VENEZUELAN REGIONAL ELECTIONS NOVEMBER 23RD

Tomorrow, Sunday November 23rd, are the regional elections here in Venezuela. You can listen to live broadcasts on the interview from the ground in Venezuela with RADIO VENEZUELA EN VIVO all throughout the day today and tomorrow. There are 22 state government posts at stake, 328 mayorships and hundreds of council member positions in the running throughout the entire nation. This is the first year that President Chávez's new political party, the PSUV - Socialist Party of Venezuela - is participating in elections and it will be a test for the strength and popularity of the party. Candidates in all states that have received Chávez's endorsement are all from the PSUV party and in fact were selected through an intricate primary voting process earlier this year. While the traditional opposition remains divided and weak, new opposition - dissidence - has arisen from the ranks of the revolution, with parties such as PODEMOS and PPT postulating candidates to oppose and compete with the PSUV candidates.

WHAT IS REALLY AT STAKE TOMORROW

Many have speculated on the importance of Sunday's regional elections in Venezuela. Opposition media here in Venezuela claim the elections are about the future of "democracy and freedom" (their usual bantering) and President Chávez and others in his government have declared these elections pivotal to the future of the revolution and its widespread consolidation and unity throughout the nation. Those unaware of the progress and future objectives of the Bolivarian Revolution might not understand how regional elections could be so important to a national government nor why the President himself would campaign for months backing candidate after candidate throughout the country. Projects of the Chávez Government, such as agricultural development, industry, factories and new production models depend widely on the support and active participation of regional governments. Those still unclear about what is taking place in Venezuela must understand that we are in a revolution with an adamant, determined and vicious enemy that operates within. Those regional governments that actively oppose Chávez and his policies make a point of sabotaging and subverting his programs and projects, despite their clear benefit for the nation or for those particular regions. Therefore, it is essential that regional governments, particularly in key strategic states, like Zulia and Bolívar, border states such as Táchira, Apure, Mérida, Falcón, and those states near the capital city of Caracas, including Aragua, Carabobo, Anzoátegui and Miranda, remain in or are won by candidates that support the revolutionary objectives put forth by the Chávez Administration.

In play tomorrow is the decision by a majority of Venezuelans to continue to deepen and consolidate the revolutionary process and to allow for a more unified nation that is capable of implementing projects destined to accelerate production and development in the country on an economic and social level. At stake is the future capacity of President Chávez to govern a nation in revolution and not a nation divided and run in part by coup-leaders, saboteurs and proponents of free-market capitalism.

There will be no fraud - our electoral process here is time tested and fraud proof as recent past elections have proven solidly. But the opposition continues to threaten with violence and destabilization activities in the case of a sweeping win by Chávez's party. Just last night on the television program "Buenas Noches" on opposition Globovision network, a guest was speaking of how barbaric Venezuela has become under Chávez and his "africanization" of the country. The guest, a local political analyst from the opposition, spoke of the necessity for "civilized society" and the "democratic forces" to take back the nation in tomorrow's elections. This racist, classist attitude is typical of the opposition leadership in Venezuela, which is why their return to power would be devastating for a nation with majority poor to lower-middle classes of mixed race that have been given a voice under almost 10 years of revolution with President Chávez.

Most polls indicate that the PSUV party will win the majority of states and mayorships across the country, but some important states are in serious contention, such as Zulia, Carabobo, Sucre and Miranda. The results will depend upon voter turnout and weather conditions (we have had torrential rains the past few days) throughout the day tomorrow. Those monitoring the elections from abroad beware of media manipulation and early posting of results. The only results that will be considered are those from the CNE (National Elections Council) that will not be available until after all polls have closed in the evening.

Stay alert.

MY NEW BOOK IS OUT! THE EMPIRE'S WEB: ENCYCLOPEDIA OF INTERVENTIONISM AND SUBVERSION

The Empire’s Web: An Encyclopedia of Interventionism and Subversion is a tool essential to understand the deep and complex mechanisms of U.S. interventionism that has plagued people’s movements around the world during the last two centuries. In this book, the autors demonstrate the connections and relationships between different actors, institutions, government agencies, NGOs, think tanks and political parties around the world, such as the Rockefellers, CIA, Human Rights Watch, National Endowment for Democracy (NED), Bilderberg Club, USAID, the Military Industrial Complex, and many others, and how they form part of a massive network seeking world domination and imposition of the capitalist-consumerist model. The Empire’s Web is not your typical book. Use it as a reference manual, a guide to imperialism, a political tool that can help you understand the intricacies of the relationships between actores and entities that act against the will of sovereign peoples. There is not one entry in this book - person, institution, multinational, agency, NGO, think tank or strategy - that is more important than the others. This is The Empire’s Web; get to know it well, because if you don’t, you could get trapped in its fatal grasp.


ENGLISH TRANSLATION COMING SOON. FOR INTERESTED PUBLISHERS IN ENGLISH, PLEASE EMAIL ME AT [email protected]

About the Authors

Eva Golinger: Venezuelan-American lawyer, writer and investigator dedicated to investigating and denouncing U.S. intervention in Venezuela and other Latin American nations during the last decade. Author of the books The Chávez Code: Cracking United States Intervention in Venezuela (Olive Branch Press 2006) and Bush vs. Chávez: Washington’s War on Venezuela (Monthly Review Press 2007), amongst other publications and articles. Her books have been translated to English, French, German and Italian. She has won two National Book Awards (Venezuela 2006) and the Municipal Book Award (Caracas 2007) for her first book, The Chávez Code. She is currently and investigador with the Centrol Internacional Miranda (CIM) and co-founder and General Director of the Center for Strategic Studies “CESE” in Caracas, Venezuela.

