VENEZUELA'S BOLIVARIAN MOMENT - ITS PROMISE AND PERILS

4 ratings since posting on Wednesday, January 4, 2006
VENEZUELA'S BOLIVARIAN MOMENT - ITS PROMISE AND PERILS
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Quantum
Quantum
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*****
Very apt
Considering we're looking at interconnectedness in this realm and all its manifestations including exclusion as well as inclusion. - Quantum , posted 04/04/06
Vero...
Veronica
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*oooo
ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY....
Were the hell you live???....in wonderland. I live in Venezuela, and all the stuff you are saying is not true. Yes we have poverty like any other third world country, but it became worst with him. Chavez has been the president that has stolen more money in the history of Venezuela. Do you think that social help is giving poor people a can of sardines once a month????...do you think that we live in a fucking democratic socialism....WELL NEWS FOR YOU we dont!!!!!....the newspapers,tv news everything is regulated...we have no free speech!!!!. - Veronica , posted 03/01/06
Sansan
Sansan
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*oooo
Off-Topic
of-topic bullshit - Sansan , posted 02/12/06
Unsu...
 
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VENEZUELA'S BOLIVARIAN MOMENT - ITS PROMISE AND PERILS
- by Stephen Lendman

Venezuela today, under its democratically elected President, Hugo Chavez Frias, is imbued with the spirit of Bolivarianism and his Bolivarian Revolution. It's based on the vision of Simon Bolivar, the Caracas born 17th and 18th century general who defeated the Spanish, liberated half of South America and believed in the redistributive policies that characterize the Chavez government. It also hopes to overcome what Bolivar perceptively characterized as the imperial curse "to plague Latin America with misery in the name of liberty."

Chavez and his Movement for the Fifth Republic Party (MVR) have created the beginnings of a mass social and political revolution based on participatory democracy
and social justice. In a nation in which 80% of the people are poor by any measure, Chavez is a populist hero with mass public support outside the minority middle and upper classes and business interests.


He openly proclaims his desire and intent to transform Venezuela into a nation based on democratic socialism as an alternative to its capitalist past. In fact, however, his policies are more gradualist and closer to the European style social democracy than a textbook type socialist state. And since he took office, the private sector is a larger percent of the total economy than before his election, although Venezuela's oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) and backbone of the economy, is state owned. Nonetheless, instead of previous governments' policy of recycling the nation's petrodollars to the U.S., Chavez is using them to grow the Venezuelan economy and fund his social programs. It's little wonder he engenders the great displeasure of the Bush administration intent on stopping him. It's already tried to do it 3 times and
failed.

Chavez was first elected in December, 1998 with 56% of the vote and began his presidency in February, 1999. From the start, he began working to implement his
vision by fulfilling one of his campaign promises to hold a nationwide referendum. This was done to let the people decide whether to convene a new National
Constituent Assembly to draft a new constitution that reflected Chavez's political ideology. It passed overwhelmingly and was followed 3 months later by elections to the Assembly to which members of Chavez's MVR and selected allied parties formed the Polo Patriotico or Patriotic Axis. It won 95% of the seats enabling Chavez and his allies to draft the new 1999 constitution that changed the country's official name
from Venezuela to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and set the nation on its new and revolutionary course.

The new constitution was put to a nationwide vote in December, 1999 and overwhelmingly approved. It took effect one year later and established the foundation and legal basis for President Chavez to move ahead with his desired structural changes for political, economic and social justice. A key provision of the
new constitution (in Articles 83 - 85) mandated quality health care as a "fundamental social right and...responsibility of the state...to guarantee it...to improve the quality of life and common welfare." It proposed doing it by establishing and administering a national public health system proscribed from being privitized. The constitution also banned discrimination, established the principle of participatory democracy for all Venezuelans, guaranteed free speech and the rights of the indigenous population, and mandated that the government make quality education available to all as well as housing and an improved social security pension system for seniors.

