Posted on 12/19/2002 10:26:02 AM PST by shanec
No where to be seen apparently. He's got oil the USA needs, especially on the eve of ME hostilities.
I don't advocate US intervention there, I'd prefer to see Chavez removed unquestionably legally, under their current constitution, as the next administration there really needs that no-question legit start in the world community.
BUT, what do the Venezuelans do when their President is clearly acting UNconstitutionally, everybody knows it there cause many with him previously have come out 'spilling the beans' with documentation and proof, AND now 20 valid cases against him, any of which would have him removed from office, have been sitting stalled at the Supreme Court. The court that he has packed so obviously with his own supporters who don't follow any semblance of the 'rule of law' that many other justices have since quit in protest, just like his top military has now.
It's very telling when even his mentor abondons him. Luis Miquilena, who taught him politics when he wasn't thinking past just his first coup attempt, and who also then became his first Vice President, and Minister of Interior & Justice, and was actually Head of the Commission that wrote that new Constitution of 1999, is an elderly gentleman who lives around the corner from where I stay there in Atamira Plaza. He had first come out vigorously against him this past spring. In fact, a week ago last Saturday, he was on TV again denouncing him as having gone off the deep end in his unbridled lust for power.
That tells me Hugo Chavez either changed along the way or fooled everyone all along, either way he's not today what most folks who voted for him thought he was going to be. And, the Venezuelans overhwhelmingly have had enough of him as their unprecedented national general strike and record-breaking marches of millions show the world almost daily.
Anyways, They (USA) don't need to have people on the ground there doing anything that would be seen as intrusive, but they do need to be vocal about all that he's up to, loud & clear. I'm afraid they won't even do that.
USA rants & raves about terrorist nations the world over, but giving Chavez a pass now, IMO, will be later revealed as the greatest administration blunder ever when Chavez begins fulfilling his goals to infect all of the Southern Hemisphere with his Bolivarian revolution. (Not even mentioning the potential for terrorism right here!)
Think Fidel Castro with no embargo restrictions and with billions of dollars at his disposal and the 5th largest oil reserves and an unending desire to export the revolution and terrorism throughout the region, and that's what you've got right now with Chavez.
The world needs to know that and the USA from the Oval office on down should be leading the charge telling all. Then let the world media, OAS and UN try and still side step their need and obligation to fully expose, villify and condemn him. They won't be able to or they will be exposed as shills for the tyrants by all.
This is fixing to be Cuba all over again, but 1,000 times more dangerous to this hemisphere, if this valiant effort by the Venezuelan people to regain their country is ignored by the USA.
-Shane
It was too obvious to ignore. One has only to accept that these thugs really do mean to do us in and take what we've got. Once that gets though one's own thick skull, one need only search for easy means, just as they would.
Unfortunately, our society provides them a great many avenues by which to do us harm, all in service to our more ephemeral and self-destructive "needs": cheap labor, cheap thrills, cheap domestic help, a handy dependent constituency, a source of dependable administrative jobs handing out tax money, whatever.
One has to doubt that the globalist, open borders crowd really doesn't understand all that. Tragically, that leads to some rather unpleasant conclusions.
Bump, bump and bump again.
This is the scary part for me: One has to doubt that the globalist, open borders crowd really doesn't understand all that. Tragically, that leads to some rather unpleasant conclusions.
Nita, I sit here and shake my head at the curious turn of events that led to all this, and am very grateful to have had the opportunity to shed some light on it, and frustrated to no end at the media here that sorta reports the Venezualans are 'upset' with Chavez there, but fails to illuminate why.
The people there know the Cuban road Chavez has UNconstitutionally dragged them onto, and are aghast at what's to become of their beloved country. They are Freepers on overdrive! I was very much at home there amongst them!
-Shane
Meanwhile, United Nations economic sanctions against Iraq, imposed after the Persian Gulf War nearly 10 years ago, and the four-decade U.S. embargo against Cuba, following the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, are crumbling. Allies and U.S. businesses are increasingly violating or ignoring both embargoes, and there is nothing Washington seems able to do about it. Earlier this month, the UN Security Council overrode U.S. objections and released $525 million from its Iraqi oil fund for use in upgrading Mr. Saddam's oil industry.
