April 2002

Africa: Internet Users Ripped Off By Western Companies
Posted: Tuesday, April 30, 2002

By Katy Salmon

NAIROBI - African Internet users are being forced by Western companies to pay the full cost of connecting to the World Wide Web, while European and American users pay nothing. This is one of the main hurdles blamed for the slow spread of the Internet in the world's poorest continent. MORE

Who's Anti-Semitic?
Posted: Tuesday, April 30, 2002

By Richard Cohen

If I weren't a Jew, I might be called an anti-Semite. I have occasionally been critical of Israel. I have occasionally taken the Palestinians' side. I have always maintained that the occupation of the West Bank is wrong and while I am, to my marrow, a supporter of Israel, I insist that the Palestinian cause -- although sullied by terrorism -- is a worthy one. MORE

World News
Posted: Tuesday, April 30, 2002

• Annan Considers Disbanding Mission
• Jordanian Minister Blasts Israeli Protectionism
• Iraq Link to 9/11 Attacks Proves Bogus
• The Red Sea catch: A Palestinian perspective
• Pope Sends Envoy to Mideast to Try to End Church Siege
• Israel blitzes Hebron
• No Signs of Movement on Promised Arafat Deal
• UN Jenin Mission Ready to Call it Quits
• Israel remains in force despite Arafat deal
• Palestinians 'quit talks' as militant is shot dead at Bethlehem church
• UN struggles to save face over Jenin
• Ten more dead after Israeli onslaught
• Spain threatens Gibraltar deal
• Britons in talks on jail transfer to end Arafat siege
• The terrifying naivety of Blair the great intervener
• Iraq ready to let weapons inspectors back in
• United States regained its place on the UN Rights Commission
• African woman going home after 200 years
The remains of an African woman who had been taken to
Europe and exhibited as a circus freak was finally handed back
to South African officials at a ceremony in Paris.
• Bush struggles with 'foreign policy stuff'
• Madagascar court reverses poll result
• Zimbabwe: The Non-Aligned Movement yesterday endorsed elections
• UN should now deploy peacekeepers in DRC - Mugabe
• EarthLink Financier Pleads Guilty to Fraud Charges
• Bin Laden escaped with Afghan commander's help: rival warlord
• Website Pulls Mideast Poll, Blames Arabs

American navy 'helped Venezuelan coup'
Posted: Monday, April 29, 2002

Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
Guardian UK

The United States had been considering a coup to overthrow the elected Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, since last June, a former US intelligence officer claimed yesterday.

It is also alleged that the US navy aided the abortive coup which took place in Venezuela on April 11 with intelligence from its vessels in the Caribbean. Evidence is also emerging of US financial backing for key participants in the coup.

Both sides in Venezuela have blamed the other for the violence surrounding the coup.

Wayne Madsen, a former intelligence officer with the US navy, told the Guardian yesterday that American military attaches had been in touch with members of the Venezuelan military to examine the possibility of a coup.

"I first heard of Lieutenant Colonel James Rogers [the assistant military attache now based at the US embassy in Caracas] going down there last June to set the ground," Mr Madsen, an intelligence analyst, said yesterday. "Some of our counter-narcotics agents were also involved."

He said that the navy was in the area for operations unconnected to the coup, but that he understood they had assisted with signals intelligence as the coup was played out.

Mr Madsen also said that the navy helped with communications jamming support to the Venezuelan military, focusing on communications to and from the diplomatic missions in Caracas belonging to Cuba, Libya, Iran and Iraq - the four countries which had expressed support for Mr Chavez.

Navy vessels on a training exercise in the area were supposedly put on stand-by in case evacuation of US citizens in Venezuela was required.

In Caracas, a congressman has accused the US ambassador to Venezuela, Charles Shapiro, and two US embassy military attaches of involvement in the coup.

Roger Rondon claimed that the military officers, whom he named as (James) Rogers and (Ronald) MacCammon, had been at the Fuerte Tiuna military headquarters with the coup leaders during the night of April 11-12.

And referring to Mr Shapiro, Mr Rondon said: "We saw him leaving Miraflores palace, all smiles and embraces, with the dictator Pedro Carmona Estanga [who was installed by the military for a day] ... [His] satisfaction was obvious. Shapiro's participation in the coup d'état in Venezuela is evident."

The US embassy dismissed the allegations as "ridiculous". Mr Shapiro admitted meeting Mr Carmona the day after the coup, but said he urged him to restore the national assembly, which had been dissolved.

Mr Carmona told the Guardian that no such advice was given, although he agreed that a meeting took place.

A US embassy spokesman said there were no US military personnel from the embassy at Fuerte Tiuna during the crucial periods from April 11 to 13, al though two members of the embassy's defence attache's office, one of them Lt Col Rogers, drove around the base on the afternoon of April 11 to check reports that it was closed.

Mr Rondon has also claimed that two foreign gunmen, one American and the other Salvadorean, were detained by security police during the anti-Chavez protest on April 11 in which around 19 people were killed, many by unidentified snipers firing from rooftops.

"They haven't appeared anywhere. We presume these two gentlemen were given some kind of safe-conduct and could have left the country," he said.

The members of the military who coordinated the coup have claimed that they did so because they feared that Mr Chavez was intending to attack the civilian protesters who opposed him.

Mr Chavez's opponents claim pro-Chavez gunmen shot protesters while his supporters say the shots were fired by agents provocateurs .

In the past year, the United States has channeled hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to US and Venezuelan groups opposed to Mr Chavez, including the labour group whose protests sparked off the coup. The funds were provided by the National Endowment for Democracy, a nonprofit agency created and financed by the US Congress.

The state department's human rights bureau is now examining whether one or more recipients of the money may have actively plotted against Mr Chavez.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002

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Anti-Semitism, Real and Imagined
Posted: Monday, April 29, 2002

by Tim Wise

Watching former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak to Congress a few weeks ago, I must admit, I was almost sucked in. No, not by his distorted version of reality in the Occupied Territories, nor by his opportunistic and transparently disingenuous comparisons between Yasir Arafat and Osama bin Laden. Nor by his insistence that there is no political solution to terrorism, but only a military one: a claim, the absurdity of which is evidenced by the fact that after decades of trying to bring peace by way of tanks and guns, most Israelis feel less secure than ever. (It is also disproved by the fact that such military actions have themselves amounted to terrorism, but that's another story for another column).

However, after only a few minutes of his sales pitch -- a plea for the U.S. to give the green light to whatever slaughter is deemed necessary by Israel in the West Bank -- I did find myself overcome by an emotion that was both unhealthy and deeply disturbing. And that feeling was a profound shame and revulsion at the fact that this man and I share a faith tradition; a common religious heritage; a kinship of sorts. And as he spoke -- not only for Israel, but to hear most American Jewish leaders tell it, for Jews everywhere -- I felt the pangs of collective guilt rising up in me in a way I had never felt before.

And that of course was tragic. Who, after all, was this meshugganah to speak for me? Who appointed him, or for that matter any Israeli leader, the "spokesperson of the Jews?" Who deemed Zionism to be synonymous with Judaism, and decided that to be Jewish means to support the evisceration of Palestinian rights, the slaughter of innocent children under the rubric of stamping out terrorism, or the IDF's firing on ambulances to ensure that those wounded by their actions will die slowly, rather than receive the emergency assistance to which they are entitled under international law and all notions of basic human decency? Who was Netanyahu to make me feel guilty as a Jew?

The answer, unfortunately, to all of these questions, is that an ironic combination of overt Jew-haters and pro-Israeli Jews are the ones who have inculcated the above-mentioned beliefs in so many. Neo-Nazis, for example, insist that all Jews are Zionists and support the actions of Israel: a claim that allows them to weave their hateful narratives of Judeo-inspired evil, undisturbed by critical thought. But on the other hand, the blurring of the lines between Judaism (a religious and cultural tradition stretching back over five-and-a-half-millennia) and Zionism (a political and ideological movement less than a century-and-a-quarter old) has also been perpetrated by much of the organized Jewish community itself.

It is this community that has sought to silence Jewish criticism of Israel and the Zionist enterprise with cries of "anti-Semitism" or "self-hate." It was the head of the New Orleans Jewish Federation who, in the early 1990's, suggested I be removed from my position in the main anti-David Duke organization because I had written a column criticizing Israel for its support of South Africa's apartheid governments. To the person in question, a criticism of Israel made me little better than Duke himself: a man who has said Jews should "go into the ashbin of history," held birthday parties for Hitler in his home, and called the Holocaust "bullnuts."

To Zionists and Nazis alike, it is one for all and all for one so far as the Jewish community is concerned. To attempt to decouple the concepts of Zionism and Judaism, or anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, are seen as lost or ignoble causes by both groups. As one writer in Commentary recently explained: "To defame Israel is to defame the Jews."

But it is indeed necessary to decouple these concepts: to demonstrate that one can oppose Zionism without prejudice towards Jews as Jews, and also to show that one's support for Israel doesn't necessarily insulate oneself from the charge of anti-Semitism. Indeed, such support often goes hand in hand with a deep antipathy for Jewish people. Consider the words of Billy Graham, who has been exposed in a taped conversation with Richard Nixon exclaiming his love for Israel while simultaneously ranting about the "Jewish-controlled media" and their pernicious behind-the-scenes political machinations.

Indeed, most fundamentalist Christians profess their love for Israel, all the while propagating the belief that Jews are destined for a lake of fire unless they accept Jesus as their personal savior: in other words, unless they cease to be Jews. Their Zionism is opportunistic at best: based solely on the hope that once the Jews return to Israel, the Messiah will soon follow, damning the Jews to hell in the process. Their goal of conversion is itself intrinsically hostile to Judaism, irrespective of their "love" for the Holy Land: after all, to convert the Jews to Christianity would be to complete an act of spiritual genocide; to end Judaism altogether. The fact that these fine folks might plant trees in Israel or say prayers for her survival hardly compensates for their desire to eradicate Judaism just as surely as Hitler sought to do so. And yet, few in the organized Jewish community have condemned Billy Graham, nor do they speak much at all of the anti-Semitism so embedded in evangelical Christianity, as mentioned above. Perhaps they're too busy trying to garner acceptance from the majority, or being grateful for their support of Israel to notice.

At the just completed conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the same persons who criticize anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism gave a rousing ovation to right-wing Congressman, Tom Delay. And why? Because he said that Israel was entitled to the West Bank, which he called by the Biblical names of Judea and Samaria. That he also said earlier this month that Christianity is the "only viable, reasonable, definitive answer" to life's key questions -- a statement dripping with contempt for the very Jews about which he claims to care so much -- apparently matters less to some than his messianic support for "Eretz Yisrael."

Of course, this all has a certain logic to it. After all, the early Zionists cared only about acquiring land, and had no problem with anti-Semitism, per se--and in the case of Theodore Herzl and Chaim Weizmann actually claimed to understand and even sympathize with it. As I have noted previously, it was Herzl (the father of Zionism) who issued the ultimate in self-hating, anti-Semitic pabulum when he noted that anti-Semitism was "an understandable reaction to Jewish defects."

The continued blurring of the lines between Zionism and Judaism is of course actually dangerous for the Jewish community. So long as Zionists insist on the inherent linkage between the two, it will only become more and more likely that some critics of Israel will also blur the lines, transforming a righteous condemnation of colonialism, racism, and imperialism, into a condemnation that includes anti-Jewish bigotry as well.

In recent weeks there have been desecrations of synagogues and Jewish cemeteries, apparently carried out in protest of Israel's latest incursions and depredations, and these have occurred in places as far flung as Tunisia, France, and Berkeley, California. Anti-Semitic propaganda, like the Czarist hoax, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion -- which professes to "prove" a Jewish plot for world domination -- is popping up throughout the Arab world, with snippets of its poison even finding space on otherwise left-progressive websites like Indymedia. In the understandable rush to condemn Israeli actions, at least one pro-Palestinian listserv operated by ostensible left/progressive radicals, has distributed one of David Duke's commentaries on the conflict: a column filled with anti-Jewish invective, which of course undermines the credibility of the sender and the righteousness of their insights on the struggle for Palestine.

To be sure, we who criticize Israel must unequivocally condemn all such anti-Jewish actions: not only because they are hateful on their own terms, but because they help perpetuate the lie told by the government of Israel and its supporters: that they are the Jews and the Jews are they. And this is an idea that both weakens the struggle against the Occupation -- by making all criticisms of it suspected of anti-Jewish bias -- and puts the Jewish community at greater risk, as they (we) become increasingly seen as Israel Firsters, instead of people committed to principles of peace, justice, and fairness: those concepts that I learned in Hebrew School were paramount to my people.

What's more, tolerating anti-Semitism within the movement for justice in the Middle East is especially risky for the very Palestinian people we seek to defend. The more that anti-Jewish rhetoric and imagery animates the struggle against Israeli occupation and brutality, the more that Ariel Sharon can transform his maniacal drive for power and land into a fight for survival of the Jewish people. And the more successful he is in casting the debate in these terms, the more Israeli Jews and their U.S. supporters will accede to ever-intensified levels of violence, ever more death and destruction wrought upon the victims of Israeli colonialism.

Let it be made clear that Zionism's problem is not that it is Jewish nationalism, per se, but rather a form of ethnic supremacy in thought and action. And more than that: a form of European supremacy to boot. After all, there were Jews who had remained in and around Palestine continuously for millennia, without substantial conflict with their Arab and Muslim neighbors. Likewise, many Jews lived under Muslim rule in the Ottoman Empire, where they received a generally warm reception--far better indeed than the treatment received from Christian Europe, which expelled them from one place after another.

These Jews, unlike the European Jews who sought to displace said Arabs from their land, lived there peacefully and sought no grand designs for "Greater Israel." They did not create Zionism, nor lead the charge for the development of a Jewish state. For that, it took a decidedly Western, European and frankly white Jewish community. The Jews who were most indigenous to the land of Israel, or those of Africa, or the rest of Asia Minor -- in short those who were most directly Semitic peoples -- were never the problem. Nor indeed was their faith. A decidedly colonial mentality, itself an outgrowth of European thought and culture from the late 1800's forward, was the fuel for the Zionist fire. Zionism's problem is that it is a form of white supremacy and Western domination.

And like all derivations of white supremacy, it neglects one of the most obvious ironies of all: namely, the close genetic relationship between the dominant and the dominated; the reality that the oppressor is oppressing family. As recent research has demonstrated, there is no significant biological difference between Palestinians and Jews in the Middle East. Any Jew with Semitic roots is, in effect, Arab--for whatever that's worth. All of which is to say that Zionism and its effects, by virtue of its immiseration of the Palestinians, is perhaps the most profound and institutionalized form of anti-Semitism on the planet today.

Tim Wise is an antiracist essayist, lecturer and activist. He can be reached at tjwise@mindspring.com

World News
Posted: Monday, April 29, 2002

• Sharon gives succour to Saddam
> Israel's obstruction of the UN inspection team mirrors Iraq's
> treatment of weapons inspectors
• China bolsters missiles opposite Taiwan
• British media in 'dismal' state
• Five killed, 11 injured in Kashmir violence
• US warns Europe on steel sanctions threat
• The good dictators
> America cares whether the world's leaders support its interests
• Israeli Troops Kill Nine in Hebron Raid
• Israeli Troops Move Into Hebron
• Plan to Free Arafat Underway
• In on the tide, the guns and rockets that fuel this fight
• 'For us, the preferred way of ending our lives would be martyrdom'
• US Ditches Iraq Coup and Opts for Invasion Next Year
• Osama's Escape Haunts US
• UN Struggles as Israel Vows to Block Jenin Probe
• US Military Chief Vows To Crush al-Qaeda In Asia
• Palestinian Authority 'Throttled' By Israel
• Arafat to Go Free in US-Brokered Deal
• Powerful Russian Politico Killed in Helicopter Crash
• Israel Won't Allow UN Jenin Probe
• White House Cancels $200 Million Extra Aid to Israel
• Serbia To Keep State Secrets From UN
• UN call for talks as Israel rejects investigation
• Desmond Tutu: Apartheid in the Holy Land
> Israeli's bullets and bombs ensured Palestine is holy
• IMF sheds no tears for Argentina
• Musharraf risks credibility in drive for election win
• German police piecing together the secret life killer teenager
• New IRA link to Colombia
• Blair's message is lost in the modern media scrummage

Democracy Takes a Hit
Posted: Monday, April 29, 2002

By Mary McGrory
Sunday, April 28, 2002; Page B07
www.washingtonpost.com

It is easy to understand why it all happened in Venezuela, although the how is not entirely clear.

You can understand, for instance, how tempted the Bush administration was to give the old heave-ho to Hugo Chavez, a motor-mouth "revolutionary" Latin American president who bragged about his friendships with Fidel, Saddam and other U.S. nemeses.

You can understand, too, the appeal of his short-term replacement, one Pedro Carmona, friend of oligarchs and captains of an oil industry that is the third-largest supplier to the United States.

But the coup didn't work in Venezuela. Democracy prevailed. The man the White House sees as a pluperfect pain in the neck, Chavez, got his job back in 48 hours. The coup collapsed after the two-day president, Carmona, declared he would cancel Congress and fire the Supreme Court. The most conspicuous casualty? America's reputation for promoting democracy, one of the stated goals of our currently confused foreign policy. MORE

World News
Posted: Sunday, April 28, 2002

• Language of the Middle East
• Activists strike again at GM trial crop
• Zimbabwe: Karoi murder story a Daily News, MDC LIE
> Story as carried in the Independent UK
> Mother beheaded in front of daughters by Mugabe militants
• Israel Bans U.N. Mission to Jenin
• 14 Christians Killed in Indonesia
• Mowlam: legalise all drugs
Mo Mowlam has called for all recreational drugs
including cocaine, ecstasy and heroin to be legalised and taxed.
• The teenager who became a cold mass murderer
• African crisis: The starving turn to murder in Malawi
Aid donors and government engage in a war of words
while famine and brutality stalk a once-bountiful nation
¥ While leading nations fight proxy wars,
> the victims of their excesses starve.
• Slaughter of elephants starts again
The war against poachers is stepping up as illegal ivory
floods on to the market once more
• Palestinians Thwart 20 Child Bombers
• Russian President Vladimir Putin Made One Mistake
• Darkness Descends On India, Pakistan
• UN probe: Soldiers to have immunity
• Top CIA official warns next terror attack unavoidable
• U.S. Blueprint to Topple Hussein

World News
Posted: Saturday, April 27, 2002

• Motorcycle Gangs Clash in Nevada Casino, Four Dead
• Vatican Cardinal Accused in Sex Abuse Cover-Up
• All high and mighty over holier than thou
• Impatient Bush tells Israel to withdraw "now"
> Here we go again......
• Jeffrey Tucker - Bush Swells the State
• Gujarat victims were 'stripped, burned and hacked'
• Four Israelis die in West Bank raid
• Marriage of Convenience on the Rocks
• US, Allies Ready to Act Against Saddam
• White House and GOP Whip at Odds Over Israel
• Bush Tells Israel to Withdraw 'Now'
• Powell's Lonely Struggle
• Gaza Braces for Invasion
• Israelis Prepare 'Military Solution' to Bethlehem Siege
• Gujarat Victims Were 'Stripped, Burned, and Hacked'
• Ex-CIA Chief: Use Drugs on Detainees
• Annan Delays UN Jenin Mission Until Sunday
• Israel Still Won't Recognize Jerusalem's Orthodox Patriarch
• Big bang? Must be Bin Laden
> Since 9/11, every loud noise or low plane makes us panic
• Woman breaks colour barrier as Rio governor
This could only be a news item for 1, 2, or 3 reasons.
Black people are not smart enough,
Brazil has a race relations problem, or both.

World News
Posted: Friday, April 26, 2002

• Canada Rejects New Charges It Is Terrorist Haven
• Lebanon asks the UN to stop Israel's violations
• Israel Warns Attack on Nativity Church Not Ruled Out
• Israelis Destroyed Schools, Banks, and a Puppet Theater
• Cold War-Era UK Nuke Report Released
• 'Greater Albania' Idea Being Revived
• U.S. Commander: 200,000 Troops Needed For War With Iraq
• Jittery New York On Nuclear Alert After Blast...
• TLC Singer Killed in Car Crash
• 18 shot dead at German school
• Sharon's best weapon
> Anti-semitism sustains Israel's brutal leader
• Appeasing racists won't see them off
• US cavalry fails to bring peace to Philippines
• Just get out!
• Teenagers 'used for sex by UN in Bosnia'
• Israeli Forces Raid West Bank City of Qalqilya
• Revulsion Grows Toward India's Ruling Party
• US Financed Anti-Chavez Groups in Venezuela
• Palestinian Teenagers Leave Bethlehem Church
• New York on Nuke Alert After Building Explosion
• Indonesia To Cooperate With US War on Terror
• Middle East crisis blamed for surge in anti-Semitic attacks
• Saudis threaten 'oil weapon' in talks to pressure Bush
• Arafat stages trial of four wanted for Ze'evi assassination
• Saudis tell the U.S. oil is not 'weapon'
• Teenagers shot by Israelis, then run over with a tank
• Israeli military trades thunder for lightning
> Suspected militant seized in Hebron in pre-dawn raid
• Choice between fascist and crook, protesters say
> Le Pen opponents support Chirac, reluctantly
• India - More brickbats from West on Gujarat riots
• India - Godhra killing was Pak sponsored: Probe panel

Le Pen and 'racist' Europe
Posted: Thursday, April 25, 2002

By GWYNNE DYER

"A TERRIFYING cataclysm," said the French Finance Minister, Laurent Fabius. "A thunderbolt," said Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, announcing that he was retiring from politics. "Ashamed to be French," read the banner unfurled by one disgusted voter as the results of the first-round vote for the French presidency became clear on Sunday evening. But what was it, exactly, that prompted this hysterical response?

It was the fact that Jean-Marie Le Pen, a far-right, anti-Semitic, racist candidate peddling a toxic brew of anti-immigrant invective and nostalgia for an authoritarian past, came second in the vote. The Socialist presidential candidate and incumbent prime minister, Lionel Jospin, was knocked out of the race, and it will be Le Pen against President Jaques Chirac in the run-off on 5 May—"SuperFascist against SuperLiar," as the Paris daily 'Liberation' put it.

But so what? Instant telephone surveys suggest that Chirac will beat Le Pen by the greatest landslide ever, as much as 80 percent to 20 per cent, in the second round of voting. In the first round, where not one of the sixteen candidates polled even 20 percent of the vote, Le Pen slipped past the uninspiring Jospin by less than one percentage point to cop second place, but the extreme right-wing vote has not actually grown.

Le Pen got 4.8 million votes, almost exactly the same as in 1995, though a lower turnout swelled his share of votes cast from 15 to 17 per cent. The extreme left-wing vote was boosted by the same phenomenon: the voters' dislike for both the mainstream candidates, Chirac and Jospin, and a decision by many to 'send them a message' by voting for candidates of the romantic left or the hard right, or just abstaining in the first round, before returning to serious politics and voting responsibly in the run-off.

The voters got it wrong, but it was a very small cataclysm: the French are not going fascist. But just how racist is France if around one-fifth of the voters can bring themselves to vote for Le Pen? Indeed, how racist is Europe, where the past few years have seen far-right candidates winning places in coalition governments from Norway to Italy?

In a continent that only half a century ago was over 99 percent white, 'race' and immigration are essentially the same issue. The proportion of relatively recent non-European immigrants and their children is now running between 5 and 10 percent of the population in most European countries, so immigration has become a hot-button issue for those who share Le Pen's apocalyptic view that "we risk being submerged."

There used to be an unwritten understanding among mainstream parties in Europe to exclude the fascists and racists from their coalitions, but in the last few years that understanding has broken down in a number of countries. It fractured most spectacularly in Italy, where Silvio Berlinguer's right-wing Forza Italia party swept to power last June in coalition with the anti-foreigner Northern League and the 'post-fascist' National Alliance.

But despite what is certainly an anti-immigrant backlash in some countries at the moment, the larger picture is not discouraging. The further east you go in Europe, the more overt the racism gets, but that's because under the Communists people had virtually no experience of immigrants until a dozen years ago. In some small, very homogeneous countries like Austria and Norway, even the slightest shift in perceptions of who 'we' are causes a major collective psychological crisis. But in the bigger countries like Britain, France and Germany, the situation is generally not bad at all.

There are ugly exceptions like the northern English mill-towns where uneducated Pakistani immigrants and the old white working class were left to rot together when the mills closed down. In France, disgruntled whites in declining industrial towns, and in depressed rural areas where jobless North African ex-farm workers live in misery, have been the main source of Le Pen's vote for decades. Former East Germans blame 'foreigners' and 'immigrants' for all their post-unification hardships.