Romain Migus: Investigator and French sociologist residing in Venezuela since 2004. Author of various publications and articles in French, English and Spanish about the Bolivarian Revolution and the Media War against Venezuela. During 2006-2007 he was an investigator with the Centro Internacional Miranda. He is co-founder and Communications Director of the Center for Strategic Studies “CESE” in Caracas, Venezuela.

SORRY FOR THE ABSENCE!

I apologize profoundly for neglecting the blog for so many months. I have been traveling during the past month and am finishing up a new book which hopefully will be ready for publishing by December. This week I will post some new articles about the currently developments between Venezuela and the United States, as well as other members of the international community. I have been giving a series of conferences entitled "The Cold War of the 21st Century" to which these articles correspond....

Thanks for checking in! Check back soon for the new posts.

Bises,
Eva

Two recent interviews with yours truly

FYI, in case anyone is interested, Jean-Guy Allard has published an interview with me in English in Granma International, in French in Le Grand Soir and in Español on Granma de Cuba.

Fred Fuentes published this interview with me on Green Left Weekly from Australia.

If anyone is interested in interviews or speaking engagements please contact me at [email protected] or [email protected].

THE WAR MACHINE: OR HOW TO MANIPULATE REALITY

The War Machine: Or How to Manipulate Reality
By Eva Golinger


Interpol’s Creativity

Since 2002, the Pentagon has been seeking evidence that intimately relates President Chávez and his government with the FARC. Top secret documents from the Department of Defense (that we have desclassified under FOIA) evidence that the Pentagon has been unable to find proof of a clandestine, subversive relationship between the Venezuelan government and the FARC. The sources used in some Pentagon documents that attempt to show such a relationship are completely unreliable, since they are mass media outlets from Venezuela and Colombia, such as Globovisión, Caracol, El Universal and El Nacional - all of whom are aligned with the opposition to Chávez.

When the Colombian government bombed the FARC camp in Ecuador on March 1, killing two dozen people in an illegal incursion onto Equatorian territory that was condemned by the Organization of American States (OEA) and only supported by the United States (suprise!), it was all they could do to produce evidence they had been seeking for six years. Just hours after the illegal invasion and massacre (during which 5 innocent Mexican visiting students were killed), the head of Colombia’s National Police, General Naranjo, was announcing they had “found” a “laptop” that belonged to Raul Reyes, the FARC commander killed in the bombing, and that the computer contained information that showed a link between President Chávez and several members of his government, and the handover (or offering) of weapons and money to the FARC. (Now we would have to ask how the Colombian police found that key information so quickly amongst the more than 39,000 word files and several million documents contained on the computers that the INTERPOL report says it would take 1,000 years to read). All of sudden, evidence was found that not even the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency or the world’s top spies could encounter during years of secret missions, agent recruiting and handling and psychological operations; that Chávez was going to sell uranium to the FARC to make dirty bombs; that Chávez promised somewhere between $250-$300 million to the FARC; that he gave them weapons; and that together they sought to overthrow Uribe’s government and install a FARC marxist state.

That mysterious machine contained anything the Empire could ever have dreamed up to bury the Venezuelan government and declare it over and done with.

But, there was a big problem: since the machine had been in the hands of the Colombian government - confessed adversary of its Venezuelan neighbor - and the “Documents” that evidenced the relationship with President Chávez were actually just texts written in Word, without signature or seal, there was little faith in their credibility. How easy it is to just write a document in Word on some computer and say it was written by someone else! Word documents don’t have original signature. If they had found - say - a diary or a journal written by the hand of Raul Reyes, then the situation would be quite different, but a bunch of texts in Word? Emails? In today’s world, electronic information is unreliable. Computers can been manipulated from a remote source. Any decent hacker or computer techie can enter into a system and alter whatever, without leaving fingerprints.

So, Colombia did the intelligent thing. They said - lets let an uninvolved third party evaluate the computers to determine whether they have been manipulated or not by us. And that’s when Interpol came along.

The Secretary General of the International Police (INTERPOL), Ronald Kenneth Noble, is an ex US Government employee, and he was First Undersecretary of the Department of Treasury in charge of the Secret Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Center for Federal Law Enforcement Training, the Network of Financial Crimes Control and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (which, by the way, is the entity in charge of enforcing the blockade against Cuba and the prohibition of US citizens to travel there). Noble has been Secretary General of INTERPOL for 8 years (two terms), and it was he who was in charge of supervising the authentication of the “evidence” obtained by the Colombian government in the FARC camp.

INTERPOL was charged with a pretty limited and subjective mision, that was to “Examine the user files on the eight seized FARC computers and to determine whether any of the user files had been newly created, modified or deleted on or after 1 March 2008.” INTERPOL did not occupy itself with verifying the origin, accuracy or source of those files or computers, which means that reasonable doubt still remains regarding the true authorship of that data. INTERPOL took for granted that the machines and the evidence pertained to Raul Reyes and the FARC, which in legal terms prejudices the entire investigation because it shows that from the beginning, INTERPOL had already taken the side of the Colombian government.

INTERPOL’s report
states specifically that the scope of their forensic examination was limited to a) determining the actual data contained in the eight seized FARC computer exhibits, b) verifying whether the user files had been modified in any way on or after 1 March 2008, and c) determining whether Colombian law enforcement authorities had handled and examined the eight seized FARC computer exhibits in conformity with internationally recognized principles for handling electronic evidence by law enforcement.” [Interpol Report, page 7].

Subsequently, INTERPOL’s report confirms that the “verification of the eight seized FARC computer exhibits by INTERPOL does not imply the validation of the accuracy of the user files, the validation of any country’s interpretation of the user files or the validation of the source of the user files.” [Interpol Report, page 9].

