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<H1>Opposition Protests In Venezuela Rooted In Falsehoods, US Support &
Violence</H1></DIV>
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<DIV class=cat-date-line><SPAN class=cat-date-line2><A
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</SPAN><BR><SPAN class=cat-date-line4>By Kevin Zeese, <A
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2014</SPAN><BR></DIV>
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<P><SPAN style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5em">On Saturday, </SPAN><A
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5em"
href="http://www.theborneopost.com/2014/02/24/venezuelans-protest-en-masse-in-rival-rallies/">hundreds
of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets</A><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5em"> in competing protests both opposing and supporting
the government. The day before</SPAN><A style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5em"
href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-26298133">, President Maduro
made an offer to President Obama</A><SPAN style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5em"> saying:
“Let’s initiate a high-level dialogue and let’s put the truth out on the table.”
As you will see below, the United States is a primary player in the opposition
to the Maduro government. We doubt President Obama wants the U.S. role exposed,
so don’t expect talks between Maduro and Obama anytime soon.</SPAN></P>
<P><A
href="http://www.theborneopost.com/2014/02/24/venezuelans-protest-en-masse-in-rival-rallies/">Maduro
also called for a peace conference</A> on Wednesday, February 26<SUP>th</SUP>,
describing it as “a national peace conference with all the country’s political
sectors … so we Venezuelans can try to neutralize violent groups.”</P>
<P>This article seeks to address many of the common statements heard from the
opposition and the US government about Venezuela because there are so many
obviously false statements being made by both.</P>
<P><B><I>The US media and elected officials, along with the opposition in
Venezuela, commonly call the Maduro government a dictatorship. The facts show
the opposite is true as Venezuela is one of the most democratic nations on
Earth. </I></B></P>
<P>Here are <A href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10369">some facts
about democracy in Venezuela</A>:</P>
<P>“Regarding the supposed ‘democratic deficit of the Venezuelan regime’, the
facts speak for themselves. Since 1998 there have been four national
plebiscites, four presidential elections, and eleven parliamentary, regional,
and municipal elections. Venezuela is the Latin American country with the
highest number of elections and it also has an automatic electoral system (much
more modern than Chile’s), <A
href="http://www.globalatlanta.com/article/25788/carter-praises-venezuela-scolds-us-on-electoral-processes">described</A> by
Jimmy Carter, who has observed 92 elections in all continents, as ‘the best
system in the world.’”</P>
<P>The real ‘democratic deficit’ has been shown by the United States and the
opposition. In particular, Secretary of State John Kerry, has flown his
anti-democracy flag repeatedly when it comes to Venezuela. As <A
href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/18/venezuela-protests-us-support-regime-change-mistake">Mark
Weisbrot recently wrote</A> “when Maduro was elected president and opposition
presidential candidate Henrique Capriles claimed that the election was stolen,
Kerry refused to recognize the election results. Kerry’s aggressive,
anti-democratic posture brought such a strong rebuke from South American
governments that he was forced to reverse course and tacitly recognize the
Maduro government. (For those who did not follow these events, there was <A
href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/a-statistical-note-on-the-april-14-venezuelan-presidential-election-and-audit-of-results">no
doubt about the election results</A>.)”</P>
<P>In December 2013, the Maduro government showed even greater strength. They
won 58% of the country’s municipalities. Maduro and his allies gained more than
49% of the total vote share versus 43% for the opposition. This means that
the right-wing opposition coalition had now lost four national elections in the
past 14 months ending with the municipal elections.</P>
<P>The opposition now knows it cannot win elections, so it has taken to trying
to remove Maduro and his allies through non-electoral means. Why doesn’t
the United States criticize its U.S. allies in Venezuela for being
anti-democratic? The oligarchs who are organizing the protests are the ones who
have a ‘democracy deficit.’</P>
<P>Democracy in Venezuela is deeper than elections. It includes-worker
owned cooperatives that give workers democratic control over the places they
work <A
href="http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/2988-cooperatives-in-venezuela-promote-solidarity-equality-and-dignity">and
promotes solidarity, equality and dignity</A> for workers. Hugo
Chavez made a big push for cooperatives, <A
href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/1900">creating 100,000 in two
years</A>. In addition, democracy goes down to the community level as
Venezuelan law <A
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuelan_Communal_Councils">empowers local
citizens to form community councils</A> to solve problems in their
community.</P>
<P>The other issue that is often misrepresented is that there is no opposition
media in Venezuela and the government controls the media. <A
href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10369">The facts show</A> the
opposite to be true.</P>
<P><B><I>Another falsehood: “Maduro and Chavez have destroyed the economy.