Chavez gained traction to begin implementing his policies in the elections held in July, 2000 for the new constitutionally mandated and less powerful unicameral National Assembly in which the Chavez coalition won a two-thirds majority. Chavez himself ran for a new 6 year term (instead of the 4 year one under the former constitution) and was reelected with 60% of the vote. This victory gave Chavez and his government a mandate to move ahead with his plan to transform the nation in the ways explained below.

THE BOLIVARIAN CIRCLES - THE HEART OF PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY

Democracy literally means government by the people. It's the rule by and for common, ordinary people to insure the rights of the majority. In Venezuela, Bolivarian Circles reflect that spirit through direct volunteer public participation in the democratic
process. Articles 166 and 192 of the new constitution establish citizen assemblies as a constitutional right to let people to fight for their rights. They allow ordinary people the right to participate in governing along with their elected officials. Founded as a
result of a presidential call for them, these Circles in 2003 had over 2 million members. Many Circle activities are currently taken up by the various Misiones (Missions) that now comprise the heart of the government's social programs. The Circles though play
an important part in administering Mision programs in the communities and neighborhoods. They're autonomous and function independently of political parties with government support but no direct government funding. Their purpose is to defend the Bolivarian Revolution and its constitution primarily on a local level. They
also encourage and support people with common interests to organize through cooperatives, associations, committees, neighborhood groups and other formations to be partners with their elected officials in the political process and help form the
policies that directly affect their lives and well-being.

Bolivarian Circles have included community and labor leaders working cooperatively with the usual disenfranchised people on local issues of providing health care, education, feeding the hungry, helping small business and much more. In addition, President Chavez implemented Plan Bolivar 2000 to allow the President authority to mobilize the Venezuelan Armed Forces to be used in poor areas of the country to
provide health care, food, construction equipment, school tutoring and other services to those most in need.

The Chavez government is also promoting the spirit of cooperation further by encouraging privately owned companies to allow employees more direct say in and
control over company operations in return for the government providing added working capital. Under the Chavez plan, companies agreeing would include workers
on their boards and share profits with employee cooperatives. So far, almost 200 mostly small companies in need of financial help have voluntarily agreed to adopt this co-management plan, and the government hopes to attract many more.

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT MISSIONS UNDER CHAVEZ

The Bolivarian Revolution has significantly improved
the lives and welfare of the Venezuelan poor, the
great majority of the population and Chavez's base of
support. They include a broad array of vital and
innovative social programs called Misiones (or
Missions) that include health care, education, food,
housing, land reform, job training, micro-credit and
more. The Chavez government has used its considerable
oil profits and increased tax revenue to fund these
programs. In 2004 state oil profits were $25 billion
because of high oil prices and are likely much higher
in 2005 as prices continued to rise and are still
high. Many oil analysts, in fact, see continued high
demand for a shrinking supply of world oil likely to
keep prices for this commodity high and eventually go
much higher. If so, Chavez will get the revenue he
needs to continue and expand what he calls a "new
socialist revolution." Some of its elements - the
important missions - include the following:

--Mision Bario Adentro (Mission Inside the
Neighborhood)

This is a series of initiatives deployed in 3 distinct
stages to provide free, comprehensive and high-quality
community health and dental care in hospitals and
clinics (aided by 20,000 Cuban doctors). More than
500 centers providing medical care have been built,
all of them well equipped for the job. This mission
also provides preventative medical help and advice to
the millions of poor people in the shantytowns and
barrios. It also links health to the economy, good
nutrition, food security, culture, sports, education,
and the environment and stresses the importance of the
participation of local organizations and doctors
living and working in the same communities.

--Mision Mercal

This program provides access to high quality produce,
grains, dairy products and meat at affordable prices.
It also provides the poor with better access to
nutritious, safe, organic locally and nationally grown
foods as well as attempting to increase Venezuela's
food sovereignty.

