Blackmail & Power, Inc.
The People of Latin America
vs.
The Bad Boys of the US Empire
by Karmen Selis
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Buddha was wrong: Life is not suffering nor is it explained by the attachments of individuals.
Buddha was a socialist, but he didn't understand the power of the Capitalists' Greed.
THREE TRUTHS EXPLAIN THE WORLD'S PROBLEMS:
THREE ADDICTIONS DOMINATE WORLD TRADE: DRUGS, FOSSIL FUELS AND WEAPONS.
THE CORPORATIONS, WHICH DOMINATE GLOBAL TRADE IN DRUGS, OIL, BANKING, MONEY LAUNDERING, COMPUTERS
AND WEAPONS ARE US AND UK LINKED. THE US AND UK ALSO DOMINATE THE WORLD'S INSURANCE, SOFTWARE,
TELECOMMUNICATIONS, BIOTECHNOLOGY AND RETAIL SALES CORPORATIONS - INDEED ALMOST EVERYTHING!
THE US IS THE LARGEST CONSUMER OF DRUGS, GUNS AND OIL. IT IS THE MOST ADDICTED AND IT IS THE
NATION MOST DEPENDENT ON THESE DESTRUCTIVE PRODUCTS. THE US SELLS HALF OF THE WORLD'S WEAPONS AND
SPENDS HALF THE WORLD'S MILITARY BUDGET. THE US AND UK COMBINED ARE LESS THAN 5 PERCENT OF THE WOLRD'S
POPULATION.
THE TWO COROLLARIES TO THE THREE TRUTHS:
THE MEGA-CONSPIRACY OF THE US MILITARY, LARGE CORPORATIONS, DRUG LORDS, DEATH SQUADS, MEDIA
BILLIONAIRES AND INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES DOMINATES THE WORLD: CULTURALLY, MILITARILY, AND THROUGH FEAR,
COMMERCE AND BLACKMAIL.
ADDICTS ARE UNPREDICTABLE AND OFTEN VIOLENT AND DANGEROUS.
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Five Major Challenges:
"There are 5 major challenges facing the great majority of humanity:
- "U.S. imperialist drive for world domination through the Bush doctrine of "permanent wars"... in
the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq... North Korea, Iran and the Arab East... Colombia ...Cuba and the support
for a military coup in Venezuela
- "The recolonization of Latin America via the imposition of ALCA [FTAA] and the transfer of
sovereignty to a U.S. controlled ALCA commission. Washington's application of the doctrine of
"extra-territoriality", which asserts the right of the U.S. to override international and national laws.
The rejection by the U.S. of the International Criminal Court in order to allow its military forces
to commit crimes with impunity. The U.S. has assumed the "right" for its military and intelligence
agents to commit homicide - to assassinate - political adversaries within the frontiers of any
country
- "The pillage of the Third World - particularly Latin America- leading to the reversion to
earlier more retrograde forms of exploitation including white slavery, economic pillage, the
appropriation of all the major sectors of the economy and the de- industrialization of Latin American
economies via free trade while retaining protective barriers and export subsidies
- "U.S. hegemony over the political class, from the electoral parties of the center-left to the
far right, leading to accommodation to the imperialist project and perpetuation of the system of
pillage and re-colonization
- "The uneven growth of powerful socio-political movements throughout the world..."
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- James Petras
The US is always on the side of violence. The US is violence. From Iraq to the drug war violence
against the ecology and people of Colombia and Ecuador; from Teddy Roosevelt's Big Stick to the
mining of the Nicaraguan harbors in 1983 - violence is the natural choice of Imperialism and
arrogance. The rightwing think tanks of the US and its corporate empire are the architects of global
violence. They create novel forms of imperialism like the "Genetically Modified" free trade
neoliberalism - also known as Globalization, the WTO and the War Against Terror... in a word these are
Imperialismo.
Faces of the Final Imperialism
Globalization is imperialism and the IMF is the accounting agency for the corporate globalists.
The US armed forces are the auditors for the IMF. As James Petras illustrates in the above excerpt,
there are many examples of this US structure of violence. One place stands out above the media
spin. In Colombia all of the sins of the rightwing and its imperialism merge and climax. The
corporate mass media allows governments to blame the left and the outgunned guerrillas. Some of the worst
atrocities in 20 years have been in Colombia, many are US linked.
Officially, 2003 is the first time that US combat troops have entered the Colombian war. Special
Forces and US Green Berets and other mercenaries are in the war zones training and leading oil
pipeline defenses with the Colombian army. Seventy additional trainers have arrived and soon there
will be more. US Special Forces and CIA covert military operations are expanding rapidly, and not
just in the jungles of Colombia [2]. In the deserts of Arizona in the southwestern US, elite Special
Forces teams train night and day in preparation for covert insertion into Afghanistan, Iraq, and
North Korea, Iran, Argentina or almost anywhere. The current "official" US budget for Special
Forces is over $6 billion. The real figure including covert operations funding is at least $12 billion.
There are over 7000 US military, DOD employees and dependents stationed in Latin America. Another
2000 work there for the State Department and various intelligence agencies. Worldwide the US hires
over 40,000 foreign nationals to do contract work for the US military, DOD, and State Department [3]. Thousands of these are in Latin America. In Colombia alone there are several hundred foreign
nationals working for the US and Dyncorp in the herbicide spraying campaigns and other missions.
