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Venezuelan Majority Takes to the Streets, Coup Plotters Hide
On Monday night, the Venezuelan majority - unwilling to allow an upper-class economic coup d’etat that poses dishonestly as a “strike” to unseat its democratically elected government - took to the streets on a scale only seen once before in the nation’s modern history; as they had last April, when they turned back a military coup d’etat.
Gaviria Should Leave Venezuela
Venezuelan Majority Takes to the Streets, Coup Plotters Hide
By Al Giordano
A Narco News Breaking News Editorial
December 10, 2002
These are the hours of immediate history.
As in Eastern Europe 13 years ago, the final defeat of dictatorial power in Venezuela came last night at the doors of its “control rooms” – the TV stations.
On Monday night, the Venezuelan majority - unwilling to allow an upper-class economic coup d’etat that poses dishonestly as a “strike” to unseat its democratically elected government - took to the streets on a scale only seen once before in the nation’s modern history; as they had last April, when they turned back a military coup d’etat.
By early Tuesday morning the masses had every Commercial TV station in the nation surrounded. Their weapons were nonviolent and theatrical: pots, pans, fireworks and thousands of defiant but smiling faces.
Only at one TV installation in one of the outlying provinces - in Maracay State - did the public actually invade the facilities of a station that uses the public airwaves. Everywhere else, including at all the national TV stations in Caracas, immense restraint has been shown by the masses protesting outside of them.
The bluff of the former ruling class and its media – that their top-down imposed sabotage of the Venezuelan economy and oil industry of the past week is somehow a popular “strike” – has been called. The “strike leaders,” including corrupt oil union boss Carlos Ortega, have, in recent hours, disappeared from public view, abandoning their own supporters among the upper classes.
To make sure the coup plotters don’t flee the country, the neighbors of Simón Bolívar International Airport near Caracas have surrounded the airport as well.
The coup supporters, including the rogue ex-military officials from April’s attack on democracy who in recent days have called unsuccessfully for military coup, promptly abandoned Plaza Altamira last night, their physical base: the public stage they had occupied continuously for the past few weeks.
Confronted with the rising of the more massive and true majority of Venezuelan Civil Society, the rogue officers and the elite of Caracas have retreated, returning to their homes to watch the conflict on TV as fireworks boom in the air all around them.
Meanwhile, the ostensible “mediator” of the conflict has cynically called for government repression against the peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators assembled outside the TV stations. With that action, Cesar Gaviria has lost any illusory credibility in his aspiration to “mediate” the Venezuelan conflict. He should return to Washington immediately.
Gaviria, Go Home
Gaviria, secretary-general of the Organization of American States (OAS), has just squandered whatever credibility the organization tenuously had as mediator in the Venezuelan conflict. He should leave Caracas immediately – where he has become a destabilizing force against democracy and constitutional rule - and cease posing as a “mediator” of a power-struggle in which he is, now transparently, a partisan player.
On the very same day – Monday, December 9th – that the permanent council of the Organization of American States (OAS), representing all nations in América, stated that “all the countries of the hemisphere ratify unanimously our support for Venezuelan democracy,” the OAS chairman, in Caracas, showed his contempt for that same Venezuelan democracy and the right of public assembly.
According to the French Press Agency (AFP), Gaviria “condemned” peaceful demonstrations by the Venezuelan people outside of pro-coup TV stations Globovision, Venevision, and other commercial media corporations. The “news coverage” of those media companies in recent days has been at extreme levels of simulation and dishonesty even for them: the people have had enough. Terming the popular assemblies as “acts of intimidation” against a “free press,” Gaviria called upon the Chávez government to use repression against the demonstrators.
“The secretary general of the OAS is deeply worried about the acts of intimidation against the installations of some of the principal media of the country such as Radio Caracas Television, the De Armas Group, Venevision and Globovision,” Gaviria stated through an OAS press release from the posh Melia Hotel in Downtown Caracas, according to AFP.
Gaviria expressed his “condemnation of such acts that put freedom of speech at serious risk,” reported AFP, and made “an urgent call upon the authorities to take immediate action to cease such threats. There can be no doubt that press freedom and free speech are two totally consistent elements with the existence of democratic principles.”
But in calling for government action against the free speech rights of the people to peaceably assemble, Gaviria revealed the false discourse of Power regarding “press freedom.” For Gaviria (and some corporate “press freedom” organizations), the libertinism of a paid press takes priority over the liberty of free speech by all the people. Nothing is more frightening to them – nor more important for Authentic Democracy – than a scenario in which the masses confront this era’s hijacking of the public airwaves by an elite minority.
For the past week, coup supporters demonstrated (as is their right, too) outside of Venezuela's public TV station, without a single word of protest from Gaviria or any "press freedom" organization, and without any repression from the Chávez government. Gaviria certainly did not term those demonstrations as "threats" or call on the State to "cease" them, as he did yesterday against the more popular demonstrations against media simulation.
The Venezuelan people have every right and duty to demonstrate outside of the commercial TV stations. Those media companies backed the failed April 2002 coup d’etat in that country with a big lie that “Chávez Resigned” when twice-elected President Hugo Chávez had not. For the past week, those commercial TV stations have nakedly attempted to provoke another coup by inventing another big lie – parroted by most of the U.S. and English-language press corps – that a management imposed work lockout in some sectors is somehow a “general strike.” Like “Chávez Resigned,” the use of the term “strike” is this week’s big lie; repeated ad nauseam in the hope that it will be believed by the gullible among us.
