Has the CIA infiltrated the Ecuadorian intelligence services - and is Ecuadorian intelligence feeding information to the Colombian government? These charges have been leveled by Ecuador’s President Correa against his own intelligence services - and there are some in Ecuador who are demanding he provide evidence.
Carlos Freile writes for Ecuador’s La Hora, “We Ecuadorians also have the right to demand, respectfully but with vigor, that President Correa clarify his accusations that our own intelligence services have been working at the behest of the CIA.”
“If he does not provide evidence of this elephantine accusation, Ecuadorians will have every justification to think that it was an impetuous charge made without sufficient proof, demonstrating either a lack of prudence and moderation, or that the tale of a link was invented to provoke turmoil in the military high command. In both cases, his conduct and honor will have been badly compromised.”
By Carlos Freile
Translated By Miguel Guttierez
April 19, 2008
Ecuador - La Hora - Home Page (Spanish)
We have every reason to ask President [Rafael Correa] to demand that Colombia provide evidence of the alleged links between our national government and the FARC. We Ecuadorians await that evidence, although critics have aired some well-founded doubts: Why such eagerness to impede the investigation into the alleged financing of the FARC by the PAIS Alliance? [The ruling party]. What were the most recent statements by [Hugo] Chavez on this subject? Why not meticulously question the Mexican student [Andrea Lucía Morret] about his contacts in Ecuador and how he got to the [FARC] guerrilla camp - and other critical issues?
[Editor’s Note: President Correa on April 5, accused the CIA of controlling many of his country’s spy agencies and said it had shared Ecuadorian intelligence with Colombia during last month’s regional crisis . On March 1, there was a Colombian bombing raid of a FARC camp in Ecuadorian territory. The raid killed 25 people including FARC commander Raul Reyes and the four Mexican students . One of them, Andrea Lucía Morret, survived. The author would like to know why Morret isn’t being questioned about Colombian allegations of a link between Ecuador and the FARC. The FARC, shorthand for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army, is a left-wing guerilla group that now controls about 40 percent of Colombian territory [see map on right].
We Ecuadorians also have the right to demand, respectfully but with vigor, that President Correa clarify his accusations that our own intelligence services have been working at the behest of the CIA. As he made this accusation in public, it is his moral obligation to provide us with details about this tremendous charge that, if shown to be true, would demonstrate ruinous conduct, to say the least.
If he does not provide evidence of this elephantine accusation, Ecuadorians will have every justification to think that it was an impetuous charge made without sufficient proof, demonstrating either a lack of prudence and moderation, or that the tale of a link was invented to provoke turmoil in the military high command. In both cases, his conduct and honor will have been badly compromised.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated foreign press coverage of U.S. toes to Latin America.
Is there a hidden hand behind the anti-China protesting of recent weeks, other than of course the much maligned ‘Dalai Clique?’ Indeed there is, according to Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry. According to a statement, in part published in Venezuela’s El Universal, “The manipulation of the media in regard to the protest of violent groups in the Tibet Autonomous Region is an ingredient of a formula from the psychological warfare laboratories of the United States, that is applied to permanently destabilize countries that refuse to meekly submit to the mandates of imperial rule.”
Translated by Miguel Guttierez
April 8, 2008
Venezuela - El Universal - Original Article (Spanish)
Caracas: Today, the National Government has denounced a campaign of “infamies” launched from the United States against China over the Tibet incident and said that it anticipates the success of the Olympic Games in Beijing.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Venezuela will give its absolute support to realizing the event in Beijing, and will be sending its largest delegation ever to an Olympic Games.
“Consistent with the principle of brotherhood among peoples in their battle against all forms of imperialism, the government expresses its full and unreserved solidarity with the government and people of the People’s Republic of China as they confront the relentless and systematic campaign of infamies they have been victimized by during the past few weeks through the major mass media companies,” it said.
The “manipulation of the media in regard to the protest of violent groups in the Tibet Autonomous Region is an ingredient of a formula from the psychological warfare laboratories of the United States that is applied to permanently destabilize countries that refuse to meekly submit to the mandates of imperial rule,” it added.
