[NYTr] VIO Venezuela Daily News Roundup - November 29, 2007 Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 14:48:38 -0600 (CST) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit [A large group of articles, but all are important so we are distributing the entire VIO update today, except for one article (Petras) that we've already sent out. -NY Transfer] Venezuela Information Office (VIO) http://www.rethinkvenezuela.com VIO Venezuela Daily News Roundup - November 29, 2007 [A new poll today shows that 70% of Venezuelans are planning to vote in Sunday's referendum on constitutional reforms. Abstention does not appear to be a danger, as only about 10% do not plan to vote. Reuters reports that the data, which comes from the respected firm Consultores, shows 56% of Venezuelans are in support of the reforms, while 40% are opposed to them. View the complete poll results here: http://www.rethinkvenezuela.com/downloads/Encuesta(Final_Version).pdf The AP cites poll results from Datanalisis that suggest that opposition to the reforms would carry the day, but notes that Datanalysis wrongly predicted a loss for President Chavez in the last presidential elections, when he earned 63% of the vote. USA Today reports on the reforms, playing up hot-button issues like lifting presidential term limits while ignoring progressive measures such as expanded social security, anti-discrimination, and gender equity. A provision regarding states of emergency is said to "suspend civil rights," when it would guarantee the right to life, freedom from torture and silencing, and the right to due process. Rights during a "state of exception" in Venezuela would surpass those available in most Western democracies including the U.S. and Canada. USA Today compares Venezuela to Cuba, but writes: "Venezuela is not a police state. Media are allowed to criticize ChC!vez." A member of the National Assembly is quoted as saying that if the changes pass, Venezuela is "going to be a democratic, free, prosperous, beautiful country, not subject to any external domination." In a last minute push to discredit Venezuela's national referendum on reforms, a New York Times op-ed today claims that President Chavez is in a "grotesque and dangerous" bid to achieve "socialist-emperor status." The Times takes issue with one reform (of 69 in total) that would allow presidents in Venezuela to run for office indefinitely. No mention is made of democratic checks on presidential powers through regular competitive elections and recall referendums. The op-ed admonishes Chavez's economic plan as resembling "disastrous" '60s and '70s-era state-led development programs in Latin America, although analysts agree that those decades were the region's most prosperous. Growth fell off later, when countries were led to financial ruin by IMF-imposed neoliberal reforms in the '80s. An opinion piece in the San Francisco Bay View describes media misrepresentations of the reform process in Venezuela. Often excluded from the reporting, the piece contents, is a high level of citizen involvement in the process of drafting the reforms. The National Assembly consulted Venezuelans and gathered feedback throughout its three rounds of debates on the issues. Diverse student groups have been received by the lawmakers as well as the Supreme Court of Venezuela and the National Electoral Council. While demonstrations have been peaceful on the whole, the AP reports that a man was shot to death Monday while merely walking past an opposition protest. According to Venezuelanalysis, the man was a Chavez supporter. In international relations, the AP reports today that Venezuela could dismiss a U.S. Embassy official for allegedly manipulating public opinion ahead of the referendum. According to Venezuelanalysis, an internal CIA memorandum seized by Venezuelan counterintelligence earlier this week details a plan to destabilize the referendum by paying polling companies to misrepresent public opinion in favor of a 'no' vote, and encouraging international media to distort the data as well. Over the last month, the CIA funneled $8 million into Venezuela through the agency USAID. A Huffington Post blog notes that mainstream U.S. media have not pickd up the story. -VIO] **************** 1)"Poll suggests Venezuela's Chavez in 7-point referendum lead" Reuters 2)"Chavez Seeks Expanded Power in Charter" AP 3)"Venezuelan leader's power play has echoes of Castro" USA Today 4)"ChC!vez pushes to centralise power" Financial Times 5)"Shutting Up Venezuela's ChC!vez" New York Times 6)"Venezuelan Reforms Get No Respect in the U.S." San Francisco Bay View 7)"Venezuelan Opposition Protesters Shoot Chavez Supporter" Venezuelanalysis 8)"Old Allies Abandon ChC!vez as Constitution Vote Nears" Wash Post 9)"Acosta Says Venezuelan Army May Oppose Chavez Plan, Globo Says" Bloomberg 10)"Venezuela Opposition Group Reverses Call on Ballot Abstention" Bloomberg 11)"Venezuela Threatens to Expel US Official" AP 12)"CIA Operation "Pliers" Uncovered in Venezuela" Venezuelanalysis 13)"CIA Venezuela Destabilization Memo Surfaces" Venezuelanalysis [Distributed already via Counterpunch's copy] 14)"The CIA plan to destabilize Venezuela" Huffington Post 15)"Venezuela's Chavez Says CNN Seeks His Assassination" Bloomberg 16)"ChC!vez uncovers another plot" Financial Times 17)"Chavez Rift With Uribe Unlikely to Damage Trade Ties" Bloomberg 18)"Chavez vows no ties with Colombia" BBC News **************** 1) Poll suggests Venezuela's Chavez in 7-point referendum lead Reuters November 29, 2007 http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnN28629745.html CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has at least a seven-point lead for a referendum on Sunday on reforms that would allow him to run for re-election indefinitely, according to a poll distributed on Wednesday. The poll by Consultores 30.11, which has worked for the government and accurately predicted a vote result last year, showed Chavez moving ahead compared to most surveys in recent days that put him at best in a statistical tie. The survey of 1,600 voters taken November 21-27 said 56 percent of likely voters appeared set to vote for Chavez's constitutional overhaul and 40 percent set to vote against. But when the survey measured how undecided voters would cast their ballots and also took into account that others, who do not yet plan to vote, could decide to participate, the difference narrowed to as little as seven points. Chavez's proposal, which must be approved in a referendum, has popular sweeteners such as shortening the workday. But measures over expanding his powers are widely rejected. The Consultores 30.11 poll had a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points ***************** 2) Chavez Seeks Expanded Power in Charter The Associated Press November 29, 2007 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Venezuela-Chavezs-Power.html CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Hugo Chavez could have a shot at becoming president for life if voters approve a sweeping overhaul of the constitution Sunday that would give him unchecked power to reshape Venezuela's government, economy and society. Some polls show Chavez faces considerable resistance in the referendum. His primary impediment seems to be voters like Vanessa Meneses, a 27-year-old single mother who has backed Chavez in past elections but now fears he could become another Fidel Castro. ''Supposedly he wants to make Venezuela like Cuba and stay in power forever. It's scary,'' Meneses said. ''He wants to be the only one like in Cuba, and I don't like it.'' Venezuelans across the political spectrum see the vote as a turning point for their country -- and perhaps a point of no return. The changes to 69 of the constitution's 350 articles would enshrine a socialist economic system, create new classes of property to be managed collectively and let Chavez stand for re-election in 2012 and beyond. Chavez has sold these changes by capitalizing on his personal popularity -- he is seen by many Venezuelans as their savior, spreading more oil wealth among the poor than any leader in memory. A ''yes'' vote keeps him on as captain of a ship that otherwise ''could sink,'' he warns. His image is everywhere -- even the Caracas subway plays a rap-style campaign jingle for Chavez. The former lieutenant colonel, now 53, insists he will stay in power for as long as his people want him to -- perhaps into the 2030s, or for life. ''If you wish -- and if you approve the referendum -- I will stay as long as God wills! Until the last bone of my skeleton dries up! Until the last bit of my body dries up!'' he shouted to the applause of thousands. Opponents -- including Roman Catholic leaders, press freedom groups, human rights groups and prominent business leaders -- fear the reforms will remove some of the last checks on Chavez's power. Students are proving to be a particular challenge, leading street protests and occasionally clashing with police and Chavista groups. One man was shot dead Monday while trying to get through a road blocked by protesters. A large opposition march is planned for Thursday, along with pro-Chavez rallies. The amendments would remove term limits, extend presidential terms from six to seven years, grant Chavez direct control over the Central Bank and monetary policy, allow his government to detain citizens without charge during a state of emergency, and let the state occupy private properties it wants to expropriate. He also would be empowered to redraw the country's political map and handpick provincial and municipal leaders -- a change opponents fear will push aside any elected officials who aren't his allies. ''The only certain thing that emerges is a total concentration of political power in Chavez's fist,'' opposition politician Teodoro Petkoff wrote in his newspaper Tal Cual. He calls the changes a ''Plan for Venezuela's Destruction.'' Other opponents have taken out newspaper ads urging voters to ''defend democracy.'' Yet many Chavistas see real benefits in these and other amendments -- such as shortening the workday from eight hours to six, creating a social security fund for millions of informal laborers and promoting communal councils where residents decide how to spend government funds in their neighborhoods. ''It's power for the people. It's not power for me,'' says Chavez -- a theme