So, INTERPOL only examined and verified whether the data contained on the computers had been created, modified or deleted after March 1 when it was publicly in the hands of the Colombian government. And although in their own report, INTERPOL concludes that access to the machines between March 1 and March 3 by the Grupo Investigativo de Delitos Informáticos of the Colombian Judicial Police (DIJIN) “did not conform to internationally recognized principles for handling electronic evidence by law enforcement” [Page 31], Secretary General Noble justifies that violation and the modifications made by the DIJIN as part of the difficulties encountered by those law enforcement who “are first on the scene”.

INTERPOL says its role was “exclusively technical” yet Secretary General Noble began his press conference on May 15 with a very partialized political discourse in favor of the Colombian government and condemning the FARC as drugtraffickers and terrorists. When asked by a journalist from TELESUR whether he could confirm the source of the evidence, Noble blurted our “I can say with certainty that the computers came from a FARC terrorist camp…” The journalist asked if they belonged to any person in particular, and Noble responded “yes, the now dead Reyes…”

If we return to page 9 of the INTERPOL report we can clearly read the statement: “the verification of the eight seized FARC computer exhibits by INTERPOL does not imply the validation of the accuracy of the user files, the validation of any country’s interpretation of the user files or the validation of the source of the user files.”

So, how did Mr. Noble know the computers belonged to Raul Reyes if INTERPOL did not analyze their origen?

In the end, INTERPOL can say that technically those computers were not modified or altered after March 1, but that tells us nothing concrete that could serve as legal evidence in a court of law. We don’t know the source of those machines. We don’t know who created the documents, text and data on those computers. There is no way whatsoever to authenticate the information contained on the thousands of Word documents and emails on those computers. They could be stories, wishes, dreams, prayers or fantasies. What they are not is actual hard core proof of a crime.

And as no surprise, the US government has expressed its “concern” over the INTERPOL report and the “ties between the Venezuelan government and the FARC.” (The US government is always “concerned” when it comes to Venezuela. First, Ambassador Donna Hrinak expressed her “concern” over President Chávez’s statements criticizing the US bombing in Afghanistan in October 2001, and months later came the coup d’etat against Chávez. Then it was Ambassador Charles Shapiro who expressed his “concern” about the political crises and the divisions in the country and soon after we had the economic sabotage of the oil industry in December 2002. Later we had Ambassador William Brownfield saying he was “concerned” about the increase in drug transit and the threat to freedom of expression, and we had street violence, an increase in funding to the opposition, and the White House certified Venezuela as a nation “not cooperating” with counterdrug measures and the war on terror. And now what?)

First, the spokesperson for the Department of State, Sean McCormack stated on May 16 that “this is a motive of concern for us. It’s a concern for the people of Colombia and the government of Colombia…Right now our intelligence community is analyzing the INTERPOL report…You don’t have to look far beyond the many news reports that we have seen recently based on the information found in those laptops and other information…” (Right, when the news media says something in sync with Washington’s foreign policy, it’s pointed to as a valid source, but when they criticize Bush’s policies on Irak or discover inconsistencies with the administration, then they say the media are biased and unrealiable).

The next day, the normally low profile (for now) US Ambassador in Venezuela, Patrick Duddy, appeared on Globovisión declaring that “elements of concern” exist in the documents found on Raul Reyes’ laptop and that “we respect what Interpol has presented and we remind you that there is already a ton of material that has come out in the press and there are elements of conern, but also there is a lot of information and the agencies that have access to it will analyze it.” Of course his statement is identical to that of the Department of State, and that’s no coincidence - that’s because the embassies all receive a “Western Hemisphere Press Guidance” sheet telling them exactly what to say!

So, the next step will be when the CIA, the Pentagon and other official Washington representatives “certify” the information on the computers and launch all kinds of additional accusations towards Venezuela - now with “proof”, even if invented. Wasn’t the power point presentation that Colin Powell so assuredly presented before the UN Security Council regarding the weapons of mass destruction in Irak considered “proof”? So, now we have laptops with non-authenticatible documents that will be used as “evidence” to place Venezuela on the state sponsors of terror list or worse, justify some kind of military incursion onto Venezuela territory to safeguard the world from terrorists.

The Fourth Fleet of the Navy has already been activated, something not seen since World War II, and will be patrolling and coordinating military activity in the Latin American region. Last month, SOUTHCOM launched Operation Enduring Freedom - Caribbean and Central America - which deployed an elite batallon of National Guard and navy ships into the region to prepare strategies to detect and defend against terrorist threats in the region.

In the end, INTERPOL achieved what Washington hasn’t been able to do for years: invent the way to “validate” some kind of bogus evidence against Venezuela that will jusfity US aggressions and possibly the next military intervention.

Chronology of the 4th Generation War Against Venezuela

The US Government is waging war on Venezuela - not your typical, traditional war, but a modern, asymmetric - 4th Generation War - against President Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution. Below is a presentation I created regarding the pattern and escalation of US Government aggression against Venezuela, with clear quotes and cites as evidence to back up this claim.

OBJECTIVE

Relate Chávez with:

*Drug trafficking
*Terrorism
*A Dictatorship
*An Arms Race
*Money Laundering
*A Threat Against Regional Security

Actions
2002-2006

*The coup d’etat against Chávez in 2002
*The “lockout” and economic sabotage from December 2002 to February 2003
*The “guarimbas” of 2004
*The Recall Referendum of 2004
*Electoral Intervention in 2005 and 2006
*An increase in US military presence in the region during 2006-2007

Change in Strategy

-After the victory of President Chávez in the recall referendum of 2004, the US toughened its position towards Venezuela increased its public hostility and aggression against the Venezuelan government.

