Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua Options

[theglobalchinese]

US, Venezuela clash at OAS meeting Xinhua

[theglobalchinese]

Rights group leader says US has secret jails CNN

[Snuffysmith]

Chavez "attacks" US :

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accused the United States on Sunday of trying to impose a "global dictatorship". He said the US, not Venezuela, should face scrutiny by the Organisation of American States.
http://snipurl.com/feen

[Snuffysmith]

Missiles Headed for Israel Intercepted in Caracas :

Venezuela’s justice minister reported five missiles heading to Israel from Colombia were found in an international airport north of the capital.
http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=83443

http://snipurl.com/ff90



Venezuelan Authorities Seize Five Missiles Allegedly Bound for Israel:

The missiles apparently arrived in Venezuela from neighboring Colombia late last month and "were destined for Tel Aviv, Israel," according to the statement issued by prosecutors.
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBFS6UYM9E.html

http://snipurl.com/ff94



Mysterious Transport Of Missiles From Colombia To Israel:

The sequester came as a surprise given that the material comes from the Colombian armed forces – closely tied in different activities to the US forces – and the motive is unclear of their systematic transferral to Tel Aviv on normal passenger flights.
http://www.misna.org/news.asp?lng=1&id=135474

[mommadona]

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/7239/1/274

Author: W. T. Whitney Jr.


People's Weekly World Newspaper, 06/16/05 12:25


News Analysis

“Madam Secretary, democracy cannot be imposed,” said Celso Amorim, Brazil’s foreign minister, in reply to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the 35th General Assembly of the Organization of the American States (OAS). “Latin America has its own identity,” he said. “It has recuperated its dignity — not to confront the United States, but to confront imperialist politics.”

That was the kind of roughing up Bush officials faced at the first OAS meeting hosted on U.S. soil in 31 years, this time in Ft Lauderdale, Fla. The OAS was set up in 1951, and shortly became an instrument of U.S. cold war politics.

The Assembly turned aside U.S. proposals directed against the Hugo Chavez government in Venezuela, as it passed declarations supportive of both national independence and a common front against the region’s social and economic devastation. Only a month earlier, in an unprecedented move, the OAS had rejected Washington’s choice for OAS leader in favor of Chilean diplomat Jose Miguel Insulza.

Speaking to reporters, Secretary of State Rice, apparently alluding to the need to intervene in Venezuela, declared, “The OAS has intervened in the past,” adding, “It is a matter of intervening to try and sustain the development of democratic institutions.” In an address to the Assembly June 7, President Bush said, “We must replace excessive talk with action.”

The U.S. government offered a “Declaration of Florida,” which would have authorized OAS-sponsored military interventions in member countries on behalf of “democracy.” The Assembly ultimately voted 28-6 to back a watered-down version of the resolution, holding that OAS interventions would have to wait on an invitation from an elected head of a targeted government.

The OAS Assembly passed eight out of nine resolutions introduced by Venezuela. One of them, offered in response to the U.S. interventionist proposal, stated that “for there to be world peace there must be respect for sovereignty.” Another condemned media concentration and rejected “support of hate” in the media. Still another called for member nations to “commit themselves not to support terrorists that are wanted for crimes in other countries,” a clear reference to U.S. sanctuary provided to Cuban-exile terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.

Delegates backed the social and economic rights of Latin America’s estimated 240 million poor. As Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez noted: “In these conditions quality of life simply doesn’t exist, adding, “Where the calamities of hunger and poverty exist, democracy is in doubt and human rights are a fiction.” The Assembly’s final declaration incorporated a Venezuelan resolution calling for adoption of a “Social Charter of the Americas.”

Roger Noriega, U.S. Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, staged a “temper tantrum,” in the words of one reporter. Apparently reacting to Washington’s failure to have its way, Noriega proclaimed that Venezuelan money and influence were behind unrest in Bolivia, a charge immediately dismissed by the Venezuelans.

Secretary of State Rice met June 5 with Maria Corina Machado, head of the Venezuelan group Sumate, accused of bringing in National Endowment for Democracy funds in the efforts to defeat Hugo Chavez at the polls. Machado took part in the 2002 coup attempt against Chavez, and is reportedly preparing to oppose him in the 2006 presidential elections.

The week before, Machado met with President Bush in the White House. By contrast, Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuela’s ambassador to Washington, has been waiting two months to meet with U.S. State Department officials.

