Bush meets prominent opponent of Venezuela's Chavez

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush met a prominent opponent of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the White House on Tuesday in a show of support that could anger the firebrand leader of a major U.S. oil supplier.

Maria Corina Machado, a founder of Sumate, a citizens rights organization, helped promote an August referendum against Chavez and still faces a possible jail term of up to 16 years along with her colleague Alejandro Plaz.
...
Chavez has accused the National Endowment for Democracy of spearheading U.S. government attempts to topple him, which Washington has strongly denied. Venezuela is a major supplier of oil to the United States.

Bush and Machado discussed "the current situation confronting Venezuela's at-risk democratic institutions," a senior U.S. administration official said on condition of anonymity.

"They discussed the important role that Sumate is performing in the defense of the constitutional rights of all Venezuelans with particular emphasis on Sumate's work to safeguard the integrity and transparency of all Venezuelans' right to vote," the U.S. official said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/31/AR2005053101062.html

Sure. And Bush is worried about Venezuela's "at-risk democratic institutions". Stay out of small planes, Señor Chavez.

More shoddy work from the MSM.

When you figure out their choice of words, it's easy to see the underlying propaganda. I've seen words like

"Firebrand"
"Strong Man"
"Incendiary"
"Revolutionary"

I've seen seen "Dictator". Now will someone please explain to me how a democratically elected leader like Hugo Chavez, can be a "Dictator"?

"democratic dictator". Not sure about the logic behind that... and why isn't Rumsfeld called America's firebrand secretary of defense?

US (and French) "democratic" systems are dictatorial, in the real meaning of the word. Ideally, they are electorial dictatorships, electing an dictator for a period of time.

When people define democracy as electorial dictatoriship, it is easy to see how they think that Bolivarian revolution, which is about direct participatory democracy in the real meaning of rule by the people, is contrary to the imperial ideals about "democracy".

and the compliant corporate media cranks it up

"Venezuelan fascist leader meets with US fascist leader to plot overthrow of populist Venezuelan government" should be the headline.

and discussing foreign policy with that suspect person and calling that person an activist for the people.

Wonder if she is here to get more of our taxpayer dollars to overthrow a foreign government for us.

Edit: Wonder if those two asked Cuban terrorist/torturer Posada to join in on their plotting meeting.

families.

50 to 1 she is coordinating financing between the US govt. and SOA goons in Venezuela.

Signers of the document - which Chavez voided after his supporters dramatically swept him back to power hours later - included Maria Corina Machado, an activist from one of Venezuela's leading families.

The Carmona Decree, named after coup leader and president-for-a-day Pedro Carmona, dismantled all three branches of Venezuela's government. In the aftermath, Machado's civic group was awarded tens of thousands of American tax dollars from two major U.S. agencies - The National Endowment for Democracy and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The funds were used partly to encourage voter participation in a subsequent effort to oust Chavez, this time through a recall referendum...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Isn't it great to know we are paying for the "financial incentives" NED and USAID send to her? She works for us!



Maria Corina Machado, Venezuela's own Katherine Harris?

This the face of a traitor to Venezuela, consorting with war criminal Bush, prodding him to expand his criminal enterprise once more to her country, as with the failed fascist coup of 2002.

She admittedly supported the fascist coup by signing a "decree" of dictator for a day Pedro Carmona, who was treated all too leniently by Venezuela. They must not allow these people to escape justice. The prosecutors must uncover the web of sedition and use full force of law to smash these criminal enterprises. There must not be another fascist coup. If there is, this woman will be there to gladly endorse it.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1164

http://www.rethinkvenezuela.com/downloads/vionedfinal.htm

if she ran an organization like Sumate here, taking money from Hugo Chavez, and working to destroy the _Bush administration:

According to co-director Maria Corina Machado, Súmate is an objective non-partisan civil association. When asked why Súmate has worked exclusively with the Venezuelan opposition since its inception in 2002, Machado said that their overtures to the government were regularly rebuffed. Machado neglected to mention that one of the reasons the government may have been hesitant to work with her group is because she was a famous participant in the 2002 coup that briefly overthrew Chávez. She is currently being investigated for treason.

