U.S. ambassador's car pelted in Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez pelted the U.S. ambassador's car with fruit, vegetables, and eggs on Friday, and a group of motorcyclists chased his convoy for miles, at times pounding on the cars, a U.S. Embassy official said. No one was hurt.

Embassy spokesman Brian Penn said Venezuelan police escorts did not intervene as the car Ambassador William Brownfield was riding in was pounded on by protesters and hit by produce.

"We're being attacked by groups of motorcyclists while we're traveling in an embassy car," Penn told The Associated Press by cellphone shortly before the motorcycles stopped chasing the four-car convoy.

"It's a very violent demonstration by a small group of people who appear to be organized by the mayor's office," Penn said.

USA Today

...didn't Nixon get nailed with a vegetable when he went to a South American country?

That was the first thing I thought of when I read this. ;-)

that was a long time ago and i still remember seeing the pictures and i think the story in life magazine..dam i am getting old..life magazine

Wish they had been sitting in the sun for a couple of months

I think it was in 1959 or so (Central America). A friend of mine was in the University of Miami marching band, which was in the same parade there as VP Nixon. The hostility of the crowd toward Nixon scared my friend spit-less.

Eggs, vegetables, and harrassment is a small price to pay when you try to overthrow a democratically elected government.

Coconuts fired from ballistas may have been more appropriate and they don't do bodywork much good either.

They do say - if you don't like the heat get out of the kitchen.

Give bush another year or so and
events like these might be commonplace

in 2000 as he rode in his motorcade to be sworn in? I thought Michael moore had footage of this in his 911 DVD

I missed that one

Assuming of course that this is a true account of what occurred. (Considering the source.) It indicates either a lack of concern and respect, or a high level of dislike, or both.

It's difficult to hold any respect for a government dignitary that the mainstream citizens of a nation can't respect even their own president!
"*" has been throwing much worse at Chavez and even more threats!

I understand your point, but it's still somewhat new for something this egregious to occur. It is sort of like the recent increase of belligerence in Iran, is seems to indicate a change of attitude.

We depend on them for a lot of oil.They can sell all of their oil elsewhere with no problem and in fact have been making noises about doing just that.If Bush does'nt like the treatment the usual first step is to withdraw the ambassador.I would hope this is what is meant by "severe diplomatic consequences".I don't think Chavez could care less.

At Lampson's rally the other day the cops stood by while DeLay supporters physically attacked his supporters.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x202078

See Delay's goons in action and the police responce

then most people in the West, because they have been suffering from US international meddling for a long, long time before the popular counter movement in Latin America got going.

In Western nations there is far less motivation to oppose the global unlimited capitalist movement because although there is some awareness, there is far less suffering then in developing nations.

out to loot their country.

Mr. Danger: link

http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2005/11/mr_danger.html

Thanks for passing it along!

ago when I went there frequently but didn't quite grasp the story...mostly because of my fluency-lacking Spanish. Thanks for the info.

Given the source I wouldn't even believe it was the Ambassador--probably some fuckin' spook with a camera that the locals ran off. Maybe his security detail got a little obnoxious to the locals and the situation just rolled on.

Lucky for the fellow the crowd didn't stop the car, make him get out, strip him, and have the People give his dumb ass a lecture on respect and human dignity and how US policies are oppressing Latin people, and THEN make him walk the fuck BACK to his Embassy....

:nopity:

who has been activ in So.American political affairs for many years. Former ambassador to Chile. Reportedly involved in Iran Contra with John neghroponte mess and other counter So. American governments. So.Americans probably have plenty of reason to egg this man who has been interfering in So. American politics.

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/printer_16085.shtml

What's that site again...?

Axis of Logic...right...that's it ;-)

Good site for Venezuela watchers is Milfuegos BTW

Brownfield. He has had a very triumphant string of right-wing victories over the citizens of other countries. What a poisonous presense he and people like him make in this world.

