VENEZUELA FLORIDATED [Palast on the ChoicePoint-Oligarch Connection]

[Zhade]

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=358&row=0

VENEZUELA FLORIDATED
Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Will The Gang That Fixed Florida Fix the Vote in Caracas this Sunday?

by Greg Palast

Hugo Chavez drives George Bush crazy. Maybe it's jealousy: Unlike Mr. Bush, Chavez, in Venezuela, won his Presidency by a majority of the vote.

Or maybe it's the oil. Venezuela sits atop a reserve rivaling Iraq's. And Hugo thinks the US and British oil companies that pump the crude ought to pay more than a 16% royalty to his nation for the stuff. Hey, sixteen percent isn't even acceptable as a tip at a New York diner.

Whatever it is, OUR President has decided that THEIR president has to go. This is none too easy given that Chavez is backed by Venezuela's poor; and the US oil industry, joined with local oligarchs, has made sure a vast majority of Venezuelans remain poor.

<SNIP>

Our team located a $53,000 payment from our government to Chavez' recall organizers, who claim to be armed with computer lists of the registered. How did they get those? The fix that was practiced in Florida, with ChoicePoint's help, conscious or not, appears to be retooled for Venezuela, then Brazil, Mexico and who knows where else.

Yeah! Democracy! :eyes:

[rman]

1. the difference being

that the referendum is not expected to be a close call, but rather a land slide victory for Chavez. If the referendum is rigged and Chavez loses, i'd expect that "the people won't stand for it" (to quote from 'The revolution will not be televised').

[ugarte]

2. A test run for us here in November?

I've wondered, too, why the neo-cons have been so quiet about Chavez of late. Maybe they've cut way back on the sword rattling because the recall election is 'in the bag.'

[burrowowl]

3. It will be interesting

this Sunday.
Will the U$ perform another coup?

[Zhade]

4. If so, the people will rise up again and defend their champion.

Fuck the oligarchy. Their time is over.

[burrowowl]

5. I truly hope so.

But Bu$h is likely to break the OSA Treatry where no OAS member is to attack another OAS member. The U$ has always done so.
VIVA CHILD HEROS OF CHAPULTEPEC! and long live Smedley Bulter for his statements and CHENEY the USMC for doing what they have done from the Halls of Moctezuma.

[dumpster_baby]

6. kerry called Bush 'soft' on Chavez--Kerry called Chavez a dictator

kerry threatened to act against chavez.
see here, for example:
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1265

[genius]

16. Kerry needs to remember that he's the Democratic nominee, not the fascist

nominee. I'd rather have Chavez for President here than Kerry any day. The only reason I'm voting for Kerry is that a genuinely great candidate wasn't nominated. But Kerry will do - as long as he stops attacking Democractically elected leaders.

[dumpster_baby]

19. But he will not stop, I wager

Kerry has been shaped by 20+ years at the top levels of the government. He would not hesitate, I wager, to do much of what Bush has done. THe Democratic party today is the same democratic party of Clinton--it operates via a triangulation scheme: the American public is moved inexorably to the right via the mass media, at least when it comes to economic issues, and foreign policy issues, and the Democrats just move to the right along with the Republicans, staying just a tad to the left.

Nothing has changed.

[Tatiana]

7. An important point...

This referendum is not a "recall election" in the sense of what we had in California. Chavez will not be immediately removed regardless of the outcome of the referendum. A "yes" vote on the referendum ballot means a vote to initiate a new election. A "no" vote on the ballot means no new election. The opposition doesn't even have an opponent to run against Chavez at this point. They know they have no chance to democratically remove Chavez. This is only a ploy by the elite opposition to have an excuse to incite violence.

These elitists are disgusting and even more disgusting is that our very own AFL-CIO here in the US have funded these characters.

[Zhade]

14. Woah! I missed that connection. Can you source it?

NT!

[Tatiana]

20. Here's one.

<snip>

More recently, former President Carlos Andres Perez said Chavez “must die like a dog, because he deserves it.” Perez told the

Venezuelan daily El Nacional last month, “I am working to remove Chavez . Violence will allow us to remove him. That’s the only way we have.”

He added, “We can’t just get rid of Chavez and immediately have a democracy. … We will need a transition period of two to three years to lay the foundations for a state where the rule of law prevails.” Most opposition leaders publicly distanced themselves from the comments.

Whatever the outcome of the referendum, many observers contend that even if Chavez loses, he stands a strong chance of winning a regular election a month later if the Supreme Court rules he is eligible to run in the race to finish out his original term, which ends in 2006. “Incredible that this late in the game, the opposition still doesn’t have an obvious leader,” anti-Chavez activist Beech wrote.

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=22381



I would find the CNE law, but, naturally the Venezuelan government websites are extremely busy and I cannot access it.

[Zhade]

22. No, I meant the AFl-CIO connection.

It's disturbing, to say the least.

