US pursues "inoculation" strategy to curb Chavez (Reuters)

[Up2Late]

(I am getting so sick of reading about Rice preaching Democracy to democratically elected Governments!)

US pursues "inoculation" strategy to curb Chavez

Fri Feb 17, 2006 01:04 AM ET

By Saul Hudson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington wants to curb Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's anti-American influence by lobbying allies to try to expose any anti-democratic policies, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday. The United States has tried different strategies to counter Chavez, ranging from confronting him to ducking a fight.

In what she termed an "inoculation" strategy, Rice said she had sought support from Europe and other Latin American nations to highlight U.S. charges that the populist Chavez abuses his power to target political opponents and business leaders. "The international community has just got to be much more active in supporting and defending the Venezuelan people," Rice told a congressional hearing.

She said she had urged governments to go public with criticism of a treason trial against leaders of a movement, Sumate, that failed to oust Chavez in a recall referendum. "This kangaroo trial of Sumate is a disgrace," she said. And she urged labor movements to back striking workers.

Speaking late on Thursday night, Chavez questioned what he called the confused signals in Washington's policy toward Caracas and dismissed attempts by Rice to isolate his government in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

(more at link below)

<http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=11249375&src=rss/topNews>

[Erika]

1. Condi's in over her head again - We depend on their oil

Why won't these stupid Bushies go away? They don't have a clue.
Condi and W hate American labor and are doing everything to break them, but they back labor in Venezuela. Talk about schizoid and fragmented foreign policy!

[ugarte]

4. And we accuse Chavez of interfering in other countries

while we funnel $$$ to anti-Chavez groups. The double standard is mind-boggling.

[CottonBear]

2. Condi neds to STFU. Her inane rantings are tiresome. n/t

[Matilda]

3. Do we hear a cry for help from the Venezuelan people?

No, it's just the bleating of the self-serving opposition upset that things are no longer going
all their way.

And speaking of abuses of power, Condi ...

[xxqqqzme]

5. '...U.S. charges that the populist

Chavez abuses his power to target political opponents...'


hmmmm, wonder what other government domestically spies on its own citizens?

[Up2Late]

6. No kidding, this is the most ludicrous claim I've heard them make yet.

"...abuses his power to target political opponents..." let's see, John McCain during the 2000 South Carolina Primary, ah Al Gore during the 2000 election "invented the internet" slander, John Kerry 2004 too many to list...:spray:

[0007]

7. Where do they find these terms, like "inoculation"?

"A preemptive advertising tactic in which one party attempts to foresee and neutralize potentially damaging criticism from another party by being the first to confront troublesome issues." So is this this their goal?

Don't we received about 16% of our oil from Venezuela? And we a need to whip them in shape, because they're not as Democratic as the U.S.? Because Chavez sasses junior and tells Condi to jump in a lake while giving poor folks here in the U.S. a break on heating oil.

What am I missing?

[Up2Late]

9. I don't understand this either, it make no sense at all.

About all I can figure out is that they want to keep South American people poor, so they can exploit the cheap labor, and keep the drugs coming into this country to keep poor Americans disenfranchised and/or out of main stream American life.

Or, what it probably is what it always is, a dispute over Oil money. I think since Chavez took over, he also took control of the money and profits from the Oil sales. I think I read that Chavez is taxing the Oil profits and using the money to invest in improving the lives of the poor people.

It's just un-American.

[Dover]

8. "...abuses his power to target political opponents and business leaders."

LOL! I'm sure Chavez can easily turn the tables right around. And Bushco's pot is much blacker than Chavez's. Opening a can of worms...

[1932]

15. Interestingly, they have more democracy and healthiest business climate

in decades.

[Up2Late]

20. Yep, it's like Bush Co is just lobbing Softballs across the plate...

...to be hit out of the park.

The crazy part is that they talk like they can't understand how Chavez could say such things in response to the lies and hypocritical things they say.

Maybe they truly don't understand what having high-speed access to the Internet means?

[truthisfreedom]

10. we can use the admin's strategeries to deal with the admin...

they only attack using methods that would defeat themselves.

[allemand]

11. Rice bashes Venezuelan leader, politics

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denounced Hugo Chávez's support of Iran and said he was a threat to other Latin American countries.
BY PABLO BACHELET

WASHINGTON - Using her harshest language yet on Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Thursday called Venezuela and Cuba ''sidekicks'' of Iran and dangers to Latin American democracies, and gave new details of a U.S. diplomatic campaign to contain Chávez.

Rice said there was a need to present ''a united front against some of the things that Venezuela gets involved in,'' and hinted that Venezuela was linked to a recent political crisis in Nicaragua.

''Frankly, one of the problems that we face is that you have a bit of a relationship, or quite a relationship, between Cuba and Venezuela . . . which I think is a particular danger to the region,'' Rice told the House International Relations Committee, where she testified on the State Department's 2007 fiscal budget.
(...)

Rice responded by saying that ''I think it's fair to say that one of the biggest problems we face in that regard are the policies of Venezuela, which, as you rightly say, are attempting to influence neighbors away from democratic processes.'' As an example, she cited recent political upheavals in Nicaragua, where the pro-U.S. President Enrique Bolaños barely survived a possible impeachment.

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/13893137.htm?source=rss&channel=miamiherald_americas

[FlaGranny]

17. That's strange, I thought impeachment

WAS a democratic process. How silly of me. All those very un-democratic election results must be worrying them, too.

[Toucano]

12. "...she urged labor movements to back striking workers."

WTF! That would be the last thing she'd do in her own country.

[1932]

14. And the "workers" she supports are actually management.

The strikers during the oil industry shutdown were managers and the union that supported them was a long-time corrupt pro-management union.

[1932]

13. Sumate is charged with taking foreign money to fund campaign. Anti-Clinton

hypocrisy abounds here. Republicans thought that if Clinton and Gore had done this, they should be destroyed. But when Venezuela enforces the law forbidding foreigners from financing elections, it's Kangaroo justice?

Give me a break.

[Judi Lynn]

16. One other aspect to Clinton, and Gore's outside money: they weren't

plotting to undo the results of a national election, unlike Sumate. That's another thing to consider.

[Javaman]

18. sounds like dumbass rice want to "inoculate" chavez with a bullet.

I dispise, loath and truly hate her.

[IndianaGreen]

19. I want to go quail hunting with Condi Rice!

Who will rid us of this pathological liar?

[AnneD]

21. Frankly,

Chavez makes sense to me. Just because Venezula's or the Palestinian's ideas about democracy is not what BushCo wants...they need to get over it. I think we need to implement a 'Prime Directive'.

[Terran1212]

22. "Look really closely at Venezuela; don't look at Colombia or El Salvador"