From your great link:

In El Salvador, one player stands out from the rest, the current ambassador to Venezuela, William Brownfield. He played a decisive role along with John Negroponte as a political officer in the embassy cover-up of US involvement in the assassination Archbishop Oscar Romero. He also worked to cover up the murder of the four American Maryknoll nuns and other nuns escaping the violence there. Brownfield also played a key role in directing the death squads and El Salvadorean military, who butchered tens of thousands of trade unionists and members of the FMLN. The death squads did not just kill these people, but in a lot of cases they dismembered them and placed their heads on poles as a warning to the rest of the population.

In Venezuela, US ambassador Brownfield has been brought in as a relief pitcher to former ambassador Robert Shapiro, himself no stranger to coups. Shapiro helped in the staging of the April 2002 coup against President Chavez and the destabilization programs that followed. He was also involved in the CIA-backed murderous overthrow of Chilean President Salvador Allende in September of 1973, and death of thousands of people under a military dictatorship that lasted a decade.

In fact, William Brownfield, as US ambassador to Chile on the anniversary of the overthrow of that government in 2003, stated publicly in a memorial service "people who hate the United States must be controlled, arrested or eliminated."
(snip)

So people like _Bush can terrorize entire countries, as did Reagan, generate overwhelming fear and hatred BECAUSE of their actions, and dolts like Brownfield will call for slaughtering them for their completely natural hatred of abuse.

I wouldn't want to be around him after this episode. Can you imagine him and Bolton pissed off at each other?

also corrodes their spirits.



Looks like the ugliness is far more than skin-deep, doesn't it?

He looks creepy. I usually have a good feeling about these things too.

attitudes and dispositions, I would think.

Appearances can be deceptive, surely, but there are some characteristics which seem to be standard everywhere. Very hardened-looking faces are usually worn by people who have removed themselves from conscientious thinking and conduct.

death squads in El Salvador--let alone a major instigator. It's hard to put the evils that Americans like this have perpetrated on the rest of the world into list a bad, worse, worst and unspeakable. I suppose Vietnam has to rank as unspeakable, because of its sheer magnitude--upwards of two million Vietnamese and Southeast Asians burned, bombed or shot. But somehow the spirit of the Vietnamese people never waivered. We could not defeat them, physically or spiritually. They pitied us! That is why I would even hestate to put them first--because, despite the scale of death, they were not bowed.

It's the demoralizing atocities that are hardest to forgive, and, of those, El Salvador comes first to my mind. And Nicaragua second. And Haiti third (although the French share that one with us). The list is very long.

I guess I am speaking personally--what hit me at the time. I knew no one there. But I did know nuns, and priests, and leftists who were like those who were murdered. I might have been murdered myself, had I lived there. And despite my lack of piety, the story of that generous and courageous man, Archbishop Romero, and his murder in his church, utterly bewildered me, for one thing. I couldn't imagine a Salvadoran man who could bring himself to do that. It was beyond the beyond. I didn't know much about the School of the Americas, at the time. But I know now that they took people out of their communities and away from their homes, and their loved ones, and all their ties to humanity, including their religious ties, and out of their country and their culture, and programmed them to be torturers and killers.

Killing of the spirit. Death of the soul. Turning a once loving boy or man into a monster, deliberately.

Ah, me. And Nicaragua was equally bad--not so much from church associations, as from the perspective of a US citizen, who saw the US Congress forbid that terrible war, and then the Reaganites go right ahead and do it anyway, covertly, through their dirty ties to Iranian arms dealers. There never was a more non-violent violent revolution than that one--led by mild-mannered Daniel Ortega, father of eight children.

And none of the men who did these things has ever paid for it, as they should. I don't believe in jail or the death penalty. I think they all, from Reagan on down, should have been made to give all their money to the poor, and do lifetimes of gentle community service among the poor, the sick, the downtrodden, the old. I still believe in redemption. I believe that we are obliged to give every soul every possible chance it can have at redemption and enlightenment.

That's what I think we should do with the Bushites--after we get as much of the peoples' money back as possible.

I am ready to replace the entire court and "justice" system with councils of wise people, maybe all retired people, who are charged with creating sentences that aim at redemption, enlightenment and healing, perhaps on a system of good behavior whereby the time of service or healing (or restitution) is knocked down according to willing cooperation.