With cries for change sweeping the United States and even the ‘hermetically-sealed totalitarian regime’ of the Castro brothers, some in Venezuela are sounding downright envious. Fernando Luis Egaña writes for Venezuela’s Correo del Caroni, “Both in the United States and its hemispheric polar opposite Cuba, there are growing expectations of political, economic and social change. … The oldest democracy and the longest dictatorship on the Continent are preparing for change. May long-suffering Venezuela not be left behind.”
By Fernando Luis Egaña
Translated By Halszka Czarnocka
March 25, 2008
Venezuela - Correo del Caroni - Home Page (Spanish)
Both in the United States and its hemispheric polar opposite Cuba, there are growing expectations of political, economic and social change. Domestic and global reasons have resulted in this push for new directions.
No one knows if Barack Obama will in the end obtain the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, and even if he does - whether he’ll manage to defeat Republican John McCain. But much of this feat has already been accomplished. Read the rest of this entry »
Does President Hugo Chavez’ recent order forcing employees at Venezuela’s state telephone company to stop using English words [the language of Empire] in favor of Spanish ones make any sense? In this biting tongue-in-cheek editorial from Venezuela’s Tal Cual newspaper, the absurdity of the plan is taken to task. According to the editorial, “Why force people to speak Spanish, if the ill-named “Motherland [Spain]” is as much our enemy as George W. himself?” Read the rest of this entry »
While the debate in the United States seems to center around whether with Barack Obama, there is any there there, it seems that in some places he is regarded as the Democratic answer to the much vaunted Republican idea machine. Alfredo Toro Hardy of Venezuela’s El Universal writes, ‘Confronted with the flood of proposals from their Republican counterparts, the fonts of Democratic thought seem to have dried up. … As if by magic, these past limitations seem to be disappearing due to the impact of the Obama phenomenon. He has been responsible with offering Democrats and his campaign a ‘vision’ which, combined with his oratory and charisma, offers a solid counterweight to the strong conservative tendency that characterizes the national mood.’
By Alfredo Toro Hardy
Translated By Barbara Howe
March 13, 2008
Venezuela - El Universal - Original Article (Spanish)
Democrats have begun confronting some serious limitations. Their lack of policy proposals and ideas has often played into the hands of Republicans - and at times when the Republicans have been particularly prolific in this regard. It’s from the right-wing side of the political spectrum that the majority of the ideas which have fed the public life of that country have emerged Read the rest of this entry »
Would the nations of Latin America be better off replacing the Organization of American States with a new grouping that leaves out the U.S.? After the success of last week’s Group of Rio Summit - which the U.S. did not attend - in defusing a military-diplomatic crisis involving Colombia and a number of its neighbors, there are many people south of the United States that seem to think so. Ángel Guerra Cabrera for Mexico’s La Jornada writes in part, ‘Seemingly intractable antagonisms and ideological crisis can be overcome as long as they are addressed without the presence of the United States … Looking back at history, the OAS has never condemned a single Yankee misdeed against our America, nor has it defended any of our just causes.’ In terms of the attack against Ecuador by Colombia, Cabrera expresses the suspicions of many Latin Americans, when he writes, ‘the roots of the Ecuador incident, momentarily defused by the Rio Group, remain unchanged: the Colombian conflict, the fruit of a very unfair and devastating social and political reality which has been encouraged by “Plan Colombia,” is the nucleus of a feverish U.S. plot of subversion and military interference in South America, aimed at overthrowing the governments of Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, and closely related to the fierce onslaught against Cuba.’
By Ángel Guerra Cabrera
Translated By Fernando Uribe
March 13, 2008
Mexico - La Jornada - Original Article (Spanish)
The Group of Rio Summit’s resounding rejection of military aggression against Ecuador and the consequent defusing of the diplomatic crisis that it sparked, has once again forced Bush - who longed for fire in the Andes region - to experience the bitter taste of defeat WATCH . In this reversal, he had to swallow the clear and vibrant desire for unity, cooperation, and peace in Latin America and the Caribbean, which was so forcefully displayed at Santo Domingo’s capital, Quisqueya.
[Editor’s Note: The “Group of Rio” was founded in 1986, and includes nineteen Caribbean states: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. The 35-nation OAS (Organization of American States) has been the dominant regional decision-making body for many years. The earliest forerunner of the OAS first convened in Washington in 1890, and consisted of 18 nations].
