Home > Peaceful Revolution- Solidarity from Venezuela

Peaceful Revolution- Solidarity from Venezuela

by Open-Publishing - Sunday 20 March 2005
14 comments

Edito Demos-Actions International USA South/Latin America

Greetings to all the peace marchers and US citizens from the people of Venezuela on this important day!

We congratulate you on your commitment to stopping the war in Iraq and the occupation of Afghanistan. The great majority of the Venezuelan people are also in complete disagreement with the use of US military force to dominate the peoples of the Middle East and other countries, classified arbitrarily as the "Axis of Evil". This march is vital to pressure the current Administration from desisting in its plans to invade other countries in search of oil or other primary materials, which will serve the pretensions and domination of the global corporate empire.

These countries threatened include Syria, Iran and our country...the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

One month ago, the US Navy sent an aircraft carrier and marines to the island of Curaçao, 46 miles from the Venezuelan coast. Our government was not notified of this maneuver, which is contrary to international laws and conventions. It was said that the marines were on Curaçao for Rest and Recreation! Blatant lies! This was outright intimidation!

There is written documentation that the Bush administration was involved in the coup d’etat in Venezuela of April 2002, the sabotage of our oil industry and lock out of workers in the so called general strike and economic sabotage of our economy in December 2002 - February 2003. The Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) and US Agency for International Development (USAID) have all been financing subversive, non-democratic groups of the traitorous Venezuelan opposition - to discredit our President, Hugo Chavez, with the aim of fomenting chaos and overthrowing the democratically elected government. They are using your tax dollars to do this... were you ever asked about the use of your money to subvert other nations?

You must be told the truth now......today......at this precise moment... President Chavez has faced 9 electoral or referendum contests from December 1998 to end October 2004, and has wiped the floor each time with the fascist opposition of our country.

What other world leader has gone to the polls 9 times in 6 years? Not one!

Chavez is the world’s leading democrat, and these election processes have been overseen by the Carter Center and the Organization of American States (OAS). However, the Bush administration and the corporate global press refuse to accept the truth, the reality of Venezuela, and continue with their disinformation campaigns in CNN, Fox News and in influential, opinion forming newspapers of your country. Paid hacks are used to write these lies - using tax payers dollars. The CIA is behind this dirty campaign, as they were in Nicaragua in the 1980’s.

What you read in the US press or see on the TV in the United States, does not reflect what is happening in Venezuela. An analysis made of US media this year indicates that 87% of all information broadcast or printed about our country and our President, Hugo Chavez, is DISINFORMATION. Bear this in mind when you next hear the news.

On Channel 22 in Miami, the Cuban-American journalist, Maria Elvira Salazar, has allowed guests on her program to call for the assassination of President Chavez and the invasion of Venezuela by the marines. This has now occurred twice so far this year. This is media terrorism - yes, media terrorism- against an independent nation, with a democratic system in place and a Constitution approved in national referendum by 73% of the voters in December 1999.

In Florida, there is not only media terrorism at work against the Venezuelan people, but there are also Venezuelan and Cuban mercenaries training in Homestead and in the Everglades, getting ready for the invasion of either Cuba or Venezuela. How is it possible that the Governor of Florida, President Bush’s brother Jeb, allows these groups and these terrorist minded journalists to operate with impunity in Florida? Is this still the Wild West? Is there no rule of law?

And what about the Bush doctrine of "combating terrorism, worldwide, at any cost"? Does this not apply to Florida? There are double standards and hypocrisy at work here. We, the Venezuelan people, make a call to you, the People of the United States, to exercise public pressure and opinion on the impunity of these terrorists training in Florida, in the United States, as well as the use of TV channels to call for the assassination of our beloved President.

As part of its warmongering mentality, the Administration is preparing the ground for some sort of action in Venezuela. It is a question of oil, energy......exactly as it was in Afghanistan and Iraq. Venezuela supplies 15% of the oil the US uses and will continue to do so. However, this intimidation and interference in Venezuelan sovereign affairs must stop. We want to be left in peace to decide the destiny of our country, our children and our grand children. We have the right to self-determination as laid out in international law. And we will also defend ourselves....make no mistake about that.

Venezuela is an oil rich country and has been exporting oil and asphalt to the US for almost one hundred years. Where you are standing now is probably on asphalt sent from Venezuela. The oil revenues never reached the common people, and the result was 80% poverty in our country for decades. The money was sent offshore and rich, corrupt Venezuelans have almost US$200 billion - yes US$200 billion in offshore bank accounts, most of which was stolen form our nation with the connivance of the US oil multinationals. US$200 billion is 6 or 7 years national budget in Venezuela. Can you believe this? This is much worse than the WorldCom or Enron scandals.

