U.S. Denies Chavez Claims on Vote Boycott

[NVMojo]

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -

A U.S. official on Friday denied claims by President Hugo Chavez that Washington masterminded an opposition boycott of this weekend's elections and was trying to foment an overthrow of his leftist government.

Chavez accused President Bush late Thursday of being behind the withdrawal of Venezuela's major opposition parties from Sunday's congressional elections, saying he had proof the CIA was "encouraging this new conspiracy." He provided no details.

"The decisions made by the political parties were their decisions alone," U.S. Embassy spokesman Brian Penn said. "We are simply not responsible for everything that goes on in Venezuela."

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-sa/2005/dec/02/120200647.html

[sniffa]

1. chavez is nuts

we've never, ever tried to infLuence any other country's government; why wouLd we start now?

[Judi Lynn]

6. I am assuming you meant this as sarcasm, and it would be correct

as a sarcastic comment. I grabbed the first link I found referring to U.S. interference in foreign countries' domestic affairs, and it didn't take long:

From: The New York Times

March 31, 1997


Foreign Taint on National Election? A Boomerang for U.S.

WASHINGTON -- Members of both political parties express horror at accusations that the Chinese may have tried to use covert campaign donations to influence American policy, but the United States has long meddled in other nations' internal affairs.

Congress routinely appropriates tens of millions of dollars in covert and overt money to use in influencing domestic politics abroad.

The National Endowment for Democracy, created 15 years ago to do in the open what the CIA has done surreptitiously for decades, spends $30 million a year to support things like political parties, labor unions, dissident movements and the news media in dozens of countries, including China.

The endowment has financed unions in France, Paraguay, the Philippines and Panama. In the mid-1980s, it provided $5 million to Polish emigres to keep the Solidarity movement alive. It has underwritten moderate political parties in Portugal, Costa Rica, Bolivia and Northern Ireland. It provided a $400,000 grant for political groups in Czechoslovakia that backed the election of Vaclav Havel as president in 1990. For the Nicaraguan election of 1990, it provided more than $3 million in "technical" assistance, some of which was used to bolster Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, the presidential candidate favored by the United States.

And the endowment spent $1.6 million last year for political "institution building" programs in China, said Louisa Coan, the endowment's program officer for East Asia. That was in addition to millions of dollars spent on Chinese-language broadcasts by the Voice of America and cultural exchanges designed to improve the image of the United States in Asia.

Those are among the more benign American efforts to intervene in the domestic politics of nations around the globe, activities that have been revealed in declassified documents, memoirs and records of congressional hearings.

Since the end of World War II, the United States, usually acting covertly through the CIA, has installed or toppled leaders on every continent, secretly supported political parties of close allies like Japan, fomented coups, spread false rumors, bribed political figures and spent countless billions of dollars to sway public opinion.
(snip/...)

http://www.emayzine.com/lectures/usmeddling.htm

[Megahurtz]

2. Who knows, maybe they WERE behind the withdrawal.

The "Social Christian Party" sounds pretty suspicious to me.

[Che_Nuevara]

9. actually, that's pretty normal for Europe

for example: The most popular political party in Bavaria (the largest state in Germany) is called the Christian Social Union. It is the counterpart to the country-wide (currently ruling) German party named the Christian Democratic Union.

[jseankil]

3. Chavez says he has proof then show it.

It's that simple.

[rinsd]

4. It's becoming old hat now....

...for Chavez accuse the US of something, claim you have proof and then never show it. I think he;s going to the well on that a bit too often.

I think the opposition is quite capable of this one on their own.

[400Years]

5. Thats how he keeps the CIA at bay

It is difficult to stage a coup if the government that is to be overthrown keeps shouting publicly that DC is trying to overthrow it.

Smart move by Chavez.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. Shades of Nicaragua

The U.S. government meddled in the voting process there, too, including putting up a candidate to run against Daniel Ortega. This candidate, who had not lived in Nicaragua for 14 years, was the father of Fawn Hall's then-boyfriend.

Since the Reaganites didn't put up this candidate until quite late, they demanded that Nicaragua postpone elections to allow him to campaign.

The Nicaraguans agreed.

Then they made some other demands (the details of which I can't remember), to which the Nicaraguans also agreed.

(Imagine the U.S. or any other First World country agreeing to the demands of a foreign country regarding its elections!)

Despite all this, however, the Sandinistas won 69% of the vote.

The Reaganites cited this figure as "proof" that the election was rigged.

Since much of the cast of characters in the whole Venezuela situation is the same as in the Central American interventions, I'm inclined to believe Chavez over ANYBODY in the Bush Administraiton.

If you think that Chavez couldn't POSSIBLY be right, then you don't know much about the history of U.S. meddling in Latin American politics.

[Mika]

10. If elections aren't so close that they can be frauded, they are fraudulent

Rovian/BushCrimeInc logic.

:crazy: