Re: [Marxism] It's about fucking time

["Joaquin Bustelo" <jbustelo@xxxxxxxxx>]

        Louis succinctly summed up the expulsion from Venezuela of
imperialist agent Jose Miguel Vivanco, Latin American director of the
so-called "human rights" watch outfit, with this pithy subject line. But,
still, a few more things can profitably be noted.

        The thing about Vivanco is, this was an obvious, conscious
provocation. 

        The timing and location of Vivanco's Thursday press conference in
Caracas was communicated to the imperialist and opposition media many days
in advance. The event was carefully coordinated so that it would be
transmitted live by capitalist TV locally and internationally through CNN en
Español (and perhaps additional outlets). It was even slated to begin on the
half hour (because Venezuela's local time is 1/2 hour off imperialist
Eastern Time) to make it more convenient.

        What surprises me is that the revolutionary government let him into
the country AT ALL, for while citizens of many countries may be able to
enter Venezuela for tourism with a minimum of visa formalities --or none at
all-- it is an entirely different matter if you come in a professional
capacity or to do work. The same is true of the United States and many other
countries, if not all of them. Some French journalists a while back got in
hot water and expelled from the U.S. when they came over as tourists and
tried to cover the winter Olympics, I think it was. The only extraordinary
thing about how Vivanco was treated is that they helped him pack his bags
and simply ushered him to the airport and invited to leave, rather than
dumping him in jail while the Venezuelan equivalent of la migra figured out
what to do with such a conscious and blatant violator of immigration laws.

        Somehow, I doubt this was an oversight, but rather a statement by
the revolutionary government. They consciously LET Vivanco have his
"Venezuelan is a dictatorship where no one can criticize the government"
press conference so it could be transmitted "Live from Caracas," without
interference or interruption, both within Venezuela and throughout the
hemisphere. An expression of what in Spanish we would call "sovereign"
contempt for the yanqui fabrications. 

        I know in the Spanish-language US newsroom where I work, the irony
was not lost on many. And then, just in case someone thought that Vivanco
got away with it not because the revolutionary government is simply unafraid
of criticism, especially such a contemptible source, but rather because this
was someone from Washington, they kicked his ass out of the country so hard
he landed in Sao Paulo. 

        Where, it should be noted, he was interviewed ONCE AGAIN this
morning, this time by phone, by CNN en Español, about how "brutally" he had
been treated. Vivanco was livid. Why the Chavista thugs didn't even let him
use his Blackberry to call another press conference! Not that it mattered,
because opposition TV station cameras just HAPPENED to be in Vivanco's hotel
room when the Venezuelan immigration authorities came calling late, late
last night. Now all the TV news producers --and the CIA-- are saying": thank
God for coincidence!

        Two things that should be noted, the first being the overall
ideological CONTENT of Vivanco's presentation. While the group calls itself
"Human Rights Watch," this is the old anti-communist CIA front "Helsinki
Watch." What it tries to do is convince everyone that human rights consist
of rich people being allowed to use their money to impose on society the
messages they want to convey, and that's it. There are no other human
rights. No political nor --heaven forbid!-- social or economic rights other
than the right of rich people to use their money to impose their will on
society as a whole.

        While it was "Helsinki Watch," the outfit had the brutal
arbitrariness of the Stalinists in Moscow and other East European capitals
to help its credibility. Nowadays it is such a shameless CIA sock puppet
that it doesn't even bother to issue at least a token, ritual denunciation
of the American concentration camp and torture center in Guantanamo for
cover.

        Thus while Vivanco claimed in his Caracas presser that Chavez had
"used" the 2002 coup to deprive certain elements of their "human rights," he
had not a word to say about the coup itself being a *monster* violation of
the human rights of the ENTIRE Venezuelan NATION. Nothing about the human
rights of the Venezuelan people to have the government they elected --not
once, but REPEATEDLY-- in power, nor to have carried out the revolutionary
project on behalf of poor and working people that THIS government was
elected to put in place. The only human right that exists is that of the
moneyed minority to oppose and block the will of the majority by any means,
fair or foul (though if truth be told, exclusively foul).

