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Today's
Stories
July
2, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Suicide Right on the Stage: the Demise
of the Green Party
Saul
Landau
Buzz Words and Venezuela
July
1, 2004
Katherine
van Wormer
Bush's Damaged Mind: the Madness in
His Method
Joe
Bageant
Is Our President a Whackjob? Does It Matter?
William
James Martin
The Dogma of Richard Perle
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Evacuation Moment
Robert
Fisk
Bread and Circus Trials in Iraq
Alan
Maass
Green Party in Reverse
Website
of the Day
Michael Moore and Israel: Blind or a Coward?
June
30, 2004
Kurt Nimmo
Nicholson
Baker's Checkpoint: a New Kind of Anger About Bush
Tariq
Ali
Getting Away with Murder in Iraq
Jennifer
Van Bergen
Bush and the Detainees
Douglas
Valentine
Apotheosis of the Psychopaths: Instead of Fahrenheit 9/11, Rescreen
The Quiet American
David
Price
Fahrenheit 9/11 Through the McCain-Feingold Looking Glass
Roger
Normand
America's Criminal Occupation of Iraq
Stan
Cox
Sanitized for Your Protection: Ashcroft's
War on Art
Henry
David Thoreau
On the Futility of Bush v. Kerry: All Voting is a Kind of Gaming
Ben
Tripp
Who Dast Call Him Liar: a Rebuttal to Nicholas Kristof
June
29, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
The Cloak-and-Dagger Handover
Robert
Fisk
Alice in an Iraqi Wonderland
Troy
Selvaratnam
New York Times Boosts Pet Developer
Harry
Browne
Bush in Ireland
Ray
McGovern
The CIA According to Anonymous
Elaine
Cassel
Hamdi, Padilla & Rasul: Who Really
Won?
June
28, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn / Leyla Linton
Grisly Rituals in Iraq
Amira
Hass
Confronting Myths and Deadly Power
June
26 / 27, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Venezuela: the Gang's All Here
Patrick
Cockburn
Iyad Allawi, the CIA's New Stooge
in Iraq
Dennis
Hans
Once They Were Sweethearts: Cheney,
the NYTs and the Myth of an Iraq Link to 9/11
Ben
Tripp
Adventures in Fuel Efficiency
Dave
Lindorff
That State Department Terrorism
Report: What They Knew, But Didn't Tell You
Chris
Floyd
Cold Irons Bound: the Russian Gambit
Ali
Tonak
Contamination at Berkeley: Profit Motives,
Academic Freedom and the Case of Ignacio Chapela
Keith
Rosenthal
The Withering of the Anti-War Movement
Bryan
Sacks
The Failure of the 9/11 Commission
Wayne
Madsen
Another Case of Blowback
Thomas
St. John
L. Frank Baum, Racist: Indian-Hating
in the Wizard of Oz
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
American Swadeshi
June
25, 2004
Stephen
Gowans
US to North Korea: "Trust Us"
Saul
Landau
2006 Pentagon Budget as Sacrilege:
Bush Invests the National Treasure in Death and Destruction
Amir
Butler
Iraq: the Deadly Embrace
Jack
McCarthy
Another Times Plagiarism Scandal?
Did Maureen Dowd Lift from the World Weekly News?
Greg
Bates
Chomsky and Zinn Plan to Vote Nader
June 24, 2004
Gary Leupp
John
Lehman on the Iraq / al-Qaeda Links
Patrick Cockburn
A
Day in the Life of Col. Abu Mohammed: Defusing Bombs, Facing
Death Threats
Harry Browne
On
the Rebound: Bush Bounces Back...in Europe
Bill Kaufman
Another
Marxist for Kerry: Joel Kovel's Sad Smear of Ralph Nader
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush,
Cheney and the 9/11 Commission: What Did They Know? What Did
They Tell?
Rick Gioimbetti
Andrea Yates: Victim of Psychiatric Violence?
John Chuckman
Call Center ID Hypocrisy
Diana Johnstone
Kerry
and Kosovo: the Lie of a "Good War"
June 23, 2004
Laura Carlsen
Bush
and Castro Face Off
Dave Zirin
Barry
Bonds vs. Boston: "A Flea Market of Racism"
Kurt Nimmo
From
Saddam, With Love
Patricia Wolff
Foundation Wars
Mahboob A. Khawaja
"They Had Me Arrested and Shackled My Son"
Patrick Cockburn
The
Pretense of an Independent Iraq
Website of the Day
The Road to Abu Ghraib
June 22, 2004
Dave Lindorff
The
Meaning of Putin's Pronouncement: Mutually Assured Pre-emption
Ron Jacobs
Nuclear Plants in US Protectorate of Iraq?
