Re: [A-List] Venezuela: imperialist duplicity

["Anne Williamson" <annewilliamson@xxxxxxx>]

This is indeed delicious reading.  But it's the CIA that's really got the
egg on its face - layers of it, in fact.  What a magnificient screw-up!
The empire has definitely over-reached.  Imagine DUH-bya sitting
in the White House, scratching his head, his narrow eyes screwed
into slits, and thinking, "Gee, this isn't what Rummy told me was
gonna happen."  -A.

----- Original Message -----
From: Keaney Michael <Michael.Keaney@xxxxxx>
To: A-List (E-mail) <a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, April 15, 2002 4:18 AM
Subject: [A-List] Venezuela: imperialist duplicity


One of the most disgusting features of this weekend's events was the quick
and uncritical recognition of the post-Chavez regime by the US, contrary to
all of its professed support for "democracy". Of course this was no
surprise, given that Chavez has long been targeted as a "problem" by US
imperialism, but the brazenness of it took some of my breath away. Bravo to
those Latin American countries that refused to recognise the short-lived
regime. But here we have a prime example of the slime-pit that the UK
Foreign Office has become under New Labour, as we encounter once again our
old "friend" Denis MacShane, ICFTU stalwart and loyal Blairite toady, who
has had to reverse his original position very quickly. Clearly, those
emphasising the "need" for a "new" imperialism are in no doubt as to the
threat of people like Chavez.


Egg on face of Labour minister who called deposed leader 'ranting demagogue'

Michael White, political editor
Monday April 15, 2002
The Guardian

The Labour minister who likened Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, to
Mussolini after his fall from power on Friday welcomed his return to office
yesterday.

Denis MacShane, the Spanish-speaking Foreign Office minister in charge of
relations with Latin America, called the failure of the military coup a blow
for democratic values and appealed for social dialogue.

"Last week's coup has failed. Any change of government in Venezuela as
elsewhere in Latin America and the world should come about by democratic
means. In my talks with President Chavez last week he spoke of his
admiration for the European model," he said in a statement posted on the
Foreign Office website.

Diplomatic nimble-footedness could reconcile the comment with Saturday's
website statement in which the MP for Rotherham appealed for "the swift
return to a legitimate, democratic government in Venezuela" - but gave no
indication that it might be the charismatic populist Mr Chavez he had in
mind.

Less susceptible to nuance was the article the minister, a former
journalist, contributed to Saturday's Times when it looked as if Mr Chavez
was as much history as his 19th-century hero, Simon Bolivar.

Under the headline "I saw the calm, rational Chavez turn into a ranting
populist demagogue" Mr MacShane described how his official 20-minute meeting
with the Venezuelan leader on Monday had turned into a two-hour session in
the presidential palace.

"As we spoke about Latin America - I felt I was talking to a normal,
worldly-wise political leader. He sounded positively Thatcherite in his
desire to slim down the bloated Venezuelan oil industry and welcomed the
bids by BP and British Gas to bring global expertise to his country's energy
sector," the minister wrote.

He went on to contrast that with a "bizarre three-hour TV speech" in which
Mr Chavez sacked six oil executives and raised the minimum wage by 20%.

As a general strike was mounted against him Mr MacShane reported: "He was
dressed in a red paratrooper's beret and rugby shirt and waved his arms up
and down like Mussolini - an odd, disturbing spectacle. The calm, rational
Chavez had been replaced by a ranting populist demagogue."

It was not his ties to Saddam Hussein or Fidel Castro that brought Mr Chavez
down, but his failure to deliver "economic efficiency, social justice and
political freedom", Mr MacShane averred on Saturday.

Yesterday he suggested that the president might just have stepped down
temporarily to avoid bloodshed.

Full article at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,684564,00.html

Michael Keaney
Mercuria Business School
Martinlaaksontie 36
01620 Vantaa
Finland

michael.keaney@xxxxxx