--Mision Robinson I

This mission uses volunteers to teach the poor to read
and write. In 2004 it had raised the literacy rate to
an impressive 99% of the population having so far
enrolled nearly 1.4 million people, nearly 1.3 of whom
have successfully completed the program. In the
Americas, only Venezuela and Cuba have virtually
eliminated illiteracy. In the U.S., the Department of
Education estimates that over 20% of the population is
functionally illiterate.

--Mision Robinson II

This mission was a continuation of Mision Robinson I
and seeks to consolidate the literacy rates achieved
as well as provide primary education in other areas.
It has enrolled 1.2 million people and graduated a
large majority of them with an elementary school
education.

--Mision Ribas

This program at nearly 29 thousand education centers
around the country provides a high school education to
Venezuelans of all ages enabling them to receive a
high school equivalency degree. Enrollment has
reached nearly 1.5 million.

--Mision Sucre

This mission provides access to higher education to
all Venezuelans with a high school or equivalency
degree. It has enrolled nearly 275,000 people in
various university level programs, and since 1999 has
established 5 new universities. Unlike in the
pre-Chavez era, education now is completely free
through the university level and has been a boon to
school enrollment.

--Misiones Guaicaipuro and Habitat

The purpose of Mision Guaicaipuro is to restore
communal land titles and human rights to the country's
poor and indigenous peoples as well as defend their
rights against resource and financial speculation by
dominant business interests. It's run by the Ministry
of Environment and Natural Resources and has become
the nation's largest organized social movement. This
program has led to the establishment of over 5,000
land committees representing 5 millions Venezuelans
(20% of the population).

Urban Land Committees (CTUs) and the law allowing
their creation stipulate that Venezuelans who live in
homes they built on occupied land (the case for nearly
all the poor) may petition the government for title to
the land. This policy affects up to 60% of the
population, and, for the first time ever, has given
the poor in the barrios the legal right of ownership
of the land they live on. Through mid-2005, 84,000
titles have been issued to 126,000 families
benefitting about 630,000 people. However, this is
just a modest beginning affecting about 6% of the
barrio population.

Through this program, the Chavez government believes
it's repaying a social debt to the poor barrio
inhabitants, who in the past 50 years have built more
homes (on occupied land) than the government.
Granting them titles to this land is the government's
way of recognizing and legalizing their contribution
to Venezuelan society. This right is written into the
new constitution (Article 82), and the program
relieves the government of much of its responsibility
to build public housing for the poor to help relieve a
severe housing crisis.

Along with granting land title to the poor who have
built their own homes, Mision Habitat is the
government's other initiative to help provide public
housing for the poor without homes. Its goal is to
build thousands of new and free housing units and
develop integrated housing zones that provide access
to all social services including health care and
education.

--Mision Vuelvan Caras (Turn Around)

This is a cooperative program between the people and
the government and is intended to transform the
country socially and economically. It's involved in
training workers to give them needed skills for future
employment. Its main objective is a nation more
focused on social needs and achieving a higher
standard of living for all Venezuelans.

THE VENEZUELAN ECONOMY UNDER CHAVEZ

It's not hard to understand why Hugo Chavez currently
has the highest approval rating of any president in
the Americas - 77% based on the latest polling
numbers. His government's social programs explained
above are providing vital services for the millions of
poor that they never had before. And to make those
programs possible the economy is performing very well.


In the 28 years before Chavez was elected, Venezuelan
per capita income fell 35%, the worst decline in the
region and one of the worst in the world. Since the
Chavez government took office in 1999, the decline has
been halted and per capita income has been flat
through early 2004. It likely has risen since then as
a result of the significant economic growth since late
2003. Venezuela's National Institute of Statistics
(INE) reported that in 2004 the economy grew by 17%.
It then expanded by 7.5% and 11.1% respectively in the
first two quarters of 2005 and about 10% in the third
quarter. This was a major turnaround from the period
preceding it that included the crippling oil strike of
2002-03 and the destabilizing effects of the
short-lived coup deposing President Chavez for 2 days
in April, 2002. During this period of growth,
unemployment dropped from 14.5% in September 2004 to
11.1% one year later. Poverty levels also fell, and
these data don't include the enormous benefits to the
poor from Chavez's social policies that have
significantly improved their lives and welfare.

