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An Electoral Dien Bien Phu for Bush<br>
AFTER THE VENEZUELAN REFERENDUM<br>
____________________________________________________________________<br><br>
By TONI SOLO<br>
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/solo08182004.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.counterpunch.org/solo08182004.html<br><br>
</a>Managua, Nicaragua -- For the Venezuelan government the result of
the<br>
recall referendum last Sunday was a triumphant validation of its<br>
legitimacy, its policies and its President, Hugo Chavez. It amounts to
an<br>
electoral Dien Bien Phu (1) for the United States and its allies who
have<br>
worked determinedly to destabilize Venezuela's political life in
almost<br>
every conceivable way since George W. Bush and Dick Cheney took office.
In<br>
particular, the mainstream international media who have
consistently<br>
calumnied the Venezuelan State and its constituent entities,
although<br>
chastened by the referendum victory, remain mealy-mouthed or
downright<br>
hostile both in their news coverage and in their analysis.<br><br>
The case of the London Independent--publishing a story on their web
site<br>
announcing an opposition victory and then pulling it with no apology
or<br>
comment (2) was perhaps the most egregious. But almost all the<br>
international mainstream press , even while grudgingly recognizing the
win<br>
for Chavez, tended to recycle the same tired old chestnuts. Chavez
has<br>
divided the country, Chavez has close ties to Cuba, Chavez is a
populist<br>
strongman, Chavez depends on windfall oil revenues. Little or no
mention<br>
was made of three key recent policy achievements (apart from the<br>
phenomenally successful educational and health campaigns) of the
Venezuelan<br>
government--the rapprochement with Colombia on infrastructure
integration,<br>
the association with the Mercosur trading block and the incredible<br>
turnaround in oil production following the destructive opposition<br>
management lock-out in 2002.<br><br>
The plea Chavez has made for dialogue(3) with opposition leaders has so
far<br>
met silence or rejection. Large sections of the opposition continue
making<br>
absurd claims of massive fraud in the referendum. No matter how
hard<br>
President Chavez tries to promote reconciliation, the responses of much
of<br>
the opposition are likely to range from truculent obstruction to
outright<br>
sabotage. They may even reject the referendum result outright and act
to<br>
tip the country into chaos once more.<br><br>
The Nicaraguan election of 1984 -- lest we forget<br><br>
Despite obvious differences (Venezuela is not subject to daily
terrorist<br>
attacks organized by the United States) the political situation in<br>
Venezuela continues to throw up parallels with Nicaragua in the
1980s.<br>
Twenty years ago this November, the Sandinistas won a decisive
electoral<br>
victory. Prior to their success in staging the watershed 1990
election,<br>
which as an organizational achievement more than stands comparison with
the<br>
extraordinary effort in Venezuela last weekend, the1984 vote was the
most<br>
free and fair election Nicaragua had ever had.<br><br>
The Sandinistas won support from over 60% of the voters in that
election.<br>
Right wing opposition groups, organized and funded by the United
States,<br>
boycotted the vote. Other opposition parties fought the election and
won<br>
significant representation in Nicaragua's legislative assembly,
especially<br>
for the long marginalized Atlantic Coast.<br><br>
Impartial foreign observers, including a delegation of UK
parliamentarians,<br>
declared the election to be free and fair. It decisively sealed the<br>
legitimacy of the Sandinista government, especially in relation to
its<br>
Central American neighbours. But even at that stage the destructive
US<br>
terrorist war and the illegal trade boycott against Nicaragua had
rendered<br>
consolidation of the social and economic benefits of the revolution<br>
impossible.<br><br>
The US government organized attacks on fuel storage tanks in the
main<br>
Nicaraguan Pacific port of Corinto. US-laid mines damaged foreign
shipping<br>
in Nicaraguan waters. At the same time, the US was funding, training
and<br>
equipping Contra mass murderers who roamed remote rural areas in
task<br>
forces of up to as many as five or six hundred, attacking virtually<br>
defenceless rural cooperatives, burning clinics and schools. They
murdered<br>
teachers and health workers, targeting farmers and their families just
as<br>
the Israeli-trained Colombian paramilitaries do today with the support
of<br>
the US and British trained Colombian army and the active collusion of
the<br>
Colombian government,<br><br>
Leading Nicaraguan opposition political figures like Violeta Chamorro
and<br>
Arnoldo Aleman were complacent beneficiaries of the terrorist
crucifixion<br>
of their country by the United States, just as Alvaro Uribe and his<br>
colleagues are currently in their country, Colombia. It is hard to
believe<br>
that these trajectories are not regarded as guiding stars by the<br>
recalcitrant anti-democratic Venezuelan opposition. In 1984 the
terrorist<br>
Reagan administration ignored the November election result in Nicaragua
and<br>
proceeded apace with their policy of war, economic strangulation
and<br>
diplomatic isolation.<br><br>
The Iran Contra team -- Presente!<br><br>
The same strategy is likely from the current Bush administration as
regards<br>
Venezuela. The ouster of President Aristide in Haiti made clearer than
ever<br>
their total lack of respect for the legitimacy of elected governments.