Of course we would have to reform many laws to do this (such a legalizing all drug use) and decriminalize our whole society and begin working from entirely different premises.

The crime of killing a person's spirit, or a peoples' spirit--their hopes, their dreams, their resilience--is a very great one. It is difficult not to desire harsh punishment for such criminals--in the delusion that it is a deterrent. It isn't. We have to find another way.

Wonderfully, other Latin American peoples' have not been bowed by the atrocities inflicted on them in our name--or if they were bowed, it was temporary, and they have successfully walked what must have been a difficult road back to peace, justice and empowerment. I'm thinking of Michele Batchelet, just elected president of Chile--who was tortured by our approved dictator Pinochet, and lost family members to that junta.

I don't have much information about El Salvador and Nicaragua now--except that I just read somewhere that the Bushites are interfering in the Nicaraguan election to prevent Daniel Ortega from becoming president.

I don't know that El Salvadorans or Nicaraguans have damaged spirits. But if they do, they may be greatly heartened by what is happening elsewhere in Latin America.

Judi, if you know about these countries, please fill me in.

tonight, butI'll post a few things to think about now, and hope to add other material later. Here's something I'm sure most people in the States haven't heard about:

TORTURE IN EL SALVADOR:THE CENSORED REPORT FROM MARIONA PRISON

In late 1986, a 165-page report was smuggled out of the Mariona
men's prison in El Salvador. The report was compiled by five
imprisoned members of the Human Rights Commission of El Salvador
(CDHES). The report documents the "routine" and "systematic" use of at
least 40 kinds of torture on political prisoners.
The report made three main points: first, torture is systematic,
not random; second, the methods of torture are becoming more clever;
and finally, U.S. servicemen often act as supervisors. What is new to
torture in El Salvador, according to the study, is that the use of
torture, together with the continued (although diminished) use of
death-squad kidnappings of the "disappeared," are all a systematic
part of of the U.S. counterinsurgency program there.
The Marin Interfaith Task Force, from Mill Valley, California,
assembled the smuggled report from Mariona prison into a document
titled "Torture in El Salvador." Starting in September, 1986, the Task
Force has tried to generate media interest in the story. Suzanne
Bristol of the task force, said the group sent the report to the
nation's major newspapers, including THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE
WASHINGTON POST, THE BOSTON GLOBE, and the LOS ANGELES TIMES, as well
as to the wire services. By February, 1987, when Alexander Cockburn
wrote his article for THE NATION, UPI had run a Spanish-language story
and the report had received coverage on Spanish-language radio, in
Mexican periodicals and in Europe. Follow-up calls to the above papers
produced nothing, except for two letters in December from Art
Seidenbaum of the LOS ANGELES TIMES, who first wrote "You send plenty
of homework," and later wrote "We really have ... no staff for making
a 1500-word article out of a large series of reports."
As Cockburn noted, it was "during this period, on November 22,
Secretary of State George Shultz asked Congress to approve nearly $7
million in police aid for El Salvador in 1987, providing the necessary
certification that the government of El Salvador had 'made significant
progress during the six-month period preceding this determination in
eliminating any human rights violations, including torture,
incommunicado detention ...'"
Apparently only one newspaper gave the actual report substantial
coverage. The SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER ran two excellent articles by
free lance journalist Ron Ridenhour, who quoted State Department
spokesman James Callahan saying that the CDHES, the only Salvadoran
human rights group recognized by the United Nations, is a communist
"front organization." (It was Ridenhour's charges that led to the
revelations about the Army's massacre of civilians in My Lai.)
On October 26, 1987, assassins, probably belonging to the
Salvadoran security forces, murdered Herbert Ernesto Anaya, head of
the Salvadoran Human Rights Commission and the last survivor of that
commission's eight founders.
Anaya also was one of the five original researchers and authors
of the smuggled report from the Mariona men's prison.
(snip/...)

http://www.skepticfiles.org/mys1/pc09.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here's what caught my attention, a moment ago, when I was attempting to find a representative photo of the funeral procession of El Mozote massacre victems (it was a very long, winding stream of citizens carrying coffins through mountain paths, in El Salvador while Reagan/Bush were in power. I'm posting the google page of photos of Mariona prison, as it isn't suitable for copying and pasting the photos. It would be my impression this is how a machete attack looks after the one-sided battle against unarmed prisoners.
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&q=Mariona+massacre+&btnG=Search

You will find what you read about the massacre at El Salvador to be real food for thought. Here's a quick summary:

VILLAGE OF EL MOZOTE

On the afternoon of 10 December 1981, units of the Atlacatl Rapid Deployment Infantry Battalion (BIRI) arrived in the village of El Mozote, Department of Morazan, after a clash with guerrillas in the vicinity.