Vanessa Jones
Coogee, Peter Garrett and Valium Earrings
Mickey Z
An Open Letter to the People of Iraq
John L. Hess
Clinton Exhales
Pedro Marset/Ex-Solidarity
Committee for Pacho Cortés
An Exchange on the Case of Pacho Cortés
Bruce Jackson
Saying
No to Prosecutors: Why Steve Kurtz's Colleagues Refused to Testify
Website of the Day
From Boot Camp to Boot Hill
June
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Putin's Helpful Remarks
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti After the Press Went Home: Chaos
Upon Chaos
Cockburn
/ Khan
Saddam May Face Death Penalty
Uri
Avnery
Irreversible Mental Damage
June
19 / 20, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Inside the Green Zone: US is Paranoid
and Isolated
Bruce
Anderson
Frozen Gringos
Diane
Christian
Morality and Death: a Meditation
on Bush and Blake
Walter
A. Davis
Passion of the Christ in Abu Ghraib
Josh
Frank
How Democrats Helped Bush Rape Mother
Nature
Col.
Dan Smith
Respectable Genocide?: the Crisis
in Sudan
Brian
Cloughley
A Profound Disruption of the Senses
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Timken Plant, a
Year Later
Prudence
Crowther
Mr. Ashcroft, Deport Me!
Poets'
Basement
Iqbal/Alam, Krieger and Albert
Kathy
Kelly
Dying to See Their Kids
June
18, 2004
Chris
Floyd
Blood Victory
Dave
Zirin
Danielle Green, Basketball Player
& Disabled Vet, Speaks Out Against War
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Christian Question in American
Politics
Gary
Leupp
The "Long-Established" Link?:
Iraq, al-Qaeda, and al-Zarqawi
June
17, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron
Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They
Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
18, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron
Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They
Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
16, 2004
Lenni
Brenner
A Question for Kerry Supporters
Davey
D
Hip Hop Reflections on Reagan
Daniel
Wolff
Why Did Michael Moore Withhold Video Evidence of US Prisoner
Abuse?
Bruce
Jackson
Harry Levin and the Penultimate Manuscript of Finnegans Wake
Patrick
Cockburn
Boom! Boom! Out Go the Lights: Bombings Target Oil and Power
Facilities
Gary
Handschumacher
Mourn Ben Linder, Not His Killer: Reagan's Death Squads
JG
Turning Haiti into One Big Sweatshop
Mario
Benedetti
Obituary with Cheers
Vicente
Navarro
Meet the New Head of the IMF: Who
is Rodrigo Rato?
Website
of the Day
Iraqi Oil Revenue Watch
June
15, 2004
Harry
Browne
Ireland Adds a Brick to Fortress Europe
Neve
Gordon
The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
David
Palmer
Richard Armitage, Abu Ghraib and CACI
John
Blair
Lovelock's Misguided Call: Nukes Are No Solution to Global Warming
Dave
Lindorff
God Wins in TKO
Bill
Quigley
Blood-Pouring Peace Activists: State Charges Dropped; Feds Step
In
Patrick
Cockburn
Carbombs and Street Dances: 13 More Killed in Baghdad Blast
John
Chuckman
John Kerry, Political Placebo
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
July
2, 2004
Why
the Elites Hate Hugo Chavez
Buzz
Words and Venezuela
By
SAUL LANDAU
"When I gave food to the
poor, they called me a saint; but when I asked why people are
poor, they called me a communist." --Brazilian Bishop Don
Helder Camara
President Hugo Chavez Frias' enemies
refer to him as a "terrorist" and a "communist."
Indeed, Venezuela's current conflict could become a test for
the meaning of words; not only the insults, but concepts like
democracy. In Venezuela democracy, as Chavez's enemies and the
media use the word, means return to oligarchy. Human rights mean
US-style elections: an acceptable candidate wins and lauds the
right of billionaires to own media and print lies.
In Venezuela and the United
States the media routinely claim that Chavez undermined the constitution,
compromised freedom and destroyed Venezuela's economy.