The problem for the Big Liars is that the Venezuelan majority didn’t buy it. The people – having watched foreign companies like McDonald’s, Wendy’s and British Petroleum lock their workers out for the imposed "strike" while the small neighborhood shopkeepers and businesses remained open – have, in this month of December of 2002, showed the world that “the big lie theory” for controlling public opinion no longer works.
Who the Hell is Cesar Gaviria?
Gaviria, the former Colombian president (1990-1994), was the chief beneficiary of the assassination of popular Colombian presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan, whose elimination cleared the way for the Gaviria presidency. Gaviria was the president who allowed paramilitary death squads to gain a foothold in Colombia. It was Gaviria who sold his nation’s sovereignty to foreign powers and betrayed his own attorney general Gustavo de Greiff, after de Greiff had defied Washington by calling for drug legalization. And it was Gaviria who Washington later installed as secretary-general of the OAS in order to pave the way for Plan Colombia and military intervention in that country.
In recent days, Gaviria has ostensibly been in Venezuela as a “mediator” of the conflict between the oil-soaked oligarchy on one side and the supporters of the Constitutional democracy and the Chávez government on the other.
Washington’s discourse this week has been to feign support for democracy in Venezuela (while Spaniard intelligence operatives from Europe handled the hands-on dirty work of this most recent coup attempt) by making proclamations of support for Gaviria as mediator.
Now that Gaviria has called for State repression against the peaceful assemblies spreading like wildfire tonight throughout Venezuela, the true goals of this US-backed act of “Mediation Theater” are obvious to all reasonable observers. This was an attempted coup in strike's clothing.
Foreign powers and billionaire economic interests tried to fix the game by installing their own referee, Cesar Gaviria, in Caracas. But he’s not an umpire or referee. He’s a player for the team that has now lost the contest, an advocate for destabilization and repression, and it is time for Gaviria to get the hell out of the stadium.
The only possible “mediator” of this dispute cannot be the commercial media nor foreign interests: It is, and will be, the Venezuelan people who now make the calls.
Venezuelan Majority Takes to the Streets, Coup Plotters Hide
By Al Giordano
A Narco News Breaking News Editorial
December 10, 2002
These are the hours of immediate history.
As in Eastern Europe 13 years ago, the final defeat of dictatorial power in Venezuela came last night at the doors of its “control rooms” – the TV stations.
On Monday night, the Venezuelan majority - unwilling to allow an upper-class economic coup d’etat that poses dishonestly as a “strike” to unseat its democratically elected government - took to the streets on a scale only seen once before in the nation’s modern history; as they had last April, when they turned back a military coup d’etat.
By early Tuesday morning the masses had every Commercial TV station in the nation surrounded. Their weapons were nonviolent and theatrical: pots, pans, fireworks and thousands of defiant but smiling faces.
Only at one TV installation in one of the outlying provinces - in Maracay State - did the public actually invade the facilities of a station that uses the public airwaves. Everywhere else, including at all the national TV stations in Caracas, immense restraint has been shown by the masses protesting outside of them.
The bluff of the former ruling class and its media – that their top-down imposed sabotage of the Venezuelan economy and oil industry of the past week is somehow a popular “strike” – has been called. The “strike leaders,” including corrupt oil union boss Carlos Ortega, have, in recent hours, disappeared from public view, abandoning their own supporters among the upper classes.
To make sure the coup plotters don’t flee the country, the neighbors of Simón Bolívar International Airport near Caracas have surrounded the airport as well.
The coup supporters, including the rogue ex-military officials from April’s attack on democracy who in recent days have called unsuccessfully for military coup, promptly abandoned Plaza Altamira last night, their physical base: the public stage they had occupied continuously for the past few weeks.
Confronted with the rising of the more massive and true majority of Venezuelan Civil Society, the rogue officers and the elite of Caracas have retreated, returning to their homes to watch the conflict on TV as fireworks boom in the air all around them.
Meanwhile, the ostensible “mediator” of the conflict has cynically called for government repression against the peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators assembled outside the TV stations. With that action, Cesar Gaviria has lost any illusory credibility in his aspiration to “mediate” the Venezuelan conflict. He should return to Washington immediately.
Gaviria, Go Home
Gaviria, secretary-general of the Organization of American States (OAS), has just squandered whatever credibility the organization tenuously had as mediator in the Venezuelan conflict. He should leave Caracas immediately – where he has become a destabilizing force against democracy and constitutional rule - and cease posing as a “mediator” of a power-struggle in which he is, now transparently, a partisan player.
On the very same day – Monday, December 9th – that the permanent council of the Organization of American States (OAS), representing all nations in América, stated that “all the countries of the hemisphere ratify unanimously our support for Venezuelan democracy,” the OAS chairman, in Caracas, showed his contempt for that same Venezuelan democracy and the right of public assembly.
According to the French Press Agency (AFP), Gaviria “condemned” peaceful demonstrations by the Venezuelan people outside of pro-coup TV stations Globovision, Venevision, and other commercial media corporations. The “news coverage” of those media companies in recent days has been at extreme levels of simulation and dishonesty even for them: the people have had enough. Terming the popular assemblies as “acts of intimidation” against a “free press,” Gaviria called upon the Chávez government to use repression against the demonstrators.
“The secretary general of the OAS is deeply worried about the acts of intimidation against the installations of some of the principal media of the country such as Radio Caracas Television, the De Armas Group, Venevision and Globovision,” Gaviria stated through an OAS press release from the posh Melia Hotel in Downtown Caracas, according to AFP.