Outside the Assembly, police from 26 agencies stopped delegates’ cars at roadblocks, searching them with dogs and metal detectors. The Mexican daily La Jornada reported that journalists required a State Department escort to approach OAS delegates.

Some 20 Secret Service agents detained Venezuelan reporter Lyng-Hou Ramirez. She came under suspicion when police, searching her bag, found an OAS document on human rights. Agents reportedly refused to verify her credentials with the OAS. After all, they said, “They don’t make the rules, we do.”

[Snuffysmith]

Venezuela Cites Evidence Of Plot Against Chavez:

Venezuela's government believes it has found evidence of an assassination plot against President Hugo Chavez by dissidents working with paramilitary groups in Colombia, the interior minister said Monday.
http://www.tampatrib.com/News/MGBMUPRN7AE.html

http://snipurl.com/fqik

[Snuffysmith]

Chavez seeks regional gas company:

Chavez said Venezuela's gas reserves in the Caribbean could be tapped and shipped to markets in South America. Pipelines could be laid from Venezuela's offshore reserves in the Caribbean to markets in Brazil and Argentina, he said.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3233749

http://snipurl.com/fq2d

[Magmak1]

The Venezuelan national softball team will be in town in the near future.

Any and all ideas for simple and serious expressions in a welcoming message to them would be greatly received. PM me.

[mommadona]

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7...%7D&language=EN

Venezuela Ratifies as World Hydrocarbon Reserve Leader

Caracas, Jun 26 (Prensa Latina) Venezuela will carry out research to quantify and certify reserves at the Orinoco oil belt to confirm its place as the largest hydrocarbon reserve of the world, local authorities informed Sunday.

State-run Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) indicated the zone is thought to keep 78 billion barrels in light crude reserves and 253 billion barrels of heavy and extra-heavy crude oil.

According to the PDVSA report, Venezuela has the largest oil reserves of the world, which equal to 50 percent of those possessed by all Middle East countries.

Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Iran and Qatar reserves account for 676 billion barrels, while the South American nation´s are estimated at 313 billion barrels.

They are followed by Africa (75 billion barrels), America, without Venezuela, (71 billion), Russia (49 billion), Asia (44 billion), Europe (19 billion) and other nations (10 billion), says the PDVSA report.

ef/ecq/ml

[mommadona]

Venezuela plans nuclear development despite Washington's paranoid flap..

President Chavez Frias pledges thousands of plastic homes for Venezuela poor

[Snuffysmith]

Chavez warns US on ties at Caribbean summit:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday accused the United States of meddling in his efforts to create an energy alliance with Caribbean neighbors and said he may one day have to cut ties with Washington.
http://snipurl.com/fy19

[mommadona]

Venezuela tightens control over oil industry
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7...%7D&language=EN
Miguel Lozano

Caracas, Jul 16 (Prensa Latina) With a lawsuit filed against Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell for tax evasion and the confiscation of financial data from US-based Chrevon-Texaco, Venezuela went ahead with a campaign to tighten control over its oil industry.

The National Customs and Tax Management Service (SENIAT) said Shell has already been ordered to pay $131 million in back taxes.

According to the statement, if Shell complied with the payment demand within the 15 days established by law, it would only have to pay 10 percent in interest and fines. If it failed to do this, the penalties could increase to up to 250 percent.

SENIAT officials said the financial data was temporarily confiscated from Chrevon because the company had failed to produce it on request.

Both cases form part of a probe into the activities of foreign oil companies, after finding irregularities in 32 oil field operating agreements involving foreign partners signed between 1992 and 1997.

Those foreign firms are paying merely 1 percent in royalties, which only applies in exceptional cases, while they should be paying 16, 6 percent.

In back taxes and unpaid royalties, Venezuela is owed $4 billion, authorities said.

nm/rm/ml

[mommadona]

US Does Not Invade Venezuela Because of the FARC, Says Heinz Dieterich
http://www.periodico26.cu/english_new/world/farc060805.htm
Caracas, August 6 (P-26) An outstanding academic and expert on Latin American issues –Heinz Dietrich— says that Venezuela is safe from a US attack via Colombia thanks to the existence of the rebel guerrilla there.