        The second thing that should be noted is the TIMING of the event. It
comes at a time of stepped up provocations against the sovereignty not just
of Venezuela, but of Bolivia. 

        Yet whether Evo Morales is proving to be a masterful politician with
his temporizing tactics against the "half moon" autonomists, or just got
lucky, it turns out the result of the recent weeks of maneuvering has been
that the opposition last week had enough rope to hang itself, or at least to
give itself such a severe whipping that it's close to being on life support.
The opposition has isolated itself from regional backing, including
Brazil's, which is very important, the trump card they had been secretly
(and not so secretly) been counting on. 

        And they succeeded in at least *formally* uniting ALL of South
America against them. This is important. Until Monday's summit in Chile,
only convened on Saturday afternoon, BTW, UNASUR --the fledgling Union of
South American Nations-- had been a hope, or, at MOST, a plan. On Monday it
became a REALITY.

        How? Why? Well, on the 11th, there was a massacre in Pando
Department in Bolivia of pro-Morales marchers. And I think all of a sudden
the presidents of Brazil, of Chile, of Argentina, of Peru, of Uruguay and
Paraguay all saw a page of their own histories from the 1960's, 1970's or
1980's flash before them. 

        Perhaps if it had not been on the anniversary of the Pinochetazo
(Pinochet coup) in Chile in 1973, September 11, the reaction might not have
been so strong. Or perhaps if President Bachelet of Chile hadn't been
president pro-temp of UNASUR. But as it was, this is a history that the
presidents of South America, called together by one of their own, and
speaking at least this once as true representatives of their peoples,
unanimously responded to with "never again." 

        So they gave Evo Morales's government their full support as the
legitimate government of Bolivia, and denied any legitimacy whatsoever to
those who would either overthrow him or dismember the country, whether
officially or just in fact. 

        And in the process UNASUR was truly born. For once, Latin American
states, dealing with a political crisis with dire regional implication in
which the United States was OBVIOUSLY a major player --for it was the
expulsion of the American "verga de oro," Ambassador Goldberg, that
detonated the escalation of the crisis in Bolivia-- took a stand WITHOUT the
United States and *against* the designs of American imperialism.

        And it even had repercussions BEYOND South America, to Central
America, with its weak, balkanized republics, where Honduras, in a gesture
of dignity and solidarity with Bolivia, cancelled the ceremonial, formal
presentation of the new yanqui ambassador's credentials. A tiny, purely
symbolic act of dignity and rebellion -- but from such cracks, empires
crumble.

        These events are a harbinger of the future when we Latin Americans
will not only be "un pueblo sin fronteras" --a single people without
borders-- but also without the humiliating tutelage of the OAS, the
"Organization of American States," so justly condemned by the greatest Latin
American patriot of them all as "el ministerio de colonias yanqui." (The
U.S. Ministry of Colonies).

        Meanwhile, the yanqui-inspired provocations of the autonomists
finally forced Bolivia's raucous left, with its many problems and divisions,
to see its way clear to uniting in its big majority around defense of the
Morales government. And the opposition is effectively divided, with the
Pando departmental prefect in prison facing murder charges for the Sep. 11
massacre, and the others disavowing what he did and seeing no alternative
but to accept the restoration of the functioning of central government
offices and institutions in their areas as the price for the government
entering into a dialogue with them. Again, a small, symbolic thing, but of
extreme importance: formal, official, and on the ground recognition by these
wannabe leaders of a slaveholder's rebellion of the sovereignty and
authority of the central government headed by compañero Presidente Evo
Morales over the entire territory of the Bolivian nation. 

        Venezuela is, of course, a different matter. The revolutionary
government is firmly in control. Vivanco's rehash of trumped up charges and
long since discredited horror stories might, at most, send a message to the
opposition that Washington --however distracted by its collapsing financial
system-- is still with them (for whatever that may be worth by Monday
morning). 

        But it also shows regular working people in Venezuela that Chávez is
right, their real enemy is U.S. imperialism. For while Vivanco may speak
with a Chilean accent, the real provenance of his provocation was there,
printed quite plainly in the booklet detailing Chavez's supposed "abuses"
that he handed out to journalists: "Made in USA."

Joaquin



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