President Chavez was elected by the people to change all this. And he is doing so, in the framework of a "democratic, peaceful revolution". Yes revolution. Not reforms. Reforms leave the corrupt socio-economic structure in place, and this has to be changed as well. Our aim is zero poverty by the year 2021. This is no threat to either the US Administration, or to you, the People of the United States. We just want to vindicate basic human rights in our country.....nothing more, nothing less.

To this end, nationwide health, educational, housing and social programs have been instituted as parallel strategies to the old corrupt state apparatus. For the first time in Venezuelan history, a free health service is available to all and will continue to be developed. Things are not perfect by any means, but we are progressing......combating corruption and inefficiency. We are in this for the long haul.

The Bolivarian Revolution is not built on models such as the French, Russian or Cuban revolutions, which were launched in a sea of death, violence and blood. Our revolution is peaceful and democratic since we, as humanists, respect all life, even those who oppose the changes. There has been no revolutionary altar of fire and brimstone in Venezuela. Just popular votes....and this is an example to the whole planet Earth......and even more so to nations such as Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, where the spirit of the Liberator, Simon Bolivar is alive and kicking in the collective memory of the historically oppressed in these impoverished nations. They will eventually follow Venezuela’s example...in peace and democracy. Patience.

This will be the true liberation of South America - first from Spanish imperialism, then from British neocolonialism and now from US inspired neo liberalism and imperialism.

In Venezuela we do not have representative democracy any more. Our democratically approved Constitution allows for "Participative democracy with the Venezuelan people as the protagonist". In other words, elected officials cannot just do what they want. The people participate in decisions at community level to re-build Venezuela from the bottom up. Any elected officials not measuring up, from the President of the Republic down to local parish leaders, can have their mandate revoked by popular vote half way through their mandate. This is real democracy and brings inefficient, corrupt and bureaucratic officials to book, in the democratic court of the people. The masses.

We are only 25 million, but we are leading the way not only in Latin America, but in the world with our peaceful, reconstruction process. It is totally democratic. We will not allow ourselves to be exploited anymore by the global corporate empire, which feeds the machines of death in all parts of the globe. Peace. Humanism. Self-determination. Participative democracy.

Social justice. These are the corner stones of the Bolivarian Revolution, led by Hugo Chavez!

These are also our banners and we once again send this message of peace and non interventionism, out to you, People of the United States, gathered here today, defending the rights of our brothers in Iraq, and let us pray for the souls of those unnecessarily killed by unbridled corporate greed in the quest for oil and world domination.

On behalf of the Venezuelan people, and our President Hugo Chavez, we fully support your efforts and ask you to help us in terms of public opinion in your country.

We never want you to march in the future asking for "troops out of Venezuela". Let’s stop it before it starts.

Peace. Love. Solidarity to you all, and our oppressed brothers and sisters in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan.

Long live the People of the United States. Long live the Venezuelan people. Long live peace and solidarity and no more war!!

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_16310.shtml

Forum posts

  • "One month ago, the US Navy sent an aircraft carrier and marines to the island of Curaçao, 46 miles from the Venezuelan coast. Our government was not notified of this maneuver, which is contrary to international laws and conventions. It was said that the marines were on Curaçao for Rest and Recreation! Blatant lies! This was outright intimidation!"

    Please forgive US! I am so sorry. We are trying to stop these bastards but we could really use some international help. With any luck, their greed and stupidity will be their own undoing and soon they will be held accountable for their crimes against humanity.

    • One month ago an US navy ship docked in Curazao and the venezuelan officialdom wet their pants. So much so that the coupster running the ministry of interior said in an interview "ojala que la proxima vez que vengan nos avisen..." The majority of venezuelans oppose chavez, that’s why he didn’t allow a transparent vote count last august; as he admitted to Marta Harnecker "si no montamos la mision identidad perdemos el referendo!" Sooner or later he will be ousted and Venezuela will be free of Cuban and communist interference.

    • It is the US that experienced a coup. Bush is an unelected dictator that speaks for only a small minority of the country. Why did Chavez demand a paper receipt for his diebold voting machines, but we couldn’t have a paper trail in the US? They are correct to be worried about a rogue nation such as the US invading their country to steal valuable resources, but hopefully we will run out of money and/or troops before we can do any more damage.

    • 59 million Americans elected Bush; 59 millions; 59 millions; 59 millions...

      Oh but I forgot Greg Palast told that it was a huge electoral fraud so those 59 million citizens are as real as the 5 million Venezuelans who voted for Chavez last august according to the leftists revolutionary ’logic’!!

    • www.VenezuelaToday.net

      Chavez has already been exposed as a crackpot dictator. Venezuela is a basketcase of corruption and ineptitude. Chavez is rapidly turning the country into a Military-"Communist"-Mafia a la Cuba.

    • As a citizen ov Venezuela, I would like to set the record straight. President Chavez was democratically elected, and enjoys the vast majority of the people here to support him, unlike your Bush that was installed by fixing elections and has possibly 30% of your people to support him. Chavez has stood up to the imperalist Bush and his corporate government and we love him and trust him for that. We think that the reasons you hate him is because he is not corrupt like your Bush.