also promoted by his leftist allies trying to rewrite the constitutions of Bolivia and Ecuador. Smiling in a TV campaign commercial, Chavez tells viewers: ''I want you to be the center of power.'' Many voters confess they don't understand all the changes, but will vote based on how they feel about Chavez. ''I think people want him to stay on until he has consolidated our process, and may God give our Comandante a long life,'' said Gladis Gonzalez, 50 and studying law at a free state university. Others say they'll vote ''yes'' because the new constitution guarantees that oil-funded ''missions'' will keep offering free health care and education. But shopkeeper Maria Teresa Gonzalez said she has lost faith in Chavez after seeing rampant murders in her part of Caracas, and shortages of milk and other goods. If he were successful, ''things would have changed and gotten better. And they're getting worse.'' If approved, the revisions would create an unprecedented ''centralization of power'' in the president's hands, said Jose Vicente Haro, a constitutional law professor at Caracas' Andres Bello Catholic University. ''In nearly 50 years of democracy, it would be the constitution that has given him the most power.'' Chavez, first elected in 1998, already obtained total control of the National Assembly when opponents boycotted the 2005 elections, and lawmakers gave him special powers to enact some laws by decree through next June. This constitution would go much farther, Haro said. One of the most profound changes would come in a little-noticed ''transitory'' clause appended at the end, which Haro believes would let Chavez enact laws by decree for an unlimited period -- possibly for years -- to hasten a ''transition to the Socialist Economic Model.'' Chavez himself has said more than 100 new laws would be required if the referendum passes -- and that he will waste no time in making that happen. The opposition is urging voters to turn out in large numbers on Sunday, hoping Chavez may be vulnerable after some prominent defections from Chavez's movement, including former Defense Minister Gen. Raul Baduel and lawmakers of the small left-leaning party Podemos. Even Chavez's ex-wife Marisabel Rodriguez has urged Venezuelans to vote ''no,'' saying the changes would be like a ''leap into the dark.'' The government cites polls suggesting Chavez has an advantage, while the Caracas polling firm Datanalisis -- in a nationwide survey this month -- found 49 percent of likely voters opposed Chavez's reforms and 39 percent were in favor. While the pollster has predicted some of Chavez's past victories, its results haven't always been on-target. A poll released by the firm in June 2004 found that 57 percent of Venezuelans would vote to recall Chavez, but the president handily won the vote two months later. Chavez predicts a ''knockout'' but acknowledges it might be a smaller margin than his re-election last December, when he won 63 percent of the vote. **************** 3) Venezuelan leader's power play has echoes of Castro By Chris Hawley USA Today November 28, 2007 http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-11-28-Chavez_N.htm CARACAS, Venezuela ? If Hugo ChC!vez gets his way, he'll be calling U.S. presidents "donkeys" and "drunkards" for another 20 years ? at least. A nationwide referendum set for Sunday could allow the colorful Venezuelan president to stay in office indefinitely. That would let ChC!vez, 53, continue reshaping Venezuela's economy in the mold of Cuba, and follow Fidel Castro as the self-anointed lifetime leader of an increasingly combative global alliance against the United States. The consequences could be far more serious than the one-liners, clownish antics and occasional gaffes that have made ChC!vez a staple on YouTube. "Venezuela is going to be a big, big headache" for Washington if ChC!vez wins the referendum, says Javier Corrales, a political science professor and ChC!vez watcher at Amherst College. Corrales says an emboldened ChC!vez could drive up energy prices through his control of Venezuela's oil industry, refuse to cooperate with U.S. anti-drug efforts and undermine the fight against Islamist militants through his economic partnership with Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism. In Venezuela, tensions have started to boil over as polls show the referendum's outcome is in doubt. Clashes between supporters and opponents have repeatedly turned violent, and one protester was killed Monday. Using his trademark hyperbole, ChC!vez told a crowd of students last week they could "save the world" by voting in his favor. Critics fear that a "yes" vote would cement ChC!vez as a de facto dictator and lead to more of the problems that have begun to plague his self-styled socialist revolution. The economy is still expanding thanks to record prices for Venezuela's oil, but there are growing shortages of basic goods such as milk, pasta and sugar. The exchange rate for the currency is so distorted that passengers arriving at the Caracas airport are immediately besieged by black-market traders desperate for U.S. dollars. Even some longtime supporters say ChC!vez has gone too far in trying to cement his control over daily life. The government is "confiscating the rights of the people," says Ismael Garcia, a member of the National Assembly who helped ChC!vez regain power after an attempted coup in 2002 but now is campaigning against the referendum. "It's not democratic," Garcia says. ChC!vez says the changes will allow him to implement a centralized socialist state better equipped to improve the lives of Venezuela's poor. The reforms would remove presidential term limits, cut the workday to six hours and make it easier for the state to seize private property. "Communal cities" would be established under presidential control, which could allow ChC!vez to ignore elected local officials. The president also would be able to suspend civil rights in emergencies. Venezuela's poorest people have been the biggest beneficiaries of the health and education programs that ChC!vez has financed with record oil revenue. The former paratrooper is counting on their support to stay in power long enough to rival his mentor Castro, who has tormented Washington for 47 years. "I'm ready. I have the moral strength, the physical strength and the will to continue with you at the helm until at least 2020," ChC!vez told supporters last week. "And if the strength continues with me, and God wills it, then I'll probably go on to 2027." A year after calling President Bush "the devil" at the United Nations, ChC!vez has begun to couple his barbed attacks with words explicitly targeted at damaging the U.S. economy. After meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran last week, ChC!vez said the falling dollar was "a sign the U.S. empire is coming down," and called on OPEC countries to use the euro instead. His comments helped push oil prices closer to $100 a barrel. U.S. companies such as Heinz, AES and Verizon have been damaged by ChC!vez's recent economic changes, which included nationalizing Venezuela's electricity sector and buying out many other companies. ChC!vez's office did not respond to a request for an interview. Saul Ortega, a ChC!vez ally and president of the foreign relations panel in the National Assembly, notes that U.S. companies still do billions of dollars of business a year in Venezuela and says Washington has nothing to fear. Unlike Castro's Cuba, where dissent is not tolerated, Venezuela is not a police state. Media are allowed to criticize ChC!vez, although he shut down an independent TV station this year, sparking massive protests. Venezuelans are also free to leave the country anytime, something that thousands have done in recent months to places such as Panama and Florida. "We're finding our own path," Ortega says. "It's going to be a democratic, free, prosperous, beautiful country, not subject to any external domination." Revolutionary hub Visitors to Caracas are aware of the referendum's high stakes from the moment they arrive at Caracas' international airport, where a huge 3-D sign celebrating socialism hangs above baggage claim. From there, the onslaught of revolutionary slogans and crimson banners never lets up. "Nothing stops the revolution," says one sign hanging from a building downtown. "Full-speed revolution toward socialism!" say signs in the subway. ChC!vez's supporters credit him with giving them more of a share of Venezuela's booming economy, which has grown about 10% a year since a massive collapse in 2002. Poverty has fallen from 42.8% in 1999 to 33.9% in 2006, according to Venezuela's census bureau, although progress on unemployment has been mixed. "The comandante has done so many good things for this country," Aura Eslada, 54, a secretary who wore a red cap and a "yes with ChC!vez" T-shirt, said during a march Tuesday. "There's no other leader like him. The opposition doesn't have anybody better to offer." However, MarC-a Elena SC!nchez is one of many Venezuelans who are growing frustrated by the economic problems created by ChC!vez's policies. "I haven't been able to buy liquid milk in three months," SC!nchez says, standing in front of an empty cooler at the Sud-America Supermarket. "This isn't supposed to happen in Caracas, right? The capital is supposed to have everything." Strict price controls on food items have discouraged companies from producing enough of some goods because they can't turn a profit on them. Controls on buying dollars, in place since 2003, have simultaneously made it difficult for importers to buy abroad. "Pasta, milk, rice, sugar, wheat flour, sometimes even salt is hard to get," says Wilfredo ChacC3n, shift manager of the Sud-America. "Sometimes all the deliveryman gives me is one box of 9 liters of milk." A poll released Saturday by Datanalisis, a respected local pollster, showed 46% of Venezuelans blame the government for the shortages, while 31% blamed businesses. Six months ago, 65% blamed businesses. Some of the economic distortions border on the bizarre. Airline tickets to and from Caracas are increasingly hard to come by because so many seats are being bought up by Venezuelan currency speculators who can make an easy profit by manipulating the financial system. The speculators fly to nearby Panama, Aruba and Curacao, where they can charge up to $5,000 to their credit cards and receive U.S. dollars in return from local businesses. Upon returning to Venezuela, the travelers then sell their dollars on the black market at twice the official rate ? making thousands of dollars. "You can't get a flight to those places at any price now," said Eduardo Ablan, a travel agent at Festival Tours in Caracas. "It's all because of the black market." Even some ChC!vez supporters wonder just how far he will go. "I think health, education, that's all gotten better," taxi driver William Batista says. "But when he says he wants a socialist state, I honestly don't know what he means." Wrong place, wrong time? Even if the vote swings in ChC!vez's favor Sunday, he may not be able to fully carry out his move to socialism, says Michael Shifter, an analyst at the Interamerican Dialogue, a Washington think tank. "Venezuelan society is too individualistic, is too chaotic and is not amenable to those tight controls that he wants," Shifter says. "There's a real difference between where he wants to take the country and how far the country wants to go with him." ChC!vez blames Bush for not opposing the short-lived 2002 coup against him, and constantly talks of the threat of a U.S. invasion. Washington strongly denies any such plans, and has in recent years mostly chosen to ignore ChC!vez's rhetoric. ChC!vez's continuing demands for higher oil prices and his suspicion of U.S.