<html>
<body>
<font size=3><br>
NED BACK ON THE OFFENSIVE IN VENEZUELA<br>
____________________________________________________________________<br><br>
ZNET<br>
Venezuela<br>
November 28, 2004<br>
<a href="http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=6745" eudora="autourl">http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=6745<br>
</a>by Eva Golinger, VHeadline<br><br>
On November 8, 2004, National Endowment for Democracy (NED) president
Carl<br>
Gershman made an historic visit to Venezuela with a very peculiar
purpose.<br>
Gershman traveled to the South American nation to request President
Chavez<br>
to influence the outcome of a legal case brought against NED direct
grantee<br>
Sumate ... currently in the hands of the independent Attorney
General's<br>
office.<br><br>
But much to Gershman's surprise, no meetings had been authorized with
the<br>
Venezuelan President or cabinet members and therefore he was unable
to<br>
exert the weight of the US-backed NED over the popular head of
state.<br><br>
Gershman did meet with Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez and Chief
Justice<br>
Ivan Rincon. However, both legal chiefs were unwilling to succumb to
NED<br>
pressure and, instead, made very clear that Venezuelas judiciary is<br>
independent of the Executive and that international influence will not
be<br>
allowed to interfere with, or impede, due process of law.<br><br>
The case brought against NED-grantee Sumate has caused uproar in the
ranks<br>
of the US State Department and the quasi-governmental NED (which
receives<br>
all of its financing from the US Congress and is obliged to report
annually<br>
on its activities and use of funds).<br><br>
On occasion, such as in Venezuela, the State Department issues
special<br>
funds to the NED to finance its activities in nations of "key
interest." In<br>
April 2002, just days after the failed coup d'etat against
Venezuela<br>
President Hugo Chavez, the State Department gave the NED a US$1
million<br>
grant entitled Special Venezuela Funds .. which was distributed to many
of<br>
the very same groups that had just led and participated in the
coup.<br><br>
In fact, since President Chavez's election to highest office in 1998,
the<br>
NED has consistently funded just one sector in Venezuela: the opposition
to<br>
President Chavez.<br><br>
Once George W. Bush assumed the US presidency in 2000, funding to<br>
opposition groups in Venezuela was quadrupled. Those organizations<br>
receiving NED funding, such as the Confederacion de Trabajadores<br>
Venezolanos (CTV), the Asamblea de Educacion, Primero Justicia,<br>
Fedecamaras, CEDICE, Sumate and others have used the millions in US<br>
taxpayer dollars to lead a coup against President Chavez, devastate<br>
Venezuela's economy through an illegal 64-day long strike and, later,
lead<br>
a failed recall referendum attempt.<br><br>
All of the NED-funded initiatives have shared just one goal: remove<br>
President Chavez from power ... be it through legal or illegal
means.<br><br>
The case against Sumate was brought earlier this year by the
Attorney<br>
General's office alleging violation of Article 132 of the Penal Code,
which<br>
makes it a crime to conspire to destroy the government and to
solicit<br>
international intervention in international politics or to incite civil
war<br>
or defame the President or diplomatic representatives in the foreign
press.<br><br>
The Attorney General alleges that Sumate committed a crime by
soliciting<br>
financing from the NED, an arm of the US government to campaign for
and<br>
lead a recall referendum against President Chavez.<br><br>
Furthermore, the Chief Prosecutor alleges that Sumate violated the<br>
Constitution by usurping functions of the Electoral Power through
its<br>
creation of a parallel Electoral Registry and database that it used
to<br>
collect and count signatures during stages of the referendum
process.<br>
Though charges have been filed with the court, and an arraignment
hearing<br>
to set, a trial date has yet to be announced.<br><br>
Due to a massive campaign in defense of Sumate that has been launched
by<br>
the US State Department, the case has experienced interesting
delays.<br>
Gershmans visit came one week after the arraignment hearing had
been<br>
postponed from November 2 to November 24, as a result of the resignation
of<br>
one of the defendant's attorneys.<br><br>
Subsequently, the case experienced another development after US
Ambassador<br>
to Venezuela, William Brownfield, visited Chief Justice Ivan Rincon
and<br>
requested he intervene to prevent the case from proceeding. Although
Rincon<br>
was clear about his respect for due process and the jurisdiction of
the<br>
Attorney General (a separate power), one of the other justices in the
Penal<br>
Chamber of the Supreme Court decided to review the case for clarity
and<br>
merit before allowing it to continue.<br><br>
But Gershman's visit ... the first visit by the NED president to a
foreign<br>
nation to defend the organization's interests ... was an apparent
last<br>
chance offer to the Venezuelan government to stop the case or face
the<br>
wrath of the US government.<br><br>
Even presidential candidate John Kerry got on the Sumate defense
bandwagon<br>
in the days prior to the US elections, criticizing Chavez for
political<br>
persecution and accusing him of heading towards a dictatorship.<br><br>
Other Sumate defenders include US Congress members Christopher Cox
and<br>
Gregory Meeks ... both on the NED Board of Directors ... and Senator
John<br>
McCain and former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright who chair the
NED<br>
core grantee organizations, the International Republican Institute and
the<br>
National Democratic Institute, respectively.<br><br>
The aforementioned have all authored letters defending NED's work
in<br>
Venezuela and defending its grantees, despite their notorious<br>
unconstitutional behavior during the coup and the strike.<br><br>
Though NED representatives and spokespersons have time and again
claimed<br>
their work in Venezuela as impartial and only promoting democracy,<br>
Gershman's declarations to the Venezuelan press showed otherwise.