  • It always amazes me how spiteful and vindictive the opposition is in Venezuela.

    Truth is as much beyond them as indeed it is for many in the U.S.

    The purpose is not to return Venezuela to democracy of course.

    The purpose is to return Venezuela to the control of the rich.

  • If you are so democratic, why then do you pass laws limiting freedom of the press? Why do you persecute anyone opposed to your ideals and accuse them of being oligarchs and traitors ? Why is it so difficult for your government to accept dissent ? You will become a tyranny with good intentions if you continue on this path. Have your peaceful revolution but don’t become another Cuba where speaking bad about Fidel lands you in jail.

    • The recent laws passed to limit the press were enacted because the press corps is so dominated by the rich, multinationals and Americans that there was no choice. They had distorted the truth for decades and had to be purged. Once the media is back in the hands of the people, you will see more liberalization of the press. Until then, Venezuela acted in its own best interest in shutting down crackpot journalism.

    • Our C.I.A. has been exposed in plots to assassinate the president of Venezuela, and they are working very hard to stir up trouble there. The C.I.A. has an unlimited budget to plant false stories and back opposition to elected government officials. The history of the C.I.A. is one of murdering thugs who are alwo active in the drug trade and that is why J.F.K. was determined to disband the C.I.A. look where that got him.

  • To our friends in Venezuela,

    Please know that millions of Americans stand with you. The U.S. has been taken over by a criminal cabal. While I don’t believe Bush has ever gotten a majority of the vote, there is no question that a majority of Americans are sleepwalkers.

    Please bear in mind that you can set the standard. You are helping to wake the rest of America.

    Thank you. Peace.

    • There is no end to the hyprocacy in the U.S., the press here is the most corrupt in world history. Fox news is just a propaganda machine for the republicans and everyone knows it. The government has ordered major news outlets to not cover war dead, war protests, show soldiers coffins returning from Iraq, Bush has been jeered and booed by thousands of citizens here during his appearances all over the country, his inaguration day was a perfect example of how the press pastes smily faces all over him and makes certain not to show opposition to him by swarms of angry citizens, it makes up stories about how gasoline prices are because of the rise in prices from oil suppliers making no mention of the fact that our national debt has made our money worth 25% less around the world and that is the real reason that prices are so high, the oil producers refuse to take less value for their oil, social security speeches made by Bush all over the country are before selected audiences and the press never mentions this fact, but shows the same audiences cheering widly for the big phony as though he is supported by random audience members just a cross section of the population...nothing could be further from the truth. Bush has bribed "news" anchors to push his agenda and has been caught but nothing is ever done about this blatant dishonesty and he uses taxpayers money to deceive us. People in this country are getting screwed and the media are bought off with billions of dollars they make in promoting the likes of Bush and his ilk. Pravda is alive and thriving in the U.S., the old Soviet system can not come close to the new heights the media has attained here in its deception.

    • If you feel solidarity for the people of Venezuela, please do!!!. But not with the band of thugs that are now their "leaders". Venezuela _was_ a democratic country, second in democratic history only to the US. We Venezuelans, in great majority want these thugs gone, it’s only manipulation of the previously democratic institutions that keeps them in power, you don’t have to believe me, just do a _critical_ read of the Carter Center report, which, though misguided in many ways, cannot hide many of the manipulations which have taken place.

      The article claim "paid hands" that spread propaganda about the situation, just check http://www.vcrisis.com/index.php?content=letters/200503241131 and http://www.vcrisis.com/index.php?content=letters/200503270637 , and many other articles with plenty of proofs of who is paying whom (hint: the Venezuelan Dictatorship).

      Sorry, but as a true Venezuelan, that loves his country in spite of what this thugs are doing to it, who has no economic reason for saying this: If you want to support Venezuelans, you should make sure that Venezuela does not become a second Cuba.

      BTW: I do not support Bush and his electoral tactics, and I believe that we would be in a better situation if Kerry had won; but if he wants to take some of this into his hands, I will not be one of those criticizing him.

    • You are very missinformed when you say Venezuela once was democratic and only second to the U.S. In case you do not know history here in the U.S., we are not a democracy, the politicians here sold out to big corporations and the military industrial complex and there is no such thing as democracy in the U.S., the elections here are rigged and no two states have the same ballots, the ability to write in candidates of your choice has been taken away and we have a one party government which is really just a military dictatorship run by the C.I.A. Now if you go do some research and check out the facts you will descover that what I have said is true. But if you like to shit yourself and others (which obviously you do) then you will continue to come here and post silly things like the above and pretend to be someone from Venezuela. More likely, you are a Catholic/Republican who has his head stuck so far up Bush’s ass that you might even be getting paid to spread Cheaney’s lies for him. The people who come to this site are well aware of your ilk you troll.