"The old Iran-Contra death squad gang is desperate to discredit Chavez"

[Andre II]

"Thousands of "the detained and the disappeared" were imprisoned in the stadium following the Washington-backed coup by General Pinochet against the democracy of Salvador Allende on September 11 1973. For the majority people of Latin America, the abandonados, the infamy and historical lesson of the first "9/11" have never been forgotten. "In the Allende years, we had a hope the human spirit would triumph," said Roberto. "But in Latin America those believing they are born to rule behave with such brutality to defend their rights, their property, their hold over society that they approach true fascism. People who are well-dressed, whose houses are full of food, bang pots in the streets in protest as though they don't have anything. This is what we had in Chile 36 years ago. This is what we see in Venezuela today. It is as if Chávez is Allende. It is so evocative for me."

(...)

The disinformation that helped destroy Allende and give rise to Pinochet's horrors worked the same in Nicaragua, where the Sandinistas had the temerity to implement modest, popular reforms. In both countries, the CIA funded the leading opposition media, although they need not have bothered. In Nicaragua, the fake martyrdom of La Prensa became a cause for North America's leading liberal journalists, who seriously debated whether a poverty-stricken country of 3 million peasants posed a "threat" to the United States. Ronald Reagan agreed and declared a state of emergency to combat the monster at the gates. In Britain, whose Thatcher government "absolutely endorsed" US policy, the standard censorship by omission applied. In examining 500 articles that dealt with Nicaragua in the early 1980s, the historian Mark Curtis found an almost universal suppression of the achievements of the Sandinista government - "remarkable by any standards" - in favour of the falsehood of "the threat of a communist takeover"."

The similarities in the campaign against the phenomenal rise of popular democratic movements today are striking. Aimed principally at Venezuela, especially Chávez, the virulence of the attacks suggests that something exciting is taking place; and it is. Thousands of poor Venezuelans are seeing a doctor for the first time in their lives, having their children immunised and drinking clean water. New universities have opened their doors to the poor, breaking the privilege of competitive institutions effectively controlled by a "middle class" in a country where there is no middle. In barrio La Línea, Beatrice Balazo told me her children were the first generation of the poor to attend a full day's school. "I have seen their confidence blossom like flowers," she said. One night in barrio La Vega, in a bare room beneath a single lightbulb, I watched Mavis Mendez, aged 94, learn to write her own name for the first time.

In Washington, the old Iran-Contra death squad gang, back in power under Bush, fear the economic bridges Chávez is building in the region, such as the use of Venezuela's oil revenue to end IMF slavery. That he maintains a neoliberal economy, described by the American Banker as "the envy of the banking world" is seldom raised as valid criticism of his limited reforms. These days, of course, any true reforms are exotic. And as liberal elites under Blair and Bush fail to defend their own basic liberties, they watch the very concept of democracy as a liberal preserve challenged on a continent about which Richard Nixon once said "people don't give a shit". However much they play the man, Chávez, their arrogance cannot accept that the seed of Rousseau's idea of direct popular sovereignty may have been planted among the poorest, yet again, and "the hope of the human spirit", of which Roberto spoke in the stadium, has returned."


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2150655,00.html

[DutchLiberal]

1. Excellent piece! It saddens me that even most liberals/progressives believe anti-Chávez propaganda.

That just shows how dangerous and agressive this propaganda machine is. People who are otherwise known to be critical thinkers are usually on the 'Chávez is a dictator'-bandwagon. :(

The biggest lie about Chávez is that he outlawed all free press:

It is this new confidence of Venezuela's "invisible people" that has so inflamed those who live in suburbs called country club. Behind their walls and dogs, they remind me of white South Africans. Venezuela's wild west media is mostly theirs; 80% of broadcasting and almost all the 118 newspaper companies are privately owned. Until recently one television shock jock liked to call Chávez, who is mixed race, a "monkey". Front pages depict the president as Hitler, or as Stalin (the connection being that both like babies). Among broadcasters crying censorship loudest are those bankrolled by the National Endowment for Democracy, the CIA in spirit if not name. "We had a deadly weapon, the media," said an admiral who was one of the coup plotters in 2002. The TV station, RCTV, never prosecuted for its part in the attempt to overthrow the elected government, lost only its terrestrial licence and is still broadcasting on satellite and cable.

Weird dictator that allows this to happen. :crazy:

[Gabi Hayes]

2. why does Chavez hate America?