But the more important truth is that in the big cities where most Europeans live, race relations, especially among the young, are actually pretty good. The neighbourhoods aren't segregated, young people intermarry without a second thought–and even if you get mugged by a kid gang in the dreadful wasteland of HLM's (low-rent tower blocks) that ring most French cities, at least the gang will be multi-racial.

Four out of five French citizens will vote against Le Pen in the run-off next month, even though half of them will have to hold their noses in order to vote for Chirac instead. What Sunday's vote showed was that the French are mightily fed up with being ruled by the same smug and mediocre set of aging politicians.

No Crean Todo Lo Que Lean En Los Periodicos Sobre Venezuela
Posted: Thursday, April 25, 2002

Por Greg Palast

Al contrario de lo que dicen los informes de una prensa occidental que ha sido embutida, Hugo Chávez no era impopular ni renunció, dice Greg Palast

He aquí lo que leímos esta semana: El viernes Hugo Chávez, el impopular y dictatorial potentado de Venezuela, renunció. Al confrontársele con sus órdenes de disparar a los manifestantes antigubernamentales, entregó la presidencia a fuerzas progresistas y democráticas, a saber, los militares y el jefe del consejo empresarial de Venezuela

Dos cosas me llamaron la atención en la noticia. Primero, cada uno de estos aparentes hechos son totalmente falsos. Y segundo, los periódicos de todo el hemisferio dominante, desde el New York Times hasta el Independent y (¡vaya!) El Guardian usaron casi palabras idénticas --"dictatorial", "impopular", "renuncia"-- en sus reportes.

Comencemos por la falsa "renuncia" que permitió a los gobiernos de Bush y Blair empujarse el uno al otro para ser el primero en reconocer a los líderes del golpe. Yo no vi ninguna declaración de esta supuesta renuncia, ni la escuché ni recibí informe de testigo confiable alguno. Yo estaba fascinado. En enero dije en la radio de EE.UU. que Chávez se enfrentaría a un golpe a fines de abril. ¿Pero renunciar? Ese no era el estilo de Chávez. MÁS

How The Associated Press (AP) Gutted Its Own Scoop On The Venezuelan Coup D'etat
Posted: Thursday, April 25, 2002

By Jared Israel
www.emperors-clothes.com

Does the Western media deliberately distort the news to serve the interests of the foreign policy establishments of the NATO countries, especially the US?

Based on much research, Emperor's Clothes says: yes, but not entirely.

Journalists sometimes - perhaps often - write accurate pieces. However, when the issues are important, foreign policy stories get edited or replaced, with the end result supporting a slant which is so consistently in tune with the long-term goals of the US foreign policy elite that it is possible, by analyzing news stories, to predict positions which will be adopted by the US government. MORE

Chávez’s Overthrow Was Clearly Predictable
Posted: Thursday, April 25, 2002

By Stephen Kangal
Caroni Trinidad & Tobago

The illegal overthrow of democratically-elected President Chávez of neighbouring Venezuela albeit via a failed 48 hour coup on April 12 was clearly predictable. While his overthrow was being slowly but inevitably incubated since his assumption of the Presidency in 1998 in his leftist radical domestic and foreign policy posturings the events of September 11 and its aftermath, most notably the fortress America foreign policy and the homeland security agenda provided the trigger mechanisms that escalated the failed coup. MORE

World News
Posted: Thursday, April 25, 2002

• Israel's tactics become clearer
• 12 killed in fresh Mideast violence
• 12 Die in Pakistan Bomb Explosion
• Explosion in New York
• CIA Warns China Planning Cyber-Attacks On America And Taiwan...
• Governor calls for 'justice' on reparations
> State probes slaveholder policies, alleged overcharging of minorities
• 3 Palestinians killed by Israel in West Bank
• Israeli tanks roll into Hebron
• Israel must not be allowed to upset the Jenin investigation
• Children are the new martyrs
• Hopeless in Buenos Aires
> Turned Buenos Aires into a shadow of its former self.
• Berlusconi's Northern League allies are racist, says report
• IRA 'sent men to Colombia'
> Terrorists trained rebels, says congressional report
• Nurse and man in wheelchair among Jenin dead
• We should fight to defeat the racists in our midst

April 11 coupsters wanted to take Venezuela out of (OPEC)
Posted: Wednesday, April 24, 2002

President Chavez Frias claims that April 11 coupsters wanted to take Venezuela out of the Organization of Oil Producing Countries (OPEC).

Speaking to Qatar’s El Jazeera 24-hours news outlet, President Hugo Chavez Frias has accused “other countries” (?) of involvement in the failed coup d'etat.

Taking Venezuela out of OPEC, he says, would have lowered oil prices (just as the United States has been pressuring!) and broken the OPEC "fair prices" agreement to keep a barrel of oil between $22-28. MORE

World News
Posted: Wednesday, April 24, 2002

• Israeli troops detain Reuters and AFP journalists
• UN Won't Halt Jenin Investigation
• Powell: No Evidence of Jenin Massacre
• US to Hike Military Aid to Israel, by $200M a year
• George W. Bush's insurance policy
• Sharon Hints at New Offensive in Gaza
• Brutalised by War, a Savage Mob Turns on its Own
• Israel Rejects Palestinian Offer on Bethlehem Standoff
• Bethlehem Standoff Becomes Death Watch
• Iraq Calls for Oil War
• Venezuela Coup Leaders Flee to Miami
• Chirac Refuses to Debate Le Pen
• Bush goes to the dogs
• Sharon Suspends Pact, Blocks Jenin UN Probe
• Peres Plays Anti-Semitism Card to Defend Aggression

French presidential candidate accused of racism, xenophobia
Posted: Tuesday, April 23, 2002

In a career that spans more than 30 years, Mr. Le Pen has attacked everything from immigration to the Holocaust. On several occasions he has called the Nazi death chambers "a detail of history," and has said that France is being overrun with Third World immigrants who are taking jobs away from French citizens, living off welfare and undermining French culture.

He has advocated expelling some two million immigrants who do not have French identity papers. (For his current campaign he has slightly softened his position, saying he no longer wants African and Arab immigrants sent back to their home countries, and would be happy to receive "declarations of their loyalty to France.") MORE

US ousts director of chemical arms body
Posted: Tuesday, April 23, 2002

The head of the world's chemical weapons regulatory body, Jose Bustani, was dismissed yesterday by a United States-led vote. MORE

The Reason

Diplomacy US style
The removal of Jose Bustani demonstrates George Bush's contempt for cooperation

World News
Posted: Tuesday, April 23, 2002

• Bush's job performance rating continues to decline
> Ok CIA; "Wag the dog" again...
• Sources: Israel Rejects U.N. Jenin Probe
> They want to ensure they get a team to say exactly what they want..
• Afghans Fight Against Locusts...
> They will have much problems
as people overlook the 4000+ persons the U.S. killed
• World Jews call on Europe to fight anti-Semitism
• Berlin police: we did not advise Jews not to wear Jewish attire
• Tunisia Admits Synagogue Blast Was Deliberate...
• Hostages Taken on Nigeria Oil Rig
• Flooding Reported in Afghanistan...
• Bush not ready to judge Israel on Jenin
• Hostages Taken on Nigeria Oil Rig...
• Explosion inside Arafat's compound; nobody injured...
• Bin Laden said to be hiding in Pakistan
• US ousts director of chemical arms body
• Diplomacy US style
The removal of Jose Bustani demonstrates
George Bush's contempt for cooperation
• Cities Left Under Blockade in the Line of Israeli Fire
• US Doubles Apache Force as Marines Prepare for Afghan Battle
• US Made Arms Deals With Balkan Jihad Forces
• Sharon Won't Discuss Removing Settlements
• Gunfire at Besieged Church as Army Steps up Pressure
• Evidence of US Hand in Venezuela Coup Mounts
• 2,700 US Troops Begin War Games In Philippines
• Israel Upset at UN Jenin Team Makeup
• Hawks Up Pressure on Bush to Support Sharon
• Sharon's Goal Was to Destroy Palestinian Rule
• US Forces Out UN Arms Director
• Fierce protests after Israeli helicopter strike
• U.S. Children Getting Majority Of Antibiotics From McDonald's Meat
• Shock waves spread across Europe, while Austria gloats
> Jean-Marie Le Pen's electoral success
• Israel accused over Jenin assault
> Red Cross and Amnesty say attack violated Geneva accords
• Argentina's cash crisis deepens
• Neanderthals 'used violence'
¥ I guess Neanderthals are still around today..
• UK Politics: Germ warfare fiasco revealed - 1999 news

U.S. Probes Arabs on Venezuelan Isle
Posted: Monday, April 22, 2002

By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 22, 2002; Page A14

PORLAMAR, Venezuela -- For almost three decades, the Arabs of Margarita Island have tended their fabric shops, gathered in the breezy evenings around tables set in tiled courtyards and prayed at a makeshift mosque.

The children of illiterate farmers from Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, they learned to be doctors and lawyers in the schools of their adoptive country, which a century and a half ago emerged as a refuge for Arab immigrants escaping the hardships of Ottoman rule. They became respected citizens and prospered by grafting their merchant ways onto a lazy Caribbean life. MORE

The U.S. will not give up...

Hugo's Close Call: Now Bush...
Posted: Monday, April 22, 2002

Chavez survived. Now the Bush administration faces tough questions about its maneuvers in Venezuela

By Joseph Contreras and Michael Isikoff
NEWSWEEK INTERNATIONAL

April 29 issue: People power it wasn't. Although more than 200,000 antigovernment protesters marched through the streets of Caracas some to their deaths the short-lived April 11-12 coup against President Hugo Chavez was secretly hatched by two small but powerful groups: senior military officers and several of the country's richest businessmen. The leaders of the putsch had extensive ties to the U.S. political and economic establishment. At the vortex of the whole mess was the billionaire television magnate Gustavo Cisneros, a fishing buddy of former president George H. W. Bush and king of a business empire stretching from the United States to the Southern Cone. MORE

Army Coups are out of Fashion in Latin America
Posted: Monday, April 22, 2002

By Edwin Koopman
Radio Netherlands

Military coups are no longer fashionable in Latin America. The region's fledgling democracies have found other ways to get rid of their leaders. The recent attempt by Venezuelan army officers to oust President Hugo Chaves therefore triggered widespread condemnation on the continent. Only the United States was prepared to turn a blind eye.

Latin America has had a long history of military coup d'états. The continent has seen a rapid succession of military regimes, notably in the 1970s and 80s. As democracy was taking root, political turbulence subsided. Until just over a week ago, when a number of Venezuelan army generals ousted President Hugo Chavez. More

The coup
Posted: Monday, April 22, 2002

The Guardian

Just over a week ago, Pedro Carmona was the president of Venezuela, installed following a military coup, and amid scenes of street violence that have left an estimated 90 people dead. His term lasted barely a day before counter-demonstrations led to the return of President Hugo Chavez, whose revolutionary rhetoric and espousal of Fidel Castro since his election in 1998 has so enraged the United States. Now Carmona, the 60-year-old head of the Venezuelan chamber of commerce, is under house arrest in his apartment in the gated complex of La Arbolada in a wealthy suburb of Caracas.

While relatives and friends enjoy a late meal on the balcony, Carmona reflects on the events since April 11 - or 11A, as it is now known - which brought him so briefly to power, and which have polarised this country of 23 million people. So had the coup been planned and - the most-frequently asked question - did the United States play a key role in the overthrow of a democratically elected president? More

America used Islamists to arm the Bosnian Muslims
Posted: Monday, April 22, 2002

The Srebrenica report reveals the Pentagon's role in a dirty war

Richard J Aldrich
Monday April 22, 2002
The Guardian

The official Dutch inquiry into the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, released last week, contains one of the most sensational reports on western intelligence ever published. Officials have been staggered by its findings and the Dutch government has resigned. One of its many volumes is devoted to clandestine activities during the Bosnian war of the early 1990s. For five years, Professor Cees Wiebes of Amsterdam University has had unrestricted access to Dutch intelligence files and has stalked the corridors of secret service headquarters in western capitals, as well as in Bosnia, asking questions.

His findings are set out in "Intelligence and the war in Bosnia, 1992-1995". It includes remarkable material on covert operations, signals interception, human agents and double-crossing by dozens of agencies in one of dirtiest wars of the new world disorder. Now we have the full story of the secret alliance between the Pentagon and radical Islamist groups from the Middle East designed to assist the Bosnian Muslims - some of the same groups that the Pentagon is now fighting in "the war against terrorism". Pentagon operations in Bosnia have delivered their own "blowback".

Full Article : guardian.co.uk

World News
Posted: Monday, April 22, 2002

• U.S. Probes Arabs on Venezuelan Isle
• Hugo's Close Call: Now Bush...
• Last Bushmen lose fight for right to be nomads
• US accused of weapons deals with jihad forces
• Powell Declines Assistance From Clinton And Carter
• Shots fired as MSP attempts to enter Arafat HQ
• America is suffering collateral damage from the conflict in the Middle East
• Sharon angered by UN envoy's camp account
• Israel Keeps Arafat HQ, Bethlehem Church Besieged
• India Violence Leads to More Deaths
• Crisis Declared From Philippine Bomb
• Jiang Zemin Chinese President, deplors expansion of US war on terror
• Furious Palestinians Tell How Israelis Abused, Intimidated, Murdered
• Powell steps up US pressure on Sharon
• Jordan refugees express their rage over Jenin
• Israel has made 'a sea of blood', says Arafat aide
• America used Islamists to arm the Bosnian Muslims
• Our long-term enemy
In Pakistan, the west is going to have to choose
between democracy and its pet dictator

French caused genocide - Short
Posted: Sunday, April 21, 2002

By Kamal Ahmed, political editor
The Observer

Clare Short was caught up in a diplomatic row last night after she accused the French of being directly implicated in the massacre of millions of Tutsis in Rwanda in the Nineties.
The outspoken International Development Secretary said France had 'created genocides in Africa' after allegations that the French government backed Hutu interests in the country.

Her comments come a month after she was quoted as saying that France was involved in a conspiracy to keep Africa in poverty. At the time she denied saying the words attributed to her. MORE

World News
Posted: Sunday, April 21, 2002

•
Jiang Zemin Meets Iranian Leader in Tehran
• Taiwan's scientists clone pigs which carry human DNA
• Crises Strain Bush Policies
> Friends, Foes Find Lack of Coherence in Foreign Affairs
• For Bush, Reverses Come After Steady Going
> Mideast Crisis, Oil-Drilling Defeat
> Among Mounting Woes at Home and Abroad
• Bombs Kill at Least 14 in Philippines or BBC
• Kashmir fighting kills 15
• Crises Strain Bush Policies
• For Bush, Reverses Come After Steady Going
• Thousands to gather in Washington for new protests
• Japanese supercomputer takes world's fastest title from US
• Milan pilot may have staged crash to uncover £1m fraudsters' sting
• Venezuela coup linked to Bush team
• Venezuelan Air Force head, top officers die in helicopter crash
• Israel Balks at Makeup of UN Team for Jenin
• Afghan Warlords Put High Price on British Heads
• Russians Tell Brits: IRA Secretly Rearming
• Israel Considers Raiding Arafat Compound
• 100,000 March in DC
• Report: Colombians Trained IRA Since 1980s
• Sharon Plans to Annex Half of West Bank

Venezuela's Media: Free or Footloose?
Posted: Sunday, April 21, 2002

by Juan Pérez Cabral

APRIL 21, 2002. Imagine the owners of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and NBC, ABC, CBS, and CNN meeting at the home of Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. with the head of the Joints Chiefs of Staff and assorted military top brass to plot to bring down U.S. President John Doe, a blowhard populist who has been elected by a landslide.

The plan is wickedly simple. Organize a massive march to the Washington, D.C. headquarters of Omnicom, the behemoth conglomerate that generates most of the country's riches, ostensibly to show support for their valiant struggle against the meddlesome, regulation-crazy Doe. Then, suddenly, turn the march around and head to the White House, which, your military co-conspirators tell you, will be left unguarded, to demand that Doe resign, or else ... More

Venezuela coup linked to Bush team
Posted: Sunday, April 21, 2002

Ed Vulliamy in New York
Sunday April 21, 2002
The Observer

The failed coup in Venezuela was closely tied to senior officials in the US government, The Observer has established. They have long histories in the 'dirty wars' of the 1980s, and links to death squads working in Central America at that time.
Washington's involvement in the turbulent events that briefly removed left-wing leader Hugo Chavez from power last weekend resurrects fears about US ambitions in the hemisphere.

It also also deepens doubts about policy in the region being made by appointees to the Bush administration, all of whom owe their careers to serving in the dirty wars under President Reagan.

One of them, Elliot Abrams, who gave a nod to the attempted Venezuelan coup, has a conviction for misleading Congress over the infamous Iran-Contra affair.

The Bush administration has tried to distance itself from the coup. It immediately endorsed the new government under businessman Pedro Carmona. But the coup was sent dramatically into reverse after 48 hours. More

Peru cancels army training with US
Posted: Sunday, April 21, 2002

BBC - Peru has called off a joint training exercise with the United States military in the Amazon region saying that it did not want a foreign military base in the country.

Critics of United States policy say Washington would like troops in Peru in case its operations in neighbouring Colombia run into trouble.

Lima's decision comes days after Washington withdrew non-essential diplomats from Venezuela after acknowledging it had discussed with President Hugo Chavez's opponents steps to remove him from office.

The United States says it did not encourage the failed military coup in Venezuela. From BBC

U.S. Is the Primary Loser in Failed Venezuelan Coup
Posted: Sunday, April 21, 2002

By Larry Birns and Alex Volberding
Newsday

THE RECENT FAILED coup against President Hugo Chavez launched at the behest of Venezuela's powerful business and labor groups - and with the knowledge, if not eager acquiescence, of U.S. officials - tested the political will of that nation, as it should ours.

In an amazing turn, Chavez was restored to power as a result of the resolve of his diehard supporters to maintain constitutional rule and prevent the return of the country's discredited elite. Chavez's election in 1998 had been directly due to the angry repudiation of the venality fathered by the country's two dominant political parties, Democratic Action and the Christian Democrats, which had permeated its other public and private institutions. More

Venezuela general killed in helicopter crash
Posted: Saturday, April 20, 2002

By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela (April 20, 2002 10:54 a.m. EDT) - The man named just a few days ago to head Venezuela's air force in the wake of a failed coup died in a helicopter crash along with three other generals, the military said Saturday. The sudden deaths created added turmoil in Venezuela's armed forces, some of whom supported the coup.

Gen. Luis Alfonso Acevedo and the generals died when their helicopter crashed in forests 10 miles north of the capital, likely due to bad weather, the military said. MORE

What Israel has done
Posted: Saturday, April 20, 2002

By Edward Said
www.ahram.org.eg

Despite Israel's effort to restrict coverage of its extraordinarily destructive invasion of the West Bank's Palestinian towns and refugee camps, information and images have nevertheless seeped through. The Internet has provided hundreds of verbal as well as pictorial eyewitness reports, as has Arab and European TV coverage, most of it unavailable or blocked or spun out of existence from the mainstream US media. That evidence provides stunning proof of what Israel's campaign has actually (has always) been about: the irreversible conquest of Palestinian land and society. The official line (which the US, along with nearly every American media commentator has basically supported) is that Israel has been defending itself by retaliating for the suicide bombings that have undermined its security and even threatened its existence. That claim has gained the status of an absolute truth moderated neither by what Israel has done nor by what in fact has been done to it. MORE

World News
Posted: Saturday, April 20, 2002

• Argentina orders banks to close
• D.C. Marchers Oppose Globalization
• Europe plans $300m sanctions retaliation on US
• Venezuela general killed in helicopter crash
• Bush Tells Mideast to Choose Peace
• Sharon's brutal philosophy
• Bush: Jenin Must Be Investigated
• From the Ruins of Jenin, the Truth About an Atrocity
• Break with the US
• When a planet goes to war
• Red Cross Steps In To Feed Taliban Prisoners In Afghanistan
• US Plans Evidenceless Tribunals For Gitmo Prisoners
• Boycott America? What a joke!
• UN to send fact-finding mission to Jenin
• Amid the rubble of Jenin, Palestinians bury their dead
• Bush says Israeli invasion of Jenin must be investigated
> Investigate Arab states, Europe and the U.S. for lip-service
• Sex abuse scandals tarnish work of aid agencies in Africa
• Bush energy policy critic ousted as head of climate change panel
• US and oil lobby oust climate change scientist
• Argentina orders banks to close
> Government fears economic collapse as cash outflow rises
• U.S. Troops Land in Philippines
• Afghan Gunmen Fire on Peacekeepers

Coup plotters wanted to pull Venezuela out of OPEC
Posted: Saturday, April 20, 2002

TEHRAN, April 20 (AFP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has told President Mohammad Khatami that a recent coup attempt was also a bid to pull Caracas out of OPEC, Iranian radio reported Saturday.

Khatami congratulated Chavez on his return to power after the failed coup attempt: "We were confident that the Venezuelan people would triumph and we hope that your government will be able to carry out its objectives with the help of your people," Khatami told Chavez in a phone call, the radio here quoted the Iranian leader as saying

The Iranian government expressed its happiness at the "victory of democracy", it added. MORE

World News
Posted: Friday, April 19, 2002

• Bush Warns Venezuela's Chavez to 'Embrace Democracy'
• Canada Fears US Threatens Sovereignty
• Bombing accident in Afghanistan under investigation
• Afghans Fight Against Locusts
• US Planes Bomb Northern Iraq
• Senate Votes to Ban US Imports of Iraqi Oil
• Pilot Who Bombed Troops Was Ordered Not to Fire
• Colombian Rebels in US Sights
• 'What Kind of War is This?'
• Perfume bottles for the diggers to sweeten the acrid air
• Feds Received Threats Against Banks
> Very suspicious, what is the U.S up to now?
• US to spend £90m on air base in Oman
• Military command whose sole mission is to defend American territory
• Israel spreads Mid-East violence to Gaza
• U.S. wants to make Okinawa their permanent base in the Pacific
• Hatred for Israel 'hits a new peak'
• Milan plane crash pilot wanted to commit suicide...
• Pilot's Son: Crash May Be Suicide...
• Report: U.S. has completed 'basics' of plan to attack Iraq...
• US official: Pilot bombed Canadians thinking he was under fire
• A PR nightmare in Canada
• Defence chief says 'friendly fire' accident a 'mystery'
but many blame U.S. indifference to foreign troops
• Peace talks near collapse in the Congo
• U.S. Senate's rejection of Alaskan oil plan a heavy blow to Bush
• Bush Heaps Pressure on Arafat
• Bush Reaffirms Strong Support for Sharon
• There should be a UN inquiry into the deaths at Jenin
• The war that never was
• Israel leaves Jenin, but maintains blockade
• Israelis try to pin blame for Jenin on suicide bombers
• Amtrak Train Derails in Florida
• Britain Slams Israel's Actions in Jenin
• Canada Opts Out of US Plan to Defend Continent
• Are the Israelis Guilty of Mass Murder?
• Families Dig Through the Dust to Find Their Dead
• Macedonia on War Footing

Did Bush Administration Dust Off CIA Destabilization Template for Venezuela?
Posted: Friday, April 19, 2002

by Dennis Hans

How can it be that an administration top heavy with such pro-democracy stalwarts as Otto Reich, Elliott Abrams and John Negroponte would welcome a military coup that toppled a democratically elected Latin American president? Amazingly, that is what happened April 13, when the administration of George W. Bush hailed the ouster of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.

By April 15 Chavez had regained the presidency, thanks in large part to strong condemnation of the coup from Latin American leaders, many of whom don’t particularly care for Chavez’s brand of populism or his authoritarian streak. Their outcry stood in sharp contrast to Uncle Sam’s embrace of the coup makers. MORE

Are we on the road to war?
Posted: Friday, April 19, 2002

By Conn Hallinan
www.examiner.com

SOMETIME THIS FALL, probably before the mid-term elections, the United States will likely be at war with Iraq. Not because Iraq is a threat to our security or engaged in terrorism. It will happen because more than a decade ago a small cabal of political heavyweights in the administration of George Bush the First sat down and drew up a blueprint to rule the world. X-File fantasies? Not unless the New Yorker has decided to join the "I was abducted by aliens" crowd.