Gaviria expressed his “condemnation of such acts that put freedom of speech at serious risk,” reported AFP, and made “an urgent call upon the authorities to take immediate action to cease such threats. There can be no doubt that press freedom and free speech are two totally consistent elements with the existence of democratic principles.”
But in calling for government action against the free speech rights of the people to peaceably assemble, Gaviria revealed the false discourse of Power regarding “press freedom.” For Gaviria (and some corporate “press freedom” organizations), the libertinism of a paid press takes priority over the liberty of free speech by all the people. Nothing is more frightening to them – nor more important for Authentic Democracy – than a scenario in which the masses confront this era’s hijacking of the public airwaves by an elite minority.
For the past week, coup supporters demonstrated (as is their right, too) outside of Venezuela's public TV station, without a single word of protest from Gaviria or any "press freedom" organization, and without any repression from the Chávez government. Gaviria certainly did not term those demonstrations as "threats" or call on the State to "cease" them, as he did yesterday against the more popular demonstrations against media simulation.
The Venezuelan people have every right and duty to demonstrate outside of the commercial TV stations. Those media companies backed the failed April 2002 coup d’etat in that country with a big lie that “Chávez Resigned” when twice-elected President Hugo Chávez had not. For the past week, those commercial TV stations have nakedly attempted to provoke another coup by inventing another big lie – parroted by most of the U.S. and English-language press corps – that a management imposed work lockout in some sectors is somehow a “general strike.” Like “Chávez Resigned,” the use of the term “strike” is this week’s big lie; repeated ad nauseam in the hope that it will be believed by the gullible among us.
The problem for the Big Liars is that the Venezuelan majority didn’t buy it. The people – having watched foreign companies like McDonald’s, Wendy’s and British Petroleum lock their workers out for the imposed "strike" while the small neighborhood shopkeepers and businesses remained open – have, in this month of December of 2002, showed the world that “the big lie theory” for controlling public opinion no longer works.
Who the Hell is Cesar Gaviria?
Gaviria, the former Colombian president (1990-1994), was the chief beneficiary of the assassination of popular Colombian presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan, whose elimination cleared the way for the Gaviria presidency. Gaviria was the president who allowed paramilitary death squads to gain a foothold in Colombia. It was Gaviria who sold his nation’s sovereignty to foreign powers and betrayed his own attorney general Gustavo de Greiff, after de Greiff had defied Washington by calling for drug legalization. And it was Gaviria who Washington later installed as secretary-general of the OAS in order to pave the way for Plan Colombia and military intervention in that country.
In recent days, Gaviria has ostensibly been in Venezuela as a “mediator” of the conflict between the oil-soaked oligarchy on one side and the supporters of the Constitutional democracy and the Chávez government on the other.
Washington’s discourse this week has been to feign support for democracy in Venezuela (while Spaniard intelligence operatives from Europe handled the hands-on dirty work of this most recent coup attempt) by making proclamations of support for Gaviria as mediator.
Now that Gaviria has called for State repression against the peaceful assemblies spreading like wildfire tonight throughout Venezuela, the true goals of this US-backed act of “Mediation Theater” are obvious to all reasonable observers. This was an attempted coup in strike's clothing.
Foreign powers and billionaire economic interests tried to fix the game by installing their own referee, Cesar Gaviria, in Caracas. But he’s not an umpire or referee. He’s a player for the team that has now lost the contest, an advocate for destabilization and repression, and it is time for Gaviria to get the hell out of the stadium.
The only possible “mediator” of this dispute cannot be the commercial media nor foreign interests: It is, and will be, the Venezuelan people who now make the calls.
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A People Defends its Democracy Against Media Power
Venezuela Changes the Terms of the Global Debate
By Maximilien Arvelaiz
Professor, Narco News School of Authentic Journalism
December 10, 2002
CARACAS, 1O:30 P.M., DECEMBER 9, 2002: Enough already with the lies: At the hour that I write you the people of Venezuela have left their homes to rescue their petroleum industry and put an end to the lies of the Venezuelan private-sector media. Thousands and thousands of Venezuelans assemble peacefully in front of the headquarters of Globovision, Venevision, RCTV, Televen and Meridiano TV in Caracas. And in the city of Maracay, the people have taken TV5 and the daily El Aragüeño, calling upon President Chávez “to govern,” and referring to the mass media as “media terrorists.” Other groups march now toward the offices of the newspaper El Nacional.
For more than a year the Venezuelan Media has substituted the opposition political parties, fabricating an absolute matrix of opinion against the democratic government of President Chávez. We have warned that what is in play in Venezuela is the future of the majorities in a mediated democracy. There are few words to describe what we are living: a people, determined to defend its democracy and its Constitution against those who, last April, promoted, participated in and approved of a coup d’etat. Since the return to power by the president they have not stopped conspiring, as they demonstrated on Friday, December 6th with their broadcast of a fake video (that was meant to link an assassin with the government).
Freedom of speech and the press is not in danger. Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS) demanded that the government put an end to this popular insurrection. In previous days, the OAS chief and former Colombian president never denounced the pro-coup labors of the Venezuelan commercial media: a labor decorated by the government of Spain which delivered the King of Spain Prize to Venevision for its famous video from Llaguno Bridge last April. Spain, which chaired the European Union last April, was one of the first governments to recognize the fascist government of (April’s Dictator-for-a-Day) Pedro Carmona Estanga, also known as “The Brief One.”
The Venezuelan People, once again, are showing a lesson to the entire world, defending their democracy from the pro-coup terrorism that exists through the power of the Commercial Media.
