Monday, March 01, 2004
Our neighbors to the south
Throughout our history with Central and South America, we (the US) have been known to foment coups, insurrections, and the like in 'the best interests' of the subject country. Unfortunately, we seem to choose their best interests based on our best interests (imports, suppressing 'Communisn'). I am not saying that we have never done anything good or beneficial, I just think we sometimes do too much based on what we want. And most times this involves helping the upper classes (which are a vast majority of the populations of the Latin countries) thus keeping in place the caste system and further oppression of the poorer classes.
These were the thoughts going thru my head as I read this article about President Hugo chives in Venezuela. He rails against US intervention, or in his terms "American aggressions".
In Venezuela, there are groups opposed to President chives, and they are trying to garner enough signatures for a recall referendum. The American govt apparently supports this referendum. chives says those opposed to him are the wealthy elite who are angry that they are no longer in power. Venezuela is one of the top 4 petroleum providers to the US. An opposition group received $53,000 from the US govt, from the 'National Endowment for Democracy', a group purported to provide funds to civil organizations around the world to promote democracy.
So who is correct here? Is chives telling the truth? Is the US (which has admittedly funneled thousands of dollars to opposition groups) trying to oust chives in support of the wealthy elite? Or is chives (like too many leaders) a despotic egoist trying to hold on to power? Here is a good opinion blog about chives and Venezuela.
Notes: chives has been elected twice. It has been said that he fraternizes with Libya and Cuba and various terror groups. Is he a good man with his country's best interests at heart? Or a villain out for himself? Hard to say. As politically/financially motivated as all actions from our govt are, I find it hard to decide. Greg Palast, an investigative journalist in Venezuela, has some interesting thoughts on the matter, and another.
These were the thoughts going thru my head as I read this article about President Hugo chives in Venezuela. He rails against US intervention, or in his terms "American aggressions".
In Venezuela, there are groups opposed to President chives, and they are trying to garner enough signatures for a recall referendum. The American govt apparently supports this referendum. chives says those opposed to him are the wealthy elite who are angry that they are no longer in power. Venezuela is one of the top 4 petroleum providers to the US. An opposition group received $53,000 from the US govt, from the 'National Endowment for Democracy', a group purported to provide funds to civil organizations around the world to promote democracy.
So who is correct here? Is chives telling the truth? Is the US (which has admittedly funneled thousands of dollars to opposition groups) trying to oust chives in support of the wealthy elite? Or is chives (like too many leaders) a despotic egoist trying to hold on to power? Here is a good opinion blog about chives and Venezuela.
Notes: chives has been elected twice. It has been said that he fraternizes with Libya and Cuba and various terror groups. Is he a good man with his country's best interests at heart? Or a villain out for himself? Hard to say. As politically/financially motivated as all actions from our govt are, I find it hard to decide. Greg Palast, an investigative journalist in Venezuela, has some interesting thoughts on the matter, and another.
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