This US military-intelligence-corporate complex/conspiracy occupies most of the world. More than
400,000 US military, DOD, contractors, dependents, and thousands of people employed by a host of
agencies (Peace Corps, AID, Peace Keeping missions, relief agencies, CIA, DEA, NSA, etc.) are
stationed strategically around the world. Another 100,000 US Navy personnel are at any given time also
stationed in or near many hot spots. From the illegally occupied Cuban territory of Guantanamo
where 600 US military are practicing torture and psychological experiments against 100's of Taliban,
Al Qaida, Arab and Islamic militants to Ecuador where the US has illegally established a large
airbase at Manta as part of the Andean Initiative/Plan Colombia Drug War intervention - there are
expanding US military operations and rightwing training exercises all over the hemisphere [4]. US
weapons and military aid smother Latin America in a sea of corruption, kickbacks and indirect support
to rightist
military elements and death squads.
The US spends more on its defense (offense) than the rest of the world combined and about twenty
times the combined military budgets of all the countries who could even remotely be considered
enemies of the US (Iraq, Libya, Cuba, Iran...). http://www.cdi.org/budget/2004/world-military-spending.cfm
If you count all of the different kinds of armed security and police forces in the US or working
for US corporations worldwide then the US spends about two thirds of the global defense budget. The
US is only a small percentage of the world's population and yet the world allows the US to
dominate it, exploit billions and pollute the entire planet. The cumulative effects of this tyranny make
it hard to discern which aspect of US imperialism is the worst.
Cultural and information imperialism score high on the list and the media empires of the US and
Venezuela's Cisneros Group skillfully mislead and trick people globally.
"The dawn of the twenty-first century finds us in a position not unlike the one found by Upton
Sinclair and his compatriots eighty years ago. The media are exceptionally concentrated, the
journalism is of dubious integrity, journalists are demoralized, and the political system is awash in
corruption... The political crisis of capitalist journalism remains an unavoidable and central facet in
understanding our current predicament, and there is no reason to think the problem will go away of
its own volition. Any democratic movement will have to come to terms with the core problems that a
capitalist control over journalism and media pose for a free and self-governing society."
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- Robert McChesney, Monthly Review, May 2002, p.14
STUPID STATEMENTS OF THE NEW YEAR from the World Economic - Fat Cats - Forum (WEC) in Davos,
Switzerland 2003:
Goldman Sachs banker, Robert D. Hormats: "There's a sense of seriousness that is far greater than
we have seen in many years... a sense that the business community has far less influence... a sense of
humility." And Forum founder, Klaus Schwab: "I would argue that the power of the corporations has
completely disappeared."
Apparently Mr. Schwab and the US bankers haven't noticed who runs the US and the Bush
administration: Edward Aldridge Jr., US Army Secretary of Acquisition and Technology, formerly CEO of
Aerospace Corporation; Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense, formerly a consultant for Northrop
Grumman; Michael Wynne, Secretary of Defense, formerly Vice President of General Dynamics; James
Roche, Secretary of the Air Force, President of Northrop Grumman; Nelson Gibbs, Assistant Secretary of
Air Force for Installations and Environment, Controller of Northrop Grumman; Peter B. Teets,
Secretary of the Army, President of Lockheed Martin; Thomas White, Secretary of the Army, Vice
President of Enron; Gordon England, Secretary of the Navy, ex- Vice President of General Dynamics. Of
course these are just a few of the many former corporate executives who now run most of the US
government, the US Congress and half the biggest corporations in the world. Oh, almost forgot the WTO,
FTAA, World Bank and IMF - there must be a few corporate executives in these fine "civic" institutions too!
And the door swings both ways with many former military and high government officials now working
for the corporate sector, criminals like Henry Kissinger and Bill Clinton.
TEAM USA IN LATIN AMERICA
"The Bolivian government has taken such a rigid position that no negotiations are possible. It is
not correct to say that the US backs the government here. The Bush administration does not back
the government, but orders it, pressures it, blackmails it...US foreign policy is lies built on lies
coming from a sick society about to devour itself in its own contradictions."
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- Luis Gómez, Andean Bureau Chief for Narco News
Since this statement, a massive uprising began on February 12 to unseat the president and the
current government of Bolivia. The uprising came in response to tax increases on wages. More than 20
protestors have been killed and the country is paralyzed. Otto Reich is running the show for the
US's Bush and directing the military and media cover-ups.
"Deja Vo-doo-us" - The Bush State Department crew in the Latin America of 2003 looks a lot like
the Reagan-Bush operatives of 1980-1993. Here are a few of the ringleaders of the criminal gangs and
mayhem-makers who create, direct and execute US foreign policy in South America:
Andrew Messing is a Green Beret trainer and director of the military think tank, National Defense Council Foundation. This group has also been called a military NGO lobbying group and with members and advisers from the likes of Dick Cheney, Orin Hatch, Trent Lott and Dan Burton to Newt Gingrich and Bob Stump it may well be the group advising the White House basement
crew and covert actions around the world. In early January Messing's website began running claims
that Hugo Chavez had shut down private TV stations in Venezuela. This sounds like Otto Reich's
handiwork.
Dan Burton and his buddy Ben Gillmore are US Republican Congressmen, always Pro-War and they
support the rightwing on Colombian intervention, Iraq invasions and military spending.
