Venezuela's Chavez sees 'good signals' from US

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Venezuela's Chavez sees 'good signals' from US
By JORGE RUEDA, Associated Press Writer Jorge Rueda, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 55 mins ago

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he sees "good signals" from the United States after Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles was charged with lying about his involvement in a series of 1997 bombings in Cuba.

Chavez made the remark to Caracas-based TV channel Telesur while traveling from China to Cuba, where he arrived for a visit Friday. Chavez said he was encouraged by the indictment handed down this week against the 81-year-old former CIA operative, who is accused of lying about his involvement in bombings in Havana that killed an Italian tourist.

"They're opening a trial against Posada Carriles in the United States, they're summoning the terrorist again," Chavez said in the interview, which was shown Friday on Venezuelan state television.

"They seem like good signals on the part of the United States," Chavez said.


Venezuela has sought to reactivate a long-stalled request for the U.S. to extradite Posada, a naturalized Venezuelan citizen who is accused of masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner while living in Caracas.




Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090410/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_venezuela_us

[dipsydoodle]

1. K & R

.

[bbinacan]

2. Who cares what

POS dictator thinks.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Post a link to your evidence Hugo Chavez is a dictator, why not?

Educate the Democrats who may wonder if you have evidence of your assertion.

[bbinacan]

6. You are kidding

right? Have you followed nothing about this ass in the last few years? If need be, I'll spell it out. But, you should be more informed.

[Voice for Peace]

8. if you want to help people be more informed about Hugo Chavez, send them here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5832390545689805144

great watch if you haven't already seen it.

[EFerrari]

9. Myself, I'd like to see you try to spell it out.

:rofl:

[bbinacan]

14. OK

Would you like to live in a country that determines media programming? That deports anyone critical of Chavez. That Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have issues with him. That he kicked Human Rights Watch out of the country. That "in 2006, Reporters Without Borders ranked Venezuela 115th out of 168 countries in its global press freedom listing, sharply down from the last year's rating of 90th.<37"[br />
You are either very naive or you are walking around blind without a cane.

[EFerrari]

15. LOL. That's what I thought.

The opposition owns more than 70% of the media, genius. There are no deportations of dissidents. Vivanco was kicked out of the country for politicizing human rights in Venezuela and he was roundly condemned by the international community. And RSF gets USAID money to tank governments the US status quo wants to manipulate. Same as it ever was.

You are either incredibly naive or unbelievably credulous.

[bbinacan]

16. Would you want to live there?

[EFerrari]

18. Of course. In fact, they've invited out of work English teachers to come on down.

[bbinacan]

21. If you go,

I wish you the best of luck. I think you'll need it.

[EFerrari]

34. That's silly. And no, I'm not going to Venezuela. nt

[Bacchus39]

19. she's never been there even, nor have many of the Chavistas here n/t

s

[RedCloud]

23. Oh but some have and even were his neighbor, gringo!

If you had spent a second in Venezuela you might not see what was going on there. Essentially there were two massively corrupt parties, Acción Democrática and COPEI who basically doled out all the political jobs to their party members and forgot about the great masses of people time and time again.

I saw more than a dozen parties de la izquierda. They were very fragmented and didn't seem to have what it would take to coalesce into a force.

But they did. And Chávez has delivered on his promise to the pobres. They get adequate housing. This has to tick the rich off as no longer do they get all the government charity for their pet family members.

I saw the pobres march sometimes for four hours and the Adecos and Copeyanos would mock them as stupid and ignorant and couldn't even afford cars. When I saw this I had the impression of watching pre-Castro Cuba, where the army that fights for free will win. They walked and grew in political numbers, so much so that the Adecos and Copeyanos are today almost like dinosaurs in a museum.

Yes our rich fear Chávez and shame on you for following their lead. If Venezuela owns those oil fields shut the fuck up already. If they don't why did Carlos Andrés Pérez fork over a billion dollars to nationalize them in the 1970's? How can Chávez be blamed for that, unless they were never nationalized and that money was simply absconded by Perez's friends in the oil business for later use?

In short Chávez truly helps the poor of his country.That makes him the first in over 100 years.

[Bacchus39]

24. ummm....Chavez mocks people all the time and is corrupt. looks like you've never been there

either pana.

[corpseratemedia]

43. informative post, thanks

[bitchkitty]

30. Straw man.

That's stupid. You don't have to actually visit a place to be well informed of its politics or events. This is the age of cyberspace, or hadn't you heard?

[bitchkitty]

28. Hell yes! n/t

[murdoch]

22. OK

Human Rights Watch was founded as an anti-USSR organization, it was originally called "Helsinki Watch" as yet another US anti-USSR organization, until it renamed itself.