Right wing Latin American media
and Miami's El Nuevo Herald treat such charges as axioms; they
don't substantiate the claims. In Venezuela, the newspapers and
TV stations that charge Chavez with censorship continue to attack
him. The assault appears almost in daily papers like El Universal
and El Nacional, on TV channels, and radio stations. In fact,
Chavez has not shut down or censored media controlled by extremely
powerful and very hostile tycoons. Gustavo Cisneros, known as
the Rupert Murdoch of Latin America, owns Venevision TV and Venezuela's
Playboy Channel and is a partner in Coca-Cola and other multinational
ventures. He and Marcel Granier, owner of Radio Caracas Television
(RCTV), own over 60% of Venezuela's TV market.
These "beleaguered heroes,"
intent on saving the republic from Chavez' dictatorship, laugh
in their penthouses. In May 2004, the opposition collected enough
signatures to force a referendum, but have not unified around
a candidate. The referendum followed an unsuccessful coup attempt
in April 2002.
During those less than two
days, when anti-Chavez forces appeared to have kidnapped the
President, Chamber of Commerce chief Pedro Carmona claimed he
was president. Reporters from the major media didn't even ask
him. The unelected Carmona did, however, label Chavez an enemy
of democracy, which he vowed to restore, with his cabinet of
the rich and powerful.
Since that fiasco, some of
the original coup planners have the chutzpah to accuse Chavez
of opposing democracy' they call him a totalitarian, Castro-style
communist -terrorist. The very people who perpetrated illegal
violence to unseat an elected government now claim the word democracy.
And the media does not challenge them.
One voice in the anti-Chavez
chorus has a familiar ring to his voice. Former President Carlos
Andres Perez gives TV and newspaper interviews as an authority
on democracy and good government. Convicted of embezzlement and
having given the command for army troops to fire at his own people,
this mass murderer somehow claims to occupy moral high ground.
And the media accepts him as if the Venezuela conflict boils
down to questions of procedure, not real democracy: majority
rule.
Venezuelans overwhelmingly
chose Chavez in 1998 and again in 2000, because they remembered
what former presidents did--a memory that neither the media nor
human rights groups seem to possess.
On February 27, 1989, Perez
increased the price of gasoline and the cost of public transportation.
Following an IMF model to garner foreign investment, his austerity
policies hit the poorest people hardest. But Perez apparently
did not expect Venezuelans to respond to "economic shock"
programs with spontaneous protests, which erupted throughout
the country. In some areas, rioters torched shops and set up
roadblocks.
When the police went on strike,
the government lost control. Perez called for a state of emergency.
The soldiers fired into crowds. By March 4, the government claimed
that 257 lay dead. Some non-governmental sources estimated the
death toll at over 2000. Thousands were wounded.
Perez, who called himself a
socialist, first imposed draconian measures on the poor and then
had them shot when they objected. The Caracazo as the  event became known, not only
destroyed Venezuela's aura of stability but put an end to the
political system that had replaced the ousted military dictator
Perez Jimenez in 1958.
From then on until the Chavez
victory, successive Christian Comite de Organizacion Politica
Electoral Independiente (COPEI) and Social Democratic Accion
Democratica (AD) governments had used the nation's immense oil
wealth to distribute drops--or crumbs--just enough to maintain
stability.
It took the IMF and World Bank--with
strong backing from the Reagan government_and its neo-liberal
offensive in the 1980s, to push Venezuelans into action. They
rebelled against policies designed to further impoverish them
and reward those who needed it least. Although the 1989 Caracazo
emerged as an unplanned response to a set of new measure, the
uprising also symbolized years of discontent over government
corruption. The Caracazo destroyed the shady Perez, the prestige
of the two major parties, and it opened the door to a more radical
politics, outside the party structure.
The Caracazo also had a profound
impact on sectors of the Armed Forces. Some younger officers
who opposed the neo-liberal policies had joined the popular uprising
when Perez ordered troops to open fire. Officers like Hugo Chavez
saw the Caracazo as a learning experience. Four years later,
in 1992, he led a military coup against another corrupt civilian
government. It failed, but Chavez gained sympathy from fellow
officers and the government felt pressured to release him in
1994 after he served a short prison sentence. Indeed, in the
2002 coup many officers remained loyal to Chavez and his populist
policies and, to the surprise of the coup makers, restored him
to power within two days.
His subsequent electoral victories
in 1998 and 2000 allowed him to begin the reform process. But
Venezuela's encrusted civil servants slowed the reform process
by not carrying out decrees or obstructing them, which has left
some poor people feeling frustrated over the pace of the "Bolivarian
process."
In the documentary film, "The
Revolution Will Not Be Televised," the class nature of Venezuela's
struggle becomes apparent. The well dressed, expensively coiffed
women who banged pots and pans--the first time many had ever
touched them--shout profanities at Chavez. Anti-Chavez leaders
warn the rich women that their maids might be traitors in their
own mansions, secret members of the Chavista Bolivarian circles.