-led trade pacts could disrupt attempts to form trade alliances that could counter the European Union and China. "He would like to establish Venezuela as an alternative to the U.S. model of how to do things," says Terry McCoy, a political science professor at the University of Florida. A recent study by pollster Latinobarometro ? as well as an outburst this month by Spain's normally mild-mannered King Juan Carlos, who told ChC!vez to "shut up" ? suggest his influence in the region could be waning. On Wednesday, ChC!vez said he would no longer have "any type of relations" with neighboring Colombia, calling its pro-U.S. leader "a pawn of the empire." Venezuela's growing economic relationship with Iran is most worrisome, especially at a time when the United States and the European Union are deliberating more sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear program, Shifter and McCoy say. On Monday, ChC!vez presided over the delivery of 200 cars built by Venirauto, a joint venture between the two countries, to health workers and local government officials. Iran and Venezuela also have cooperated in producing petrochemicals, housing and tractors. Whether relations between Venezuela and the United States improve may depend on Bush's successor. ChC!vez has professed to getting along better with President Clinton than "the Texan who walks around shooting from the hip." Opposition leaders would rather start the relationship over. "We are fighting for the future of Venezuela, for the world of our grandchildren," says Garcia, the former ChC!vez supporter. "If in 10 years I have a grandchild and he sits on my knee and he says, 'Grandpa, you were there, and what did you do with my country?' What am I going to say? "That's why we're fighting this with such passion." **************** 4) ChC!vez pushes to centralise power By Richard Lapper The Financial Times November 29, 2007 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a2129b80-9e1c-11dc-9f68-0000779fd2ac.html "We have to accelerate the rhythm of the revolution," says President Hugo ChC!vez of Venezuela, holding up a copy of a little red book to an audience of well-heeled supporters who have gathered in a Caracas hotel. The book lists a series of constitutional changes that would allow Mr ChC!vez to centralise power, stay in office for life and move more quickly towards his promised land of "21st-century socialism". If approved by voters in a referendum on Sunday, it will have a huge influence on Venezuela's future. It also appears to be part of a wider change that increases Mr ChC!vez's influence in Latin America. Ecuador and Bolivia, whose left-wing presidents are allies of the Venezuelan leader, are also at important stages of plans to rewrite their constitutions, following a path initially charted by Mr ChC!vez when he first redrafted -Venezuela's constitution back in 1999. Today members of a new Ecuadorean constitutional assembly dominated by President Rafael Correa will meet to elect officers ahead of next week's official opening of the assembly. And President Evo Morales of Bolivia is still aiming to complete the preparation of a new constitution by December 14, despite growing protests including a general strike that began yesterday in six opposition-dominated departments of the country. These developments take a significant chunk of the region into new political territory, modifying in potentially important ways the US or European liberal model of democracy that has, if anything, become stronger in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Chile in recent years. Analysts worry in particular that the new centralisation planned by the powerful oil-rich Venezuelan leader will set a new template for his allies, weakening in these countries the checks and balances that have historically been an important part of Latin American development. As Michael Shifter, of the Washington-based policy forum Inter-American Dialogue, says: "This is a new species in embryonic form, not just changes at the edges." Nonetheless, there is a genuine need of reform. In many ways, the proposed changes in Ecuador and Bolivia appear part of a wider process designed to modernise political systems and allow greater participation by socially marginal groups excluded from often-corrupt traditional parties. During the 1980s and 1990s countries such as Brazil and Colombia, as well as Mr ChC!vez's Venezuela, modernised their constitutions partly for the same reason. The election of Mr Morales in December 2005 and Mr Correa in November 2006 has given greater impetus to this trend, because underprivileged indigenous groups, which form a majority of the population in Bolivia and a significant minority in Ecuador, gave powerful backing to both leaders. "This all reflects the stirrings and awakenings of new groups that were outside the political system," says Mr Shifter. "Constitutional change is a proxy for underlying social change." Jim Shultz, head of the Democracy Center, a non-governmental organisation based in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba, goes further. He says changes in the country as a result of the rise of Quechua, Aymara and other indigenous groups are as important in their own way as the end of apartheid in South Africa or even the collapse of communist rule and subsequent break-up of Yugoslavia. Economics has also helped reinforce this trend. The commodity boom means Mr Morales, who has huge gas reserves, and Mr Correa, who has oil, have not been so hemmed in by financial pressures as their more economically orthodox predecessors. Money has been available to pursue populist economic policies, providing a cushion for political experimentation and keeping the popularity of all three leaders at relatively high levels. Recent figures from Santiago-based LatinobarC3metro showed the three countries to be among the region's five most popular governments, with Ecuador's the most popular of all. All this suggests change ought to be relatively peaceful. However, there are reasons for scepticism. The debate on Bolivia's new constitution has led to huge tensions between regions. Since the Bolivian constituent assembly first met in July, these divides - especially those between the richer, less-populated, mainly mixed-race lowlands and the mainly indigenous western highlands - have been the backcloth for constant instability. This month the situation degenerated into violence, with at least four people killed and hundreds injured during protests over the weekend. Ecuador too may not be immune from this danger. Like Bolivia, it is sharply divided between its indigenous highlands population and mestizo lowland business interests, this time concentrated in the powerful coastal city of Guayaquil. Even in an ethnically more homogenous society such as Venezuela, the far-reaching character of many of the changes introduced alongside the new constitution after Mr ChC!vez first came to office has stoked political polarisation. The new proposals - which reverse some of the decentralisation introduced in earlier reforms and make community organisation directly dependent on the executive - could lead to further division. Ricardo GutiC)rrez, a socialist politician who joined a steady stream of defectors from the ChC!vez camp after the constitutional changes were announced, agrees. ChC!vez "still has to stand for election [at the moment]," he says. "But can you imagine anyone with all this concentration of power losing an election?" **************** 5) Shutting Up Venezuela's ChC!vez By Roger Cohen The New York Times November 29, 2007 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/29/opinion/29cohen.html It was a fascist general in 1930s Spain who coined the phrase "Viva la muerte!" or "Long live death!" Essentially meaningless, the words captured the cult of soil, blood and savagery that coursed through European Fascism, in its Francoist and other forms. President Hugo ChC!vez of Venezuela hates fascists; they are central to his repertoire of insults. But he has not hesitated to deploy the imagery of death to bolster his leftist brand of petro-authoritarianism, now operating under the ludicrous banner of "Fatherland, Socialism or Death!" The slogan looks almost quaint in its anachronism. ChC!vez would no doubt claim Cuban revolutionary, rather than Spanish fascist, roots for it (Fidel Castro also invoked fatherland and finality). The bottom line is this: Latin America's oil-gilded caudillo is getting serious about ruling for life, just like Franco and Castro. I might add Vladimir Putin to that list. Like the Russian leader, ChC!vez has already used gushing oil revenue, a pliant judiciary, subservient institutions and the galvanizing appeal of vitriolic anti-Americanism to concoct a 21st-century, gulag-free authoritarianism. But even Putin has not contemplated going as far as ChC!vez now intends to take his "Bolivarian revolution." Venezuelans will vote Sunday in a referendum that would remove