John Negroponte, the US Ambassador to the UN, is a key Bush official persecuting the war against
Iraq. As US Ambassador to Honduras (1981-85) Negroponte directed the Honduran military to provide
protection and assistance to the Contra terrorists who killed ten thousand Nicaraguans with US
funding. With Negroponte's permission the Honduran military also carried out systematic murders of
refugees from war-torn El Salvador and of domestic opponents in Honduras itself.
Otto "Contra-Terrorist" Reich: Cuban anti-communist, dirty tricks and dirty words specialist,
Reich is famous for arranging the escape of rightwing Cuban terrorist, Orlando Bosch, from a
Venezuelan jail. Bosch was pardoned by HW Bush Sr.. Reich consistently seeks out employment with shady
characters such as the US-Cuba Business Council and the US government-funded Center for a Free Cuba.
He has also represented the liquor producer Bacardi & Co, Lockheed Martin and pro-sweatshop
industry groups.
Thomas Pickering: Former Under Secretary of State, Political affairs (1997-2000) also served as US
ambassador to India, Israel (1986-1988), El Salvador (1984 during massacres), Russia, Nigeria, and
Jordan. He served as US ambassador to the UN from 1989-93. Pickering is currently senior vice
president for International Affairs at The Boeing Company. Pickering praises Andrew Messing on the
National Defense Council Foundation website.
Peter Romero: This Assistant Secretary of State and Salvadoran massacre veteran, is an OAS
proponent of US-backed military intervention in Latin America - most countries rejected this as
paternalistic and repugnant. Romero should be considered armed and dangerous.
US General Charles Wilhelm is a notorious military adviser who is close friends with the Death
Squads in the Colombian military - people like Harold Bedoya. Wilhelm is also a lunatic wacko
proponent of the US militarization of the Panamanian border. Wilhelm should know that the Panamanian
border is already well guarded by his friends in the Colombian Military's irregular rangers the AUC
death squads who invaded Panama and killed dozens of indigenous people in early February, 2003.
Republican Senators Richard Lugar and Henry Hyde want the US to adopt a more vigorous policy on
Venezuela. Lugar is important not for his connections to Venezuela but because he is president of
the Senate Foreign Affairs committee in the Republican controlled Congress. Hyde has made no bones
that he wants Chavez Frias out and warned about an "Axis of Evil" brewing south of the border.
Frank Calzon and Joe Garcia of the US funded Center for a Free Cuba of Miami (FNCA) supports
Gustavo Cisneros of Univision/Venevision TV and the other anti-Castro terrorists. They vow to use the
Cuban lobby in Washington to hurt Chavez.
Roger Noriega: Ambassador to OAS (2000-2002) took Otto Riech's place as Assistant Secretary of
State for Latin America. He is another anti-Castro, pro-Massacre, death squad friend,
pro-Venezuelan coup and a former congressional staffer of ultra-rightwing Senator Jesse Helms.
Elliot Abrams is a senior Bush official on the National Security Council and the head of the
administration's efforts in the Middle East (War and Peace?). Abrams, 55 years old, is a prominent star
of the rightist pro-Israel current that emerged towards the end of the 1970s as a response to the
moderate policies of former President
Jimmy Carter. Other representatives of this pro-Israeli element are Richard Perle, Jean
Kirkpatrick, and Frank Gaffney. Abrams is a staunch supporter of Ariel Sharon who is under indictment by the
Hague International Court for his butchery of 1000's of civilians at the Shatila and Sabra refugee
camps in Lebanon in 1982. Sharon hides behind his immunity as the leader of Israel.
Abrams was a key Reagan Administration contra-terrorist player in the 1980's who was convicted of
crimes in the Iran-Contra scandal and then pardoned by George Bush Sr. As assistant secretary of
state for Inter-American affairs under Reagan, he was responsible for the repressive and illegal
policies pursued in El Salvador and Nicaragua during the 1980s, and played a key role in the US
relationship to Manuel Noriega, and then he lied about the whole deal to the US Congress.
Concerning the testimony that got Abrams convicted, retired Admiral and former diplomat, William
Crowe described Abrams as a "snake who is hard to kill." And former Republican Senator David
Durenburger complained, "I wouldn't trust Elliott any further than I could throw Ollie North."
Abrams met with the Latin American Affairs Chief Otto Reich and several Venezuelan coup plotters
in April 2002 just before the kidnapping of Chavez. Somethings never change.
In 2000, Abrams was the president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center when he was tapped by
Condolezza Rice for a position on the National Security Council (the White House basement crew where
all the illegal actions take place) He will be assisted in this job by Flynt Leverett, who is
described as being "on detail from the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.)," who will be directly
responsible for the issue of the Arab-Israeli Conflict under Abrams? supervision.
Abrams is also on the advisory board of the Media Research Center, an organization that opposes
any traces of liberalism on TV or in films. Chairman L. Brent Bozell III publishes the newsletter
TV, ETC., with an advisory board that includes Abrams, Mona Charen, Pete DuPont, and Rush Limbaugh.
