- Washington fears Hugo Chavez for good reason. His "good
example" threat raises concerns that other regional leaders may follow.
As a result, throughout his tenure, he's been targeted and vilified - to
discredit, weaken and undermine his government to destroy Bolivarian benefits
millions of Venezuelans now enjoy, won't easily give up, nor should they.
-
- Several failed coup attempts included:
-
- -- April 2002 for two days, an effort aborted by mass
street protests and support from many in Venezuela's military, especially
from the middle-ranking officer corp;
-
- -- the 2002 - 2003 general strike and oil management
lockout, causing severe economic disruption and billions of dollars in
losses; and
-
- -- the August 2004 national recall referendum that Chavez
won overwhelmingly with a 59% majority.
-
- Thereafter, disruptions regularly followed to help domestic
and US oligarchs regain what they lost, so far without success, but they
persist, with supportive editorial, op-ed, and on-the-ground reporting.
Also from an Organization of American States (OAS) report, the Vision of
Humanity's annual Global Peace Index (GPI), US State Department, and Pentagon.
-
- On March 19, Reuters reported that, in testimony before
the House Armed Services Committee, General Douglas Fraser, USSOUTHCOM
(US Southern Command) head, claimed Chavez backs Colombian leftists, saying:
-
- His government "continue(s) to have a very anti-US
stance and look(s) to try and restrict US activity wherever they have the
opportunity to do that. (It's) continuing to engage with the region....and
continuing to pursue (its) socialism agenda. (It) remain(s) a destabilizing
force in the region."
-
- He said Venezuela continues to support FARC-EP rebels,
providing "financial logistical support" and a safe haven based
on evidence found on a laptop seized in a 2008 Ecuadorean guerrilla camp
raid - information later proved bogus.
-
- Yet a week earlier, before the Senate Armed Services
Committee, Fraser testified otherwise, saying:
-
- "We have not seen any connections specifically that
I can verify that there has been a direct government-to-terrorist connection"
between Chavez and either the FARC-EP or the Basque separatist group ETA.
"We have continued to watch very closely for any connections between
illicit and terrorist organization activity within the region. We are concerned
about it. I'm skeptical. I continue to watch for it," but as yet haven't
found it.
-
- During her March 1 - 5 Latin American tour, Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton gratuitously insulted Chavez. So did Assistant
Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Arturo Valenzuela, in
Senate testimony, accusing him of FARC-EP ties - suggesting much more to
come to boost opposition candidates in September parliamentary elections.
-
- US State Department 2009 Human Rights Report: Venezuela
-
- Released on March 11, it followed earlier ones, bogusly
accusing Chavez of:
-
- -- harassing and intimidating political opponents;
- -- targeting the media; and
-
- -- numerous human rights violations, including:
-
- -- "unlawful killings;
-
- -- summary executions of criminal suspects;
- -- widespread criminal kidnappings for ransom;
- -- prison uprisings resulting from harsh prison conditions;
- -- arbitrary arrests and detentions;
- -- corruption and impunity in police forces;
- -- a corrupt, inefficient, and politicized judicial system
characterized by trial delays and violations of due process;
- -- (targeting) political opponents and selective prosecution(s)
for political purposes;
- -- infringement of citizens' privacy rights by security
forces;
- -- government closure of radio and television stations
and threats to close others;
- -- government attacks on public demonstrations;
- -- systematic discrimination based on political grounds;
- -- considerable corruption at all levels of government;
- -- threats and attacks against domestic NGOs;
- -- violence against women;
- -- inadequate juvenile detention centers;
-
- -- trafficking in persons; and
-
- -- restrictions on workers' right of association."
-
- Other charges have included drugs trafficking and ties
to bogusly designated "foreign terror organizations" like the
FARC-EP and ETA.
-
- These sham charges and similar ones repeat regularly
to discredit and undermine Chavez. Ironically, they're more descriptive
of American domestic and foreign policies - ones that defy US and international
laws with regard to human and civil rights, equal justice, war, occupation,
domestic tranquility, and the Constitution's Article I, Section 8 for the
Congress to "provide (for) the general welfare of the United States,"
the so-called welfare clause applying also to the Executive and judiciary.
-
- In contrast, Chavez promotes world solidarity, democratic
freedoms, human and civil rights, judicial fairness, fair and open elections,
and a free and open media. He doesn't invade other countries, has no secret
prisons, doesn't practice torture, or conduct fraudulent elections. As
a result, he inspires millions worldwide, and has widespread domestic majority
support. Yet bogus State Department charges persist.