Chavez's ability to fund his Missions has been greatly
aided by the sharp rise in oil prices since 2002.
Venezuela is one of the world's leading oil producers
and exporters and has the largest hydrocarbon (oil and
gas) reserves in the Western Hemisphere and the
largest known reserves in the world outside of the
Middle East. Since conditions stabilized following
the aborted coup, the economy grew by 17% in 2004 and
over 9% (quarter over quarter) in the first 9 months
of 2005. This was the fastest growth in the
hemisphere.

The government has also managed to increase the taxes
it collects, even during the difficult oil strike
causing a deep recession in 2003. It's done it by
requiring both foreign and domestically owned
companies to pay the taxes they owe. Venezuela's Oil
Ministry is currently seeking additional tax payments
it believes the nation is entitled to receive and will
ask the National Assembly later this year to raise the
income tax rate from 30% to 50% on 4 foreign owned
heavy oil projects in the Orinoco river basin. These
projects account for a fifth of Venezuela's total oil
production. In 2004, the government renegotiated
service agreements 3 of the 4 foreign owned oil
companies had with state owned PDVSA. Only ExxonMobil
so far has declined to go along. Under new joint
venture terms, foreign oil companies are limited to a
minority 49% stake, reserving majority ownership for
PDVSA. These new agreements became effective on
January 1.

In another move just announced that won't please the
U.S., the Venezuelan Central bank approved using the
euro to diversify away from the U.S. dollar. This
move will allow the monetary authorities to make
payments and purchases in euros as freely as with
dollars and help the country reduce its dependence on
the U.S., one of President Chavez's goals.

The revenues from high oil prices and taxes collected
have helped the government run a budget surplus while
maintaining a high level of social spending. Currency
controls imposed in 2003 have also stemmed capital
flight, and now by approving the use of the euro,
Chavez is taking one more step toward asserting the
independence and sovereignty Venezuela seeks and
deserves. As a result of these efforts, the nation's
public and foreign debt are moderate, and over $30
billion of reserves have been accumulated, and are
likely rising, that can be used as a buffer if oil
prices fall.

ALBA - THE CHAVEZ ALTERNATIVE TO THE WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATION (WTO) AND U.S. CRAFTED TRADE AGREEMENTS

Hugo Chavez is pursuing his own alternative plan to
U.S. led neoliberalism that promotes economic policies
benefiting corporate interests but at the expense of
ordinary people, especially in developing nations. He
calls it ALBA - the Bolivarian Alternative for the
Americas. It's aim is bold and innovative and in
direct contradiction to the so-called "free market,
free trade" agenda followed by the dominant developed
nations (the Global North) especially the Triad
nations - the U.S., European Union and Japan.

ALBA's goal is to achieve a process of comprehensive
integration among Latin American nations with the aim
of developing "the social state" to benefit ordinary
people, not the privileged elite. At its heart, it's
based on the principles of complementarity (not
competition), solidarity (not domination), cooperation
(not exploitation) and respect for each nation's
sovereignty free from the control of other nations and
large corporations. Venezuela has recently joined
with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay in the
Mercosur trading alliance that should strengthen ALBA
further and increase the overall benefits of regional
trade for the 5 participating nations and others being
encouraged to join with them like Bolivia.

The trade agreements already adopted, like NAFTA, and
those proposed like the FTAA and the Triad nation
proposals and framework agreement at the just
concluded so-called "Doha round" sixth WTO Ministerial
Conference in Hong Kong only do the opposite. They
serve the interests of giant transnational
corporations in the Global North. The Hong Kong
"agreement" left most major issues unresolved, and no
important concessions were made to the developing
nations. This is just the latest betrayal of
promises made to the Global South and will be
devastating to those nations bullied to accept it.
Negotiations will now be continued at WTO Headquarters
in Geneva in secret, but little further progress is
expected. Twelve years of NAFTA have left carnage in
Mexico, and WTO mandated current trade practices
(especially in agriculture and services covered under
GATS) and IMF and World Bank instituted structural
adjustment have caused growing poverty and human
misery throughout the developing, overexploited world.
To help eliminate or at least reduce this extreme
inequity and improve the lives of ordinary people
throughout Latin America, President Chavez has
proposed his revolutionary ALBA alternative.

