On Weekends, You
Go to Your Beach Home to Rest From the Long Week of Work
by Oscar Heck
Jun 16, 2003
Suppose that you are part of the 20% in Venezuela … the 20% that
live in a what they themselves often call “the middle class.”
You may own a “quinta” (a large home usually surrounded by a
high wall with barbed wire or broken glass) in Prados del Este (a mid-to-upper
class urban area in eastern Caracas). You could also own an apartment
in San Antonio de los Altos (in western Caracas), a large family home
in Merida (a beautiful Andean town), a small ranch in Los Llanos (the
plains), a beach home in Higuerote or Los Caracas (both on the Caribbean),
and a sail boat and several cars, including a Jeep Cherokee (or equivalent).
(More...)
Venezuela:
Democracy and Development in a Globalized World
by Dozthor Zurlent
Jun 6, 2003
The Venezuelan conflict has to be understood in the frame of a historical,
political and social crisis that reached catastrophic economic proportions.
But it is not exclusively a Venezuelan situation. It is part of a trend
wherein the United States is looking to oxygenate its economy by appropriating
more and more resources from the Latin American region, while the region
is in no condition to endure this leeching. (More...)
Rodrigo Chaves on the BOLIVARIAN CIRCLES
Rodrigo is the National Coordinator of the Bolivarian Circles
(Courtesy of Fight Back Newspaper)
Venezuela's
Ambassador Response to Mary O'Grady's Article
by Bernardo Alvarez
Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the United States
Washington
Jun 4, 2003
In regard to the May 23 Americas column "Read the Fine Print on
the Chavez Charm Offensive" by Mary Anastasia O'Grady: I am baffled
that Ms. O'Grady would employ personal attacks on me after I sought to
explain, in a meeting Jack Kemp and I had with your editors, the actions
of my government that parallel the rich Jeffersonian traditions of the
United States. (More...)
Chavez Charm
Offensive
by Mary Anastasia O'Grady
May 23, 2003
The Venezuelan Ambassador to the U.S., Bernardo Alvarez, met with members
of The Wall Street Journal editorial page in New York a few weeks ago.
Former Republican vice-presidential candidate Jack Kemp accompanied him.
Mr. Kemp explained that he has a long-standing relationship with "Bernardo"
and suggested that since much Venezuelan oil flows to the U.S., the U.S.
relationship with Venezuela is important. Of course, U.S. oil supplies
have nothing whatsoever to do with U.S.-Venezuelan relations. Venezuela
has to sell its oil to survive, if not to Americans, then to others. So
Venezuela is hardly in a position to curtail the world's supply of petroleum,
the only thing that matters to the U.S. Other OPEC nations have the same
urgency, which is why the strategy of cutting output to boost prices has
serious limitations, all the more so because there are important non-OPEC
oil-producing countries that don't comply with cartel quotas. (More...)
Some Fear Chavez's
Ties With Argentine Radicals
by Jose de Cordoba
May 23, 2003
BUENOS AIRES-Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has developed close links
with Argentine radicals ranging from Communists to right-wing nationalists,
some of whom, knowledgeable people here fear, have the potential to further
destabilize Argentina as it struggles to emerge from its worst economic
crisis in decades. (More...)
Venezuela: It's
the Economia Stupid
by Marc Lifsher
May 23, 2003
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. (More...)
Collition in Venezuela
by Gregory Wilpert
May 21, 2003
Few contemporary political upheavals have been as dramatic as the events
that have convulsed Venezuela in the past five years. In 1998, former
paratroop colonel Hugo Chávez was elected President by a landslide
majority, on a platform calling for a fundamental reconstruction of the
whole political framework of the country. Within two years, he successfully
pushed through an ambitious new Constitution, and was reelected President
for six more years, equipped with an even larger majority-some 60 per
cent of the vote-and a Congress dominated by his supporters. By the autumn
of 2000, the country seemed to be at his feet. [1] Eighteen months later,
he faced a general strike and massive street demonstrations against his
rule, swiftly followed by a military coup that deposed and imprisoned
him. Despite being restored to power by popular counter-demonstrations
and a revolt against his ouster originating within the armed forces themselves,
Chávez was under siege again in less than a year. (More...)
