, and outright falsehoods, that one has to wonder what the author’s real agenda is. Let’s examine the article’s problems one by one.

Falsehoods & Distortions

Linda Robinson claims that “Venezuela is providing support … that could prove useful to radical Islamic groups.” She goes on to say, “U.S. News has learned that Chavez's government has issued thousands of cedulas, the equivalent of Social Security cards, to people from places such as Cuba, Colombia, and Middle Eastern nations that play host to foreign terrorist organizations.” First of all, it is probably true that Venezuela issued identification cards (“cedulas”) to citizens of these countries, something that the U.S. does too, whenever it grants residency to a non-U.S. citizen, in the form of a “green card.” The issuance of such identification papers, if anything, helps track residents’ illegal activity, rather than obscures it, as the article suggests. The accusation from an unnamed “American official” that “more than a thousand” Colombians had received “cedulas” is meaningless in a country that has several hundred thousand Colombians living there as legal residents.

Robinson then says that “U.S. officials believe that the Venezuelan government is issuing the documents to people who should not be getting them and that some of these cedulas were subsequently used to obtain Venezuelan passports and even American visas, which could allow the holder to elude immigration checks and enter the United States.” First, on what basis do U.S. officials believe that these foreign residents should not receive residency? How could they possibly know that just from glancing at a list of names and nationalities? Second, since when can a citizen of a Middle Eastern country receive a U.S. visa more easily just because he or she has Venezuelan residency? If they can, then that is the responsibility of the U.S. government, not the Venezuelan. As Chavez suggested in a press conference with foreign journalists on October 1, perhaps U.S. Ambassador Charles Shapiro should be investigated for supporting terrorism, if he is granting visas to terrorists, as the Robinson article implies.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1027

It also points out the massive dissinformation program we've seen since FOREVER, especially since the 1980's, when it really got heavy with people like Otto Reich manning the helm, hard at work in the State Department's "Office of Public Diplomacy," grinding out bogus stories, planting them everywhere, and sending completely bogus "Letters to the Editor" to papers all over the place, using bogus well-placed names of officials!

So glad to see someone nail the author on this:

(snip) It would be nice if one could attribute this atrocious article to bad journalism. However, the author is the Latin America Bureau Chief for U.S. News and World Report, the third largest news magazine in the U.S. Rather, it seems that either the author has been manipulated by her numerous unnamed “U.S. officials” who are pursuing an agenda of their own, with the intention of undermining and destabilizing a foreign government and perhaps even providing the justification for intensified foreign intervention in Venezuela, or she shares these goals herself and is a willing accomplice of the domestic and international opposition to the Chavez government. In either case, U.S. News does enormous damage to its reputation as a serious news magazine. (snip)

I see the US N&W Report article as just more of the demonizing of Hugo Chavez. Same thing happened with Allende if you read the history. More of the US dirty tricks in Latin America.

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Is U.S. Policy Toward Venezuela Counter-Productive?

In recent weeks U.S. officials have made a series of remarkably unfriendly statements against the government of Venezuela, and its President Hugo Chavez. This breach of diplomatic norms can only serve to worsen relations between the two countries. It also provokes resentment in Latin America -- in the same way that the Bush administration's decision to disregard the United Nations and invade Iraq lowered our standing throughout the world.

"I think that some of the things that he has done at home politically and his policies on the economic side, has ruined what is a relatively wealthy country," said Roger Noriega, the State department's top diplomat for the Americas. This statement is ironic, since Venezuela's current recession is mainly a result of the 64-day oil strike organized in December and January by opposition leaders seeking to overthrow the government. The State Department did not criticize this strike nor ask its friends in the opposition to desist from it, even though the Bush administration was preparing for war in the Middle East and had a strong interest in maintaining the flow of oil from Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter.

U.S. officials have also made a number of statements indicating support for a referendum to recall President Chavez. This is in sharp contrast to the Bush administration's position on the California referendum. When Republicans were gathering signatures to recall Governor Gray Davis, the Bush team remained studiously neutral.

In addition, U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela Charles Shapiro violated diplomatic protocol by meeting with the country's newly appointed electoral commission last week, even before the commission had met with the government. He offered "assistance" with the commission's work, including their first task of deciding whether to accept the opposition's recall petition. The petition was subsequently rejected unanimously by the commission, with even the opposition members abstaining.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1021

from going to the US to speak at the UN

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We, the undersigned, condemn the US actions that prevented Venezuelan President Chavez from coming to the US to speak at the United Nations

While heads of states and the people of the world have been able to hear President Bush address at the United Nations, they will not hear from the democratically elected Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. His trip has been cancelled due to ‘security concerns’. Not only is the US not offering protection, but has organized violence against him and the Venezuelan people. It is totally unacceptable that a head of state would have to risk his life to meet with other heads of state at the UN in New York.

Background: Venezuela is the world’s 5th largest oil supplier, yet 80% of its population lives in poverty. President Chavez was elected in a landslide in 1998, initiating a "peaceful and democratic process" aimed at making fundamental change, such as using the country’s oil revenue to end poverty & corruption, and tackling racism, sexism, & other forms of discrimination. In April 2002 the US backed a coup which kidnapped Pres. Chavez and overthrew the new democratically constructed constitution. But within three days, millions of people from the poorest areas took to the streets and, with the help of loyal soldiers, won both back. The wealthy white racist coup leaders now reside in Florida, Colombia, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic.

Days before President Chavez was forced to cancel his trip to New York, the US government sent a message when it refused to sign a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli threats to remove Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat by deportation or assassination: it wants us to accept its right to remove any head of state, democratically-elected or not, whom it does not want. The US administration together with the President of Colombia have decided to give amnesty to paramilitary death squad leaders, as a condition for receiving aid. Venezuelan airspace has been violated by 15 Black Hawk helicopters flying over the border from Colombia in a clear act of aggression.

These events, along with the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, another large oil-producing nation, and the violent overthrow of Chilean President Allende (that commemorated its 30th anniversary on Sept 11), are ever-present specters. Now Venezuelan intelligence reports that the CIA was plotting to bring down Pres Chavez’s airplane. No one who knows the CIA’s history will reject that possibility.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/docs.php?dno=1005

Don't meddle...let those countries have some peace. Let them do it on their own. And cut those usury rates.

Europe and Asia need to help here.