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political campaigns. Many countries have similar laws, including our own. I believe Clinton got into a bit of trouble over this. Chinese money, as I recall.
Venezuelan prosecutors went after officials of SUMATE, which basically ran the Recall election against Chavez for the rich oil elite--illegally. (Chavez won it, handily, in a heavily monitored election--by the OAS, the Carter Center, and EU election monitoring groups). One investigator of the SUMATE money trail has already turned up dead (car bomb).
This Bushite appropriated money (OUR money!) is very ill intended. We know how Bushites "win" elections. What do you suppose they are teaching Venezuelan rightwingers? Hacking voting machines, dirty tricks, smearing opponents, "swiftboating," "special ops," shorting the poor and the brown on voting machines and precincts, threatenng phone calls from thugs, disinformation, shredding opposition voter registrations, rioting over recounts, and, when all else fails, the opposition's small plane falling out of the sky.
The Bushites are not nice people. Nor are the people they fund.
I HOPE the Chavez government harasses and prosecutes these people. They are up to no good. They are the friendly face of the death squads. And they are no doubt breaking Venezuelan law, funneling this money to the opposition, just as they did with SUMATE in the Recall.
This disgusting and infuriating. This is OUR money put to illegal and destructive purpose--as we have seen done everwhere the Bush Cartel has operated.
I would like to see a decent opposition to Chavez. I admire Chavez, and I especially admire his supporters--the vast poor, brown population that has never before been served by goverment, has never had a voice in government, and has been exploited, impoverished and shoved aside--if not beaten, tortured or 'disappeared'--throughout US/fascist rule in South America. They are coming into their own, at last, as a political and social force, and it is a beautiful thing to see.
But anyone can get a big head and succumb to the temptations of power. That's what the "balance of power" in a constitutional government is about--preventing anyone from getting tyrannical notions. I see none of that in Chavez--NONE! He's a bit of an egotist and a perfomer (I was going to say clown, but that's not quite what I mean--he's jolly, he's clever, he loves the spotlight), but that doesn't mean tyrant. Tyrant is as tyrant does, and he has done nothng tyrannical at all. In fact, I fault him somewhat for not taking an even stronger line against Bushite interference in his country. It would be justified, considering Bushite support of the failed miltary coup, and of a crippling oil strike, its unrelenting and completely unfair anti-Chavez propaganda, and other nefarious activities. Neither Chavez nor Venezuela's democracy is safe as long as the Bushites are in power.
But that doesn't mean that Chavez couldn't acquire dictatorial notions--especially given his great popularity combined with the very real threat from the north that Venezuela faces. He does not seem the dictatorial type, but it's always a possibility, and the political opposition to him in Venezuela is a joke. Think "freeper." That's about the level of it. It's a whiney, greedy, tiny elite group of have's in the midst of stark poverty. But it's backed by the oil giants and scads of our taxpayer dollars--and no doubt good portions of our CIA, NSA and Pentagon budgets as well. That is not a healthy opposition. That is a potential violent coup--and they've already tried it once, the military coup of 2002, which the Bushites welcomed and probably fomented and financed. The recent jail escape of the coup perpetrators was a professional job--likely CIA. Chavez is trying to be a humanitarian, and a good man and a good president as these venomous snakes gather round. He has really put himself on the line for Latin American self-determination, and I think that idea will succeed--is succeeding, all over South and Central America--no matter what happens to Chavez. But a REAL opposition--perhaps one to the left of him--would be a good development, as least as to democratic theory.
If a strong left were calling for seizure of big oil's facilities there, for instance, Chavez's requirement that big oil merely pay its fair share of taxes wouldn't generate so much scheming against him. A more "conservative" (in the old meanng of the word) pro-business opposition could bring some improvement in Chavez's more socialist policies. For instance, I read of a small businesswoman (very small grocery business) complain that the nearby food coop for the very poor was undercutting her prices and driving her out of business. They can't stop feeding the very poor--they would starve. But she should be helped in some way--perhaps given aid to diversify. Business acumen should be brought to bear on socialist enterprises, and the overall health of this mixed economy considered. A pro-business party could be helping the country--and providing constructive criticism--instead of conspiring to grab back all the oil wealth for the few. Chavez is also deficient on environmental policy and on indigenous policy. He could use criticism, and he IS getting it from various members of the legislature, but there is no party or opposition leader that is a serious rival to Chavez and his government and its many supporters.
Maybe I'm wrong--and things just have to develop differently in Venezuela, with one-man popular rule for a while. His government has a lot of good people in it. And they all speak freely, as far as I can tell. (It reminds me of FDR's New Deal government--it attracts brains and skill, and very willful, determined people.)
It's also quite possible that the Bush (OUR) money and interference are PREVENTING a healthy opposition from developing, as it lures rightwing people with dreams of fascist rule, a la the Bush junta--and compromises whatever patriotic and good government tendencies they possess. These people supported a military coup (so did the entire corporate news monopoly establishment), and a crippling strike by oil industry professionals that nearly destroyed Venezuela's economy. They wasted everyone's time and resources on a really stupid Recall election, and got some of their members into legal trouble by accepting foreign money. They have acted downright crazy at times. For instance, they complained and complained and complained about "voter fraud" in the Recall election, with THREE hefty international monitoring groups--OAS, Carter Center and EU--all saying there was no evidence of it. And they KEPT complaining! Like Freepers. The election commission asked them, what do they want to insure fairness in the coming by-electons? They demanded that the fingerprint ID be halted--that it had been abused. The election commission acquiesced. THEN they BOYCOTTED the election ANYWAY. The only reason they boycotted the by-elections--apparent to everyone--is they knew they were going to lose seats. And by boycotting the election, they lost even more seats that they would have, if they hadn't boycotted.
The upshot of this idiocy was to give Chavez MORE power--an airtight majority in congress. If they had been a reasonable opposition, they might have maintained a voice in Venezuelan affairs, and gotten stronger. Does anyone else smell Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove in these tactics? Such tactics worked, here, against Corporate Democrats, themselves members of the moneyed class, anxious to profit from global corporate piracy. They did not work in Venezuela. Likely, that's why the Bush junta recently formed a special NSA unit to overthrow Chavez. They in fact did damage to Chavez's opposition. When the Bush junta fails, they always get more extreme--thus more money poured into political interference, prepping the Venezuelan fascists in the ways of fascist rule. In summary, the Bushites DON'T WANT Venezuelan democracy to succeed. They want to destabilize it, overthrow it, and grab the oil. A tiny elite--which, like the fascists here are just greedy S.O.B.'s with no loyalty and no patriotism, out for their own profit--may lard themselves with riches, or dream of doing so. Most Venezuelans find this disgusting, and are hell bent on never letting it happen in their country again.
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