In the magazine's April 1 edition, writer Nicholas Lemann records one of the downright scariest set of interviews to appear in print since Richard Nixon's Oval Office ravings about nuclear war. In them, the key movers and shakers in the present Bush administration lay out the plan they have been following since Sept. 11, a plan that will launch this country into a series of regional wars aimed at insuring that the United States will remain the supreme power in the world. MORE

Latin America's Dilemma
Posted: Thursday, April 18, 2002

Latin America's Dilemma: Otto Reich's Propaganda is Reminiscent of the Third Reich

by Tom Turnipseed

The Bush administration is engaging in damage control for their questionable involvement in the failed 2 day coup against the democratically elected government of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Alarmingly, the ominous Otto Reich is emerging as a key player in the administration's role in the failed coup attempt to replace Chavez with an oligarchy of business, military and wealthy elites. Scrambling to distance themselves from the botched overthrow of the democratically elected Chavez government, the Bush administration admitted that Mr. Reich called the coup leader, Mr. Carmona, and asked him not to dissolve the National Assembly because it would be a "stupid thing to do". The next day the administration revised their story and said Reich only asked our ambassador to relay that message to Carmona. MORE

Back off Mr. Bush!
Posted: Thursday, April 18, 2002

VHeadline.com Venezuela is forced to ask:
Who the heck are to give lessons in democracy when we have the example of how you manipulated the Florida vote? Get off your high horse and understand that Venezuela has totally rejected your attempts to install your puppet dictator-for-a-day! Venezuelans have chosen to be governed by a Constitution formulated by an elected Constitutional Assembly, approved by a majority of the people in National Referendum and to accept a President who was elected by a greater majority than you could ever have mustered even with your family's political pull. MORE

Did White House Push Venezuelan Coup?
Posted: Thursday, April 18, 2002

OUR COMMENT:

This article starts out true to form, repeating much of what has already been uncovered and understood but in the fifth paragraph the editor injects his own prejudices and basic ignorance of what Mr Chávez is trying to achieve.

NEWSDAY EDITORIAL:

The bizarre melodrama surrounding the two-day ouster and reinstatement of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has left skeptics wondering whether the Bush administration had a direct hand in the aborted coup.

"True, he was a lousy president, a confrontational rabble-rouser who never fulfilled his grandiose promises to his nation's poor, who insisted on restricting oil production and raising prices as the head of the OPEC cartel, and who opposed the U.S. war on terror in Afghanistan while supporting despots in Cuba, Iraq, Libya and Iran. He also supported narco-terrorists in Colombia's civil war and offered them safe haven. That's why the administration in Washington would wish him gone." MORE

Bush Officials Defend Their Actions on Venezuela
Posted: Thursday, April 18, 2002

By Karen DeYoung
washingtonpost.com

Bush administration officials forcefully defended themselves yesterday against criticism that they had interfered with the democratic process in Venezuela, saying they had done their best to respond to fast-moving events about which they knew little more than what they were seeing on television. Rather than supporting the self-declared government that temporarily seized power last week from President Hugo Chavez, officials said, they acted quickly to stem its excesses. MORE

Alice's New Adventures In Medialand
Posted: Thursday, April 18, 2002

By Norman Solomon Media Beat

Alice climbed out of the news hole. She seemed badly shaken. "I thought Wonderland was curious indeed," she said, "but Medialand is even more peculiar."

Responding to my quizzical look, she quickly added: "Don't worry, I stayed away from the hookah-smoking caterpillar, the 'Drink Me' bottle and the 'Eat Me' cake. I did not converse with a single playing card, dormouse or mock turtle. I was simply observant."

Alice's sudden appearance in the sunlit meadow gave me an idea. No longer a girl, she was clearly an intelligent woman. "Here," I said, pulling a laptop from my briefcase, "please write about your latest adventures." And before she could decline, I ran off.

Returning hours later, I found these words:

Oh dear, how to begin? The Hatter and the March Hare could never match the lunacy I've just seen in Medialand. I'd heard of people subsisting on treacle, but the current media diet is rather more grim. I've got half a mind to write a poem: "The Walrus and the Journalist wondered where they'd been. / They wept like anything to see such quantities of spin..."

It was a Friday (April 12) when the military in Venezuela pushed out the president. On Saturday, a New York Times front-page headline said "Venezuela's Chief Forced to Resign," and the first of more than 30 paragraphs referred to "a sudden end to the turbulent three-year reign of a mercurial strongman." The entire article used the word "coup" only once -- reporting that "Cuba called the change-over a coup."

Meanwhile, also declining to call the coup a coup, the Times lead editorial used upbeat euphemisms to hail it: "With yesterday's resignation of President Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened by a would-be dictator. Mr. Chavez, a ruinous demagogue, stepped down after the military intervened and handed power to a respected business leader." But many Venezuelans were less pleased to see the ditching of their constitution. In less than 48 hours, Chavez returned to office.

The Saturday editorial by the New York Times had asserted that the move against Venezuela's twice-elected president was strictly an internal matter: "Rightly, his removal was a purely Venezuelan affair." But on Tuesday, the newspaper reported: "Senior members of the Bush administration met several times in recent months with leaders of a coalition that ousted the Venezuelan president ... and agreed with them that he should be removed from office."

In a Tuesday editorial, the Times indicated that three days earlier it had suffered from temporary amnesia, forgetting the transcendent virtues of democracy. Now, in the wake of the coup's failure, the new editorial was a bit contrite: "Mr. Chavez has been such a divisive and demagogic leader that his forced departure last week drew applause at home and in Washington. That reaction, which we shared, overlooked the undemocratic manner in which he was removed. Forcibly unseating a democratically elected leader, no matter how badly he has performed, is never something to cheer."

But in Medialand, how does a democratically elected president become a "strongman"? And when is a coup not a coup but a "change-over"?

Well, through the looking-glass, Humpty Dumpty provided an explanation. "When I use a word," he said, "it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less." When I objected that "the question is whether you can make words mean so many different things," his retort was brusque. "The question is," he replied, "which is to be master -- that's all."

That perverse outlook seems to be axiomatic in Medialand's biggest recent story. Amid all the coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I wonder about remarkable inconsistencies of media interest and moral indignation.

For instance, in contrast to the highly publicized case of John Walker Lindh, what about other Americans who also have been moved by religious fervor to go abroad and take up arms for a foreign government? Relocating from homes in such areas as Brooklyn, N.Y., quite a few Americans went to Israel and now serve that country's military.

This spring, no doubt, some of them have been part of the Israeli offensive in the West Bank. It is curious indeed that the same U.S. news outlets fascinated with the "American Taliban" are so uninterested in scrutinizing those Americans, who strengthen the ranks of the Israeli armed forces as they participate in the killing of Palestinian men and women and children.

The similarities are glaring enough to make the media avoidance notable. Apparently certain of a supreme being's approval, Lindh chose to enlist in holy warfare that included the frequent taking of civilian lives. The same is true of the numerous Americans who now carry machine guns for Israel in the occupied territories.

Sitting in a beautiful meadow, I wish these events were all a fantasy, from which I might awake, with my sister gently brushing dead leaves that had fluttered down from the trees upon my face. But this is no dream.

-----------------------------------------------------
Norman Solomon's latest book is "The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media."
http://www.fair.org/media-beat/020418.html

Irish Filmmaker's Eyewitness Account Of Venezuelan Coup D'état
Posted: Thursday, April 18, 2002

Michael McCaughan speaks to Kim Bartley, who witnessed last weekend's coup attempt in Venezuela
Reprinted from Irish Times 16 April 2002

Ms Kim Bartley and Mr Donnacha O'Brien have spent the past three months filming a documentary on Venezuelan President Mr Hugo Chavez for Power Productions, an independent film company based in Galway.

"I arrived in the centre of town just as the shooting started," says Kim. "I filmed a while then took cover in a doorway. Whoever was firing aimed directly at the crowd, which was pro-Chavez. I filmed two dead bodies, both of them beside the podium set up to rally Chavistas to defend the presidential palace.

"A woman working in the vice-president's office identified the bodies as a legal secretary and an archivist, both working inside the building. A 10-year-old girl was then taken away, fatally injured.

"More shots. We ran for cover like everyone else. We made it to the palace through back streets as the firing continued and as soon as we got in the gate another sniper started aiming at the crowd. We were all thrown to the ground behind a wall and later ran for cover into the building. Three of the snipers were arrested . . . "Chavez was about to explain what was happening in a live television broadcast but the state channel's signal was cut just as he began to speak.

"The army generals arrived and went off for a meeting with Chavez. The evening passed in a flash as we waited for news inside the presidential palace. A tearful Environmental Minister, Ms Analisa Osorio, emerged in the early hours of Friday, announcing the end of an era. 'He's under arrest,' she said. Chavez emerged, barely visible with all the bodyguards and junta soldiers jostling both to protect and arrest him.

"The atmosphere turned ugly. Radio and television immediately announced the resignation of Chavez and began broadcasting upbeat messages: 'Venezuela is finally free' was the banner across all private TV channels.

"The government went into hiding. Everyone fled for their lives. The witch-hunt began. We decided not to go home, checking into a hotel instead, for safety . . .

"The media kept repeating footage of the swearing-in ceremony of the interim president [Pedro Carmona] which was followed by images of empty streets, everything in perfect tranquillity. We were about to book a ticket to Panama when a well-dressed passer-by told us to get off the streets. 'The Chavistas are coming' he said. It was Saturday afternoon.

"We took a taxi to the centre, where huge crowds had surrounded the palace, demanding the return of Chavez. We managed to get inside and found several Chavez deputies calling round the country to find out what was going on. A dozen people who were working for the interim government had been taken to a room in the basement for their own safety.

"Reports came in from around the country, barracks by barracks, like a Eurovision song contest jury, that the military was rebelling against the coup. Then came the rumours that a commando had been sent to kill Chavez at the army base where he was being kept.

"The television continued to broadcast a steady diet of soap operas, saying nothing about the huge mobilisation, which was now making a deafening racket outside. Then came the news that Chavez had been freed and was taking a helicopter to Miraflores. The crowds went wild. The presidential guard made a tunnel from the palace gates to a helicopter pad across the street. The sound of choppers buzzing overhead.

"Then he was there, striding toward the palace, mobbed by supporters. It was like a dream, it's still hard to believe it really happened."

© The Irish Times * Reprinted for Fair Use Only

World News
Posted: Thursday, April 18, 2002

• Bush Asks Venezuela's Chavez to Heed 'Lessons'
• Israeli Actions "Morally Repugnant"
• Guatemalan peasants seize plantations in protest
• Chief of Israeli army demands Arafat removal
• Palestinians, Arab Nations Seek UN Vote On Israel
• Muslim detainees file complaint against US attorney
• Three killed in latest Israeli raids
• Colombian President Appeals for US Flexibility on Anti-Drug Aid
• Americans misled by the language of Middle East reports
• Three Killed in Fla. Amtrak Crash
• Small Plane Slams Into Milan Skyscraper
• Madagascar rivals sign accord to end political crisis
• Transatlantic rift grows wider over 'axis of evil,'
• US Official: Chavez foe was asked to keep Assembly
• Fresh evidence of Jenin atrocities
• Bethlehem monks make defiant stand in Nativity siege
• Nothing to celebrate on Israel's Independence Day
• Powell trip ends in humiliation
• U.S.: No Lawyers for War Captives...
• US blunder 'let Bin Laden escape'
• Arab States Demand Israel Pullout Before Peace Talks Can Begin
• Guns Are Silent But Cries for Help Go Unheard
• $10 Billion Later: al-Qaeda Still Exists
• Marines Find Booby-Trapped Bodies In Afghanistan
• Bin Laden Gloats Over $1 Trillion In Damage
• 40% of Russians Think Gov't, Not Chechens, Responsible For Terror Bombings
• Del Ponte Refuses To Rest Until Mladic, Karadzic Brought In
• Berlusconi tightens stranglehold on Italian networks
• Israeli Offensive Shakes Jordan
• Macedonian Tortured in Tetovo Village, As Gang War Rages
• UN Inspector Says US Undermining Diplomacy On Iraq Issue
• Bush Wants Marshall Plan For Afghanistan
• Cambodian Police Stand By As UN Camp Burned Down
• Kissinger faces questioning over dictators
• EU 'does not want to privatise Third World'
• British marines storm al-Qaeda enclave
• India buys US radar in landmark deal

Media accused in failed coup
Posted: Thursday, April 18, 2002

CARACAS, Venezuela -- As Venezuela's coup began to collapse last weekend, a handful of the country's media barons were summoned to the presidential palace.

A day after Friday's ouster of President Hugo Chavez, the self-declared "transitional government" was losing its grip. The media were its last hope.

What happened next is disputed. Chavez loyalists say coup leaders, in a desperate bid to hang onto power, persuaded the media executives to suppress coverage of the unraveling coup. MORE

Amoral logic of 'collateral damage'
Posted: Thursday, April 18, 2002

By Robert Higgs
www.examiner.com

TIMOTHY McVEIGH, it is fair to say, will go down in history as a terrorist. He set off a bomb that killed innocent men, women and children along with the government agents against whom he had decided to retaliate for their assaults on Americans at Waco and elsewhere. In a letter sent to Gore Vidal, dated April 4, 2001, McVeigh described the reasons for his action:

"When an aggressor force continually launches attacks from a particular base of operations, it is sound military strategy to take the fight to the enemy. Additionally, borrowing a page from U.S. foreign policy, I decided to send a message to a government that was becoming increasingly hostile, by bombing a government building and the government employees within that building who represent that government. Bombing the Murrah Federal Building was morally and strategically equivalent to the U.S. hitting a government building in Serbia, Iraq, or other nations. Based on observations of the policies of my own government, I viewed this action as an acceptable option.

"From this perspective what occurred in Oklahoma City was no different than what Americans rain on the heads of others all the time, and, subsequently, my mindset was and is one of clinical detachment." MORE

Embassy official: U.S. personnel not involved in coup
Posted: Thursday, April 18, 2002

CNN: We rarely link to this news service but check this news:

The official said that last Thursday evening, shortly after the coup attempt began, reports were heard "that Fort Tiuna might be closing down or that there was unusual movement." Fort Tiuna is Caracas' main military base.

"Two of our people [military attaches] drove around the fort to see what was going on, but they never left the car and there was no contact whatsoever," the official said.

The embassy official said a U.S. military attache also attended a news conference at the base held by Gen. Efrain Vasquez Velasco, one of the coup leaders.

The conference was held Saturday, the day the coup began to fizzle, but attending such conferences is usual U.S. policy, the official said.

The attache was at the armed forces inspector general's office at Fort Tiuna "during the preparation for and up until the coup," the source told Agence France-Presse. MORE

US 'gave the nod' to Venezuelan coup
Posted: Wednesday, April 17, 2002

Julian Borger in Washington and Alex Bellos, South America correspondent

The Guardian

The Bush administration was under intense scrutiny yesterday for its role in last weekend's abortive coup in Venezuela, after admitting that US officials had held a series of meetings in recent months with Venezuelan military officers and opposition activists.

The White House yesterday confirmed that a few weeks before the coup attempt, administration officials met Pedro Carmona, the business leader who took over the interim government after President Hugo Chavez was arrested on Friday. But the White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer, denied that the US had offered any support for a putsch.

The US defence department also confirmed that the Venezuelan army's chief of staff, General Lucas Romero Rincon, visited the Pentagon in December and met the assistant secretary of defence for western hemispheric affairs, Roger Pardo-Maurer.

The Pentagon said: "We made it very, very clear that the United States' intent was to support democracy and human rights, and that we would in no way support any coups or unconstitutional activity."

However, it was not made clear why the talks broached the subject of a coup, four months before the event. MORE

Media's Role in Crisis Becomes the Big Story in Venezuela
Posted: Wednesday, April 17, 2002

Networks Defend Coverage After Chavez Says They Backed Ouster

By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service

Media owners acknowledged today that they intensely covered Chavez's fall but largely failed to give enough attention to the protests that helped restore him to power two days later. But the gap, they contended, was rooted in fear of hostile crowds and in journalistic judgment, not in partisanship.

"We're going to reflect," said Alberto Federico Ravell, owner of the news channel Globovision. "We are not going to let this stain our reputation."

The media's self-analysis came as a delegation of the Organization of American States began investigating Venezuela's fragile and polarized democracy, which broke down Thursday with Chavez's ouster by the military. But the military's choice of interim government collapsed two days later, returning Chavez to the presidency he won in 1998. Officials today raised the number of people killed in rioting and protests to 68.
Cesar Gaviria, the OAS secretary general, met with media leaders, who have long had a hostile relationship with the president, to hear their account of recent events. Full Article

Bush Gaffes Resurrect Old Demons
Posted: Wednesday, April 17, 2002

By Ken Fireman
Washington Bureau

Washington -- The Bush administration has stumbled badly in the past week over foreign policy challenges in the Middle East and Venezuela and must now work to restore its hard-won image as a skillful player on the international stage.

Political and foreign policy analysts warn that even if the long-term damage proves not to be extensive, the administration's misadventures with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have emboldened critics and could even revive the competence question that President George W. Bush had seemingly laid to rest in the wake of Sept. MORE

Bush Backs a Botched Coup in Venezuela
Posted: Wednesday, April 17, 2002

by Ted Rall, yahoo.com

"They hate what America stands for. They despise freedom. They now know we love freedom, and we will defend our freedom with all our might."
-George W. Bush, March 28

NEW YORK-You didn't have to blink to miss it. Let the record show that George W. Bush, reconstituted Cold Warrior and ardent defender of democracy, has suffered his first Bay of Pigs. Whether this experience will chasten him as much as it did JFK remains to be seen.

In a stunning reminder that the Resident's 76 percent approval rating stops at the Rio Grande, an American-backed coup against Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez went from fait accompli to farcical footnote in a matter of hours.

It all began at three o'clock in the morning of the 12th of April, when flamboyant populist Chávez was arrested by mutinous army officers and unceremoniously replaced by "interim president" Pedro Carmona Estanga. Carmona, chief of a national businessmen's association, immediately reverted to the right-wing strongman's play book. He suspended scheduled elections, tossed out laws regulating big business and promised "a pluralistic vision, democratic, civil and ensuring the implementation of the law." Following that declaration of devotion to democracy he dissolved both the National Assembly and the Supreme Court.

It comes as little surprise that the Bush Administration, itself the beneficiary of a coup, would endorse similar subversion elsewhere. But the American media also proved astonishingly sanguine at the replacement of a legally-elected leader by a `70s-style junta composed of right-wing army officers and corrupt businessmen. "We know that the Chávez government provoked this crisis," said White House press secretary Ari Fleischer in a statement welcoming news of the unfolding coup d'état. Describing Carmona as "a respected business leader" in a glowing puff piece, The New York Times slammed Chávez as "a ruinous demagogue."

Ruinous, perhaps. Demagogue, maybe. Nonetheless, Chávez was the legally-elected president of Venezuela. What had Chávez done, in the minds of the American establishment, to justify overthrow, exile and the subversion of democracy?

"According to the best information we have, the government suppressed what was a peaceful demonstration of the people," said Fleischer, in reference to an April 11th incident in which armed men wearing clothes indicating loyalty to Chávez shot 13 anti-government strikers to death and wounded more than 100. Was Fleischer suggesting that the Kent State shootings in 1970 should have precipitated a coup to remove President Richard Nixon?

Chávez's real crime was refusing to suck up to the U.S. or to its powerful corporate interests. A maverick elected with the overwhelming support of Venezuela's poor in 1998, he referred to his nation's upper classes as "squealing pigs" and "rancid oligarchs." He had a point, too: Venezuela's tiny elite have hogged its immense oil revenues for itself while millions starved.

Unfortunately for the downtrodden masses whose votes propelled Chávez into office, Venezuela produces 15 percent of America's oil. This makes the nation of particular economic and geopolitical interest to Washington. In February Chávez, acting on a campaign promise to distribute his country's oil revenues more evenly throughout its impoverished population, replaced Brigadier General Guaicaipuro Lameda with a politically progressive ally as head of the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela.

The business community howled in fearful anticipation of further reform. Company officers, fearing that decades-old systemic corruption was drawing to a close, ordered work slowdowns, company-mandated strikes and street demonstrations against their own government in the hope of crippling the economy and destabilizing Chávez's rule.

The Times summed up the case against Chávez succinctly: "He courted Fidel Castro and Saddam Hussein, battled the media and alienated virtually every constituency from middle-class professionals, academics and business leaders to union members and the Roman Catholic Church." He visited nations hated by the U.S., including Libya and Iran, and criticized the "war on terror." And he dedicated his rule to forcing business to share profits with ordinary citizens. In short, Chávez remained loyal to his leftist principles and to the desperate constituency who had elected him.

But it didn't matter whether or not the Venezuelan people liked him or approved of him. Chávez had to go.

It's too soon to know for certain whether the CIA tried to engineer an Allende-style operation in Venezuela, but anyone who's read ex-spy Philip Agee's seminal "Inside the Company" recognizes classic signs emanating from New York and Washington: official statements of encouragement are laced with just enough ambiguity to provide plausible deniability; blithe dismissals of democratic principles in friendly media are followed by rapid reversals when things start to go wrong. Don't be too surprised if those gun-toting "Chávez supporters" who opened fire on the April 11th ultimately turn out to be CIA-employed provocateurs.

It gets better: Chávez, while being held on the Venezuelan Caribbean island of La Orchila, noticed an American jet on the runway, and presumed it was waiting to take him into exile. "I saw the plane. It bore the markings of a private plane from the United States, not an official plane...What was it doing there?" Chávez asked, noting that the American ambassador to Venezuela recognized the plane. Days passed without a Bush Administration denial of involvement in the coup. Finally, on April 16th, Ari Fleischer acknowledged that State Department assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs Otto J. Reich called coup leader Carmona hours after the ouster of Chávez. In that call, according to Fleischer, Reich asked Carmona not to dismiss the National Assembly in order to avoid offending world opinion.

Operation Caracas went wrong nearly the second it started. A fervent U.S. ally, Mexican President Vincente Fox, joined Fidel Castro in condemning the coup and refusing to acknowledge the new regime. Soon every government in the Western hemisphere except our own had condemned the coup. Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets demanding Chávez's return. By April 13th, Carmona had replaced Chávez in the pokey and the U.S. State Department was calling for the "return of democracy."

Asked whether the U.S. knew about the coup in advance, Fleischer waffled. True, numerous anti-Chávez activists had visited the White House in recent weeks to request U.S. help in deposing the president. "We explicitly told opposition leaders that the United States would not support a coup," he said. He wouldn't say, however, whether or not the U.S. ultimately green-lighted a covert action.

The moral high ground has eroded out from under the U.S. in the months following September 11th. First our bombing campaign killed 10,000 innocent Afghan civilians as we sought vengeance for the murder of 3,000 Americans. Then we supported Ariel Sharon's murderous rampage in the West Bank. Now we're back in the business of creating-or trying to create-banana republics in South America. Not only are we reinforcing the worldwide perception that Americans are pompous hypocrites; we're setting the stage for the kind of instability that followed U.S. coups in Iran.

"I haven't said that this conspiracy (against me) has its roots in the United States," President Chávez said April 15th. He didn't need to.

(Ted Rall's new book, a graphic travelogue about his recent coverage of the Afghan war titled "To Afghanistan and Back," hits stores next week. Ordering and review-copy information are available at nbmpub.com.)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/020418/7/1eyd5.html

Bush's first Bay of Pigs
Posted: Wednesday, April 17, 2002

by Ted Rall

"They hate what America stands for. They despise freedom. They now know we love freedom, and we will defend our freedom with all our might."
-George W. Bush, March 28

NEW YORK-You didn't have to blink to miss it. Let the record show that George W. Bush, reconstituted Cold Warrior and ardent defender of democracy, has suffered his first Bay of Pigs. Whether this experience will chasten him as much as it did JFK remains to be seen.
In a stunning reminder that the Resident's 76 percent approval rating stops at the Rio Grande, an American-backed coup against Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez went from fait accompli to farcical footnote in a matter of hours. MORE

Don't believe everything you read in the papers about Venezuela
Posted: Wednesday, April 17, 2002

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Contrary to the reports of a spoonfed western press, Hugo Chavez was not unpopular and did not resign, says Greg Palast

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.

Let's begin with the faux "resignation" that allowed the Bush and Blair governments to fall over their own feet rushing towards recognition of the coup leaders. I had seen no statement of this alleged resignation, nor heard it, nor received any reliable witness report of it. I was fascinated. In January, I had broadcast on US radio that Chavez would face a coup by the end of April. But resign? That was not the Chavez style. MORE

Democracy When it Suits
Posted: Wednesday, April 17, 2002

Radio Netherlands

Military and civilian figures plotting against Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez met with US government officials several times before last week's failed coup. The admission, together with Washington's eagerness to proclaim an end to the reign of the democratically-elected president, has placed the world's only superpower in an embarrassing position. MORE

Wrong turn in Venezuela
Posted: Wednesday, April 17, 2002

www.sfgate.com

THE DRAMATIC failure of the military coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is an embarrassment for the Bush administration.