The great lesson of the summit is the enormous capacity for dialogue and understanding that the governments of our region possess, with which seemingly intractable antagonisms and ideological crisis can be overcome as long as they are addressed without the presence of the United States.
The best evidence of this came days earlier at OAS headquarters in Washington. Due solely to Yankee pressure - even though for the first time all present clearly condemned all U.S.-inspired interventions, it was impossible to translate this into a collective statement.
On the other hand, despite the fact that Yankee pressure increased on the eve of the meeting in the Dominican Republic (as President Rafael Correa briefed several of his counterparts) U.S. intentions ended up crashing against a determined majority. So there was more than enough reason, in light of this experience, for Ecuador to assert the necessity of creating an organization of Latin American states without the Empire. Looking back at history, the OAS has never condemned a single Yankee misdeed against our America, nor has it defended any of our just causes.
The success of the Rio Summit was also made possible by other decisive factors. The most important was [Ecuadorian President] Correa’s unwavering defense of Ecuadorian sovereignty and demands for its violation to be condemned - and the unanimous disapproval of this ominous precedent. This included the resolute attitude of heavyweights like Brazil and Argentina not to accept under any circumstances, violations of the territorial integrity of another State, which left Uribe isolated.
The only positive attitude towards the Latin American peoples, once assured censorship of the summit to the armed attack against Ecuador, was not insist on the large differences in approach for the sake of opposing defuse the climate of war created.
The skilful and transparent conduct of the meeting by Dominican President Leonel Fernandez created the climate for the bright and balanced involvement of Hugo Chavez who took the lead, supported by [Nicaraguan President] Daniel Ortega and [Bolivian President] Evo Morales. This was the turning point that kept away the shadow of a fratricidal war and led to the unexpected conclusion. This singular attitude favored by the people of Latin America not only assured the summit’s censure of the armed attack against Ecuador, it made certain in the interests of not extending the warlike atmosphere, that little would be made of the vast differences in approach suggested by individual states.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing coverage of the United States from the Latin American press.
Is there any truth to the charge made by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last week, when he said that Colombia had become the ‘Israel of Latin America’? According to this EDITORIAL from Uruguay, which is another of Washington’s presumed allies, this is a question on many South American lips. The Editorial board of La Republica writes, ‘Undoubtedly, Colombia’s military adventure in Ecuador has served to open the eyes of those who have yet to understand the true significance of Plan Colombia. … The United States has failed to grasp this, but there are democratic forces in Colombia that should realize by now the role that has been assigned to their country.’
EDITORIAL
Translated By Halszka Czarnocka
March 10, 2008
Uruguay - La Republica - Original Article (Spanish)
It is necessary to begin with a clarification, given the severity of the title. We are not here looking to call into question the right to exist of the state of Israel. We have another theme and hope everyone understands that.
The problem, the point to question, isn’t the existence of an Israeli state, but the role that it plays in the Middle East. No one in their right mind can deny that Israel’s policy has been to defend the interests of the United States in the region. Beyond the controversy that might arise because of these words, it would be of interest to have someone illustrious - someone other than ourselves - examine closely the condemnations that Israel has suffered at the United Nations for its to its bellicose warlike activities, illegal occupations (can anyone deny them?) and incursions into the territories of neighboring countries (doesn’t unassailable and objective documentation exist about this?).
And all of this has been made possible thanks to the support of the United States, which provides sophisticated weapons by offering subsidies, trade preferences and investment advantages (unlike the way it deals with the Arab countries).
This pattern can be applied to Colombia, which is the subject at hand. President Bush, who took the reigns of his country’s government in a very shady manner (to put it generously), is a great promoter of Plan Colombia , a project that supports that country in its fight against drug trafficking and guerrillas.
In fact, this is a project that supports Colombia in its battle against the guerrillas, who maintain a popular movement that for 60 years has controlled a sizeable portion of the country’s territory [about 40 percent today]. Drug traffic is just an excuse; in its time Cuba was accused of supporting itself with income from drug trafficking and later it was President Hugo Chavez’ turn.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated foreign press coverage of the U.S. from South America.