-January 2005: “Hugo Chávez is a negative force in the region.” -Condoleezza Rice

-March 2005: “Venezuela is one of the most unstable and dangerous ‘hot spots’ in Latin America.” -Porter Goss, ex-Director of the CIA

-March 2005: “Venezuela is starting a dangerous arms race that threatens regional security.” -Donald Rumsfeld, ex-Secretary of Defense

-March 2005: “I am concerned about Venezuela’s influence in the area of responsibility...SOUTHCOM supports the position of the Joint Chiefs to maintain ‘military to military’ contact with the Venezuelan military…we need an inter-agency focus to deal with Venezuela.” -General Bantz Craddock, ex-Commander of SOUTHCOM

-July 2005: “Cuba and Venezuela are promoting instability in Latin America…There is no doubt that President Chávez is funding radical forces in Bolivia.” -Rogelio Pardo-Maurer, Assistant Sub-Secretary of Defense for the Western Hemisphere

-July 2005: “Venezuela and Cuba are promoting radicalism in the region...Venezuela is trying to undermine the democratic governments in the region to impede CAFTA.” -Donald Rumsfeld, ex-Secretary of Defense

-August 2005: “Venezuelan territory is a safe haven for Colombian terrorists.” -Tom Casey, spokesperson for the Department of State

-September 2005: “The problem of working with President Chávez is serious and continuous, as it is in other parts of the relationship.” -John Walters, Director of the National Policy Office for Drug Control.

-November 2005: “The assault on democratic institutions in Venezuela continues and the system is in serious danger.” -Thomas Shannon, Sub-secretary of State

Escalation in Aggression 2006
The War Machine

-2 February 2006: “Presidente Chávez continues to use his control to repress the opposition, reduce freedom of the press and restrict democracy….it’s a threat.” -John Negroponte, ex-Director of National Intelligence

-2 February 2006: “We have Chávez in Venezuela with a lot of money from oil. He is a person who was elected legally, just like Adolf Hitler...” - Donald Rumsfeld, ex-Secretary of Defense

Connection with Terrorism

-16 March 2006: “In Venezuela, a demogoge full of oil money is undermining democracy and trying to destabilize the region.” -George W. Bush

-June 2006: “Venezuela’s cooperation in the international campaign against terrorism continues to be insignificant...It’s not clear to what point the Venezuelan government offered material support to Colombian terrorists.” - Annual Report on Terrorism, Department of State

Increase in Military Presence

-March-July 2006: The US military engages in four major exercises off the coast of Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea, with support from NATO, and based at the US air force base in Curaçao. A permanen military presence is established in the Dominican Republic and the bases in Curaçao and Aruba are reinforced.

-July 2006: “Venezuela, under President Hugo Chávez, has tolerated terrorists in its territory...” -Subcommittee on International Terrorism, House of Representatives

Increase in Subversión

-The US Embassy in Caracas establishes the “American Corners” in 5 Venezuelan States (Lara, Monagas, Bolívar, Anzoátegui, Nueva Esparta), to act as centers of propaganda, subversion, espionage and infiltration.

-Ambassador Brownfield intensifies his public hostility towards the Venezuelan government

-The Embassy begins to promote separatism in the State of Zulia

-Funding of opposition groups via USAID and NED doubles

Chávez = “dictator”

-At the beginning of 2007, Venezuela is severely attacked in the international media & by US government spokespersons for its decision to nationalize the Cantv, the Electricity of Caracas and the Faja Orinoco oil fields.

-In May 2007 the attack intensifies with the decision to not renew the public operating concession to RCTV.

-A powerful international media campaign is initiated against Venezuela y President Chávez.

-The “food shortage” and “hording” strategy begins as part of an economic sabotage.

Chávez = “repressor of Human Rights”

-The USA foments, funds and encourages the right-wing student movement and helps to project their favorable image to the international community in order to distort the perception of President Chávez’s popularity.

-Groups like Human Rights Watch, Inter-American Press Association, Reporters without Borders accuse Venezuela of violating human rights and freedom of expression.

Increase in aggressions Cases: Colombia and the “maletín”

-5 August 2007: President Chávez commits during an Aló Presidente to contribute towards a humanitarian agreement between the FARC and the Colombian government

-6 August 2007: The case of the “maletín” (briefcase full of $800,000) is exploited in international media in an attempt to involve Chávez and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in an act of corruption and money laundering.

-15 August: President Chávez announces the Constitutional Reform

-30 August: Chávez pardons 41 paramilitaries imprisoned in Venezuela since 2004 for rebellion and attempted assassination

-31 August: Uribe accepts Chávez’s mediation in the humanitarian peace agreement

-17 September: Bush/USA classifies Venezuela as a nation “not cooperating” with the war against drug trafficking, for the third year in a row

They Launch the attack

-25 September: Condoleezza Rice declares the US is “concerned about the destructive populism” of Chávez

-26 October: A US nuclear submarine arrives in Curazao to presumably engage in espionage

-21 November: Uribe unilaterally terminates Chávez’s mediation in the humanitarian peace accord

-27 November: “Operation Tenaza” is made public (a plan to promote fear and violence during the days before the referendum on constitutional reform)


MEDIA WAR

-The media campaign against Chávez intensifies in national and international media:

*Chávez is a “de facto” dictator
*There is no freedom of expression
*There is no private property
*Human rights are violated and repressed


Increase in aggressions 2007

-2 December: We lose the referendum, but Chávez accepts the lose with grace and foils the campaign to demonize him as a “dictator”

-12 December: The FBI detains 3 Venezuelans and 1 Uruguayan in Miami accused of being “agents of the Venezuelan government” in the case of the “maletín”

-24-30 December: “Operation Emmanuel” begins to liberate 3 hostages held by the FARC

Uribe’s Sabotage

-31 December: Uribe announces that he has the child Emmanuel in custody and that he is not with the FARC in an attempt to ridicule and discredit Chávez, but Chávez acts gracefully and is content the boy is safe, and he proceeds with the liberation process of Clara Rojas and Consuelo González

-10 January 2008: After Uribe sabotages the hostage liberation with military operations in the region, the FARC release Clara Rojas and Consuelo González to President Chávez’s custody

The “meetings and visits” between the USA and Colombia begin one after the other...

