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Venezuelan coup fingers CIA
by William Blum,
Counterpunch, April 14, 2002
How do we know that the CIA was behind the coup that overthrew Hugo Chavez?
Same way we know that the sun will rise tomorrow morning. That’s what it’s
always done and there’s no reason to think that tomorrow morning will be any
different.
Consider Chavez’s crimes:
Branding the U.S. attacks on Afghanistan as "fighting terrorism with
terrorism," he demanded an end to "the slaughter of innocents;" holding up
photographs of children killed in the American bombing attacks, he said their
deaths had "no justification, just as the attacks in New York did not, either."
In response, the Bush administration temporarily withdrew its ambassador.
Being very friendly with Fidel Castro and selling oil to Cuba at discount
rates.
His defense minister asking the permanent U.S. military mission in Venezuela
to vacate its offices in the military headquarters in Caracas, saying its
presence was an anachronism from the cold war.
Not cooperating to Washington’s satisfaction with the U.S. war against the
Colombian guerrillas.
Denying Venezuelan airspace to U.S. counter-drug flights.
Refusing to provide US intelligence agencies with information on Venezuela’s
large Arab community.
Questioning the sanctity of globalization.
Promoting a regional free-trade bloc and united Latin American petroleum
operations as a way to break free from U.S. economic dominance.
Visiting Sadaam Hussein in Iraq and Moammar Gaddafy in Libya.
And more in the same vein which the Washington aristocracy is unaccustomed to
encountering from the servant class. The United States has endeavored to topple
numerous governments for a whole lot less.
The Washington Post reported from Venezuela on April 13: "Members of the
country’s diverse opposition had been visiting the U.S. Embassy here in recent
weeks, hoping to enlist U.S. help in toppling Chavez. The visitors included
active and retired members of the military, media leaders and opposition
politicians.
"The opposition has been coming in with an assortment of ‘what ifs’," said a
U.S. official familiar with the effort. "What if this happened? What if that
happened? What if you held it up and looked at it sideways?
To every scenario we say no. We know what a coup looks like, and we won’t
support it."
Right. They won’t support a coup. So what happens when a coup occurs which
they want to support? Simple. They don’t call it a coup. They call it a "change
of government" and say that Chavez was ousted "as a result of the message of the
Venezuelan people." Veritable grass-roots democracy it was.
Opposition legislators were also brought to Washington in recent months,
including at least one delegation sponsored by the International Republican
Institute, an integral part of the National Endowment for Democracy, long used
by the CIA for covert operations abroad.
Overthrowing a man such as Hugo Chavez, guilty of such transgressions, was a
duty so "natural" for the CIA that the only reason it might not have been
intimately involved in the operation would be that the Agency had been secretly
disbanded.
William Blum is the author of "Killing Hope: US Military and CIA
Interventions Since World War II" and "Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only
Superpower." Blum can be reached at: BBlum6@aol.com
The New People
Table of Contents, May 2002
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