After<br>
being snubbed by the Executive, Gershman angrily declared to the
Venezuelan<br>
media that Venezuela is neither a democracy nor a dictatorship but
rather<br>
something in between. In the same breath, Gershman claimed that, in<br>
Venezuela, the NED only finances democratic groups, which must imply
that<br>
groups involved in coup d'etats fit within the NED's view of democracy.
He<br>
also tried to make a weak comparison between the Venezuelan government
and<br>
the Chilean dictator Augustus Pinochet by claiming in the eighties, we
were<br>
attacked by the Pinochet government, which didn't like the fact that
we<br>
supported the groups that moved forward the democratic transition in
Chile.<br><br>
Gershman's comparison between the Pinochet dictatorship and Venezuela
under<br>
Chavez, along with his outright denial of Venezuela's democracy ..
despite<br>
the nine electoral processes in the past five years that have
reaffirmed<br>
Chavez's overwhelming popular support ... evidence the NED's biased<br>
position against the Venezuelan government.<br><br>
How could Gershman expect a warm welcome from the Venezuelan
government<br>
after making such declarations?<br><br>
Furthermore, Gershman's statements merely reaffirmed that the NED's
purpose<br>
in Venezuela is to remove President Chavez from power. The
NED-grantees<br>
were the ones chosen by the US government to lead the democratic
transition<br>
post-Chavez ... just like in Chile. This has been evidenced through<br>
NED-funded projects in Venezuela to create alternative government
agendas<br>
and transition government plans for post-Chavez Venezuela.<br><br>
But there is one major difference here:<br><br>
Chile under Pinochet was a dictatorship, one in fact imposed by the
US<br>
government. Venezuela under Chavez is the most participatory and<br>
popularly-support democratic government in Venezuelas history. In
fact,<br>
Chavez just won a recall referendum promoted by the opposition with 60%
of<br>
the vote, a landslide victory that demonstrated the massive support of
his<br>
presidency to the world.<br><br>
But the NED and the US government just dont appear to care about
the<br>
majority that supports President Chavez ... or the nine democratic<br>
electoral processes that have reaffirmed his administration ... or the
fact<br>
that more Venezuelans today participate in the governance of the
nation<br>
than ever before.<br><br>
Instead of rectifying or apologizing for such blatantly offensive
and<br>
biased statements, NED president Carl Gershman followed through on
his<br>
threats to the Venezuelan government to increase international pressure
in<br>
defense of the Sumate case and to attempt to convert Chavez into an<br>
international pariah and human rights abuser.<br><br>
Just twenty-four hours after Gershman's departure from Venezuela, a
letter<br>
was released from an alleged group of 70 international democrats
demanding<br>
the Venezuelan President intervene in the Sumate action and prevent
the<br>
Attorney General from proceeding with the case.<br><br>
The letter ... the existence of which had been leaked to the press
more<br>
than one week ago, but was kept under the wraps until needed ...
was<br>
obviously Gershman's attempt to exert international pressure over
the<br>
Venezuelan government.<br><br>
But the letter is riddled with misinformation and errors about
Venezuela's<br>
legal system and laws and strangely demands respect for democracy
while<br>
asking the Venezuelan President to violate the Constitutional separation
of<br>
powers in his nation by intervening in a case under the authority of
the<br>
Attorney General.<br><br>
The letter requests an abandonment of the law and demands the
Sumate<br>
directors be granted above the law status, just because they are
supported<br>
by 70 prominent international democrats who state to share Sumate's view
of<br>
democracy.<br><br>
Again, if the NED, along with these 70 personalities believe democracy
and<br>
rule of law can been averted by those who have friends in high places,
then<br>
Venezuela certainly doesnt share the same vision.<br><br>
Although the letter was intended to look like an independent statement
by<br>
70 renowned democrats, its ties to the NED were all too obvious. In
fact,<br>
the letter was released to the public by the NED press department and
of<br>
the 70 signors, more than half are either on the NED Board of Directors
or<br>
are direct NED grantees ... clearly, their allegiance is to the hand
that<br>
feeds them.<br><br>
The NED visit to Venezuela was also unsuccessful in its efforts to
attract<br>
pro-Chavez groups to accept financing. NED president Gershman and
his<br>
sidekick, Christopher Sabatini, thought they could entice
pro-Chavez<br>
organizations into accepting their funding so they could then justify
their<br>
claims of non-partisanship. But no such groups were even the
slightest<br>
interested in establishing a relationship with a US government
funded<br>
organization that has worked exclusively with coup leaders and other
hard<br>
line opposition groups in Venezuela.<br><br>
In fact, Christopher Sabatini's claim in the Venezuelan press that
the<br>
Boston Group, a coalition of pro-Chavez and opposition-linked
National<br>
Assembly members in Venezuela and US Congressional representatives,
was<br>
negotiating with the NED to receive financing was quickly refuted
the<br>
following day in El Nacional.<br><br>
Both opposition and pro-Chavez National Assembly members in the
Boston<br>
Group declared to the press that they never met with the NED to discuss
any<br>
potential funding or future financing.<br><br>
Clearly, Sabatini had made a desperate attempt to justify the NED's work
in<br>
Venezuela, not realizing that his error would be caught by savvy<br>
Venezuelans attuned to the NED's deceptive ways.<br><br>
Deception, manipulation, pressure, intimidation, threat and
constitutional<br>
violations seem to be the NED's tools for promoting democracy around
the<br>
world.<br><br>
Luckily, Venezuelans are on to the trickery of this heavy-handed<br>
organization and are unwilling to cede to its bully tactics.<br><br>
Copyright © 2004 Z Magazine<br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">The Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
</font><font size=3><a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">www.freedomarchives.org</a></font></body>
</html>