Security Boosted for Venezuelan President

[Say_What]

<clips>

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's presidential guard has boosted security measures to protect President Hugo Chavez in response to an alleged assassination plot, a government offical said Tuesday.

...Officials in Washington have repeatedly denied the U.S. involvement in such an alleged plot to kill Chavez. Officials at the U.S. embassy in Caracas could not be immediately reached for comment on Tuesday.

Chavez has demanded that the United States crack down on Cuban and Venezuelan "terrorists" who he claims are training in Florida to execute him.

The former paratroop commander-turned-president has also accused "fascist" adversaries in Venezuela of plotting his assassination.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&ncid=734&e=3&u=/ap/20050315/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_chavez_security

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<clips>

Who's Afraid Of Venezuela-Cuba Alliance?

....Hugo Chávez was elected in 1998 and re-elected with 59.5 percent of the vote in 2000 (the same year that Bush was elected by the Supreme Court). In 2002, he was restored to power in two days by his people after a coup supported by Washington and cheered on by the U.S. media, notably The New York Times. In 2004, Chávez won a referendum monitored by international observers, including former President Jimmy Carter. Yet in her confirmation hearing, Rice openly threatened the elected government of Venezuela when she said she wants the OAS to hold accountable "leaders who do not govern democratically, even if they are democratically elected."

Of course U.S. overthrows of elected governments are nothing new, as demonstrated in Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti, to name a few. Venezuela is now instituting land reform, the very issue that led in 1954 to the CIA's overthrow of the elected government in Guatemala. Right on cue, CIA Director Porter Goss, in his February 16 testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, named Venezuela among "potential flashpoints in 2005" because "Chávez is consolidating his power by using technically legal tactics to target his opponents and meddling in the region, supported by Castro."

Another U.S. method of "regime change" has been assassination as documented by the 1975 Senate Select Intelligence Committee hearings in the wake of the war against Vietnam when, for a brief period, some members of Congress dared to attempt to rectify a few of the most murderous practices of U.S. foreign and domestic policy. Fidel Castro was of course a frequent target. In an incisive speech to the OAS on February 23, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Alí Rodríguez said:

"The absurdity of the accusations levied against our government would not bother us in the least if a multitude of facts did not exist that prove that when such statements are made, it's because, sooner or later, the attack will follow....It is what happened with Allende, it is what happened in the Dominican Republic, it is what happened in Guatemala and countless other cases. For the same reason, we cannot dismiss information from our intelligence services concerning the physical liquidation of our president, the same man who has been legitimated every time he has been subjected to the scrutiny of the Venezuelan people."

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1396


Supporter of Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez hold banners with slogans in defense of the Venezuela sovereignty during an anti-U.S. march in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, March 12, 2005.(AP Photo/Gregorio Marrero)

[IndianaGreen]

1. The OAS are lapdogs of American imperialism

Condi Rice's irrational outburst that Bush's Amerika does not approve of leaders who do not govern democratically, even if they are democratically elected, is an astonishing statement coming from the mouthpiece of a regime that has subverted the electoral process at home.

Condi is the Magda Goebbels of the Bush regime.

[Imperialism Inc.]

3. What she means is that

he is not following policies that the administration approves of. For the right-wingers democracy is an outcome not a process or an institution. If the people choose the "wrong" thing then it is not democracy, no matter what the process of choosing is.

[IndianaGreen]

5. Bush has turned words like "freedom" and "democracy" into obscenities

As our Ministry of Peace proceeds to destroy the world, the Ministry of Truth will sing praises to our noble leader. I never thought I would have to live through Orwell's 1984!

[Robbien]

2. Did you see the article in NarcoNews

which debunks the hit piece the UK Financial Times did on Chavez? I thought NarcoNew did a good job, too bad it doesn't have the circulation of the FT to offset the propaganda piece they put out.

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/3/15/123514/213

[Say_What]

4. Thanks for posting that article. Meanwhile, LIES from WH mouthpiece Scott

McClellan. Man, is this guy a f*ck'n liar or what?? Based on LatAm integating businesses of all types to become less dependent on the USSA, I'd like to know who in the *region* McClellan is referring to. And that remark about the OAS. Reports a few weeks ago said that the US was gonna try to manipulate the OAS charter to say that they could go after anyone in LatAm who didn't practice the type of *democracy* that had the US seal of approval. :crazy:

From yesterday's press briefing:

...Q Thank you. Scott, Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez, continues his anti-American verbal attacks. He is also making oil and arms deals with countries that are not friendly to the United States. What will the President do if Chavez cuts off Venezuelan oil to the U.S.?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, he continues -- the government of Venezuela, under his leadership, continues to take steps that give us concern, and I think they are concerns shared by others, as well. And our concerns about the steps that have been taken in Venezuela relate to actions that move away from democratic institutions and freedom for the Venezuelan people. We've also expressed our concerns about what intention -- what the intentions are of Venezuela in the region. And in terms of the concerns, as I said, they're shared by many in the region. And that's why we'll continue to work with others in the region through the Organization of American States, to make sure that Venezuela is meeting its commitment that it has made under the Democratic Charter for the region.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/03/20050315-5.html