[NYTr] Teaming Up with Washington to Destabilize Venezuela
 
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 20:14:51 -0600 (CST)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Axis of Logic/Hands off Venezuela via CubaNow - Nov 19, 2007
http://www.cubanow.net/global/loader.php?&secc=9&item=3737&c=2

Teaming Up with Washington to Destabilize Venezuela

The Wealthy Elite, their University Students, Private Media, 
and Colombian Paramilitaries 

By Les Blough, Rodrigo Trompiz and Jorge Martin

Cubanow.- Day after day a small fraction of Venezuela's university
students continue to engage in violent protests while the police and
national guard contain them. Photos and video - even those shown on
Venezuela's many Chavez-hating television stations have revealed no
violent response by the police. Yesterday in the Andean city of Merida,
a gunman shot and wounded 4 Venezuelan police officers and a bystander
during a student protest. Merida lies in the west of Venezuela near the
Colombian border. The use of Colombian paramilitaries is part of
Washington's plan to foment violence in Venezuela leading up to the
Dec. 2 vote on the Constitutional Reforms. In another violent student
protest at Central University in Caracas last Wednesday, a group of
Chavez supporters were putting up leaflets in support of the
Constitutional Reforms which are slated for a vote by the people in
referendum on Dec. 2. Opposition students surrounded them and attacked
them. In the HOV report below, read how the Chavez supporters were
trapped inside the university for hours.

On Thursday, Reuters, reported that 2 Chavez-supporters shot 2 of the
opposition students.

"Hooded Chavez supporters shot at least two anti-Chavez students at a
university in a clash on Wednesday that erupted after thousands marched
through the capital calling for the vote to be postponed, witnesses and
hospital officials said."

This has since been proved false but this corporate-media attack on
Venezuela was disseminated through MSMBC and other media the world over
and Reuters has not corrected their report. Their report appears in 27
different U.S. and international media today.

Following this false accusation, Reuters laced the rest of their
article with anti-Chavez rhetoric. Reuters based their report on
television reports by Globovision, Spanish-speaking TV corporation that
daily spews it's hatred for Chavez throughout the Americas including
the U.S.

On Wednesday, Associated Press bluntly stated that 80,000 students
protested against "Chavez attempts to expand his power". The number was
patently false and AP characterized the current Constitutional Reforms
as a power-grab by President Chavez:

"Gunmen opened fire on students returning from a march Wednesday in
which 80,000 people denounced President Hugo Chavez's attempts to
expand his power. At least eight people were injured, including one by
gunfire, officials said."

The AP article stated that "4 gunmen", with masked faces fired into
"the anti-Chavez crowd", implying the shooters were Chavistas. AP
failed to mention that the use of Colombian paramilitaries are part of
the plan to destabilize Venezuela during this runup to the Dec. 2 vote
on the reforms.

Arturo Rosales, an Axis of Logic correspondent stood on a sidewalk in
Caracas and watched this group of protestors described as "80,000" by
AP. He reports that the entire group passed by in about 10 to 15
minutes and judged their number to be no more than 2,000.

The opposition student protests are part of Washington's strategy to
destabilize Venezuela and to bring down the government. Below, read the
eye-witness account of the student protests by Hands Off Venezuela. See
the video of the student protests and other photos below the HOV
article. Obviously, the corporate media does not know the difference
between an organized, peaceful protest and unfocused, chaotic attacks
on society.

"The Latin American rightwing is lining up
to attack the Bolivarian revolution ...

[They aim to undermine] the series of
changes that we are carrying out ...
a process of changes that has
resonance in the region, using the power
of the mass media to externally sell
a surreal image of what is happening in Venezuela."

Hugo Chavez Frias, President
17th Latin American Summit
Santiago, Chile, November 9, 2007

The wealthy elite in Venezuela have been steadily losing their power
since President Chavez was first elected in 1998. The constitutional
reforms represent another leap forward for the people and another loss
for the opposition. They are confronted with a purely democratic
process in which they cannot win a majority vote. Just as the U.S. has
systematically backed minority governments in other Latin American
countries, Washington and their corporate media are backing another
attempt to overthrow this government. But this time, they are dealing
with an empowered people in a democratic society - their worst
nightmare.
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