The Castro-Hussein-Chávez connection is anti-American and anti-capitalistic, but not in an ideological way. What matters to the three is domestic power built upon a base of nationalism that they believe legitimizes their policies
In a way, this bizarre trio represents the rebirth, a half century later, of the kind of nationalist populism spawned by General Juan Perón in Argentina and Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt. Mr. Castro and Mr. Saddam gained power through armed revolutions; Mr. Chávez, a paratroopers' lieutenant colonel, was democratically elected in 1998, after serving time for trying to overthrow the government in 1992.
Mr. Chávez is the most intriguing new leader to emerge in Latin America since Mr. Castro - and he is the lynchpin between Mr. Castro and Mr. Saddam. Although Cuba had been sending doctors and health workers to Iraq for years, there had not been any major contacts between the two countries until Mr. Chávez appeared on the scene. This fall, Mr. Chávez became the first democratically elected foreign head of state to visit Iraq since the Gulf War, ostensibly to invite Mr. Saddam to a summit of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. But it also was an in-your face gesture toward the United States .***
A good example of this was Operation Urgent Fury, ostensibly a mission to rescue American medical students from the island of Grenada. In fact, the primary objective of Urgent Fury was to secure several ballistic missile silos that were being built there by both Cubans and Russians, as well as taking control of a strategic 10,000-foot-long runway.
Why keep such a thing secret? Because managing public opinion in such cases is much harder than spinning a cover story. Particularly, the disposition of the Cuban and Russian prisoners would have been much more complicated if it were done publicly. A lesson of the Cold War.
In this case, I imagine the Cuban bio-lab (if it does, indeed, exist) will soon be receiving a late-night visit from Delta Force.
Oh, didn't anyone tell you? Like MFN-granted China, Chavez is one of America's "strategic allies."
The people I saw in the marches, supporting the striking oil workers, and at Altamira Plaza with the military that have left Chavez...
...were clean cut, flag-waving, all standing at attention when their National Anthem played, type folks. All ages; elderly couples, families with kids on bikes, lots of young single adults. You'd of been proud to have had this caliber patriot shoulder-to-shoulder at any Freeper event!
Brought tears to my eyes when not even 40 minutes after the Friday night (12/6) massacre there at the Altamira Plaza...
...where over 30 were shot and three died, about a third of the 2,000 who had run and dived for cover came back out openly to resume their program. They were defiantly and loudly proclaiming that they would not be intimidated by Hugo Chavez and his cowardly hired thugs! (This was under the risk of more gunfire there, which actually did happen later on, too.) The intense sense of historical purpose in doing so was inherently understood by all still there. What it required of them at that annointed time was evident in their energy and determination and would have surely made our own founding fathers proud! The last victims had only just been removed and the blood upon the Plaza was still wet and glistening, yet these Venezuelans had a in-your-face & up-yours message to deliver to Chavez that could not wait and only makes me more eager to see them successfully deliver it!
-Shane
In Australia on the SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) that is government owned there is a program called Cutting Edge.
Couple months back it had overview of the coup attempt in Venezuela.
It talked about how the whole thing was organised by the CIA, then talked about the snipers that shot those people on the streets. Then how the TV showed one video of police firing and another video of people getting hit but the two videos where from two seperate events in two different locations.
The Cutting Edge show was just blasting the CIA for organising the coup.
We are getting different picture on world events down here I think.
Also, before the massacre, early Friday morning, at 2:50 AM I awoke to shots being fired into the Plaza from drive-by assailants. (The Altamira Plaza is 'going' 24/7 with speakers and crowds here.) Fortunately, no injuries reported and the capable security teams (of the ex-military here) pursued and captured them and they were discovered to be two card-carrying DIM (Division de Intelligencia Militar) agents. They were turned over to the local police, who are also overwhelmingly anti-Chavez, but with the aid of a Chavez appointed judge were promptly ´absolved´ and are now gone.
Then, on Saturday morning, after the massacre, two more potantial assailants were caught at about 10 AM local time, coming into the Plaza. They were armed with a five shot revolver and Taurus 9mm. I examined the ID carried by both and they were Chavez MVR Party members and one is a MVR political appointee, a Comisario, which I have been told, is like a constable in the US. He was from the state of Anzoategui, which is about 6 hours away, long ways from home he was.
Anyways, I'm convinced Chavez regime fully capable and willing and behind unleashing this sort of intimidation violence against his opposition, let's hope it doesn't get much worse.
-Shane
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