Thousands march to back Chavez

[cal04]

Thousands of supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez marched in Caracas on Saturday to support the leftist leader in his dispute with Mexico's president over U.S. free trade proposals. State workers, unionists and students, many wearing red T-shirts, waved flags and anti-U.S. placards as they marched through the capital accompanied by trucks blaring revolutionary songs, Venezuelan folk ballads and Mexican mariachi music.

Venezuela and Mexico withdrew their ambassadors on Monday after Chavez called his Mexican counterpart, Vicente Fox, a "lap dog" of U.S. imperialism for his close ties to Washington and told him, "Don't mess with me, mister or you'll get stung." A self-proclaimed socialist revolutionary allied with Cuba, Chavez has become one of Washington's fiercest critics in the region in contrast to Fox, a former Coca-Cola executive who backs the U.S. administration on most political and trade issues.

"I'm an anti-imperialist and Mexico's government shouldn't take the position they have, they are a poor people just like us," said real estate broker Zaida Gutierrez, carrying a "Bush: Assassin, terrorist" placard. Banners reading "Against Yankee imperialism and its lackey Fox" and "Respect Venezuela" fluttered alongside posters of Mexican revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata and Che Guevara.
"Long live Mexico, long live Chavez ... but Fox, you and your ideas can go to hell," Venezuelan Congress President Nicolas Maduro said at the march.

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=6252009&cKey=1132424435000

[bemildred]

1. Oh, my God, he's seizing more power.

Gathering it further into his hands.
Consolidating his "grip" on the governemnt.
:-)

[1932]

2. "they are a poor people just like us," said real estate broker Zaida Gu-

tierez


How's that for class consciousness -- all working people identifying with each other.

We could use that in the US.

[mitchum]

3. But the Faux spin will be..."Millions Do Not March In Support Of Chavez"

[goforit]

10. No kidding!!!

[cal04]

4. Chavez renews trade pact attack

Mr Chavez again attacked the US-backed trade FTAA proposal as he led the Caracas rally. Wearing a Mexican hat and singing Mexican folk songs, Mr Chavez told around 5,000 protesters that he did not want Venezuela's recent argument with Mexico over the free-trade agreement to continue.

In his speech Mr Chavez stressed that the people of Mexico were Venezuela's Latin American brothers. But despite his conciliatory tone towards Mexico, he launched into another tirade against plans to create a free market zone in the Americas from Alaska in the north to Patagonia in the south.

"The FTAA can go to hell," Mr Chavez shouted into his microphone. "This country is free, we are not going to be colonised again," he told those gathered.
Mr Chavez said the US was responsible for dividing Latin American nations, in particular Mexico and Venezuela, and that the Bush administration would be celebrating if it succeeded in doing so. But with a string of presidential elections coming up in Latin America between now and the end of 2006, Mr Chavez said Washington would have to deal with more and more left wing leaders like him.




http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4453738.stm

[Judi Lynn]

5. New article addressing the Venezuela media, if you're interested.....

VENEZUELA: In the trenches of the media war

Federico Fuentes

Opening a newspaper or turning on the TV, it is not hard to understand why many Venezuelans talk about the ongoing “media war” in their country. If you believed everything the media said you would think the Venezuelan president was a crazy, half-baked, tin-pot dictator who was threatening to steal people’s homes in his forward march to totalitarian-style ‘‘communism’‘, rather that a president whose mandate has already been ratified seven times in as many years and who is leading a process aimed at empowering and improving the lives of Venezuela’s poor.

But according to Servando Garcia Ponce, this should come as no surprise, because Venezuela is dealing with “media that have put themselves at the orders of the oligarchy, of the financial sector, the transnationals. They are linked to them, they sustain them, they are helped ... by the US government who gives them money.”
(snip)

“They denied the achievements, they were denied completely by the media”, Garcia said. “They put themselves at the service of the coup in April 2002 , they fomented it, they proposed it, they protected the coup plotters, in all they collaborated and contributed to the development of the coup. The media, TV, radio and newspaper, all of them were part of the coup.
(snip/...)