(Website: www.mrc.org)
A complete list of all the suspected criminals in the Bush administration could be lengthy. Marcel
Idels at Ecosolidaridad Andes has a list of 173 Colombians associated with the US and drugs or
death squads. (http://vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=2706)
STATE OF THE UNION OF IMPERIALIST STATES
(THE USA AND UK)
At his glorious State of the Union address to the US Congress in January, President Bush let the
world know that he is deeply concerned about US drug addictions. Bush was so busy smirking (about
his war) and invoking the great God of the Yankee-Gringos that he forgot to mention the even
deadlier US economic addictions that threaten the world and all 290 million US citizens: oil consumption
(SUV-symptoms) and the global weapons trade.
He mentioned his fears that North Korea is trying to blackmail the US but failed to mention
European fears that the US is blackmailing them into a war against Iraq that they want no part of. Bush
failed to recant the fascinating exchange in February between US Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and a
German government spokesperson: Rumsfeld said that France and Germany do not speak for Europe on
the war in Iraq and the German retorted that "We no longer live in the world of Cro Magnons where
the guy with the biggest stick hits you over the head and steals your Mastadon fur... Unlike the US,
Europe has a long history of civilization."
The US has practically a global monopoly in Arms sales, military power, computers and the oil
industry. Military adventures may soon bring much of the world's oil reserves under US "protection."
But the US and the UK certainly do not have a monopoly on "Bad Boys." Here are a few trouble-makers
from south of the border, well actually they shop in New York and Paris and they live in Miami,
but they are Venezuelans by birth or due to the fact of their extensive political and economic
interests in that so rich and desperately poor nation that they have pushed to the brink of a civil
war.
These US-created wars in Venezuela and Colombia are wars of greed that use the democratic
terrorism of "bosses-lockouts" and grandiose media deceptions alongside covert financing of the rightwing,
sabotage and deadly toxins.
VENEZUELANOS: MALOS Chicos - "BAD-BOYS"
Carlos Ortega: Confederation of Trade Unions (CTV)
president Carlos Ortega's former union, Fedepetrol, never joined the national stoppage that has hurt Venezuela so terribly. The high percentage of
worker absenteeism and industry stoppage was due to pure and simple sabotage of computers, keys,
codes, electrical transformers and many other items.
Carlos Fernandez and FEDECAMARS: It was all "buddy-buddy" with kisses and cuddles when, on April
12, Carlos Fernandez went to the Miraflores Presidential Palace on Avenida Urdaneta to congratulate
his Federation of Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FEDECAMARAS) colleague Pedro Carmona Estanga
who had just been proclaimed Venezuela's Dictator-for-a-Day. On the same day, Carmona Estanga tried
to dissolve the National Assembly (AN), the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ), and to do away
completely with any form of democracy. All this while the Caracas police were brutalizing and killing
dozens of Chavez supporters.
Opposition hardliners have been embarrassed by the cutie picture of the cuddling coup-couple.
National Assembly (AN) Education Committee deputy president Orlando Garcia is studying the possibility
of stripping Fernandez of his Venezuelan citizenship for his "xenophobic and anti-patriotic
attitude." Garcia points out that Fernandez isn't Venezuelan by birth but comes from Saragossa (Spain)
and cites the following accusations meriting expulsion from Venezuela: "calling for a foreign
invasion, inciting to rebellion, damage against the economic patrimony and sowing terror and hate among
the population." (http://vheadline.comreadnews.asp?id=2949)
Gustavo Cisneros: He is the richest person in Venezuela and his business group is one of the most
powerful in all of Latin America if not the world. He is a dear friend of George Bush, his father
George Sr. and Jimmy Carter. Cisneros heads the largest Hispanic media empire, the CISNEROS Group.
This is a private corporation with 1999 revenues of 4 billion and the 4th largest corporation in
Latin America after: Petrobras (Brazil) $17 billion, YDF (Argentina) $5 billion and Odebrecht
(Brazil) $4 billion. In fifth place is Technit (Argentina) with $3 billion in revenues and another big
player at 9th is Venezuela's Corimon Corporation. Cisneros is heavily involved with Hughes
Electronics Corporation (General Motors), owns 25 percent of Univision (US), two television stations in
Venezuela, banks, and the second largest beer company, Regional.
Oh, and we would be forgetting an item important to Venezuelans if we forgot to mention Cisneros
ownership of Los Leones de Caracas a popular baseball team that has 108 players on its payroll
signed up to play abroad. Sports commentators say this is a first for a Venezuelan baseball team. The
"export" group does not include veterans, such as Andres Galarraga, Omar Vizquel and Roberto
Petagine.
Pedro Carmona Estanga: He was routed from the Presidential compound just hours after Chavez was
restored to power. In punishment Carmona was penalized with "house arrest" at his luxurious
apartment in Santa Eduvigis (Caracas). Soon he snuck off to the Colombian Embassy to avoid a several
years' prison sentence.
Albis Munoz:
Venezuelan Federation of Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Fedecamaras) vice president, Albis
Munoz, insists that the opposition was not frightened by "the government's threats, we know that with
the support of 90% of Venezuelans, who want an electoral solution, we will have our opportunity."
No one was sure what he was talking about, but it sounded good.
Edward Hauser: Key media representative and corporate spokesperson for the Cisneros Group
Pedro Pablo Alcantara is an Accion Democratica (AD) deputy who urged dissident government deputies
to switch their votes and come join the opposition.
Carlos Andrés Pérez, former (impeached) President of Venezuela who ordered 1000 rioters shot in
1989 is still an influential leader of the Accion Democratica political party and also has
connections to baseball in Venezuela with his friend Jaime Lucent.
