Kerry victory could help Venezuela-U.S. ties-Chavez

[Judi Lynn]

Now it's IST 01:19:39 PM Saturday
Kerry victory could help Venezuela-U.S. ties-Chavez

CARACAS, Venezuela, Aug 7 (Reuters) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Friday he hoped ties between his country and its biggest oil client the United States would improve dramatically if Democrat John Kerry won the U.S. presidential election in November.

Left-winger Chavez faces a referendum on his own rule on Aug. 15 and has accused Republican U.S. President George W. Bush of backing opposition efforts to overthrow him. The Bush administration denies this charge but has strongly supported the Venezuelan referendum process.

''If Mr Kerry wins, we hope that a new stage in relations can begin, of frank, sincere and friendly cooperation between the two governments,'' Chavez yesterday said during a ceremony awarding a gas development license to U.S. oil firm ChevronTexaco Corp.

Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, remains one of the top suppliers of crude oil to the U.S. market and U.S. firms are leading investors in its oil and gas sector.
(snip/...)

http://www.deepikaglobal.com/latestnews.asp?ncode=18786

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Loathed by the rich

Why Hugo Chávez is heading for a stunning victory

Richard Gott in Caracas
Saturday August 7, 2004
The Guardian

To the dismay of opposition groups in Venezuela, and to the surprise of international observers gathering in Caracas, President Hugo Chávez is about to secure a stunning victory on August 15, in a referendum designed to lead to his overthrow.

First elected in 1998 as a barely known colonel, armed with little more than revolutionary rhetoric and a moderate social-democratic programme, Chávez has become the leader of the emerging opposition in Latin America to the neo-liberal hegemony of the United States. Closely allied to Fidel Castro, he rivals the Cuban leader in his fierce denunciations of George Bush, a strategy that goes down well with the great majority of the population of Latin America, where only the elites welcome the economic and political recipes devised in Washington.

While Chávez has retained his popularity after nearly six years as president, support for overtly pro-US leaders in Latin America, such as Vicente Fox in Mexico and Alejandro Toledo in Peru, has dwindled to nothing. Even the fence-sitting President Lula in Brazil is struggling in the polls. The news that Chávez will win this month's referendum will be bleakly received in Washington.

Chávez came to power after the traditional political system in Venezuela had self-destructed during the 1990s. But the remnants of the ancien régime, notably those entrenched in the media, have kept up a steady fight against him, in a country where racist antipathies inherited from the colonial era are never far from the surface. Chávez, with his black and Indian features and an accent that betrays his provincial origins, goes down well in the shanty towns, but is loathed by those in the rich white suburbs who fear he has mobilised the impoverished majority against them.
(snip/...)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1278213,00.html

[Nambe]

1. A great hero of indigenous rights - enemy of papa bush's cia.

"July 07, 2004 - Just hours before President Hugo Chavez was slated to deliver thousands of hectares of land to indigenous and peasant farmer communities indigenous rights attorney, Joe Castillo ,was assassinated. Within hours of the return of lands to people, another defender was shot down."

He may have his faults but his reforms are just and fair. A good example of how democracy is the enemy of the bush oil cartel.

You go Hugo!

[Laughing Mirror]

2. Chavez holding out olive branch to Kerry

Take it Kerry. Renounce the threats you have made to Chavez.

Kerry needs to know that we forbid any further covert or overt attempts by the US to overthrow Chavez or to otherwise interfere in the business of Venezuela. We must have assurance of this from him. Emulating Chavez's social programs to battle poverty should also be a Kerry goal. From the Guardian article:

... huge surplus oil revenues were redirected into imaginative new social programmes. Innumerable projects, or "missions", were established throughout the country, recalling the atmosphere of the early years of the Cuban revolution. They combat illiteracy, provide further education for school dropouts, promote employment, supply cheap food, and extend a free medical service in the poor areas of the cities and the countryside, with the help of 10,000 Cuban doctors. Redundant oil company buildings have been commandeered to serve as the headquarters of a new university for the poor, and oil money has been diverted to set up Vive, an innovative cultural television channel that is already breaking the traditional US mould of the Latin American media.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

3. Absolutely - thoughI doubt he will

Even after he wins I can't see any US leader allowing a South American Nation to rise to its potential as a real world power. I could be wrong though

[stevebreeze]

4. I wonder if Chavez holds the coup Bush supported against Chavez against *?

link here http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2004/12.html

The April 11, 2002 military coup in Venezuela was supported by the United States government. As early as last June, American military attaches had been in touch with members of the Venezuelan military to examine the possibility of a coup. During the coup, U.S military were stationed at the Colombia-Venezuela border to provide support, and to evacuate U.S. citizens if there were problems. According to intelligence analyst, Wayne Madsen, the CIA actively organized the coup. "The CIA provided Special Operations Group personnel, headed by a lieutenant colonel on loan from the U.S. Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to help organize the coup against Chavez,” he said.

Since his 1998 election, President Hugo Chavez has increasingly socialized the Venezuelan government. One of his most controversial moves was to nationalize Venezuela's oil company PDVSA. Venezuela is the fourth largest oil-producing nation, and the third largest oil provider to the U.S. As the leader of OPEC, Chavez has encouraged lowering oil production to raise prices. He also changed a 60 year-old agreement with oil companies that raised royalties for Venezuela.

Chavez has irritated the U.S. in many ways. He changed the Venezuelan Constitution in 1999, granting more land rights to the poor, who make up over half of the 24 million people in Venezuela. Chavez refused to allow U.S. planes to fly over Venezuela during their military activities in Colombia. President Chavez was also the first head of state to visit Saddam Hussein in Iraq since the embargoes in 1990.

Because of the close relationship that many of Venezuela’s wealthy have with the United States, the coup took place with little opposition from Venezuela’s long-established business and political community. The Bush administration was quick to endorse the change in government, which put Pedro Carmona, a wealthy businessman and former business associate of George Bush Sr., into office. Carmona's first move as president was to "dissolve the Constitution, national legislature, Supreme Court, attorney general's office, and comptroller's office."

Is it any wonder the world hates Bush?