ALBA is based on participating nations uniting in
solidarity for the benefit of empowering their people,
providing essential goods and services, achieving real
economic growth at the grassroots and thus improving
the lives of ordinary people and hopefully eliminating
poverty. A key feature of the plan is the exchange of
goods and services outside the usual international
banking and corporate trading system. One example of
this has been the exchange of Venezuelan oil and
building materials to Cuba paid for in kind by Cuba
sending 20,000 doctors to work in medical clinics and
hospitals in the barrios as well as staffing literacy
programs to teach Venezuelans to read and write.
Venezuela is also currently negotiating an ALBA-type
agreement with Argentina to trade its oil for
Argentine cattle and dairy products. In both
examples, no hard cash or currency changes hands.
Participating nations can either trade with each other
in these barter-like transactions or purchase with
currency at reduced and affordable prices. Both
parties in the transaction gain and their people reap
the benefits.

Hugo Chavez has been at the epicenter of this
innovative change and is enlisting support of other
leaders in the region to join with him. Discussions
have been held about establishing a Bank of the South
to finance real development without the burden of
debt. Also, innovative programs are being created in
agriculture, health, education, energy security and
more to overcome the problems created by decades of
structural adjustment and corruption and centuries of
colonization. At the recent Summit of the Americas,
Chavez proposed an Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty
plan and offered $10 billion dollars over the next
decade to finance it.

For ALBA to succeed it will have to overcome major
obstacles. The Bush administration will not sit idly
by and just watch a continental restructuring take
place that will harm U.S. corporate interests. For
the U.S. and its corporate allies, Hugo Chavez poses a
significant threat to their welfare. They will
certainly try to overcome it by any means necessary as
they have done many times in the past successfully,
but so far, 3 unsuccessful attempts to unseat Chavez.

Despite clear U.S. intent and a Venezuela - U.S. power
mismatch, don't write a Chavez obituary just yet. His
Bolivarian spirit is spreading and may become too much
to counter even for the colossus from el norte. One
view of things comes from Yale Senior Research Scholar
Immanuel Wallerstein in his February, 2004 Nation
Magazine article. In it Wallerstein expressed his
belief that "neoliberal globalization has had its day;
it is now dead." Despite the inconclusive results
from Hong Kong that hadn't yet taken place,
Wallerstein believes the old system of all "take" and
no "give" by the Global North is over. "It was more
or less buried at Cancun in September, 2003", he
wrote. For the South to open its markets to the
North, it will now demand the North reciprocate. A
key goal of Chavez's Bolivarian Revolution is to
assure that happens.

It should be noted that Venezuela was chosen as the
site for the sixth World Social Forum as well as the
second Social Forum of the Americas to be held in
Caracas the week of January 24 - 29, 2006. These 2
events, which organizers hope to repeat annually, draw
many thousands of attendees and many noted
progressives and activists. As they grow in
popularity, as the World Social Forum has been doing,
they may also serve to help the Chavez government
consolidate and expand his Bolivarian Revolution and
encourage other developing nations in Latin America
and elsewhere to begin their own.