The village consisted of about 20 houses situated on open ground round a square. Facing onto the square was a church and behind it small building known as "the convent," used by the priest to change into his vestments when he came to the village to celebrate mass. Not far from the village was a school, the Grupo Escolar.

When the soldiers arrived in the village they found, in addition to the residents, other peasants who were refugees from the surrounding areas. They ordered everyone out of the houses and into the square; they made them lie face down, searched them and asked them about the guerrillas. They then ordered them to lock themselves in their houses until the next day, warning that anyone coming out would be hot. The soldiers remained in the village during the night.

Early next morning, 11 December, the soldiers reassembled the entire population in the square. They separated the men from the women and children and locked everyone up in different groups in he church, the convent and various houses.

During the morning, they proceeded to interrogate, torture and execute the men in various locations. Around noon, they began taking out the women in groups, separating them from their children and machine-gunning them. Finally, they killed the children. A group of children who had been locked in the convent were machine-gunned through the windows. After exterminating the entire population, the soldiers set fire to the buildings.

The soldiers remained in El Mozote that night. The next day, they went through the village of Los Toriles, situated 2 kilometres away. Some of the inhabitants managed to escape. The others, men, women, and children, were taken from their homes, lined up and machine-gunned.

The victims at El Mozote were left unburied. During the weeks that followed the bodies were seen by many people who passed by there. In Los Toriles, the survivors subsequently buried the bodies.
(snip)

http://www.parascope.com/articles/0197/el_moz05.htm
http://www.parascope.com/articles/0197/el_mozdocs.htm

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

Photos of the destroyed town:
http://mikeoso.homestead.com/mozote.html

January/February 1993 | Contents
THE MOZOTE MASSACRE

It was the reporters' word against the government's

by Mike Hoyt
Hoyt is associate editor of CJR.
EL MOZOTE, El Salvadore, Oct. 20 -- In a small rectangular plot among the overgrown ruins of a village here, a team of forensic archeologists has opened a window on El Salvador's nightmarish past. . . . Nearly 11 years after American-trained soldiers were said to have torn through El Mozote and surrounding hamlets on a rampage in which at least 794 people were killed, the bones have emerged as stark evidence that the claims of peasant survivors and the reporters of a couple of American journalists were true.

So begins Tim Golden's October 22 New York Times story, which describes the unearthing of skeletons by forensic experts working in what was once a collection of rural villages in northern El Salvador. A similar article, by Douglas Farah, appeared the same day in The Washington Post. Reporters from both papers had been the only journalists to report on the 1981 massacre, and both Raymond Bonner of the Times and Alma Guillermoprieto of the Post paid a price for their coverage, which drew immediate fire from Reagan administration officials and others on the political right. To Bonner and Guillermoprieto, and to photojournalist Susan Meiselas, who traveled to El Mozote with Bonner back in 1981, the belated confirmation of what they knew to be true was both welcome and disturbing, bringing back strong memories of the grisly scene they came upon at the end of a long walk through Morazan province, a guerrilla stronghold.

It was shortly before Christmas in 1981 that soldiers from the elite American-trained Atlacatl Battalion conducted a search-and-destroy operation around El Mozote. A few days after they entered the area, the guerrillas' clandestine radio station began to broadcast reports of a massacre of civilians in the area. Reporters started pushing the guerrillas, officially called the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, for proof. "There wasn't a reporter there who didn't want to go in with them," Bonner recalls.

