Bush Administration caught with pants down . . .
All the news media here (newspaper, public radio, BBC, TV) have a common theme on the Coup, the US was definitely mucking around in the back ground trying push Ch?vez out.
. . . CES"
ps . . . Bush + Cheney = Oil
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'Losing Latin America'
By Paul Krugman, New York Times
Many people, myself included, would
agree that Hugo Ch?vez is not the
president Venezuela needs. He
happens, however, to be the president
Venezuela elected ? freely, fairly and
constitutionally. That's why all the
democratic nations of the Western
Hemisphere, however much they may
dislike Mr. Ch?vez, denounced last
week's attempted coup against him.
~ and ~
Here's how the BBC put it: "Far from
condemning the ouster of a
democratically elected president, U.S.
officials blamed the crisis on Mr.
Ch?vez himself," and they were
"clearly pleased with the result" ?
even though the new interim
government proceeded to abolish the
legislature, the judiciary and the
Constitution. They were presumably
collapsed. The BBC again: "President
Ch?vez's comeback has . . . left
Washington looking rather stupid."
The national security adviser,
Condoleezza Rice, didn't help that
impression when, incredibly, she
cautioned the restored president to
"respect constitutional processes."
Surely the worst thing about this
episode is the betrayal of our
democratic principles; "of the people,
by the people, for the people" isn't
supposed to be followed by the words
"as long as it suits U.S. interests."
~ and ~
Yet there we were, reminding everyone
of the bad old days when any
would-be right-wing dictator could
count on U.S. backing.
As it happens, we aligned ourselves
with a peculiarly incompetent set of
plotters. Mr. Ch?vez has alienated a
broad spectrum of his people; the
demonstrations that led to his brief
overthrow began with a general strike
by the country's unions. But the
short-lived coup-installed government
included representatives of big
business and the wealthy ? full stop.
No wonder the coup collapsed. . . .
[ The full story from The New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/16/opinion/16KRUG.html
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Fingers in the pie:
Bush officials met with Venezuelans
who ousted leader
By Christopher Marquis, New York Times
WASHINGTON ? Senior members of the Bush
administration met several times in recent
months with leaders of a coalition that ousted
the Venezuelan president, Hugo Ch?vez, for two
days last weekend, and agreed with them that he
should be removed from office, administration
officials said today.
~ and ~
But administration officials gave conflicting
accounts of what the United States told those
opponents of Mr. Ch?vez about acceptable ways
of ousting him.
~ and ~
Arturo Valenzuela, the Latin America
national security aide in the Clinton
administration, accused the Bush
administration of running roughshod
over more than a decade of treaties and
agreements for the collective defense of
democracy. Since 1990, the United
States has repeatedly invoked those
agreements at the Organization of
American States to help restore
democratic rule in such countries as
Haiti, Guatemala and Peru.
Mr. Valenzuela, who now heads the
Latin American studies department at
Georgetown University here, warned
that the nations in the region might
view the administration's tepid support
of Venezuelan democracy as a green
light to return to 1960's and 1970's,
when power was transferred from coup
to coup.
"I think it's a very negative
development for the principle of
constitutional government in Latin
America," Mr. Valenzuela said. "I think
it's going to come back and haunt all of
us." . . .
[ The full story from The New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/16/international/americas/16DIPL.html
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Venezuelan turnabout leaves U.S. in lurch
State Dept. tries to explain silence on coup
Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times
Washington -- The Bush administration scrambled yesterday to explain why it did not denounce the would-be coup that briefly swept Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez from office last week, an attempt that Latin American leaders decried as an attack on a democratically elected leader.
The White House initially blamed the coup attempt, which unfolded on Friday, on the president's own actions. Only on Sunday,when Chavez was poised to regain his authority, did the United States join other members of the Organization of American States in a vaguely worded resolution that condemned the "alteration of constitutional order in Venezuela."
Chavez has also sought to limit his country's oil production, which could increase prices in the United States. Venezuela is the third-largest supplier of oil to the United States, exporting around 1.5 million barrels a day to U.S. terminals.
[ The full story click on --->
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