|
Edited on Sat Mar-12-11 02:16 AM by sabrina 1
First, thank you for answering the questions. If they are meant honestly, as they appear to be, then as you point out yourself, your only reason for being in this thread is to 'defend' Chavez haters from people who, in your estimation, are 'not being honest' and trying to 'distract'.
I don't know how familiar you are with this phenomenon on DU over the past year or two. By that, I mean the regular posting of Western propaganda (the linked article in the OP eg, is from a biased, anti-democratic Venezuala rag the goal of which is to search for any trivia to use to attempt to discredit Venezuela's Democracy) For those of us who have followed the Venezuela/U.S. conflict since the CIA backed coup in 2002, the relatively recent appearance on Democratic boards of anti-Venezuelan Democracy, these propaganda publications and their propagandists are very familiar.
I first became involved in politics after the installation of George Bush in the WH. Something was clearly wrong and drew my attention to politics the summer before 9/11. When 9/11 happened, I and many others at the time, knew that the Bush gang would use it as an excuse to invade some sovereign country. By then I knew a little about the Bush Crime Family. I hoped someone would stop them.
In 2002, on the blog I was then posting on, someone posted an alert that the democratically elected president of Venezuela had been ousted in a coup d'etat. I knew little about Venezuela at the time, but along with people around the world, we watched the events, later documented in the award-winning film 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' as they unfolded. Just before the coup failed when the people of Venezuela came out into the streets and forced the removal of the coup leaders, Condi Rice made a speech, assuming the coup had been successful, in which she revealed, somewhat unwittingly, that the U.S. had played a role in the coup. Not long afterwards, Chavez the rightful and duly elected president, was restored to office by his people.
Like just about every other Democrat and sane Conservatives and Independents and people around the world, once it was obvious that the U.S. had attempted to undermine Venezuela's democratic process against the will of its people, I was truly concerned. Knowing that the Bush gang were now planning to invade another oil producing country, Iraq, many feared that while they had failed the first time, they would not give up on Venezueala, or any other country in Latin America which, at that time, might attempt to establish its independence from the Western Backed dictatorships so many had lived under for so long.
Latin America, at that time, like N. Africa is doing now, was rising up against oppression and over the course of the last decade, while the U.S. was distracted and mired down in two failed wars, finally succeeded in establishing several democracies, in Bolivia, in Chile, Argentina among others, and of course, Venezuela.
For those of us following events in Latin America, it was a very exciting time and somewhat of a counter to the horror of the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Many believed that had Bush not gotten the U.S. involved in those two wars, Latin American countries might have had a more difficult time, extricating themselves from the oppressive influences of Multi National forces.
Chavez, like Aristede and other leaders of these emerging democracies, had goals for their people that were NOT approved of by the Western Powers. Aristede was the next leader of a struggling democracy to be ousted in a coup again backed by the U.S.
What they were doing that made them so unacceptable to the U.S. was to try to improve conditions, such as poverty and literacy, of their people. They wanted to raise the minimum wage, eg. A real threat to Global Capitalists who depend on the slave labor of third world countries. And an educated population? That was not acceptable. So throughout the past decade, U.S. and their Global Capitalist allies funded operatives in many of these countries, like Bolivia and Venezuela and of course Haiti, to undermine their democracies. It was hard to watch, but once a people decide that they are going to determine their own fate, after decades of oppression and they have a taste of indepence, they don't give up easily.
We, every Democrat I know, were rooting for the people. Just as we are rooting for the people in the ME and N. Africa now. We supported the democratically elected leaders of all those countries, including Aristede (who I believe, despite the efforts of the U.S. to keep him out, is returning to Haiti I am happy to say).
We all assumed that the Democratic Party also supported the people of these countries. Venezuela, because of its oil money, was able to help some of the other poorer countries, including Haiti, and all of them feared that they might once again fall prey to Western powers. So, led by Chavez, they formed their own version of NATO. Chavez paid off Venezuela's debt to the World Bank, freeing the country finally of their influence. INDEPENDENCE! It was incredibly exciting to watch Latin America during these past few years.