As far as Reporters without Borders ranking Venezuela. Turkey is rated above Venezuela - Turkey which jails people who translate Noam Chomsky's works about Turkey - which even prosecutes Turkey's most famous writer, Orhan Pamuk, for his writings. Please tell me who has been thrown in jail in Venezuela for writing this or that. Ranking Turkey as higher in press freedom than Venezuela is ridiculous, Reporters without Borders ranking is ridiculous. The press in Venezuela is much more free than that of Turkey, although Reporters without Borders rankings would have one think otherwise. Also, the idea that there is more free speech in Guatemala than Venezuela is ridiculous as well, although not according to RwB, but I won't even get into that other than to say just this month, April 2009, journalist Rolando Santis was MURDERED in Guatemala. Forget jail in Guatemala, a government connected death squad just comes and kills you if you criticize the government. But according to RwB, their press is more free than in Venezuela. Whatever.

[Chulanowa]

40. All this over his refusal to renew the license of a TV station...

One that happened to have publicly called for his assassination.

Go figure. Advocate murder of a government figure, that government figure won't sign the papers to let you keep doing so. Wacky.

[Judi Lynn]

41. Truly! They still live on, transmitting by cable, satellite, even now, like Fox News.

If Fox did what they did to an American President, their headquarters would have been emptied, boarded up, and sold within weeks, and their officials planted firmly in prison.

That just would not fly here, and EVERYONE knows it. People who haven't taken the time to learn what it was they did YEARS before their contract expired are stupid, or simply too lazy to find out. They reveal themselves by their simply idiotic remarks.

What a shame there isn't a forum where they'd be more at home.

[Chulanowa]

44. Different standards for different places

Some people just can't wrap their heads around a Latin American country not controlled by far-right politicians, Friedmanites, and American fruit companies.

[Selatius]

42. Yeah, but in the same blow, both Amnesty Int'l and HRW condemned the US for torture.

And Bush was an elected head of state as well.

[bitchkitty]

27. Spell it out.

I think you should "spell it out". List your resources that prove Hugo Chavez is a dictator. Don't reply with insults as to why I or anyone should be more informed.

Just inform me. Assume that I have been asleep for the last few years. Tell me, I want to hear.

[Judi Lynn]

32. Go ahead and post those links.As you saw,DUers really need you to show them the error of their ways.

They must learn to know far LESS than they do in order to grasp what you're pushing.

[EFerrari]

4. Nice post, Gomer Pyle.

[bbinacan]

7. Gomer says Hey. n/t

[Ken Burch]

10. Why do you post here if you're right wing?

n/t.

[bbinacan]

11. How can opposing

a dictator be right wing?

[Ken Burch]

12. You can't be that obtuse

1)Chavez' opponents in Venezuela are almost all on the right, supporting privatization and austerity(and thus, an end to social justice, which can't coexist with market values in Latin America);

2)The Bush Administration tried to overthrow the guy;

3)Look at what the Miami Cubans are like.

4)A man who's repeatedly won fair and free elections CAN'T BE CONSIDERED A DICTATOR.

Why can't you just accept that Chavez is in power because the people of Venezuela want him there?

There simply isn't a left anti-Chavez position.

[bbinacan]

17. See # 14

[EFerrari]

13. Ask the right wing nutcase opposition who is all on the extreme right.

They're the only ones who claim he's a dictator except your random knee jerks.

[Webster Green]

5. Heh!

Don't believe everything you think. :eyes:

[fascisthunter]

36. shut up already

[roamer65]

20. Hey Hugo! Do we get free oil if we extradite Posada?

If so, he should be on the next plane to Caracas. Let's make a deal!!!

[RedCloud]

25. Bush turned down Chavez's offer for humanitarian aid after Katrina

I think that should tell you enough.

[EFerrari]

38. The feds have always had an interesting relationship with Latin America.

Before leaving office, Bush wanted to sanction Chavez for kicking out the DEA and "not doing his part" on the fake war on drugs. Between now and then, the drug interdictions in Venezuela have doubled. :shrug:

[Name removed]

26. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. 
[link:www.democraticunderground.com/forums/rules.html|Click
here] to review the message board rules.

[Peace Patriot]

29. Oh, my, we do get 'em in Chavez threads, don't we? Thoughtless, clueless people.

Well, here's some food for thought for those interested: Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, said the following about Chavez, last year: "They can invent a lot of things to criticize Chavez, but not on democracy!"

He should know. He's neighbors with Chavez and meets with him monthly on economic planning and other issues. And Barack Obama recently said, of da Silva, that he is the most popular politician in the world.

Actually, Chavez and some of his other allies--Evo Morales, of Bolivia, Rafael Correa, of Ecuador, and Fernando Lugo, of Paraguay--arguably the most leftist leaders in South America--have higher approval ratings than da Silva, I think. Lugo had a 92% (!) approval rating just after his inauguration last year. Chavez, Morales and Correa run in the 60% to 70% range. Da Silva is certainly popular--but I don't know if he's that popular (the most popular in the world--that would be Lugo in Paraguay).

In any case, would any of these democratically elected presidents be so enthusiastically and happily and closely allied with a "dictator"?

