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Hugo Chavez: Obama's Change Is An Illusion


As I survey the Latin American news, I'm struck by the stories coming out this week about Hugo Chavez and his ever increasing level of bluster and belligerence. But it's the kind of news I would expect for some naive reason to be seeing in the American media. Here's some coverage from the UK:

Venezuela says that Alvaro Uribe, the Colombian president and close ally of Washington, is allowing the US government a dangerous foothold in the region by giving its troops access to Colombia's military bases.

From the LaAm Herald, he's clearly trying to counter the narrative that Barack Obama represents a major break with U.S. policy:

“One must speak with love and therefore I say to the (U.S.) president, (Barack) Obama: don’t make a mistake and order an open attack on Venezuela using Colombia,” said the Venezuelan leader on his Sunday radio and television program “Alo Presidente.”

“This world is infected by the virus of the terrible disease of violence by the most powerful against the weakest,” he said, adding that “many people have been having illusions” of change in the United States with the coming of Obama to the presidency.

“We were always cautious about the triumph of President Obama. Early on, we began to take note of the truth, that the empire is here, alive and more threatening than ever,” Chavez said.

Although Chavez did not allude explicitly to the desire of Lula to set up a meeting between him and Uribe, he emphasized that the Brazilian president recently said in Britain that “the only thing that’s been seen about Obama is the coup in Honduras and the seven military bases” in Colombia that will be able to be used by the U.S. military.

The Colombian government “transferred itself to the United States. This must be known. Regrettably, it’s this way, it’s sad and painful, but this is the way it is,” Chavez said, adding that “Colombia surrendered; not the people but rather the government, the oligarchy, without shame or anything. Before, they put on the mask, now they’ve removed the mask.”

Presumably Chavez is trying to unite Venezuelans against a common outside enemy as his popularity flags due to deteriorating conditions. But it's hard to imagine any scenario where the U.S. allows him to actually start a shooting war with Colombia.

Some stories in the full entry that elaborate more on the pressures that Chavez is operating under.

First off, his popularity is waning quite a bit:

A wide array of recent opinion polls suggests that Venezuelans might be getting tired of their omnipresent leader. Though Chávez’s grip on power is tighter than ever, the head of the Bolivarian revolution is losing his personal touch. According to Hinterlaces, three-in-five Venezuelans want the president to step down in 2012, when his current term expires. A different pollster shows that most people want Chávez to be either ousted in a recall referendum next year, or leave at the end of his current term, in 2012. The same poll reveals that only 39.8 per cent of Venezuelans would vote for Chávez in the next election.

Another series of indicators suggests that a new narrative is emerging to describe the Chávez administration that could harm the president’s permanence in power—which he will undoubtedly seek—come the 2012 election. A majority of respondents to an August poll say Chávez is really a dictator. Three-in-five Venezuelans told a different pollster that freedom of expression is not fully protected in the country, and a majority think the media operate with limited or no freedom at all. Most respondents to another survey said recently that the actions of the national government threaten Venezuela’s democracy.

The cracks in the Chávez brand are not just conceptual. Venezuelans have recently awakened to a harsh reality involving food shortages, electricity blackouts, water rationing and, perhaps most troubling, a spike in crime in urban areas, most notably in Caracas. The latter has become one of the most dangerous cities in the world, with 130 killings per 100,000 residents reported last year. Foreign Policy magazine deemed Caracas the "murder capital of the world."


Nat Wilson Turner November 10, 2009 - 4:59pm
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Chavez Says Venezuela to Prepare for War as Deterrent

Colombia, US to sign controversial deal on military bases this week

Tina November 10, 2009 - 5:36pm
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what about sub-national mercenary stuff?

It seems like today's Operation Condor strategy du jour is to get rebellious corporatist state governors to join the CIA/Wall Street bandwagon, back them up with mercenary-based training and drug money flowz. Like "Kosovo" was created by Kosovo Liberation Army with MPRI backing and heroin operations.

We seem to be seeing this with the richest states in Bolivia and Venezuela (controlled by anti-Morales/Chavez governors). Cross border right wing militias active -- seems to be the hottest pattern of action at this time??

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Hongpong.com

HongPong November 10, 2009 - 11:17pm
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that is an excellent point

I'm more up on what's going on with the Bolivian states than the Venezuelan ones. Got any links?

