Venezuela's Chavez Says Foes Receive U.S. Funding

[Judi Lynn]

Venezuela's Chavez Says Foes Receive U.S. Funding
Sun February 8, 2004 05:01 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday that opposition groups seeking a recall referendum to vote him out of office were receiving "millions of dollars" of U.S. funding.

Renewing charges of U.S. involvement in efforts to oust him, the left-wing leader said he would present documents showing that this financing was being channeled through "institutions created by the U.S. state." (snip)

He appeared to be referring to organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a non-profit agency financed by Congress which seeks to promote democracy.

Supporters of Chavez say the U.S. government has channeled funds through bodies like the NED to Venezuelan opposition groups. The president says these groups tried to overthrow him in a failed 2002 coup and later, in a two-month general strike.
(snip/...)

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4309617

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

Notice the attempt to mold your perception by choosing to use the word "rule" to describe President Chavez's serving his country in his land-slide elected position:

The populist former paratrooper elected in 1998 is facing a campaign by his foes to secure a recall vote this year against his rule in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

Just what source would dare to claim _Bush rules over this country, and he wasn't even elected!

[MasonJar]

1. What a great job of promoting democracy, trying to oust a

properly elected president (so again we can control his nation's oil) who has been trying to help his poor people. This country is an embarrassment. I am sick of the policies of the cabal in charge. I now believe that a great many Repugs just do not give a d--n about anything but money.

[Red Louisiana]

2. Hail Chavez

Good to see Chavez still fighting the oligarchs...

He's done so much for that nation, yet relatively, he's done so little.

I call on Chavez and the M5R, and their Communist comrades to smash the bourgeois state and follow the example of Cuba. Either this, or he will follow the "democratic socialist" path of ruin by fascists(i.e Allende)

[brainshrub]

6. This is a forum for Democrats, not communists.

And Chavez isn't a communist.

I'm curious: What is your definition of a Communist? What is your definition of a Democrat?

Here's mine:

Communist: One who wishes to see the dissolution of the state by removing the upper-class from power.

Democrat: One who believes the state has a role in enhancing the lives of it's citizenry.

Neither is a perfect definition, and I could write several pages to expound on either sentence. (But I don't have the time or inclination to do so right now.)

Your turn.

[MrPrax]

3. Solid Journalism...

Good point on catching the 'rule' part...

But other one that jumped out at me was the "left-wing leader"...

Snide and the usual professionalism that serves as journalism these days...

Bet Chevas's cabinet is a 'cadre' as well backing his 'strongman rule'

[Judi Lynn]

4. It's completely unbelievable.

They have NO STANDARDS whatsoever.

[9215]

5. Even a Repug doesn't like the NED

http://www.antiwar.com/paul/paul79.html


The misnamed National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is nothing more than a costly program that takes US taxpayer funds to promote favored politicians and political parties abroad. What the NED does in foreign countries, through its recipient organizations the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI), would be rightly illegal in the United States. The NED injects "soft money" into the domestic elections of foreign countries in favor of one party or the other. Imagine what a couple of hundred thousand dollars will do to assist a politician or political party in a relatively poor country abroad. It is particularly Orwellian to call US manipulation of foreign elections "promoting democracy." How would Americans feel if the Chinese arrived with millions of dollars to support certain candidates deemed friendly to China? Would this be viewed as a democratic development......

The Author Ron Paul is a Libertarian turned Repug who has been consistent in his opposition to Bush's militaristic foreign policy.

Maybe Chavez could cite US law in this matter and arrest the "traitors", hee. Just a thought.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Omigosh! This is great.

Just stopped in for a moment to check to see what headlines and stories were active tonight, and saw your link and glanced at the information from Ron Paul.

I have been hearing such good things about him for maybe a year, now. I believe he lives in Texas, right.

Can't stay, but am looking forward to reading every word of this article he wrote on N.E.D. It's one fine day when a Republican speaks out against this kind of dirty business. Thank you, 9215. :hi:

[Zhade]

8. NED did indeed fund an anti-Chavez group prior to the aborted coup.

In the weeks before the April 12-13 coup in Venezuela, Asociacion Civil Consorcio Justicia, a legal rights outfit, was planning an April 10 conference to promote democracy in that country. At the time, Venezuela was undergoing severe political strife. Business groups and labor unions were bitterly squaring off against President Hugo Chavez, a democratically elected strongman/populist. Using an $84,000 grant from the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy, a quasi-governmental foundation funded by Congress, Consorcio Justicia was supposed to bring together political parties, unions, business associations, religious groups and academicians to discuss "protecting fundamental political rights," as an NED document put it. In a proposed agenda Consorcio Justicia listed as one of the main speakers Pedro Carmona, president of Fedecamaras, a leading Venezuelan business group. But when the coup came, Carmona was handpicked by the plotters to head a government established in violation of the Constitution. Then he signed a decree suspending the National Assembly and the Supreme Court. Carmona, it turns out, was hardly interested in safeguarding "fundamental political rights."

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20020805&s=corn