US is Trying to Overthrow Me, Says Venezuelan Leader

[G_j]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0218-01.htm
http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=492395&host=3&dir=70

Published on Wednesday, February 18, 2004 by the lndependent/UK

US is Trying to Overthrow Me, Says Venezuelan Leader
by Alexandra Olson in Caracas

The Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, yesterday angrily accused the United States of being behind a 2002 coup and of helping continuing opposition attempts to overthrow him.


Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez reads a book during an event in Caracas February 17, 2004. Chavez accused the United States of plotting against him by sowing false allegations of terrorism as he said Washington had done to justify its invasion of Iraq. (Jorge Silva/Reuters)

Mr Chavez said the US Government was providing millions of dollars to Venezuelan groups. "The Government of Washington is using the money of its people to support not only opposition activities but acts of conspiracy," the President said.
..more..

[4morewars]

1. Gee, I wonder...

if this involves any School of the Americas "graduates" ? Are you familiar with the SOA???

Learn more here :

www.soaw.org/new/

Our tax dollars at work.

[G_j]

2. you mean these folks?

http://www.agrnews.org/issues/265/worldnews.html#9

SOA grads hired assassins for Gulf Cartel

Feb. 9— The Mexican Secretary of Defense released documents revealing that Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School of the Americas , trained ex-soldiers now working as highly trained assassins for the Gulf Cartel, a Mexican drug cartel.

SOA graduates comprise over a third of the 31 Mexican Army deserters now working with the Zetas, a group of hired assassins -– notorious for their “extreme violence” -– employed by the Gulf Cartel. The 31 renegade soldiers were previously part of the Special Air Mobile Force Group, an elite division of the Mexican Army.

The Zetas have been implicated in numerous shoot-outs and are suspects for executions, kidnapping, and other crimes.

The discovery of SOA-trained soldiers working as assassins for the Gulf Cartel is particularly ironic considering that the SOA claims “counter-narcotics training” as one of the major purposes of the school.

The SOA has highlighted counter-narcotics training as part of its public relations blitz attempting to dispel popular opposition to the school since the late ‘90s. The counter-narcotics emphasis has served as a convenient smoke screen allowing the SOA to keep functioning as it always has, just as the so-called “war on drugs” serves to cast hegemonic US foreign policies in a benign light.

Once again, the SOA’s rhetoric is contradicted by reality. Colombia, for example, is in a drug crisis, but only five of the 141 Colombians trained at the SOA in 1999 took the counter-narcotics course. In total, less than five percent of SOA took counter-narcotics in 1999. The vast majority took the standard commando and combat courses.

There are many other known examples of SOA-trained soldiers implicated for drug trafficking – from Manual Noriega to numerous soldiers in Bolivia. Major Joseph Blair, a former instructor at the SOA, has stated that the school was well known as a place where Latin American soldiers could launder their drug money
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[4morewars]

4. That's them...

New name, same bullshit. I see the SOA/WHISC as the military wing of the WTO. The atrocities committed by these assholes is just unimaginable. I have no doubt they were involved in the overthrow attempt in 2000 and I'm sure they are still at it, Plan Columbia is another clusterfuck with SOA finger prints all over it. Woe to any south american country that recieves "military aid" from the USA !

[countmyvote4real]

5. The US is so corrupt, it makes me sick and vulnerable abroad.

And this is an old school indictment. I'm shocked that it's still there, but not surprised. The US supposedly keeps removing itself from the scene, and yet still keeps showing up.

I really hate "us" when we're caught this way.

[La_Serpiente]

3. DemocracyNow

was talking about the situation in Venezuela

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/16/1746259

[G_j]

6. thanks