For fans of Woody Allen, it will come as no surprise that some see similarities between the Latin America despot in the movie Bananas and President Hugo Chavez - to say nothing of Fidel Castro - who the character in Bananas actually parodied. Now that President Chavez has come close to declaring war on Colombia, Maruja Tarre writes for Venezuela’s El Universal, ‘Upon seeing Chavez hip-hop dancing after issuing his mobilization decree, I was reminded of a film by Woody Allen called Bananas. When I saw it long ago I was indignant, since to me, it reproduced every stereotype of banana republics , the military and revolutionaries. As far as our president, Woody Allen described him to a tee.’
By Maruja Tarre
Translated By Miguel Guttierez
March 7, 2008
Venezuela - El Universal - Original Article (Spanish)
After seeing Chavez hip-hop dancing after issuing his mobilization decree WATCH , I was reminded of a film by Woody Allen called Bananas WATCH . When I saw it long ago I was indignant, since to me, it reproduced every stereotype of banana republics , the military and revolutionaries. As far as our president, Woody Allen described him to a tee. Just like Chavez, the President in Bananas declares a quasi-war and his senior military officials stand around seeming to enjoy the presidential show. Could it be that already, no one believes in the heroic combat Chavez has announced? Or perhaps Chavez’ select group of guests were confident that war or no war, nothing would happen to them. Of course some days later, we are likely to see photos of the wives and mothers of the toy soldiers squeezed like meat from a tube along the border - crying desperately because of an armed clash - for it is they who will be the ones to die.
I don’t think there will be war with Colombia. At a meeting of the Organization of American States - even without naming him - Chavez was told that he has nothing to gain in an actual conflict. But Chavez wants war. He’s still looking for an external enemy to coalesce the Venezuelan people around his declining leadership.
The governments of Venezuela and Ecuador are massing troops along the border with Colombia, and are charging that the United States is behind a Colombian attack on Ecuadorian territory that killed a FARC commander and 16 others on Saturday. According this news account from Tal Cual of Venezuela, that nation’s foreign minister said Monday, ‘Colombia has become the launching point for organized aggression, war and violence throughout the region … A practical demonstration of this is what is going on in Ecuador.’ He went on to say, ‘the United States is mounting a campaign against our country, our President and our institutions. The campaign that has now been launched against Correa [President of Ecuador] is a campaign of empire.’
Translated by Miguel Guttierez
March 3, 2008
Venezuela - Tal Cual - Original Article (Spanish)
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said that Plan Colombia, the program to battle drug trafficking that is financially and logistically backed by the United States, has turned Colombia into a platform for aggression and war on our Continent.
“Colombia has become the launching point for organized aggression, war and violence throughout the region … A practical demonstration of this is what is going on in Ecuador,” said the Minister, referring to the three-way conflict between against Colombia by Ecuador and Venezuela, which was sparked when Colombian troops killed the FARC’s second in command, Raul Reyes, on Ecuadorian territory.
[Editor’s Note: The FARC, shorthand for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army, is a left-wing guerilla group that now controls about 40 percent of Colombian territory [see map on right]. Funded largely through drug-trafficking, the group is the central target of U.S. sponsored Plan Colombia, a package of military and non-military aid that has cost about $3 billion over the past five years ].
Maduro said that the operation undertaken by the “North American empire” and the Colombian bourgeoisie seeks the “internationalization of the conflict.” …
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated coverage of the brewing conflict in South America as it involves the United States.
What do people in Latin America think about Barack Obama’s difficulties with Hispanics? In the first article of its kind translated by WORLDMEETS.US, Alfredo Toro Hardy of Venezuela’s El Universal writes, ‘Curiously the biggest obstacle to overcoming the taboo that closes off the White House to non-Whites comes from Hispanics. The Hispanic community, which has always played a decisive role in opening the racial floodgates, is now being transformed into the last containment wall to the arrival of a Black man to the U.S. Presidency.’
By Alfredo Toro Hardy
Translated By Barbara Howe
February 14, 2008
Venezuela - El Universal - Original Article (Spanish)
Like a bulldog and despite having no chance of winning, Mike Huckabee refuses to withdraw from the Republican contest. That obliges John McCain to devote time and energy to prevailing over him instead of concentrating on reorganizing the party to confront the Democrats. Moreover, the face-off with Huckabee implies a confrontation with the Christian right and the more conservative elements of the party.
