Today – Venezuelans are going to be choosing between President Hugo Chavez and his opponent - Henrique Capriles. Hugo Chavez has been the Venezuelan President since 1999. There is a lot of energy and love for President Chavez within Venezuela but there seems to be a lot of resentment and anger from the so called “Washington elite” directed to that country. It does seem like the people love him though (or hate him). This will be President Chavez’s 4th term in office if he wins and it looks like he is going to.
Other than the incendiary rhetoric of President Chavez which would be on par with that of a George W. Bush, Bibi Netanyahu or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I see no difference in their rhetoric frankly except in Chavez’s case … it appears the U.S. really did attempt a coup d’etat on his presidency. And of course – American has a long history of attempted coups for governments both in Central and South America but really all over the world; we get rid of governments that do not favor us. That’s the story of history.
Venezuelanalysis has the info HERE:
“On Thursday, everybody should be in Caracas, so the city overflows with the Bolivarian avalanche. We are going to fill 7 avenues and more,” said Chavez from a campaign rally in Barinas on Monday.
By 1 pm, over five of the main streets and most of the metro lines were already filled to the brim with noisy and joyous supporters, who chanted, sang, danced and blew horns as they waited for Chavez to arrive. Determined to show their support for the socialist president, many people from the nearby shantytowns surrounding Caracas descended from the hilltops on foot when they proved too numerous for local transport links.
“It was him who gave a voice to the students, who thought of the poor and brought us the revolution,” said a student to Venezuelan state TV channel, VTV.
Despite the heavy rain which flooded Caracas’ streets, the Venezuelan president managed to make his way through the crowds by 2pm, when he then addressed what has come to be known as the Chavista “sea of red.” He promised the crowd that he would be a “better president” and a “better companion” to the people during his next term.
The Washington Post put together some great photos from the Venezuelan election HERE.
The BBC has photos of people lining up to vote HERE.
In 2002 – there was an attempted coup of the Venezuelan President – a proud socialist. President Chavez blamed the coup on the American government saying that he had proof of American military involvement. You can watch an excellent documentary of how the U.S. attempted a coup of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2002 HERE.
As I have written about HERE – the Center for International Private Enterprise works as a front organization for the CIA and is widely regarded to have attempted and failed with the coup of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2002.
One memorandum between the State Department and the NED reveals a supplemental $1,000,000 awarded in April 2002, right after the failed coup d’etat against President Chávez, that was slighted for NED’s Venezuelan benefactors. The primary grant recipients include the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the American Center for International Labor Solidarity and the Center for International Private Enterprise. Smaller grant recipients include Acción Campesina, Asociación Civil Asamblea de Educación, Fundación Momento de la Gente, Instituto Prensa y Sociedad, Asociación Civil Liderazgo y Visión and Asociación Civil Consorcio Justicia, amongst others.
Other NED major award recipients, such as the Center for International Private Enterprise, which received over $200,000 last year for Venezuela activities and the International Republican Institute, which was awarded almost $300,000 for its work during the past two years in Venezuela, have poured their financial aid into support for Fedecámaras, the radicalized business association at the forefront of the opposition movement and into the development and strengthening of political parties to successfully oppose Chávez in future elections.
The reason for any animosity towards Venezuela can be summed up by the threat of socialism on American industry interests. As I have shared HERE – many countries in Central and South America are following Venezuela’s lead on the path towards nationalization of their country’s resources. There is a wave and that will bode well for the people of South America but that hurts America’s economic interests and that means JOBS. That’s what this is all about; that’s why there is complicity between government and business … and then there is the matter of geopolitics which I’ll leave to another day.
In 2007 – Venezuela nationalized their oil supply from larger oil companies. Exxon-Mobil sued in court and lost their case this year in the International Chamber of Commerce based in Paris, France; Venezuela only had to give them back their initial investment of $255 million. That led to a whole host of other nationalization directives from cement to steel to rice to supermarkets to glass to
Al Jazeera gives us an idea on how Chavez’s policies are affecting the people HERE:
Like many of its South American neighbours, Venezuela has drastically reduced poverty in the past decade; the Bolivarian Republic’s poverty rate fell from 48.6 per cent in 2002 to 27.8 per cent in 2010, according to the UN Commission for Latin America’s 2011 report. Inequality also declined sharply. This progress is linked to tough negotiations with foreign oil companies, so the state can have more resources to invest in local communities, Chavez’s supporters contend.
Venezeula’s economy grew 4.2% in 2011; significantly better than that of America, Europe or the rest of the industrialized world.