Many<br>
of the people now in government in Washington, like Richard
Armitage,<br>
figured in the Iran Contra scandal involving illegal arms deals,
money<br>
laundering and drugs.<br><br>
They bypassed due constitutional process so as more surely to
destroy<br>
Nicaragua. It is the presence of such people in government, not the
attacks<br>
of September 2001, that explain why the US Constitution is
currently<br>
trashed and in tatters. These same murderous white collar terrorists
who<br>
destroyed Nicaragua are now formulating US policy toward Venezuela and
the<br>
rest of Latin America.<br><br>
On the other hand, little change can be expected in the event of John
Kerry<br>
becoming US President. The Democrats' Me-Too-But-More-So foreign
policy<br>
offers scant relief from US imperial greed in Venezuela or anywhere else
in<br>
Latin America. As Miguel D'Escoto Nicaragua's former foreign minister
has<br>
pointed out, "It would be a serious mistake to conclude that the
current<br>
behavior of the United States represents something temporary that
will<br>
change when George Bush Jr. leaves the presidency. Never in its history
has<br>
the United States taken a backward step in its drive towards
universal<br>
domination and never has it corrected its behavior, going from bad to
worse<br>
from the point of view of the rights of the rest of
humanity."<br><br>
Likely future patterns<br><br>
The Venezuelan opposition may well try and hold out just as the
Nicaraguan<br>
opposition did after the 1984 election. They will hope for US
money,<br>
diplomatic muscle, covert action and economic strong-arming to help
them<br>
get their way. US government proxies like Colombia's President Uribe
will<br>
talk peace and act dirty-war, just as the presidents of Nicaragua's<br>
neighbours in Central America did during the 1980s.<br><br>
The standard imperial tool kit as deployed throughout the last century
is<br>
likely to be put to work to dent, damage and corrupt Venezuela's
shining<br>
example of participatory democracy. Although in Venezuela's case its
huge<br>
oil reserves make it likely that the heavier items in the tool kit,
like<br>
mass terrorism and illegal economic sanctions, will stay under wraps.
For<br>
Cuba, however, the empire's humiliation in Venezuela may mean yet
more<br>
turns of the sanctions screw and greater exposure to reckless US
military<br>
action or provocation.<br><br>
For the US dominated international financial and trade
institutions,<br>
Venezuela's decisive defence of Latin American autonomy, dignity
and<br>
self-determination is a menace. It challenges the long standing<br>
contradiction between their avowed espousal of poverty reduction and
their<br>
insistence on irrational deregulation and knock down auctions of
public<br>
resources. They cannot permit Venezuela's example to be copied elsewhere
in<br>
the continent and still maintain their current policies. So they are
likely<br>
to act swiftly and clearly to restrict the options available to
heavily<br>
indebted countries like Brazil or Argentina. Ecuador and Bolivia
are<br>
susceptible to the same treatment.<br><br>
It will be interesting to see what happens in volatile Bolivia when
people<br>
ask why Bolivia's gas wealth cannot be used to build health and
education<br>
options for the poor majority just as Venezuela's oil wealth does.