Maximilien Arvelaiz, a French citizen of Venezuelan descent, an advisor to the Venezuelan government on media and communications issues, is such a shrewd analyst of the crisis of media in our era – and the solutions from below to this problem imposed from above – that we have named him as a distinguished professor of the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism.
Venezuela Changes the Terms of the Global Debate
By Maximilien Arvelaiz
Professor, Narco News School of Authentic Journalism
December 10, 2002
CARACAS, 1O:30 P.M., DECEMBER 9, 2002: Enough already with the lies: At the hour that I write you the people of Venezuela have left their homes to rescue their petroleum industry and put an end to the lies of the Venezuelan private-sector media. Thousands and thousands of Venezuelans assemble peacefully in front of the headquarters of Globovision, Venevision, RCTV, Televen and Meridiano TV in Caracas. And in the city of Maracay, the people have taken TV5 and the daily El Aragüeño, calling upon President Chávez “to govern,” and referring to the mass media as “media terrorists.” Other groups march now toward the offices of the newspaper El Nacional.
For more than a year the Venezuelan Media has substituted the opposition political parties, fabricating an absolute matrix of opinion against the democratic government of President Chávez. We have warned that what is in play in Venezuela is the future of the majorities in a mediated democracy. There are few words to describe what we are living: a people, determined to defend its democracy and its Constitution against those who, last April, promoted, participated in and approved of a coup d’etat. Since the return to power by the president they have not stopped conspiring, as they demonstrated on Friday, December 6th with their broadcast of a fake video (that was meant to link an assassin with the government).
Freedom of speech and the press is not in danger. Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS) demanded that the government put an end to this popular insurrection. In previous days, the OAS chief and former Colombian president never denounced the pro-coup labors of the Venezuelan commercial media: a labor decorated by the government of Spain which delivered the King of Spain Prize to Venevision for its famous video from Llaguno Bridge last April. Spain, which chaired the European Union last April, was one of the first governments to recognize the fascist government of (April’s Dictator-for-a-Day) Pedro Carmona Estanga, also known as “The Brief One.”
The Venezuelan People, once again, are showing a lesson to the entire world, defending their democracy from the pro-coup terrorism that exists through the power of the Commercial Media.
Maximilien Arvelaiz, a French citizen of Venezuelan descent, an advisor to the Venezuelan government on media and communications issues, is such a shrewd analyst of the crisis of media in our era – and the solutions from below to this problem imposed from above – that we have named him as a distinguished professor of the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism.
http://www.vheadline.com/0212/14217.asp
THE UGLY FACE OF HATE
editorial commentary © by Gustavo Coronel
VHeadline.com : Tuesday, December 10, 2002 -- Minutes after the shooting that ended the lives of three Venezuelans and wounded 28 others in Plaza Altamira, something else happened that made an equally deep impression on me, as I watched the scenes on TV.
I saw a young man, maybe 30 years old, his face greatly swollen, his eyes almost completely shut, trembling uncontrollably, telling the TV reporter that he was not a Chavez follower, that he was a street vendor, offering his wares in the Plaza.
As his story was told, right after the shooting he had bent down to pick up his wares and some of the people thought he was one of the shooters. They jumped on him and started to beat him up, without giving him much chance of defending himself. He was rescued by the police, not before being severely beaten, almost lynched, just like if we were living in the far west of America in the 19th century or in the deep south of the early 20th century ... or in the Polish towns occupied by the Nazis during the Second World War.
What impressed me most was the desperation with which he kept claiming that he was not a "chavista," obviously because he felt that this represented his best chance for survival.
It was the first time, in my already long life, that I had seen with my own eyes a fellow citizen in danger of being killed because of being suspected of having a different political belief.
In the Venezuela I have lived in during most of my life there was never the need to deny our own political or religious beliefs in order to be accepted socially or in order to save one's life.
In the Venezuela I have known and loved there always was an air of sportsmanship to politics. Election day in Venezuela was always similar to a baseball game between the two great rivals, Magallanes and Caracas. Each of us would try to enhance the virtues of our candidate, but we would probably lunch together with our adversaries after voting.
With all the faults and corruption which were present during the years of the AD-COPEI style of democracy there was not hate.
We complained about the fact that both parties were essentially very similar and that this similarity did not offer a real opportunity for change in the attitudes of governments. AD or COPEI governments tended to be equally inefficient, populist and more or less corrupt.
At the same time, probably because the oil income was large and population low, Venezuela was generating a reasonably strong middle class. The East European immigration of the 50s, the Portuguese and Italian and Spanish immigration just before then, had greatly contributed to elevating the average degree of education in the country. Looking back on those decades, it is now apparent that we had a rather nice little country and we did not know it.
The component of Hate in Venezuelan society is something for which I was not personally prepared ... especially experiencing it at the end of my productive life, when waiting for better times is not an option.
In the past, one could get out of the car in a small town, walk into the local market and be received with smiles. Today, walking into an unknown neighborhood or having a drink at a local tavern requires bravery or stupidity. On the other hand, how can we reasonably expect to be free from hate when hate is all around us?
From the Middle East to Kashmir, from Ireland to Iraq, from the Basque country to Argentina ... the prevailing feeling seems to be one of hate and distrust. It is an AIDS of the soul which will decimate the human race in a more efficient manner than its physical variety.
As a Venezuelan immersed in this crisis, I feel ashamed to have had a part in the creation of the mood that almost took that young man's life. He kept saying that he had a wife and a child. To kill him would have been, like in the novel of Harper Lee, to kill a mockingbird. Seeing his face, I thought he could have been my son. And I felt ill, like if I had been there hitting him.