Indeed, the administration's role in condoning the overthrow of a democratically elected leader is nothing less than shameful. Did the administration abandon the defense of democracy, one of the most sacred pillars of U.S. foreign policy, just so it could get rid of a pesky, petroleum- rich opponent and install a more docile servant of Big Oil? MORE

U.S. Details Talks With Opposition
Posted: Wednesday, April 17, 2002

Administration Insists It Did Not Encourage a Coup

The Bush administration acknowledged yesterday that senior U.S. officials had met with a number of Venezuelan opposition figures in recent months, including key leaders of last Friday's abortive coup, but insisted it had never encouraged them to mount a coup against President Hugo Chavez.

"United States officials explicitly made clear repeatedly to opposition leaders that the United States would not support a coup," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. MORE

World News
Posted: Wednesday, April 17, 2002

• Some Ask, Were Aliens or Bush Behind 9-11?
• Bush Predicts More Terrorism
• Reporter Recounts Israeli Detention
> Trying to distract from Powell's failed mission
• White House enmeshed in its own rhetoric
• US Says Bin Laden Escaped at Tora Bora
• Bush Gaffes Resurrect Old Demons
• Chavez Ouster Received U.S. Backing
• Capsian Littoral States Should Resist Foreign Interference
• Angry Arafat Appeals for U.S. Action
• Israelis Invade Palestinian Village
• UK - 'Loving mother' who killed her babies
• US gave green light to Chavez coup plotters
• Robert Fisk: Fear and learning in America
• As Powell prepares to leave, the fighting flares again in Bethlehem
• Grieving survivors say the Israelis buried war crimes
• Rules on weapons exports to Israel to be tightened
• London and Brussels politicians demand UN investigation of Jenin
• The battle for the truth
> What really happened in Jenin camp?
• UK- MP accuses Sharon of 'barbarism'
• Top Pakistan Judge Quits Over Musharraf Power Play

Cheering on democracy's overthrow
Posted: Tuesday, April 16, 2002

The putsch against Venezuela's elected leader failed - this time

Isabel Hilton
The Guardian

The Foreign Office minister Denis MacShane was not the only one caught out by Hugo Chavez's return to power in Venezuela on Sunday, but he was certainly one of the most embarrassed. Mr MacShane committed the undiplomatic error of describing Chavez as a "ranting demagogue". Of course, when he let slip those unfortunate comments, Mr MacShane thought that Hugo Chavez was a leftwing ex-president of a country with important mineral reserves in which the US takes a strong interest.
Unfortunately for Mr MacShane, the ranting demagogue in question was restored to his job by a combination of people power and constitutionally minded army officers. Odd, though, that Friday's coup, a procedure not normally considered an aid to democratic practice, did not attract the condemnation it deserved. Chavez, after all, has twice been elected president by the largest margins in Venezuela's history.

In Washington, where the administration blamed Chavez himself for the coup that briefly removed him from office, the reaction to his restoration was even stranger. Far from welcoming the triumph of democracy, the US administration reprimanded Chavez - expressing the menacing hope that he would be more careful in future, presumably in case he overthrew himself again. MORE

Bush Officials Met With Venezuelans Who Ousted Leader
Posted: Tuesday, April 16, 2002

(NY Times) - Senior members of the Bush administration met several times in recent months with leaders of a coalition that ousted the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, for two days last weekend, and agreed with them that he should be removed from office, administration officials said today. But administration officials gave conflicting accounts of what the United States told those opponents of Mr. Chávez about acceptable ways of ousting him. MORE

Failure to Decry Coup Attempt Puts the U.S. in an Awkward Spot
Posted: Tuesday, April 16, 2002

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration scrambled Monday to explain why it failed to denounce the coup that briefly swept Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez from office last week, an attempt that Latin American leaders decried as an attack on a democratically elected leader.

While others in the region were urging Chavez's restoration to power, the White House initially blamed the coup attempt on the president's own actions. Only on Sunday, when Chavez was poised to regain his authority, did the United States join other members of the Organization of American States in a vaguely worded resolution that condemned the "alteration of constitutional order in Venezuela." MORE

'The death and resurrection of Hugo Chavez'
Posted: Tuesday, April 16, 2002

By Gabriel Ash

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was ousted on Friday by a group of conspirators lead by an oilman and a general. The international press hastened to bury Chavez with summaries of his ill-fated career. But after spending only two days in military limbo, Chavez returned triumphantly to his palace on Sunday, carried by huge popular support. The events were stunning.

Chavez was democratically elected in 1998 in a landslide that signaled the bankruptcy of the old political order. He is a hard and polarizing figure, but those who call him a demagogue are wrong. Chavez is a real populist. Under his eye, Venezuela ratified one of the most progressive constitutions ever written. Using the new political procedures, Chavez dismantled the power of the old elite. Then, not only did he push policies of land redistribution and free education and health services for the poor, but in order to pay for these policies he found the courage, or the temerity, to take on U.S. corporate oil interests. Nobody can accuse Chavez of not taking his pledges to the voters seriously. MORE

Missing in action
Posted: Tuesday, April 16, 2002

New research suggests that television news fails to inform young people about what's going on in the Occupied Territories, or why. Greg Philo explains MORE

Bush's Betrayal of Democracy
Posted: Tuesday, April 16, 2002

http://www.washingtonpost.com

Had the armed forces and its allies succeeded in forcing Venezuela's democratically elected president and legislature out of office this past week, Latin America would have experienced its first outright military coup in 26 years, with the notable exception of the overthrow of Haiti's first-ever elected president in 1991. The collapse of democracy in Venezuela would have exacerbated the sharp social tensions in a bitterly divided country that is the United States' third-largest source of imported oil. It also would have seriously undermined hemispheric efforts championed by three previous American presidents to strengthen democracy and the rule of law and put an end to military in politics. A successful coup in Venezuela was averted when it became clear that President Hugo Chavez retained considerable support in the country and the military belatedly realized that the provisional government it had installed severely overreached in a misguided attempt to dismantle the elected legislature and dismiss the supreme court. MORE

Television Stations Play Fundamental Role in Anti-Chávez Coup
Posted: Tuesday, April 16, 2002

CNN broadcasts contradictory versions throughout the day, The anchors and the images only heighten the confusion

With the power of TV images and in the midst of the confusion during the protests hitting Venezuela Thursday, the large international news media hastened the fall of Hugo Chávez' government. First came the media coup in this Andean nation, after which – again and again on the commercial chain Globovisión - the story he had resigned.

CNN en Español [a subsidiary of AOL Time Warner] played a key role throughout the long day yesterday. It allocated more than three hours solid to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez' message, but it contrasted what Chávez had to say with images of the protests on the streets neighboring the Miraflores Palace. And its correspondents and anchors endorsed the versions of the events put out by military opposed to Chávez.

Without interruption, CNN's coverage during the day about what was happening in Venezuela tilted toward conflict, Chávez' "lack of control," and the polemical closing of the commercial TV networks Telever and Venevisión, as well as the commercial radio stations in Caracas. On Venezuela's government network, Chávez criticized the owners of the commercial media, saying they had "malign intent" against the government. He explained that the closing of the commercial media was in accordance with Article 192 of the Telecommunications Law, with grants the president the power to control the signal.

While it transmitted a split-screen image of the Chávez talk – half of the screen showed Chávez, the other half scenes of the street protests – CNN summarized Chávez' message as: "the principal problem is the communications media," "the media have been irresponsible," "the owners of the networks have incited the violence." MORE

World News
Posted: Tuesday, April 16, 2002

• Republicans Bracing for Bush Poll Decline
• Explosion rocks capital of Yemen
• Venezuela undergoes high drama in two days
• Failure to Decry Coup Attempt Puts the U.S. in an Awkward Spot
• Bush Officials Met With Venezuelans Who Ousted Leader
• Dutch government resigns over report on Srebrenica massacre
• Ex-Guerrilla Leader Wins in E. Timor
• Saudi: Suicide Bombings Not Terrorism
• Sex scandals may lead Catholics in US to defy Rome
• Afghan poppy growers settle in for long struggle
• Chavez comeback upsets investors
• The lunar landscape that was the Jenin refugee camp
• Should History Record the Unvarnished Bush?
• Top Pentagon official probed in Enron case
• US hawk 'tried to sully Iraq arms inspector'
• EU threatens to block Afghan aid
• Chavez promises national dialogue including opposition
• Judge orders ex-dictator Stroessner arrested
• Al-Qaeda claims attack on Tunisia synagogue: paper
• Bahrain Attack Sends Shivers in US Fifth Fleet
• At Jenin refugee camp, only the ruins are beyond argument
• Desperate Powell to meet Arafat
> US grasps at Sharon plan for regional talks
• U.S. Warplanes Strike Iraqi Air Defense Site
• Venezuela Coup Plotters Were 'In Contact With US'
• Secret UK Report Says India Violence Toll 'Much Greater'
• Amid the ruins of Jenin, the grisly evidence of a war crime
• EU dismisses sanctions and backs Powell's peace mission
• Iran urges Muslims to halt oil sales to Sharon's allies
• Ann Clwyd: Europe must show its mettle and punish Israel
• 4 killed, 25 injured in Kashmir encounter

Chavez fell foul of Bush doctrine
Posted: Tuesday, April 16, 2002

by Thomas Walkom
www.thestar.com

THERE ARE two George W. Bush doctrines. The second and best known has to do with terror. Those who harbour or support terrorists, or even those who are seen by Washington as not adequately opposing terrorism, are liable to U.S. attack. It is neatly summed in the U.S. president's pithy phrase: "Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists."

But there is a prior George W. doctrine, upon which the second is based. It is about energy and is reflected in actions which defined Bush's early presidency — his rejection of the Kyoto accord on global warming for fear that it might interfere with the hydrocarbon industry, his insistence on drilling for oil in an Alaskan wildlife preserve.

That first Bush doctrine could be summed up in the phrase: Those who do not supply us with the energy we want are against us. MORE

Venezuelan democracy got no respect from U.S.
Posted: Tuesday, April 16, 2002

By MARK WEISBROT
www.chron.com

A joke that was once popular in Latin America has become relevant again: Why has there never been a military coup in the United States? Answer: because there's no U.S. embassy here.

Latin Americans would not be surprised to read that the military coup that ousted President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela for nearly two days was well-orchestrated and planned for at least six months, according to The Washington Post. Nor, that the plotters visited the U.S. Embassy in Caracas seeking support.

Washington denies having anything to do with the coup, and we probably won't know for some time what role, if any, the U.S. government played. It took a couple of years and a congressional investigation to declassify the details of the United States' massive involvement in the overthrow of Chile's elected government in 1973. MORE

US returns to bad old ways in Venezuela
Posted: Monday, April 15, 2002

www.intelbriefing.com

The one important thing to be learnt from the Venezuelan coup is that the United States has not changed its view that only Governments acceptable to Washington can be allowed to survive in Latin America and that like it or not, the United States will undermine and help overthrow even legally elected administrations if it so chooses. This became obvious when Pentagon sources gleefully revealed that the United States provided critical military and intelligence support to the Venezuelan military coup against President Hugo Chavez on Friday 12th April. MORE

Rumored U.S. Involvement Could Hurt Bush Admin
Posted: Monday, April 15, 2002

www.stratfor.com

Several human sources told STRATFOR on April 14 that the U.S. State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency may have had a hand in the tumultuous events that occurred between April 5 and April 13 in Caracas, culminating in President Hugo Chavez's brief ouster and his return to power.

Although these sources may have had their own motivations for making the allegation, it is possible -- if the Chavez regime produces convincing evidence of U.S. government involvement in the failed coup -- that it could poison Washington's relations with governments throughout Latin America. Efforts to win regional support for increased U.S. military support to Colombia, and to other Andean ridge countries battling the twin threats of international drug trafficking and nominally Marxist insurgencies, would be set back significantly in Latin America and Washington. The Bush administration's efforts to pursue more free trade agreements in the region also would be undermined.

Chavez could strengthen his own political base in Venezuela if he can quickly prove U.S. involvement in attempts to topple his 3-year-old regime. This also would give a tremendous boost to Chavez's leadership status and credibility with populist and nationalist groups across Latin America that view the United States as a threat and that oppose U.S.-style capitalist democracy. MORE

U.S. Backed Coup Defeated In Venezuela!
Posted: Monday, April 15, 2002

By Steve Argue

On April 13th President Hugo Chavez was returned to power by a day of militant protests and rebellion within the ranks of the military. One day earlier the Chavez's democratically elected government had been overthrown in a U.S. backed coup d'etates. Overthrowing that government and taking power for one day were the forces led by right-wing economist Pedro Carmona. While it was reported in the corporate media of the U.S. and Venezuela that Chavez had resigned his daughter refuted that claim on Cuban TV where she pleaded for legal help for her imprisoned father.

Army Commander Efrain Vasquez told reporters that Chavez is being held at the Fort Tiuna military facility where the military plans to keep him "for the moment... until we find a more appropriate detention site." Still the Bush administration would not characterize the coup for what it was stating: "That is not the word we are using. We do not think that is an accurate description of what happened." MORE

U.S. Backed Coup Defeated In Venezuela!
Posted: Monday, April 15, 2002

by Steve Argue 10:16pm Sun Apr 14 '02
steveorchid@yahoo.com

U.S. Hands Off Venezuela!
U.S. BACKED COUP DEFEATED IN VENEZUELA!

By STEVE ARGUE

On April 13th President Hugo Chavez was returned to power by a day of militant protests and rebellion within the ranks of the military. One day earlier the Chavez's democratically elected government had been overthrown in a U.S. backed coup d'etates. Overthrowing that government and taking power for one day were the forces led by right-wing economist Pedro Carmona. While it was reported in the corporate media of the U.S. and Venezuela that Chavez had resigned his daughter refuted that claim on Cuban TV where she pleaded for legal help for her imprisoned father.

Army Commander Efrain Vasquez told reporters that Chavez is being held at the Fort Tiuna military facility where the military plans to keep him "for the moment... until we find a more appropriate detention site." Still the Bush administration would not characterize the coup for what it was stating: "That is not the word we are using. We do not think that is an accurate description of what happened."

The Bush administration went further in stating its support for the coup releasing a statement that repeated the lies being told by coup leader Pedro Carmona. The statement says: "Yesterday's events in Venezuela resulted in a transitional government until new elections can be held. Though details are still unclear, undemocratic actions committed or encouraged by the Chavez administration provoked yesterday's crisis in Venezuela."

Immediately after taking power the U.S. supported government of Carmona also dissolved the elected National Assembly. Democracy is of course a fictional word coming from the likes of Bush who see Chavez as a hindrance to U.S. corporate interests in South America.

The supposed undemocratic actions of Chavez started with a demonstration called by Carmona and others. The demonstration was organized primarily by wealthy businessmen and the corporate media to oppose Chavez's appointees to the state owned oil firm PDVSA. Some of the corrupt pro-business leaders of the unions also supported the demonstration.

Obviously Carmona thought there was a lot at stake in who runs the PDVSA. Carmona as a representative of groups promoting so called free trade in the America's is a proponent of privatization. One strategy often used to promote privatization is the appointment of managers in state firms that purposely mismanage the firm making privatization look attractive to some workers later down the road. This was the strategy that was used to push the privatization of the PEMEX oil firm in Mexico, but Chavez's firing and appointment of new managers at PDVSA may serve to block this strategy in Venezuela. Wealthy businessmen like Carmona are the biggest promoters of privatization because they stand to gain profits once those firms belong to them. Meanwhile services and finances for social programs are always hurt by privatization.

Every ten minutes the corporate media Venezuela ran adds promoting the demonstration against Chavez. A crowd of between 100 and 200 thousand people showed up. In Venezuela an eyewitness named Gregory Wilpert gives the following account of what happened:

"It was a successful march, peaceful, and without government interference of any kind, even though the march illegally blocked the entire freeway, which is Caracas main artery of transportation, for several hours.

"Supposedly at the spur of the moment, the organizers decided to re-route the march to Miraflores, the president's office building, so as to confront the pro-government demonstration, which was called in the last minute. About 5,000 Chavez-supporters had gathered there by the time the anti-government demonstrators got there. In-between the two demonstrations were the city police, under the control of the oppositional mayor of Caracas, and the National Guard, under control of the president. All sides claim that they were there peacefully and did not want to provoke anyone. I got there just when the opposition demonstration and the National Guard began fighting each other. Who started the fight, which involved mostly stones and tear gas, is, as is so often the case in such situations, nearly impossible to tell. A little later, shots were fired into the crowds and I clearly saw that there were three parties involved in the shooting, the city police, Chavez supporters, and snipers from buildings above. Again, who shot first has become a moot and probably impossible to resolve question. At least ten people were killed and nearly 100 wounded in this gun battle--almost all of them demonstrators.

"One of the Television stations managed to film one of the three sides in this battle and broadcast the footage over and over again, making it look like the only ones shooting were Chavez supporters from within the demonstration at people beyond the view of the camera. The media over and over again showed the footage of the Chavez supporters and implied that they were shooting at an unarmed crowd. As it turns out, and as will probably never be reported by the media, most of the dead are Chavez supporters. Also, as will probably never be told, the snipers were members of an extreme opposition party, known as Bandera Roja."

It was from these events that the opposition, the corporate media, and the Bush administration claim that Chavez armed the demonstrators and ordered them to fire on the opposition.

The inflammatory and untrue coverage in the corporate media caused Chavez to move in and temporarily shut down the stations in the name of public safety. Soon after the military arrested Chavez and placed Carmona in power.

In response to Carmona's coup d'etates troops loyal to Chavez took over the presidential palace and tens of thousands of Chavez supporters surrounded the palace. Police loyal to Carmona attacked the Chavez supporters. Nine people are reported dead. Chavez supporters have also taken over some of the corporate media.

The rebellion of April 13th against the one-day presidency of Carmona has freed Chavez and reinstalled his presidency. Upon returning to the presidential palace Chavez greeted enthusiastic supporters saying, "Venezuela would not tolerate an autocracy."

Chavez has angered both U.S. imperialism and the wealthy of Venezuela through policies that help the poor and extend good relations to countries and forces that the U.S. government sees as enemies to U.S. corporate interests.

Chavez helped his poor country extract a better price for its oil on the world market by joining OPEC. In doing so he is able to increase the government income through the PDVSA and spend money on some important projects that benefit the people. He also introduced a micro-credit program that helped the poor gain needed credit. In addition Chavez carried out a limited land reform for poor farmers and has also issued titles for self built homes in the barrios. His economic policies have helped bring unemployment down from 18% to 13% during his three years in power while steady raises in the minimum wage and salaries in public sector jobs have also helped increase the income of the working class.

One thing the wealthy capitalists of third world countries and their imperialist counterparts in organizations such as the IMF and the World Bank do not like is seeing money spent on the poor. Throughout the world the pressure of U.S. imperialism, both economic and military, has been pushing countries to cut spending on education and health care. Instead Chavez doubled investment in education putting over a million children into school for the first time and tripling literacy courses. Chavez has also been credited with bringing the infant mortality rate down from 21% to 17%.

In addition to angering U.S. imperialism by spending money on the people Chavez has also alienated imperialism through his internationalism. He condemned the U.S. war in Afghanistan. He also holds relations with countries abused by the United States such as Cuba, Iraq, and Libya. In addition Chavez supports the peasant insurgency against the U.S. backed death squad government of Colombia.

The fact that Chavez is carrying out these policies within the context of a capitalist economy severely limits how far the reforms can go and also keep his presidency in a very unstable state. Cuba, since its 1959 socialist revolution, has been able to provide free education up through university levels and virtually eradicate illiteracy, provide free health care, carry out a sweeping land reform, convert agriculture to organic farming techniques, and make sure that everyone is fed even in this face of a U.S. led economic embargo. This progress would not have been possible under a capitalist economy. Further more the revolution probably would have been overthrown by the economic power of the capitalists had their ownership of production not been taken away and used for the benefit of the people of Cuba.

The half steps taken by Chavez serve to anger the capitalists of both the United States and Venezuela without permanently neutralizing their power over the day-to-day workings of the economy and without neutralizing their power within the military inherited from the previous regime. Corporate control of the media, rather than nationalization or direct workers control, was a very important tool used by the capitalists in the attempt to overthrow of the Chavez government. Like all wealth the wealth of capitalist newspapers belong to the workers who created that wealth, not the capitalist blood suckers that have stolen that wealth. While a freer press than that of Cuba is possible and should exist in a socialist society, there is no reason to continue to allow the undemocratic control that the capitalists have over information. The present occupations of the corporate media could serve as a first step towards a transferring the media and the entire economy into the hands of the people of Venezuela.

U.S. Hands Off Of Venezuela! U.S. Hands Off Hugo Chavez!

U.S suffers a major reverse in Latin America
Posted: Monday, April 15, 2002

In a dramatic twist, the democratically elected President of Venezuela has made an unexpected comeback when the US inspired military coup plotters realized that they had seriously miscalculated the level of his popular support and that they now faced a major revolt by pro-Chavez supporters and troops still loyal to the President throughout much of the country. Indeed it is rumored that many junior and middle ranking military officers refused to fire on Chavez supporters who stormed the Presidential Palace on Saturday and apparently did not fully support American interference in Venezuelan politics. MORE

World News
Posted: Monday, April 15, 2002

• Jet crash kills 118 in South Korea; 39 survive
• Chavez Seeks to Restore Control of Split Venezuela
• Army of poor gives Chavez his job back
> Venezuelan coup: Military leaders cede to protesters
• Pope Summons American Cardinals
• Osama bin Laden Shown in New Video
• 109 Killed in Chinese Plane Crash
• Report: Israel Captures Arafat Aide
• Palestinians vow to keep using suicide bombers
• Red Crescent Retrieves Jenin Bodies
• Amnesty Condemns Guantanamo Prisons
• Four U.S. Soldiers Killed
• Venezuela: Rumored U.S. Involvement Could Hurt Bush
• Church-Abuse Scandal Widens
• Oil rises as Chavez returns to power
• Colombia's Chief Wants More US Help
• Venezuelan Oil to Return to Normal
• 112 Feared Dead in S. Korea Crash
• Chavez Reclaims Power in Venezuela
• Master class as Tiger retains crown
• US urges Venezuelan leader to ditch left-wing agenda
• Powell pays dearly for his boss's failings
• Ariel Sharon's warning, troops may storm Yasser Arafat's headquarters
• Tongue-tied in Arafat's shattered bunker
• New threat to US peace mission
• Palestinians vow to keep using suicide bombers
• Israel won't back use of U.S. peacekeepers
• Chinese Jet Slams Into Korean Mountain, 39 Survive
• Amnesty sends US dossier of complaints over Afghanistan detainees
• Powell talks fail to end deadlock
• Israelis warn EU against buffer force plan
• Bush fears a backlash at home
• Powell extends visit for second Arafat meeting
• Threat of new Iraqi war has neighboring Turkey on edge
• Palestinian captives 'tortured and humiliated' at Israeli army base
• Survivors of Jenin creep home to see destruction
• Why I'm boycotting anything 'made in Israel'
• Rabbi describes attack on Kiev's central synagogue as a 'pogrom'
• Whatever the outcome, Mr Powell's trip is far from a waste of time

Venezuela: Not a Banana-Oil Republic after All
Posted: Monday, April 15, 2002

by Gregory Wilpert

It looks like Venezuela is not just another banana-oil republic after all. Many here feared that with the April 11 coup attempt against President Hugo Chavez, Venezuela was being degraded to being just another country that is forced to bend to the powerful will of the United States. The successful counter-coup of April 14, though, which reinstated Chavez, proved that Venezuela is a tougher cookie than the coup planners thought.

The coup leaders against President Chavez made two fundamental miscalculations. First, they started having delusions of grandeur, believing that the support for their coup was so complete that they could simply ignore the other members of their coup coalition and place only their own in the new government. The labor union federation CTV, which saw itself as one of the main actors of the opposition movement to President Chavez, and nearly all moderate opposition parties were excluded from the new "democratic unity" cabinet. The new transition cabinet ended up including only the most conservative elements of Venezuelan society. They then proceeded to dissolve the legislature, the Supreme Court, the attorney general's office, the national electoral commission, and the state governorships, among others. Next, they decreed that the 1999 constitution, which had been written by a constitutional assembly and ratified by vote, following the procedures outlined in the pervious constitution, was to be suspended. Also an intensive witch-hunt began, looking to arrest any members of the Chavez government. The new transition president would thus rule by decree until next year, when new elections would be called. Generally, this type of regime fits the textbook definition of dictatorship. More

Venezuelan Democracy Survives, In Spite of Washington
Posted: Monday, April 15, 2002

by Mark Weisbrot

A joke that was once popular in Latin America has become relevant again: Why has there never been a military coup in the United States? Answer: because there's no U.S. embassy here.

