[NYTr] Fear of Chavez is fear of democracy
 
Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2007 14:45:29 -0600 (CST)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
GregPalast.com - Dec 3, 2007
http://www.gregpalast.com/fear-of-chavez-is-fear-of-democracy/

Fear of Chavez is fear of democracy 

Bush: "If itbs our oil, why do Venezuelans get to vote on it?"

GOP panicked that counting votes in Venezuela will spread to Florida

By Greg Palast

The Family Bush can fix Florida. They can fix Ohio. But itbs just
driving them crazy that they canbt fix the vote in Venezuela.

The Bush Administration and its press puppies - the same ones who
couldnbt get enough of the purple thumbs of voters of Iraq - are
absolutely livid that this weekend the electorate of Venezuela had the
opportunity to vote.

Typical was the mouth-breathing editorial by the San Francisco
Chronicle, that the referendum could make Hugo Chavez, Venezuelabs
President, ba constitutional dictator for life.b And no less a freedom
fighter than Donald Rumsfeld, from the height of the Washington Post,
said that by voting, Venezuela was breceding into dictatorship.b Oh, my!

Given that Chavezb referendum was defeated at the ballot box, we now
know that, as a dictator, Chavez is a flop. Of course, without meaning
to gainsay Secretary Rumsfeld, maybe Chavez is not a dictator.

Letbs get clear exactly what this vote was about. Firstly, it was a
referendum to change the nationbs constitution to end term limits for
President.

Oh, horror! Imagine if we eliminated term limits in the US! We could
end up stuck with a president - like Franklin Roosevelt. Worse, if Bill
Clinton could have run again, webd have missed out on the statesmanship
of Junior Bush. While US media called Chavez a btyrantb for suggesting
an end to term limits, they somehow forgot to smear the tyrant tag on
Mr. Clinton for suggesting the same for the America.

We were not told this weekendbs referendum was a vote on term limits,
rather, we were told by virtually every US news outlet that the
referendum was to make Chavez, bPresident for Life.b The bPresident for
Lifeb canard was mis-reported by no less than The New York Times.

But ending term limits does not mean winning the term. As Chavez
himself told me, bItbs up to the peopleb whether he gets reelected. And
that infuriates the US Powers That Be.

Secondly, beyond ending term limits, the referendum would have loaded
the nationbs constitution with changes in property law, work hours and
so many other complex economic adjustments that the entire referendum
sank of its own weight.

Itbs the Oil.

Term limits and work hours in Venezuela? Why was this a crisis for
Washington?

Why is the Bush crew so bonkers about Hugo? Is it because Venezuela
sits on the worldbs largest reserve of
coconuts?chavezisakillerwtext-copy.jpg

Like Operation Iraqi Liberation (bOILb) - itbs all about the crude,
dude. And lots of it. The US Department of Energy documents I obtained
indicate that the guys holding Bushbs dipstick figure that Venezuela is
sitting on 1.36 trillion barrels of crude, five times the reserves of
Saudi Arabia.

Chavezb continuing tenure means that Venezuelansb huge supply of oil
will now be in the hands of... Venezuelans!

As Arturo Quiran, resident of a poor folksb housing complex, told me,
bTen, fifteen years ago... there was a lot of oil money here in
Venezuela but we didnbt see it.b Notably, Quiran doesnbt particularly
agree with Chavezb politics. But, he thought Americans should
understand that under Chavezb Administration, therebs a doctorbs office
in his building with bfree operations, x-rays, medicines. Education
also. People who never knew how to read and write now know how to sign
their own papers.b

Not everyone is pleased. As one TV news anchor, violently anti-Chavez,
told me in derisive tones, bChavez gives them (the poor) bricks and
bread!b -- how dare he! -- so, they vote for him.

Oil has better ideas for Venezuela, best expressed in several Wall
Street Journal articles attacking Chavez for spending his nationbs oil
wealth on bsocial programsb rather than on more drilling platforms to
better fill the SUVs of Texas.