Jorge Kamkoff was the former vice president of PDVSA and a key financier of the April coup against
Chavez.
Lopez Mendoza of Conindustria, is the youngest billionaire in Latin America and owns 75 percent of
the beer production in Venezuela. Along with Carlos Fernandez and the next six outlaws, he signed
a letter to the President of Colombia calling for a boycott of trade with Venezuela until Chavez
is deposed (http://aporrea.org/dameverbo.php?docid=4155)
Julio Brazon: Consecomercio Corporation.
Jose Luis Betancourt: Fedenga Corporation.
Francisco Mendoza: Avex Corporation.
Rafael Alfonzo: Cavidea Corporation.
Jose Manuel Gonzalez: Fedeagro is the large cattleman, ranchers and stolen property organization
that pleaded ignorance and incompetence to charges that its members dodge 90 percent of the taxes
that they owe and never pay. (http://vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=2443)
Juan Gonzalez: Cavecol Corporation president Gonzalez boasted in January that the private sector
had enough financial resources to hold out for weeks during the national stoppage and threatened
dire consequences when gasoline runs out... Gonzalez was seen jumping for joy during the April 12
installation of Pedro Carmona Estanga as Dictator-for-a-Day of Venezuela.
Rightwing Mercenaries:
Jimmy "Habitat for Corporate Humanity" Carter and the Carter Center: A sell-out pretend peace
maker who is a long time friend of Gustavo Cisneros another good ole boy from the South - South
Florida ain't too far from Georgia is it?
US Corporations SAIC-INTESA: One of the top ten US defense contractors and a global high security
computer systems management firm staffed with US military, Intelligence and Defense industry good
old boys. They were key players in the bosses strike and sabotaged many state oil company
computers and other devices before being thrown out of the country.
Cesar Gaviria: OAS Chief, mediator in Venezuelan dispute and corrupt former President of Colombia.
He is a friend of deposed Peruvian
President Fujimori and the rightwing death squad congressmen who back Uribe in Colombia.
Felipe González is the former Socialist Prime Minister of Spain and a powerful behind the scenes
Spanish politician who ruined his own political party and now with the likes of Tony Blair has
defied his principles to join sides with the fascists in Spain and the US Bush war machine.
Jesús Polanco of the daily newspaper El País in Spain.
Lt. Col. James Rodgers, the US military attaché in Caracas, and US Army Col. Ronald MacCammon
advised the generals who turned against Chavez in April 2002 and stayed with them for 48 hours, until
the coup collapsed in the face of mass demonstrations and rioting. They assured the coup leaders
of the full support of the U S. Washington denied these reports, making the improbable claim that
these two US officers had merely made a "drive-by" inspection of the coup headquarters. "They never
got out of their vehicle," a State Department official insisted. Rodgers' office was located on
the fifth floor of the main building of Fort Tiuna, the largest military base in Venezuela and the
place that Chavez was taken after he was kidnapped by US-backed forces. The US was the only country
whose military attaché enjoyed this privilege at Fort Tiuna. Chavez had ordered that the office be
removed, but the Venezuelan military never carried out his instructions.
Naomi Klein is a US anti-globalization activists and the author of No Logo. While she champions
"power to the people" and a decentralist position she ignores her own hypocrisy in attacking Chavez,
Lula and their millions of supporters at the World Social Forum. She accuses Latin leaders of
hijacking the anti-corporate globalization movement, calls them dangerous and leaves the impression
that she considers them terrorists. She and her clique of center-right advisers are the usual
ignorant voices that lacking a well-thought-out program just attack others and disrupt movements because
they are so afraid of actual change. See the article that put her in the hot seat at
www.guardian.co.uk and comments from Argentineans at
argentina.indymedia.org
Regional Bad Boys: A Very Short List
Alejandro Toledo is the President of Peru who enjoys a whopping 9 percent popularity in the polls.
He refuses to reign in the Peruvian death squads such as the White Fang.
Alvaro Uribe and Carlos Castano are the Co-Presidents of Colombian and both are heavily involved
in drugs and death squads.
Carlos Menem is the most hated man in Argentina, a corrupt former president and a known arms and
drugs smuggler. He may yet find a way to become the next president of Argentina with US backing.
Ditto for
Eduardo Duhalde, Kirchner and Lopez Murphy.
Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada barely made it to the presidency of Bolivia and has proceeded to resist
social change and cater to Otto Reich, the US White House and foreign businesses. Peasants and
Cocaleros are manning roadblocks amid severe repression.
Middle of the Road Regional Players: Safety In Vagueness ?
Felipe Quispe ("El Mallku") leader of the highland Amayra indigenous people of Bolivia. A survivor
and a slightly hesitant player in the road blockades against the corrupt rightwing government of
Losada Sanchez. Quispe is perhaps the least deserving of middling status as he has been an
important anti-government organizer for several years. Bolivia needs Quispe and Morales together and the
government and media have done all they can to divide them. According to his statements at the Out
From the Shadows Drug Conference near Cancum, Mexico Quispe is firmly behind the revolution in
Bolivia: "to create a peaceful living conditions among Bolivians and better distribution of wealth,
the Confederation of Unions of Farmers and Workers of Bolivia (CSUTCB) has made the decision that
the only way to defend democracy, demand the rights of indigenous people and the workers salaries,
is to DEMAND THE IMIDIATE RESIGNATION of President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and simultaneously
CALL FOR A CONSTITUANT ASSEMBLY..." (http://www.narconews.com/Issue28/article612.html)
Andres Galarraga is a baseball star who did advertisements on Venezuelan TV calling for peace.