Markets do not have essentials and inflation is out of control.”</I></B></P>
<P>It is important to understand that the oligarchs, in league with the United
States, have been at war with the Chavez-Maduro governments since Chavez was
first elected in 1999. One of the consistent strategies they have used has
been to undermine the economy. This is <A
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/how-the-west-manufactures-opposition-movements/">a
common strategy used by the United States</A> in efforts to foment regime change
throughout the world as it has been doing since the 1950s.</P>
<P>In fact, <A
href="http://www.chavezcode.com/2013_11_01_archive.html">documents released by
attorney and journalist Eva Golinger</A> in November 2013 show a plan by
representatives of the United States, Colombia and the oligarchs in Venezuela to
undermine the economy as part of removing Maduro. The document, titled
“Strategic Venezuelan Plan,” was prepared by the <A
href="http://fidauv.org/">Democratic Internationalism Foundation</A>, headed by
ex -Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, together with the <A
href="http://www.pensamientocolombia.org/">First Colombia Think Tank</A> and the
US Consulting firm, <A href="http://www.fticonsulting.com/">FTI Consulting</A>.
The plan was developed during a meeting between representatives from these three
organizations, leaders of the Venezuelan opposition, including Maria Corina
Machado, Julio Borges and Ramon Guillermo Avelado, expert in psychological
operations J.J. Rendon and the Director of the U.S. Agency for International
Development for Latin America, Mark Feierstein.</P>
<P>The plan includes a variety of steps to undermine the Venezuelan economy. It
includes efforts “to maintain and increase the sabotages that affect public
services, particularly the electrical system that will enable responsibility to
be placed on the government for supposed inefficiencies and negligence.”</P>
<P>Regarding the scarcity of goods, Golinger writes:</P>
<P>“Throughout the year, Venezuela has experienced problems with the supply of
basic products, such as toilet paper, sugar, milk, oil, butter, flour and other
food staples. Venezuelan authorities have confiscated tons of these products
illegally held inside warehouses belonging to opposition businesses. They have
also captured large quantities of these items on the border with Colombia, where
they are sold as contraband.”</P>
<P>The purpose of the shortages is to create social unrest and lack of
confidence in the government. They describe their goal as “Generating
emotion with short messages that reach the largest quantity of people and
emphasize social problems, provoking social discontent. Increase problems with
supply of basic consumer products.”</P>
<P>Inflation has been a long-term problem in Venezuela that preceded Chavez. <A
href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/7160">Inflation peaked</A> at 103% in
1996 in Venezuela, its average during the years of Hugo Chavez’s government,
between 1999 and 2012, has been 26%. Inflation is occurring in part because
Venezuela is an oil-dominated economy that imports a lot of their goods rather
than manufacturing them in Venezuela. The Chavez-Maduro government has
been trying to build other sectors of the society so Venezuela does not have to
rely on imports, which would be a long-term solution to the problem. In
addition, when there is scarcity of products – created in part by the opposition
storing products in warehouses or selling them in Colombia – prices go up as the
law of supply and demand dictates.</P>
<P>Another <A href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10396">major cause of
inflation</A> is currency flight and black market U.S. currency. The <A
href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10261">Central Bank of Venezuela
explained</A> increasing inflation at the end of 2012 and in 2013 saying:
“In October 2012 some key variables for the Venezuelan economy began to be
altered; the most notable of those being the irrational and speculative increase
in the unofficial value of the dollar, which unleashed serious consequences for
the national economy going into 2013.”</P>
<P><A
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/venezuelas-maduro-announces-more-moves-against-parasitic-bourgeoisie/">In
December President Maduro</A> attacked the illegal business practice of
requesting official rate dollars and then selling these dollars on the black
market for a profit, or importing goods and then selling them for far higher
than the import price. He describes this as part of the “economic war” by
business interests and political opponents to destabilize the economy of
Venezuela.</P>
<P><B><I>Falsehood #3: The Maduro government controls all of the media so the
opposition has no freedom of speech.</I></B></P>
<P>Another argument that is being constantly repeated is the supposed lack of