LIKELY U.S. PLANS FOR REGIME CHANGE IN VENEZUELA

Destabilizing and overthrowing foreign leaders and
governments it opposes is nothing new for the U.S.
Ever since the National Security Act of 1947
established the Central Intelligence Agency (and
National Security Council - NSC) replacing the
disbanded wartime OSS intelligence agency, the CIA has
engaged in activities far beyond information
collection and analysis. It's been involved many
times in covert efforts supportive of U.S. foreign
policy to include regime change in nations whose
leaders were not subservient to U.S. interests.
Beginning in 1953, CIA operative Kermit Roosevelt,
grandson of Theodore Roosevelt and cousin of Franklin,
successfully engineered a coup against Prime Minister
Mohammad Mossadeq of Iran after he nationalized the
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company following a dispute about
revenue sharing. The CIA then helped carry out
another successful coup ousting President Jacobo
Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954 because of his modest land
reform program the giant United Fruit Company in the
country opposed. Since then to the present, this
agency has had a long and tainted record of helping to
destabilize and topple those governments the U.S.
wishes to replace. Much of that has occurred in Latin
America, most often by coup or assassination often
disguised as an "accident" (like an "unfortunate"
plane crash).

Investigative journalist and author Eva Golinger has
uncovered top secret CIA documents, obtained through
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, of U.S.
involvement in the April, 2002 two day aborted coup
temporarily ousting President Chavez. It involved CIA
complicity and an intricate financing scheme beginning
in 2001 involving the quasi-governmental agency
National Endowment for Democracy (NED), funded
entirely by the Congress, and the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID). These agencies, in
turn, provided funding to Chavez opposition groups
(USAID through its Office of Transition Initiatives -
OTI) which, in turn, were involved in staging the mass
and violent street protests leading up to and on the
day of the coup. NED and USAID also funded other
destabilizing activities such as the crippling oil
strike in late 2002 and 2003 and the August, 2004
recall referendum that failed to unseat the President.
The documents Golinger obtained clearly showed the
U.S. State Department, National Security Agency and
White House had full knowledge of these activities and
must have approved of them.

As it did in Haiti in February, 2004 after the U.S.
led coup ousted President Aristide, the U.S. falsely
claimed in April, 2002 that Chavez had resigned when,
in fact, he'd been arrested by complicit high level
officers in the Venezuelan military. After his arrest
and removal from the Palacio De Miraflores (the
Presidential Palace) Pedro Carmona, head of
Venezuela's confederation of business and industry
(Fedecamaras) declared himself President, immediately
dismissed the National Assembly and other democratic
institutions and began to annul the Chavez Bolivarian
reforms. All of this enraged Chavez supporters who
rallied en masse, got the support of others in the
Venezuelan military and forced the reinstatement of
President Chavez two days later.

Since his return to office, President Chavez has
clearly been on the U.S. target list as evidenced by
U.S. involvement in the 2002-03 oil strike and failed
2004 recall referendum. Although unsuccessful in
three attempts, U.S. intervention in the past has
shown itself to be innovative and able to adopt new
tactics after failed destabilization attempts.
Because controlling Venezuela with its vast
hydrocarbon reserves is so important to the U.S., it
seems only a matter of time before the next attempt is
made to depose Hugo Chavez. A fourth intervention
most likely would occur either when Chavez runs for
reelection in 2006 or possibly before he completes his
current term.

Hugo Chavez himself believes there's a U.S. plot to
assassinate him. He may be right. There's also some
credible evidence of a 2004 coup attempt by
neighboring Columbian forces who were arrested in May
of that year at a ranch in Buruta just outside of
Caracas. Those arrested said they were sent there to
prepare an attack against a Venezuelan National Guard
base to steal weapons and fully arm a 3,000 force
militia.

Latin America expert James Petras, professor emeritus
at Binghampton University, New York, has written that
the U.S. has a strategy to overthrow Hugo Chavez by
military force and at the same time destroy the Cuban
revolution in a "two step" approach - "first overthrow
the Chavez government in Venezuela, cut off the energy
supply and trade links (to Cuba) and then proceed
toward economic strangulation and military attack."
He also believes the U.S. will employ a "triangular
strategy" to overthrow Chavez - "a military invasion
from Columbia, U.S intervention (by air and sea
attacks plus special forces to assassinate key
officials) and an internal uprising by infiltrated
terrorists and military traitors, supported by key
media, financial and petrol elites." In advance of
this, the U.S. has provided $3 billion to Columbia in
military aid (supposedly for the "drug war") so it
could triple the size of its military to over 275,000,
add new helicopters and bombers and receive "advanced
military technology."