Nat Wilson Turner November 11, 2009 - 10:43am
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Zulia border incidents & paramilitaries

Zulia is the state I am thinking of, it is on the Colombian border and historically a lot of Colombia's militancy has spilled over. I think the Colombian paramilitaries are descendants of the AUC. The governor of Zulia may be trying some angles. The 2002 coup was almost certainly staged from Zulia with key help from the CIA, which I'm sure is obvious to everyone except the Washington Post. Zulia is the rich oil state so it makes sense they would like to "re-ottomanize" it as they say in Asia.....

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/1886
http://www.pr-inside.com/all-this-blather-about-2-billion-r1480034.htm
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=a8pRa0unVFaA&refer=latin_america
http://medialeft.net/main/index.php/venezuela-and-colombia-medialeftsections-183/461
http://milfuegos.blogspot.com/2009/05/maracaibo-goes-to-hell-in-true.html
http://www.venezuelasolidarity.org/?q=node/320

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The ever talkative Wayne Madsen has had material on this stuff....
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/20081113_5
November 14-16, 2008 -- Chavez calls secessionist state center of CIA activity

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has echoed a charge he has made for a number of years -- that Venezuela's oil-rich Zulia state is a center of CIA activity in the nation designed to overthrow Chavez's government.

According to Venezuelan TV (VTV), Chavez leveled the charge at a campaign appearance earlier this week for United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) Zulia gubernatorial candidate Gian Carlo Di Martino and other PSUV candidates in Lagunillas in Zulia state. The PSUV is Chavez's political party. Zulia's outgoing governor Manuel Rosales has been connected to CIA-sponsored secessionist activities in Zulia and attempts to overthrow Chavez. State gubernatorial and legislative and mayoral elections are scheduled throughout Venezuela on November 23.

On March 25, 2008, WMR reported: "In Venezuela, two successive U.S. ambassadors, Charles Shapiro and William Brownfield, poked a stick in President Hugo Chavez's eye by continuously involving themselves in Venezuela's domestic affairs. Brownfield was particularly involved in stirring up anti-Chavez separatist sentiment in oil-rich Zulia state . . . Beginning in 2001, U.S. ambassador to Venezuela Shapiro hosted the 2002 anti-Chavez coup activities from the U.S. embassy in Caracas. As reported by Project Censored in 2002, "The April 11, 2002 military coup in Venezuela was supported by the United States government. As early as last June, American military attaches had been in touch with members of the Venezuelan military to examine the possibility of a coup. During the coup, U.S military were stationed at the Colombia-Venezuela border to provide support, and to evacuate U.S. citizens if there were problems. According to intelligence analyst, Wayne Madsen, the CIA actively organized the coup. 'The CIA provided Special Operations Group personnel, headed by a lieutenant colonel on loan from the U.S. Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to help organize the coup against Chavez,' he said." Earlier this year Chavez expelled U.S. ambassador to Caracas Patrick Duddy and said, "Yankees, go to hell," adding that the United States was "full of shit."

Accusing Zulia governor Rosales of being in the pocket of the United States, Chavez told the PSUV rally: "You are out of here, you Mafioso (Manuel) Rosales. You are out of here, you corrupt thief Rosales. We are going to kick you out of here and you are going to go to jail, you amoral thief, mafioso!"

Chavez continued by accusing Rosales and the Zulia gubernatorial candidate of his party, Pablo Perez, of being in league with Colombian paramilitaries, "they are looking for military officers to stage a coup. They are looking for paramilitaries in Colombia to infiltrate them here in Zulia and in Caracas as well, to try to destabilize Venezuela on 23 November. I want to warn the pseudo-Yankees: If they try to take us down the path of violence, we will respond with all the force of the people!"
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Back in 2005 http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/20070419_29

However, while the Bush administration and its Dutch lackeys charge Chavez with having territorial designs on the ABC islands, the military-industrial oilgarchy in Washington and Houston may be fomenting a separatist movement in western Venezuela's oil-rich Zulia state. Chavez has accused Zulia's right-wing governor, Manuel Rosales, of working with the United States and American oil interests to promote independence for the state. A recently-formed right-wing and pro-business group called "Own Road" is pushing for an independence referendum for the state. There is evidence that the group has received support from intelligence elements operating from within the U.S. embassy in Caracas. In addition, U.S.-backed mercenaries and Florida-based missionaries have attacked the villages of pro-Chavez indigenous tribes in Zulia.