(From The Nation Jan 13-20)
Alan Garcia is a former president of Peru from the left of center APRA political party. His
associates did well in recent elections for governors.
Elisa Carrio of the political party Alternative for a Republic of Equals (ARI) is trying to
represent the left in Argentina's April elections for President. This is a difficult job compounded by
Carrio's resistance to a more radical platform that would unite many leftists and autonomous
groups. The Argentine labor union CTA deserves similar middle of the road "honors."
Ivonne Baki is the new Foreign Commerce Minister of Ecuador. She has lived in Washington DC for
years and was an advisor to the deposed and corrupt President Mahuad. The newspaper El Comercio
describes her as a friend of Mr. "Plan Colombia" Bill Clinton.
Mario Pozo, the Economy and Finance Minister of Ecuador, is an ardent rightwing freemarket
proponent and a friend of Ecuador's bankers and the corrupt elite.
Most NGO's, career leftists intellectuals, green party members, and the many naïve do-gooders of
the US and Europe deserve some dishonorable mention here because they don't look or listen to the
poor people that they claim to represent and care about. As Petras says Oxfam International and
anyone who thinks that the ALCA/FTAA can be negotiated instead of abolished needs a reality check or
should get out of the way of the masses, ditto all of the fair trade and reformist apologists for
free market improvements.
BLACKMAIL AND POLITICAL HARDBALL
EVERYTHING in the world is about blackmail, threat and force. Lula, President of Brazil and
possibly the new leader of the world (sorry George W.) - holds most of the cards. Brazil is blackmailing
the US over the debt of Latin America. In the past the US bribed or blackmailed the rightwing
governments there. "Tio Sam" (US) continuously threatened to stop loans, investments or arms deals
unless the Latin American elite did most of what the US wanted: strong militaries, big corporate
profits and controlled corruption with a strong dose of "fear for the masses" when needed. The US
continues to back this elite of death squads and ex-patriot Miamians with every thing and every vice
they need.
Just two years ago the US blackmailed the leaders of the indigenous uprising in Ecuador to back
down and turn power over to the corrupt vice president, Noboa, or else face isolation and economic
sabotage. The same happened in Chile (1973), Nicaragua (1980-1990), Cuba (Since 1959) and Venezuela
today. But this US blackmail/extortion no longer is as effective, since so many countries are
rising up together in Latin America.
Now the left has power in South America - and maybe soon in most of Latin America. "Remember the
Domino theory?" Well now we have one that can't be stopped! The caring people of the US had better
learn the rules in this new game or they will lose everything - especially the possibility of
friendship and solidarity.
Secrets are everywhere... they happen all around us. Secrets and a whole world that even most
educated people can't really factor into their general rap - their spoken worldview... Who does the
Venezuelan government's public relations output? We know who does the right wing Venezuelan PR and
media: "Public Enemy" Gustavo Cisneros, and "carlitos" Ortega. They have 50 billion dollars at their
disposal, a media empire or two, the whole US- Miami/Cuban - White House basement (Bush Sr. set this
up nice!) - and the rightwing in Venezuela also have the US Republican Party "Honchos" (Lugar, and
Henry Hide) and 20 or 40 more experts, conspirators and media spinners...
BUT HUGO CHAVEZ SURVIVES TWO US COUP ATTEMPTS!
It looks like Hugo Chavez and a few friends ARE WINNING against half the rich manipulators in the
world... and now comes Lula da Silva and the powerhouse Brazilian Workers Party and Gutierrez in
Ecuador, Morales in Bolivia and Carrio in Argentina. If Bush couldn't handle Chavez what will he do
against a whole region of angry leftists?
The tide of the world has turned - it is so obvious that a lot of chaos is about to happen. It may
be "managed" - as in the US and Europe cave-in (to blackmail - self interest) and debt is written
off ALL OVER THE WORLD - or else... revolution will come from rising expectations.
Dominoes ARE RISING AND FALLING... in Bolivia and Peru and ? (Chile, Paraguay... Mexico???). A
continental revolution is rising up to knock off the elite everywhere. This is not happening so much
because the people have planned and organized so well or long. But many are ready to fight because IT
IS ALL HAPPENING NOW and people sense that the time has come - the feeling and the yearning for an
end to neoliberalism and foreign control is so strong that liberation just happens.
From La Paz, Bolivia to Buenos Aires and the barrios of Caracas we have seen that people learn
fast and self-organize. They know to take the streets, block the roads and seize the factories. A
great need for a redistribution of wealth and power encourages demands for more and there will be no
end. As Chavez said on February 7th : "The coup-mongering fascist opposition had their turn at the
bat and they struck out three times. Now it's our turn to bat... the peoples' turn." (New York
Times, February 7, 2003, p. A6.)
Lula plays the same game as Chavez: wait and see. They don't have to move fast unless the US
forces them to. Let the people learn and lead and fashion their own demands. The Iraq war, terrorism
and financial problems are dogging the US Bush agenda - not to mention war in Colombia and grave
domestic problems - prisons, pollution and perjury (perdition, perversion sorry God...) A global crisis
driven by the US is assured and the US elite will be too busy to deal with an organized resistance
in Latin America. ... And community organizing is happening fast.