The rebels, who had a sophisticated sense of how to use the media, offered guided behind-the-lines tours to reporters from America's two most important newspapers. Bonner and Meiselas were the first to go in, in early January. The journey involved traveling through government-held territory. Bonner remembers fording a river, carrying his clothing over his head, under a full moon. Meiselas says that what she most vividly remembers about their arrival in El Mozote was the sound, or the lack of it: "A very haunted village. Nothing moving. A plaza with a number of destroyed houses. And total silence."
(snip/...)

http://archives.cjr.org/year/93/1/mozote.asp

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

Book on the subject:The El Mozote Massacre
Anthropology and Human Rights
Leigh Binford

The 1981 slaughter of more than a thousand civilians around El Mozote, El Salvador, by the country's U.S.-trained army was the largest massacre of the Salvadoran civil war.The story was covered and soon forgotten—by the news media.It was revived in 1993 only when the U.S. government was accused of covering up the incident.
(snip/...)

http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/BOOKS/bid999.htm

Here's the more recent part of a US/Nicaragua timeline. A year to examine is 1980. There's so much I've got to read about these events, also. I have only scratched through to the most superficial level myself:

1954: Somoza sends mercenary forces to Guatemala to help U.S. forces oust socialist president, Jacobo Arbenz.

1955: Somoza pulls Nicaraguan troops from the Dominican Republic, who have intervened with U.S. military operations.

1956: Anastasio Somoza is assassinated and succeeded by his son, Luis Somoza Debayle.
For four years after his son's regime, close associates of the Somoza family maintain political control of Nicaragua.

1960: The U.S. dispatches its Caribbean Float to Nicaragua and Guatemala to protect administrations from popular sector uprisings
1961: US mercenaries depart from Nicaragua's Puerto Cabezas and invade Playa Girón, Cuba. They suffer a historical defeat known as the "Bay of Pigs."

1966: Somoza Debayle makes René Schick president . During a visit to the U.S., Schick volunteers Nicaragua to serve as an U.S. military base for invading Cuba.

1967: Somoza Debayle establishes a military autocracy, silencing his opposition through the National Guard.

1967: Somoza Debayle offers soldiers from his National Guard to fight in the Vietnam War.

1968: Nicaraguan functionaries, sent by Somoza Debayle, help overthrow Panamanian president, Arnulfo Arias.

1971: Somoza Debayle steps down from government, but retains the post, Chief of the Armed Forces. A governing coalition is formed, which is comprised of a Conservative and two Liberal executives.

1972: A devastating earthquake strikes Managua, leaving 6,000 dead and 20,000 injured. Somoza Debayle embezzles money from international relief funds. Martial law is declared; and Somoza Debayle is made Chief Executive of the Nicaraguan government. U.S. marines are sent to Nicaragua to insure Somoza's regime is instituted.

1974: Somoza is decreed president of Nicaragua.

1978: By the end of the decade, Nicaragua experiences an economic slowdown and circumstances are ripe for a revolution. Joaquín Chamorro, editor of the anti-Somoza newspaper, La Prensa, is assassinated. The public holds Somoza responsible. Led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), anti-Somoza guerrilla forces launch a violent uprising against the military. Nicaragua is plunged into a near civil war.

1979: Somoza resigns on July 17th, and flees to Miami, exiling to Paraguay. On July 20th, Sandinista forces enter Managua, and hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans celebrate their triumph.

1980: Somoza is assassinated in Paraguay. The Sandinista government implements social programs, which receive international recognition for their gains in literacy, health care, education, childcare, unions, and land reform. For the first time in history, Nicaraguans are called to decide their own future. Just as they struggle for increased self-sufficiency, the Reagan-Bush administration begins funding the Contra War. The goal is to undermine the Sandinista regime. This ten-year war is fought at the cost of 60, 000 lives, 178 billion dollars, and the Nicaraguan infrastructure and economy.

1980: Political control is shifted to a five-member junta, which rules Nicaragua from 1980 to 1985. Among the junta members is Violeta Chamorro, the widow of the late journalist, Joaquín Chamorro.

1985: FSLN's presidential candidate, Daniel Ortega takes office and declares a state of national emergency, suspending civil rights. The Iran-Contra Affair begins. This U.S.-orchestrated operation secretly channels funds to the Contras soldiers, which is in direct violation with the Boland Amendment.