-
- Ones as well from a recent OAS report titled, "Democracy
and Human Rights in Venezuela," produced under the mandate of the
Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
-
- Among others, its bogus accusations include:
-
- -- restricting human rights "enshrined in the American
Convention on Human Rights;"
-
- -- no independent separation among government branches;
-
- -- state punitive power to "intimidate or punish
people on account of their political opinions;"
-
- -- denying journalists the right to report freely;
-
- -- "a pattern of impunity in cases of violence,"
especially against "media workers, human rights defenders, trade unionists,
participants in public demonstrations, people held in custody, campesinos
(small-scale and subsistence farmers), indigenous peoples, and women;"
-
- -- restricted opportunities for opposing political candidates
to secure "access to power;"
-
- -- disempowering opposition politicians through legal
and other means;
-
- -- intimidating and punishing dissent against official
policy through harassment, violence, and criminal proceedings;
-
- -- targeting peaceful opposition demonstrations;
-
- -- the absence of an independent, impartial judiciary;
and
-
- -- numerous other charges like the US State Department's,
more descriptive of America, suggesting a hidden motive behind the report's
issuance; perhaps also its timing, two weeks before the State Department's
similar accusations.
-
- Chavez called it "pure excrement....ineffable (and)
ignominious" in denouncing the IACHR as "menacing....a true mafia
and is part of the OAS, which is why one of these days this organization
must disappear....It is the same Commission which backed (the de facto
government of Pedro) Carmona" after the April 2002 coup. "But
this is part of the attacks, of continued threats against the Bolivarian
Revolution, (a) continued campaign (supported by Venezuelan and American
oligarchs to) isolat(e) Venezuela."
-
- OAS history is long and shameful in deference to US interests.
-
- Writing in Granma Internacional in June 2009, Editor
Oscar Sanchez Serra said:
-
- Throughout its history, the OAS "made democracies
ungovernable, turned them into dictatorships, and when they were no longer
useful, reconverted them into even more diminished and servile democracies,
because in the new, neoliberal era, with transnationalized oligarch(ic)
capital, they were part of a much more sophisticated power structure, whose
bases were not necessarily located in the presidential palaces or parliaments,
but in continental corporations."
-
- OAS nations had decades of "involvement with death,
genocide and lies for (it) to survive these times. It is a political corpse
and should be buried as soon as possible....The reality is, without the
OAS, the United States would lose one of its principle political/legal
instruments of hegemonic control over the Western Hemisphere."
-
- In February 2004, Washington got its backing to justify
ousting Haiti's President Jean-Betrand Aristide. Then in 2009, it abstained
from strong actions after Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was deposed,
opting instead for symbolic toothless measures. It's new report reveals
transparent support for bogus US charges, not Venezuela's participatory
democracy, largely absent in the region and unimaginable in America where
Washington is corporate controlled territory, and popular interests go
unaddressed.
-
- The Global Peace Index (GPI)
-
- Launched by Australian entrepreneur, Steve Killelea,
in May 2007, it claims to be the first study of its kind ranking nations
according to peacefulness, identifying key peace drivers. Its initial report
included 121 countries, increased to 140 in 2008 and 144 in its latest
2009 report, released in June last year.
-
- Its problematic endorsers include:
-
- -- the Dalia Lama, a known CIA asset from the late 1950s
to mid- 1970s, and may still be one now;
-
- -- John Malcolm Fraser, former Australian Prime Minister;
-
- -- Kofi Annan, infamous as UN Secretary-General for backing
US imperial wars while ignoring the plight of oppressed Africans and others
globally;
-
- -- Ban Ki-moon, current UN Secretary-General, performing
the same services as Annan;
-
- -- corporate figures including Ted Turner (CNN founder)
and Richard Branson (chairman, Virgin Group);
-
- -- an array of prominent current and past political and
diplomatic figures;
- -- two members of Jordanian royalty;
- -- numerous academics; and others.
-
- Organizations preparing GPI's report and/or responsible
for its data include:
-
- -- the Economist Intelligence Unit (founded by a former
UK director of intelligence), calling itself "the world's foremost
provider of country, industry and management analysis" since 1946;
-
- -- the Uppsala Conflict Data Program at Sweden's Uppsala
University, producing annual "States in Armed Conflict" reports;
- -- the Oslo, Norway International Peace Research Institute,
a private/publicly funded organization, producing "Conflict Resolution
and Peacebuilding Annual Reports;" and
-
- -- the London-based International Institute of Strategic
Studies (IISS), calling itself "the world's leading authority on political-military
conflict" with 450 corporate and institutional members.
-
- The world was less peaceful in 2008, according to GPI,
reflecting intensified conflicts and the effects of rising food and fuel
prices at a time of global economic crisis, impacting employment, incomes,
savings, and for many shelter, enough to eat, and the ability to survive.
