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Monday, Jun 28, 2004<br><br>
By: Alexander Cockburn - CounterPunch<br><br>
You can set your watch by it. The minute some halfway decent<br>
government in Latin America begins to reverse the order of things<br>
and give the have-nots a break from the grind of poverty and<br>
wretchedness, the usual suspects in El Norte rouse themselves from<br>
the slumber of indifference and start barking furiously about<br>
democratic norms. It happened in 1973 in Chile; we saw it again in<br>
Nicaragua in the 1980s; and here's the same show on summer rerun in<br>
Venezuela, pending the August 15 recall referendum of President
Hugo<br>
Chávez.<br><br>
Chávez is the best thing that has happened to Venezuela's poor in a<br>
very long time. His government has actually delivered on some of
its<br>
promises, with improved literacy rates and more students getting<br>
school meals. Public spending has quadrupled on education and<br>
tripled on healthcare, and infant mortality has declined. The<br>
government is promoting one of the most ambitious land-reform<br>
programs seen in Latin America in decades.<br><br>
Most of this has been done under conditions of economic sabotage.<br>
Oil strikes, a coup attempt and capital flight have resulted in<br>
about a 4 percent decline in GDP for the five years that Chávez has<br>
been in office. But the economy is growing at close to 12 percent<br>
this year, and with world oil prices near $40 a barrel, the<br>
government has extra billions that it's using for social programs.<br>
So naturally the United States wants him out, just as the rich in<br>
Venezuela do. Chávez was re-elected in 2000 for a six-year term. A<br>
US-backed coup against him was badly botched in 2002.<br><br>
The imperial script calls for a human rights organization to start<br>
braying about irregularities by their intended victim. And yes,<br>
here's José Miguel Vivanco of Human Rights Watch. We last met him
in<br>
this column helping to ease a $1.7 billion US aid package for<br>
Colombia's military apparatus. This time he's holding a press<br>
conference in Caracas, hollering about the brazen way Chávez is<br>
trying to expand membership of Venezuela's Supreme Court, the same<br>
way FDR did, and for the same reason: that the Venezuelan court has<br>
been effectively packed the other way for decades, with judicial<br>
flunkies of the rich. I don't recall Vivanco holding too many press<br>
conferences to protest that perennial iniquity.<br><br>
The "international observers" recruited to save the rich<br>
traditionally include the Organization of American States and the<br>
Carter Center; in the case of the Venezuelan recall they have<br>
mustered dead on schedule. On behalf of the opposition, they
exerted<br>
enormous pressure on the country's independent National Electoral<br>
Council during the signature-gathering and verification process.<br>
Eventually the head of the OAS mission had to be replaced by the
OAS<br>
secretary general because of his unacceptable public
statements.<br><br>
The Carter Center's team is headed by Jennifer McCoy, whose<br>
forthcoming book, The Unraveling of Representative Democracy in<br>
Venezuela, leans heavily against the government. One of its<br>
contributors is José Antonio Gil of the Datanalysis Polling Firm,<br>
most often cited for US media analysis. The Los Angeles Times
quoted<br>
Gil on what to do: "And he can see only one way out of the
political<br>
crisis surrounding President Hugo Chávez. `He has to be killed,' he<br>
said, using his finger to stab the table in his office far above<br>
this capital's filthy streets. `He has to be killed.'"<br><br>
Media manipulation is an essential part of the script, and here,<br>
right on cue, comes Bill Clinton's erstwhile pollster, Stan<br>
Greenberg, still a leading Democratic Party strategist. Greenberg
is<br>
under contract to RCTV, one of the right-wing media companies<br>
leading the Venezuelan opposition and recall effort. It's a<br>
pollster's dream job. Not only does he have enormous resources<br>
against an old-fashioned, politically unsophisticated poor people's<br>
movement, but his firm has something comrades back home can only<br>
fantasize about: control over the Venezuelan media. Imagine if the<br>
right wing controlled almost the entire media during Clinton's<br>
impeachment.<br><br>
That's the situation in Venezuela. Just think what Greenberg's<br>
associate, Mark Feierstein-a veteran of similar NED efforts in<br>
ousting the Sandinistas in the 1990 elections-can do with this kind<br>
of totalitarian media control. NED? That's the National Endowment<br>
for Democracy, praised not so long ago by John Kerry, who, like<br>
Bush, publicly craves the ouster of Chávez.<br><br>
The NED is coming over the hill arm in arm with the CIA and CIA-<br>
backed institutions in the AFL-CIO, where John Sweeney's team has<br>
dismally failed to clean house. The NED has helped fund the<br>
opposition to Chávez to the tune of more than $1 million a year.<br>
Among the recipients are organizations whose leaders actually<br>
supported the April 2002 coup-they signed the decree that overthrew<br>
the elected president and vice president and abolished the
country's<br>
democratic institutions, including the Constitution, Supreme Court<br>
and National Assembly. The coup was thwarted only because millions<br>
of Venezuelans rallied for Chávez.<br><br>
Left out of the coup government, despite his support for it, was<br>
Carlos Ortega, head of the CTV (Central Labor Federation). The
AFL's<br>
Solidarity Center, successor to the CIA-linked AIFLD, gets more
than<br>
80 percent of its funding from the NED and USAID and has funneled<br>
NED money to Ortega and his collaborators. The Solidarity Center
has<br>
been up to its ears in opposition plotting, a reprise of the
Allende<br>
years, when the AFL helped destroy Chilean democracy. The AFL has<br>
denied any role, but Rob Collier, an excellent San Francisco<br>
Chronicle reporter, recently gave a detailed refutation of AFL<br>
apologetics in an exchange in the current New Labor Forum. "In<br>
Venezuela," he writes, "the AFL-CIO has blindly supported
a<br>
reactionary union establishment as it tried repeatedly to overthrow<br>
President Hugo Chávez-and, in the process, wrecked the country's<br>
economy.<br><br>
The CTV worked in lockstep with FEDECAMARAS, the nation's business<br>
association, to carry out the three general strikes/lockouts"
of<br>
2001, 2002 and 2003. The CTV, Collier says, was directly involved
in<br>
coup organizing, and its leader was scheduled to be part of the new<br>
junta.<br><br>
The end of this particular drama has yet to be written. The left<br>
here in the United States could make a difference if it got off its<br>
haunches and threw itself into the fray.<br>
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