Meanwhile, this difficult effort to differentiate himself from Huckabee threatens to distance McCain from this high-powered faction of the Republican Party, which has so many financial and media resources to draw upon and such a capacity to mobilize voters.
This is a component of the party that McCain has never liked, but without their participation it will be difficult for him to win in November. It seems inevitable that this will lead McCain to forge an agreement between Huckabee and those factions that back him, perhaps offering him the Vice Presidential ticket. In that case, McCain will alienate many of the independent and centrist voters that that support him, and which he needs to prevail over the Democrats. McCain finds himself caught between the conflicting demands of winning the support of the Christian right and of centrists.
The Democrats, however, are breaking the mould and making history. By some unknown method, a woman and a Black man, representatives of the country’s so-called minorities, are competing to run for the nation’s highest office. Breaking the gender barrier would be impressive, but overcoming the barrier of race would be much more so.
Curiously the biggest obstacle to overcoming the taboo that closes off the White House to non-Whites comes from Hispanics. The Hispanic community, which has always played a decisive role in opening the racial floodgates, is now being transformed into the last containment wall to the arrival of a Black man to the U.S. Presidency.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated foreign press coverage of the U.S. elections.
A $12 billion judgment on behalf of ExxonMobil against Venezuela’s state oil company has once again set off President Hugo Chavez, who, according to this news account from Venezuela’s leading newspaper El Universal, said, amongst many other things, ‘If you end up freezing (Venezuelan assets) and it harms us, we’re going to do harm to you. Do you know how? We aren’t going to send more oil to the United States. Take note, Mr. Bush, Mr. Danger … We cannot be a government of wimps. No! Our best weapon is to counterattack and begin shooting; we are going to counterattack, and therefore I said to my ministers, come on!’
By Mariemma Ramos Nava
Translated by Miguel Guttierez
February 10, 2008
Venezuela - El Universal - Original Article (Spanish)
Barinas: President Hugo Chavez threatened today to suspend oil exports to the United States if Exxon Mobile manages to seize the assets of Petroleum of Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) through the courts.
[Editor’s Note: Chavez refers to a series of court orders obtained by Exxon Mobil Corp. in Britain, the Netherlands, and the Dutch Antilles, freezing up to $12 billion in assets of Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA. The injunctions were sought by Exxon in anticipation of an arbitration ruling by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes over a compensation claim. The rulings mean that Venezuela can’t sell Read the rest of this entry »
Are Venezuelans running out of patience for their demonstrative commander-in-chief, Hugo Chavez? In the opinion of Juan Carlos Sosa Azpúrua writing in Venezuela’s El Universal, ‘In the U.S., it wouldn’t occur to anyone to say that Nixon was ousted in a coup d’état because he was removed prior to the end of his term; he was deposed as soon as his ineptitude became evident, period. … It is imperative that we remove from office this immoral non-government that has destroyed everything and respects nothing (Nixon sucked his thumb in comparison).’
By Juan Carlos Sosa Azpúrua
Translated By Virginia Gillenwater
February 7, 2008
Venezuela - El Universal - Original Article (Spanish)
It’s imperative that we remove from office this immoral non-government that has destroyed everything and respects nothing.
The United States is a nation of institutions. To the highest offices rise those who are the most capable and who have had the most impeccable careers. The processes of selecting a judge or electing a senator are so rigorous that it’s almost beyond reason. But the golden rule is to find the individual that is the most qualified.
To study the life histories of its judges is to be challenged to keep admiration from turning into envy. The same can be said for members of Congress or those climbing the executive government ladder. And, most of all, the Presidency continues to be the most sacred institution, because the United States is a presidential Read the rest of this entry »
While people in this country and much of the world remain riveted by the U.S. election race, new trouble has been brewing between U.S.-backed Colombia and Venezuela. This comes as Condoleezza Rice leads a diplomatic mission to Colombia to push for a new free trade deal.According to this account from Argentine newspaper La Capital, President Chavez raised the stakes with his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe on Saturday when he said, “I accuse the Government of Colombia of plotting a conspiracy, an act of war against Venezuela, on orders from the United States, to which we will be obliged to respond in a way that could ignite a war. … Uribe is a pawn of Washington … he is a coward, a liar, a troublemaker, and a manipulator … a man like this doesn’t merit being the president of anything, let alone a country.”