Chávez = “arms race”

-17 January: Admiral Mike Mullen, Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces meets with Uribe, Minister of Defense Juan Manuel Santos, US Ambassador William Brownfield y and the Commander General of the Colombian Armed Forces Fredy Padilla de León and declares during a press conference that he is “concerned about the arms purchases made by Chávez” and expresses that this could “destabilize the region.” He expresses complete support for Colombia and Uribe.

Chávez = “drug trafficker”

-19 January: John Walters, the US Anti-Drug Czar meets with Uribe in Colombia, together with 5 US congresspersons and Ambassador Brownfield, and declares Venezuela a nation “complicit with drug trafficking” that presents “a threat to the US and the region”. He also expresses his wish that the Free Trade Agreement between the US and Colombia be ratified by Congress soon.

-24 January: Condoleezza Rice visits Colombia, together with Sub-Secretary of State Thomas Shannon and 10 congress members from the democratic party to push the FTA and back Colombia in its conflict with Venezuela.

-25 January: Moíses Maionica declares himself “guilty” in the case of the “maletín” and “admits” to acting as an “agent of the Venezuelan government”

-28 January: President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address emphasizes the importance of the FTA with Colombia alerts to the threat of “populist” and “undemocratic” governments in the region.

-February: SOUTHCOM sends the Navy’s “4th fleet” to the Caribbean Sea (a group of war ships, submarines and aircraft carriers that haven’t been in these waters since the Cold War)

-1 February: The US Justice Department publicly implicates General Henry Rangel Silva, Director of the DISIP (civilian intelligence force), in the case of the “maletin”

-3 February: The magazine Semana from Colombia publishes an article tying General Hugo Carvajal, Director of Military Intelligence, with the FARC and drug trafficking

Chávez = “threat to US national security”

-5 February: The Director of National Intelligence, General Mike McConnell, publishes the Annual Threat Report which classifies Venezuela as the “principal threat against the US in the hemisphere”

-4-5 February: A high level meeting between the Commanders of the Colombian Navy and Army and the US Marines in Mayport, FL

-7 February: Exxon-Mobil tries to “freeze” $12 billion of Venezuelan assets in London, Holland and the Dutch Antilles as part of an economic sabotage

-8 February: General Mario Montoya Uribe, National Commander of the Colombian Army, visits the US Army South Command for a “briefing”.

-27 February: A Report on Present Threats to National Security of the Defense Intelligence Agency classifies Venezuela as a “national security threat” to the US.

Each time the FARC frees hostages, the US attacks Chávez

-27 February: The Farc release 4 hostages, Luís Eladio Pérez, Gloria Polanco, Jorge Eduardo Gecham and Orlando Beltrán, to Presidente Chávez’s custody.

-29 February: A Department of State report accuses Venezuela of being a country that permits “the transit of illegal drugs”, “money laundering” and being “complicit with drug trafficking.”

Colombian Aggression

-29 February: Rear Admiral Joseph Nimmich, Director of the US Joint Interagency Task Force, meets in Bogotá with the Commander General of the Colombian Armed Forces.

-1 March: The Colombian army invades Ecuatorian territory and assassinates Raúl Reyes and a dozen others, including 4 Mexicans, at a FARC camp in the jungle near the border.

Attempt to tie Chávez with terrorism

-2-3 March: General Jorge Naranjo, Commander of Colombia’s National Police, declares that laptop computers rescued from the scene of the bombing that killed Reyes and others evidence that President Chávez gave more than $300 million to the FARC along with a quantity of uranium and weapons. No other evidence is produced or shown to the public. Ecuador is also accused of supporting the FARC.

-2 March: Venezuela mobilizes troops to the border with Colombia

The US mobilizes

-4 March: The US Navy sends the Aircraft Carrier “Harry Truman” to the Caribbean Sea to engage in military exercises to prevent potential terrorist attacks and eventual conflicts in the region.

-4 March: President Bush states the US will defend Colombia against the “provocations” from Venezuela.

-4 March: Uribe announces he will bring a claim before the International Criminal Court against President Chávez for “sponsoring genocide and terrorism”.

Chávez = “money laundering”

-4 March: Carlos Kauffman declares himself “guilty” to acting as an “agent of the Venezuelan government” in the case of the “maletín.”

-5 March: The US Federal Prosecutor announces that a Venezuelan Vice-Minister of Interior and Justice is implicated in the case of the “maletín”.

Chávez = TERRORISM

-10 March: President Bush requests his team of lawyers and advisors review the possibility of placing Venezuela on the list of “STATE SPONSORS OF TERRORISM” together with Cuba, Iran, Syria and North Korea. This classification will seriously affect the commercial relations between the US and Venezuela since commerce between the nations will be prohibited. Such a classification will also justify the application of the “Bush Doctrine” - Preventive War - that could result in an invasion or other type of aggression against Venezuela.

-18 March: President Bush declares:"The regime in Caracas has railed against America, has forged an alliance with communist Cuba, has met with FARC leaders in Venezuela, has deployed troops to the Colombian border. In the process, regime leaders have squandered their oil wealth and left their people to face food shortages.