all limits on presidential re-election, grant ChC!vez direct control over foreign currency reserves, allow him to censor the media under a state of emergency declarable at his discretion, expand his powers to expropriate private property and create the second formally socialist nation in the Americas alongside Fidel's. "The measures amount to a constitutional coup," said Teodoro Petkoff, who edits an opposition newspaper. Certainly, they would prod Venezuela from an oppressive rule comparable to Mexico's under its once impregnable Institutional Revolutionary Party toward the dictatorial absolutism of Cuba. Unlike other votes during ChC!vez's nine-year presidency, and unlike the assured victory of Putin's United Russia Party in voting the same day, the referendum is not a foregone conclusion. Overcoming inertia, opponents led by students have energized a "No" campaign. A general once close to ChC!vez has denounced a looming coup d'C)tat. Polls suggest a close outcome. But awash in petrodollars ? oil accounts for about 90 percent of Venezuelan exports ? ChC!vez commands formidable resources. They are centered in the armed forces; a huge nomenklatura scattered across the bureaucracy and newly nationalized industries; the so-called BoliburgesC-a (Bolivarian bourgeoisie) of traders grown rich working the angles of a corrupt system; and the poor whom ChC!vez has helped and manipulated. Certainly, the oil money ChC!vez has plowed into poor neighborhoods (at the expense of an oil industry suffering chronic underinvestment) has reduced poverty. The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America said last year that the extreme poverty rate had fallen to 9.9 percent from 15.9 percent. But more than spreading socialist ideals, ChC!vez has spread a form of crony capitalism, dedicated to his greater glory, that has imbued the economy with all the resilience of a house of cards. Foreign investment has plunged, scared off by nationalizations. A huge disparity between the official and black-market exchange rates has encouraged get-rich-quick schemes for favored "ChC!vistas" while erecting endless barriers to trade. Price controls on staples have made eggs unavailable. This week, you can't find chickens. ChC!vez's socialism delivers subsidized gasoline and glittering malls but no milk. Latin America has been here before, with the disastrous import-substitution and highly regulated models of the 1960s and '70s. Most of the region has moved on, but not ChC!vez, who trumpets "growth from within," whatever that is. The World Bank's recently released "Doing Business 2008," a ranking of the ease of conducting commerce, places Venezuela 172nd out of 178 countries. Despite this, the country does huge business with the United States, as its fourth-largest crude oil supplier and a big importer. ChC!vez's "socialism" and his chumminess with Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad do not extend to cutting off the "imperialist empire." ChC!vez is too shrewd to sever his lifeline. A possible conclusion would be that he's harmless ? a wily barracks-bred buffoon whose leftist rhetoric is just a veneer for a petrodollar power play. Perhaps that's why the United States ? and Latin American nations ? have been so muted, or silent, before ChC!vez's attempted "constitutional coup." Oil speaks. But ChC!vez's grab for socialist-emperor status is grotesque and dangerous ? as Fascism was ? a terrible example for a region that has been consolidating democracy. King Juan Carlos of Spain got it right when he recently interrupted ChC!vez's trademark verbal diarrhea with a brusque: "Why don't you just shut up?" Venezuelans should watch that regal routine on YouTube ? it's even been set to music ? and follow suit on Sunday. **************** 6) Venezuelan Reforms Get No Respect in the U.S. By Olivia Burlingame Goumbri San Francisco Bay View November 28, 2007 http://www.sfbayview.com/News/Main/Venezuelan_reforms_get_no_respect_in_the_U.S.html In recent weeks, biased articles have been circulating in the U.S. media about the constitutional reform process underway in Venezuela. At a speed unmatched even during Venezuela's 2006 presidential elections, newspapers inundated readers with negative views of President Chavez and his supporters. The Associated Press, Reuters, the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Washington Post and many local papers characterized the democratically elected president of Venezuela as a strongman with dictatorial urges, hoping to consolidate power through the passage of some 69 constitutional updates. Public opinion polls were cited, opposition leaders were quoted and the general tone was set to present the reforms as inherently undemocratic and serving only to centralize state power, embodied by none other than Evildoer-of-the-Year President Hugo Chavez. With the groundwork laid, those same newspapers issued editorials last week reiterating the anti-Chavez bias already demonstrated in reporting on the reform process. The Chicago Tribune falsely reported that the reforms would ban due process during states of emergency. The Washington Post claimed, against all evidence, that the reforms would curtail freedom of expression in Venezuela. The Washington Times stated inaccurately that Chavez "controls most major Venezuelan media," an allegation easily refuted by a quick review of Venezuela's overwhelmingly privately-owned news outlets. The Times' particularly uninformed editorial followed an opinion piece earlier in the month penned by none other than notorious Cold War player Oliver North, who believes Chavez has "pulled a coup" on the Venezuelan people. Similar egregious opinion pieces followed in the national press. For those still not sold on the idea that reforming the constitution is undemocratic, you were told to believe that Venezuelans just weren't sophisticated enough to determine their own path. An opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times last weekend was a case in point. William Ratliff concluded "Venezuela's path to self-destruction" by claiming that, although Venezuelans would likely approve a set of constitutional reforms in early December, they could not possibly do so on their own accord. Rather, they must have been duped by their president. Will this paternalistic attitude toward the Global South ever end? Ratliff, who made a career of anti-Communism at the ironically named "Independent Institute," made the arrogant claim that Venezuelans do not understand the political process underway in their country. Just what have the Venezuelan people been duped about? Perhaps it is Article 337 on states of emergency, which, following debates by lawmakers, now surpasses international requirements for citizen protections as set out by the U.N.? Could it be the reform legalizing continual terms for presidential incumbents, a measure which our own FDR advocated and used to remain in office for four terms? Or is it the article that would officially recognize Afro-Venezuelan culture as an integral part of Venezuelan's national identity? These reform measures are not an attempt by President Chavez to pull the wool over the eyes of the Venezuelan people. Nor are other proposed constitutional changes that would lower the voting age from 18 to 16 years of age, make resources available to districts and cities that have been long forgotten due to economic and infrastructural factors, and put the power to decide Venezuela's short term interest rates in the hands of elected officials rather than Central Bank appointees. These reforms have been proposed in an effort to expand the existing process of social and economic transformation currently underway in our neighbor to the South. From the beginning of this legal process initiated on Aug. 15, when President Chavez submitted a round of proposed reforms to the National Assembly for review and debate, the electorate has been encouraged and invited to national dialogue. The National Assembly gathered citizen views during more than 9,000 public events across the country and distributed the text of the proposed reforms to millions of families. A hotline was established to channel feedback, and received 80,000 calls offering critiques and suggestions. Despite reports in the U.S. media that student views are silenced, opposition students have met with Venezuela's National Assembly, Supreme Court and National Electoral Council. Each of these three branches of government have received student protesters - lawmakers invited them more than once - and heard their concerns. Violence at student marches has been infrequent and isolated. However, when gunfire erupted on a university campus in Caracas, the U.S. media was quick to attribute the aggression to pro-Chavez students. The Wall Street Journal later let slip that students in support of the reforms were targeted and trapped in a burning building, thus locked in a "standoff with a crowd of students, until a group of armed civilians on motorcycles intervened to allow the ChC!vez supporters to escape." Last month, Brazilian President Lula da Silva urged the international community and press to evaluate the situation in Venezuela honestly before jumping to conclusions. "Please," he said, "invent anything to criticize ChC!vez, except for lack of democracy. I have been in office for five years and run twice for president and twice for mayor. As far as I am concerned, during that very period, there have been three referendums, three elections and four plebiscites. Everything but discussion lacks in Venezuela." Ten electoral processes have occurred during the nine years that the Chavez administration has been in office. International monitors from the Carter Center, the OAS, the EU and the NAACP have deemed elections free and fair and witnessed impressive rates of voter turnout. In their 2006 presidential election report, the NAACP stated that "the Venezuelan government has gone to great lengths to ensure the legitimacy of the electoral process." It should come as no surprise, then, that the prominent Chilean polling firm Latinobarometro found that Venezuelans are among the most likely in Latin America to express a preference for democracy over other forms of government. This was not the case 10 years ago before President Chavez was first elected in 1998. Testament to this new democratic trend, polls also show that