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U.S. spending millions to finance foes of Chávez

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  • U.S. spending millions to finance foes of Chávez

    U.S. spending millions to finance foes of Chávez


    By Simon Romero / The New York Times
    Published: November 9, 2006

    CARACAS: Since President Hugo Chávez returned to power after a brief coup in 2002, the United States has channeled millions of dollars to Venezuelan organizations, many of them critical of his government. The money has become a key issue in the presidential election here, sparking complaints that Washington is interfering in the nation's political system.

    "Washington thinks it can buy regime change in Venezuela," said Carlos Escarra, a constitutional lawyer and a leading legislator in the National Assembly who has been pushing for tighter regulation over the U.S. financing of Venezuelan groups. "This is an affront to our sovereignty as a nation that is not docile to Washington's interests."

    Escarra echoed comments from other high-ranking officials and from Chávez, who has a double-digit lead in most polls over his main opponent, Manuel Rosales, the governor of the state of Zulia. Chávez rarely refers in public to Rosales by name, instead framing his campaign as a choice between his government and the Bush administration.

    U.S. diplomats here have remained largely quiet about the election, which is scheduled for Dec. 3. But government officials here point out any example of U.S. efforts to counter the influence of Chávez as evidence of what they see as a looming confrontation with Washington

    Vice President José Vicente Rangel organized an event to publicize the release of "Bush vs. Chávez: Washington's War Against Venezuela," a book by Eva Golinger, an American lawyer who is now famous in Venezuela for detailing the American financing of groups here.

    The U.S. Agency for International Development has distributed $25 million in the last five years, officials said. The money has been channeled to the groups through private and public entities from the United States that have opened offices in Caracas.


    These include Development Alternatives, a company in Bethesda, Maryland, that works closely with the State Department in dispersing funds around the world, and the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, two groups in Washington that have carried out training for emerging political leaders in Venezuela.


    Documents obtained from the U.S. government under the Freedom of Information Act point to numerous grants made by the United States in the past two years to groups whose activities are viewed as critical of the Chávez government. The international development agency withheld the names of many of the grant recipients, saying that the disclosure of their identities could put them at risk of political retaliation.


    All of the grants were channeled through Development Alternatives, which worked on behalf of the Office of Transition Initiatives, a branch of the international development agency that started operating in Venezuela after the April 2002 coup, which had the approval of the Bush administration.

    The office, created in the 1990s to push for democratic change in the former Soviet Union, normally finances activities in strife-torn countries like Liberia, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Its only operations in Latin America are in Venezuela and Bolivia, allies who share a distrust of the United States. Chávez has repeatedly lashed out at the activities of the U.S. government.


    Officials from the Agency for International Development did not withhold the identities of all grant recipients in Venezuela, as if to point out that some aid went to groups in the form of baseball equipment and roofing materials. A $15,728 grant for a nutrition program went to the Baruta municipal government, whose mayor, Henrique Capriles Radonski, is an outspoken Chávez critic.

    Concerned political analysts see parallels to efforts by Washington to destabilize governments, like that of Salvador Allende in Chile in the early 1970s.
    http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/09/news/aid.php
    This is nothing new.

    The US has always attempted to influence electorates all over the world and that is no secret. USSR used to do it also and China is not far behind.

    It is an age old game and a politician look forward to such assistance, not only to try to win elections but also to feather their nests. It is a good income for politician of the third world and most of them have no ideology except survival and a plush life which elections and donations and aid of foreign nations in particular help them to achieve.

    This Freedom of Information Act is a great instrument, but it sure brings embarrassment to the US.

    India is also implementing such an act copycatting the US and soon they will learn the pitfalls. ;) :)

    Democracy (that is the genuine type and not the military assisted or religion assisted ones) is a mugs game.


    "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

    I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

    HAKUNA MATATA

  • #2
    May I appeal to tbe Bush loyalists and the chockabloc full of WAR Republicans to give their comments on this?

    Or else, this must be the truth, right?

    And it can be contested, right?!


    "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

    I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

    HAKUNA MATATA

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by Ray View Post
      This is nothing new.

      The US has always attempted to influence electorates all over the world and that is no secret. USSR used to do it also and China is not far behind.

      It is an age old game and a politician look forward to such assistance, not only to try to win elections but also to feather their nests. It is a good income for politician of the third world and most of them have no ideology except survival and a plush life which elections and donations and aid of foreign nations in particular help them to achieve....
      ...and then the regime that the aid is directed against is able to rally local support by pointing out the "outside influence" that is trying to interfere in their country's affair.
      All in all a win/win situation for all involved!;)
      When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. - Anais Nin

      Comment

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