1988: Nicaragua is a disaster zone, ravaged by civil war and the onslaught of Hurricane Hugo. President Ortega agrees to the first round of peace talks with Contra leaders. A temporary truce is reached in March.

1990: The moderate UNO Coalition candidate, Violeta Chamorro is elected president of Nicaragua. Chamorro improves diplomatic relations with the U.S. At this time, the FSLN party still holds the majority of popular support in Nicaragua.

1991: The UNO coalition governs Nicaragua. They severely cut government spending on successful, Sandinista-led social programs in such areas as health care and education. On July 1st, right wing sectors attack Sandinista land reforms, which have redistributed land to small-scale farmers. The impact is felt across the nation.

1997: Arnoldo Alemán Lacayo, the Liberal Party's conservative candidate, wins the presidential elections- 49 to 39 percent over FSLN opponent, Daniel Ortega.
(snip/...)

http://www.stanford.edu/group/arts/nicaragua/discovery_eng/timeline/

In El Salvador, the Slain Finally Rest in Peace

By DAVID GONZALEZ

El Mozote, El Salvador, Dec. 10 New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/11/world/11SALV.html

~snip~
People now say she can no longer shed a tear, since she has cried
herself dry. She says her escape was an act of providence, and she
clings to that miracle as she tries to let go of her misery.
"You can never heal," she said. "There is no justice. There is no
recognition of what we faced. The government has done nothing."
Although a United Nations Truth Commission report said that 85
percent of the war's atrocities were committed by the military and
its allies, attempts to hold them accountable have been
unsuccessful in El Salvador and the United States.

The prosecutor in the case against the president and commanders at
the time of the murder in 1989 of six Jesuit priests has asked that
the case be closed. A recent federal civil trial in Florida brought
by the relatives of four American churchwomen slain by the military
absolved former Defense Minister Jos Guillermo García and the
former National Guard director, Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, of
any responsibility.

The controversial amnesty passed by the legislature here soon
after the peace accords was recently upheld by the Supreme Court,
although it also said that lower courts might apply it as they saw
fit. Human rights advocates are doubtful that any would take the
initiative.

"They closed the door but left a window open," said Wilfredo
Medrano, a lawyer with the archbishop's legal office. "But it is a
titanic struggle. If the Supreme Court said the amnesty was
constitutional, no lower judge will say it is unconstitutional."
His office brought a lawsuit about 10 years ago in the case of El
Mozote, but it stalled for lack of detailed witness accounts. It
was ultimately derailed on account of the amnesty soon after the
first exhumations were completed, even though ballistic reports
indicated that the 500 bullet and cartridge fragments unearthed
were the kind used by the Atlcatl Battalion, which was trained and
supplied by the United States.
(snip)

http://www.votb.org/elmozote.html

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

Also, not discussed much here, yet, GUATEMALA, and HONDURAS. There's so very, very much available through digging, which draws, with no uncertainty, distinct patterns of similarity throughout Latin America. The more you read, the less inclined you become to be buffalo'd by supporters of U.S. right-wing idiot Republican Presidential policy in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Eye opening look at where some of our obligatory tax payments go:
http://www.derechos.org/soa/elsal-not.html

Yes!!

There was a photo of him in the LBN, just 3 days ago. The title of the thread was, "Venezuela students protest U.S. Envoy". There was a photo of Mr. Brownfield. The man looked terrified. His whole forehead was covered in sweat. His eyes had pure fear written in them.

The article said that "Several dozen university students burned tires in protest as the U.S. ambassador visited eastern Venezuela Tuesday.

About 40 students from the University of the East tried to set up a barricade of burning tires in the city of Cumana outside the hotel where U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield was meeting with leaders in local business and non-governmental organizations.

Yet the students protested for several hours against U.S. "imperialism,".
- - - - - -
Back on Mar. 31, Mr. Brownfield surfaces again. This time, he wants Chavez to show a little restraint:

CARACAS, Venezuela - The U.S. ambassador to Venezuela said Wednesday he hopes to see more constructive dialogue and less name-calling rhetoric from President Hugo Chavez.