Recently when Colombian forces killed one of the FARC's most senior leaders they discovered computer files that suggest even closer ties between Venezuela's regime and FARC terrorists than we previously knew. Colombia officials are investigating the ties, but this much should be clear: The United States strongly supports, strongly stands with Colombia in its fight against the terrorists and drug lords."

OBJECTIVES

• Persuade the US Congress to ratify the FTA with Colombia
• Maintain the US military base Manta (destabilizing Correa’s government)
• Contain the influence of Chávez in the region and impede Latin American integration
• Promote a “transition” in Cuba
• Stop the constitutional processes in Bolivia and Ecuador
• Eliminate the FARC
• Encourage a military conflict in the region to justify international intervention and guarantee US control over oil and gas reserves in the region, of course overthrowing Chávez, Evo and Correa in the meantime

THE PEACEMAKER

PERHAPS the most misrepresented and demonized figure in the media today, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, recently became a symbol of peace and diplomacy at the Rio Group Summit in Santo Domingo this past March 7. Chávez’s diplomatic, affectionate tone and his call to peace between sister nations calmed tensions between Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela, which just hours before had been on the brink of war after Colombia unilaterally violated Ecuador’s territory without permission or notification in order to bomb and assassinate a leader of the Fuerzas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) who was camped with a group of visiting Mexicans on the Ecuatorian side of the border. All those stationed at the FARC camp were killed, with the exception of three women, including one Mexican, who were injured and left by Colombian soldiers to die but were later rescued by Ecuatorian armed forces. Chávez, who had ordered his troops to the Colombian border and warned President Uribe of Colombia that a similar attempt to violate Venezuela’s sovereignty would be met with force, was quickly labeld by the international media as a “warmonger” and “responsable” for the conflict in the region. Colombia’s government, publicly backed by President Bush himself, accused Chávez and President Correa of Ecuador of aiding and funding the FARC, a group labeled “terrorist” by the United States, Colombia and the European Union, and even went so far as to implicate Chávez in the proposed sale of uranium to the FARC in order to build dirty bombs. These unsubstantiated - and extremely dangerous - allegations fall right in line with the increased efforts of the Bush Administration to label Chávez’s Venezuela as a nation that supports “drug trafficking”, “terrorism” and “money laundering”, and to classify Chávez as a “dictator”, “authoritarian” and “threat to U.S. interests.”

Debunking the Chávez myth is not as easy as it should be. Coverage of President Chávez and Venezuela is negative and distorted in 90% of major media outlets in Europe, Latin America and the United States. An analysis of the Washington Post editorial page during the past year shows that of the twenty-three editorials or OpEds specifically written about Venezuela, only one - written by Venezuela’s Ambassador to the US - presented a balanced vision of the South American nation’s political and economic situation. President Chávez was labeled as a “dictator”, “autocrat”, “strongman” or “despot” on ten occasions and references to his government as “dictatorial”, “authoritarian” or “repressive” were made in almost every article. Even worse, the Washington Post perpetuated the falsehood of Venezuela’s relationship with terrorism in almost a dozen editorials during the last year.

None of these claims about Venezuela and President Chávez’s slippery slope towards a terrorist dictatorship have ever been seriously substantiated with real evidence. In fact, a frightening parallel can be drawn between the Bush-Cheney lies about weapons of mass destruction in Sadaam Hussein’s Iraq and the false allegations about Chávez’s Venezuela funding and arming Colombian terrorists and facilitating drug trafficking and money laundering. The mere reference made by President Uribe regarding a possible sale of uranium to the FARC to build bombs is eerily reminiscent of Pat Robertson’s outrageous claims in 2005 that President Chávez was building a nuclear bomb with Iran to blow up the United States. While ridiculous, such allegations justified the U.S. invasion of Iraq after government officials hammered the false claims into public opinion and the media recycled lies. Those cynical or too naive to believe that a similar aggression could occur against Venezuela need only remember the U.S. invasion of socialist Grenada in 1983 or the bombing and invasion of Panamá in 1989. In both instances, neither government represented a real threat to the U.S., and in both cases, myths about “dangerous dictatorships” were perpetuated in the media in order to justify the unilateral attacks. When the truth comes out years later, as is the case with Iraq, U.S. officials offer insincere apologies and shrug it all off as “in the past” and anyway, they were all bad guys.

Over the past year, the U.S. State Department has classified Venezuela as a nation “not collaborating” with either the “war on drugs” or the “war against terrorism”. The Pentagon and the intelligence communities released reports earlier this year citing Venezuela as a “major threat to U.S. national security” and have proposed beefing up military presence in the region. The White House and Congress have increased USAID and National Endowment Funding to opposition groups in Venezuela in an effort to rebuild ailing conservatives that favor a U.S. agenda. International media portray Chávez as “public enemy #1” and the leader of a Latin American “axis of evil” that is threatening regional stability. Meanwhile, poverty in Venezuela has been reduced by more than 50% under the thrice-elected President Chávez, 100% of Venezuelans have access to free, quality health care and education beyond the doctoral level, voter participation has skyrocketed to unprecedented, historical levels and more new hospitals, schools, highways, bridges, railways and industries have been built since during the entire 40-year period of “representative democracy”. And to top it all off, Chávez has negotiated the release of six hostages held by the FARC for more than five years, helped pay off Venezuela’s, Argentina’s and Nicaragua’s foreign debt and established regional initiatives such as Telesur, the Bank of the South, PetroCaribe, UnaSur (Union of South American Nations) and ALBA, a cooperative trade agreement between Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia.

Hugo Chávez is a man of peace. The question to ask is why the Bush Administration and mass media continue to portray him as an evil dictator. But we all know the answer to that: Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves. So what we really need to be asking is why public opinion - you - allow the perpetuation of this dangerous myth?

