US Seeks Latin American Initiative on Venezuela

[McKenzie]

The fact that there is a load of oil in Venezuela is purely co-incidence as is the fact that they cut the dollar out of their oil trading.

wonder if Roger Noriega knows what hypocrisy" irony" means...

<snip>

Mr. Noriega said Washington might seek to invoke the democracy charter of the Organization of American States that was signed in 2001, which calls for collective sanctions against presidents who seek to become de facto dictators.

<snip.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-02-04-voa64.cfm

[WyLoochka]

1. Latin American "fatigue"

"Mr. Noriega says the Bush administration will seek to persuade Latin American countries that Venezuela poses a threat to hemispheric stability. However, he acknowledged such a consensus does not yet exist."

"At this point, there is a sort of a fatigue among the countries in the hemisphere, and they are really not eager to confront Chavez in a frontal way," he said. "We understand that, but this may be one of those things you can't avoid doing for the sake of hemispheric security, for the sake of stability in the Americas, and we're going to be making this case."

Hey Noriega - almost all Latin Americans know it is BushCo, with it's neofeudalism or bust agenda, that is the threat to their stability. If Latin America is further prohibited from moving it's people out of poverty into a growing, educated middle class by BushCo - steal the oil and other resources policies - they will never achieve "stability."

What has caused the "fatigue" of many Latin Americans is centuries of dictated policies from the north, which have lined the pockets of the oligarch cooperators and the coffers of multi national corporations, while doing nothing to raise their own people out of poverty.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. What has caused the "fatigue" of many Latin Americans is centuries

of dictated policies from the north, which have lined the pockets of the oligarch cooperators and the coffers of multi national corporations, while doing nothing to raise their own people out of poverty.<<

How does a RWinger deal with uncomfortable facts such as these???

http://www.michaelparenti.org/Imperialism101.html
Artificially Converted to Poverty
What is called "underdevelopment" is a set of social relations that has been forcefully imposed on countries. With the advent of the Western colonizers, the peoples of the Third World were actually set back in their development sometimes for centuries. British imperialism in India provides an instructive example. In 1810, India was exporting more textiles to England than England was exporting to India. By 1830, the trade flow was reversed. The British had put up prohibitive tariff barriers to shut out Indian finished goods and were dumping their commodities in India, a practice backed by British gunboats and military force. Within a matter of years, the great textile centers of Dacca and Madras were turned into ghost towns. The Indians were sent back to the land to raise the cotton used in British textile factories. In effect, India was reduced to being a cow milked by British financiers.

By 1850, India's debt had grown to 53 million pounds. From 1850 to 1900, its per capita income dropped by almost two-thirds. The value of the raw materials and commodities the Indians were obliged to send to Britain during most of the nineteenth century amounted yearly to more than the total income of the sixty million Indian agricultural and industrial workers. The massive poverty we associate with India was not that country's original historical condition. British imperialism did two things: first, it ended India's development, then it forcibly underdeveloped that country.

Similar bleeding processes occurred throughout the Third World. The enormous wealth extracted should remind us that there originally were few really poor nations. Countries like Brazil, Indonesia, Chile, Bolivia, Zaire, Mexico, Malaysia, and the Philippines were and sometimes still are rich in resources. Some lands have been so thoroughly plundered as to be desolate in all respects. However, most of the Third World is not "underdeveloped" but overexploited. Western colonization and investments have created a lower rather than a higher living standard.

Referring to what the English colonizers did to the Irish, Frederick Engels wrote in 1856: "How often have the Irish started out to achieve something, and every time they have been crushed politically and industrially. By consistent oppression they have been artificially converted into an utterly impoverished nation." So with most of the Third World. The Mayan Indians in Guatemala had a more nutritious and varied diet and better conditions of health in the early 16th century before the Europeans arrived than they have today. They had more craftspeople, architects, artisans, and horticulturists than today. What is called underdevelopment is not an original historical condition but a product of imperialism's superexploitation. Underdevelopment is itself a development.

[Lexingtonian]

2. ah, here come the mercenaries and CIA operatives!

Ollie North, please come to the white courtesy phone.

In a little while- a year, or two/three- the present rerun of the recent past will reach 1978 and 1983.

[WyLoochka]

3. Colombia, Venezuela resolve their dispute

http://www.colombiaweek.org/

"President Alvaro Uribe Vélez’s office on Friday evening said a rift with Venezuela over the seizure last month of a Colombian guerrilla in Caracas had been resolved. The presidents of the neighboring Andean countries will meet Thursday in an effort to improve relations, the office said in a statement . The statement referred to a shared strategy “against terrorism, drug trafficking, smuggling, kidnapping and other crimes” . Cuba played a role in resolving the crisis, sending its foreign minister to Venezuela on January 21 and a diplomat to Colombia two days later . The crisis was a blow to commerce between the countries . Venezuelan Vice President José Vicente Rangel on Saturday said the resolution is bad news for the United States ."

Shove it Noriega.