[Tatiana]

23. Read propaganda from their own website.

The AFL-CIO and Worker Rights in Venezuela

The AFL-CIO has maintained a relationship of mutual solidarity with the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV), the national labor central representing more than 90 percent of the organized Venezuelan workforce.
Recently, the AFL-CIO has supported the CTV's process of internal
democratization and its defense of freedom of association against the attacks of the Chávez government.

From the moment he took office in 1999, Hugo Chávez led an assault on the freedom of association, attempting to weaken or eliminate the principal institutions of Venezuelan civil society, including the unions. His methods included public calls for the "destruction" of the CTV, suspension of collective bargaining in the public sector and the petroleum industry by decree, threats to freeze union bank accounts and formation of a parallel "Bolivarian Workers' Front." Chávez's attack on the CTV culminated in a December 2000 referendum on internal union governance in which all citizens—including nonunion members, such as business people and the military—could vote. The referendum was condemned by the International Labor Organization and by the international trade union movement. In the end, the vast majority of the population abstained from voting.

more crap....

http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/globaleconomy/ns04262002.cfm

The Question Remains: What Is the AFL-CIO doing in Venezuela?

by Alberto Ruiz; March 02, 2004

On April 25, 2002, shortly after the short-lived coup which ousted President Hugo Chavez, the New York Times ran an article entitled, "U.S. Bankrolling Is Under Scrutiny for Ties to Chavez Ouster." In this article, which detailed numerous grants given by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to various pro-coup groups in Venezuela prior to the coup, Times writer Christopher Marquis wrote: "f particular concern is $154,377 given by the endowment to the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, the international arm of the AFL-CIO, to assist the main Venezuelan labor union in advancing labor rights." As the Times noted, "The Venezuelan union, the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers, led the work stoppages that galvanized the opposition to Mr. Chavez. The union's leader, Carlos Ortega, worked closely with Pedro Carmona Estanga, the businessman who briefly took over from Mr. Chavez, in challenging the government."

This Times article caused much embarassment for the AFL-CIO. In response to this article, Stan Gacek, AFL-CIO International Affairs Assistant Director, wrote an open letter explaining that the monies which went to the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers <"CTV"> were for internal union elections with the intent to democratize the CTV. He was adamant that the monies were not intended to assist the CTV in overthrowing Chavez. He also criticized the critics of the AFL-CIO's aid to the CTV for not contacting him directly about the wherefores of this monetary assistance. However, an August 18, 2002 article in the Boston Globe which received very little attention placed Gacek's claims about the money's purposes into doubt.

This article, entitled "US Tax Dollars Helped Finance Some Chavez Foes, Review Finds," reported that the CTV's claims about the aid's purposes conflicted with those of the AFL-CIO. As the article noted, "

art of the grant, distributed by the AFL-CIO's American Center for International Labor Solidarity . . . was supposed to have paid for union elections in November. But the money is being used for courses at the confederation's training institute, said institute director Jesus Urbieta." Even this claim by Urbieta was put into doubt by Alfredo Ramos, a member of the CTV executive committee and Chavez opponent, who quipped in the article that "the institute operates without financial oversight" and that "'hey don't have to show their books.'" And, the Boston Globe reported that in the case of other monies sent by the NED to pro-coup groups in Venezuela, there is proof that the monies did not go for the purposes the other pass-throughs for the NED, such as the International Republican Institute, claimed. Curiously, while Gacek had complained that critics had failed to contact him for an explanation about the aid to the CTV, the Boston Globe reported that "either the endowment nor the AFL-CIO's labor solidarity center responded to repeated requesests for interviews."

more....

http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=5074§ionID=45

[lostnfound]

8. Let's keep this kicked! READ the article.

READ THE ARTICLE. Palast is saying that he has confidential pages from a contract between John Ashcroft's Justice Department and ChoicePoint, Inc -- the same people who rigged the 2000 Florida election by kicking blacks off the voter rolls -- and the contract is a $67 million no-bid deal for computer profiles with private information on every citizen of Venezuela, Brazil, Nicaragua, Mexica and Argentinia.

Palast also points out that each of these countries is in the middle of major electoral contests in which 'the leading candidates -- presidents Lula Ignacio da Silva of Brazil, Nestor Kirschner of Argentina, Mexico City mayor Andres Lopez Obrador and Venezuela's Chavez -- had the nerve to challenge the globalization demands of George W. Bush.'

(To me this was earth-shattering investigative reporting, and LBN, since it came out last night, but I guess I was wrong.)

[madfloridian]

9. This is outrageous. Choicepoint brings bad memories.

SNIP..."In Caracas, I showed Congressman Nicolas Maduro the ChoicePoint-Ashcroft agreement. Maduro, a leader of Chavez' political party, was unaware that his nation's citizen files were for sale to U.S. intelligence. But he understood their value to make mischief.