Translated By Paula van de Werken
January 26, 2008
Argentina - La Capital - Original Article (Spanish)
In a further escalation of tension between the two countries, the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, accused Colombia’s President, Alvaro Uribe, of “devising a belligerent provocation,” on orders from the United States, “that could ignite a war.”
“I accuse the Government of Columbia of plotting a conspiracy, an act of war against Venezuela, on orders from the United States, to which we will be obliged to respond in a way that could ignite a war,” said Chavez during a press conference alongside his colleague Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua.
The press conference, held on the eve of the Sixth Summit Meeting of ALBA [Bolivarian Alternative for the People of Our America - Chavez’ answer to Free Trade Agreements with the U.S.], the Venezuelan leader stressed that it was no coincidence that three senior officials of the United States, including Condoleezza Rice, had been in Colombia during the past few days.
“I am warning the world that an act of military aggression against Venezuela is being prepared by the United States, to be launched from Columbia. It is part of Operation Balboa, which is what the operation against Venezuela is called,” he declared.
“We have intelligence information about the plan, our own as well as from other Latin American countries. Rice’s visit is not a casual one, nor is that of the so-called “Drug Czar” John Walters, nor that of the American military commander (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Commander Admiral Michael Mullen,” Chavez said.
Chavez insisted that Columbia had become the “aircraft carrier” from which Washington is preparing its aggression against Venezuela and its Government. “Uribe is a pawn of Washington,” said the Venezuelan leader, as he did last Sunday when, during his program “Hello President,” he called his Colombian colleague, “a coward, a liar, a troublemaker, and a manipulator” and said that “a man like this doesn’t merit being the president of anything, let alone a country.”
He maintained that Uribe would go down on history as, “a pathetic peon of Imperial North America,” and he considered that recent “attacks” against the Venezuelan people and himself have originated in Columbia. “In recent days, the Colombian oligarchy has asked for reinforcements to attack,” he claimed last Sunday, referring to declarations by U.S. officials that questioned Venezuela’s role in the fight against drug-trafficking.
According to this article from Italy’s La Stampa, not only has Jihad moved out of the Middle East; it has moved closer to the U.S.’ back door.
Here’s the thrust of the story.
Although the first alarm from the Pentagon arose in 2004, the year 2007 signaled an escalation of Muslim penetration in Latin America that for the most part centers on the privileged relations between Caracas and Tehran. The danger comes from the converging of interests among drug-dealers and Islamic terrorists which, mirroring a model of the existing alliance between similar operatives in Afghanistan, would be capable of giving life to a network capable of sustaining itself and committing devastating attacks against the shared American enemy.
The specifics are beyond disconcerting:
The Caracas airport has become a free port-of-passage for Islamic extremists thanks to the fact that the Read the rest of this entry »
Since late last year, a bitter war of words has broken out between the United States and Argentina’s former first lady and first female president, Cristina Kirchner, over whether Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez helped fund her election campaign. According to this op-ed article from Argentina’s La Nacion, whatever the truth of these charges leveled by U.S. prosecutors, allowing U.S.-Argentine relations to deteriorate over the issue is not a wise course of action.
“The anti-U.S. bias that Argentina has historically shown and which is confirmed by the polls, has led the Kirchners [Nestor and Cristina Kirchner, the previous and present Presidents] to dangerously escalate a conflict that has no precedent in our constitutional government.”
By U.S. Correspondent Rosendo Fraga
Translated By Barbara Howe
January 13, 2008
Argentina - La Nacion - Home Page (Spanish)
Historian Eric Hobsbawm recalls that since 1865, the United States has had seven presidents that never finished their terms either due to death or other unforeseen events, and that such circumstances have brought significant changes to the direction of the country. But he also contends that the rails upon which power rests are so stable that no matter who drives the train, there is little risk of derailment.
It is from this premise that the Argentine government should discuss the conflict with the United States, following the trial that has begun in Miami in regard to the suitcase of Antonini Wilson. The effects of this crisis have the potential to wreak substantial changes, no matter who wins the U.S. elections in November.