“As long as the FARC (Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces) exist, there is no chance that the US will launch paramilitary or military operations against Venezuela from Colombia,” said Mexican-German sociologist Heinz Dieterich.

Interviewed by the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, Dieterich noted that, albeit unintentionally, the FARC act as a force of containment for likely US military actions against Venezuela. “Its very existence renders impossible any military or paramilitary destruction strategy on the part of the US forces or those of (Colombian President) Uribe,” stressed Dieterich.

Well-known for his documenting of US intervention activities in Latin America, Heinz Dieterich is currently in Venezuela for the launching of his latest book, “Chávez y el socialismo del siglo XXI” (Chavez and 21st Century Socialism).

The statements by the Mexico-based scholar come on the heels of a strong offensive by the FARC in the Colombian region of Putumayo, on the boarder with Ecuador, which has cut off the area from the rest of the country. The escalade in rebel activities has raised serious doubts regarding the effectiveness of the so-called ‘Plan Patriota,’ a US-backed war action by the Colombian government seeking to wipe out guerrilla forces.

Heinz Dieterich told Colombia’s El Tiempo that the foundations upon which 21st century socialism will rest are “a democratically planned economy that works based on the principle of value not price; a State that is not an instrument of the economic elite; and a democracy with a strong and direct involvement of its citizens through plebiscites.”

Dieterich teaches at Mexico’s Autonomous University and has co-authored several books with US political scientist and linguist Noam Chomsky.

[mommadona]

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=44722

Published: Sunday, August 07, 2005
Bylined to: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

BBC report: Irish Colombia Three reached Ireland via Venezuela

The home appearance of three Irish Republicans convicted in Colombia has created several political seismic waves stretching 2 continents.

Known as "The Colombia Three," Jim Monaghan, Niall Connolly and Martin McCauley jumped bail after being condemned to prison for 17 years for allegedly training the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in urban guerrilla techniques.

The men were arrested in 2001 at Bogota international airport for carrying false passports as they returned home from a visit to FARC-controlled zones. The Colombian government claimed that the visitors were Irish Republican Army (IRA) active service members.

At the initial trial the Three were acquitted and freed from jail but had to await an appeal by the Colombian Attorney General, who succeeded in overturning the ruling a year later.

Jim Monaghan says the group was helped by "many people in many places" to return to Ireland.

The Colombian government's first reaction is to ask that the Three be extradited to face their sentence but Ireland has no extradition treaty with Colombia.

The British government, on the other hand, has stated that if the men return to Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, they will face arrest.

The Three claim that their presence in Colombia at the time of their arrest was in connection with the Colombia Peace process and the distention zone agreement established under former Colombian President Andres Pastrana and reversed by his successr, Alvaro Uribe.

Monaghan's press interview Irish television (RTE) has come a week after the IRA announced its decision to end the armed struggle and seek peaceful methods to achieve Irish unity.

The appearance of the Colombia Three has embarrassed British, Irish, Colombian and US governments and perhaps Venezuela, as the BBC reports (Colombian) intelligence sources, alleging that the Three passed through Venezuela to Cuba where Niall Connolly had been Sinn Fein's representative.

[mommadona]

VENEZUELA: Brigadistas witness workers’ control
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/637/637p19.htm

Paul Benedek, Venezuela solidarity “brigadista”, describes his experiences meeting with workers and unionists, including teachers, in Merida.

After returning from a beautiful trip through the Andes, we entered the offices of the UNT (National Union of Workers), the new revolutionary union that has quickly superceded the old conservative union structures.

The offices are spartan, with a huge banner proclaiming support for the revolution and workers’ control. Immediately we are inspired by a very different type of unionism — a unionism far removed from any limitation to merely “bread and butter worker issues”. Instead we deal with the rich, integrated cake of the revolution.

Benito is in the teachers’ union, and explains to us the revolutionising of education. He describes how the simoncitos (pre-schools) promote care and education and challenge violence in pre-school, and care for children all day. Before President Hugo Chavez was elected in 1998, parents could only leave children at school either in the morning or the afternoon, which made it extremely difficult for workers. There were very few pre-school places. Now that has all changed.

The Bolivarian schools for students aged 6-13 promote overall education from 8am to 4pm, and like simoncitos, are completely free. Every meal is also free. Activities are broad, such as watching over a plantation and how it develops, and a range of recreational activities.