WARNINGS, CONFLICT AND PREPARATION: BAD BOYS FIGHT BACK!
From the New York Times to Bush's speeches, the word blackmail pops up as often as the words
"regime change." Author Jeffery St. Claire doesn't use the word blackmail in his article about the US
threat to use genetically engineered killer fungi against drug crops in South America. But the
immense power and menacing attitude of the US lays thick on this issue and on St. Claire's article
"Agent Green." Something reeks of coercion and strong-arming and one wonders how much longer the US
can escape the consequences of its actions.
"The scandalous drug war-military intervention in Colombia "project" drones on and somehow
billions of dollars of guns and US death squad funding flies right under the radar of the mainstream
press. They are ever loath to tackle seriously any topic wrapped in the holy robes of the drug war -
or the defense department!
But why doesn't anyone see that 20,000 to 30,000 innocent people are murdered every year - and the
blame is all about the Colombian government-elite-drug Lord - corruption reality - not what George
Bush or US drug war TV adds tell us. Yet, what it really adds up to is a form of environmental
terrorism. The toxic wasteland and human suffering left in the wake of these operations is not
accidental, not, to use the fetching term of the economists, a uncomfortable externality of an otherwise
benign project. Instead, it is a calculated tactic, designed to evoke fear and terror-the
carpet-bombing of the drug war.
Don't say the toxic warriors in the Bush administration aren't bibliophiles. Obviously they've
read [the environmental and toxic pesticide bible] Silent Spring. Only not as the stark warning
Rachel Carson intended, but as a war plan which they are now bent on putting into global action."
-
www.counterpunch.org/stclair1224.html
This is blackmail of a whole new magnitude and one that may just wake the world up: Bio Terror!
Anything less than a Bush surrender at this point will only assist the left and the forces opposing
the US and its corporate henchmen. Everyone is watching the US and it won't be long before someone
calls Mr. "Thorny" Bush's bluff and then we will find out what US political patriotism is really
made out of.
Deny the Empire, Stop the US! Find the Bad Boys... and as Arundhati Roy of India says: "Undress the
Empire." [uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=53282&group=webcast
"THREE ADDICTIONS (truths) TO ACCEPT
ONE PROBLEM (US Imperialism) TO CONFRONT
AND A MASSIVE GLOBAL CONSPIRACY TO DEFEAT"
What's for dessert?
-
– Karmen Selis
Karmen Selis is a 27 year old wanderer who sometimes reports on his travels in Venezuela and Ecuador. He has worked on several environmental campaigns in the US and Ecuador. He looked forward to a relaxing break on a farm in the mountains near Merida, but now, like many Venezuelans, Selis finds himself caught up in a growing revolution. He says that good food and fewer cars due to the gasoline shortages makes up for the currency restrictions and the expensive internet services.
References:
For background on public policy debates in Brazil and Venezuela see article by Marcel Idels of
Ecosolidarity Andes ecosolidarity@yahoo.com
See also article by Karmen Selis on Class Conflict in Venezuela [December 2002]:
-
www.aporrea.org
Move to strip Fedecamaras Carlos Fernandez of Venezuelan citizenship:
-
VHeadline.com
Posted: Sunday, December 08, 2002
By: VHeadline.com Reporters
From Rachel Guevera at Andes Libre News Service (for Karmen Selis).
Please contact us with any questions or to verify information and sources (of which we have very
many).
For a list of the original (but now expanded) Bad Boys contact us at webmaster@andeslibre.zzn.com
Footnotes:
Only a few background notes listed here, contact for more documentation
- "To defeat the conspiracy through legal, but firm, opportune and audacious measures would reduce the internal hydra to just one head: the media octopus. The politics of this octopus is explained by multiple economic and political interests of wide influence, among which the quartet of Cisneros and..." http://www.aporrea.org/dameverbo.php?docid=3595
- CANTV is the largest private corporation in Venezuela it was privatized in 1991.
DIRECTORIO EJECUTIVO CANTV
Gustavo Roosen, Presidente de Cantv and Presidente de Movilnet
Vicente Llatas, Vicepresidente Ejecutivo.
Kathleen De Izaguirre, Presidente de Caveguías.
Miguel Benatuil, Presidente de Cantv.net
- Meridiano TV is primarily a sports channel run by Dr. Andrés De Armas Presidente, Lic. Martín De Armas Lic. Armando De Armas Vicepresidentes. Coordinación General del Web Site: Ing. Luddy De Los Reyes
Desarrollo Tecnológico y Programación
Lic. Luz de Fátima Duque lduque@dearmas.com
Web Master T.S.U. Jonathan Santomauro
- Former Corrupt Officials of PDVSA, INTESA AND SAIC in Venezuela
Jorge Kamkoff M., uno de los financistas del Golpe de Estado del 11 de abril de 2002 and the former vice - president of PDVSA. He is a chemical engineer who graduated from the Central University of Venezuela in 1969, he joined the Venezuelan oil industry that same year. He has attended various programs and courses in technical and managerial areas in Venezuela, and abroad at the Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas. Jorge Kamkoff was a professor at the Universidad de Oriente, and instructor in the Meneven and Corpoven management development programs.