Prior to both the April, 2002 coup attempt and failed
recall referendum and during the oil strike, the U.S.
intensified its anti-Chavez rhetoric to condition the
U.S. public to accept his forced removal as a positive
change had it happened. That same demonizing rhetoric
can be expected again in advance of the next U.S.
attempt to oust Chavez and, in fact, it's already
begun. In early 2005, CIA chief Porter Goss testified
before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence on "Global Intelligence Challenges in
2005: Meeting Long-Term Challenges with a Long-Term
Strategy." In his testimony he referred to Venezuela
as a "potential area for instability" and a
"flashpoint." He also claimed Hugo Chavez was
"consolidating his power by using technically legal
tactics to target his opponents and was meddling in
the region." Other administration officials claimed
Chavez is "a negative force to the region" and a "new
breed of authoritarianism." And without a touch of
irony, they have also called the Venezuelan government
an "authoritarian democracy", a "threat to democracy"
and an "elected dictatorship" (clear oxymorons -
Orwell would be pleased). And there's more from
Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick stating
about Chavez: "You win the election, but you do away
with the rule of law, you pack the courts and (Chavez)
is carrying out anti-democratic activities" like a
dictator. The complicit U.S. corporate media, always
in lockstep as a willing and shameless co-conspirator,
has echoed these anti-Chavez sentiments portraying
Chavez as a regional menace and threat to U.S.
interests and security. If this type rhetoric
continues and intensifies in the new year, it may be a
clear sign something is brewing.

The U.S. also has established military bases in Peru,
Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and has 500 troops
with planes, weapons and equipment in Paraguay in
advance of a new base planned for that country capable
of handling large aircraft and accommodating 16,000
troops. It also has forces and radar stations in
other Latin American countries including 800 troops in
Columbia with the Bush administration's stated intent
in 2004 to raise the number to 1400. And, of course,
there's the controversial base at Guantamamo, Cuba
used, in part, as a convenient offshore prison for
"enemy combatants."

This enhanced military strength in South America may
indeed be in advance of a planned assault to remove
Hugo Chavez. It may also be aimed at newly elected
Bolivian President Evo Morales (an Aymara Indian and
first ever indigenous president in Bolivia) and his
Movement Toward Socialism party (MAS) who has
expressed his intent to nationalize (but not
confiscate) his country's large gas reserves and other
resources (especially water) to keep more of the
country's revenues at home to develop the economy and
provide more services for its people. Morales won
impressively with 54% of the vote (nearly double the
28.5% of his leading right wing opponent) and with a
voter turnout of 84.5%. It's likely that Morales
actually received far more than a 54% majority because
of a long history of voter manipulation and fraud in
Bolivia and elsewhere in the region. The fact that he
won so impressively only showed his support among the
people was so strong, not even stealing some of it
could stop him. And his popularity affected the
legislative outcome as well as Morales' MAS won a
majority 64 seats in the 130 seat Chamber of Deputies.
Morales will be inaugurated on January 22 and begin
serving a 5 year term.

An early ominous sign against him is reflected in a
Wall Street Journal editorial claiming Morales'
election "is more bad news for liberty in Latin
America." It went on to say the cocaleros (Quechua
indigenous campesino coca farmers) he headed was a
"radicalized political force....against all things
American" and "the Morales economic platform doesn't
promise a future to Bolivians, only revenge." In his
first post-election diplomatic trip abroad, Morales
chose to visit Fidel Castro to discuss relations
between Bolivia and Cuba. Morales also plans to meet
with Hugo Chavez and leaders of 7 other countries that
invited him to visit at their expense (including China
and France) as he begins a world tour in early
January. The Bush administration will surely use at
least the Castro and Chavez meetings in any future
hostile Morales rhetoric to help justify any action
against him they may have in mind.