Latin Americans would not be surprised to read that the military coup which ousted President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela for nearly two days was well-orchestrated and planned for at least six months, according to the Washington Post. And that the plotters visited the US embassy in Caracas, seeking support.

Washington denies having anything to do with the coup, and we probably won't know for some time what role, if any, was played by the US government. It took a couple of years and a Congressional investigation to declassify the details of the United States' massive involvement in the overthrow of Chile's elected government in 1973.

But the Bush Administration's support for the Venezuelan coup was unqualified-in fact it tried to deny that this was a military coup at all. This was a ridiculous position: the country's elected President was arrested and replaced by the military, and his replacement dissolved the elected National Assembly and Supreme Court. If that is not a military coup, then there is no such thing. More

Hugo Chavez's Return and the Venezuelan multitude
Posted: Sunday, April 14, 2002

By Jon Beasley-Murray, Caracas

So this is how a modern coup d'etat is overthrown: almost invisibly, at the margins of the media. Venezuela's return to democracy (and democracy it is, make no mistake) took place despite a self-imposed media blackout of astonishing proportions. A huge popular revolt against an illegitimate regime took place while the country's middle class was watching soap operas and game shows; television networks took notice only in the very final moments, and, even then, only once they were absolutely forced to do so. Thereafter television could do no more than bear mute witness to a series of events almost without precedent in Latin America--and perhaps elsewhere--as a repressive regime, result of a pact between the military and business, was brought down less than forty-eight hours after its initial triumph. These events resist representation and have yet to be turned into narrative or analysis (the day after, the newspapers have simply failed to appear), but they inspire thoughts of new forms of Latin American political legitimacy, of which this revolt may be just one (particularly startling) harbinger. MORE

Chávez de nuevo presidente
Posted: Sunday, April 14, 2002

A las 3:15 de la madrugada aproximadamente regresó por helicóptero desde La Orchila, donde estaba confinado, el presidente Hugo Chávez al palacio presidencial de Miraflores. Fue recibido por el vicepresidente ejecutivo Diosdado Cabello y por su gabinete. Cabello firmó un decreto de entrega de la Presidencia a Hugo Chávez.

Comenzó su alocución confesando que todavía está asimilando este proceso. "A Dios lo que es de Dios y al César lo que es del César", fueron sus primeras palabras. Dijo que estos eventos constituyen un hecho histórico para el mundo. Llamó a la calma y a dejar el análisis de las causas y sus correcciones para otro momento. "Vamos a casa", señaló. Pidió que cesen los disturbios que todavía puedan persistir.

Llamó a los cuerpos policiales a dejar de reprimir "de manera cruel al pueblo venezolano".

"Debemos aceptarnos los unos a los otros", dijo. MORE

Translator

Gloria al bravo pueblo...
Posted: Sunday, April 14, 2002

VHeadline.com : Sunday, April 14, 2002 -- 6:20 a.m.

President Hugo Chavez Frias has assured Venezuelans that his return to power will not be marked by hatred or recriminations ... at 4:35 a.m. this morning local time the 47-year-old President appeared in a TV and radio broadcast to the nation from Miraflores accompanied by his Cabinet and the representatives of established public authorities.

"To God that which is God's, to Caesar that which is Caesar's and to the (Venezuelan) people that which belongs to the people!" Visibly emotional, Chavez Frias greeted his Executive Vice President Diosdado Cabello and said "I was surely afraid for your safety ... I am still in a state of shock and trying to take in this counter-counter-revolutionary process ... so many things have happened over the last three days!"

"I send a message from the depths of my heart to Venezuela and the world that his palace is the Venezuelan people ... the people have retaken this palace and they will not be removed!"

"I have to say that what has happened in Venezuela over these last few hours is unique in the world .... the Venezuelan people and its Armed Forces have written a new page in Venezuelan history ... and what a great page! It is an example of how a nation has definitely woken up and will not allow (subversive) manipulations to continue."

Chavez Frias has called on all Venezuelans to return to their homes and remain calm ... "they have told me that there have been riots and looting ... we are going home to reorganize and reflect on the way ahead ... we should call on Christ and engage in peace, there has been such a dearth of spiritual peace during these momentous moments for our country ... there has been bloodletting and pain which must be a gigantic lesson for us all to learn ... but Venezuela now has its legitimate government ... governed by a Constitution which has been approved by the people."

In a final comment Chavez Frias said that the hour has truly come where the Venezuelan print and broadcast media must take a long and serious look at the path it has chosen to take ... "it should get back on track again with a sense of reason that it had apparently lost! I am not going to fall into the trap of hatred and recriminations ... we must take decisions and adjust many things ... we must respect dignity, without retaliations, no witch hunts ... we should not tolerate disrespect for liberties we have won."

Venezuela's Chavez Returns in Triumph as Coup Fails
Posted: Sunday, April 14, 2002

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Fiery Venezuelan populist Hugo Chavez returned in triumph to his presidential palace on Sunday after a government set up following Friday's military coup collapsed in the face of a rebellion by loyalist troops and massive protests.

Raising his fist in jubilation, a grinning Chavez, who first came to prominence as leader of a failed coup attempt in 1992, advanced slowly through a tightly packed crowd of chanting supporters toward the entrance of the Miraflores palace as a military band played.

The former paratrooper turned politician had flown back from the Venezuelan island of La Orchila where he had been held under arrest by military top brass who briefly ousted him as leader of the world's fourth-largest oil-exporting nation in favor of mild-mannered businessman Pedro Carmona.

"In Venezuela, we have a true democratic and peaceful revolution that won't stop for anything or anyone because it is God's will," Chavez told reporters, saying he had been kept incommunicado.

State prosecutors were interviewing Carmona and several senior military officers at the Fuerte Tiuna military base, but they were not formally under arrest, Chavez's defense minister, Jose Vicente Rangel, said.

Asked how the newly restored Chavez government would treat those who temporarily pushed it from power, Rangel responded, "There would be no witch hunt."

"What the opposition has to get into their heads is that if they want power, they have to win people's votes. They should forget coup d'etats," Rangel said. MORE

World News
Posted: Sunday, April 14, 2002

• Germany to atone for World War II massacre in Italy
• East Timor Goes to the Polls
• U.S. Backed Coup Defeated In Venezuela!
• Crisis day for Indian PM as key ally mulls support
• Eritrea accepts arbiters' ruling on border with Ethiopia
• Venezuela's Chavez re-assumes presidency after failed coup
• Hamas: Suicide attacks will continue as long as Israel's occupation
• Powell meets Arafat in West Bank, looks for peace breakthrough
• Three dead in street protests in Caracas
• Venezuela's Chavez Looks Set to Return in Triumph
• Chavez poised for comeback
• Powell Must See For Himself What Israel Inflicted on Jenin
• Pro-Palestinian march in Amsterdam turns violent
• Western Troops Face Afghan Backlash
• Powell Meets With Arafat This Morning
• Bloody Evidence of Jenin Massacre Starts to Emerge
• Pro-Chavez Rebellion at Venezuela Army Base
• Camp That Became a Slaugherhouse
• Israel Launches New Offensive
• Israel's Bloody Intransigence Silences Bush
• Franciscans Refuse to Leave Christ's Birthplace

Venezuela's Chavez Looks Set to Return in Triumph
Posted: Sunday, April 14, 2002

By Jason Webb

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Fiery Venezuelan populist Hugo Chavez seemed set for an improbable but triumphant return to power on Sunday after a government set up following Friday's military coup collapsed in the face of a rebellion by loyalist troops and massive protests.

Chavez was expected to fly back to the mainland from the Caribbean island of La Orchila where he had been imprisoned after the smoothly executed coup that briefly installed mild-mannered businessman Pedro Carmona as leader of the world's fourth-largest oil-exporting country.

"We guarantee that the president of the republic, Hugo Chavez Frias, will soon assume his functions as constitutional president," said Diosdado Cabello, who was Chavez's deputy until Friday but was sworn in as temporary president late on Saturday to cover the gap until his boss's return. MORE

Chavez makes dramatic comeback
Posted: Sunday, April 14, 2002

Supporters of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez are expecting him to make a dramatic return to power following the resignation of the interim leader who replaced him.

Less than 48 hours after being appointed by the military, business leader Pedro Carmona stood down in the face of massive street protests in support of Mr Chavez.

Former Vice-President Diosdado Cabello has now been sworn in as president, but says he is simply waiting to return the country to his ally Mr Chavez as soon as he reappears. MORE

Loyal troops rally to ousted Venezuela leader
Posted: Sunday, April 14, 2002

By Topaz Amoore

PEDRO CARMONA, Venezuela's caretaker president, abruptly postponed the inauguration of his new cabinet yesterday as a rebellion flared at an army base, apparently instigated by officers loyal to Hugo Chavez, the ousted president.

As resistance to the new regime grew, officials said that at least 16 people had been killed and 350 wounded during disturbances in the capital, Caracas, and other cities as pro-Chavez supporters clashed with security forces.More

Chávez Comeback Exposes U.S. Government & Media Lies
Posted: Sunday, April 14, 2002

By D. Baatar, Jared Israel, Nestor Gorojovsky & Nico Varkevisser

To paraphrase an old proverb: "Celebrate in haste; repent at leisure."

On April 13th the New York Times rushed to gloat that one more opponent of the US Empire had been crushed.

Never mind that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez had been elected by overwhelming popular vote. (In contrast, might we note, to George Walker Bush.) All the same, an editorial in the Times described the Venezuelan military/big business coup d'état as an effort to reassert democracy:

"Venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened by a would-be dictator...[because] the military intervened and handed power to a respected business leader." - N Y Times (1)

And the Times added:

"But democracy has not yet been restored, and won't be until a new president is elected." (1)

In the bad old Cold War days, the US Establishment used to attack its opponents for not holding multiparty elections.

Well, Venezuela did hold multiparty elections and Chávez won by a landslide. But this was not sufficient.

In the New World Order, democracy is not defined as holding elections. Democracy is defined as supporting US polices. No matter how many elections Chávez won by how many landslides, his resistance to US Diktat made him by definition antidemocratic, that is, "a would-be dictator."

Thus when the military took over Venezuela three days ago and installed a pro-Washington big business leader as President, the Times did not describe this military coup d'état as a threat to democracy. Rather, they described it as *ending* a threat to democracy.

Similarly, in the past, NY Times editorials have immediately applauded coup d'états in Yugoslavia (overthrowing elected President Slobodan Milosevic) and the Philippines (overthrowing elected President Joseph Estrada).

But this time the Times gloated a bit too soon.

EVERYBODY IS IN SUCH A HURRY

Since the New World Order has re-defined democracy as subservience to US diktat, it is only fair that the democratic content of every event should be given a rating by the US government.

Thus it is by no means surprising that the US State Department issued a Press Statement rating the democratic content of the Venezuelan coup d'état.

The only problem is, the State Department, like the New York Times, published a bit too soon.

Within hours of the coup, the State Department issued a Press Statement. This described the pro-coup military as "commendable," the media which had openly incited the coup as "valiant" and referred to the short-lived coup d'état regime as a "transitional government." The document blamed Hugo Chávez for the coup because under his government:

"essential elements of democracy...have been weakened in recent months."
- State Dep't Statement (2)

To what "essential elements of democracy" might State be referring? They didn't say, but all the newspapers have pointed out that the big dispute in Venezuela has been over the State-owned oil company.

Venezuelan President Chávez had weakened "essential elements of democracy" by appointing as leaders of the state-owned oil company people that were (horrors!) loyal to his administration rather than to Chevron Oil and, perhaps even worse, by selling oil to Cuba at an affordable price.

Chávez must not have been aware that willingness to strangle Cuba is a crucial component of the New World Order's definition of "democracy."

The State Department declaration repeated the common media line, without introducing a shred of evidence, that:

"Chávez supporters, on orders, fired on unarmed, peaceful protestors, resulting in more than 100 wounded or killed." (2)

And:

"The results of these provocations are: Chávez resigned the presidency. Before resigning, he dismissed the Vice President and the Cabinet. A transition civilian government has promised early elections." (2)

So let's get this right.

First, Chávez ordered his supporters to kill a few opponents. This could hardly have been expected to disperse a large demonstration which had been called by leading TV stations and part of the military. But it could certainly have been expected to assist military leaders who were openly looking for - or trying to manufacture - an excuse to stage a coup d'état.

Having provided this excuse by murdering said opponents Chávez then switched character and acted with remorse by firing himself and everyone else who was (we are told) involved. This Chávez is very mercurial, no?

We can now state with certainty that a) Chávez never resigned; b) he never dismissed his vice president and cabinet. In other words, the State Department, confident that Chávez had been silenced for good, was lying.

But why?

Because they wanted the military takeover to appear as a "Change of Government" (which, by the way is the title of the State Department declaration) rather than what it was: a US instigated military coup d'état.

To make this possible, it was necessary that before departing the scene Chávez should dismiss every single top government official, and then himself.

Mind you, it would have been entirely unacceptable for Chávez to begin by firing himself. Once he dismissed himself he would no longer have had the authority to dismiss the vice president and all cabinet members. This would have violated prescribed State Department procedures, making it undemocratic.

Since we know for sure that the State Department was lying through its teeth when it claimed Chávez had resigned and fired everyone, isn't it reasonable to believe they were also lying through their teeth when they claimed he ordered supporters to shoot some opponents?

Keep in mind that shooting opponents was an act which (like dismissing his government) would have helped only his opponents by giving them a seeming justification for the coup d'état which some military officers had been calling for on "opposition" TV stations.

Even as the Mighty and their Media congratulated themselves on the "democratic" coup and celebrated this latest reassertion of their invincibility, another voice was heard.

The wretched of this earth, residents of the slums of Caracas, whose suffering is the ugly secret of the glossy US Empire, came by the thousands, in from the countryside, down from the hills around Caracas, and with loyalist soldiers they took Venezuela back from the hands of what the CIA boys like to call "Civil society," and all we can say is this is how the current worldwide empire of lies will end: by just such actions of the ordinary, wonderful, decent people of this world, God bless them.

Original Article can be found at:
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Venezuelan interim president arrested
Posted: Sunday, April 14, 2002

VENEZUELAN interim president Pedro Carmona, his ministers and the chiefs of staff of the armed forces were arrested moments after Carmona resigned today, officials said.

Carmona resigned in a radio address just one day after taking power.

Vice President Diosdado Cabello has been sworn in as Venezuela's president. www.theaustralian.news.com.au

www.abc.net.au/news

Robert Fisk: Mr Powell must see for himself what Israel inflicted on Jenin
Posted: Sunday, April 14, 2002

The credibility of US policy on the conflict has been shattered

Why doesn't Colin Powell go to Jenin? What has happened to the world's moral compass – indeed to the United States – when America's most famous ex-general, the Secretary of State of the most powerful country on earth, on a supposedly desperate mission to stop the bloodshed in the Middle East, fails to grasp what is taking place in front of his nose? The stench of decaying corpses is wafting out of the Palestinian city. The Israeli army is still keeping the Red Cross and journalists from seeing the evidence of the mass killings that have taken place there. "Hundreds'' – on Israel's own admission – have died, including civilians. Why, for God's sake, can't Mr Powell do the decent thing and demand an explanation for the extraordinary, sinister events that have taken place in Jenin? MORE

COUP FAILS; CHAVEZ RETURNS
Posted: Sunday, April 14, 2002

www.americas.org/

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Frías returned to power April 14 after his civilian and military supporters squelched a two-day coup led by the country's rightwing business sector. (CNN en Español 4/14/02 from AP)

The week leading up to the April 11 coup was marked by heated conflicts between supporters and opponents of Chávez. On April 4, mid- and upper-level managers began a strike at the state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), to protest Chávez's replacement of the company's board of directors. On April 6, Venezuelan Workers Confederation (CTV) President Carlos Ortega and Chamber of Commerce Federation (Fedecámaras) President Pedro Carmona Estanga jointly announced a 24-hour strike for April 9 to support the PDVSA strike and protest Chávez's government.

The unions that represent PDVSA workers were divided; some supported the strike call, while others opposed it. PDVSA is wholly state-owned, with a value estimated at $150 billion. PDVSA's sales of 2.43 million barrels of oil per day provide 80 percent of Venezuela's hard currency income and establish the country as the world's fourth-largest oil producer and the third-largest supplier of oil to the United States.

In his weekly radio program April 7, Chávez announced the firing of seven PDVSA managers and the forced retirement of 12 others, and urged an end to the strike at the oil company. At the same time he announced a 20 percent increase in the minimum wage for public sector workers, set to take effect May 1. Chávez called on Venezuela's private sector to match the public sector increase, which will raise the monthly minimum salary from 158,400 bolívars ($176) to 190,000 bolívars ($211). Chávez said he could not negotiate the wage adjustment with the CTV because the group's leadership is "illegitimate and does not represent the workers of the country."

Chávez called on public employees to go to work as usual on April 9; he said private sector workers whose bosses had offered them a paid day off to participate in the strike should take advantage of the situation and "stay at home and rest." (Miami Herald 4/8/02 from unspecified wire services; La República (Lima) 4/8/02 and 4/9/02, both from AFP)

The April 9 strike—which Chávez's opponents said was widely observed and which the government called a failure—was extended to April 10 and then, on April 10, extended indefinitely. On April 10, National Guard Maj. Gen. Rafael Damiani accused Chávez of responsibility for violence against a group of strikers outside a PDVSA facility in Caracas that day. Earlier on April 10, active-duty army Gen. Néstor González accused Chávez of lying about his government's support for Colombian leftist rebels. González claimed Chávez had him transferred from a command position near the Colombian border to an administrative position because his troops had been engaging in combat with Colombian rebels who had entered Venezuelan territory. (LR 4/11/02 from AFP, EFE)

On April 11, shooting broke out as a group of some 200,000 anti-Chávez demonstrators confronted about 5,000 Chávez supporters outside the presidential palace in central Caracas. According to Gregory Wilpert, a Caracas resident who witnessed the scene, the gunfire came from snipers in surrounding buildings, city police and Chávez supporters. At least 13 people were killed and some 150 wounded. Most of the dead were Chávez supporters. The city police are under the control of Caracas mayor Alfredo Peña, a rightwing Chávez opponent; the snipers, according to Wilpert, were members of an extreme opposition group called Bandera Roja. (Another eyewitness cited by the Sweden-based leftist e-mail newsletter Vientos del Sur (VISUR) confirmed that the snipers were from Bandera Roja, an ultraleftist group working with the far right.) The opposition-controlled media suggested that Chávez and his supporters were exclusively responsible for the violence. Chávez responded by ordering the temporary suspension of the transmissions of private television stations he said were carrying out a "defamation campaign" and inciting people to violence. (LR 4/12/02 from AFP, correspondent; VISUR 4/13/02; Wilpert e-mail message 4/11/02)

Army General Commander Brig. Gen. Efraín Vásquez Velasco and nine high-ranking military officers—including González and Damiani—responded by demanding that Chávez resign. Carmona, the Fedecámaras president, offered to head a transition government that would call new elections as soon as Chávez left. (LR 4/12/02 from AFP, correspondent)

Early on April 12 Carmona announced he was assuming the presidency because Chávez had resigned. Carmona quickly dissolved the National Assembly, dismissed the Supreme Court and overturned 48 laws passed by the Chávez government. Carmona insisted Chávez was "in custody, not arrested," and that soon the ousted president would travel "according to his wishes, outside the country." Anti-Chávez demonstrators attacked the Cuban embassy, believing that Chávez's vice president, Lt. Diosdado Cabello, was hiding there. (El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 4/13/02 from correspondent)

On April 12, Chávez's daughter, María Gabriela Chávez, confirmed that her father was being detained; she told Cuban television she had spoken with him that morning and he told her to "let the world know that at no moment did he resign, and at no moment has he signed a decree dismissing Vice President Cabello." (La Jornada (Mexico) 4/13/02)

On April 13, tens of thousands of people protested in the streets of Caracas and other Venezuelan cities to demand Chávez's return to office. Some Chávez supporters seized control of the state television station to press for his return. More violence and repression ensued; at least 40 people were killed.

On the afternoon of April 13, troop commanders at an important military air base in Maracay, about 60 miles southwest of the capital, rebelled against the coup leaders and made clear their loyalty to Chávez. Gen. Vásquez announced that the armed forces would support Carmona's transition government only if 12 points were respected, including the reestablishment of the legally elected powers of state and of the Constitution.

The National Assembly then reconvened and swore in Cabello as president; Carmona resigned and was promptly arrested, along with other coup leaders. At 1:45 a.m. on April 14, Chávez headed to Caracas to reclaim the presidency; he left by helicopter from the Venezuelan island of Orchila in the Caribbean, where he had been detained during the coup. Before noon on April 14, Chávez returned to the presidential palace and appeared in public, cheered by thousands of supporters. (LJ 4/14/02; ENH 4/14/02; CNN en Español 4/14/02 from AP; Clarín (Buenos Aires) 4/14/02 from AP, EFE and correspondent)

Both Gen. Vásquez and Gen. Ramírez Poveda, another military commander who backed the coup, are graduates of the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA), renamed last year as the Western Hemisphere Institute of Security Cooperation (WHISC) and placed under the authority of the Defense Department. Vásquez attended the school, in Fort Benning, Georgia, from January 23 to December 2, 1988, taking a course called "Command and General Staff Officer Training." Ramírez took a course called "Auto Maintenance Officer Training" from May 8 to August 11, 1972, when the school was located in Panama. (SOA Watch Email Message 4/13/02)

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More than a dozen items such as this appear in each Weekly News Update on the Americas (ISSN 1084-922X), published Sundays by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York. For a one-year subscription (electronic or hard copy costs $25 in the United States), a free one-month trial, back issues or source material, contact the network at 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012, 212-674-9499, wnu@igc.org. Permission to reproduce this item is authorized if the reproduction includes this paragraph.

U.S., IMF HAIL COUP ATTEMPT
Posted: Sunday, April 14, 2002

www.americas.org/

Government and financial circles in the United States and other industrial powers did little on April 12 and 13 to disguise their satisfaction with the apparent fall of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Frías, who had followed nationalist and left-populist policies in political and economic relations with other countries. Although the United States stopped short of recognizing the de facto government that replaced Chávez, Ari Fleischer, spokesperson for U.S. President George W. Bush, refused to protest Chávez's overthrow or even to describe the events as a coup. "We know that the action encouraged by the Chávez government provoked this crisis," he told reporters on April 12. (New York Times 4/13/02; La Jornada 4/13/02)

A New York Times editorial on April 13 called Chávez "a ruinous demagogue" who "courted Fidel Castro and Saddam Hussein." With Chávez's "resignation...Venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened by a would-be dictator... Washington has a strong stake in Venezuela's recovery. Caracas now provides 15 percent of American oil imports, and with sounder policies could provide more. A stable, democratic Venezuela could help anchor a troubled region where Colombia faces expanded guerrilla warfare, Peru is seeing a rebirth of terrorism and Argentina struggles with a devastating economic crisis." (NYT 4/13/02)

According to Thomas ("Mack") McLarty, special envoy for Latin America under former U.S. President Bill Clinton, the coup could also impact the presidential candidacy of Brazilian leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. "[W]hat happened in Venezuela could be perceived as a sign that messianic solutions, as opposed to genuine reform measures, lead to disaster. It bodes well for those in the region who advocate for open markets in the region. I don't think this is a net positive for Lula's candidacy." (Miami Herald 4/14/02)

Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar, head of the European Council, spoke by phone April 12 with de facto Venezuelan President Pedro Carmona, a leader of the attempted coup, to assure him of Europe's support for a "democratic and peaceful" solution to the crisis. (LJ 4/13/02 from DPA, AFP, Reuters)

International Monetary Fund spokesperson Thomas Dawson told a regular news conference April 12, "We stand ready to assist the new administration in whatever matter they find suitable." Venezuela is not currently in an IMF program. (Xinhua News Service 4/13/02)

About eight hours after Chávez was removed from power April 12, Merrill Lynch, the largest U.S. brokerage, put out a statement to its clients upgrading its assessment of Venezuela. "With a change in the government, the odds are very favorable for an improvement in the economic and political situation," the firm announced. (LJ 4/13/02, quote retranslated from Spanish)

Chávez's "demise as a political leader likely means a power vacuum and declining influence for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries [OPEC], and delivers a body blow to Cuba's economy, which Chávez lovingly supported," the Miami Herald's Gregg Fields wrote before Chávez's return to power. "For the United States, it looks like a win-win: Lower oil prices, and the departure of a Western hemisphere leader who never missed a chance to annoy Washington." Chávez had pushed OPEC to reduce production, forcing up oil prices. (MH 4/14/02) International oil prices fell about 6 percent on April 12, when it seemed that Chávez was out of the way. (NYT 4/13/02)

Latin American governments were generally less supportive of the coup. A meeting of the 18 presidents in the Río Group, held in Costa Rica on April 12, condemned the "interruption of the constitutional order in Venezuela, generated by a recent process of polarization." They stopped short of refusing to recognize the de facto government, but called for a meeting the next day of the Organization of American States (OAS) Permanent Council. The OAS Democratic Charter—signed in a Lima meeting last September 11, the day of terrorist attacks on the United States—provides for such meetings in the case of interruptions of democratic processes. (LJ 4/13/02 from correspondent, DPA)

Mexican President Vicente Fox Quesada, who was attending the Costa Rica summit, read a statement saying that Mexico "will abstain from either recognizing or not recognizing the new government in Venezuela and will limit itself to continuing diplomatic relations with that government."

