What’s at stake in the Venezuelan elections (Progreso Weekly) [View all]

[flamingdem]

http://progreso-weekly.com/ini/index.php/home/neighbors-to-the-south/3451-whats-at-stake-in-the-venezuelan-elections

HAVANA – A document published in September 2012 by the press office of the Council on Foreign Relations of the United States, identified as Contingency Planning Memorandum No. 16, signed by Prof. Patrick D. Duddy of Duke University, a former U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, reveals the options considered by Washington about the next presidential elections in Venezuela.

“If Chavez is reelected in a process judged acceptably free and fair, the United States should seek to reset the bilateral relationship with an eye toward the eventual renewal of high-level communication on areas of mutual interest,” it said. “If the election results appear fraudulent or apparently legitimate results are nullified, the United States should encourage international pressure to restore democracy and suspend bilateral business as usual until a legitimate government is restored.”

In the light of the evidence derived from the many polls that forecast an overwhelming Chávez victory and from former President Jimmy Carter, who – after an on-site examination of the materials set up to control the efficiency of the balloting – expressed his admiration over the transparency that will rule the election, everything indicates that Washington is preparing some sort of big manipulation with regard to this electoral event and a deceitful script to justify an aggression against Venezuela.

To the majority of Venezuelans, the government of Hugo Chávez has meant the recovery of national dignity. A nation prostrate by despair and the indolence of a social system designed to protect the rich and repress the poor welcomed Chávez as its savior and guide toward the construction of a country with well-being for all.

Chávez demonstrated to that nation the value of unity and solidarity as tools to move ahead, taking advantage of the wealth of a country blessed by Nature. He said Venezuela should occupy the place it deserves in the world community of nations, a place it should take without haughtiness or contempt for other, less-privileged countries, but as a paladin of solidarity. more at link