Bush administration would have Venezuela's oil-rich Zulia state declare independence as a U.S. client state called the "Republic of Zulia." U.S. ambassador to Venezuela William Brownfield even referred to the state as the "Republic of Zulia." Other Latin American nations with populist governments can expect similar Bush/neocon-supported secessionist movements. Already, there are U.S.-supported secessionist stirrings in the hydrocarbon-rich Chaco region of Bolivia aimed against President Evo Morales, a Chavez ally.

The parallels between Own Road ("Rumbo Propio") and southwestern Iran's Ahwaz independence movement, which is backed British and U.S. intelligence, are striking. Both Zulia and Ahwaz are oil-rich regions. U.S. intelligence now backs independence movements in both regions designed to pry oil-rich resources away from anti-Bush central governments. Conversely, in regions where independence movements threaten U.S. oil interests, the Bush administration provides the central governments with military hardware and special counter-insurgency training. This is the case with oil-rich Aceh in northwestern Sumatra in Indonesia, the Angolan enclave of Cabinda, and the Delta region of Nigeria.

2006: http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/20070419_39
It now appears that President Hugo Chavez was correct when he accused U.S. missionaries, particularly the New Tribes Mission, of being linked to the CIA. Suspiciously, New Tribes Mission is based in Jeb Bush's Florida, which has become a newly invigorated base for CIA-funded right-wing Cuban, Venezuelan, Bolivian, and other Latin American paramilitaries and terrorist groups.

2008: http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/20080429_1
April 29, 2008 -- A Tale of Two Continents: US breaks up Latin American states while ensuring it does not happen in Africa

In Latin America, the Bush administration's "neo-conquistadores" are pushing a policy that seeks to break apart into fragmented states two nations led by progressive leaders. U.S. ambassadors, intelligence operatives, and Special Forces personnel are involved in promoting secessionist movements in Venezuela and Bolivia. The Bush policy hearkens back to 1903 when, backed by U.S. "gunboat diplomacy," Panama, a province of Colombia, declared independence to pave the way for the construction of the Panama Canal on terms favorable to the United States. U.S. troops then invaded Panama to protect its economic interests.

In Venezuela, successive U.S. ambassadors in Caracas, backed by local CIA and Special Forces operatives, have sought to stoke a secessionist in Venezuela's oil-rich Zulia state. Zulia has 40 percent of Venezuela's oil reserves and its governor, Manuel "Manny" Rosales, has received financial and political support from U.S. ambassadors to Venezuela, including William Brownfield and Charles Shapiro. Rosales was the only state governor to sign the "Carmona Decree," which legitimized the 2002 coup against President Hugo Chavez, a coup backed by U.S. intelligence and military forces. Rosales is tied to right-wing Cuban business interests in Miami.

In May 2006, Brownfield, a frequent visitor to Zulia, said in Maracaibo, Zulia's capital, that he once lived for two years in the "Independent and Eastern Republic of Zulia." Brownfield made a number of visits to Zulia to stoke independence fervor. The CIA has provided funds for Morales' autonomist party, Rumbio Propio (Own Way). The Bush administration seeks to create a puppet state in Zulia that would control Lake Maracaibo, turn the Maracuchos (the people of Zulia) into American vassals, and create a military base on Colombia's eastern border to squeeze the Colombian FARC and ensure the survival of the Bush cocaine-financed oligarchy in Bogota.

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Take it with your grains of salt, but it seems like the exact Modus Operandi of the rightwing Latin American autocrat establishment and their corporate CIA buddies.
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Hongpong.com

HongPong November 11, 2009 - 1:04pm
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great stuff!

thanks

Nat Wilson Turner November 11, 2009 - 3:33pm
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Watch out for this latest

Watch out for this latest tantrum from Chavez - we can't let him get away with this just 'cause he's in charge of an oil-producing country. http://www.newsy.com/videos/fighting_words_in_south_america

drewcifer November 13, 2009 - 10:50am
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