[Selatius]

5. Why, we tried to have him killed. I mean, it's not that big a deal, really.

If I tried to murder you, and I was walking the streets a full five years after I attempted to slaughter you and you were pissed about it, I would simply say that you should get over it, let bygones be bygones, just water under the bridge. It's nothing, really. Whenever I see you on the street, I'll wave at you with a smile. :sarcasm:

[Gabi Hayes]

13. what do you want to bet that that's EXACTLY how Kissinger feels about Chile?

if only he'd go there and find out

[UTUSN]

3. Ah, yes, those were the days!!1 When I led those death squads!!1 n/t

[Peace Patriot]

4. It may be small comfort, I know, but the outrageous disinformation campaign

against Chavez is mostly for our benefit--to keep ideas like social justice, and the natural resources of a country benefiting the people who live there, from breaching our shores. The South Americans don't buy Bush/U.S. State Dept. or corporate news monopoly propaganda. They just ignore it, and keep electing Chavez and other leaders who are closely aligned with Chavez in country after country. Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Nicaragua have all elected leftist (majorityist) governments. Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina and Nicaragua are very closely aligned, with the others in varying degrees of support of the Bolivarian Revolution. Paraguay, Peru, Guatemala and Mexico (where the leftist came within a hairsbreadth--0.05%--of winning last year) will be next, over the next 1-2 years.

Chavez just keeps getting elected, by bigger and bigger margins--in the most highly monitored elections on earth (far, far more transparent than our own), and just keeps drawing huge enthusiastic crowds wherever he goes, because he is one of the leaders of a vast sea change in Latin American politics that is aiming at Latin American self-determination. And the fact that he is only ONE leader of it is the most telling fact of all. There are MANY leaders of this revolution--Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Nester Kirchner in Argentina, and others, including thousands and thousands of grass roots activists, community organizers, union leaders, legislators and lesser office holders. This is a movement from BELOW. The leaders of it are true expressions of the will of the people. And it is THIS phenomenon that the Bushites and their Democratic Party colluders and their corporate news propaganda machine DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW.

So they focus on one man, and slander him with an outrageous lie--that he is a "dictator"--and try to lead you to believe that all these millions of voters in Venezuela, and the vast number of supporters of Chavez's ideas in other countries, and all these other leaders, are either stupid or deluded. Our political establishment fears and loathes democracy. They want you to think it's one man--one generalisimo, or gun-toting, leftist revolutionary, or populist demagogue, or Stalinist tyrant (they play on all these stereotypes)--leading all these millions of people away from what's good for them: predatory capitalism, U.S. domination, torture, imprisonment, and rightwing hit squads. Don't you know, these brown-faced peoples LIKE to be controlled and can't run their own affairs and have to have an all-powerful "Dear Leader" to tell them what to do.

They're playing with our minds. Truly. So we WON'T SEE what's REALLY happening--that democracy, and self-determination and social justice are still possible.

Things don't have to be the way they are in the United States--with the rich getting richer, the poor getting walloped, and a rampant police state and outright fascism in the federal government. Things WERE this way in South America--only hundreds of times worse--and THEY are throwing it all OFF, by means of long hard work on transparent elections, grass roots organization and banding together, citizen group to citizen group and country to country.

THIS is why they have to demonize Chavez--so we can't see around him and beneath him to why Chavez is so popular--and WHO he is popular with--the vast majority of people AND many other leaders. It's not just Venezuela's oil that has made Chavez of target of the Bush Junta and its global corporate predators puppetmasters. They are losing all of South America as a lootable resource--its oil, gas, minerals, fresh water, forests and other resources; its vast farm lands; its exploitable work force; its World Bank/IMF suckers, and the very lucrative drain on U.S. taxpayers known as the "war on drugs." And the global corporate predators who are losing out to a vast democracy movement in South America don't want to lose North America as well, as a lootable resource.

We might get ideas. That's what they fear. Thus, all the flying crap about "Chavez the dictator." Just wipe it off your eyes, and out of your ears, and off your clothes, and look for non-U.S. corporate news monopoly sources of information.

This is a good place to start: www.venezuelanalysis.com.

[BornagainDUer]

10. This one of the most crazy, ironic facts about all of this. You are

exactly correct. On the one hand I am pissed about the attacks on Chavez, but on the other I realize that these attacks serve the very useful purposes your post highlights. :crazy:

PS. It is similar to why I, in a way, wanted Bush to steal 2004 like he did 2000. It serves to keep a focus on the shithouse mess he created until it becomes so odious that people will take an interest. If Kerry had one the Right-Wing media would now be blaming him for the Iraq failure.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Thanks for posting that article by John Pilger. He's got a documentary coming out on August 20th,

which should be excellent. It will appear on ITV. Here's the website:
http://www.itv.com/

Absolutely can't wait to see this!

Third Eye Cinema is a new regular slot that features films that are made by filmmakers with independent voices for independent viewers.

THE WAR ON DEMOCRACY (12A)
Director: Chris Martin/John Pilger. UK/USA 2006. 98 mins.

THE WAR ON DEMOCRACY explores Washington's relationship with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile. In his second inauguration address, President Bush pledged to "bring democracy to the world". In his speech he mentioned the words 'democracy' and 'liberty' 21 times. Most of the world, it is fair to say, will have recoiled, many in fear. Bush's speech finally stripped the noble concept of democracy of its true meaning: government for, by and of the people. This film explores the theme of disenchantment with democracy, concentrating on those parts of the world where people have struggled with blood, sweat and tears to plant democracy, only to see it brutally crushed. Archive footage demonstrates how democracy has been wiped out in country after country in Latin America since the 1950s. Contains real images of human suffering.