Venezuelans are the most likely in Latin America to say that there is a fair distribution of wealth in their country. As Venezuelans prepare to head to the polls this Sunday and vote to approve or reject the new constitutional reforms, more balanced and truthful reporting on the political situation of the country is needed. Although the mass media and the Bush administration, who too often seem to finish one another's sentences, may not approve of the results, Venezuelans have the right to reform their constitution. Let us not forget the words of founding father Thomas Jefferson, who supported this democratic measure when he said, "No society can make a perpetual Constitution. ... The Earth belongs always to the living generation. ... Every Constitution ... naturally expires at the end of 19 years [a generation]." Olivia Goumbri is the director of the Venezuela Information Office in Washington, D.C. She is the editor of The Venezuela Reader (EPICA 2005). For more information on Venezuela, visit www.veninfo.org. **************** 7) Venezuelan Opposition Protesters Shoot Chavez Supporter By Kiraz Janicke Venezuelanalysis November 28, 2007 http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/2913 Caracas -- Neighbors, friends and family members of young worker and supporter of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, JosC) Anibal Oliveros YC)pez, who was murdered by a radical opposition group in the regional city of Valencia on Monday, have express profound rage and indignation at what occurred explaining that his body was spat on and kicked by his killers, "as if he were and animal." Oliveres, 19 years old, was on his way to work driving a truck of state owned "socialist" housing company Petrocasa when he encountered opposition groups blocking the road in protest against proposed constitutional reforms. When he tried to convince them to let him pass he was shot several times and died before he could be rescued. Radio YVKE Mundial reported that the opposition protesters came from Cuidad Alianza, a middle class suburb in Valencia and blocked a highway to impede workers from Petrocasa from passing to the poorer neighborhood of Araguita, where they were working to construct housing for the poor. However, the report noted many of the neighbors from Cuidad Alianza also rejected the violent behavior of some of the opposition groups. A resident from Cuidad Alianza who did not want to be named told Radio YVKE Mundial that the opposition groups had blocked the road to Araguita from three o'clock in the morning and were patrolling the neighborhood "with guns in hand." Alexander Borges, friend and workmate of Oliveros explained to VTV that they tried to rescue Oliveros, but were prevented by the protestors who threatened to kill them. "There were four of us, trying to carry our friend to the community, but they surrounded us throwing bottles. I took the opportunity to move him [Oliveros] because they were going to hit him with a bottle in the face and I moved him so it did not hit him in the face. He had one bullet in the leg, a man from the local community was going to carry him, but in this moment they shot him twice in the back and this is when he fell to the ground." "We pleaded with them for the life of our friend that was lying bloody on the ground, to please allow us the opportunity to pick him up and they responded that now they were coming for us, that they were coming for me," Borges added. Borges explained that two other people came to help rescue Oliveros, but that the opposition supporters threw rocks and bottles at them screaming, "Come and pick up your dead, now we are coming for you." Dixon Viloria, also a friend of Oliveros and a witness said that after they killed him, "they mal-treated him, kicked him, stripped off his clothes, hit him and screamed 'pick up your dead chicken!' as if he was an animal." Beltran Chavez, from Araguita said that neighbors from Cuidad Alianza had shot at workers from Petrocasa earlier when they tried to pass through to construction sites in Araguita. He said the same group of protesters had previously set alight to a truck from Petrocasa and physically and verbally attacked a group of women from Araguita. "How can a group of people be better armed than the state and municipal police," he asked. He added that thanks to the municipal and state police the four people that participated in the act were captured." National Assembly Deputy Francisco Ameliach and the Mayor of Guacara, JosC) Manuel Flores, who visited the neighborhood to pay their respects to the Oliveros' family, reported that opposition groups in Ciudad Alianza that claim to represent "civil society" have marked the houses of Chavez supporters, or those they believe to be Chavez supporters, with red paint and "have said they are going to kill them." Vice president Jorge Rodriguez confirmed that the Oliveros' killer had been identified and arrested and has confessed to the crime, reportedly saying that all "Chavistas" should be killed, as well as three other people also linked to his death. Rodrgiuez said that simultaneously coordinated opposition protests of small groups had blocked other highways with burning objects in Valencia and Maracay. In total 80 people were arrested. Rodriguez has also asked the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference to explain what they know about a meeting held by the opposition in the Diocesan Insitute in Maracay where the violent protests are alleged to have been planned. Rodriguez said he has witness testimony of people who were invited to the meeting in the Diocesan Institute to "pray for peace" however; when they arrived they found the meeting was planning the protest in Ciudad Alianza that resulted in the death of Oliveros. Rodriguez said the Catholic hierarchy should remember the commandments not to lie and not to kill and said the Church should explain to the Venezuelan people why their buildings are being used to plan these types of protests. Friends and family of Oliveros also condemned Venezuelan and international media reporting of his death, particularly opposition private TV channel Globovision, which they say tried to portray Oliveros as insane, and some international media that have tried to obscure the events leading to Oliveros death, some even claiming that Oliveros was an opposition supporter attacked by a "pro-Chavez mob." Gladys YC)pez, mother of Oliveros demanded justice for her only son and President Hugo Chavez has responded saying the murderer of Oliveros should face the "full weight of the law." **************** 8) Old Allies Abandon ChC!vez as Constitution Vote Nears By Juan Forero The Washington Post November 29, 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/29/AR2007112900005.html CUMANA, Venezuela -- Few associates had been as loyal to President Hugo ChC!vez as the governor of the coastal state of Sucre, RamC3n MartC-nez. And few are now more determined to defeat ChC!vez as he campaigns for constitutional changes that, if approved by voters on Sunday, could extend his presidency for life. ChC!vez, 53 and in his ninth tumultuous year in office, was until recently predicted to win a referendum that would permit him to run for 8office indefinitely, appoint governors to federal districts he would create, and control the purse strings of one of the world's major oil-producing countries. But MartC-nezand a handful of others who once were prominent pillars in the ChC!vez machine, have defected, saying approval of 69 constitutional changes would effectively turn Venezuela into a dictatorship run at the whim of one man. They have been derided by ChC!vez as traitors, but their unimpeachable leftist credentials have given momentum to a movement that pollsters say may deliver ChC!vez his first electoral defeat. "The proposal would signify a coup d'etat," said MartC-nez, 58, whose dapper appearance belies his history as a guerrilla and Communist Party member. "Here the power is going to be concentrated in one person. That's very grave." Pollsters in Caracas say Venezuelans increasingly agree -- even those who continue to support the president but say the proposed overhaul of an eight-year-old constitution goes too far. Datanalisis , a respected Caracas polling firm that earlier this month was predicting a ChC!vez win, said that 48 percent of respondents in an opinion survey last week said they would vote "no" to the constitutional amendments, compared with 39 percent who expressed support, polling director Luis Vicente LeC3n said. "In those three weeks, what's happened is, the people have been sensitized," LeC3n said. "What happened is, he presented a reform the people don't like." Datanalisis accurately predicted ChC!vez victories in past elections, including last year's presidential election, in which he won a second six-year term by an overwhelming margin. LeC3n said the president's vigorous campaigning in these last few days is closing the gap. "It all depends on the capacity to mobilize," he said, "and we know who has that capacity." The government has embarked on an all-out crusade, including a barrage of television ads and political rallies, with ChC!vez giving three or more speeches each day. When the day is done, ChC!vez appears on Mario Silva's "The Razor Blade," a talk show on government television, where he expounds well into the night. His face stares down from billboards and placards with the word "SC-," adorning balconies and windows. Darleny CC3rdoba, 24, recently received, along with a group of friends, about $12,000 in government aid to start up a restaurant. She was bused recently from Cumana to Caracas for a rally. She says she's voting for the president. "I think the reforms are good," she said. "I find nothing wrong with them. The articles they're putting in will be better than before." The president has characterized the referendum as a plebiscite on his rule, telling a packed arena recently that anyone who says he supports ChC!vez but votes "no" is a "true traitor." ChC!vez also warns that the opponents of the reforms who have been protesting in the streets are collaborating with the Bush administration to assassinate him, a frequent accusation in this politically charged country. He says the constitutional amendments will give more power to the people through newly empowered community councils and cut bureaucracy from