High school was previously divided between education for those going to university and those going to work. Now united for a rounded education, every person gains an understanding of the world, and there is more creativity and an emphasis on out-of-classroom learning. Part of this is endogenous development — learning to use what is in the community for the greatest development for the people.

There are more students staying at school now, and education is no longer considered an institution, but part of the community.

Mission Robinson (1 and 2) is providing literacy, especially for the aged, using the Cuban method of the young teaching the elderly. Around October, Venezuela will be declared illiteracy-free! Mission Rivas is for those who were excluded from, or who left early from, high school education and Mission Sucre is helping to get tens of thousands into university.

At this point in time, approximately half the population of Venezuela is involved in some form of study — schools, universities, technical colleges, pre-schools, missions, etc!

This is the base of the Bolivarian revolution, that is changing society fundamentally. And of course, it is all totally free.

Next we heard from Hugo, the regional president of the UNT, who described how Venezuela is a government of the working people, with the UNT involved in drafting laws and so on (compare that to Australia!). The UNT has a very youthful leadership. Another union leader told us how they want their resources to be used not just for Venezuelans, but for people across the world.

Then it was off to see for ourselves the situation for workers. Packing a dozen of us into a taxi meant for just eight people, we drove to a construction site at the foot of the Andes, a massive operation building several sporting complexes for the upcoming Andes games and Latin America-wide COPA football cup.

We were greeted by worker delegates and rank-and-file workers who outlined the gains in occupational health and safety, wage rises of some 60%, and the weekly workplace meetings they engaged in to involve everyone in decisions.

Then late in the afternoon we are dropped at Merida’s Plaza Bolivar, where we swapped stories with left groups campaigning in the upcoming council elections, then off to dinner to celebrate the first day of the brigade in Merida, and Chavez’s birthday.

Revolution doesn’t even escape us when my brother and I slip into a late-night web cafe. The guy running it is a Chavista, and is eager to tell us of the fantastic state TV, and the new Latin America-wide television network Telesur, which is set to challenge CNN and Co. We have a great political exchange before bed.

[For more eye-witness accounts from the Australia-Venezuela solidarity brigade, visit <http://www.venezuelasolidarity.blogspot.com>.]

From Green Left Weekly, August 10, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

[mommadona]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...world-headlines
Venezuela Leader Accuses DEA of Espionage
By PATRICIA RONDON ESPIN
Associated Press Writer

2:30 PM PDT, August 7, 2005

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday accused the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of using its agents for espionage, and said Venezuela was suspending cooperation with the U.S. agency.

Chavez, who regularly accuses the U.S. government of plotting against him, said "the DEA isn't absolutely necessary for the fight against drug trafficking."

U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield said last week that the United States had hoped to maintain cooperative anti-drug efforts in Venezuela, and that without them "there is only one group that wins, and that group is the drug traffickers."

But Chavez maintains that the DEA has been using the fight against drugs as a pretext to gather intelligence on Venezuela.

"The DEA was using the fight against drug trafficking as a mask, to support drug trafficking, to carry out intelligence in Venezuela against the government," Chavez said.

"Under those circumstances we decided to make a clean break with those accords, and we are reviewing them," Chavez said, referring to the cooperative agreements under which the DEA has operated in the South American country.

Prosecutors last month opened an investigation into the DEA in Venezuela.

"We have detected intelligence infiltration that threatened national security and defense," Chavez said.

He acknowledged that Venezuela is a major transit point for cocaine moving from Colombia to the United States and Europe. But he said Venezuela's own armed forces have made important advances against trafficking.

As for the DEA, he said specifics of his government's decisions will be announced soon. Chavez's comments were the most specific to date on the accusations against the DEA.

Chavez criticized U.S. policy on drugs, saying that while the United States is the world's top consumer of drugs, its government does little to try to lessen consumption.

He also criticized the CIA and FBI of not doing enough to catch major drug kingpins in the United States. "How strange they don't find them," he said.

The relations between Venezuela and the United States have been marked by tension during Chavez's more than six years in power. Chavez accuses the U.S. government of backing a brief coup against him in 2002, while U.S. officials have dismissed such accusations as ridiculous.

Despite frequent harsh words between the governments, Venezuela remains a major supplier of oil to the United States.