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/650/650p15.htm

[cal04]

6. Thanks Judi Lynn

I'm very interested in Venezuela and Chavez
Thanks
:hi:

[Peace Patriot]

7. I think that ordinary people, whether Venezuelans or No.Americans, have...

...grown more and more resistant to the propaganda of the war profiteering corporate news monopolies. If you study the issue polls here, you find that huge majorities of Americans disagree with every major Bush policy, foreign and domestic, and have for some time (since way before the election). These polls are not widely reported or discussed, but they constitute compelling evidence of a great American progressive majority that has existed throughout the Bush junta and grows stronger every day, despite relentless propaganda.

The vast poor of Venezuela may be less saturated with rightwing propaganda because many cannot afford TVs, whereas the majority here is more plugged in. But in neither case are the majority of the people buying the fascist line. The No. American poor and middle class may have further to go (than Venezuelans) as to analysis and action on the sources of their woes, but both I think understand that they have been plundered and enslaved by global corporate predators. The biggest difference between Venezuela and the U.S. is that Venezuela has OPEN SOURCE CODE in their electronic voting system (that is, anyone may review how the votes are tabulated), whereas our election system has become highly non-transparent, with 'TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code in the new electronic voting systems, and with vote tabulation controlled by two rightwing, Bushite corporations (Diebold and ES&S). No one--not even our secretaries of state--has the right to review how these corporations are tabulating our votes.

Open source code = good president, good government.

Trade secret, proprietary source code = bad president, bad government.

It's almost that simple.

--------------------

See this URGENT ACTION thread re: Diebold in California!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5410364

Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

[ninkasi]

8. Very good points, Peace Patriot

You are completely right about having open source code voting. It's the only way to ensure fair elections. Are there any companies other than Diebold, who are willing to provide voting machines with open source code?

It's apparent that the ordinary citizens of Venezuela are very pleased with Chavez, since he is working to help them. It's the monied classes, who want to retain all the wealth for themselves, who are his enemies. Of course, that would include Bush and his wealthy contributors.

The people of Venezuela have spoken, time after time, and each time they speak, they endorse Chavez. Bush must be very jealous.

[goforit]

9. Having been to Venezuela once, they do have TVs in their cardboard-

Tin huts (just not cable or Satellite) covering every square inch
of the hillsides.

Like our banana republic here, the right-wing neocons have agressively
monopolized the media.
Like the wealthy oil owners in Venezuela they too attempted
to monopolize their media for years always placing Chavez in a
bad light. They too tried to convince the public that Chavez was
going to loose in a landslide when they attempted to hold a re-election. They attempted to physically and psychologically demean
the common man from going to the voting booths to re-elect Chavez.
They falsefide those polls hoping that people would not show
up.
But they did!!!I do believe even Carter showed up to monitor
this election.
I also believe that Chavez psychologically has been startled and
shocked that several people would attempt repeatedly to assassinate
him and his military close to him.
He has in the last five years rethought his principles in how to
lead the people and has come to the humane conclusion (ideals from 1776)that it is the common man that makes the world turn and aspire.

He has truely reached out to educate the masses by handing out
copies of their constitution to inform them of their rights.He has also informed them of the atrocities the US is now involved in and has alarmed them to the point they now will stand up against imperialists.
He is working diligently to this day to improve their daily lives and now you have one of the biggest rallies ever seen that we haven't seen
since Evita in Argentina or the anti-war-protestors of sixties here in the US.
The irony is .....the fever is now catching across the entire continent of South America.
If there is anything positive at all to say about these thugsters leading our country is that they have now united Latin America
in heart and spirit and have empowered them to stand on their own
for a cause......an Anti-Bush cause.

I've heard alot of pros and cons about Chavez and always have one
eye open as I do with any political leader I see, but as l believe in this world, it is Action not words that mean anything to me.

And right now...The enlightenned Chavez is nothing but action
with a little chuztpah.
He is fun to watch, you never know what he's gonna do next.