But Colombian foreign minister Clemencia Forero Ucrós described de facto Venezuelan President Carmona as a "great friend" of Colombia. "We hope...democracy prevails in Venezuela," she said. "We expect to have the best relations with the interim government." (MH 4/13/02) On April 13, Colombian President Andrés Pastrana told Carmona that he supported him and expressed solidarity with the transition government, according to a spokesperson who declined to be named. (El Nuevo Herald 4/14/02 from EFE)

Cuba's government condemned the "coup mafia" and called for the "immediate return" of Chávez to Miraflores, the presidential palace. Referring to the coup leaders' announcement that they would fly Chávez to Cuba, an official government communiqué from late on April 13 said that "the best and fastest plane from our airline would have been ready so that he could return immediately to the heart of the heroic people that awaited him." (LJ 4/14/02 from correspondent)

##

More than a dozen items such as this appear in each Weekly News Update on the Americas (ISSN 1084-922X), published Sundays by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York. For a one-year subscription (electronic or hard copy costs $25 in the United States), a free one-month trial, back issues or source material, contact the network at 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012, 212-674-9499, wnu@igc.org. Permission to reproduce this item is authorized if the reproduction includes this paragraph.
http://www.americas.org/

Imperial Coup in Venezuela
Posted: Saturday, April 13, 2002

by Heinz Dieterich Steffan

Champaign in Caracas and Washington. The recipe never fails. It worked with Salvador Allende in 1973, the Sandinistas in 1989 and in 2002 with Hugo Chávez.

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.

Failure to give away natural resources and national sovereignty continues to be the death sentence for any Latin American government.

The master plan for the fall of Venezuela’s president Hugo Chávez - made in USA and commanded in situ by Carlos Ortega - leader of the mainstream union of Venezuelan Workers (Central de Trabajadores de Venezuela - CTV), and Pedro Carmona - president of the business confederation, Fedecamaras – was published five weeks ago in one of the epicentres of anti-government conspiracies: the daily El Nacional.More

Riots erupt as Venezuela's new leader takes control
Posted: Saturday, April 13, 2002

CARACAS, Venezuela (April 13, 2002 2:11 p.m. EDT) - As businessman Pedro Carmona took control of Venezuela's interim government, police clashed with protesters around the nation demanding the return of ousted leader Hugo Chavez. Several Latin American leaders called the new administration illegitimate.

In downtown Caracas, hundreds of people chanted "Chavez will be back!" and "Democracy, not dictatorship!" Police fired tear gas as police cars raced back and forth after reports of looting and disturbances.

Several hundred others protested outside Caracas' Fort Tiuna, the military base where Chavez was taken into detention early Friday. Police dispersed the crowd by firing plastic bullets. More

IMF would support a transition government in Venezuela
Posted: Saturday, April 13, 2002

Extract from Radio discussion dated 4th March 2002

Greg Palast: Well, in Part 4, you end up again with the taking apart of the government. And by the way, the real Part 4 is the coup d'etat. That's what they are not telling you. And I'm just finding that out in Venezuela. I just got a call from the President of Venezuela.

Alex Jones: And they install their own corporate government.

Greg Palast: What they said was here you've got an elected president of the government and the IMF has announced, listen to this, that they would support a transition government if the president were removed. They are not saying that they are going to get involved in politics - they would just support a transition government. What that effectively is is saying we will pay for the coup d'etat, if the military overthrows the current president, because the current president of Venezuela has said no to the IMF. He told those guys to go packing. They brought their teams in and said you have to do this and that. And he said, I don't have to do nothing. He said what I'm going to do is, I'm going to double the taxes on oil corporations because we have a whole lot of oil in Venezuela. And I'm going to double the taxes on oil corporations and then I will have all the money I need for social programs and the government - and we will be a very rich nation. Well, as soon as they did that, they started fomenting trouble with the military and I'm telling you watch this space: the President of Venezuela will be out of office in three months or shot dead. They are not going to allow him to raise taxes on the oil companies. More

Anti-Chavez Coup Aimed At Controlling OPEC
Posted: Saturday, April 13, 2002

TEHRAN TIMES -- Can a country, which has been one of the founders of the Organization of Petroluem Exporting Countries (OPEC) prepare the ground for the dissolution or inefficiency of this organization in the near future?

Although the coup which occurred in Venezuela on Friday is in line with U.S. interests in Latin America and apparently has no direct effect on the Middle East, still it is going to have a definite influence on the interests of the OPEC members.

Since Hugo Chavez will no longer be the president of Venezuela, he will not be able to defend the OPEC price range of 22 to 28 U.S. dollars per barrel. In other words, Venezuela's oil policies should now be analyzed without considering Chavez.

Venezuela is currently OPEC's fourth leading oil producer, producing 2.497 million barrels of oil per day. But political instability which started in its oil industry led to general strikes throughout the country.

Today, one day after the military coup, Chavez, who was boosting OPEC's oil policies in recent years, is being held in custody at a military base in the capital. MORE

Thorn in the side of new world order
Posted: Saturday, April 13, 2002

By Vincent Browne

THE IRISH TIMES - Hugo ChÃ¡vez may have been in Bertie Ahern's mind when he visited George Bush in Washington before St Patrick's Day. Bertie swore obedience to American world hegemony, to its "war on terrorism" and to everything it entailed.

He didn't quite put it like that but that was the message and George Bush acknowledged it as such. The President of Venezuela, the most "yankified" of South American states, had failed to offer appropriate obeisance.

ChÃ¡vez has characterised the US bombardment of Afghanistan as responding to "terror with terror". He brandished photographs of Afghan children killed by US bombs and called for an end to "the slaughter of the innocents".

The US response to this impertinence was to send its ambassador, Donna Hrinak, to see ChÃ¡vez. They had what a US official said (according to the Washington Post of February 23rd) "a very difficult meeting". She told the democratically elected president (again according to the Washington Post) "to keep his mouth shut on these important issues".

Washington doesn't like ChÃ¡vez for other reasons. First he has had the temerity to invite Fidel Castro to Caracas. He also visited Libya, Iran and Iraq, all members, with Venezuela, of OPEC, through which he arranged for a substantial increase in the price of oil (the Americans were especially indignant over his visit to Saddam Hussein).

The US administration has recently expressed worry about ChÃ¡vez's democratic credentials. He became president in 1998 after he won 58 per cent of the popular vote. In 2000, under a new constitution, he won a higher percentage vote and his party won more than 80 per cent of the seats in a new congress and nobody has questioned the validity of those elections. While protesting its respect for democracy in Venezuela, there are suspicions that the US may have inspired three generals in the Venezuelan army to call for the resignation of ChÃ¡vez.

VENEZUELA is probably the richest country in South America because of its oil - it is by far the most important source of oil for the US economy, yet it has managed to squander the riches it has brought in the last 40 years.

This came about in large part through inefficiencies of State-run industrial companies and corruption. The legacy has been vast expanses of motorways, ugly high-rise office and apartment complexes, massive wealth for a tiny minority, gigantic shopping malls, the ubiquitous rash of international hotels (the Four Seasons group has opened a new hotel in Caracas even more ostentatious than that in Ballsbridge), and vast shanty towns clinging to the hills in and around Caracas, housing millions of impoverished people. MORE

Coup in Venezuela: An Eyewitness Account
Posted: Saturday, April 13, 2002

by Gregory Wilpert

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.

This is, of course, the version of events that the officials now in charge and thus also of the media, would like everyone to believe. So what really happened? Of course I don’t know, but I’ll try to represent the facts as I witnessed them.

First of all, the military is saying that the main reason for the coup is what happened today, April 11. “Civil society,” as the opposition here refers to itself, organized a massive demonstration of perhaps 100,000 to 200,000 people to march to the headquarters of Venezuela’s oil company, PDVSA, in defense of its fired management. The day leading up to the march all private television stations broadcast advertisements for the demonstration, approximately once every ten minutes. It was a successful march, peaceful, and without government interference of any kind, even though the march illegally blocked the entire freeway, which is Caracas’ main artery of transportation, for several hours.

Supposedly at the spur of the moment, the organizers decided to re-route the march to Miraflores, the president’s office building, so as to confront the pro-government demonstration, which was called in the last minute. About 5,000 Chavez-supporters had gathered there by the time the anti-government demonstrators got there. In-between the two demonstrations were the city police, under the control of the oppositional mayor of Caracas, and the National Guard, under control of the president. All sides claim that they were there peacefully and did not want to provoke anyone. I got there just when the opposition demonstration and the National Guard began fighting each other. Who started the fight, which involved mostly stones and tear gas, is, as is so often the case in such situations, nearly impossible to tell. A little later, shots were fired into the crowds and I clearly saw that there were three parties involved in the shooting, the city police, Chavez supporters, and snipers from buildings above. Again, who shot first has become a moot and probably impossible to resolve question. At least ten people were killed and nearly 100 wounded in this gun battle—almost all of them demonstrators.

One of the Television stations managed to film one of the three sides in this battle and broadcast the footage over and over again, making it look like the only ones shooting were Chavez supporters from within the demonstration at people beyond the view of the camera. The media over and over again showed the footage of the Chavez supporters and implied that they were shooting at an unarmed crowd. As it turns out, and as will probably never be reported by the media, most of the dead are Chavez supporters. Also, as will probably never be told, the snipers were members of an extreme opposition party, known as Bandera Roja.

These last two facts, crucial as they are, will not be known because they do not fit with the new mythology, which is that Chavez armed and then ordered his supporters to shoot at the opposition demonstration. Perhaps my information is incorrect, but what is certain is that the local media here will never bother to investigate this information. And the international media will probably simply ape what the local media reports (which they are already doing).

Chavez’ biggest and perhaps only mistake of the day, which provided the last remaining proof his opposition needed for his anti-democratic credentials, was to order the black-out of the private television stations. They had been broadcasting the confrontations all afternoon and Chavez argued that these broadcasts were exacerbating the situation and should, in the name of public safety, be temporarily shut-down.

Now, all of “civil society,” the media, and the military are saying that Chavez has to go because he turned against his own people. Aside from the lie this is, what is conveniently forgotten are all of the achievements of the Chavez administration: a new democratic constitution which broke the power monopoly of the two hopelessly corrupt and discredited main parties and put Venezuela at the forefront in terms of progressive constitutions; introduced fundamental land reform; financed numerous progressive ecological community development projects; cracked-down on corruption; promoted educational reform which schooled over 1 million children for the first time and doubled investment in education; regulated the informal economy so as to reduce the insecurity of the poor; achieved a fairer price for oil through OPEC and which significantly increased government income; internationally campaigned tirelessly against neo-liberalism; reduced official unemployment from 18% to 13%; introduced a large-scale micro-credit program for the poor and for women; reformed the tax system which dramatically reduced tax evasion and increased government revenue; lowered infant mortality from 21% to 17%; tripled literacy courses; modernized the legal system, etc., etc.

Chavez’ opposition, which primarily consisted of Venezuela’s old guard in the media, the union federation, the business sector, the church, and the traditionally conservative military, never cared about any of these achievements. Instead, they took advantage of their media monopoly to turn public opinion against him and managed to turn his biggest liability, his autocratic and inflammatory style, against him. Progressive civil society had either been silenced or demonized as violent Chavez fanatics.

At this point, it is impossible to know what will happen to Chavez’ “Bolivarian Revolution”—whether it will be completely abandoned and whether things will return to Venezuela’s 40-year tradition of patronage, corruption, and rentierism for the rich. What one can say without a doubt, is that by abandoning constitutional democracy, no matter how unpopular and supposedly inept the elected president, Venezuela’s ruling class and its military show just how politically immature they are and deal a tremendous blow to political culture throughout Latin America, just as the coup against Salvador Allende did in 1973. This coup shows once again that democracy in Latin America is a matter of ruling class preference, not a matter of law.

If the United States and the democratic international community have the courage to practice what they preach, then they should not recognize this new government. Democrats around the world should pressure their governments to deny recognition to Venezuela’s new military junta or any president they happen to choose. According to the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS), this would mean expelling Venezuela from the OAS, as a U.S. state department official recently threatened to do. Please call the U.S. state department or your foreign ministry and tell them to withdraw their ambassadors from Venezuela.

Gregory Wilpert lives in Caracas, is a former U.S. Fulbright scholar in Venezuela, and is currently doing independent research on the sociology of development. He can be reached at: Wilpert@cantv.net

NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

World News
Posted: Saturday, April 13, 2002

• Ousted Venezuelan Chavez to Leave Country in Hours
• Oman signs free-trade pact with Iraq
• Riots erupt as Venezuela's new leader takes control
• Defiant child rebels raise fears of massacre
• Weight of Arafat's Words Questioned
• Gore Lashes Out at White House in Florida
• Civil liberties or civil luxuries?
• Mbeki Says Israel Is Repeating Apartheid Mistakes
• The Stars & Stripes: Killing for the Flag
• Palestinian Deaths Aren't Headline Material at New York Times
• Humiliation, torture and rage
• IRS Erroneously Paid $30 Million in Credits for Slavery in 2000-2001
• Eritrea-Ethiopia border to be set
• Argentina Police Arrest 36 People
• International force must be deployed, says Annan
• Diplomacy doomed by climate of destruction
• The U.S. President has no real ideas of his own
> 'Instincts are a poor substitute for strategic intelligence'
• Breyten Breytenbach: You won't break them
> A leading South African writer's passionate open letter to Ariel Sharon
• Next time Bush must not be first to blink
• Explosion at Tunisian synagogue was a deliberate attack, claim Germans
• Blood and tears as bomber strikes
• Israel buries the bodies, but cannot hide the evidence
• All smiles for Sharon as US turns the heat on Arafat
• Powell Gets No Timetable on Israeli Withdrawal
• US Says Europe's Defense Cuts Jeopardize Terror War
• Secret UK ban on weapons for Israel
• FBI and police in court for violating civil rights of pair injured in 1990.
• Scarred East Timor Looks to the Future with Hope

Colonial wars: New liberal imperialism is making the world safe for terrorists
Posted: Saturday, April 13, 2002

by Neil Clark
‘What is needed is a new kind of imperialism, one compatible with human rights and cosmopolitan values: an imperialism which aims to bring order and organisation,’ argues New Labour foreign-policy guru Robert Cooper in his recent pamphlet Re-ordering the World: The Long-term Implications of September 11th. MORE

Mr. Hugo Chávez must be returned
Posted: Saturday, April 13, 2002

Mr. Hugo Chávez must be returned
as the democratically elected President of Venezuela

Trinicenter Staff

Both Britain and the U.S. who purport to promote democracy have not condemned the coup in Venezuela. This has also been the position of both the British and American mainstream media.

When there was a coup in Fiji they were quick to condemn the coup leader George Speight and threatened further action. Normally these major powers are quick to condemn the overthrow of leaders that serve their interest under the sales pitch of democracy. MORE

Cuba demands respect for Chávez’ physical integrity
Posted: Saturday, April 13, 2002

www.granma.cu

THE latest intrigue of coup participants who are refusing to give any news of Chávez or to accede to the demand of the people and a large number of rebel units, is the lying affirmation that President Chávez has resigned and wishes to seek asylum in Cuba.

That gross pretext is absolutely false. Yet another lie at a point when the fascist coup is giving its last death rattle. The coup participants can no longer count on sufficient people or military forces, and have no moral force whatsoever. MORE

Cuba denies reports that Chavez was heading for Cuba
Posted: Saturday, April 13, 2002

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba said on Saturday reports deposed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was headed for exile in the Caribbean island were the lies of "fascist coupsters," desperate to buy time as their ouster crumbled.

"If the coupsters brought Chavez by force to Cuba, our best and quickest plane would be ready to return him to the heroic people of his country who await him," a government statement said. MORE

Acting Leader Of Venezuela Steps Down
Posted: Saturday, April 13, 2002

www.washingtonpost.com
Venezuela's interim president resigned late tonight after one day in office as political unrest driven by supporters of the ousted leader, Hugo Chavez, left at least nine people dead and dozens injured in this capital.

Pedro Carmona, the economist installed Friday as president by Venezuela's military, said that he was stepping down "with full responsibility before the nation and the Venezuelan people." Chavez's vice president, Diosdado Cabello, assumed the presidency after a day of massive protests and scattered looting throughout Caracas.

The surprise resignation came amid signs of deep splits in the military's support for Carmona, who was forced to reverse his decision of a day earlier to dissolve the national legislature, the Supreme Court and the 1999 constitution. At least one military base openly rebelled against the new administration, and an army general said late tonight that at least three other bases were now under forces loyal to Chavez. MORE

They are fighting for control.

Venezuela's interim president resigns amid protests
Posted: Saturday, April 13, 2002

CARACAS, Venezuela (April 13, 2002 11:11 p.m. EDT) - One day after he was sworn in, Venezuela's interim president resigned Saturday in the face of protests by thousands of supporters of the ousted president, Hugo Chavez.

"Before the nation, before the Venezuelan people, I present this resignation," Pedro Carmona told Union Radio.

Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets earlier Saturday - some taking over state TV - demanding that ousted Chavez be returned to power.

Carmona said he was handing over power to the National Assembly, but Chavez's vice president, Diosdado Cabello, went on Union Radio to say he was acting president until Chavez returns to power.

Chavez's whereabouts were unclear. Labor Minister Maria Christina Iglesias had said on state TV that Chavez was about to be flown out of the country by a military plane from Orchila Island off the Venezuelan coast.

Earlier in the day, with control of the military appearing to unravel, Carmona postponed inaugurating his Cabinet.

The military of oil-rich Venezuela forced Chavez out on Friday after demonstrations against him. Some commanders refused to accept the appointment of Carmona.

Tens of thousands of Chavez supporters surged toward the presidential palace as night fell Saturday, demanding Chavez's return. MORE

Military says Chavez is out in Venezuela
Posted: Friday, April 12, 2002

By Jorge Rueda
ASSOCIATED PRESS, www.washtimes.com

CARACAS, Venezuela — Top military commanders rebelled against President Hugo Chavez last night after police and armed Chavez supporters fired upon a march by 150,000 opposition protesters near the presidential palace. At least 12 persons were killed and as many as 110 wounded in that protest, officials said.

There were news reports that Mr. Chavez was preparing to leave the country, and three executive jets were seen preparing for takeoff at La Carlota military air base, which usually closes after dark.

Televised reports that Mr. Chavez and his family were leaving could not be confirmed. A Chavez spokeswoman denied the reports, saying the president was meeting with officials at the palace.

Small tanks guarded the palace as caravans of armored troop vehicles patrolled Caracas streets and highways.

A Venezuelan general said the Chavez government had "abandoned its functions" and the South American country was under the control of the armed forces, Reuters news agency reported. MORE

Venezuela president 'to resign'
Posted: Friday, April 12, 2002

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez is preparing to resign to the country's military leaders, reports say.
National television, quoting army command, reported that the president had handed himself over to three generals at the presidential palace of Miraflores.

The country's top generals - including army chief General Efrain Vasquez - had declared themselves in rebellion after a day of violence at an opposition rally in the capital Caracas left 11 people dead and more than 80 wounded.

Reports that President Chavez had already surrendered were denied by Information Minister Teresa Maniglia, who told news agency AFP by telephone that he was "still inside his presidential office". MORE

Don't believe everything you read. These mainstream media are selling the U.S. policy.
Reports on the ground say that Chavez security is refusing to cooperate with the coup plotters.

Rebellion under way in Venezuela; at least 12 dead
Posted: Friday, April 12, 2002

CARACAS, Venezuela (April 12, 2002 12:09 a.m. EDT) - As top military commanders rebelled against President Hugo Chavez, rebel National Guard troops seized government television and took it off the air late Thursday, the station manager said. Civilians celebrated outside.

Earlier Thursday police and armed Chavez supporters fired on a march by 150,000 opposition protesters near the presidential palace. At least 12 people were killed and as many as 110 wounded, officials said.

Globovision TV reported that Chavez's family had been flown out of Caracas. The report couldn't immediately be confirmed.

The violence erupted in the South American country of 24 million on the third day of a general strike called to support oil executives who want Chavez to sack new management at the state oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA. The executives are conducting a work slowdown that has seriously cut production and exports in Venezuela, the No. 3 oil supplier to the United States and the No. 4 oil exporter in the world. MORE

World News
Posted: Friday, April 12, 2002

• Man dubbed 'Dr. Death' wins acquittal
• Poisoned candy among weapons attributed to germ-warfare expert
• Besieged Palestinian leader now a 'saint' to his people
• Arabs keep up diplomatic pressure
• Mass Protests Engulf Arab World
• U.N. pulls staff from Kosovo offices after riots
• Captured al-Qaida lieutenant isn't talking, Rumsfeld says
• Earthquake hits northern Afghanistan
• Afghan Factions Fight West of Kabul
• An earthquake in northern Afghanistan has killed at least 27
• Timor Joining The World Of Nations
• Rep. McKinney Accuses Bush of Profiting From 9/11
• Powell Scraps Arafat Meeting, May Reschedule
• Disney park in Hong Kong kills millions of fish
• U.S. soldiers posed for 'souvenir photos' with Lindh, defense officials say
• Powell meeting with Arafat on hold after suicide bombing
• U.S. gasoline prices tumble as Chavez exits
• Afghanistan War Will Cost $10.2B
• New smallpox terror alert in UK
• Maoist Rebels Gun Down 84 Nepalese Cops
• World finally gets glimpse of refugee camp devastation
• Powell comes seeking peace among ashes of hate
• Adrian Hamilton: Oil is the reason America wants to be rid of Saddam
• Israel to U.S.: Don't wait for calm here before hitting Iraq
• Defensive Shield won't end terror, senior IDF source admits
• Powell mission in jeopardy as Israel defies US
• Israelis shelter bloodiest battlefield from eyes of media
• US May Scale Down European Bases
• Palestinians claim IDF bulldozers buried Jenin dead
• In Israelis' wake, untold destruction
• US defence shield may use nuclear missiles
• In Ramallah, civilians are still being killed
• Saudis take heat out of troubled oil market
• Powell denies his mission is impossible
• British chide Sharon over incursions
• Tamil Tiger leader hints separate state is negotiable

Latin nations condemn Venezuelan leader's ouster
Posted: Friday, April 12, 2002

The Venezuelan military tapped a leading businessman Friday to replace ousted president Hugo Chavez, whose combative rule was ended by army commanders after a bloody repression of a huge street protest.

Pedro Carmona - a figure straight from the economic elite Chavez had demonized during his three-year rule - said he would hold legislative and presidential elections within a year to replace Chavez.

But Carmona's appointment was challenged by Venezuela's attorney general as unconstitutional, and several Latin American nations condemned Chavez's ouster Friday.

Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez said Chavez was still president because he had not, in fact, resigned but was forced out by the military. Rodriguez said the constitution calls for Chavez's resignation to be accepted by Congress. MORE

U.S. Anti-War Group Denounces U.S.-Backed Coup In Venezuela
Posted: Friday, April 12, 2002

April 12, 2002
http://www.iacenter.org/

According to an anti-war organization based in the United States, the U.S. government working with Venezuelan reactionaries, the wealthy classes of that South American country and the international pro-U.S. media, has fomented and carried out a military coup against the popularly elected leader, President Hugo Chavez.

Teresa Gutierrez of the International Action Center (IAC) said "the coup has all the markings of a CIA plot, much like the one carried out against the Chilean President Salvador Allende in September 1973." Gutierriez pointed out that the "so-called strike leading up to the coup was really an action by the wealthy owners of the factories, aided by a corrupt sector of the trade union movement representing only the most privileged workers in the oil industry." MORE

Coup d'etat in Venezuela
Posted: Friday, April 12, 2002

The Trinicenter crew is staying with these updates from as many sources as possible. Please check back on the website for future updates. You can also check http://www.narconews.com/.

