US Bush administration against Venezuela

By Bill Van Auken:

US attacks Venezuela: “press freedom” as a pretext for intervention

6 June 2007

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Monday used the opening of the general assembly of the Organization of American States in Panama City to launch another US propaganda attack against the left nationalist government of President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.

Seizing upon the government’s decision not to renew the broadcast license of RCTV, a Venezuelan television channel that was intimately involved in the abortive US-backed coup against Chavez in April 2002, Rice called upon the OAS to launch an immediate investigation into the decision and the state of freedom of expression in Venezuela.

Rice declared: “Freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of conscience are not a thorn in the side of government.

Disagreeing with your government is not unpatriotic and most certainly should not be a crime in any country, especially a democracy.”

Venezuela’s foreign minister, Nicolas Maduro, rejected the attack, denouncing Washington for violating his country’s sovereignty and ridiculing Rice for lecturing Venezuela about human rights.

“The OAS should form a special commission to study the daily violation of human rights on the southern border of the United States,” he said.

He continued, “How many prisoners do they have in Guantanamo? Where did they kidnap them?”

Speaking in Prague on Tuesday, President Bush also singled Venezuela out for attack.

See also here.

“Disagreeing with your government is not unpatriotic”: let Ms Rice tell that to Dick Cheney, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, and other Bush administration props who so routinely lyingly link even the most “loyal” moderate Democratic oppositionists to Al Qaeda. … like Chavez is linked to Al Qaeda by them …

Including the moronic linking of Presidential candidate Obama to Bin Laden, because his Kenyan family name sounds somewhat like the Arabic first name Osama (by the way, Osama, meaning “Lion”, has been at least as usual a name in “Muslim countries”, as “Leo” has been in “Christian countries”, for a long time).

This video is “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” (a.k.a. Chávez: Inside the Coup), a 2002 documentary about the April 2002 Venezuelan coup attempt which briefly deposed Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

A television crew from Ireland’s Radio Telifís Éireann happened to be recording a documentary about Chávez during the events of April 11, 2002.

Shifting focus, they followed the events as they occurred.

During their filming, the crew recorded images of the events that they say contradict explanations given by Chávez opposition, the private media, the US State Department, and then White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer.

The documentary says that the coup was the result of a conspiracy between various old guard and anti-Chávez factions within Venezuela and the United States.

The film has won twelve awards at film festivals and has been nominated for another four.

Although the documentary was not widely distributed, a number of groups are distributing copies and it is available on the internet.

A Spanish language documentary, Venezuela Bolivariana: People and Struggle of the Fourth World War, covers much of the same subject and uses some footage from The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”

Censorship by YouTube of pro Chavez videos: here.

This video is the film The war on democracy by John Pilger, about Venezuela.