Perhaps another reason the government may have shied away from Súmate is because of the funding they have received from the US-based National Endowment for Democracy.

Due to Súmate’s infamy as an arm of Venezuela’s opposition umbrella group the Democratic Coordinador, Machado noted that volunteers stationed in chavista neighbourhoods would not reveal their identities. Since campaigning ended on Thursday, and political groups are not permitted to solicit votes at voting centers on Sunday, Súmate has instructed its volunteers to pose as ‘good samaritans’.

The role of the volunteers, according Machado, is to help citizens to resolve any problems they may encounter during the voting process. For example, “if someone comes to a voting center to vote and their name’s not on the list...that will happen.”

According to Súmate’s Altamira volunteers, “we are here to provide food for the people in line, to provide them with water, to help them in any way we can to facilitate the voting process. And to do exit polls, to see if they voted ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.”

“And you have volunteers providing food in all the lines all over the country?”

“Yes, absolutely. Everywhere,” responded another white-clad Súmate pollster.
(snip/...)

http://www.alia2.net/article1824.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sumate worked directly for the anti-Chavez movements in Venezuela, was partially funded by the USA and worked in close collaboration with most of the radical anti-Chavez (anti-democracy) sectors in Venezuela … those sectors which were primarily responsible for the industry sabotage and the destabilization of the country in 2002 and 2003.

http://www.williambowles.info/venezuela/ven_hr.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also, a top secret CIA document titled "Venezuela: Conditions Ripening for Coup Attempt", was obtained through a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request by Eva Golinger, a New York-based lawyer. The memo was written on April 6th 2002 - just five days before the coup.

The CIA has a long history of sabotage aimed at progressive movements in Latin America, from paramilitary terrorism against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua to the assassination of Allende in Chile. The Chávez government's policies of wealth redistribution and spending oil profits on free healthcare, education and housing makes it a prime target for attack.

Golinger also discovered that, since 2001, the US government has channelled over $20-million to forces fiercely opposed to President Chávez. Three-quarters of it came from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a quasi-governmental entity entirely funded by Congress and widely perceived to be a CIA-front.

Danilo Anderson, the murdered prosecutor, was trained to follow the money - in this case, from the United States. Venezuela, like most countries, has strict laws about this: it is illegal for any organisation in Venezuela to take money from a foreign power in order to influence elections. (If this seems overly harsh, consider the outrage if, say, Libya were to start funding the Respect party here!)

One such organisation is Súmate, who spearheaded the August referendum campaign against Chávez, and according to Golinger's FOIA research has received more than $3-million through the NED. Despite claiming the money was used "just for teaching", it is also being charged with creating a parallel electoral council in an attempt to illegally influence the referendum result.
(snip/...)

http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/venezuela_ruska_russian/

She is on the list of NGO's which be attending the meeting this week.

Our Divine Emperor, who is protecting the terrorist Posada, meets with his puppets among the Venezuelan elites. The only thing at risk in Venezuela is the power and influence of the Caracas upper clases.

Just look...see how dangerous Chavez is...

"The Chavez government's policies of wealth redistribution and spending oil profits on free health care, education and housing makes it a prime target for attack. "

Things like this make the fascist bastards very, very upset. Imagine, democratically electing a man who is actually serving the ones who elected him, instead of the bloated elite. Just imagine if things like that were to happen in this country.

Things like the "Paris Hilton" tax break wouldn't be allowed. We might use tax money on the needy, and tax the rich at a fair rate, instead of shifting the burden to the rapidly vanishing middle class, and the hopeless poor.

Oh, the horrors!

:woohoo:

They are completely determined to control the country, no matter how many lives are needlessly lost to bone-crushing poverty and true suffering. She's a true member of the _BushLeague!