Chavez often calls President Bush "Mr. Danger," and also has labeled him a "madman" and a "drunkard."

"Hopefully, in the future we can express our differences and discrepancies in a manner that doesn‘t include rhetoric like — I don‘t know — donkey, drunkard, murderer, demented person, terrorist," Brownfield told the Venezuelan television station Televen.
- - - - - -
I'd say Mr. Brownfield has worn out his welcome.

history with them, it appears. Any President who has such little regard for a country he would consider appointing someone like Brownfield as his representative in its capitol city is sending the citizens the message he already considers them people who should bend to his will, or else.

Once his history gets around the population, he may be able to expect more of these citizens' Welcome Wagons.

I didn't need to go into detail about Mr. Brownpile. He's been shown numerous times on this thread!

Thanks, all.

And yes, he looks totally sinister and evil.

and I would have cussed him in proper colloquial English.

:patriot:


:sarcasm:

Published: Friday, April 07, 2006
Bylined to: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Garrido: All eyes in Venezuela watching Navy of the Americas project in Caribbean

VHeadline.com News Editor Patrick J. O'Donoghue writes: Venezuelan political analyst, Alberto Garrido has been delving into US Southern Command plans for the Caribbean basin.

Garrido points out that the start of joint naval exercises in April and May, codenamed "Operation Society of the Americas" is part of a Pentagon and Southern Command plan to ensure a partnership link with friendly Navies in the region.

Southern Command chief, General Bantz Craddock has told the Senate that although Latin America is one of the lesser armed regions, it cannot be considered benign.
Since the threats to the USA and its associates are mostly non-conventional, Craddock maintains, the response and solutions must follow that reasoning.

6,500 marines will be taking part in the exercise, undoubtedly raising invasion fears in Venezuela.
Venezuela is not taking part in the exercises.

The US had attempted in the 90s to create an Army of the Americas, which never came to fruition and Garrido claims that the Pentagon hopes to succeed with the Navy of the Americas, brainchild of former SouthCom chief, James Hill.
(snip/...)

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=53144

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

I find it odd that we, the voters and taxpayers, were never informed of plans for an "Army of the Americas" nor _{Bush/Rumsfeld's} stroke of genius, the "Navy of the Americas."

How many Latin American countries does _Bush imagine will join his effort to get tighter control of Latin America?

I notice that Bush has displayed the Mussolini Mouth on several occasions. The mark of a bully.

WASHINGTON -- The State Department accused Caracas city officials of complicity Friday in an attack on the car of U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield in the Venezuelan capital.

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns summoned Venezuelan Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez to the State Department and told him that Venezuela was in violation of an international treaty that requires the host countries to ensure the safety of foreign diplomats, department spokesman Sean McCormack said. \

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-us-venezuela,0,5974568.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

They should have prepared themselves by watching Monty Python's perfectly good sketch:
Self-defense Against Fresh Fruit

http://www.jumpstation.ca/recroom/comedy/python/banana.html

I'm sure the police were behaving appropriately for a free country.

Since has BUSH 'recognized' anything but his own rules?

BUSH,Sr.
HENRY KISSINGER
NEGROPONTE
OLIVER NORTH
JOHN POINDEXTER
CASPER WEINBERGER
BRENT SCOWCROFT
Michael Ledeen
Alan D. Fiers, ]Jr
Duane 'Dewey' Clarridge
Thomas G. Clines
Clair E. George
Major General Richard V. Secord
Michael Townley

Boland Amendment...all do comes to mind.

Remind me again what he did with that plane? Must have pelted it with rotten fruit. If it was anything more serious he'd met the heavy arm of justice by now.

You Can't Spit on a Foreign Policy
You Can't Spit on a Foreign Policy
Russ Olson (1)

Richard M. Nixon went to Caracas, Venezuela, as Vice President in May, 1958. In his book, Six Crises, Nixon described that experience, which he called one of the worst of his life, in some detail. But how did we ever get in a position in which the Vice President of the United States of America and his wife suffered gross indignities and actually came close to losing their lives? There are a number of explanations - one more succinct and to the point than all the others. Someone, I believe it was Lewis Hanke of Colombia University, asked former Costa Rican President Jose "Pepe" Figueres why people had stooped so low as to spit on the Vice President of the United States. Don Pepe replied, "It's simple. You can't spit on a foreign policy."