History shows that the relationship between Argentina and the United States has never been easy, but Presidents Roca, Yrigoyen and Peron avoided direct confrontation with Washington. Presidents Justo and Frondizi sought closer ties, while maintaining a certain autonomy. And relations were difficult during the last military government, when Argentina broke the embargo on grain imposed on the Soviet Union for its intervention in Afghanistan, and strained again during the Malvinas War.
[Editor’s Note: The Malvinas Islands are called the Falkland Islands by the British. The author refers to the war that broke out between Britain and Argentina over possession of the islands in 1982 ].
With the restoration of democracy, bilateral relations were good, as happened under President Menem and Dela Rua, or slightly less good under Presidents Afonsin and Duhalde.
[President] Kirchner’s speech in front of President Bush at the Summit of the America’s at de Mar del Plata two years ago marked a turning point that President Christina Kirchner has now deepened.
January 13th, 2008 by JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief
There are charges that Hugo Chavez’s government in Venezuela is sponsoring blossoming antisemitism — concerns that are reflected in the gradual flight of Jews from Venezuela.
It fits with a long history of allegations that Chavez’s Venezuela is becoming a hotbed of antisemitism.
The latest comes via a Miami Herald article detailing the comments of journalist Sammy Eppel. It’s the latest in a piece of an ugly puzzle that has emerged regarding Chavez over the years.
Venezuelan Jews, long uneasy with the Chávez government’s alliances with Iran and other Middle Eastern countries that espouse anti-Israel views, are concerned that the government is sponsoring anti-Semitism in this hemisphere, a prominent journalist said Tuesday.
”The situation we have now in Venezuela is that for the first time in modern history we have government-sponsored anti-Semitism in a Western country,” said Sammy Eppel. “That is why this is very dangerous, not just for the Jewish community in Venezuela but for the Jewish community as a whole.”
Some examples he cites:
Venezuelan government intelligence services twice have raided the country’s most important Jewish center in a vague, ultimately unsuccessful search for weapons. [TMV Editor’s Note: One of these involved raiding a WEDDING.] Publications of the government’s cultural ministry run articles entitled ”the Jewish Question,” along with a Jewish star superimposed over a swastika.
Chavez, he noted, also has a strong alliance with Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a leader who is considered one of the most antisemitic on the world stage today.
One 2006 article in [the government-liked] El Diario de Caracas debates whether it will be necessary to ”expel [the Jews] from the country.” Another article in the [government-linked] Diario VEA accuses Jews of being involved in the murder of a government prosecutor.
This week’s defeat of a government-backed constitutional referendum in Venezuela was a huge blow for Hugo Chavez. Since taking power in 1999, the Venezuelan president has historically received broad support for his domestic agenda and he has won several overwhelming electoral mandates. Interestingly, though, his loss raises the possibility that Venezuelans are becoming increasingly skeptical of their populist president. The blatant attempt to establish himself as president-for-life has raised concerns amongst traditional supporters of Chavez, and the opposition appears to have capitalized on their unease.
For the first time, the opposition has “tasted victory.” Anti-Chavez voters came out in droves, while many Chavez supporters either stayed at home or voted against the referendum. The student movement appears to have been particularly active, having played a major role in anti-government demonstrations. Meanwhile, there are clear signs of top-level division. Two state governors, a number of legislators, and, most prominently, former defence minister General Raúl Isaías Baduel came out against the referendum.
This may be an indication of the beginning of the end for Venezuela’s president. As The Economist notes,
Defeat means he is unable to stand again, legally, for the presidency. His aura of invincibility is forever damaged, and the battle for the succession seems bound to begin soon. Survival strategies no longer necessarily involve unquestioning loyalty to the “comandante”. Fractures may begin to appear in important institutions like the supreme court and parliament. The fight back is just beginning.
![[The New Zealand Herald, New Zealand]](http://www.stuff.co.nz/images/images/705183.jpg)
![[Espectador, Colombia]](http://worldmeets.us/images/chavezbushpuppets_elespectador.gif)
![[El Tiempo, Colombia]](http://www.eltiempo.com/opinion/columnistas/columnasdeldia/IMAGEN/IMAGEN-3952617-1.jpg)