Already<br>
resistance to President Carlos Meza's disingenuous manipulation of the
July<br>
15th gas referendum is taking the form of direct action with
campesinos<br>
taking over oil production facilities. (4) In Ecuador President
Gutierrez<br>
is finding it increasingly hard to stave off indigenous criticisms of
his<br>
current policy of collaboration with the United States policy in
the<br>
region.<br><br>
Ever greater urgency can be expected on the part of US Trade
Representative<br>
Robert Zoellick and his team to push through "free trade"
deals, fastening<br>
in place on a permanent statutory basis US trade and investment
advantages.<br>
Zoellick's team may well try and put such deals, already programmed
this<br>
year for Andean countries like Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia on an
even<br>
shorter schedule than they are already. Venezuela's bilateral
negotiations<br>
with Argentina and its wider relationships with the Southern Cone
trading<br>
block Mercosur and the Caribbean economic community Caricom pose a
dire<br>
threat to the imperial neoliberal model that has had a free run in
the<br>
Americas for nearly 20 years.<br><br>
In environmental matters, the implications of the Venezuelan
authorities<br>
commitment to major infrastructure projects are still not clear. They
may<br>
be tempted to follow the pattern of irresponsible displacement of<br>
indigenous populations and environmental damage in search of the
chimerical<br>
macro-economic benefits giant infrastructure projects promise but
generally<br>
fail to deliver. But in the area of genetically manipulated seeds,<br>
Venezuela's stance against environmentally dangerous and unproven<br>
biotechnology may help stem the rampant proliferation of
genetically<br>
modified crops in other parts of Latin America too. So the
referendum<br>
result may be bad news for multinational bio-tech outfits like
Monsanto,<br>
Dupont and Dow as well as for the European companies Syngenta and
Bayer<br>
(Aventis).<br><br>
Miltarily, as the US implements its recently announced troop
re-deployments<br>
and withdraws troops from Europe, some are likely to be moved to the
Andes.<br>
The defeat in Venezuela is a clear signal to the empire that a new
urgency<br>
may be needed to defend its hegemony. Under either Bush or Kerry
the<br>
options for defending US and allied imperial interests are the same as
they<br>
have always been, brute military force and shameless economic coercion.
But<br>
it may not be too far-fetched to believe the incredible creativity
and<br>
resilience of the Latin American peoples that dawned again in Caracas
last<br>
weekend will come to symbolise hope and reconstruction lifting us all
out<br>
of the current nightmare of neoliberal injustice and despair.<br><br>
Toni Solo is an activist based in Central America. Contact via<br>
<a href="http://www.tonisolo.net/" eudora="autourl">www.tonisolo.net</a>.<br><br>
Notes<br><br>
1. Fifty years ago in May 1954 the battle of Dien Bien Phu ended
French<br>
colonial rule in Vietnam.<br>
2. Narcosphere. narconews.com "UK's Independent Newspaper
Falsifies<br>
Venezuela Election Results!" Ron Smith, Aug 15th, 2004<br>
(<a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2004/8/15/205259/595" eudora="autourl">http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2004/8/15/205259/595</a>).<br>
3. "Rueda de prensa desde Miraflores Presidente Chavez insiste en
llamar al<br>
dialogo y a la unidad Por: RNV" 16/08/04<br>
(<a href="http://www.aporrea.org/dameverbo.php?docid=19604" eudora="autourl">http://www.aporrea.org/dameverbo.php?docid=19604</a>).<br>
4. "CAMPESINOS TOMAN CAMPO PETROLERO EN BOLIVIA,"<br>
<a href="http://www.econoticiasbolivia.com/" eudora="autourl">http://www.econoticiasbolivia.com</a>
16th August, 2004.<br><br>
Copyright © 2004. All rights reserved. CounterPunch is a project of the<br>
Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity.<br>
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