Morales has only just been elected, so how he will,
in fact, govern is uncertain. However, in early
interviews he said his first move as President will be
to overturn Supreme Decree 21060, the 1985 measure
making Bolivia the first Latin American country to
adopt "free market" and privatization policies by
decree. Morales said he will work with the new
Chamber to pass a new law governing economic policy.
He also plans to impose new taxes on the rich. Should
his plan as it's implemented attempt to model his
government after Venezuela's and succeed in doing it,
he no doubt would then become another U.S. target for
removal.

Whether the U.S. will proceed with the plans Professor
Petras says it's made is unknown, but it may become
clearer in the new year. Under the best of
circumstances, however, achieving them won't be easy
despite the overwhelming U.S. military advantage. The
mass public support Hugo Chavez enjoys would create
chaos and probably rebellion in the country should a
new U.S. approved leader take office and try to
reverse his policies. Furthermore, the Bush
administration may be restrained from acting against
Chavez for at least the reasons below:

--the U.S. is already bogged down in Iraq in endless
conflict.

--It's ratcheting up the rhetoric against Iran and
Syria possibly in advance of an assault against either
or both countries.

--The great cost of the Iraq war, along with large
growing and unsustainable budget and current account
deficits, may preclude congressional and public
support for added adventures.

--Bush's approval ratings have plummeted, and he's
losing support from his base and own party, and the
military high command wants "out" of Iraq.

--The newly revealed illegal warrantless domestic
spying as well as illegal break-ins and surveillance
of mosques and Muslim businesses and homes supposedly
searching for nuclear materials (both clear violations
of the Fourth Amendment) authorized secretly by Bush
has finally aroused the ire of Democrats and some
Republicans. They also violate the 2001 U.S. v. Kyllo
Supreme Court decision that ruled the use of thermal
imaging to detect heat lamps in a residence is a
"search" as defined under the Fourth Amendment and
requires a warrant. The decision was written by
Justice Antonin Scalia.

--The ongoing Special Counsel investigation may lead
to further indictments beyond Lewis Libby possibly up
to the highest levels of the administration before its
completed.

--The Jack Abramoff financial and political scandal
involving Tom Delay and potentially many others in
government may be one of biggest ever in Washington.

--The systemic use of torture authorized at the
highest level and "rendition" flights to torture
centers in countries permitting it have outraged the
world. In addition, the weak McCain amendment will do
little to stop it, and the newly enacted Graham
Amendment that annuls detainees' sacred
constitutionally guaranteed habeas rights will prevent
torture victims from seeking redress in U.S. courts.
These new laws only add to the outrage.

--And, some in Congress are beginning to mention
impeachment. Already, lawyer John Bonifaz has
authored a new book making the case for impeachment
entitled - "Warrior-King: The Case for Impeaching
George W. Bush." And University of Illinois law
professor Francis Boyle, a scholar and recognized
expert in international law and human rights, agrees,
and in January, 2003 prepared a "Draft Impeachment
Resolution Against President George W. Bush" in proper
form to be presented in the House of Representatives.
In addition, and surprisingly, even Barron's Magazine,
published by Dow Jones & Co. that also publishes the
Wall Street Journal, raised the possibility in
December of impeachment on its editorial page. It
expressed its concern with a president acting on his
own in violation of the Constitution and
said..."putting the president above the Congress is an
invitation to tyranny. The president has no powers
except those specified in the Constitution and those
enacted by law." It's also worth noting that John
Dean, a Republican and former Nixon White House
counsel, expressed deep concern that George Bush was
the "first U.S. president (ever) to admit to an
impeachable offense."

In light of all this and the clear sound of an
administration unraveling, even George Bush and those
closest to him may think long and hard before
undertaking new ventures, the outcomes of which are
most uncertain. Stay tuned.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net

snoedel.punt.nl/ - Unsubscribed , posted 01/04/06

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