That which follows differs significantly from Nixon's Six Crises. Nixon's account was written from the perspective of a public and political figure who benefitedpolitically from the events, and my account is written from the perspective of a very junior Embassy officer who was shocked with events and fed up both with the Venezuelans and the American policies which made it so easy for the Communists to agitate so successfully against Nixon's presence.

My family and I arrived in Caracas on July 3, 1957, for our first tour in the Foreign Service. Thus, only slightly over ten months had elapsed between our arrival and the Nixon visit. Even in that very short time we saw enough to understand clearly why it had been so easy for the Communists to stir up anti-American feelings.

In mid-1957 Venezuelans were suffering under the heel of a brutal military dictator, Marcos Perez Jimenez, a pompous general to whom the Pentagon decided to award the U.S. Legion of Merit. The American Ambassador at the time was Dempster Macintosh, a successful businessman with a friend on the Republican National Committee. MacIntosh spoke not a word of Spanish but was able to hurt us anyway- giving speeches which were translated. At a time during which a colleague and I saw National Security police fire their guns through a school fence at school children who were chanting, "Down with the dictatorship," the American Ambassador was telling Venezuelans how lucky they were to be living in an economic democracy. What he really meant was that United States Steel (he was a steel magnate) had access to 17 million tons of iron ore annually and the oil companies, American, British and Dutch to three million barrels of oil a day. One American oil company, Creole Petroleum, produced half as much oil as the Soviet Union which was then the world's third largest producing country.
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http://www.shafr.org/newsletter/2000/sep/spit.htm

when we barge in as the "big kid on the block" , ready to tell others what to do..

Too funny!

tomotoes as WMD? Would we go to war over this??

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -

Supporters of President Hugo Chavez threw eggs and tomatoes at the U.S. ambassador's car Friday and motorcyclists chased his convoy for miles, at times pounding on the vehicles. The U.S. State Department swiftly accused Caracas city officials of complicity.

Venezuelan Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez was summoned to the State Department in Washington and told that his country was in violation of an international convention that requires host countries to ensure the safety of foreign diplomats, department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

The diplomat was warned there would be "severe diplomatic consequences between our countries" if another such incident should occur, McCormack said.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-sa/2006/apr/07/040700509.html

decided to pump my gas ONLY at Citgo.

go to. There all over here in Metro Atlanta. It's cathartic pumping gas at a station owned by a country that the bush crime family hates. Indeed.

just look at Brownfield. PNACer in disguise...

I'll just bet he really cares about those Venezuelan kids all right!
If the Bush mafia cared about kids they wouldn't attack Iraq, Iran and try to overthrow a popular elected president. (I bought Citco oil this time - .50 a quart cheaper)

However, given that it is a Tyrannical Empire of Lies currently, I take no issue with pelting tyrants and their representatives with veggies (preferrably stale).

Maybe one day, we will be free again.

Venezuela condemns aggressive protest against US ambassador

www.chinaview.cn 2006-04-09 12:46:19

CARACAS, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela on Saturday acknowledged "excesses" in a latest protest against U.S. ambassador to Caracas, but also clarified its own opinions.

"The Venezuelan government and people condemn any act of protest that goes beyond the limits of respect," acting Foreign Minister Alcides Rondon told a press briefing after the U.S. government reacted sharply to the incident.

On Friday, after being forced to leave a charity event, U.S. ambassador William Brownfield's car was pelted with eggs, onions and tomatoes by supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The U.S. government responded immediately, summoning Venezuela's ambassador and warning him of "severe diplomatic consequence" should more similar incidents occur.

In recent months, Brownfield has encountered several protests on various occasions, with one incident forcing him to remain inside a building for hours.
(snip/...)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-04/09/content_4401938.htm

:kick: :kick: http://www.wrenshorseboxes.com.nyud.net:8090/donkey_kick_punching__a_mw.gif