In "The Magic Mountain", the great novel by Thomas Mann, the last page is dedicated by the author to say goodbye to Hans Castorp, the main character in the novel. Castorp is now a soldier in the trenches of the First World War. He falls, he gets up. Mann says, "no one will care if he lives or dies." In his last paragraph, Mann writes something like this (I do not remember the exact quote): "Out of this feast of horrors, out of this fever of death.... will love rise again some day?"
I fervently hope so.
(Tuesday, December 10, 2002) Search!
Gustavo Coronel is the founder and president of Agrupacion Pro Calidad de Vida (The Pro-Quality of Life Alliance), a Caracas-based organization devoted to fighting corruption and the promotion of civic education in Latin America, primarily Venezuela. A member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), following nationalization of Venezuela's oil industry, Coronel has worked in the oil industry for 28 years in the United States, Holland, Indonesia, Algiers and in Venezuela. He is a Distinguished alumnus of the University of Tulsa (USA) where he was a Trustee from 1987 to 1999. Coronel led the Hydrocarbons Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington DC for 5 years. The author of three books and many articles on Venezuela ("Curbing Corruption in Venezuela." Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No. 3, July, 1996, pp. 157-163), he is a fellow of Harvard University and a member of the Harvard faculty from 1981 to 1983. In 1998, he was presidential election campaign manager for Henrique Salas Romer and now lives in retirement on the Caribbean island of Margarita where he runs a leading Hotel-Resort. You may contact Gustavo Coronel at email ppcvicep@telcel.net.ve
For more information:
http://www.vheadline.com/p1
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This is amazing, in a cynicism inducing way.
This reporting above describes what would be basically a repetition of the earlier coup attempt that we all saw. Then, the small upper class attempted a coup and it was enthusiastically supported by Bush and american elites, and eagerly reported by the press. Then it failed a day later and it became clear how inaccurate the media had been in describing it as a populist overthrow - really it was a small group of oil/banking interests and their upper-middle class supporters.
Now the same thing is apparently happening, and the press did exactly the same thing. The New York Times and all the newspapers that reprint NYT and AP stories are casting this as a 'unionist general strike', and haven't shown the huge numbers of Chavez supporters turning out to oppose this. Just search for 'venezuela' at the NYTimes site and they haven't covered this accurately yet- only Reuters has
This reporting above describes what would be basically a repetition of the earlier coup attempt that we all saw. Then, the small upper class attempted a coup and it was enthusiastically supported by Bush and american elites, and eagerly reported by the press. Then it failed a day later and it became clear how inaccurate the media had been in describing it as a populist overthrow - really it was a small group of oil/banking interests and their upper-middle class supporters.
Now the same thing is apparently happening, and the press did exactly the same thing. The New York Times and all the newspapers that reprint NYT and AP stories are casting this as a 'unionist general strike', and haven't shown the huge numbers of Chavez supporters turning out to oppose this. Just search for 'venezuela' at the NYTimes site and they haven't covered this accurately yet- only Reuters has
Its been the best thing I've read all day, and reaffirms why I read things here - won't see it elsewhere.
by Mark Weisbrot
December 03, 2002
It's 10 p.m. -- do you know what your government is up to? It seems that Iraq is not the only "regime change" that the Bush Administration is working on. The US government has apparently decided that President Chavez of Venezuela must go, one way or another.
True, Saddam Hussein is a brutal tyrant who has invaded and threatened neighboring countries -- whereas Hugo Chavez was democratically elected, has shown no ill will toward any of his neighbors, and tolerates a steady barrage of virulent, hate-filled propaganda against his presidency from the major Venezuelan media.
But these distinctions can be blurred, because both have offended the US government, and both are sitting on a lot of oil. So most Americans can be forgiven for having similar impressions of the two leaders, given what they hear from the US media. A recent op-ed in the Washington Post referred to the Chavez government as a "dictatorship."
This week the country's main business federation, supported by some union leaders, called once again for a general strike against the Chavez government. They are apparently following the same scenario that led to the military coup on April 11.
In our amnesiac political culture, half a year can be an eternity, more than enough time for history to be rewritten and slates wiped clean. But it was barely more than six months ago, on April 11, that opposition forces overthrew the democratically elected government of Venezuela. They installed the head of the business federation as president and dissolved the legislature and the Supreme Court.
The Bush administration at first welcomed the coup, retreating the next day after it became clear that other countries in the Americas were not going to recognize the illegal government. And of course administration officials denied having anything to do with the coup.
There is a pile of evidence to the contrary, indicating that they had a lot to do with it. There were numerous meetings between Bush administration officials and coup leaders in the months preceding the coup. We also know that the opposition received money from the United States government.
But even more important is the political support and encouragement that Washington provides. Those who are trying to overthrow the government of Venezuela at this very moment know that the United States will do its best to recognize and support any resulting dictatorship. They know this because neither the White House nor the State Department has indicated that a coup would result in any diplomatic or commercial sanctions against an illegal government.
It would be a simple matter for the Bush Administration to make such a statement. But even in the recent mobilizations of October 21 and December 2, with rumors of coup attempts flying everywhere, our top officials have maintained a telling silence, and carefully avoided saying anything that would discourage the violent opposition.
The US also supports the opposition's call for early elections. Although the Venezuelan constitution provides for a recall election halfway through the President's term, the opposition does not want to wait until August.