Chavez has committed other crimes in Washingtonbs eyes. Not only has
this uppity brown man spent Venezuelabs oil wealth in Venezuela, he
withdrew $20 billion from the US Federal Reserve. Weirdly, Venezuelabs
previous leaders, though the nation was dirt poor, lent billions to the
US Treasury on crap terms. Chavez has said, Basta! to this game, and
has called for keeping South Americabs capital in... South America! Oh,
no!

Oh, and did I mention that Chavez told Exxon it had to pay more than a
1% royalty to his nation on the heavy crude the company extracted?

And thatbs why they have to kill him. In 2002, "The New York Times"
sickeningly applauded the coup dbetat against Chavez. But that failed.
Therefore, as the electorate of Venezuela is obstinately refusing to
vote as Condi Rice tells them, therebs only one solution left for
democracy-loving Bush-niks, the view express out loud by our
Presidentbs spiritual advisor, Pat Robertson:

bWe have this enemy to our south controlling a huge pool of oil. Hugo
Chavez thinks webre trying to assassinate him. I think we ought to go
ahead and do it.... We donbt need another $200 billion war... Itbs a
whole lot easier to have some covert operatives do the job.b

But Hugobs not my enemy. Indeed, hebs made a damn good offer to the
American people: oil for $50 a barrel -- nearly half of what it sells
today. By locking in a long-term price, Venezuela loses its crazy Iraq
war oil-price windfall. In return, we agree not to let oil prices fall
through the floor (it dropped to $9 a barrel in 1998) and bankrupt his
nation. But Saudi Arabia doesnbt like that deal. And Abdullahbs wish is
George Bushbs command. (Interestingly, Chavezb fellow no-term-limits
dictator Bill Clinton endorsed the concept.)

I donbt agree with everything Chavez does. And Ibve found some of his
opponentsb [points] well taken. But unlike Bush, I donbt think I should
have a veto over the Venezuelan vote.

And the localsb sentiments are quite clear. I drove with one opposition
candidate, Julio Borges, on a campaign stop to a small town three hours
from Caracas. We met his supporters -- or, more accurately, his lone
supporter. The brallyb was in her kitchen. She served us delicious
arepas.

The next day, I returned to that very same town when Chavez arrived.
Nearly a thousand screaming fans showed up -- and an equal number were
turned away. (The British Telegraph laughably reports that Chavezb
boosters appear bunder duress.b) Youbd think they were showing for a
taping of bSouth American Idol.b (Well, the Venezuelan President did
break into song a few times.)

Itbs worth noting that Chavezb personal popularity doesnbt extend to
all his plans for bBolivarianb socialism. And that killed his
referendum at the ballot box. I guess Chavez should have asked Jeb Bush
how to count votes in a democracy. So there you have it. Some guy who
thinks he can take Venezuelabs oil and oil money and just give it away
to Venezuelans. And these same Venezuelans have the temerity to demand
the right to pick the president of their choice! What is the world
coming to?

In Orwellian Bush-speak and Times-talk, Chavezb referendum was
portrayed before the vote as a trick, a kind of bSaddam goes Latin.b
Maybe their real fear is that Chavez has brought a bit of economic
justice through the ballot box, a trend that could spread northward.
Think about it: Chavez is funding full health care for all Venezuelans.
What if that happened here?

                                  *

Palast Links:

Greg Palast has just returned from South America. Catch his
investigations for BBC Television 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/7113903.stm
and Democracy Now! in the newly released DVD, "The Assassination of
Hugo Chavez," including Palastbs interviews with Chavez, his opponents
-- even the man who kidnapped Chavez.
http://www.palastinvestigativefund.org/

Watch the trailer on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYHtctwucCc

Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestsellers, "The Best
Democracy Money Can Buy" and "Armed Madhouse." This week, Palast will
release his new film on DVD, "The Election Files: Theft of 2008," with
music by Moby. http://www.palastinvestigativefund.org/the-election-files

These films are made available only as gifts to donors to the Palast
Investigative Fund, a not-for-profit charitable foundation supporting
investigative reporting.

More information at http://www.GregPalast.com or
http://www.PalastInvestigativeFund.org 

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