Turning Chavez Into Noriega.

By Lloyd Hart
08/22/05

In a recent series of articles in The New York Times a disturbing strategy seems to be emerging out of the White House and the U.S. press. An insidious strategy of turning Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's public image here in the United States into that of resembling former Panamanian President Manuel Noriega, who is now languishing a federal prison cell here in the U.S as a result of the U.S. invasion of Panama during the previous Bush regime in which over 10,000 Panamanian civilians were killed by U.S. forces. The U.S. was also caught burying those dead civilians the U.S. murdered in mass graves on U.S. military bases in Panama. At the time of the invasion the Bush regime was attempting to arrest Manuela Noriega on drug charges.

In a recent article written by Juan Forero and published in The New York Times it has been revealed that the U.S. has revoked:

"the visas for three high-ranking Venezuelan military officers suspected of drug trafficking, prompting President Hugo Chávez's government to retaliate by promising to withdraw diplomatic immunity for American narcotics agents in Venezuela."

The article also states:

"The latest spat between the United States and Mr. Chávez's populist government began Sunday when Mr. Chávez suspended bilateral antidrug cooperation after accusing the D.E.A. of spying. The United States had previously complained that Venezuela was not doing enough to stop shipments of Colombian cocaine from going through Venezuela en route to the United States or Europe."

To give a little background the U.S. over the last couple of years has accused President Hugo Chavez of supporting and even supplying weapons to the FARC, Colombia's largest revolutionary guerrilla movement. The U.S. has also labeled the FARC as being drug smugglers as well as officially listing the FARC as a terrorist organization.

In another paragraph in Forero's article Forero uses a Rove feed to create a heightened sense of urgency. The state and below is not objective reporting but complete hype.

"''Venezuela is being stricken by drug trafficking,'' an American official in Colombia who is involved in fighting drugs, said in a recent interview on condition of anonymity because of agency policy. ''The drug-trafficking organizations based in this region are ripping a trail right through the center of the country.'' "

The U.S. is obviously building a pile unsubstantiated accusations using American reporters to do so and Juan Forero is no exception to this bizarre but familiar game being played in the American press and between the two governments that seems to be timed to coincide with Donald One-Celled Rumsfeld's tour of Latin America warning Latin-American leaders "in familiar cold war rhetoric" to "resist leftists"and " maintain stability. Forero however lets his slip show when he makes the following connect the unrelated dots statement in the article:

"The Venezuelan government's commitment to stopping drugs has appeared to flag." basing this statement on two ordinary and unrelated events. One being a drug dealer who escapes from prison and the other a Venezuelan government official been replaced who was involved in fighting drugs.

Juan Forero has always followed the Council on Foreign Relations editorial theory of making America seem correct in its position and whatever left-wing target as being nutty but this latest series of articles from The New York Times including those of Donald Rumsfeld's tour of Latin America are somewhat more insidious than usual. In other words the pattern seems to be resembling the media assault on Panama's President Manuel Noriega prior to the U.S. invasion.

I'm not necessarily suggesting that the U.S. is planning to invade Venezuela which of course is always a possibility but the idiots in the White House may be attempting a better organized and better supported coup d'etat. With plenty of Bush Regime friends going through power withdrawal in Venezuela the Bush gang could have easily smuggled plenty of weapons and a plan into Venezuela in which overwhelming force will be used covertly supported by the U.S. Air Force just as they did in Chile to initially slow a popular uprising which would be completely squashed when the newly installed government requests U.S. military assistance in order to restore stability, the New York Council on Foreign Relations favorite word.

I guess the situation is getting serious for the Bush regime when they see Venezuela's recently purged of corruption oil business shipping oil to China.

In an article by The Associated Press put out today the AP is attempting to sow paranoia into the game of China gaining more and more oil from Venezuela while at the same time emphasizing the conflict between Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez and the Bush regime as getting worse and worse.

Below is last part of the AP article:

"Chavez has clashed repeatedly with U.S. officials, saying U.S. ''imperialism'' is a threat to the world and new ways need to be found to move toward socialism and help the poor.""Venezuela currently ships 68,000 barrels of oil per day to China. Last year, Venezuela shipped 12,300 barrels of oil a day to the energy-hungry Asian nation."

"Ramirez said Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter, plans to ship as much as 300,000 barrels of crude a day to China next year."

"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has repeatedly accused the Bush administration of trying to destabilize his ''revolutionary'' government, arguing that Washington played key roles in a short-lived 2002 coup and a devastating two-month strike in 2003 that failed to produce his resignation as organizers had hoped."

"U.S. officials have denied the allegations."

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