by Kari Lydersen
April 25, 2003
(Venezuela) -- The mood was one of complete ecstasy in Caracas's "23 de Enero" neighborhood, a traditional stronghold of supporters of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, during an April 13 celebration of the anniversary of his return to power after a brief coup last year. As pop and rock songs celebrating Chavez boomed from speakers set up on a hillside where residents had had a standoff with police during the coup last year, a woman over 60 years old and dressed in red, blue and yellow Venezuelan regalia showed off the words "Hugo Chavez" tattooed in delicate script on her tanned bicep. (More...)
by Tim Weiner
April 14, 2002
MEXICO CITY -- When is a coup not a coup? When the United States says so, it seems -- especially if the fallen leader is no friend to American interests. (More...)
by Heinz Dietrich Steffan
April 13, 2002
It took three years to destroy the Unidad Popular in Chile, eight for the Sandinista Front of National Liberation in Nicaragua and three for the Bolivarian forces. (More...)
by Jon Beasley-Murray
April 13, 2002
So this is how one lives a modern coup d’état: watching television. Venezuela’s coup (and coup it is, make no mistake) took place in the media, fomented by the media, and with the media themselves the apparent object of both sides’ contention. But while South America’s longest-standing democracy was brought down in the confused glare of media spectacle, any attempt to turn this spectacle into narrative or analysis must also take into account, first, oil and, second, the general breakdown of Latin American political legitimacy, of which this coup has been just one (particularly bloody) symptom. (More...)
by Gregory Wilpert
April 12, 2002
The orchestration of the coup was impeccable and, in all likelihood, planned a long time ago. Hugo Chavez, the fascist communist dictator of Venezuela could not stand the truth and thus censored the media relentlessly. For his own personal gain and that of his henchmen (and henchwomen, since his cabinet had more women than any previous Venezuelan government’s), he drove the country to the brink of economic ruin. In the end he proceeded to murder those who opposed him. So as to reestablish democracy, liberty, justice, and prosperity in Venezuela and so as to avoid more bloodshed, the chamber of commerce, the union federation, the church, the media, and the management of Venezuela’s oil company, in short: civil society and the military decided that enough is enough—that Chavez had his chance and that his experiment of a “peaceful democratic Bolivarian revolution” had to come to an immediate end. (More...)
by Maximilien Arvelaiz and Temir Porras
Spring 2002
President Bush's statement in the wake of 911 that "either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists" is clear: From now on, those who are not "100% with the USA" may be branded as terrorists. Until recently, only the so-called rogue states had been threatened by the Bush administration, but now, a traditional ally, with a democratically elected government, has also become a target. (More...)
by Gregory Wilper
April 9, 2002
It appears that the strategy of President Chavez’ opposition is to create as much chaos and disorder in Venezuela as possible, so that Chavez is left with no other choice than to call a state of emergency. This, in turn could either lead to a military coup or U.S. military intervention. (More...)
by John Pilger
March 11, 2002
He has won two elections, and he has made a start on relieving poverty. So now the US wants to get rid of Venezuela's president Chavez. Almost 30 years after the violent destruction of the reformist government of Salvador Allende in Chile, a repeat performance is being planned in Venezuela. Little of this has been reported in Britain. Indeed, little is known of the achievements of the government of Hugo Chavez, who won presidential elections in 1998 and again in 2000 by the largest majority in 40 years. (More...)
by Conn Hallinan
December 29, 2001
There is the smell of a coup in the air these days. It was like this in Iran just before the 1953 US-backed coup overthrew the Mossadegh Government and installed the Shah. It has the feel of 1963 in South Vietnam, before the military takeover switched on the light at the end of the long and terrible Southeast Asian tunnel. It is hauntingly similar to early September 1973, before the coup in Chile ushered in 20 years of blood and darkness. (More...)