There are two reasons for their impatience: first, the economy is in a deep recession right now, and it could very well recover by August. Venezuela's economy would get a tremendous boost from an increase in oil prices that would likely result from a war with Iraq. Second, the recession is prolonged and deepened because investors are essentially on strike against the government, taking money out of the country and withholding investment in hope of getting a new President. Like any strike, it cannot continue indefinitely.
Of course it does not make any more sense for Chavez to hold early elections than it would have for President Reagan to have done so in 1983, when -- due to a recession and high unemployment -- his approval rating bottomed at 35 percent.
But the US press -- together with the Bush administration -- pretends that this is a perfectly reasonable demand.
A little noticed retraction published in the Chicago Tribune on April 20 summed up the extreme prejudice of our major news organizations against the president of Venezuela: "An editorial on Sunday mistakenly said that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had praised Osama bin Laden. The Tribune regrets the error."
Oops.
Mark Weisbrot is Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington D.C.
Reproduced from:
http://www.cepr.net/columns/weisbrot/Venezuelan%20regime%20change.htm
December 03, 2002
It's 10 p.m. -- do you know what your government is up to? It seems that Iraq is not the only "regime change" that the Bush Administration is working on. The US government has apparently decided that President Chavez of Venezuela must go, one way or another.
True, Saddam Hussein is a brutal tyrant who has invaded and threatened neighboring countries -- whereas Hugo Chavez was democratically elected, has shown no ill will toward any of his neighbors, and tolerates a steady barrage of virulent, hate-filled propaganda against his presidency from the major Venezuelan media.
But these distinctions can be blurred, because both have offended the US government, and both are sitting on a lot of oil. So most Americans can be forgiven for having similar impressions of the two leaders, given what they hear from the US media. A recent op-ed in the Washington Post referred to the Chavez government as a "dictatorship."
This week the country's main business federation, supported by some union leaders, called once again for a general strike against the Chavez government. They are apparently following the same scenario that led to the military coup on April 11.
In our amnesiac political culture, half a year can be an eternity, more than enough time for history to be rewritten and slates wiped clean. But it was barely more than six months ago, on April 11, that opposition forces overthrew the democratically elected government of Venezuela. They installed the head of the business federation as president and dissolved the legislature and the Supreme Court.
The Bush administration at first welcomed the coup, retreating the next day after it became clear that other countries in the Americas were not going to recognize the illegal government. And of course administration officials denied having anything to do with the coup.
There is a pile of evidence to the contrary, indicating that they had a lot to do with it. There were numerous meetings between Bush administration officials and coup leaders in the months preceding the coup. We also know that the opposition received money from the United States government.
But even more important is the political support and encouragement that Washington provides. Those who are trying to overthrow the government of Venezuela at this very moment know that the United States will do its best to recognize and support any resulting dictatorship. They know this because neither the White House nor the State Department has indicated that a coup would result in any diplomatic or commercial sanctions against an illegal government.
It would be a simple matter for the Bush Administration to make such a statement. But even in the recent mobilizations of October 21 and December 2, with rumors of coup attempts flying everywhere, our top officials have maintained a telling silence, and carefully avoided saying anything that would discourage the violent opposition.
The US also supports the opposition's call for early elections. Although the Venezuelan constitution provides for a recall election halfway through the President's term, the opposition does not want to wait until August.
There are two reasons for their impatience: first, the economy is in a deep recession right now, and it could very well recover by August. Venezuela's economy would get a tremendous boost from an increase in oil prices that would likely result from a war with Iraq. Second, the recession is prolonged and deepened because investors are essentially on strike against the government, taking money out of the country and withholding investment in hope of getting a new President. Like any strike, it cannot continue indefinitely.
Of course it does not make any more sense for Chavez to hold early elections than it would have for President Reagan to have done so in 1983, when -- due to a recession and high unemployment -- his approval rating bottomed at 35 percent.
But the US press -- together with the Bush administration -- pretends that this is a perfectly reasonable demand.
A little noticed retraction published in the Chicago Tribune on April 20 summed up the extreme prejudice of our major news organizations against the president of Venezuela: "An editorial on Sunday mistakenly said that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had praised Osama bin Laden. The Tribune regrets the error."
Oops.
Mark Weisbrot is Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington D.C.
Reproduced from:
http://www.cepr.net/columns/weisbrot/Venezuelan%20regime%20change.htm
WHAT HAPPENED
IN PLAZA ALTAMIRA?
VHeadline.com commentary by Professor Roldan Tomasz
VHeadline.com : Monday, December 9, 2002 -- After a detailed coverage of the shooting at Plaza Altamira, commercial TV stations at once started identifying one of the suspects connecting him to the government of Hugo Chavez Frias via images conveniently shown to the public a few days earlier . As in last April s coup attempt, the network of private TV channels has summarily judged, found guilty and condemned the President of Venezuela as an assassin based on evidence that was collected, shown and assessed by the print & broadcast media at their complete whim.
Allow me to doubt the legitimacy of this class of media tribunal and contribute some ideas, which, I hope, will throw a different light on what happened.
There are a number of important questions, which we could answer without having to appeal to any class of material evidence.
In the first place, who would benefit most at the moment if such events took place in Plaza Altamira?
Would it benefit the government or the opposition more?
Let us take a look.
Hugo Chavez Frias government has been persistently accused both nationally and internationally of promoting violence in Venezuela and of arming the Bolivarian Circles to repress opposition groups. The events of Plaza Altamira lend themselves to be easily interpreted within the framework of these accusations and moreover, to reinforce them.