The "dictators" are those who slander Chavez with this epithet--Bushwhacks, our corpo/fascist 'news' monopolies, the rich and the corporate, the Miami mafia. You are in exceedingly disreputable company if you repeat their bullshit lines about Chavez or any of the new leftist leaders of Latin America.

-------------------------

The second part of this Associated Pukes article is interesting:


The Venezuelan leader also said he was encouraged by U.S. authorities' cooperation in a large drug bust aboard a Venezuelan boat off South America. Chavez said the U.S. Coast Guard detected the Venezuelan-flagged boat in international waters and 'called and asked permission to board.'

"'Now they're going to turn over to us the boat, the drugs, the prisoners. Those are good signals because that didn't used to happen, Chavez said.

"U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Matt Moorlag in Miami said the Coast Guard located the Venezuela-flagged fishing boat 500 miles (800 kilometers) east of Brazil, boarded the vessel Wednesday and found about 2,500 pounds (1,135 kilograms) of cocaine."

Would the U.S. Coast Guard turn "the boat, the drugs, the prisoners" over to a "dictator"? No, clearly under "new management," the U.S. Coast Guard is going to turn these items over to the legitimate, elected government of Venezuela, as it should.

But what is truly remarkable about this article is that it was published at all. It's the second article in two days, by the Associated Pukes, with positive news about Chavez. And they don't even say, "Hugo Chavez, friend of Fidel Castro." After eight years of lies, disinformation, black holes where information should be, slander, propaganda, highly selective facts, bias, spin, mistranslation and god knows what all journalistic crimes by AP against this perfectly good leader of Venezuela, the Associated Pukes have changed their tune, and are coming on all fair and reasonable and objective and everything. No snide remarks. No scurrilous characterizations. No planted quotes dissing Chavez. It is very revealing. The Associated Pukes (AP) = CIA. You can always tell what's in and what's out, at Langley, on Latin America, by following AP's newswire. So, this is quite encouraging news. It may mean that Obama has finally taken charge of Latin American foreign policy--after a really rocky period of transition (with a lot of Bushwhack holdovers in the State Dept., the CIA and other agencies, apparently trying to sabotage potential good relations between Obama and Chavez).

This doesn't necessarily means the war's off. There are plenty of billionaire Bushwhacks with lots of stolen funds, armies and operatives, who could still try to pull it off (--the civil wars they had planned for Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, to gain control of the oil by creating secessionist, fascist mini-states). But it appears--and I stress, appears, because Obama Latin America policy is still a great unknown--that it will have to be done without U.S. support, or will have to be delayed until they can Diebold Obama out of office, or will possibly have to be abandoned, and other strategies used.

AP would not be fair to Chavez unless they had been told to do so, by insiders. AP is a tool of the U.S. government--i.e., a tool of U.S. corporate interests. And this is a rather clear signal that our government, and the corporate interests that it serves, have a new strategy in Latin America of making nice. The obvious thing to me is that they have found that "divide and conquer" doesn't work. They found that out this last September, when the Bushwhacks tried their fascist coup in Bolivia. The continent pulled together like never before. And they have found it out over the last year, when every effort to "isolate" Chavez, and to demonize him and his closest allies, has failed. The other leaders of South America will not have it. They will not take this crap any more.

We who have been following Latin American events knew this. But it was rather a big question whether or not Latin America would go its own way, with UNASUR and their own currency, driven by Washington's arrogance, greed and insult (and possibly continued attempted gross interference), or whether the new Obama administration would make peace, and end our bullying, disrespectful, obnoxious, greed-driven policies toward our nearest neighbors. Obama is simply not strong enough, politically, to defy our corporate masters--not yet, anyway. So, I think it's fair to assume that he is in accord with them, on the failure of Bushwhack policy, and trying a new strategy, that is more realistic, and more likely to win favor for our corporate interests in Latin America.

This turnabout by the Associated Pukes rather points that way. The subject matter doesn't matter much--it could have been anything, and they could have ignored this particular story (as they have ignored many positive stories about Chavez and his government). They didn't. And they had a similar story yesterday.

Anybody else struck by this?

[brindis_desala]

33. Lula has been trying to act as mediator. Brazil has been

really savvy with their monetary policy and with US markets in the doldrums Lula has a lot of (unspent) capital. Hopefully he and Chavez won't be conned into buying one of our notorious corporate white elephants.

[stillcool]

35. Maybe we're moving on to other countries...

like Somalia.

[EFerrari]

37. The Summit of the Americas is coming up this week so we may get

some more Chavez threads or Castro threads between now and then.

[stillcool]

39. oh joy.

the cries for blood and gore in the Somalia situation will have to compete with the Dictator/Communist/Tyrant threads.

[DissedByBush]

31. Bush has been protecting him

As a payoff to the Cuban exiles in Florida to keep up their support for Jeb. Daddy Bush got anti-Cuban terrorist Orlando Bosch released to help out Jeb too.