'THE WAR ON DEMOCRACY'
http://www.johnpilger.com/

[Judi Lynn]

7. Here's information on the author's documentary coming out August 20th:

The ghost of Pinochet haunts the campaign against Chavez

17 Aug 2007

In an article for the Guardian, John Pilger describes how he sought the help of Chile's former political prisoners, tortured by Pinochet, in the making of his film, The War on Democracy, and how they bear witness to the historical meaning of the current campaign of propaganda and lies aimed at Venezuela and Hugo Chavez.

I walked with Roberto Navarrete into the national stadium in Santiago, Chile. With the southern winter’s wind skating down from the Andes, it was empty and ghostly. Little had changed, he said: the chicken wire, the broken seats, the tunnel to the changing rooms from which the screams echoed. We stopped at a large number 28. “This is where I was, facing the scoreboard. This is where I was called to be tortured.”

Thousands of “the detained and the disappeared” were imprisoned in the stadium following the Washington-backed coup by General Pinochet against the democracy of Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973. For the majority people of Latin America, the abandonados, the infamy and historical lesson of the first “9/11” have never been forgotten. “In the Allende years, we had a hope the human spirit would triumph,” said Roberto.

“But in Latin America those believing they are born to rule behave with such brutality to defend their rights, their property, their hold over society that they approach true fascism. People who are well dressed, whose houses are full of food, bang pots in the streets in protest as though they don’t have anything. This is what we had in Chile 36 years ago. This is what we see in Venezuela today. It is as if Chavez is Allende. It is so evocative for me.”

In making my film, The War on Democracy, I sought the help of Chileans like Roberto and his family, and Sara de Witt who courageously returned with me to the torture chambers at Villa Grimaldi, which she somehow survived. Together with other Latin Americans who knew the tyrannies, they bear witness to the pattern and meaning of the propaganda and lies now aimed at undermining another epic bid to renew both democracy and freedom on the continent. Ironically, in Chile, said to be Washington's "model democracy", freedom waits. The constitution, the system of electoral control and the designer inequality are all Pinocher's gifts from the grave.
(snip/...)http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=450

[Judi Lynn]

8. Remarks from a friend of Frank Terrugi, American tortured and killed by Pinochet's gov't

who was also mentioned in the Costa-Gavras film, "Missing," with Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek:

Shepherd Bliss: Returning to the Scene of a Crime — Chile Over 30 Years Later

~snip~
On another September 11, 1973, Gen. Pinochet--with the proven support of U.S. President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger--toppled the democratically elected government of Chilean President Salvador Allende.

I worked in Chile as a Methodist minister in l971 and returned this year for the first time. I had been summoned back to testify in the kidnapping, torture and execution of my good friend, whose case is slowly making its way through the legal system.

Two U.S. citizens, Charles Horman and Frank, were executed that September. They were among thousands killed by the Pinochet junta. Tens of thousands were tortured and many were desaparecidos (disappeared), whose families still do not know what happened to them. Horman’s case is more known because of Costa-Gavras’ Oscar-winning film “Missing,” which portrays his story and also mentions Frank.
(snip)

“The Chilean coup was one of the most violent events in the history of Latin America”, Matta began. “The bombing of the Presidential Palace spread out over the entire country. Helicopters with machine guns fired on the poblaciones (shanty towns of poor people). The junta declared an internal war on half the population—a search-and- destroy mission against unarmed civilians. This produced a massacre. When the jails were full, military bases were used. Then sports stadiums.” Matta proceeded to give a day-by-day account of torture at Villa Grimaldi, a large private residence that the military took over.
(snip)

Here in the U.S. our current president and the head of the “Justice” Department take actions that indicate they feel above and beyond the law.

Chile may seem a long ways from the U.S. and Frank’s execution may seem long ago. But it is important that U.S. citizens pay attention to the matter at this historic and challenging moment in our history. Chile contains lessons for U.S. citizens, including understanding the Iraq War today. By studying Chile, we may better understand what is happening in the U.S., as our civil rights diminish and torture occurs in Guantanamo and elsewhere.
(snip/...)

http://www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=3758&blz=1

[BornagainDUer]

9. K&R this baby. We need dozens of articles like this!! Viva Chavez!!

Chavez's Bolivarian revolution is illustrating glaringly the poverty of the neoliberal left. He has driven a wedge in the neoliberal agenda by showing what it means to be a real democratic socialist. All of the rhetoric about him suppressing Constitutional rights must be compared to what his "tyrannical rule" is doing for the people. Ditto for Castro's Cuba.

[seemslikeadream]

11. What Was Iran-Contra?

http://www.authentichistory.com/1980s/iran-contra_cards/index.html

[RainDog]

12. kick n/t