freedom of expression and press in Venezuela, once again <A
href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10369">the numbers speak for
themselves</A>:</P>
<P>“80% of the media is private. The three national newspapers (El Universal, El
Nacional and Ultimos Noticias) are opposed to the government, especially the
first two, and they bring together 90% of the readership. Of the four television
channels with national coverage, three of them (Venevision, Globovision, and
Televen) are opposition, and likewise bring together 90% of the audience,
according to information provided by the company AGB.”</P>
<P>On Friday, February 21, Venezuela revoked the accreditation of CNN’s
Caracas-based reporter, Osmary Hernandez, and those of two other CNN journalists
sent to Venezuela to cover a wave of opposition marches. While this will be used
as an effort to paint Maduro as anti-press, what it really is, is an effort to
curtail the false reporting in the corporate media in the United States and
Venezuela. CNN continues to report from Venezuela.</P>
<P><B><I>Falsehood #4: The Maduro government is reacting with violence against
nonviolent protesters</I></B></P>
<P>As part of the plan described in <A
href="http://www.chavezcode.com/2013_11_01_archive.html">documents released by
Eva Golinger</A> the opposition seeks to: “Create situations of crisis in the
streets that will facilitate US intervention, as well as NATO forces, with the
support of the Colombian government. Whenever possible, the violence should
result in deaths or injuries.” What is being seen the streets of Venezuela
is consistent with that strategy.</P>
<P>After the last presidential election, won narrowly by Maduro, <A
href="http://www.chavezcode.com/2014/02/venezuela-beyond-protests-revolution-is.html">Eva
Golinger reports</A> that his opponent called for violence: “Capriles refused to
accept the results and called his supporters to take to the streets in protest,
to ‘get all their rage out.’ During the two days after the elections, 11
government supporters were killed by Capriles’ followers.”</P>
<P><A href="https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/55915">Professor Steve Ellner</A>
of the Universidad de Oriente in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela argues that the cause
of the violence is the opposition, not the government. He points out the
opposition has been caught killing Venezuelans in the past describing the
juxtaposing of images during the 2002 coup against Chavez. The opposition
tried to make it look like Chavez was killing Venezuelans, and the US media,
including CNN, reported these false images. Later the full images showed it was
actually the opposition murdering Venezuelans.</P>
<P>Ellner points to violence used by the opposition in the current upheaval
including attacking grocery stores, banks, buses and government buildings.
<A href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10346">Other commentators</A>
have also described specific incidents of violence by the opposition including
killing people. <A href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10391">Maduro ordered
the arrest</A> of a retired general who tweeted out how to use wire to
decapitate people (in fact people have been killed and injured by such tactics)
on motorcycles and how to attack armored vehicles with Molotov cocktails. Others
in the opposition have tweeted about how to use blockades and pouring oil to
cause vehicles to crash and catch on fire.</P>
<P><B>Truth: The United States has been supporting the overthrow of the
Venezuelan government since 2002</B></P>
<P><A
href="http://www.chavezcode.com/2014/02/venezuela-beyond-protests-revolution-is.html">Eva
Golinger reports</A> that the United States has been a consistent funder of the
opposition in Venezuela. She writes:</P>
<P>“Over the ten year period, from 2000-2010, US agencies, including the US
Agency for International Development (USAID) and its Office for Transition
Initiatives (OTI), set up in Caracas in 2002, channeled more than $100 million
dollars to opposition groups in Venezuela. The overall objective was regime
change.”</P>
<P>During this time Chavez-Maduro have gotten stronger in Venezuelan elections
and the opposition has failed to make progress. Golinger reports that the
United States has more recently focused on building a youth-protest movement in
Venezuela, writing:</P>
<P>“Over one third of US funding, nearly $15 million annually by 2007, was
directed towards youth and student groups, including training in the use of
social networks to mobilize political activism. Student leaders were sent to the
US for workshops and conferences on Internet activism and media networking. They
were formed in tactics to promote regime change via street riots and strategic
use of media to portray the government as repressive”</P>
<P>Leopoldo Lopez has taken on a leadership role in the current protests.