The film echoes "The Battle
of Chile," filmed during the 1970-73 Salvador Allende presidency,
which showed wealthy Chileans encouraging a military coup.
For the white elite Chavez
represents ugliness. The man with Indian and African features
has committed the unpardonable sin: redistributing wealth. He
increased the percentage of the budget that goes toward public
health (8%) and education, although still not up to the level
of developed countries. He also stopped subsidizing private schools
where the wealthy send their kids.
Chavez received 59% of the
vote in the 2000 presidential election by campaigning against
the IMF model that has devastated the third world. He shares
this anti neo-liberal view with President Nelson Kirchner of
Argentina, Lula of Brazil and Bolivian peasant leader Evo Morales.
Chavez stopped the privatization steamroller that would have
delivered Venezuela's social security funds to private brokers
and the state's universities to education entrepreneurs.
Instead of continuing the "reward
the rich and punish the poor" system, Chavez extended credit
to small rural and urban holders. Rather than perpetuating the
thievery and privilege that prevailed in the state controlled
oil sector, he fired the overpaid bureaucrats and converted the
revenues for the poor.
Chavez, in his first four years
(1998-2002), actually lowered the inflation rate from over a
53% average between 1989-1998 to less than 23%. Venezuela's oil
industry, devastated by a two and a half month strike that began
in 2002, has recuperated and has begun to pour profits into state
coffers.
The recovering economy has
caused rifts among the anti-Chavez crowd. Some believe that only
violence will destroy him. Opposition leaders have appealed to
Washington, claiming without evidence that Chavez collaborates
with Colombia's FARC and ELN guerrillas. Recently on Channel
41 in Miami, Eduardo Garcia, a former Venezuelan army captain,
showed up in uniform to describe how an anti-Castro Cuban group,
Comandos F4, had helped him in his violent plan to unseat Chavez.
The FBI anti-terrorist units
in South Florida have not disturbed this group. Chavez has produced
evidence that US officials cooperated in the April 2002 coup
attempt and in more recent efforts to destabilize his regime.
He has mentioned the names of Assistant Secretary for Western
Hemisphere Affairs Roger Noriega and Otto Reich, the recently
resigned Special Envoy to the Americas.
Ironically, the US government,
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International's accusations stress
Chavez' sins regarding press censorship and undermining the Constitution
-- that Chavez is anti-democratic. In light of the US coup planning
and destabilization efforts, such charges seem misplaced--at
best.
Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch, along with the US Government, have contributed
not only to political confusion about Venezuela. By misusing
the words, democracy and human rights, they have created a semantic
nightmare. They seem to accept US coups and destabilization campaigns
as compatible with democracy, while Chavez's efforts to make
majority rule a reality by providing for basic substantive rights
become an offense. He has not shut down, censored or interfered
with the media or the property that belong to his enemies. You
figure it out!
Saul Landau directs the Digital Media Arts program
at Cal Poly Pomona University. His new book is The
Business of America.
Weekend
Edition Features for June 12 / 13, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Remembering the Common Hood: Soweto
and Runnymede
Team
CounterPunch
CP's Favorite Albums
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Troy, Now and Then
Gary
Leupp
Not Really a Puppet Government in Iraq?
Brian
Cloughley
US Military in Crisis
Antonio
Ponvert, III
Iraqi Prisoner Abuse: the Connecticut Connection
Ben
Tripp
The Polls Get Stupider
Joe
Bageant
Mash Note to the "Girl with the Leash"
Ron
Jacobs
The Return of the Hip Hop Insurgency
Forrest
Hylton
Object Lessons from the Case of Francisco Cortés
Christopher
Brauchli
Federal Bureau of Errors
Kurt
Nimmo
Going After Qaddafi, Again
Wayne
Madsen
Israel's Slap at Reagan
Anthony
Loewenstein
Al Jazeera Awakens the Arab World
Michael
Donnelly
A Lightship in the Forest: Greenpeace Docks in the Siskiyous
Greg
Moses
Who Will Tell Us More About the Workers of Nasiriyah?
Susan
Davis
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
Joseph
Ramsey
Weather Report: a Review of The Weather Underground
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The 18th Brumaire in the 21st
Century
Wayne
Saunders
The Gipper, D-Day and the Stanley Cup
Poets'
Basement
Richey, Ford, La Morticella, Albert
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