But the U.S. doesn't give up easily when there is oil involved, or other resources as there are in some of those other countries and the interference never stopped. To add to the physical interference in some of these countries, a media smear campaign was funded against leaders like Chavez in an attempt to discredit him as he was seen as the most dangerous threat to Global Multi Corps interests. The man believed that every country deserved to take care of their own business and that the people should benefit from their resources, not Multi National Corps. That cannot be tolerated. So he became their main target.
It was around 2004 when democrats across the country started a petition to stop the U.S. from attempting to overthrow leaders of these countries and it was sent to Kerry with tens of thousands of signatures. People assumed, being a Democrat he had the same goals as we did, 'leave other countries alone, respect their right to choose their own leaders'. But, unfortuanately we learned that Kerry was not going to support any such thing. That the U.S. had policies and both parties were involved.
It was a blow, and a huge disappointment and the beginning of an awakening to the way things really are for many people. Still, no Democrat, Liberal, Progressive a I knew would ever go along with those policies. Venezuela being the main target, was defended on Rightwing boards by Democrats because at that time, it was only ON Rightwing boards you ever saw what we are now seeing on leftwing boards, the kind of propaganda that is in the linked article in this OP.
Defending Latin American countries, their rights and their people's rights to choose their leaders, was a Progressive Democratic cause. Chavez was not the issue, nor was Aristede or Lulu or any of those leaders, it was our policies. Policies that again were used to back the recent coup in Honduras.
So, when you accuse ME of being the interloper here, because I and others expose the fact that these 'articles' are a continuation of the vile cold war policies of this country against third world countries, in Latin America, in the ME, in Africa and elsewhere, you have it backwards. It is the sudden infiltration of rightwing propaganda against these countries and their leaders, Iraqis, Arabs, Latin Americans, Africans, it is THEY who are spreading lies and distortions and I will never, ever stop exposing them.
I see you now taking over Catherina's threads. Supporting the people of the ME and Africa's rights to establish their own governments. Some of those countries, like the Latin American countries once free, will want to nationalize their oil eg. Once they do that, our policies of undermining anyone who does not fully cooperate with us, will go into effect.
YOU, because you have been supporting them, will be outraged when you see smear campaigns against their leaders, because you will know the reasons why. And it WILL happen. We are nothing in this country if not consistent. We just did it in Honduras.
So don't dare to tell me I am being dishonest. Anyone who knows me and the policies of Bush, now clear to us that they are the horrific policies of both parties, policies that got us into Iraq, that we are struggling to change, knows how long we have been fighting off the attempts to get support from the American people for another invasion if necessary of a sovereign nation, by conducting a propaganda campaign against democratic leaders of other countries, or a secret war such as the one Reagan conducted in Central America and would be appalled that someone on a democratic board would accuse those of us who have been in this battle for so long, of being dishonest.
I will never NOT expose the propaganda so don't expect it.
It's strange though that you do not see that while you support the people of the ME and Africa's right to the freedom to choose their own government, when it comes to Latin America you enable the forces who would deny THOSE people who struggled and suffered for so long, the very same rights.
Venezuela elected the president they wanted. When they do not want him, they will not elect him. It is THEIR choice. The U.S. has a long, bloody history in Latin America and they are still there, undercover but there, and Chavez knows it and so does every other leader of the region of the world. They ousted Aristedes and Chavez, and Honduras' elected president.
That's three democratically elected presidents in less than ten years. Along with invasions of two countries.
No, they have NOT stopped their criminal intereference in Latin America and I for one will never enable that by allowing their smear campaigns to go unchallenged.
Demonizing leaders like Aristedes, Chavez, Lulu and anyone who won't cave in to them, is how they start. Get the American people to hate a leader of a foreign country, and they will cheer when we decide to invade that country. I am sure you do not want to deprive the people of Venezuela of their rights, but each time you support the propaganda against their chose leader, you ARE helping those who would take away their freedom in a nano second in order to get their hands on the oil.
|