FOUR FARC HOSTAGES JUST RELEASED TO VENEZUELANS

Luis Eladio Pérez, Gloria Polanco, Jorge Eduardo Gechem and Orlando Beltrán have just boarded the airplane in Venezuelan territory after having been released by the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias Colombianas Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP) in a unilateral humanitarian gesture for peace in Colombia. We are expected to receive Luis, Gloria, Jorge and Orlando at approximately 6pm, Venezuelan time, in Maiquetía airport outside of Caracas, where their family members are anxiously waiting. This humanitarian gesture is a result of the international solidarity and humanistic foreign policy of the government of President Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and the incredibly persistent and determined work for peace that Colombian Senator Piedad Córdova has been pursuing for over a decade.

The FARC has stated today that this is the last unilateral release of hostages until the Colombian government ceases military operations in the areas where the FARC is residing. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has made NO gestures or taken any steps whatsoever to further peace in Colombia, but rather has agitated the crisis by increasing military offensive measures in the regions where FARC is known to operate. Were it not for President Chávez and the revolutionary process in Venezuela, these four individuals who have been held hostage for 7 years would not be free, nor would Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez have been released in early January after 5 years as hostages in the Colombian jungle.

The US Government has critized and smeared President Chávez's efforts for regional peace by trying to brand him as an "ally of terrorists and drugtraffickers". But time will show that the US Government funded and armed Plan Colombia has been the #1 instigator of war, conflict and misery in Colombia, whereas President Chávez's actions have brought peace, love and hope to the people of Colombia.

QUE VIVA VENEZUELA! QUE VIVA EL PRESIDENTE CHAVEZ!!!

LAGGING ON THE BLOGGING, SORRY!

My book on a major Paris bookstore bookshelf

So sorry for the slacking on the blogging, folks! The year 2008 has just started out in a whirlwind and I've been a bit busy. But I've also been caught between dreamworld and reality, trying to focus on finishing up my third book (name withheld for copyright purposes) and trying to write another, more personal tale. Sometimes, however, it seems that writing as fiction may be better than writing as real life, so as to avoid any blemishes or cause any public scandals (just kidding! kinda...)

Anyway, I was traveling a bit in France in January, and proudly found my book The Chavez Code - French version Code Chavez - displayed prominently on the shelf of Paris' largest bookstore. That made me feel good, not in a selfish way, but really feel good that the book is reaching wider audiences. Also, I just happen to love France and Paris, so I just felt good in general.

Speaking of books....Bush vs. Chavez is finally really for sale in the US! Monthly Review Press (the publisher) sells it on their website Please do buy and read it and recommend it to your friends!!! Bush vs. Chavez: Washington's War on Venezuela is the continuation of The Chavez Code, from 2005 to the end of 2006 and focuses on short - but detailed and well-documented - descriptions of Washington's latest strategies of aggression against the Bolivarian Revolution. PYSOPS, Asymmetric Warfare (Wizard's Chess), Media Terrorism, Secession, Invasion Plans - these are just a few of the scary gems I researched and detail in the book. Read it and let me know what you think.

So, relations between Venezuela and Washington haven't gotten off to a good start in 2008, in fact, things are worse than ever. Despite President Chávez's "3 R" New Year's Resolution to revise, rectify and re-impulse the revolution, Washington is not rewriting or rectifying its Venezuela strategy, in fact, its revising it and reimpulsing its level of aggressivity and threat against Venezuela. January started out with more slurs against President Chávez by different US government officials, including Drug Czar John Walters calling Chávez a "drug trafficker" (more or less), and Condoleezza Rice hurrying down to Colombia to cuddle with paramilitary leader (and head of state) Alvaro Uribe to express the US Government's full backing of Colombia in its difficulties with Venezuela. Despite more cocaine flowing out of Colombia each day, the US Government has now classified Colombia as "fully cooperative" with the war on drugs and Venezuela as "fully uncooperative". I guess "cooperative" refers to allowing US forces and allies to come in and facilitate the drug flow, since that's how it works under Plan Colombia and that's precisely what the Chávez government has refused to accept.

Hands up to Chávez for ensuring the release of Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez, two former captives held by the FARC in Colombia. Today, we are on the verge of seeing another 4 captives released to Chávez by the FARC in a unilateral showing of desire for peace and the consolidation of a humanitarian agreement with the Colombian government. Unfortunately, Uribe's government has stated it will not negotiate or agree to anything with the FARC. So, if it wasn't for Chávez, no one would get released and peace would never be on the horizon.

By the way, Uribe is pushing for yet another constitutional amendment to allow him to run again for president in 2010. Colombia's constitution pre-2004 only allowed for 1 presidential term of 4 years. Uribe pushed for an amendment to allow for a 2nd term reelection, which was passed despite heavy opposition, and he ran and won the presidency again. Now, he wants to amend the constitution to allow for a 3rd term. Do I hear cries of "president-for-life", "indefinite president", "dictator" or anything like that coming out of the US?????? Yet another double standard at play.

The US Directorate of National Intelligence and National Intelligence Director General Michael McConnell released its Annual Threat Assessment in early February and dedicated 3 1/2 whole pages to Venezuela - almost the same Iran, Syria, Irak and Russia got!!!! Boy has Venezuela really moved up on the list of US targets! Actually it's a pretty serious (and very scary) matter. Venezuela is now a direct military target of US defense and intelligence agencies as confirmed by this "threat assessment". Watch how this new classification plays out over the next few months. No doubt there will be an increase in US military presence in this region and a lot more bad mouthing of Chávez coming out of Washington - mark my words.