He has held various supervisory, managerial and executive positions in the oil industry and in public administration: president and member of the Board of PDV Marina; president of the Governing Council of CEPET, the oil industry's training center (CIED today); advisor to the PDVSA presidency in the area of relations with the U.S. Congress and government's Energy Administration; general manager of Corpoven Refining; manager of the Puerto La Cruz District and Meneven Refinery Operations, as well as Project Management and Control manager in PDVSA's Petrochemicals Coordination.
Kamkoff took part in the Venezuelan-German Agreement as alternate coordinator of the Energy Sector and Heavy Crude Upgrading projects. He was also resident engineer for the Oriente Cryogenic Project, Liquids Fractionation section, with Warren Petroleum Co. of Tulsa, Oklahoma.In public office he was president of the National Ports Institute during its restructuring and privatization stage, and was president of the commission appointed to restructure the Venezuelan Social Security Institute.
In October 1999 he was appointed vice-president of the PDVSA Gas Division, and in February 2000 was named vice-president of the Manufacturing and Marketing Division, and later executive director of PDVSA Refining, Supply and Commerce. In March 2001 he was appointed vice-president of Petróleos de Venezuela, and was confirmed in that position in February and April 2002.
He has taken part in, and contributed actively to, the social development of several of the country's communities and in various joint activities with the Armed Forces, including the PDV Marina-Navy, PDV Marina-Air force, PDV Marina-National Guard agreements, and in Safety and National Defense operations with the Armed Forces. Kamkoff belongs to several national and international associations related to the energy sector.
- José Rafael Paz is a former vice president of PDVSA and a chemical engineer who graduated from Louisiana State University in 1974, he began his professional career with Diamond Shamrock Company's Specialized Chemical Products Division, in the United States. In 1975 he joined Compañía Shell de Venezuela -later Maraven- as Processes engineer at the company's Cardón refinery, where he later held various technical and supervisory and managerial positions in the areas of processes, conversion, supply, operations and technology.
In 1991 he was appointed general manager of Maraven's Internal Market Division and, in 1994, was transferred to Pequiven, where he was successively Business manager of the Olefins and Plastics Business Unit, director, vice-president and then president of Pequiven. This last position was from October 2001 until his present appointment as vice-president of Petróleos de Venezuela.
Rafael Paz has also held executive positions in other companies in the chemicals field, such as president of Productos Especiales C.A. (Proesca), president of Comercializadora de Químicos y Petroquímicos (COPEQUIM), president of the Grupo Zuliano, president of Metanol de Oriente (Metor) and principal director of International Petrochemical Holding Ltd. (IPHL)
- The U.S. in the face of a deepening economic crisis, rising mass movements and the possible cutting off of oil supplies? The answers to these questions cannot be deduced from abstract economic formulas about the "Crises of World Capitalism". The answers will be induced from the level of class and national consciousness expressed through direct political intervention. James Petras at www.rebelion.org
- Two Cuban American Republicans in Congress, Florida’s Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, left the Congressional Hispanic Caucus when California Democrat Xavier Becerra of Los Angeles was elected chairman in 1996, arguing that his then recent congressional "fact-finding" trip to Cuba had been "an insult" to them and had shown his "pro-Castro" tendencies.
- EXCERPTS FROM: "National Defense Council Foundation"
In Memoriam : MAJ. GEN. EDWARD LANSDALE, USAF (Ret.)
President
MILTON R. COPULOS
Executive Director, Treasurer
MAJ. F. ANDY MESSING JR., USAR (Ret.)
Vice Presidents
H. KEITH CHRISTIAN, JR.
CATHARINE C. DICKEY
SANDRA G. MARCUCCI
DAVIS ELKINS
BARBARA B. CHRISTIAN
LT. COL. RICHARD R. NEVITTE, JR., USAFR (RET.)
CMDR. ROBERT W. SELLE, USNR (RET.)
Chairman
Hon. DAN L. BURTON, M.C.
Vice Chairman
Former U. S. Representative ROBERT K. DORNAN
Military Advisors
ADMIRAL C.A. MARK HILL USN (Ret.)
MAJOR GILBERT A. MACKLIN, USMC (RET.)
COLONEL WILLIAM R. COUSINS, USA (RET.)
Senatorial Advisors
US SENATOR LARRY F. CRAIG
US SENATOR ORRIN HATCH
US SENATOR TRENT LOTT
US SENATOR DON NICKLES
Senior Economic Advisor
HERBERT HUMPHREYS, JR.
Congressional Advisors
US Representative HERBERT H. BATEMAN
US Representative CHRISTOPHER COX
US Representative PHILIP M. CRANE
US Representative WALLY HERGER
US Representative DUNCAN HUNTER
US Representative RON PACKARD
US Representative FLOYD D. SPENCE
US Representative BOB STUMP
Former Congressional Advisors
Former Speaker of the House NEWT GINGRICH
Former US Representative DICK CHENEY
Former US Representative WILLIAM E. DANNEMEYER
Former US Representative MANUEL LUJAN, JR.
Former US Representative MEL HANCOCK
Former US Representative CARLOS J. MOORHEAD
Former US Representative DAN SCHAEFER
Former US Representative GERALD B. H. SOLOMON
US Representative BARBARA F. VUCANOVICH
Messing's web site statement: "Venezuela - Attempted coup; economic crisis sees Bolivar plummet against the US dollar; government forced shutdown of media; violent protests"
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