Chavez Says U.S. Trying to Weaken Government by Spurring Infighting

[cal04]

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accused the United States of trying to destabilize his government and spur infighting within the military, urging his supporters to respond by showing their unity. Chavez called the U.S. government "the imperialist adversary" in a televised speech Saturday, saying Washington is backing a series of subtle attacks against Venezuela. He accused "internal lackeys" of spreading false rumors among military commanders in an effort to create divisions.

Speaking to supporters in the western town of Guanare, Chavez said rumors were being spread "to try to pit one general against another, or one commander against another." He said the false rumors included that he favored the army over other armed services. Chavez, a former army paratrooper and fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy, said he has new documents demonstrating that "the imperialist strategy continues to be overthrowing the Venezuelan government."He didn't elaborate but said he would present the documents to the public Sunday during his weekly radio and television show.

U.S. officials have expressed concern about the health of Venezuelan democracy and Chavez's close ties to Cuba's Fidel Castro. Chavez, in turn, has accused Washington of trying to overthrow him in a grab for Venezuela's vast oil reserves.
Chavez, who was first elected in 1999, is up for re-election next year and faces no obvious challengers. He predicted he would win by at least 10 million votes in the country of 25 million people. He urged supporters "not to start fighting
among yourselves," saying that is precisely what U.S. officials want. "To this, we should respond with unity," Chavez said.

He also urged vigilance to uphold the principles of his "social revolution" for the poor. "Corruption, bureaucracy, inefficiency are mortal enemies of the revolution," Chavez said. "We must fight against that." Meanwhile, he said officials are checking records on foreign oil companies and that some operating in Venezuela didn't pay any taxes in the past. "We aren't going to tolerate this," Chavez said, adding that a good number of the transnational oil companies "have to pay us what they owe." Chavez has said the government will charge foreign oil companies back taxes and will calculate interest on long-overdue amounts.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBBZTFPQ8E.html

[halobeam]

1. whoa!

[SouthernDem2004]

2. Chavez is a loose canon trying to make the US the boogie man.

I am betting he will be President For Life within the next few years.

[0007]

3. The U.S. is the boogie man in this case and many others like it!!

junior will soon be doing the Boogie-woogie.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Yup. How could anyone who reads not try to get a grasp of this?

There's a pattern here which has been duplicated throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

It's not as if people don't talk about it frequently, watching _Bush's filthy foreign policy. It would be sensible for people who are bereft of clues to start reading enough to become aware of what has happened, right?

There are people alert enough to wonder why citizens in Latin American stormed into the streets with signs saying "Yanqui, go home" during Richard Nixon's excellent adventure in Latin America in the 1950's. Jeezus.

_Bush is interested in shedding Latin American and Caribbean blood to entertain his dull self before he leaves office, if, indeed, he WILL ever leave.

(Can you believe we have #######$ who stand, gaping, full of State Department created propaganda, pointing at Hugo Chavez with the monster we've got in office!)

[oasis]

4. Chavez is the choice of the Venezuelan people. If they want to re-elect

him "for life" that's their business.

I'm "betting" that this "loose cannon" will be a trend setter for latin America. The poor citizens of these nations will cease being the door mats for capitalistic pigs.

[SouthernDem2004]

6. I guess it all depends if he survives the...

purge of the military. If you listen to him you can tell he is setting up the ground work for a call to cleanse the military of the evil American sympathizers. Soon he will try to rid the military of anyone he does not like. The normal step to dictatorship. We will see if he gets them before they get him.

[oasis]

7. Would any leader tolerate disloyalty in his country's military? Imagine

Gen. Myers or Gen. Pace secretly or overtly supporting French president Chirac before the Iraq invasion.

Bush/Rummy would replace them with loyal "patriots" before you could blink.

[0007]

8. How many American presidents has Fidel Castro gone through?

Are you old enough to remember?

How many times have the CIA tried to assassinate Castro? Hey kiddo, Castro is only 90 miles away.

[SouthernDem2004]

11. Sorry if I am not old. :) I am only in my thirties. /eom

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[SouthernDem2004]

13. Now you are just being rude. I bid you good day! /eom

[0007]

16. Trust me, I have no intentions of being rude to you.

I just wanted honest answers to the questions I've asked. After all you're the ONE that made the statements about President Chavez.

I'm sorry if I upset you.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[AP]

19. Which came first, chicken or egg?

If the US is trying to find people in the military to encourage overthrow of Chavez, that would be, gosh, exactly what they did in Chile. Was that Allende's fault? By the way, it didn't help Allende when RW'ers assassinated the military leader who believed in the Chilean constitution. And, hey, too bad Allende didn't get rid of people like Pinochet who -- well, it would be misrepresenting things to say, "who Allende did not like." It would be more accurate to say that he would have getting rid of the people in the military who were being encouraged and supported in their efforts to overthrow Allende.

[AP]

17. Just like FDR.

[Zorra]

9. If Chavez is making oil companies pay taxes, then the US is definitely

trying to overthrow the Venezuelan democracy.

After all, isn't that what the US is now all about? Aren't we now the World Corporate Police, making the world safe for transnational corporate governance?

[Judi Lynn]

10. Bush's administration undoubtedly never broke step, and continues

to bribe Venezuelan people of influence in the military. Most of us recall learning there were two high ranking officers who were paid off during the April coup, of course, not to mention Carlos Ortega, the union boss.

To prepare the ground and public opinion, and at the same time open the possibility of direct US military intervention, $200,000 were deposited in Miami bank accounts in the names of Admiral Carlos Molina and Colonel Pedro Soto. These were the two men who demanded the resignation of Hugo Chavez, accusing him of aiding the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) guerrillas, a defamatory accusation that allowed the US to support the coup operations under the guise of the “War against Terrorism.”

But, Otto Reich committed an error that he later had to retract. The US government, through a disinformation campaign, spread the false rumor that four Cuban airplanes were stationed in Caracas during the April coup.

Reich was also behind the media campaign financed by the FNCA against the energy pact between Venezuela and Cuba. High leaders in the Venezuelan state petroleum company PDVSA were invited to Miami by the FNCA, and were transported in a Folem airplane owned by Mas Santos.

• To finance opposition protests against Chavez, Elliot Abrams and Otto Reich resorted to black CIA accounts, principally the National Endowment for Democracy.

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=21723



Admiral Carlos Molina Tamayo, andColonel Pedro Soto

Our employees, whether we like it or not!

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[AP]

20. Sadly, Wes Clark, Madeline Albright and a few American labor unions...

...are behind the NED in addition to all the usual neoliberal suspects.

[MasonJar]

15. If I were Chavez, I would stop sending oil to a country which tried

to overthrow me. This same country killed amny innocents in the Reagan/Bush, Sr. years in and has driven another democratically elected President out of Haiti, who was also trying to help his country's poor. The list goes on. these cretins have nothing but contempt for the poor.