Reproduced by concent of Pablo Rodriguez

Translated by The Narco News Bulletin

Publisher's Note: It is 5 a.m. in our América and the newsroom has not slept, as we have sifted through the reports and propaganda by all sides on the events in Venezuela. Our correspondents have been in direct contact with key sources in Venezuela throughout the day and night. We will continue to monitor the situation and report it to our readers. We begin with a translation of the press account we think is most accurate, from Pablo Rodriguez of the daily newspaper Pagina 12 of Buenos Aires, Argentina, reporting from Caracas, Venezuela.
At 5:23 a.m. the English language email newsletter of Vheadline.com reports from Caracas:

"With a South American tropical dawn just hours away, Venezuela has announced a new Military High Command for the transition to a new Presidency of the Republic... at 4:30 a.m. VET they were named as Army C-i-C General Efrain Vasquez Velasco, General Ramirez Poveda, General Alfonso Martinez and General Jesus Pereira."

A subsequent update from Vheadline editor Roy Carson informs that the same business magnate who led the coup has now been installed as unelected "president" of Venezuela:

"Federation of Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Fedecamaras) president Pedro Carmona Estanga has been appointed the interim President of Venezuela."

President Hugo Chavez, elected in 1998 and 2000 by landslide margins, was placed under arrest and his held in a military prison.
He is 47, the same age as Simón Bolívar was at the end of his road.
From a democratically elected government to an unelected military junta and its imposed "president".

These are your U.S. tax dollars at work.

Yesterday was a bloody day in Venezuela. After a march by 50,000 people that resulted in between 10 and 30 deaths and 95 wounded, the military commanders asked President Hugo Chavez to resign, marking the end of the "Bolivarian Revolution."

"The Armed Forces are not for attacking the people. I order all my commanders, who are my strength and the nation to comply with their duty. This is not a Coup D'Etat. It is not insubordination. It is an act of solidarity with the Venezuelan people. Chavez, I was faithful to you until the end. I served you until this afternoon. But the deaths of today cannot be tolerated. I am obligated to make this decision. Generals, comply with your duty. This is an accompaniment to all the Venezuelan people after an excess." While the general comandante of the Army, General Efraín Vásquez, said these words, officials of the Armed Forces and National Guard appeared at dawn on the screen of Radio Caracas Television asking the forces loyal to Chavez not to resist them.

The Interior Minister, Rafael Vargas, said from the presidential palace of Miraflores, where a group of tanks had been placed in a defensive position, that "Chavez is still and always will be in the presidential palace. The conspiracy has failed."

A Coup d'etat, one more for Latin America, was in march and marks the end of the "Bolivarian Revolution" and of its leader, Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chavez Frias. And later came a day which reminded of the Caracazo of 1989 that left nearly 1,000 deaths (according to extra-official sources): the anti-Chavez demonstration convened by businessmen and union leaders and its subsequent repression left between 10 and 30 dead and 90 wounded.

According to the versions of Chavez supporters, at around 9 p.m. there were still 15,000 to 20,000 people around the Miraflores Palace, the majority of them poor. An hour later, the magnitude of the matter was clear. Congressman Jorge Barreto, of the pro-Chavez Fifth Republic movement, was making declarations on the only TV channel that stayed on the air: Channel 8, the State TV station, that during the entire afternoon had broadcast from the palace. Suddenly, the image disappeared from the airwaves, and it was known that a group from the Army had ordered the total evacuation of the studios. At this hour, various commanders of the National Guard (the fourth branch of the military) resigned their posts and pleaded publicly with Chavez, through private channels, to resign to avoid a "bloodbath."

A Violent Day

Latin America well knows what began to happen last night. And Venezuela, in particular, knows what happened in the afternoon: The Caracazo, that revolt that ended in 1,000 deaths (unofficial sources), happened almost 13 years ago, and Vasquez's words alluded to that. Yesterday, the country, above all the capitol, lived a repetition of history. If in 1989 the poor came down from the hills and filled the streets to reject an economic adjustment package by then president Carlos Andres Perez, yesterday was a curious alliance between the business class and unions that filled the center of Caracas asking for the resignation of the principle emergent leader of Venezuela post-Caracazo, President Hugo Chavez Frias, leader of the "Bolivarian Revolution," in the middle of a strike that had lasted three days. According to unofficial sources, there were between 10 and 30 deaths in the confrontations between demonstrators, security forces and the "Boliviarian Defense Committees" near the Miraflores Palace.
In the morning, emboldened by the notable success of the call for a strike that began in the principal business of the country, Petroleum of Venezuela (PDVSA), the president of the national Chamber of Commerce, Pedro Carmona Estanga, and the leader of the powerful Venezuela Workers Federation (CTV), Carlos Ortega, called for marches in the streets to demand the resignation of Chavez. "I ask for Chavez's resignation and I don't rule out that this human river will head to Miraflores," Carmona declared before the march reached the Presidential Palace. The "human river" numbered some 50,000 persons, who came from the comfortable neighborhoods of the city, to which hundreds more joined. It was at this moment that rumors of every kind circulated: That Chavez was already under arrests in Tiuna Fortress, the principal military prison in Caracas; that a group of military officers already forced him to resign; that he had sent his defense minister, Jose Vicente Rangel, to speak with the media because he was already no longer in control.

In the afternoon, when the march headed toward Miraflores, Chavez made his show of force. First, the high military command met in front of the cameras in the Defense Ministry offices to signal that they supported the government. Minutes later, Chavez, who had disappeared mysteriously in the past three days, gave a speech to the nation, with a painting of Simon Bolivar behind him, the Venezuelan flag to his right and in his hand the Bolivarian constitution that he got approved two years go, when he was indisputably a popular leader. The Venezuelan president turned all his fury toward the media: "They are instigating a conspiracy. They want to create the impression that Venezuela is ungovernable." With respect to (union leader) Ortega and (business leader) Carmona he said that, together with the media, "they are involved in an insurrectional plan that is risky because it is not going to succeed," and ordered the immediate suspension of the frequencies of almost all the private television chains, citing the broadcasting laws, from the times of the Caracazo, that prohibit the transmission of violent acts. One of the TV channels had printed, over the images of the streets, the slogan "NOT ONE STEP BACK." It was a war that the government and the media had fought for days, on the occasion of the strike in the petroleum company over the decision by Chavez to replace its board of directors.

At that point, the streets near Miraflores were in chaos. While Chavez spoke inside the palace, outside the demonstration marched closer. The president had deployed some 1,000 soldiers to guard the palace. In addition to the National Guard and the police, the "Bolivarian Committees" had placed themselves outside the palace. The demonstration could not get more than a couple blocks from Miraflores. "I call upon the people to not fall into provocations," the president said. But the gunshots, rock throwing and tear gas began to dominate the stage.

At this moment, almost all the television media stopped broadcasting in Venezuela, and their images were only seen outside of the country. Sources close to Chavez say that a number of the deaths were among sympathizers of the president and explained that the metropolitan police had shot against the multitute that surrounded the Miraflores Palace. Among the dead, the driver for Vice President Diosdado Cabello, shot in the face.

The day before yesterday, while the general strike was continued for an undetermined length of time, a general, active and with his own gun, Nestor Gonzales, accused Chavez of being a "traitor" by permitting the FARC to operate in Venezuela. A large sector of the leadership of the National Guard criticized the government for the "partisan manner" in which it repressed the demonstrators with respect to Chavez supporters, and General Alberto Camacho resigned his post as vice minister of Citizen Security and called for "a provisional junta." This accumulation of "desertions" was finalized at night with the declaration by General Vasquez.

Why?

"Chavez is a legitimate president. If they want Chavez to go, there are many constitutional mechanisms, among them referendum and electoral recall. Let them try that. Democracy is measured by votes and not by people in the streets," Eliado Hernandez, director of the Political Studies Institute at the Central University of Venezuela, told Pagina 12. "We are witnessing self-coup by Chavez. He has blood on his hands and he wants to buy time with a self-coup," the political scientist Anibal Romero said to this newspaper. The self-coup, however, did not arrive. It seems more like a dry coup after a day with echoes of the Caracazo. It was precisely Chavez who in 1992 tried to bring about a coup d'etat against the political cupola that maintained itself against the winds and the tides. It was precisely Chavez who won popularity with his intended coup. And it was precisely Chavez who, in early February, confronted a crisis when for retired military officers criticized him publicly for his "authoritarianism."
According to political analyst Juan Vicente Gomez Gomez, "the fate of the government depends on what the Army does, since the National Guard has already joined the counter-revolution and the Air Force is remaining for the night at the Carlota air base, near Caracas. The Navy doesn't have much influence in this context. About the motives that provoked the fall of Chavez, Gomez Gomez said that "the great problem for this government was a lack of political communication. The entire media is against the President." In addition, the analyst said that there is a plot similar to that which defeated Salvador Allende in Chile and it was activated when, a few days ago, the new US Ambassador to Venezuela, by the name of Shapiro, took office. According to Gomez Gomez, he was "involved in the dirty war of Central America."

Luis Miquilena, ex Interior Minister of Venezuela and ex mentor of Chavez, yesterday called to "find institutional paths" to lead Venezuela "to a new age of transition" in the face of the grave crisis it confronts. Miguilena, who once was the most clear and convincing supporter of Chavez, declared that "the chief of state is the person most responsible for what has happened and nobody can save him from this responsibility."

"The fall of Chavez, disgracefully, will be violent. Today the firearms spoke. There are dead and wounded. The mask of the dictatorship was removed, but Chavez is going to jail," declared the ex president - the same one against whom the Caracazo was led - Carlos Andres Perez. Perez said that the solution to the Venezuelan crisis will not happen "in a day," because Chavez "destroyed the institutions and divided the country between rich and poor."

"The international community already knew who Chavez was, but the closing of the TV stations and the attacks against the demonstrators helped them to know him better," said the ex president.

Hugo Chavez Frias was once a hurricane. He had massive support: He won 60 percent of the vote. But now, for the first time, the mass was against him; a demonstration that began in the most luxurious zones of Caracas but, in the end, extended to a large part of the city: a Coup d'etat.

"Once before, the poor came down from the hills," Chavez said in reference to the Caracazo of 1989. "Now they will come down again, and because they come to dream, to pray, this will not be stopped." It seems that is the only option left for Chavez: to pray and hope that they come down from the hills.

Coup in Venezuela: An Eyewitness Account
Posted: Friday, April 12, 2002

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.

This is, of course, the version of events that the officials now in charge and thus also of the media, would like everyone to believe. So what really happened? Of course I don't know, but I'll try to represent the facts as I witnessed them.

First of all, the military is saying that the main reason for the coup is what happened today, April 11. "Civil society," as the opposition here refers to itself, organized a massive demonstration of perhaps 100,000 to 200,000 people to march to the headquarters of Venezuela's oil company, PDVSA, in defense of its fired management. The day leading up to the march all private television stations broadcast advertisements for the demonstration, approximately once every ten minutes. It was a successful march, peaceful, and without government interference of any kind, even though the march illegally blocked the entire freeway, which is Caracas' main artery of transportation, for several hours.

Supposedly at the spur of the moment, the organizers decided to re-route the march to Miraflores, the president's office building, so as to confront the pro-government demonstration, which was called in the last minute. About 5,000 Chavez-supporters had gathered there by the time the anti-government demonstrators got there. In-between the two demonstrations were the city police, under the control of the oppositional mayor of Caracas, and the National Guard, under control of the president. All sides claim that they were there peacefully and did not want to provoke anyone. I got there just when the opposition demonstration and the National Guard began fighting each other. Who started the fight, which involved mostly stones and tear gas, is, as is so often the case in such situations, nearly impossible to tell. A little later, shots were fired into the crowds and I clearly saw that there were three parties involved in the shooting, the city police, Chavez supporters, and snipers from buildings above. Again, who shot first has become a moot and probably impossible to resolve question. At least ten people were killed and nearly 100 wounded in this gun battle-almost all of them demonstrators.

One of the Television stations managed to film one of the three sides in this battle and broadcast the footage over and over again, making it look like the only ones shooting were Chavez supporters from within the demonstration at people beyond the view of the camera. The media over and over again showed the footage of the Chavez supporters and implied that they were shooting at an unarmed crowd. As it turns out, and as will probably never be reported by the media, most of the dead are Chavez supporters. Also, as will probably never be told, the snipers were members of an extreme opposition party, known as Bandera Roja.

These last two facts, crucial as they are, will not be known because they do not fit with the new mythology, which is that Chavez armed and then ordered his supporters to shoot at the opposition demonstration. Perhaps my information is incorrect, but what is certain is that the local media here will never bother to investigate this information. And the international media will probably simply ape what the local media reports (which they are already doing).

Chavez' biggest and perhaps only mistake of the day, which provided the last remaining proof his opposition needed for his anti-democratic credentials, was to order the black-out of the private television stations. They had been broadcasting the confrontations all afternoon and Chavez argued that these broadcasts were exacerbating the situation and should, in the name of public safety, be temporarily shut-down.

Now, all of "civil society," the media, and the military are saying that Chavez has to go because he turned against his own people. Aside from the lie this is, what is conveniently forgotten are all of the achievements of the Chavez administration: a new democratic constitution which broke the power monopoly of the two hopelessly corrupt and discredited main parties and put Venezuela at the forefront in terms of progressive constitutions; introduced fundamental land reform; financed numerous progressive ecological community development projects; cracked-down on corruption; promoted educational reform which schooled over 1 million children for the first time and doubled investment in education; regulated the informal economy so as to reduce the insecurity of the poor; achieved a fairer price for oil through OPEC and which significantly increased government income; internationally campaigned tirelessly against neo-liberalism; reduced official unemployment from 18% to 13%; introduced a large-scale micro-credit program for the poor and for women; reformed the tax system which dramatically reduced tax evasion and increased government revenue; lowered infant mortality from 21% to 17%; tripled literacy courses; modernized the legal system, etc., etc.

Chavez' opposition, which primarily consisted of Venezuela's old guard in the media, the union federation, the business sector, the church, and the traditionally conservative military, never cared about any of these achievements. Instead, they took advantage of their media monopoly to turn public opinion against him and managed to turn his biggest liability, his autocratic and inflammatory style, against him. Progressive civil society had either been silenced or demonized as violent Chavez fanatics.

At this point, it is impossible to know what will happen to Chavez' "Bolivarian Revolution"-whether it will be completely abandoned and whether things will return to Venezuela's 40-year tradition of patronage, corruption, and rentierism for the rich. What one can say without a doubt, is that by abandoning constitutional democracy, no matter how unpopular and supposedly inept the elected president, Venezuela's ruling class and its military show just how politically immature they are and deal a tremendous blow to political culture throughout Latin America, just as the coup against Salvador Allende did in 1973. This coup shows once again that democracy in Latin America is a matter of ruling class preference, not a matter of law.

If the United States and the democratic international community have the courage to practice what they preach, then they should not recognize this new government. Democrats around the world should pressure their governments to deny recognition to Venezuela's new military junta or any president they happen to choose. According to the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS), this would mean expelling Venezuela from the OAS, as a U.S. state department official recently threatened to do. Please call the U.S. state department or your foreign ministry and tell them to withdraw their ambassadors from Venezuela.

Gregory Wilpert lives in Caracas, is a former U.S. Fulbright scholar in Venezuela, and is currently doing independent research on the sociology of development.

The President has not resigned
Posted: Friday, April 12, 2002

Translation of document written by the legal Ministry of Venezuela
Caracas, April 12, 2002
Translated by Lori Zett

The Ministers denounce the coup against Chavez and warn that the President has not resigned.

The ministers called on the Governors and on the Federal Councils of the Government to defend the constitutionality.

The de facto Junta "is violating the constitutional framework of the country."

Two ministers of the President, Hugo Chavez Friasí Cabinet denounced that the national power has launched a coup against the State with the President of Fedecameras, Pedro Carmona Estanga at the head.

The titular [leaders] of Labor, María Cristina Iglesias, and Education, Aristóbulo Istúriz, explained that the elected President was [forcefully] removed from the Palace of Miraflores at approximately 4:00 a.m. today by a group of Generals, and taken by force to the Tiuna Fortress. "They wanted to convince President Chavez to resign, but he refused consistently. Chavez did not renounce. Chavez does not want to leave the country; if they say he left, itís because they removed him by force from Venezuela," Iglesias warned. "To say he is going to renounce is the game that those who have carried out the coup enact in order to pretend that there was no coup.

"The President has shown that he was incapable of using armed forces against the people." MORE

Latam up in arms, allege violation of Venezuelan constitution
Posted: Friday, April 12, 2002

The international community today urged Venezuela to return quickly to normality, with Latin American countries voicing concerns that the ouster of president Hugo Chavez and appointment of a new government was undemocratic.

Bloody scenes that left 15 dead and 350 wounded yesterday led to the departure of Chavez and the designation of businessman Pedro Carmona as his interim successor by the military.

Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo urged the Organisation of American States to throw the Democratic Charter at Venezuela, which would impose sanctions on the oil-rich nation on grounds it had broken the constitution under Article 20 of the charter. MORE

Translator

World News
Posted: Thursday, April 11, 2002

• US force may monitor ceasefire in Middle East
• Blast outside Africa's oldest synagogue in Tunisia kills six...
• School bus attacked with stones in Paris...
• Jewish soccer team attacked, one member seriously injured
• Militants surrender in Jenin; Israeli forces shift in West Bank
• International war-crimes tribunal approved
• At least 23 dead after ferry blaze in Philippines
• Apartheid-era weapons chief acquitted in South Africa
• Bethlehem church siege reaches 10th day
• Arafat getting more popular with Palestinians
• Police arrest many of their own in Mexico corruption crackdown
• UN Calls Forensic Experts for Afghan Graves Probe
• French Jews feel threat of Muslim backlash
• Blair: We'll help Arafat keep killers off streets
• Hizbollah steps up attacks on northern border
• Sri Lanka prepared to lift Tiger ban
• Afghan Sculptor to Rebuild Statues
• New court makes global justice a reality
• Monk shot in besieged Basilica of the Nativity
• Jenin: 'My mother ran for help. A soldier shot her in the head'
• Sharon snubs new calls for retreat resolve
• Whiter than white
> He is a man charged with murdering 46 black people
> by using them as guinea pigs for South Africa's
> secret chemical and biological warfare project.
> The court is due to deliver its verdict today but
> he will probably go free
• Powell mission must save US prestige
• 'They can do anything ... kill your father, destroy your house'
• Annan demands Israel open access for aid
• Moscow claims irrefutable proof of US spying in Russia
• Israel faces global wrath
• Europe and UN pin hopes on Powell's visit
• Blair talks big on Iraq, but Washington calls the shots
• Dolly's creators turn to human embryos
• China Estimates It Has 850,000 HIV Carriers

Venezuela's Chavez Slams Oil Strike
Posted: Wednesday, April 10, 2002

For a second day, traffic was thinner than usual Wednesday in Venezuela's capital as many people stayed home in support of striking oil workers and the country's chief labor leader openly appealed to the military to side with the strikers.

The strike appeared to lose some steam, however, with students heading back to school and more businesses opening. Police and National Guardsmen patrolled bus stops, the Caracas headquarters of the Venezuelan Workers Confederation and state-owned oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela sites of violence between strikers and government supporters Tuesday.

Carlos Ortega, president of the confederation, called on the military to compel President Hugo Chavez to cede to the workers' demands. MORE

Don't believe everything you read. These mainstream media are selling the U.S. policy. The U.S. and Venezuela's business controlled media are lying. Check the history here...

World News
Posted: Wednesday, April 10, 2002

• An Imminent Coup in Venezuela?
• World leaders call for Israeli withdrawal
> Bush clone text...
• Bahraini women join first poll in 30 years
• UN Annan takes Israel to task over 'human rights violations'
• President Bush Leads Push to Outlaw Clone Research
• Labour MPs grill Blair on Iraq
• Police: NJ Cop Kills 5 Neighbors
• U.S. set to search for pilot in Iraq...
• Yugoslav government approves new "Serbia and Montenegro" nation
• Facing sanctions threat, Yugoslav government adopts war crimes bill
• Four indicted for aid to terror group: Ashcroft
• UNHCR starts repatriation of Afghan refugees from Iran
• Enron Auditor Makes Guilty Plea
• 230 GSDF members leave for E. Timor on peacekeeping mission
• Powell takes open-ended Mideast mission to Spain
• Clans and guns - Mogadishu's fatal combination
• Quickly translating al Qaeda papers a challenge-US
• Ambush kills 13 Israelis but Sharon stays on the attack
• It was always lethal territory
• German peace plan backed, but Israel intends to wall itself off
• Iraq may be doing us a favour by raising oil prices
• World Bank to West Bank
• Tamil leader breaks cover to bring peace hope
• Chaos as Afghan farmers fire on officials trying to destroy poppies
• A quarter of US bombs missed target in Afghan conflict
• BSkyB and the BBC to help save digital television

An Imminent Coup in Venezuela?
Posted: Wednesday, April 10, 2002

by Gregory Wilpert*
April 10 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.

Given that Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the western hemisphere; it is distinctly possible that the U.S. government is going to intervene overtly, if it is not already doing so covertly. This means that the current crisis in Venezuela is probably a planned conspiracy to topple the Chavez government with the support of the U.S.

As I write this, on April 9, Venezuela’s largest union federation, the Confederación de Trabajadores de Venezuela (CTV) has called for a two-day general strike. Venezuela’s chamber of commerce, FEDECAMERAS, has joined the strike and called on all of its affiliated businesses to close for 48 hours.

This was the second time in four months that the two federations, of labor unions and of business owners, decided to join forces and strike against the leftist government of President Hugo Chavez. What is happening in Venezuela? Why are these and many other forces uniting against Chavez?

Chavez took power in late 1998 in a landslide electoral victory, calling for a “Bolivarian Revolution,” in reference to Latin America’s hero of independence and Venezuela’s favorite son, Simon Bolivar. Since then, Chavez has tried to root out the entrenched powers of Venezuelan society, represented by a political and economic elite, which had governed Venezuela for over 40 years in a pseudo-democratic form by alternating power between two entrenched political parties.

Chavez first reformed Venezuela’s constitution, through a constitutional assembly and a referendum, making it one of the most progressive constitutions in the world. The old elite were nearly completely driven from political power in the course of seven elections, which took place between 1998 and 2000. However, the old elite of the labor unions, the business sector, the church, and the media are still in power and have recently begun making life as difficult as possible for Chavez.

Although Chavez originally had popularity a rating of around 80%, his popularity has steadily declined in the past year, supposedly reaching the low 30’s now. Whether the reason for this decline was the slow pace of his promised reforms, the lack of significant progress in reducing corruption and poverty, or if it was because of the incessant media assault on his government, is not clear – most likely it is because of a combination of these factors.

The conflict between Chavez and the old elite has recently come to a head. First, when Chavez passed a slew of 49 laws, which, among many other measures, were supposed to increase the government’s oil income and redistribute land. The chamber of commerce vehemently opposed these laws and decided to call for a general business strike on December 10.

Venezuela’s labor union federation, the CTV, decided to join the strike, supposedly out of concern for the harm the laws did to the business sector and thus to employment in Venezuela.

More likely, though, the CTV’s support of a general strike was in retaliation for Chavez having forced the unions to carry out new elections of the CTV’s leadership and for not recognizing its leadership, due to charges of fraud, when the old guard union leadership declared itself the winner of the election and refused to submit the official results and ballots to the government.

The second major issue, which has resulted in a serious challenge to Chavez, occurred when Chavez appointed five new members loyal to him to the board of directors of the state-owned oil company, PDVSA, the largest oil company in the world and the third largest supplier of oil to the U.S.

Also, he appointed a prominent leftist economist and long-time critic of PDVSA as its president. The management of PDVSA cried out in protest, arguing that the appointments were purely political and not based on merit and thus threatened to undermine the company’s independence and its meritocracy.

Chavez has since countered that board members and president have always been political appointments and that the state needed to regain control over PDVSA because it has become increasingly inefficient, a state within a state, whose top management is living a life of extreme luxury.

Furthermore, and less explicitly, Chavez wants to assure that PDVSA adheres to OPEC’s production quotas, so that the oil price remains at a stable and profitable level. PDVSA, however, has a history of undermining OPEC quotas because its management places a higher premium on market share than on a good oil price.

Following a two weeks of protest and of labor slowdowns within PDVSA, mostly on the part of management, the labor federation leadership of the CTV, who all belong to the discredited old elite, decided to join the conflict in support of PDVSA’s management, arguing that it was acting in solidarity with PDVSA workers in its call for a day-long general strike.

The chamber of commerce rapidly followed suit, seeing this as another opportunity to humiliate and perhaps topple Chavez, and supported the strike as well. Considering the first day a complete success, the CTV and the chamber of commerce have decided to extend the general strike another 24 hours. However, as PROVEA, Venezuela’s human rights agency has noted, even though Venezuela’s constitution guarantees the right to strike, the strike is completely illegal because it bypassed the legal requirements for democratic legitimation of such a strike.

