Wikileaks: US Embassy Requests Funding for Anti-Chavez Groups

[Karmadillo]

http://www.zcommunications.org/wikileaks-us-embassy-requests-funding-for-anti-chavez-groups-by-eva-golinger

Wikileaks: US Embassy Requests Funding for Anti-Chavez Groups
By Eva Golinger

The latest Wikileaks releases include cables sent from the US Embassy in Caracas to the State Department, Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Council, and other US entities, indicating requests for additional US government funding for opposition groups in Venezuela. The cables corroborate documents previously obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that evidence ongoing US funding to support anti-Chavez groups and political parties in Venezuela actively working to destabilize and overthrow the South American government.

One document dated March 2009, authored by Charge D’Affaires John Caulfield, reveals $10 million in funding via the US Embassy in Caracas to state and municipal opposition governments, as well as several NGOs, youth groups and political campaigns to counter the Chavez government. Curiously, in the confidential cable, Caulfield requests an additional $3 million (on top of an already-approved $7 million) due to a “change” in Venezuela’s “political map”.

<edit>

Embassies, consulates and diplomats are prohibited under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic and Consular Affairs from intervening in the politics and internal affairs of a host nation. Funding from foreign governments for political groups and campaigns is also prohibited and illegal in Venezuela, as it is in the United States. Nonetheless, Caulfield doesn’t hide his intentions when he writes, “...our effort is necessary to counter...the Chavez government”.

Caulfield also admits that US government funding helped create many of the organizations in Venezuela receiving the aid and that those same groups would most likely not exist or survive without US support. “Without our continued assistance, it is possible that the organizations we helped create...could be forced to close...Our funding will provide those organizations a much-needed lifeline”.

more...

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. America attempts to subvert democratically elected governments??? Who knew? K&R

[malaise]

3. Should I laugh or cry?

:D

[EFerrari]

14. And this circles back to the CSM post Judi showed me yesterday

written by the Rendon Group guy (who doesn't identify himself that way, of course).

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/Latin-America-Monitor/2011/0627/Hugo-Chavez-s-brother-sounds-ominous-note-about-military-force

We're paying for these people to propagandize US as well as to propagandize Venezuelans. It's exactly like having a parasite.

[malaise]

16. They've been fucking up the world for so long that they

are now doing the same in the USA

[EFerrari]

17. .

[EFerrari]

2. This has been Eva's contention for years and now, there it is in writing.

K&R

[Rageneau]

4. Maybe the USA NEEDS to go broke.

We seem to do so much evil around the world.

[Blue_Tires]

6. Well, the intelligence machine at least...

[Agony]

5. National Security Interest - "We'll intervene whenever we feel like it"

"When it involves our national security interests. Get used to it world, and if you don't like it... lump it!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNgCyDsvi84

Whenever I see evidence of our intervention in the affairs of other nations I think of that interview with Clarridge...

and...what is Clarridge up to these days? --->http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclipse_Group

Thanks for the post, Karmadillo!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

7. They're just spreading some freedom sprinkles on that ice cream we call democracy. nt

[sabrina 1]

8. I read that recently and all it did was to confirm what most people

already knew. Some of course have denied it. Chavez certainly knows.

This should be illegal as it is encouraging treasonous acts in foreign countries and the Chavez government would be absolutely within their rights to try anyone working against the duly elected government there, with foreign entities for treason.

That's what happen to them here.

And the sad thing is we get the weekly anti-Chavez propaganda here.

These policies of refusing to deal honestly with democratically elected governments while being more than willing to prop up dictators, have been disastrous for the entire world and for millions of people who have been affected by them.

I hope one day these tactics will be against our laws.

[fascisthunter]

9. we know...

a few have been posting here for a while now.

[Starry Messenger]

13. +1

[LoZoccolo]

10. Chavez interfered and tried to curry favor by giving out a token amount of heating oil in the U.S..

[rabs]

11. USAID had to skedaddle from Caracas to Miami in January

(This got little, if any, media exposure in the U.S. media. We discussed it at the time in the Latin American Forum.)

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

By 2010 (from 2006), external funding for opposition groups in Venezuela reached more than $57 million, the majority coming from US agencies such as USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy.

USAID’s presence in Venezuela did not have authorization from the Venezuelan state, evidencing clear violations of sovereignty. USAID’s OTI program operated like a clandestine agency in Caracas, illegally bringing dollars into the country and using them to fund subversion against the government.

As a result of this ongoing violation of Venezuelan sovereignty, the country’s National Assembly passed a law in late December 2010 prohibiting foreign funding of political activities.

USAID/OTI promptly shut its doors and moved its Venezuela operations to Miami, now a hub of anti-Chavez activities.

http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5995

[jwirr]

12. NO

[Kaleko]

15. big K & R

[frylock]

18. i am shocked. shocked and appalled

o_o

[rucky]

19. But Chavez is just paranoid

[EFerrari]

21. AND he's an attention whore who writes and distributes all the hit pieces

that wind up on DU.

Seriously, the man is super human. He may be the Chupacabras. :scared:

[ej510]

20. U.S. imperialism continues. When will it stop!