-
- GPI used 23 indicators to measure the level or absence
of peace, divided into three broad categories, including:
-
- -- ongoing domestic and international conflict;
-
- -- safety and security in society; and
-
- -- militarization.
-
- Scores were then "banded, either on a scale of 1
- 5 (for qualitative indicators) or 1 - 10 (for quantitative data, such
as military expenditure or the jailed population, which have then been
converted to a 1- 5 scale for comparability when compiling the final index)."
-
- Indicators include:
-
- -- number of external and internal conflicts from 2002
- 07;
-
- -- estimated number of deaths from external conflicts;
-
- -- estimated number from internal ones;
-
- -- level of internal conflicts;
-
- -- relations with neighboring countries;
-
- -- perceptions of criminality in society;
-
- -- number of displaced people as a percentage of population;
-
- -- political instability;
-
- -- level of disrespect for human rights;
-
- -- potential for terrorist acts;
-
- -- number of homicides per 100,000 people;
-
- -- level of violent crime;
-
- -- likelihood of violent demonstrations;
-
- -- number of jailed population per 100,000 people;
-
- -- number of internal security officers and police per
100,000 population;
-
- -- military expenditures as a percent of GDP;
-
- -- number of military personnel per 100,000 population;
-
- -- volume of major weapon imports per 100,000 people;
-
- -- volume of major weapon exports per 100,000 people;
-
- -- funding for UN peacekeeping missions;
-
- -- total number of heavy weapons per 100,000 people;
-
- -- ease of access to small arms and light weapons; and
-
- -- the level of military capability.
-
- Conspicuously absent is any measure of outside influence
causing internal violence, instability, and/or disruption. Top rankings
went to New Zealand, Denmark and Norway. Ranked worst were Iraq, Afghanistan,
Somalia and Israel.
-
- Venezuela ranked an implausible 120th behind Yemen, Haiti,
Iran, Honduras, Uzbekistan, Uganda, Rwanda, and dozens of other unlikely
choices. America was 83rd, despite hands down being the world's most violent
lawless state, directly or through global proxy wars for unchallengeable
world dominance.
-
- It's also a domestic armed camp, using police state laws
to quash human rights and civil liberties, criminalize dissent, illegally
spy, control information, persecute political opponents, steal elections,
and transfer public wealth to elitist private hands.
-
- In contrast, Venezuela is democratic and peaceful, except
during periods of Washington-instigated disruptions. America alone endangers
global stability and world peace, waging permanent wars, targeting peaceful
nations, and claiming the unilateral right to use first strike nuclear
weapons preemptively. It also maintains over 1,000 bases and many secret
ones in over 130 countries. Its annual military budget tops all other nations
combined - way over $1 trillion plus tens of additional billions for intelligence
and black operations, mostly for covert destabilization.
-
- It overthrows democratically elected governments, assassinates
foreign leaders and key officials, props up friendly dictators, practices
torture as official policy, operates the world's largest domestic and
offshore gulag, destabilizes world regions, and is hated and feared globally
as a result.
-
- In contrast, Chavez seeks regional and global alliances;
engages foreign leaders cooperatively; assassinates no one internally or
abroad; has no nuclear weapons or seeks them; spends less than one-half
of one percent of the Pentagon's official budget; doesn't export weapons
to neighbors; is socially responsible at home; has no secret prisons; respects
the rule of law; is a model participatory democracy; governs peacefully;
supports civil and human rights and social justice; affirms free expression;
bans discrimination; and uses Venezuela's resources responsibly - for people
needs, yet is friendly to business at home and abroad.
-
- Nonetheless, GPI ranks it below America in human and
civil rights, level of organized internal conflict, relations with neighboring
countries, potential for terrorist acts, level of violent crime, political
instability, perceptions of criminality in society, ease of access to small
weapons, freedom of the press, political democracy, adult literacy (way
above the US Department of Education's assessment), and willingness to
fight.
-
- Transparency International (TI) also rates Venezuela
low in its 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), indicating the perceived
level of public sector corruption by country, claiming a 90% confidence
of accuracy. It ranks America implausibly high at 19th and Venezuela outrageously
low at 162nd out of 180 countries, behind notoriously corrupt states, including
corporate occupied Washington, siphoning trillions of public dollars to
private hands as part of the greatest ever wealth transfer.
-
- In ranking America v. Venezuela, TI, GPI, and OAS measures
look suspiciously manipulated to place a global hegemon above a peaceful
democratic state that coincidentally is Washington's top regional target.
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com
and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the
Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays
at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
-
- http://prognewshour.progressiveradionetwork.org/
-
- http://lendmennews.progressiveradionetwork.org/
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