[mommadona]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...23/ixworld.html

Venezuela vows to help Castro repel US 'lord of war'
By Francis Harris in Washington
(Filed: 23/08/2005)

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has launched a blistering tirade against the United States, describing President George W Bush as the "lord of war".

Mr Chavez also pledged to send troops to the aid of President Fidel Castro if Washington ever dared to order an invasion of Cuba.

He sat beside Dr Castro following a summit meeting in western Cuba, as the two men used a six-hour live broadcast on Sunday night to set out their plans for the region and to condemn Washington's foreign policy.

Mr Chavez, apparently responding to accusations by Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, that he was funding anti-democratic movements in Latin America, hit back, saying: "The grand destroyer of the world and the greatest threat … is represented by US imperialism.

"The truth is that they [the Bush administration] are the great destabilisers in the region." He defended his close ties with Dr Castro, whose latest crackdown led to the arrest of scores of opponents for discussing a post-authoritarian Cuba, and hailed almost half a century of communist rule on the island.

"People have asked me how I can support Fidel if he's a dictator. But Cuba doesn't have a dictatorship… It's a revolutionary democracy," he said. "We will do everything possible to avoid imperialist aggression, but if it occurs to some madman, he will find some young men … defending the independence and sovereignty of this land."

In the meantime, Cuba and Venezuela have found numerous non-military schemes to confound the Americans. The two leaders recently launched Telesur, a regional satellite station which Rght-wing US critics have branded "Latin America's al-Jazeera".

Cuba has been given substantial quantities of cheap oil by Caracas and, in return, has dispatched a fifth of its doctors to Venezuela's poorer neighbourhoods. Mr Chavez will travel on today to Jamaica, where he will sign a deal providing cheap oil to the island.

US officials believe that Venezuela is seeking to buy influence in the region. Mr Rumsfeld and others have also accused the Venezuelans of funding anti-democratic and populist movements in fragile democracies such as Bolivia.

Otto Reich, a former senior foreign policy official in the Bush administration, has accused Mr Chavez of aiding Left-wing guerrillas in Colombia and of offering support to Iran over its nuclear programme.

Mr Chavez came to power through the ballot box in 1998 and was re-elected in 2000. A year ago, he won a referendum endorsing his rule.

He spent two years in jail in the early 1990s after being arrested for leading a 1992 coup attempt.

Since taking office, he has styled himself a Robin Hood-like figure - taking money from the rich and handing it to the poor. Many of his initiatives are aimed at improving the lives of impoverished slum dwellers. But critics say the use of communist-style command economics has actually worsened the condition of the poor, and that selling cheap oil is robbing Venezuela of badly needed wealth.

Mr Chavez has also embarked on an arms-buying spree, purchasing 50 MiG29 fighters and 40 attack helicopters from Russia.

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005. Terms & Conditions of reading.
Commercial information. Privacy and Cookie Policy.
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[winston smith]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...23/ixworld.html

Venezuela vows to help Castro repel US 'lord of war'
By Francis Harris in Washington
(Filed: 23/08/2005)

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has launched a blistering tirade against the United States, describing President George W Bush as the "lord of war".

Mr Chavez also pledged to send troops to the aid of President Fidel Castro if Washington ever dared to order an invasion of Cuba.

He sat beside Dr Castro following a summit meeting in western Cuba, as the two men used a six-hour live broadcast on Sunday night to set out their plans for the region and to condemn Washington's foreign policy.

Mr Chavez, apparently responding to accusations by Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, that he was funding anti-democratic movements in Latin America, hit back, saying: "The grand destroyer of the world and the greatest threat … is represented by US imperialism.

"The truth is that they [the Bush administration] are the great destabilisers in the region." He defended his close ties with Dr Castro, whose latest crackdown led to the arrest of scores of opponents for discussing a post-authoritarian Cuba, and hailed almost half a century of communist rule on the island.

"People have asked me how I can support Fidel if he's a dictator. But Cuba doesn't have a dictatorship… It's a revolutionary democracy," he said. "We will do everything possible to avoid imperialist aggression, but if it occurs to some madman, he will find some young men … defending the independence and sovereignty of this land."

In the meantime, Cuba and Venezuela have found numerous non-military schemes to confound the Americans. The two leaders recently launched Telesur, a regional satellite station which Rght-wing US critics have branded "Latin America's al-Jazeera".

