Deterring Democracy...
Stealing my title from a Chomsky book, but it does seem appropriate. Today, voters have been going to the polls in Venezuela. Why should you be interested? Because Venezuela is an instructive example on how the great defenders of democracy on our planet act.
Back in June 2002 a demonstration against the democratically elected Hugo Chavez was held. It attracted, according to the mainstream American press, between 100, 000 (San Francisco Chronicle) and 600,000 (New York Times - although that paper had no reporter in Venezuela, and the story took several days to reach it). What was noticeably absent from all coverage was that on the same day there was a demonstration of approximately 500,000 people in support of their president. So what has he done that makes him such a demonic figure to those with power and wealth? He must be a damn Commie, right? Indeed - so much so, that he's implementing policies devised by the Kennedy administration, back in the 1960s (which were meant to be implemented by Venezeula's then dictator, who, unfortunately, failed to do so) - land reform. 77% of Venezuela's farmland is owned by 3% of the population. Unsuprisingly, it is these people who comprise Chavez's main domestic opponents. Even then, though, the plans aren't that radical - only unused, abandoned land is to be redistributed. In actual fact, he's no Marxist at all - his main inspiration is, apparently, Simon Bolivar, the fighter for South American independence, and his economic policies owe more to Keynes than anyone else. But Keynes is leftist enough for many in power, I suppose.
So what, then has he done? Well, unlike the American president, he's won an election, with a majority of the vote. But whilst this might irritate Dubya, it probably isn't enough for him to back firstly a coup, and then various other attempts to remove him from office. The coup-attempt which took place in April 2002 was backed by Bush to the extent that his ambassador was photographed with the coup instigators only hours after the democratically elected president was removed from office, and Chavez apparently has a video tape showing that a high-ranking military attache from the embassy visited the army base at which he was held captive at gunpoint. He was only released, and reinstated, when the coup plotters learned that somewhere approaching one million demonstrators were preparing to converge on them, and demand his release.
No, the American ruling-class hatred for him has more to do with his country's need for money, to fund the "bread and bricks" programme. Over recent years, several hundred thousand people have been converging on Caracas, the capital, and these people need to be fed and housed. This costs money, but Venezuela has one great advantage here - it is the largest oil producer outside the Middle East, and indeed, is one of the major suppliers of oil to the USA. Ah, do things start to click into place? Furthermore, Chavez has passed a law changing the percentage of money from oil that goes to the country, as opposed to the (mostly USA-based) oil companies, from 16% to 30%, to fund his redistribution programme. Bush, often described as an "oilman", although in reality only so to the extent that he is in thrall to the oil companies, cannot stand this. That is why he's backed all efforts to remove Chavez, from the attempted coup, through to donating $53,000 dollars to the organisers of today's "recall election" which was attempting to have him removed. Not merely that, but the company which sold Jeb Bush and the Florida State Government the inaccurate data used to illegally remove tens of thousands of legitimate voters from the electoral roll in Florida - and hand Dubya the presidency - has compiled data files of private information on almost every citizen in various southern and central American countries - Mexico, Nicaragua, Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela. Oddly enough all countries which have electoral contests coming up, with populist candidates who are challenging the neo-liberal dogma of Bush, Blair and pals. Imagine if this information got into the hands of Chavez's opponents...
Fortunately, of course, all this seems to have been in vain - once more, Chavez has gained a large majority - approximately 58% of the vote, on a turnout of over 80%, it seems. Will this make him legitimate in the eyes of the Bush government? Well, when has Dubya ever cared about elections?
With acknowledgements to the Greg Palast mailing list for large amounts of the statistics and information put up there (and also the Guardian and the BBC website!)
Back in June 2002 a demonstration against the democratically elected Hugo Chavez was held. It attracted, according to the mainstream American press, between 100, 000 (San Francisco Chronicle) and 600,000 (New York Times - although that paper had no reporter in Venezuela, and the story took several days to reach it). What was noticeably absent from all coverage was that on the same day there was a demonstration of approximately 500,000 people in support of their president. So what has he done that makes him such a demonic figure to those with power and wealth? He must be a damn Commie, right? Indeed - so much so, that he's implementing policies devised by the Kennedy administration, back in the 1960s (which were meant to be implemented by Venezeula's then dictator, who, unfortunately, failed to do so) - land reform. 77% of Venezuela's farmland is owned by 3% of the population. Unsuprisingly, it is these people who comprise Chavez's main domestic opponents. Even then, though, the plans aren't that radical - only unused, abandoned land is to be redistributed. In actual fact, he's no Marxist at all - his main inspiration is, apparently, Simon Bolivar, the fighter for South American independence, and his economic policies owe more to Keynes than anyone else. But Keynes is leftist enough for many in power, I suppose.
So what, then has he done? Well, unlike the American president, he's won an election, with a majority of the vote. But whilst this might irritate Dubya, it probably isn't enough for him to back firstly a coup, and then various other attempts to remove him from office. The coup-attempt which took place in April 2002 was backed by Bush to the extent that his ambassador was photographed with the coup instigators only hours after the democratically elected president was removed from office, and Chavez apparently has a video tape showing that a high-ranking military attache from the embassy visited the army base at which he was held captive at gunpoint. He was only released, and reinstated, when the coup plotters learned that somewhere approaching one million demonstrators were preparing to converge on them, and demand his release.
No, the American ruling-class hatred for him has more to do with his country's need for money, to fund the "bread and bricks" programme. Over recent years, several hundred thousand people have been converging on Caracas, the capital, and these people need to be fed and housed. This costs money, but Venezuela has one great advantage here - it is the largest oil producer outside the Middle East, and indeed, is one of the major suppliers of oil to the USA. Ah, do things start to click into place? Furthermore, Chavez has passed a law changing the percentage of money from oil that goes to the country, as opposed to the (mostly USA-based) oil companies, from 16% to 30%, to fund his redistribution programme. Bush, often described as an "oilman", although in reality only so to the extent that he is in thrall to the oil companies, cannot stand this. That is why he's backed all efforts to remove Chavez, from the attempted coup, through to donating $53,000 dollars to the organisers of today's "recall election" which was attempting to have him removed. Not merely that, but the company which sold Jeb Bush and the Florida State Government the inaccurate data used to illegally remove tens of thousands of legitimate voters from the electoral roll in Florida - and hand Dubya the presidency - has compiled data files of private information on almost every citizen in various southern and central American countries - Mexico, Nicaragua, Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela. Oddly enough all countries which have electoral contests coming up, with populist candidates who are challenging the neo-liberal dogma of Bush, Blair and pals. Imagine if this information got into the hands of Chavez's opponents...
Fortunately, of course, all this seems to have been in vain - once more, Chavez has gained a large majority - approximately 58% of the vote, on a turnout of over 80%, it seems. Will this make him legitimate in the eyes of the Bush government? Well, when has Dubya ever cared about elections?
With acknowledgements to the Greg Palast mailing list for large amounts of the statistics and information put up there (and also the Guardian and the BBC website!)
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