Simple conclusion: the government cannot benefit from such an event.
After failing spectacularly in its intent to force Hugo Chavez Frias' ousting from the Presidency by means of an indefinite general stoppage, the opposition seems to have discovered a new topic that it can use as a vehicle for its plans. Obviously, the idea that Chavez Frias hunts down and kills his opponents seems good justification to try and topple him by any means, whether democratic or not.
Simple conclusion: the main beneficiary of what happened in Plaza Altamira is the opposition.
On the other hand, if the government was indeed the author of that criminal action what could have been the objective?
Plaza Altamira rebel military officers have been installed there several weeks without any minor action on the part of the government to repress them. Then, after several weeks of media coverage it was blatantly obvious that the Plaza Altamira military officers were losing their news appeal and had not fulfilled their declared objective of turning the Armed Force (FAN) against the government.
For the government it would have been enough to wait patiently for the media show to peter out and Plaza Altamira no longer represented any danger.
But ... if the government indeed had wanted to terminate that situation by violent and bloody means, would not the military officers at Plaza Altamira been the principal target? Why kill ordinary protesters that were extras in the show?
It is really significant and a matter of concern that none of the main promoters and protagonists of the Altamira military rebellion were victims of the shooting. What does this suggest to the reader?
Finally, if the government had indeed planned such as crazy action that would be contrary to its own interests, wouldn't it have planned it better?
I want to ask: could it not at least have made the material authors escape from the scene of the crime easier or have had them killed after committing the crime?
It would not have been difficult to infiltrate a second group of assassins into Plaza Altamira to kill the first group (appealing to the principle of legitimate defense ) immediately after they fulfilled their mission.
We see, then, that these simple questions throw serious doubt on the version so diligently worked out and published by private TV channels.
But there is more.
If we take a certain distance from all that has been happening over the last days in Venezuela, we immediately note an extraordinary similarity between the plot of these events and those of the April coup.
As we remember, the April coup started off with a call for an indefinite national stoppage undertaken by the Federation of Chambers of Industry & Commerce (Fedecamaras) and the Venezuelan Confederation of Trade Unions (CTV). The coupsters used the Venezuelan oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) as an important element in the conflict with the government, directing multitudinous marches to important PDVSA installations to bring them to a halt. The private print & broadcast media were used as an important key in the coup plan, not just to direct and coordinate opposition marches, but above all, to gradually spin an image, making government sympathizers out as fanatics and violent individuals devoid of scruples and armed to the teeth.
The final thrust of the coup occurred when certain acts of violence very similar to those of Plaza Altamira and with identical media coverage were attributed immediately to the Bolivarian Circles, and served as an excuse for military coupsters to declare themselves in rebellion.
It does not need any more clarification to realize that all these key elements are present in events that are currently developing in Venezuela.
We see an indefinite general stoppage called by Fedecamaras and CTV
We see systematic sabotage of PDVSA
Print & broadcast at the total and absolute service of destabilizing the country
A new spin creating a negative and distorted image of government sympathizers
And finally serious acts of violence for which Hugo Chavez Frias government is immediately made responsible, even though as we have already shown, there are very simple reasons for seriously doubting this hypothesis.
All that remains to ask is whether they are attempting to re-edit the same script of the April coup.
http://www.vheadline.com/0212/14205.asp
IN PLAZA ALTAMIRA?
VHeadline.com commentary by Professor Roldan Tomasz
VHeadline.com : Monday, December 9, 2002 -- After a detailed coverage of the shooting at Plaza Altamira, commercial TV stations at once started identifying one of the suspects connecting him to the government of Hugo Chavez Frias via images conveniently shown to the public a few days earlier . As in last April s coup attempt, the network of private TV channels has summarily judged, found guilty and condemned the President of Venezuela as an assassin based on evidence that was collected, shown and assessed by the print & broadcast media at their complete whim.
Allow me to doubt the legitimacy of this class of media tribunal and contribute some ideas, which, I hope, will throw a different light on what happened.
There are a number of important questions, which we could answer without having to appeal to any class of material evidence.
In the first place, who would benefit most at the moment if such events took place in Plaza Altamira?
Would it benefit the government or the opposition more?
Let us take a look.
Hugo Chavez Frias government has been persistently accused both nationally and internationally of promoting violence in Venezuela and of arming the Bolivarian Circles to repress opposition groups. The events of Plaza Altamira lend themselves to be easily interpreted within the framework of these accusations and moreover, to reinforce them.
Simple conclusion: the government cannot benefit from such an event.
After failing spectacularly in its intent to force Hugo Chavez Frias' ousting from the Presidency by means of an indefinite general stoppage, the opposition seems to have discovered a new topic that it can use as a vehicle for its plans. Obviously, the idea that Chavez Frias hunts down and kills his opponents seems good justification to try and topple him by any means, whether democratic or not.
Simple conclusion: the main beneficiary of what happened in Plaza Altamira is the opposition.
On the other hand, if the government was indeed the author of that criminal action what could have been the objective?
Plaza Altamira rebel military officers have been installed there several weeks without any minor action on the part of the government to repress them. Then, after several weeks of media coverage it was blatantly obvious that the Plaza Altamira military officers were losing their news appeal and had not fulfilled their declared objective of turning the Armed Force (FAN) against the government.
For the government it would have been enough to wait patiently for the media show to peter out and Plaza Altamira no longer represented any danger.
But ... if the government indeed had wanted to terminate that situation by violent and bloody means, would not the military officers at Plaza Altamira been the principal target? Why kill ordinary protesters that were extras in the show?