Cuba has been given substantial quantities of cheap oil by Caracas and, in return, has dispatched a fifth of its doctors to Venezuela's poorer neighbourhoods. Mr Chavez will travel on today to Jamaica, where he will sign a deal providing cheap oil to the island.

US officials believe that Venezuela is seeking to buy influence in the region. Mr Rumsfeld and others have also accused the Venezuelans of funding anti-democratic and populist movements in fragile democracies such as Bolivia.

Otto Reich, a former senior foreign policy official in the Bush administration, has accused Mr Chavez of aiding Left-wing guerrillas in Colombia and of offering support to Iran over its nuclear programme.

Mr Chavez came to power through the ballot box in 1998 and was re-elected in 2000. A year ago, he won a referendum endorsing his rule.

He spent two years in jail in the early 1990s after being arrested for leading a 1992 coup attempt.

Since taking office, he has styled himself a Robin Hood-like figure - taking money from the rich and handing it to the poor. Many of his initiatives are aimed at improving the lives of impoverished slum dwellers. But critics say the use of communist-style command economics has actually worsened the condition of the poor, and that selling cheap oil is robbing Venezuela of badly needed wealth.

Mr Chavez has also embarked on an arms-buying spree, purchasing 50 MiG29 fighters and 40 attack helicopters from Russia.

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005. Terms & Conditions of reading.
Commercial information.  Privacy and Cookie Policy.
XML RSS feeds available

Mutual defense treaties with Venezuela, Iran, Cuba. Mmmmm- let's see. We attack Iran and Venezuela cuts off our oil- with none (obviously) from Iran and Saudi Arabia can't (or won't) pick up the slack; because Iran blockades Iraqi ports and Shi'ites join Sunnis in blowing up Iraq oil facilities, little from Iraq; and Cuba becomes a staging ground for terrorist infiltration. Gas at $20.00 a gallon, the death toll in Iraq triples the following month, and a few buildings are vaporized in Miami, Houston, and Atlanta?

If we are winning, if we are going to stay the course, I'd hate to see what The Shrub considers a loss, because that seems to be the course we're on...

When are they going to impeach and convict this friggin' idiot Shrub and put us out of our misery...

[jeffmoskin]

Mmmmm- let's see.  We attack Iran and Venezuela cuts off our oil- with none (obviously) from Iran and Saudi Arabia can't (or won't) pick up the slack; because Iran blockades Iraqi ports and Shi'ites join Sunnis in blowing up Iraq oil facilities, little from Iraq; and Cuba becomes a staging ground for terrorist infiltration.  Gas at $20.00 a gallon, the death toll in Iraq triples the following month, and a few buildings are vaporized in Miami, Houston, and Atlanta?

Already planned out, WS.

BushCo engineered the "removal" of popularly elected Haitian President Aristede. Why? Because Haiti is geographically the PERFECT staging area for a military assault on Venezuela, should such an attck become necessary.

WE MUST HAVE OUR OIL.

WE MUST HAVE THEIR OIL.

FOR OUR SUV'S.

[heritage]

We have our own radical religious leaders....

Televangelist Calls for Chavez's Death

Updated 11:36 AM ET August 23, 2005
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...823_162&src=abc

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson suggested on-air that American operatives assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to stop his country from becoming "a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism."

"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Robertson said Monday on the Christian Broadcast Network's "The 700 Club."

"We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator," he continued. "It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

Chavez has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of President Bush, accusing the United States of conspiring to topple his government and possibly backing plots to assassinate him. U.S. officials have called the accusations ridiculous.

"You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," Robertson said. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."

Robertson, 75, founder of the Christian Coalition of America and a former presidential candidate, accused the United States of failing to act when Chavez was briefly overthrown in 2002.

Electronic pages and a message to a Robertson spokeswoman were not immediately returned Monday evening.

Venezuela is the fifth largest oil exporter and a major supplier of oil to the United States. The CIA estimates that U.S. markets absorb almost 59 percent of Venezuela's total exports.

Venezuela's government has demanded in the past that the United States crack down on Cuban and Venezuelan "terrorists" in Florida who they say are conspiring against Chavez.

Robertson has made controversial statements in the past. In October 2003, he suggested that the State Department be blown up with a nuclear device. He has also said that feminism encourages women to "kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."


On the Net:

Christian Broadcast Network: http://www.cbn.com/700club/

(Tell Roberston what you think of his comments)