Meanwhile, ex-Ambassador to Venezuela William Brownfield, who moved next door to Colombia, can't seem to keep his mouth shut. He's talking more now about the Venezuelan government than he was when he was shacking up in Valle Arriba in Caracas. His latest statements about the drug trafficking "explosion" in Venezuela (since he left) made on a Colombian radio station, got him in to trouble with the Colombian government, which received a formal complaint from the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry about Brownfield's big and lying mouth. He apologized, but not for what he said, only for saying it on the radio.

Did you all hear about the Peace Corp and Fulbright Scholars getting busted in Bolivia for spying?? Evo is just kicking some US spy ass these days. He's exposed US Ambassador Philip Goldberg on numerous occasions for spying, consorting with paramilitaries, funding Bolivian opposition groups illegally, trying to run illegal "special ops" units around Bolivia and now using Fulbright Scholars to spy on "venezuelans and cubans" in Bolivia. I think it is especially cool that Fulbright Scholar Alexander Van Schaick came forward about all this and exposed CIA dirty tactics. Read about it here.

OK, that's enough catching up for today. I hope to stay on track with the Blog more in the upcoming days and weeks. We have regional elections here in Venezuela this year and believe me, things are only going to get more intense.

Feel free to write in the comments sections any questions or suggestions on things to write about from the ground here in Caracas.

Chao!

DREAM AND ACT: A MESSAGE FOR 2008

The following is the Commencement speech that nobel-prize winning writer Toni Morrison gave at my university, Sarah Lawrence College, in 1993. It is my gift to you for the New Year.

"If you don't feed the poor, they will eat you. And the manner of their eating is as varied as it is ferocious. If you don't give them the help, them the courtesy, them the respect you had in becoming educated, then they will educate themselves. And the things they will teach, and the things they will learn, may destabilize all you know. And by education, I don't mean hobbling the mind, but liberating it. By education, I don't mean passing on monologues, but engaging in dialogue, listening sometimes, assuming sometimes that I have a history, that I have a language, a view, a specificity, assuming that what I know may be useful, may enhance what you know, may extend or even complete it.

My memory is as necessary to yours, as yours is to mine.

Before we look for a useable past, we ought to know all of it. Before we start reclaiming a legacy, we ought to know exactly what legacy is - all of it. And where it came from. In the business of education, there are no minorities, there is only minor thinking. Because if education requires tuition, but no meaning, it is going to be about NOTHING other than careers. If it's about NOTHING other than defining and husbanding beauty, isolating goods and making sure enrichment is the privilege of a few - then it can be stopped in the sixth grade - where everybody learned it. Or the Sixth century - where everybody had mastered it.

Well, what would it be like to live without that putrifying hatred that we have been told and taught was inevitable, natural among human beings? INEVITABLE, NATURAL, after a presence of what, five million years? After recording ourselves for four thousand years - we haven't thought of anything better than that? And which one of us was born that way? Which one of us prefers it that way? Hating or grabbing or despising. Racism is a scholarly pursuit. And it always has been. It's not gravity or the ocean tides. It's the invention of our minor thinkers. Our minor leaders. Our minor scholars. And our major entrepreneurs. And it can be uninvented. Deconstructed. It's annihilation begins with just dreaming about, visualizing it's absence. Lose it, and if it can't be lost at once or just by saying so - then BEHAVE as if it were. BEHAVE as if our free life depended on it. Because it does.

If I spend my life despising you because of your race, or your class, or your religion, then I have become your slave. If you spend yours hating me for similar reasons, it's because you have become my slave. I have your energy. I have your fear. I have your intellect. I can determine where you live. How you live. What your work is. I can determine your definition of excellence. And I can set the limits to your ability to love. Which means that I have shaped your life. That is the gift of your hatred. You are mine.

Well, now you may be asking yourselves - what is all this? I can't save the world. What about my life, you ask? I didn't come here for this. I didn't even ask to come here. I didn't ask to be born. You insisted on your life. That's why you are here. There is no other reason. It's too easy not to have been born. And now that you're here - you have to do something. Something you respect - don't you? Your parents may have wanted you. But they did not dream you up. You did that. I'm just urging you to continue the dream you started. Because dreaming is not irresponsible. It's first order - human business. It's not entertainment, you know. It's work. When Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "I have a dream," he wasn't playing. He was serious. When he imagined it, envisioned it, created it in his own mind - it began. Now - we have to dream too. And give it the heft and stretch and longevity it deserves. But don't let anybody convince you - this is the way the world IS and therefore must BE. Nobody prefers mindlessness. Appetites for self-murder can be erradicated. No addict or suicide wants to be one. Enemies, races, nations - they can live together. Anybody over eight years old has already witnessed the expedient, commecial, almost whimsical nature of national friendships.

I have seen resources commited to the disenfranchised, the discredited, the merely unlucky. And before we can reap the harvest of these resources, before legislation put in place could work, it was disassembled. That determined committment must be re-dreamed, re-thought, re-activated by me and you. Otherwise, as nationalisms and racisms solidify, as coasts and villages become and remain forces of turmoil and dispute, as eagles and doves hover over the remaining sources of the raw wealth of the earth - as guns and gold and cocaine topple grain, technology and medicine to win first place in world trade - if these things go on we will end up with a worth not worth sharing or even dreaming about.

What I mean to say is - we are already life. Chosen by ourselves - humans as far as we know - there aren't anymore - we are the moral inhabitants of the galaxy. Why trash that magnificent obligation after working so hard in the womb to assume it? You will be in positions that matter. Positions in which you can decide the nature and quality of other people's lives. Your errors may be irrevocable. So when you enter these places of trust and power - dream a little before you think and solve. So your thoughts, your solutions, your directions, your choices about who lives and who doesn't, who flourishes and who doesn't, will be worth the very sacred life that you already chose to live.

You're not helpless. And you're not heartless. And you / have / time."