It is really significant and a matter of concern that none of the main promoters and protagonists of the Altamira military rebellion were victims of the shooting. What does this suggest to the reader?
Finally, if the government had indeed planned such as crazy action that would be contrary to its own interests, wouldn't it have planned it better?
I want to ask: could it not at least have made the material authors escape from the scene of the crime easier or have had them killed after committing the crime?
It would not have been difficult to infiltrate a second group of assassins into Plaza Altamira to kill the first group (appealing to the principle of legitimate defense ) immediately after they fulfilled their mission.
We see, then, that these simple questions throw serious doubt on the version so diligently worked out and published by private TV channels.
But there is more.
If we take a certain distance from all that has been happening over the last days in Venezuela, we immediately note an extraordinary similarity between the plot of these events and those of the April coup.
As we remember, the April coup started off with a call for an indefinite national stoppage undertaken by the Federation of Chambers of Industry & Commerce (Fedecamaras) and the Venezuelan Confederation of Trade Unions (CTV). The coupsters used the Venezuelan oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) as an important element in the conflict with the government, directing multitudinous marches to important PDVSA installations to bring them to a halt. The private print & broadcast media were used as an important key in the coup plan, not just to direct and coordinate opposition marches, but above all, to gradually spin an image, making government sympathizers out as fanatics and violent individuals devoid of scruples and armed to the teeth.
The final thrust of the coup occurred when certain acts of violence very similar to those of Plaza Altamira and with identical media coverage were attributed immediately to the Bolivarian Circles, and served as an excuse for military coupsters to declare themselves in rebellion.
It does not need any more clarification to realize that all these key elements are present in events that are currently developing in Venezuela.
We see an indefinite general stoppage called by Fedecamaras and CTV
We see systematic sabotage of PDVSA
Print & broadcast at the total and absolute service of destabilizing the country
A new spin creating a negative and distorted image of government sympathizers
And finally serious acts of violence for which Hugo Chavez Frias government is immediately made responsible, even though as we have already shown, there are very simple reasons for seriously doubting this hypothesis.
All that remains to ask is whether they are attempting to re-edit the same script of the April coup.
http://www.vheadline.com/0212/14205.asp
I AM VENEZUELAN
87% of Venezuela's population consists of POOR people.
The actual "strike" is promoted by media and industry
owners, who say the "majority" supports the strike.
Since dec 2, the TV media (four private stations) have suspended all normal transmissions (that is, there is no one of the regular shows on the air, not even TV ads, and instead, they have been all the time on, promoting the strike and the fall of the Government,
openly, and blatantly, 24 hours a day, NON STOP.
So, with 80% of poors, and the rich guys promoting this strike (or disguised coup) DO YOU STILL HAVE DOUBTS ABOUT IT? DO YOU STILL THINK THAT 80% OF THE POOR PEOPLE ARE REALLY *AGAINST* CHAVEZ?.
Sorry, but that's not the truth. It's only the big lie of the Media.
87% of Venezuela's population consists of POOR people.
The actual "strike" is promoted by media and industry
owners, who say the "majority" supports the strike.
Since dec 2, the TV media (four private stations) have suspended all normal transmissions (that is, there is no one of the regular shows on the air, not even TV ads, and instead, they have been all the time on, promoting the strike and the fall of the Government,
openly, and blatantly, 24 hours a day, NON STOP.
So, with 80% of poors, and the rich guys promoting this strike (or disguised coup) DO YOU STILL HAVE DOUBTS ABOUT IT? DO YOU STILL THINK THAT 80% OF THE POOR PEOPLE ARE REALLY *AGAINST* CHAVEZ?.
Sorry, but that's not the truth. It's only the big lie of the Media.
I LIVE IN VENEZUELA
About 90% of Venezuelans are very poor. Much poorer than other developing countries. When Chavez came into office he promised to make everyone a millionaire. HE HAS FULLFILLED THIS PROMISE... A million bolivars is now worth about US$770 ... About the average annual wage.
Cavez's presidency has been one lie after another. I strongly caution anyone viewing the Venezuelan situation from a foreign country. The true manipulation of information is coming from the president himself. How can he claim everything is normal when 90% of the petroleum industry is shut down? Scab crews of geriatrics and drunks will only lead to further paralyzation through their ignorance and damage to infrastructure.
This is a worthless web site of whiners and losers. If you don-t like the US, fine. That is your right. But don't use the backs of the poor as your soap box. Chavez needs to go and go soon before he plunges the pueblo Venezuela into civil war.
About 90% of Venezuelans are very poor. Much poorer than other developing countries. When Chavez came into office he promised to make everyone a millionaire. HE HAS FULLFILLED THIS PROMISE... A million bolivars is now worth about US$770 ... About the average annual wage.
Cavez's presidency has been one lie after another. I strongly caution anyone viewing the Venezuelan situation from a foreign country. The true manipulation of information is coming from the president himself. How can he claim everything is normal when 90% of the petroleum industry is shut down? Scab crews of geriatrics and drunks will only lead to further paralyzation through their ignorance and damage to infrastructure.
This is a worthless web site of whiners and losers. If you don-t like the US, fine. That is your right. But don't use the backs of the poor as your soap box. Chavez needs to go and go soon before he plunges the pueblo Venezuela into civil war.
Regardless of US foreign policy chavez is a fuckup. The country would have been better off if the last coup was traditional and he got a bullet in the head.
Even the judges are on strike now, he's running out of friends..
Even the judges are on strike now, he's running out of friends..
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