Reply #3: Venezuela's Chavez Says U.S. Behind Campaign Against Latin American Integr

[Judi Lynn]

Venezuela's Chavez Says U.S. Behind Campaign Against Latin American Integration

By Christopher Toothaker Associated Press Writer

Published: Oct 4, 2005

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says the United States is behind an alleged media campaign aimed at undermining his government's efforts toward Latin American integration.

The alleged campaign is taking shape throughout the hemisphere, from the U.S. to countries like Ecuador and Argentina, Chavez told an auditorium filled with supporters participating in state-run education programs.

Chavez read part of what he said was a report in the Ecuadorean daily El Comercio about rebels receiving military training in Venezuela and statements by former Argentine President Carlos Menem that appeared in Chile's La Tercera newspaper as evidence of the alleged media campaign.

"They are the lackeys of (U.S.) imperialism, many of them in this continent are paid by the United States," said Chavez, adding that Washington was "spending millions of dollars ... on a dirty war."

In an interview published Sunday, Menem was quoted as saying that "there are expropriations, actions against private property, harassment of people, and (Venezuela) could go along the path to Cuba," the president added.
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http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBX7QKDEEE.html

The former President of Argentina, Carlos Menem, quoted in this article is a close personal _Bush family friend, has been for years.

Impeached presidents include Brazil's Fernando Collor de Mello, Ecuador's Abdala Bucaram, and Paraguay's Raul Cubas and Luis Gonzalez Macchi. In Costa Rica, Rafael Angel Calderon and Miguel Angel Rodriguez have been jailed, the latter after he returned in October 2004 from his post as head of the Organization of American States. Arnoldo Aleman is serving a 20-year sentence in a Nicaraguan prison for embezzlement. Argentina's Carlos Menem, Peru's Alberto Fujimori, Ecuador's Gustavo Noboa and Guatemala's Alfonso Portillo have been forced into exile. Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and Costa Rica's Jose Maria Figueres are the subject of corruption probes.
(snip/...)

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BEK/is_3_13/ai_n13619914



Carlos Menem, former wife with Bush.