``I have nothing to hide,'' Sumate's vice president Machado, a 37-year-old mother of three, declared during an interview in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital. ``I do not fear justice. I fear injustice.'' Educated and dressed like a fashion plate, Machado in many ways typifies the opposition to Chavez. Like most of those who held sway in the racially divided country until the copper-toned Chavez took office in 1999, she is fair-skinned and comes from an elite family.


She holds a degree in industrial engineering and speaks a fluent English that she perfected in frequent trips to the United States,
where she has vigorously lobbied for international pressure on Venezuela to drop conspiracy charges against her and Sumate president Alejandro Plaz. Though she refuses to accept Chavez's defeat of the Sumate-led recall referendum, whose results were upheld by the Organization of
American States and the Carter Center, Machado contends her work is nonpartisan.

Asked why she was in the presidential palace hours after the coup, Machado insisted she was only accompanying her mother, who'd wanted to
visit her ``very good friend'' -- the wife of coup leader Pedro Carmona. As for her signature on the decree suspending or dissolving the Supreme Court, National Assembly and Constitution, Machado claimed she innocently put her name and national identity number on a blank paper she assumed was a reception sheet.
Machado is among the signers whom Venezuelan prosecutors have subpoenaed as material witnesses as part of investigations into the coup.
Others on that list include elected officials, business and ex-military leaders, and NED fund recipients such as Rocio Guijarro, general manager of the neoliberal Venezuelan think-tank CEDICE, and education activist Leonardo Carvajal -- who was tapped as Carmona's education minister, but insists he would not have accepted the job unless democracy had been restored.
(snip/...)http://www.dj.com.ve/hotnews.htm



Machado, and her mom's friend, the
Dictator-for-a-Day, Pedro Carmona Estanga.

While Hugo isn't eligible to be elected President of the United States, he has as much right to the job and the guy who lost two elections. I'd much rather have Hugo for a President than Bush.

which began, as I recall, with a democratically elected constitutional convention that as it drafted the new constitution, replaced judges, created new courts, shifted the balance of power.

Mother of three, Machado is free pending trial in Caracas for her admittedly sideline role in the April 2002, but more importantly for illegally receiving thousands of US$ from the US government sponsored National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to fund anti-government actions in Venezuela.

Against the background of the United States' funding of the attempted coup in April 2002 and the Bush administration's finance and logistic support for the failed coup d'etat, the Tuesday meeting is seen as an outright admission of US complicity in the Venezuelan anti-democratic movement which has largely lost support since it was routed in an August 2004 attempt to oust the President (Chavez Frias) by more democratic means at the ballot box.

Nevertheless, Machado has been accorded full liberty pending a court hearing scheduled for June 10 in Caracas ... Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR) deputy Cilla Flores has meanwhile told Venezolana de Television (VTV) that even before her fraternization with Bush at the White House today, Machado is " a traitor to her country." adding that "she's up there (in Washington) looking for more money...''
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=36579

I guess we should all say, "You're welcome, Maria."

From your link, this great point:

The United States has gone into paranoid melt-down over President Chavez Frias' refusal to yield Venezuelan's national sovereignty and his refusal to kow-tow Washington's demands to be given carte blanche to walk all over Venezuela's nationalized oil industry.

Maria Corina Machado and pal (from your article).
Whatta coupla clowns.

Another important distinction: Unless people have gone to the trouble to look into it, it's possible a lot of them imagine Hugo Chavez is responsible for the nationalization of Venezuelan oil. The nationalization happened long before Chavez was elected President by a landslide, and strongly confirmed through the recall election arranged by the opposition!

I'll bet she speaks fluent English, and that she spent some time studying in the US. Again, not your average Venezuelan.

America has been in the business of overturning Latin American governments for a long, long time now. I suspect under the rule of the BFEE things are going to get far, far worse.

US troops kidnapped Aristide and put him on a plane out of the country.

The US militarily controls Haiti. US forces could just whisk him away and let his replacements take over.

Chavez has a military and controls venezuala, he has already surivived a military and political coup. His military is not controlled by the US government.

If the anti-chevez people in Venezuala cant get some results soon the US is going to start to move big on Chavez. The US elites can ill afford a public demonstration of self determination in South America.