If the lists somehow fell into the hands of the Venezuelan opposition, it could immeasurably help their computer-aided drive to recall and remove Chavez. A ChoicePoint flak said the Bush administration told the company they haven't used the lists that way. The PR man didn't say if the Bush spooks laughed when they said it....."

I am looking again for the article's about Carville's involvement with the Chavez opposition.

[RebelYell]

10. Let's keep this kicked

:kick:

[madfloridian]

11. 2002 article by Palast from the Guardian....he knows about Venezuela.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4396083,00.html

"Don't believe everything you read in the papers about Venezuela"
Contrary to the reports of a spoonfed western press, Hugo Chavez was not unpopular and did not resign, says Greg Palast]/i]

Greg Palast
Guardian Unlimited

Wednesday April 17, 2002
Here's what we read this week: On Friday, Hugo Chavez, the unpopular, dictatorial potentate of Venezuela, resigned. When confronted over his ordering the shooting of antigovernment protestors, he turned over the presidency to progressive, democratic forces, namely, the military and the chief of Venezuela's business council.

Two things about the story caught my eye: First, every one of these factoids is dead wrong. And second, newspapers throughout the ruling hemisphere, from the New York Times to the Independent to (wince) the Guardian, used almost identical words - "dictatorial", "unpopular", "resignation" - in their reports..."

[Ridiculous Bill]

12. palast

this is tremendously disturbing

[madfloridian]

13. Found this snip from an article about Carville working against Chavez.

I can not get to the whole article now. It must have been a free article at one time. It outrages me. We are interfering there so much.

Venezuelan Opposition Puts American
In War Room to Help Oust President
By MARC LIFSHER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

CARACAS, Venezuela -- It's the economia, stupid.

SNIP...."Venezuela's embattled private sector is banking on the colorful U.S.
political consultant James Carville to help oust leftist President Hugo
Chavez. The hire may herald an effort by the anti-Chavistas to focus more on
the issues than on personality. According to several individuals with
knowledge of the matter, a group of business executives contracted with Mr.
Carville this year to craft a strategy that will unify a fractious and
frustrated Chavez opposition and resonate with voters in a possible recall
referendum. The executives are hoping that Mr. Carville -- the folksy,
59-year-old Democratic Party consultant from Louisiana known as the Ragin'
Cajun -- will push a variation of his "It's the economy, stupid" theme that
helped propel Bill Clinton to victory in 1992.

But analysts say Mr. Carville and his clients face a formidable challenge.
Mr. Chavez has strengthened his hand since surviving a military coup in
April 2002 and defeating a recent two-month national strike led by oil
executives, labor leaders and business organizations. Despite a deepening
economic recession, the business elite here and its middle-class allies are
finding it hard to persuade core Chavez supporters in urban slums and the
countryside that the president isn't delivering on his populist promises.
They have another hurdle to jump in blaming all the country's economic
problems on Mr. Chavez after their own ill-starred strike accelerated the
economy's slide.

"These business owners are arrogant. They can bring Carville or anyone else,
but they don't stop to understand what everyday life is like for the
people," says Patricia Marquez, an anthropologist and academic director of
the Institute for Higher Administrative Studies, a graduate school of
management here in the capital.


http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105355660414895300-search,00.html?collection=wsjie%2F30day&vql_string=carville%3Cin%3E%28article%2Dbody%29

[genius]

17. Carville is acting like a corporate whore in Venezuela. No wonder

Democrats hate the Democratic Party. Half of our leaders oppose democracy.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. Why am I not surprised?

Trailer trash in a suit.

[Zhade]

15. Kick

:dem:

[Blue Gardener]

21. Palast is one brave journalist

This was an amazing article. Hope he has one or more bodyguards around him at all times, doesn't fly in small planes, and stays away from windows in tall buildings.

[Nikki Stone 1]

24. ChoicePoint has a "no-bid" deal to spy on South and Central Americans?

"They won't be. Some months ago, a little birdie faxed to me what appeared to be confidential pages from a contract between John Ashcroft's Justice Department and a company called ChoicePoint, Inc., of Atlanta. The deal is part of the War on Terror.


Justice offered up to $67 million of our taxpayer money to ChoicePoint in a no-bid deal for computer profiles with private information on every citizen of half a dozen nations. The choice of citizens to spy on caught my eye. While the September 11 highjackers came from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and the Arab Emirates, ChoicePoint's menu offered records on Venezuelans, Brazilians, Nicaraguans, Mexicans and Argentines. How odd. Had the CIA uncovered a Latin plot to sneak suicide tango dancers across the border with exploding enchiladas?"




What do these nations have in common besides a lack of involvement in the September 11 attacks? Coincidentally, each is in the throes of major electoral contests in which the leading candidates -- presidents Lula Ignacio da Silva of Brazil, Nestor Kirschner of Argentina, Mexico City mayor Andres Lopez Obrador and Venezuela's Chavez -- have the nerve to challenge the globalization demands of George Bush. "


This is not a War on Terror: it's a War on people. Period.