provincial governments, freeing up money for social programs. ChC!vez denies that he desires more power. "I don't want to accumulate power. For what?" he said in a speech this week to pro-government businessmen. "I'm an anti-power subversive, for those who haven't noticed." Prominent ChC!vez backers who have publicly broken with him have said the proposals are all about amassing power in the presidency, which already controls the National Assembly, the courts and most state and local governments. "The proposal is illegal," a former wife of the president, Marisabel RodrC-guez, said in a public statement this week. In interviews, three former key allies of the president said they remain true to their leftist values but felt it was time to break with ChC!vez because of what they characterized as his lack of tolerance and his drive for more power. "We've all been revolutionaries and we have believed in socialism all our lives, but socialism within democracy," said Ismael GarcC-a, secretary general of Podemos, a party that broke with ChC!vez. "We have to ask him, how do you feel abandoning a constitution that says Venezuela is a state of laws, of justice for all, that it's federal, decentralized, plural and diverse?" The biggest blow to ChC!vez came when retired Gen. RaC:l Baduel, 52, turned against him this month. ChC!vez, Baduel and two other young army officers formed a clandestine anti-government group 25 years ago that eventually spawned the movement that ushered ChC!vez into power. Later, as an army commander, Baduel remained loyal to ChC!vez during a brief 2002 coup that had tacit support from the Bush administration. Baduel said he remained loyal to ChC!vez because the coup was unconstitutional, and that he has now broken with the president for the same reason. He says a new constitution can be drafted by only an elected constituent assembly. "The proposal, in addition to taking power from the people, is taking the country to disaster," said Baduel. "We're giving discretionary power to one person to take transcendental decisions about the direction our country should take." Baduel said he carefully pondered whether to publicly oppose the proposed changes. He said his conscience finally prompted him to act. "We need to be careful to distance ourselves from the Marxist orthodoxy that considers that democracy and its separation of powers is just an instrument of bourgeoisie domination," Baduel said. Pollsters and political analysts say that the emergence of prominent Chavistas opposed to the changes has animated voters who until recently had planned to abstain. In October, said LeC3n, of Datanalisis, abstention was expected to reach 60 percent. Now, it's predicted to be 40 percent. That's important for the opposition because to win on Sunday, its leaders must prod voters to polling stations in high numbers. "Sunday is going to hinge on turnout," said Mark Feierstein , vice president of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, a Washington polling firm that has worked in Venezuela. "The government has a great machine, and he can turn out his people, and his people are enthusiastic. And the question is whether the opposition can turn out." Here in Sucre state, Gov. MartC-nez has pledged to ensure that "no" voters come out in force. MartC-nez would have a lot to lose, he acknowledges, if the "yes" vote wins. It would give ChC!vez powers to create special federal territories, to be governed by appointed vice presidents. "He now says he's the one who transfers the power, that it's not the people who transfer the power to him," said MartC-nez. "We talk of constructing a society from the bottom up, but he wants it top down." **************** 9) Acosta Says Venezuelan Army May Oppose Chavez Plan, Globo Says By Guillermo Parra-Bernal Bloomberg November 29, 2007 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aQEUVsQc_UgE Venezuela's armed forces may split and oppose President Hugo Chavez's plan to change the constitution if its approval on a Dec. 3 vote sparks violence, a retired army official and former Chavez ally told O Globo newspaper. The armed forces are divided over the Chavez's constitutional plan and may join citizens in the ``construction of a new reality,'' Joel Acosta Chirinos, the former commander of the failed coup attempt that Chavez led in 1992, told Globo. Chirinos says the possibility the armed forces would take up arms can't be ruled out, Globo said. **************** 10) Venezuela Opposition Group Reverses Call on Ballot Abstention By Guillermo Parra-Bernal Bloomberg November 29, 2007 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aEYYavsjh87M Comando Nacional de la Resistencia, a Venezuelan opposition group that President Hugo Chavez accuses of plotting his ouster, reversed its call to abstain from a referendum on a new constitution. The CNR, in a statement posted to its Web site, said a massive voter turnout would defeat the Dec. 2 initiative to approve 69 changes to the constitution enlarging Chavez's power. Abstention will increase chances of its passage, local pollster Datanalisis said this month. ``We invite voters to go to the polls with their eyes wide open,'' Antonio Ledezma, one of the CNR leaders, from Caracas, said in the statement. ``The victory of the `No' to the reform proposal is our main goal. We must back it.'' Chavez's proposal aims to tighten his grip on power by eliminating term limits for the presidency, abolishing central bank autonomy, weakening state and municipal governments and making it easier for the government to expropriate private property, among other changes. The CNR as well as political parties such as A New Time -- the runner-up in last year's presidential election, -- call it a power grab, while Chavez says the reforms are necessary to further his socialist revolution. **************** 11) Venezuela Threatens to Expel US Official The Associated Press November 29, 2007 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Venezuela-Constitution.html CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuela threatened Wednesday to expel a U.S. Embassy official for allegedly conspiring to defeat a referendum championed by President Hugo Chavez, accusing the diplomat of plotting to sway public opinion. The allegation comes ahead of a fiercely contested referendum on reforms that would allow Chavez indefinite re-election and help him establish a socialist state in Venezuela. Sunday's vote has generated large pro- and anti-Chavez rallies and Chavez kept the rhetoric high on Wednesday by repeating his charge that Washington is plotting to kill him. In Caracas, Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro showed state television a document that he claimed was written by the unnamed embassy official and was to have been sent to the CIA as part of a plan to help ensure that Venezuelans vote against the proposed constitutional overhaul. ''It's a script from the CIA to try to generate a block of opinion among Venezuelans that would give a sure victory to the 'No' vote,'' said Maduro. ''We will investigate and if it's that way, we'll remove this person from here as a persona non grata.'' He did not provide more details of the alleged plot. A spokesman for the U.S. embassy, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said he was unaware of the document. In Washington, State Department spokesman Rob McInturff said officials there were looking into the reports. Chavez, an ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, has had a friction-filled relationship with Washington. The Venezuelan leader accuses the U.S. of supporting a 2002 coup that ousted him from office for two days, while U.S. officials call Chavez threat to the region's stability. In February 2006, Venezuela expelled naval attache John Correa for allegedly passing secret information from Venezuelan military officers to the Pentagon. On Tuesday, Chavez accused the CNN news network of ''inciting'' an assassination attempt against him. On Wednesday, Chavez said Washington is also seeking to kill him -- a claim he has made in the past. ''Before the world, I accuse the imperialist government of the United States of promoting my assassination,'' Chavez told supporters in the southwestern city of Merida. ''If anything should happen to me, the president of the United States will be responsible for my death.'' U.S. officials have in the past denied they are plotting to assassinate Chavez. In Sunday's referendum, Venezuelans will vote on proposed changes to 69 amendments of the nation's 1999 constitution. If approved, the revisions would allow Chavez indefinite re-election, create forms of communal property and further his plans to establish socialism in Venezuela. On Wednesday, hundreds of stone-throwing students clashed with police and the Venezuelan National Guard in a protest against the constitutional overhaul. Security forces responded with water cannons and tear gas. At least 600 students from the private Metropolitan University took part in disturbances that lasted more than four hours. ''We're doing this because we're sick of Chavez, sick of his government, sick of the way he governs,'' said Roberto, who covered his face, leaving only his eyes visible. He gave only his first name because he feared reprisals from the security forces. On Monday, a man was shot to death after he tried to cross a protest, near the city of Valencia. Chavez blamed violent elements within the opposition for the killing. ***************** 12) CIA Operation "Pliers" Uncovered in Venezuela By Eva Golinger Venezuelanalysis November 28, 2007 http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2914 Last night CNN en EspaC1ol aired the above image, which captions at the bottom "Who Killed him?" by "accident". The image of President Chavez with the caption about killing him below, which some could say subliminally incites to assassination, was a "production error" mistakenly made in the CNN en EspaC1ol newsroom. The news anchor had been narrarating a story about the situation between Colombia and Venezuela and then switched to a story about an unsolved homicide but - oops - someone forgot to change the screen image and President Chavez was left with the killing statement below. Today they apologized and admitted it was a rather "unfortunate" and "regrettable" mistake. Yes, it was. On a scarier note, an internal CIA