He was recently arrested for inciting violence and calling for the removal of
Maduro. Lopez has a long history with the United States and comes from one
of the wealthiest families in Venezuela. Lopez was involved in the U.S.
backed 2002 coup and received start-up money from the U.S. National Endowment
for Democracy (NED) and its offshoots, the International Republican Institute
(IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI).</P>
<P>But Lopez’s ties to the United States go back to his time as an undergraduate
at Kenyon College in Ohio. Kenyon is known as a training ground for CIA
assets, it even has a <A
href="http://kenyon.uloop.com/scholarships/view.php/6137195/CIA+Scholarship+Program">CIA
scholarship program</A>. <A
href="http://www.contrainjerencia.com/?p=82952">Kenyon has</A> CIA-friendly
professors and the Kenyon Review was even funded by the CIA. Lopez spent five
years at Kenyon and then went on to get a Master’s Degree at the JFK School for
Government at Harvard. With this history, it not surprising to see him involved
in the 2002 coup and in the leadership of the current unrest, while the US is
funding his political party and opposition organizing.</P>
<P><A
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/wikileaks-exposed-us-efforts-to-destabilize-venezuela/">Wikileaks
exposed</A> the connection between the United States and opposition forces in
trying to undermine the government. The documents came from the leaks from
Stratfor and show how the CEO of Stratfor sees the U.S. government maneuvering
to remove Chavez and how the State Department provides information to a clueless
U.S. media.</P>
<P>Recently Wikileaks released 77 diplomatic cables that mention Leopoldo
Lopez. In an analysis of those cables, <A
href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/what-the-wikileaks-cables-say-about-leopoldo-lopez">Jake
Johnston</A> of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, describes how the
U.S. in addition to providing money, has provided guidance and kept the
opposition from imploding. Lopez seems to be a very divisive figure in the
opposition, not liked by many of his compatriots.</P>
<P>In fact, as Eva Golinger reports, there might not even be an opposition group
if it were not for US support. She writes:</P>
<P>“Their continued dependence on US funding and support – even this year Obama
included $5 million in the 2014 Foreign Operations Budget for opposition groups
in Venezuela – is a ongoing sign of their weakness. As a State Department cable
from the US Embassy in Caracas, published by Wikileaks, explained in March
2009, ‘Without our continued assistance, it is possible that the
organizations we helped create…could be forced to close…Our funding will provide
those organizations a much-needed lifeline.’”</P>
<P>But, with U.S. support, our taxpayer dollars, the opposition continues.
And, the United States not only funds the opposition, provides them guidance and
strategy assistance, but gets directly involved in seeking to remove the
government (while Secretary of State Kerry talks about respecting
democracy!). In fact in the last 6 months, <A
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/is-us-supporting-oligarch-coup-attempt-in-venezuela/">President
Maduro has expelled 6 U.S. diplomats</A> who were caught working with
oligarchs to undermine the economy and with students organizing opposition.</P>
<P>The United States knows that Venezuela is the key to regaining control of
Latin America which has broken from U.S. domination. Venezuela is also a
leader in challenging the economic policies of the United States which empower
private corporations and weaken the power of government to provide services to
meet the needs of the people. Putting in place a U.S. friendly government is a
top priority for the United States in Latin America.</P>
<H2>Join us Monday, Feb. 24 at 11 am EST for <A
href="http://clearingthefogradio.org/mon-feb-24-whats-really-going-on-in-venezuela/">Clearing
the FOG Radio</A> on “What’s really happening in Venezuela” with Professors
Steve Ellner and Maria Paez Victor.</H2></DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>