Given that a large majority of private businesses are members of the chamber of commerce and oppose Chavez, the strike has appeared to be quite successful. Whether workers actually believe in the strike and intentionally stay away from work in protest to the government, is almost impossible to tell, since most businesses were closed by management.

Many businesses were open and most of the informal sector was actively selling its wares on the streets as usual. Of course, all government offices and all banks, whose hours are regulated by the government, were open. Together, these sectors account for about 40% of Venezuela’s workforce.

The conflict in Venezuela has come to take on epic proportions, if one listens to the rhetoric of the two sides of the conflict. Both sides make extensive use of hyperbole, alternately calling the strike either a complete and total failure or a complete and total success.

Other examples of how passionate and heated the debates have become are reflected in the opposition’s repeated references to Chavez as a “totalitarian fascist dictator” who wants to “cubanize” Venezuela. Chavez and his supporters, for their part, refer to the opposition as a squalid (“escualido”) corrupt oligarchy.

Both sets of labels are caricatures of the truth. Certainly, Venezuela’s oligarchical elite opposes Chavez, but the opposition to Chavez has become quite strong and has grown far beyond the oligarchy, to include many of his former friends and supporters. On the other hand, even though Chavez uses a lot of inflammatory rhetoric, the opposition has yet to find a single instance in which he has violated Venezuela’s very democratic constitution in any way.

Chavez’ greatest failure, from a progressive point of view, probably lies in his relatively autocratic style, which is why many of his former supporters have become alienated from his government. Whenever someone opposed his policies he has tended to reject them and cast them out of his government circle.

The result has been a consistent loss of a relatively broad political spectrum of government leadership and a significant turn-over in his cabinet, making stable and consistent policy implementation quite difficult.

This loss of broad-based support has made itself felt particularly strongly during the recent crises, making Chavez look more isolated than he might otherwise be. Other than his party supporters, who are quite significant in number and come mostly from the poor “barrios,” the progressive sectors of civil society have been neglected by Chavez and have thus not been active. Instead, the conservative sectors of civil society, such as the chamber of commerce and the old guard union leadership are among the main mobilizers of civil society.

Still, Chavez’ policies have been almost without exception progressive in that they have supported land redistribution for poor farmers, title to the self-built homes of the barrios, steady increases in the minimum wage and of public sector salaries, and the enrollment of over 1 million students in school who were previously excluded, to name just a few accomplishments.

In terms of international issues, Chavez has been on the forefront in working for greater intra-Third World solidarity, in opposing neo-liberalism, and in supporting Cuba.

Figuring out what this epic conflict is about has been somewhat difficult for an outsider. Passions are so inflamed that it is practically impossible to find calm and reasoned analyses about what is going on. Are the chamber of commerce, the labor federation leadership, the upper class, and significant sectors of the middle class really primarily concerned about the “politicization” of PDVSA and the appointment of a pro-government board of directors?

Perhaps. But does opposition to these appointments justify a general strike? Definitely not. More likely these sectors are concerned that politicization of PDVSA means a loss of access to Venezuela’s cash-cow: oil. Not only that, the most common complaints one hears about Chavez have more to do with his style than with any concrete policies he has implemented. There often is a racist undertone to such complaints, implying that Chavez, because of his folksy and populist style and his Indio appearance, is sub-human, a “negro.”

It does not help that almost all of the media, except the one government-run TV network, out of about five major TV networks, and one out of approximately ten major newspapers is completely opposed to Chavez.

The media regularly cover nearly every single opposition pronouncement and rarely cover government declarations. Chavez, out of frustration with the media has relentlessly attacked the media for belonging to the old guard oligarchy and for printing nothing but lies, occasionally threatening them with legal action for slander.

The media has, of course, responded in kind, by accusing Chavez of intimidating journalists with his pronouncements and of sending gangs to threaten journalists with physical violence. The media has tried to embarrass Chavez internationally by taking its case to the Organization of American States and to the U.S., which have responded favorably to their complaints and have criticized Chavez for his supposed lack of respect for human rights.

The other thing Chavez has done to combat the media is to exploit a law which permits the government to take over all of the airwaves for important government announcements. All TV and radio stations are required to broadcast these announcements.

During the general strike Chavez decided to go all-out and interrupted all TV and radio broadcasts numerous times during the strike. The government’s use of the airwaves has now provided additional ammunition to the opposition and constituted an important factor in their deciding to extend the strike from one day to two.

Chavez’ greatest error has been his truly fundamental neglect for cultivating a culture which would support his “Bolivarian Revolution,” one which progressive sectors of civil society would support and promote amongst the population and internationally, even against a strongly oppositional media.

Despite this grave fault of his presidency, Chavez continues to deserve the support of progressives because the only alternative that has presented itself until now is a return to the status quo ante, where the upper class, together with selected sectors of the labor movement and the government bureaucracy share Venezuela’s oil pie amongst themselves, leaving the poor, who constitute three quarters of Venezuela’s population, to fend for themselves.

Currently, however, the most immediate and most likely alternative to Chavez is either a military coup or U.S. intervention, since Chavez definitely won’t resign and since he is legally in office at least until the 2004, when a recall vote can be called. This means that progressives around the world should act in solidarity with Chavez’ government and support him, if another Chile-style coup is to be avoided.

Gregory Wilpert lives in Caracas, is a former U.S. Fulbright scholar in Venezuela, and is currently doing independent research on the sociology of development.

An Imminent Coup in Venezuela?
Posted: Wednesday, April 10, 2002

By Gregory Wilpert

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.

Given that Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the western hemisphere; it is distinctly possible that the U.S. government is going to intervene overtly, if it is not already doing so covertly. This means that the current crisis in Venezuela is probably a planned conspiracy to topple the Chavez government with the support of the U.S. More

Will corruption and injustice gain a stranglehold over Venezuela's misery again?
Posted: Wednesday, April 10, 2002

With new-found democracy and legitimacy now fighting for its survival on political barricades in Caracas, the question must surely be asked if truth and legitimacy is to be allowed to win the day ... or, if Venezuela will be plunged into yet another four decades of corruption and misery, where more than 80% of its population has already been subjugated by political manipulators and corrupt cliques, whose percentage is in the lower single digits, but appears to have all the mouth in the current media war against the democratically-elected government of President Hugo Chavez Frias. MORE

They are planning to either kill or overthrow Chavez. Check the history here...

World News
Posted: Tuesday, April 9, 2002

• Beware of Europeans' Trojan Horse Strategy
• Israelis launch a pre-dawn invasion of a new town
• Palestinians Dismiss Israeli Pullout as a 'Lie'
• Saudi Says U.S. Not Doing Enough to Restrain Sharon
• Pope says Holy Land violence at intolerable level
• Israel shifts battleground to Jenin
• You should be in Israel, Moroccan king tells Powell
• Blair tries to quell revolt on Iraq
• Dead and Wounded Wither and Rot in Nablus Mosque
• Time to get serious: The world must stand up to Sharon
• Suicide bombers don't want political compromises...
• Japan: Six dead babies found in wardrobe
• Finally, Hope in Angola
• South Africa: Ruined Economy, Billion-Dollar Warplanes
• Witnesses tell how elderly were used as human shields
• Clerics, civilians and Palestinian gunmen defy Israelis
• Blair warns MPs not to be 'naive'
• Afghan minister escapes assassins in roadside ambush
• Israel's promised withdrawal not enough: Powell
• Asian Defense Spending Predicted To Rise
• Children scream for water in the 'City of Bombers'
• Pentagon seeks to expand terror war
• Blair will stick to his guns over Iraq
• The Feds threw the book at John Walker Lindh
> whetting the nation’s appetite for vengeance.
> Too bad the evidence is so weak
• Afghan mass grave reports may be premature: Red Cross officials

Up to 170,000 people, mostly women and young girls, are trafficked in southeast Europe each year
Posted: Tuesday, April 9, 2002

By Alison Mutler

BUCHAREST, Romania - Human trafficking, mostly involving women and young girls forced into prosecution, is increasing in southeastern Europe, with up to 170,000 people a year becoming victims, a European official monitoring the situation said Tuesday.

To combat the problem, governments in the region are being urged to grant temporary residence permits to those seeking to break free from their situation, said Helga Konrad, coordinator for trafficking of human beings of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. MORE

Venezuela Silences Reporting on Oil
Posted: Tuesday, April 9, 2002

Venezuela's government all but silenced independent broadcast news reporting of a nationwide general strike called Tuesday to support a work slowdown at the state oil monopoly that has roiled international oil markets.

President Hugo Chavez used a law to force all TV and radio stations to transmit dozens of government broadcasts insisting all was normal Tuesday, angering Venezuela's largest labor and business confederations, which called the 24-hour strike. MORE

Robert Fisk: This will be the week when we see who runs the US-Israeli alliance
Posted: Monday, April 8, 2002

So what's the surprise? Suddenly Israel doesn't want to take our advice. Ex-general Ariel Sharon prefers to go on wrecking the Palestinian Authority, tearing up the Oslo agreement in the name of his Holy War on terror. Why should he worry about the scandalous number of civilian casualties among the Palestinians? MORE

World News
Posted: Monday, April 8, 2002

• Confusion reigns over cloning pregnancy report
• Number of Enron Hearings Set Apparent Record
• Sharon Presses on with Offensive, Defying U.S
• U.S. warns all Americans in Saudi Arabia to stay indoors
• Survey suggests true scale of cyber crime concealed
• Pakistan ready to use nuclear weapons as last resort: Musharraf
• Get out now, US tells defiant Sharon
• Tension grows as Iraq dismisses Blair demands
• Washington's patience pushed to the limit
• Blair is trying to moderate Bush's unilateralism
• Governor: Army Gunfire in Bethlehem, Causing Blaze
• Blair: "Britain will be at America's side"
• Defiant Saddam vows to defeat America
• Sharon denounced in worldwide protests
• Europe threatens Israel with sanctions
• Blair and Bush in new plan for Israel
• Iraq action is delayed but 'certain'
• Day of rest turns into day of fear in Bethlehem
• U.S. may send 300 more soldiers to Philippines
• Breaking a cultural taboo, war widows join the anti-war protest
• Saudi plan offers glimmer of hope
• Pentagon makes plans to transfer Saudi base to Qatar
• U.S. wants settlement freeze as part of push toward truce
• IDF to draft some senior reserve officers in north
• Israeli army: Anyone on the streets in Bethlehem will be shot
• Iraq, Kuwaiti relations move forward
• Blair says only 'the bad guys' rejoice at rift talk

World News
Posted: Sunday, April 7, 2002

• UN Envoys Again Tell Israel to Withdraw Troops
• Sudan calls for intifada volunteers
• Japanese leader warns China of nuclear option
• Albania's PM for closer cooperation with Kosovo
• Strange lights in the sky baffle Bavarians
• Sharon says 'point of no return'...
• Israel accelerates military offensive
• Powell Says He May Meet with Arafat
• Million on Rabat streets as pro-Palestinian rallies continue
• Bush Administration Deeply Divided Over Powell Mission
• Policeman stabbed during massive Jewish demo in Paris
• Thousands Rally For Israel At U.N. As Powell Heads To Mideast
• Thinking ahead: After survival, what happens?
• Race, reparations are dividing Seminole Nation
• Russia's Bloody Ally
• UK Labour fury as Blair backs Bush plan to remove Saddam
• Why Bush finally stepped in to try to stop the slaughter
• In the Gruesome Wake of the Israeli Army
• Bush Has 'Brutal' Phone Call With Sharon
• Israel Vows to 'Finish the Job'
• 'I don't want to be here, but what would you do?'
• Unholy War: The Bethlehem bellringer, the doctor, the mother.

Venezuela leader gets tough as state oil row bites
Posted: Saturday, April 6, 2002

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sacked seven dissident state oil executives Sunday in a steely response to a labor protest that some industry sources said was disrupting operations by the world's No. 4 petroleum exporter.

While Chavez and his government insisted that output and exports were unaffected by the conflict in state oil giant PDVSA, Latin America's biggest oil company, the sources said Venezuelan oil shipments were at a standstill at the weekend.

Blowing a soccer referee's whistle and repeating "That's enough", the pugnacious president ordered the PDVSA sackings in a live broadcast in which he also announced a 20 percent increase in the minimum public sector wage and brushed aside a call by labor opponents for a one-day national strike Tuesday. MORE

World News
Posted: Saturday, April 6, 2002

• War crimes court may lose U.S. support
• Pakistan leader's bid to extend power draws criticism
• Sri Lanka Peace Close Enough to Touch
• LA Cardinal Accused of Sexual Abuse
• Sharon tries to destroy all traces of Arafat rule
• Bush: We will get rid of Saddam
¥ This constant "we will get Saddam" sounds like an obsession.
• American-born prisoner moved to military jail in US
• Musharraf ready to use nuclear arms
• Madagascar's Self-Declared President: We're At War
• Iraq still the target, President insists
• Israeli rush to finish job before Powell flies in
• UN, ICRC urge Israel to lift Palestinian medical restrictions
• 'We are losing them. There is no blood, no electricity'
• Defiant Israel snubs Bush peace plan
• New Israeli blitz leaves 24 Palestinians dead ahead of US peace mission
• Sharon rides high in polls as Israeli public supports 'war on terror'
• Foreign journalists flee as soldiers use stun grenades to block access
• Conflict begins anew debate on end times
• China asks Bush why he called Taiwan a country
• Trilateral meeting to discuss terrorism

World News
Posted: Friday, April 5, 2002

• International Media Protest Israel Ban
• Madagascar's Self-Declared President: We're At War
• Israeli operations bring 'wanton destruction'
• Afghan leaflets offer reward for killing troops
• The war on terror isn't working
• The prisoner of Sharon
• Edward Said: After survival, what happens?
• Sharon's self -defeating vendetta
• Israel: Unpardonable Wall of Silence
• Why Israel Must Stop The Terror
• Afghans Free Half of 'Coup-Plotters'
• Afghan Peacekeepers Unaware of 'Coup Plot'
• Bush: Saddam Needs To Go
• Singapore Uncovers 'Plane Crash Plot'
• Texan man gets death sentence for killing Indian over 9/11
• Iran's supreme leader urges one-month oil ban on West
• Malaysia PM wants Asian trade, without Western values
• U.S. is 'most wicked sworn enemy,' North Korea says
• Army study suggests U.S. force of 20,000
• More 'credible threats' against allies in Afghanistan
• Bush's speech laced with obsessions and little else
• Israel set to defy US over offensive
• Hizbollah forces hurt UN observers and two armed peace-keepers
• From photocalls to fridge magnets: Blair and Bush will hold united front
• Europe does have influence over Israel and should use it now
• Karzai Arrests 600 After Failed 'Coup'
• Could Britain retake the Falklands today?
• Fresh row over Bush's links to gas companies
• Israel set to defy US over offensive
• Karzai Arrests 600 After Failed 'Coup'
• Angolan ceasefire signed
> After 26 bloody years, Angola and Unita rebels
> call an end to Africa's longest running civil war
• U.S. President tells Sharon to end West Bank occupation
> and blames Arafat for failing to halt wave of suicide bombings
• Bush has finally grasped that Sharon is the problem

Bin there done that!
Posted: Friday, April 5, 2002

Terrorists

Sharon bin Killing
Bush bin Hypocritical
Blair bin Bush's Poodle

Views here ...

How dare George Bush preach peace to Israel.
Posted: Friday, April 5, 2002

PRESIDENT George W Bush yesterday called on Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian cities occupied by its forces during the last week. He excused Israel's violence, but lectured the Palestinians and the rest of the Middle East on the need for restraint and a lasting peace. "The storms of violence cannot go on," said Bush. "Enough is enough." MORE

The Prisoner of Sharon
Posted: Thursday, April 4, 2002

Patrick J. Buchanan

If President Bush is visibly agonizing over this Mideast crisis, who can blame him? For the president is facing a painful and stark choice – between doing what is right for America, and doing what is angrily demanded of him by Ariel Sharon and the War Party in the United States.

Incited by the savage suicide attacks over Passover, Sharon sent his army rampaging onto the West Bank, shooting up Arafat's headquarters, killing Palestinians by the score, and igniting a storm of protest from our friends and allies. Why, they demand to know of us, does the president not rein in the raging bull of Ramallah?

The president's problem: If he denounces Sharon and demands he pull back from the West Bank, he will dynamite his political coalition at home and call down a firestorm within his own party. MORE

The world just watches
Posted: Thursday, April 4, 2002

RAMALLAH, West Bank
For the international peace observers currently holed up within Yasser Arafat's presidential compound - myself among them - it is not Israeli actions but the inaction of the international community that has most shocked us. MORE

What about Hollywood making a film called Operation Cyclone
Posted: Thursday, April 4, 2002

by John Pilger

The dislocation is now so great that the cultural propaganda that was always Hollywood accounts for more than 80 per cent of the films seen in Britain and many other countries. The power of their message about "the American way of life" is such that it seems we are back to the post-Second World War era when the American business establishment promoted a paranoia about enemies within and abroad. MORE

Statement by Bush on the Middle East
Posted: Thursday, April 4, 2002

US President Bush

Statement by Bush on the Middle East
> Filled with deceit...

• Bush's speech laced with obsessions and little else

World News
Posted: Wednesday, April 3, 2002

• Suicide killers: A long, violent prehistory
• Anti-US Coup Attempt In Afghanistan
• Stop The Poison of Religious Violence
> India's Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee,
> has made an impassioned plea for an end to his country's
> worst religious violence in a decade as he visited the riot-hit
> western state of Gujarat.
• Human cloning project claims progress
> Doctor Says Woman '8 weeks Pregnant'...
• Sharon agreed Thursday to permit a U.S. envoy to meet Arafat
• Damascus and Beirut agreement for redeployment of Syrian forces
• Falun Gong Followers In the U.S. Sue China
• Bush Calls on Israel to Stop Incursions
• The handler and the dog: The U.S. and Israel
• 'We need to do what's right' on Afghan civilian casualties,
> says House delegation leader
• Bush Sending Powell to Middle East
• Palestinians Vow Long Resistance...
• Russia Warned U.S. About FBI Agent
• Ex-Taliban Fighters in New Afghan Army
• Colombia's civil war pays house call on Venezuelans in border zone
• Fearing plot, Afghans arrest 200
• Arab-Americans bombard White House with emails
• Indonesian minister warned Muslims not to fight alongside Palestinians
• 'Mood is good,' Hamas leaders assert
• Angola to end civil war
• In chaotic Bethlehem, the dead share space with the wounded
• Pope accuses Israel of humiliating Palestinians
• The bloody battle of Bethlehem
> Israeli troops surround Church of the Nativity
> Tanks enter city of Nablus
• Israel tightens its iron grip on 1m Palestinians in West Bank
• Sharon's strategy aimed at destroying Arafat's security infrastructure
• Muslim nations defend use of suicide bombers
• Truth is a scarce commodity as propaganda war gets into its stride
• US begins talks for political solution to conflict
• Threat grows of second front in Lebanon
• Suicide killers: a long, violent prehistory

Protest

Truce plan to let Israel continue attacks
Posted: Wednesday, April 3, 2002

Furious Palestinians leak 'one-sided' US envoy draft
Israel would be allowed to continue attacks on Palestinian presidential buildings, security headquarters and prisons as part of a Middle East "ceasefire" plan proposed by US envoy General Anthony Zinni, it emerged yesterday.
Furious Palestinian negotiators have released a copy of the document, presented by Gen Zinni on March 26, the day before Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had been due to attend the Arab summit in Beirut.
Israel treated the document as an ultimatum, demanding Mr Arafat sign it as a condition of being allowed to attend the summit, but he refused. MORE

U.S. sponsored terrorist
Posted: Wednesday, April 3, 2002

Ariel Sharon

Two-faced Sharon bin lying

Views here ...

World News
Posted: Tuesday, April 2, 2002

• Madagascar's economy implodes as rivals grapple for control
• Japan slaughters 440 whales for study
> They may be studying how to feed a nation
> and what happens when there are no more whales
• Conservatives Knock Bush For Weak Israel Stand...
• Son defends Billy Graham's past comments about Jewish media control
• Justice Dies in the Dark
• Missile factory blows up in Syria
• Blair threatened with huge revolt over Iraq stance
• Argentine President Duhalde: 'The Falklands are ours;
> we will get them back'
• Bushmen forced out of Kalahari
• Hardliners put Arab leaders under intense pressure
• Un fears war will engulf the Arab world
• Chinese missiles concern Pentagon
• After all the shooting, the Israelis will still have to talk to Mr Arafat
• Armoured invasion brings no peace to Bethlehem
• Missing a peace
• Canada Condemns Israeli Assault
• US Plans Summer Iraq Strike
• Arab States Draw Closer to Action
• Israel Warns Journalists of Action
• The bodies, the chaos - and the debris of war in a city under siege
• At least 24,000 flee fighting in Burundi
• Stormtrooper Sharon
• A free and independent Palestine alongside a safe Israel is not impossible
• Despite what you read, war and terror in decline
• Europeans Demand Access to Arafat

From Algiers to Jerusalem
Posted: Tuesday, April 2, 2002

Ariel Sharon has been so busy as of late it's understandable if he missed an anniversary last month -- the end of the Franco-Algerian war. Before that war was over in 1962, at least 250,000 Algerians and 25,000 French soldiers had been killed. Add to that total about 4,500 European settlers, the pieds noirs, and maybe as many as 150,000 Harkis, Algerians who worked, and sometimes fought, for the French. They were slaughtered at the war's end. MORE

Israel's State Terrorism
Posted: Tuesday, April 2, 2002

What is the difference between State terrorism and individual terrorist acts? If we understand this difference we’ll understand also the evilness of the US policies in the Middle East and the forthcoming disasters. When Yassir Arafat was put under siege in his offices and kept hostage by the Israeli occupation forces, he was constantly pressed into condemning terror and combatting terrorism. Israel’s State terrorism is defined by US officials as "self-defense", while individual suicide bombers are called terrorists. MORE

When Palestinians have no hope

The measure of the failure of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is this: The Palestinians are stronger today than they ever have been. MORE

Farce and terror in the 'closed area' of Ramallah
Posted: Tuesday, April 2, 2002

Journalists were ordered out of Ramallah late on Sunday night. It's an old trick. Whenever the Israeli army wants to stop us seeing what they're up to, out comes that most preposterous exercise in military law-on-the-hoof: the "Closed Military Area".
So yesterday was a good day to do the opposite, to go look at what Israel's army was up to. And I can well see why it didn't want reporters around. MORE

World News
Posted: Monday, April 1, 2002

• US praises Angola ceasefire accord
> says willing to help in reconciliation...
• Pat Buchanan: The Palestinians Are Winning
• Stormtrooper Sharon
• A free and independent Palestine alongside a safe Israel is not impossible
• Despite what you read, war and terror in decline
• Europeans Demand Access to Arafat
• Israel Accused of Dragging Middle East Towards War
• The U.S. invests in Israeli biotech firm
• Bush Gives Israel Wide Latitude in Offensive
• Arabs Take to Streets Against Israel
• Catholic priest killed, Israel raids Bethlehem in West Bank offensive
• Indonesia Sends 1,800 Troops in Rebellious Aceh
• Iraq-Kuwait relations to grow rapidly
• UK: Straw dismisses Iraq attack talk
• Gun battles rage in Bethlehem
• Kuwait Says U.S. Contributing to Israeli Attacks
• Another Shot in the Foot by Bush and company
• Bush is linking Iran, Iraq and Syria to terrorism
¥ Simple-minded Bush cannot see the U.S. LINK to terrorism
• Arafat's Lieutenants Targeted for Arrest
• Israeli tanks moving toward Bethlehem...
> troops attack security headquarters
• Farce and terror in the 'closed area' of Ramallah
• Bush stands back as Israel tightens siege
• Israeli army in campaign to destroy security forces
• A new imperialism cooked up over a Texan barbecue - UK
• 25,000 lack water in Ramallah
• Israel: Arafat can leave - but not return
• Israeli army uses human shield in Ramallah
• Sharon calls on Netanyahu to boost Israeli public relations
• Nine dead in Mideast bloodshed, Israel tightens grip
• China assembles missiles near coast facing Taiwan
• Rwandan genocide suspect snubs trial
• Rwanda's 'murderer in chief' on trial
• Musharraf flies in to back new Kabul regime
• US: Iran Gives al-Qaida Safe Passage

Courage to Refuse - Combatant's Letter
Posted: Monday, April 1, 2002

We, reserve combat officers and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, who were raised upon the principles of Zionism, sacrifice and giving to the people of Israel and to the State of Israel, who have always served in the front lines, and who were the first to carry out any mission, light or heavy, in order to protect the State of Israel and strengthen it. MORE

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