memorandum has been obtained by Venezuelan counterintelligence from the US Embassy in Caracas that reveals a very sinister - almost fantastical, were it not true - plan to destabilize Venezuela during the coming days. The plan, titled "OPERATION PLIERS" was authored by CIA Officer Michael Middleton Steere and was addressed to CIA Director General Michael Hayden in Washington. Steere is stationed at the US Embassy in Caracas under the guise of a Regional Affairs Officer. The internal memorandum, dated November 20, 2007, references the "Advances of the Final Stage of Operation Pliers", and confirms that the operation is coordinated by the team of Human Intelligence (HUMINT) in Venezuela. The memo summarizes the different scenarios that the CIA has been working on in Venezuela for the upcoming referendum vote on December 2nd. The Electoral Scenario, as it's phrased, confirms that the voting tendencies will not change substantially before Sunday, December 2nd, and that the SI (YES) vote in favor of the constitutional reform has an advantage of about 10-13 points over the NO vote. The CIA estimates abstention around 60% and states in the memo that this voting tendency is irreversible before the elections. Officer Steere emphasizes the importance and success of the public relations and propaganda campaign that the CIA has been funding with more than $8 million during the past month - funds that the CIA confirms are transfered through the USAID contracted company, Development Alternatives, Inc., which set up operations in June 2002 to run the USAID Office for Transition Initiatives that funds and advises opposition NGOs and political parties in Venezuela. The CIA memo specifically refers to these propaganda initiatives as "psychological operations" (PSYOPS), that include contracting polling companies to create fraudulent polls that show the NO vote with an advantage over the SI vote, which is false. The CIA also confirms in the memo that it is working with international press agencies to distort the data and information about the referendum, and that it coordinates in Venezuela with a team of journalists and media organized and directed by the President of Globovision, Alberto Federico Ravell. CIA Officer Michael Steere recommends to General Michael Hayden two different strategies to work simultaneously: Impede the referendum and refuse to recognize the results once the SI vote wins. Though these strategies appear contradictory, Steere claims that they must be implemented together precisely to encourage activities that aim toward impeding the referendum and at the same time prepare the conditions for a rejection of the results. How is this to be done? In the memo, the CIA proposes the following tactics and actions: * Take the streets and protest with violent, disruptive actions across the nation * Generate a climate of ungovernability * Provoke a general uprising in a substantial part of the population * Engage in a "plan to implode" the voting centers on election day by encouraging opposition voters to "VOTE and REMAIN" in their centers to agitate others * Start to release data during the early hours of the afternoon on Sunday that favor the NO vote (in clear violation of election regulations) * Coordinate these activities with Ravell & Globovision and international press agencies * Coordinate with ex-militar officers and coupsters Pena Esclusa and Guyon Cellis - this will be done by the Military Attache for Defense and Army at the US Embassy in Caracas, Office of Defense, Attack and Operations (DAO) To encourage rejection of the results, the CIA proposes: * Creating an acceptance in the public opinion that the NO vote will win for sure * Using polling companies contracted by the CIA * Criticize and discredit the National Elections Council * Generate a sensation of fraud * Use a team of experts from the universities that will talk about how the data from the Electoral Registry has been manipulated and will build distrust in the voting system The CIA memo also talks about: * Isolating Chavez in the international community * Trying to achieve unity amongst the opposition * Seek an aliance between those abstentionists and those who will vote "NO" * Sustain firmly the propaganda against Chavez * Execute military actions to support the opposition mobilizations and propagandistic occupations * Finalize the operative preparations on the US military bases in Curacao and Colombia to provide support to actions in Venezuela * Control a part of the country during the next 72-120 hours * Encourage a military rebellion inside the National Guard forces and other components Those involved in these actions as detailed in the CIA memo are: * The CIA Office in Venezuela - Office of Regional Affairs, and Officer Michael Steere * US Embassy in Venezuela, Ambassador Patrick Duddy * Office of Defense, Attack and Operations (DAO) at the US Embassy in Caracas and Military Attache Richard Nazario Venezuelan Political Parties: * Comando Nacional de la Resistencia * Accion Democratica * Primero Justicia * Bandera Roja Media: * Alberto Federico Ravell & Globovision * Interamerican Press Society (IAPA) or SIP in Spanish * International Press Agencies Venezuelans: * Pena Esclusa * Guyon Cellis * Dean of the Simon Bolivar University, Rudolph Benjamin Podolski * Dean of the Andres Bello Catholic University, Ugalde * Students: Yon Goicochea, Juan Mejias, Ronel Gaglio, Gabriel Gallo, Ricardo Sanchez Operation Tenaza has the objective of encouraging an armed insurrection in Venezuela against the government of President Chavez that will justify an intervention of US forces, stationed on the military bases nearby in Curacao and Colombia. The Operation mentions two countries in code: as Blue and Green. These refer to Curacao and Colombia, where the US has operative, active and equipped bases that have been reinforced over the past year and a half in anticipation of a conflict with Venezuela. The document confirms that psychological operations are the CIA's best and most effective weapon to date against Venezuela, and it will continue its efforts to influence international public opinion regarding President Chavez and the situation in the country. Operation Tenaza is a very alarming plan that aims to destabilize Venezuela and overthrow (again) its legitimate and democratic (and very popularly support) president. The plan will fail, primarily because it has been discovered, but it must be denounced around the world as an unacceptable violation of Venezuela's sovereignty. **************** **************** 14) The CIA plan to destabilize Venezuela... By Stan Goff The Huffington Post November 28, 2007 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stan-goff/the-cia-plan-to-destabili_b_74557.html ..is in progress right now. A memo from CIA officer Michael Middleton Steere, addressed to CIA Director General Michael Hayden in Washington DC, has been intercepted by Venezuelan counter-intelligence; and it shows that the US plans to attempt another coup d'etat against the democratically elected government of Venezuela on the eve of a historic constitutional referendum that will democratize political power to the grassroots of the majority more thoroughly than anything we have seen in this hemisphere... ever. This outcome by a major oil producing nation that has confronted the US government is intolerable to the American political class, not merely the Bush administration. It is part of a continental drift of Latin America away from US domination; and it has world historic significance. It is very important that this CIA plot get maximum exposure immediately across the net, because the US media, the Republican and Democratic Parties, and the US dominant class, will do everything in their power to assist the desired outcome of this illegal and immoral interference by the United States government in the democratic self-determination of Venezuela. Widespread, rapid distribution via alternative media has the potential to expose and disrupt this CIA plot. You can do something right now. Get the word out. Read more here, and stay abreast of developments. A Google News search of "Michael Middleton Steere" will help keep you updated. Be part of a real politics of resistance. Help expose this international malfeasance now. Be an ally to the Venezuelan people, whose government was democratically elected (unlike our own). Here is the story of the last US coup attempt in Venezuela. ***************** 15) Venezuela's Chavez Says CNN Seeks His Assassination By Helen Murphy and Steven Bodzin Bloomberg November 28, 2007 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aUSAo0B.rWqY Hugo Chavez said CNN is seeking to incite his assassination after it showed a video of the Venezuelan leader with a caption that read ``Who Killed Him?'' The footage appeared on CNN's Spanish-language channel, which said it was an error. The text appeared with an image of Chavez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. ``I want the state prosecutor to look into bringing a suit against CNN for instigating murder in Venezuela,'' Chavez said last night on state-owned Venezolana de Television. ``This headline did not refer to either of the two presidents, but rather to the death of American football player Sean Taylor, a fact made clear by the anchor in his voiceover,'' Time Warner Inc.'s CNN said in an e-mailed statement. ``The video of presidents Chavez and Uribe was used by mistake and corresponded to a preceding story.'' It isn't the first time the government called for a probe of CNN's programming. In May, Communications and Information Minister Willian Lara asked the attorney general to investigate CNN and local television station Globovision for ``lies'' and inciting violence against Chavez. Venezuela's foreign minister, Nicolas Maduro, said the Central Intelligence Agency was behind the incident and that it was part of a broader plan to destabilize the country. ``I have no doubt it's part of a total plan against President Chavez,'' he said on a talk show on state television. Cilia Flores, president of the country's legislature, said on the show that the CIA is spreading violent propaganda to cause riots as the country prepares for a national referendum on constitutional changes proposed by Chavez. The country's police and military are vigilant against such attempts, Maduro said. He said an ``official'' at the U.S. embassy in Caracas may also be supporting opposition to the constitutional proposal, and that the government may expel the person from the country. Maduro didn't identify the official. **************** 16) ChC!vez uncovers another plot The Financial Times Observer November 29, 2007 Never say that Hugo ChC!vez does not make the most of an opportunity. With just days to go before Venezuelan voters decide whether to approve constitutional changes that will steer the country toward ChC!vez's special brand of socialism, the president has uncovered a new plot by powerful American forces to kill him. Needless to say, he has used this as a chance to shine the spotlight squarely on himself - and perhaps not on the fact that polls show voters are evenly split on the referendum. It seems CNN, the cable network, showed a photograph of ChC!vez with a caption asking: "Who killed him?" The news presenter ordered that the image be taken down when the mistake was realised. But ChC!vez is interpreting the gaffe as an attempt by CNN to instigate his murder. "I want the state prosecutor to look into bringing a suit against CNN for instigating murder in Venezuela," he said on state television. He went on to claim CNN was "undoubtably" using psychological warfare. It turns out that "magnicide", which he defines as requesting the assassination of a chief of state, is one of ChC!vez's favourite words, often used in the context of an "imperialist" (read: US) plot to overthrow him. This tactic has come in handy when he needs to distract attention from trouble at home and stir up nationalist sentiment. We will see this weekend if his latest diversions have done the job. **************** 17) Chavez Rift With Uribe Unlikely to Damage Trade Ties By Helen Murphy and Matthew Walter Bloomberg November 29, 2007 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a1Tvj2qk44Dw Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's deepening rift with Colombia's Alvaro Uribe is unlikely to damage trade ties. It may bolster Chavez's push to change the constitution in a national referendum this weekend. The two have traded insults over the past week after President Uribe told Chavez to halt efforts to free 45 hostages held by Colombia's biggest guerrilla group. Chavez said the falling-out may hurt economic links between the Latin American neighbors, worth an estimated $4 billion. Each country serves as the other's second-biggest trading partner, behind the U.S. ``They are too important to each other to see any commercial breaks,'' said Gianfranco Bertozzi, a Latin America economist with Lehman Brothers Inc. in New York. Chavez said yesterday that he won't maintain relations with his neighbor while Uribe remains in office, calling it a matter of ``dignity.'' His words may be aimed at rallying national pride before a Dec. 2 referendum on his plan to overhaul the constitution with 69 changes, including the end of presidential term limits, said Luis Vicente Leon, a Caracas-based pollster. ``The situation with Colombia has been positive for Chavez,'' Vicente Leon said. `Expansionist' Plan Political analysts, including Vicente Leon, say Chavez's rhetoric has increased since polls signaled this weekend's referendum may be too close to predict. Venezuela law prohibits the publication of polls in the week prior to the voting. Chavez, who said he would leave government if he loses the vote, said those protesting the reforms, including former Defense Minister Raul Baduel, are traitors. Government supporters and opposition groups have clashed in recent weeks as campaigning for the referendum began. ``This is him covering up his embarrassment after Uribe fired him,'' Bertozzi said Joel Acosta Chirinos, the former commander of the failed coup attempt that Chavez led in 1992, told Brazil's O Globo newspaper in an interview that armed forces are divided over the new constitution and that he can't rule out the possibility that some members may take up arms should violence break out. Uribe accused Chavez of violating an agreement by contacting Colombia's army commander directly, instead of going through the president's office. Chavez called Uribe a ``liar.'' `Stepping up Attacks' Uribe responded by accusing Chavez of attempting to spread an ``expansionist'' agenda across the continent, and of wanting to install a terrorist government in Colombia. He criticized Chavez's interaction with other world leaders after tensions flared in recent weeks with Spain and Chile. Venezuela, South America's third-biggest economy, relies on imports from Colombia to ease shortages of basic food staples. The demand has given Colombia a $1.8 billion trade surplus with Venezuela this year, according to Interbolsa SA, Colombia's biggest brokerage. Colombia imports Venezuelan gasoline. Colombia's government and business groups have identified 30 countries as possible export destinations should the spat with Chavez undercut bilateral trade, Caracas-based El Universal newspaper said Nov. 28, citing ministers and business groups. ``The whole affair may be over soon, but definitely a good resolution to all this will depend upon the result of the referendum,'' said Asdrubal Oliveros, chief economist at Caracas-based research firm Ecoanalitica. ``If you see this carefully, it is Chavez, not the Colombians, who is stepping up the attacks.'' Stocks Colombia's benchmark stock index fell the most in five weeks on Nov. 26 because of concern the conflict will hurt Colombian exporters. Cia. Colombiana de Tejidos SA, a Medellin- based textile exporter, had its steepest two-day drop in 18 months this week. The IGBC stock index was little changed yesterday, even as markets elsewhere in Latin America rose. In 2005, a row between the two nations over the capture in Venezuela of FARC leader Rodrigo Granda disrupted trade along the border. Coal and food were blocked from entering either country, and three municipalities in Colombia's northern Arauca province went without electricity three days after guerrillas bombed an energy line. Venezuela, which usually provides the bulk of the province's electricity needs in emergencies, refused to help. ``This spat has really brought out the worst in both of them in terms of statesmanship,'' said Shannon O'Neil, adjunct fellow for Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Colombian Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo, in comments carried on Bogota-based Radio RCN, said he has received no official word from Venezuela on relations and reiterated his earlier statement that Colombia has no plans to withdraw its ambassador. Venezuela on Tuesday recalled Ambassador Pavel Rondon for consultations. **************** 18) Chavez vows no ties with Colombia BBC News November 29, 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7118127.stm Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez says he will have "no type of relationship" with the Colombian government while it is headed by President Alvaro Uribe. "I could not, out of dignity," Mr Chavez told supporters in the town of Tachira in western Venezuela. The Venezuelan government announced on Tuesday it was withdrawing its ambassador to Colombia. Mr Uribe last week abruptly ended Mr Chavez's efforts to broker a hostage exchange with Colombian rebels. In response, Mr Chavez said he would freeze Venezuela's bilateral ties with its neighbour and close trading partner. 'Barefaced lies' Speaking to supporters on Wednesday, Mr Chavez was forthright in his criticism of his Colombian counterpart. "While President Uribe is president of Colombia I will have no type of relationship with him or with the government in Colombia," he said. Relations 'hit 20-year low' Mr Uribe was a president "capable of such barefaced lies, [who] disrespects another president that he has called a friend, one that he called on for help". Mr Chavez accused Mr Uribe, a close US ally, of being a "pawn of the empire". Relations between the two men seemed close in August - despite their apparent ideological differences - when Mr Uribe enlisted Mr Chavez's help in trying to arrange an exchange of prisoners with rebel-held hostages. But last week Mr Uribe ended Mr Chavez's involvement, saying it was because the Venezuelan leader was in direct contact with Colombia's army chief despite being told to avoid such action. Earlier, Mr Uribe appeared to try to calm the situation, saying presidents should put aside their "angers" and "vanities" to get on with their work. UNFOLDING DISPUTE 5 Aug: Hugo Chavez offers his services to mediate hostages' release 31 Aug: Chavez and Uribe agree on his mediation efforts 9 Nov: Chavez and Uribe meet during regional summit in Chile 20 Nov: Chavez says Uribe told him he is prepared to meet Farc leaders; Uribe sets a 31 December deadline for mediation to work 22 Nov: Uribe ends mediation mission after Chavez is in direct contact with Colombia army chief 26 Nov: Chavez says he is freezing ties with Colombia 27 Nov: Caracas recalls its ambassador to Colombia for consultations 28 Nov: Chavez vows no ties as long as Uribe is president The increasing strain in bilateral ties comes as proposed constitutional changes championed by President Chavez go to a referendum on Sunday. BBC Americas analyst Will Grant says some observers believe there is a domestic element to Mr Chavez's moves. Some opinion polls suggest the reforms may not be approved, although surveys have in the past underestimated the support the president enjoys. If the row with Colombia is not smoothed over, it could have economic repercussions. The two nations are each other's second biggest trading partner after the US, with annual bilateral trade running at more than $4bn (B#2bn). Colombia exports basic foodstuffs to Venezuela, where government price controls have made much production unprofitable. The Colombians also export cars to Venezuela, which does not have an automobile manufacturing base. The two countries are also involved in a major project to build a pipeline so Venezuela can export its oil through Colombia to the Pacific coast. * ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us Our main website: http://www.blythe.org List Archives: http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ Subscribe: http://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr =================================================================