’sAlliance for Global Justice [ http://afgj.org/ ]
Elections in Venezuela are only two weeks away…and the US/Corporate Empire’s manipulation machine is gearing up and running. Bush era Ambassador to Venezuela Patrick Duddy has written an article outlining options for intervention in Venezuela and corporate media are publishing one spurious article after another to cast doubt on the electoral process. This is very familiar to us at the Alliance for Global Justice. We’ve seen this kind of thing before, and if solidarity activists do not speak up now, the odds are all the worse that interference will proceed unimpeded. Now is the time to raise our voices!.
The situation is not cut and dried, however. It should be noted that the White House, Congress and Pentagon do not have unity around how to address a probable reelection victory for President Hugo Chavez. It pays for us to remember the first days following the coup in Honduras. The US response was not of one mind. Unfortunately, it was not long before the US had consolidated its backing for the coup government, and today is providing with all kinds of weaponry, training and other support for the Honduran oligarchy’s repression of pro-democracy activists. This is why we must be pro-active and immediately demand that the US honor Venezuelan sovereignty and not intervene in her internal affairs.
Following are several ideas for action plus some resources that you can use in the coming weeks. What you do is important! Join AfGJ and let’s raise our voices together and say „Ya basta!“ to US intervention in Venezuela’s affairs.
*TAKE ACTION:*
*Click here to sign AfGJ’s Venezuela Solidarity Pledge: No US Sponsored Coups or Destabilization! * [ http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/7315/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=11735 ]
*
*Click Here to send a letter to the White House demanding the US keep its hands off Venezuela!* [ http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/7315/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=11734 ]
*
SEND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR AND TO AFGJ! Over the next weeks, there will be a barage of articles written and reports recorded that misinform and disinform about the candidacy of Pres. Chavez. This media onslaught will continue if Pres. Chavez wins, especially if the election is somewhat close or portrayed as illegitimate. We urge solidarity activists to take these reports seriously: they are the beating drums used to justify intervention. Send letters to the editor to set the record straight. And make sure we get a copy, so that we can post some of your letters on a special page on our website-whether or not corporate media publishes them. Send copies to bruce@afgj.org [ mailto:bruce@afgj.org ] .
*TALKING POINTS ON VENEZUELA*
* Since the advent of the Bolivarian Revolution and the first election of Pres. Chavez in 1998, malnutrition has been reduced from 21% to 6%, and there has been a 21% reduction in poverty rates.
* Investment in the agricultural sector frose from half a billion bolivars in 1998 to 20 billion bolivars in 2009, and land reform has returned over 6 million formerly fallow acres to peasant farmers and farming cooperatives from the hands of private owners.
* When it comes to media issues, Venezuela is a true haven of free speech and community media development. On one hand, corporate outlets that back the opposition dominate the media landscape. In fact, an ongoing problem has been the participation of certain outlets and media moguls in disrupting affairs in Venezuela even to the point of coup attempts. However, Venezuela shows its real commitment to free speech through its massive funding of autonomous, community media. Since 2002, 2,015 print publications, 244 radio stations, around 80 digital outlets, and 34 television stations have been added to the rostrum of popular, community based media.
* Capriles has called the Venezuelan government’s housing program „a fraud and a failure“, even though it is the government’s most popular social program, with a 76% approval rating, and since 2011 has built 200,000 new family units being built by some 30,000 community councils.
* Accusations of the dictatorial and anti-democratic style of Pres. Chavez are baseless. Venezuela’s participatory democracy puts management and implementation of social programs in the hands of community councils. It has lead to the formation of hundreds of thousands of cooperatives and given rural and indigenous communities direct representation in the development of resource extraction policies. Jimmy Carter asserts that, „…of the 92 elections that we’ve monitored, I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world.“
* If things are so repressive under the administration of Pres. Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution, why, then, are Venezuelans so happy? According to a study earlier this year by the United Kingdom’s New Economics Foundation, Venezuelans are listed among the top 10 happiest countries in the world. In a similar 2012 study by Columbia University, Venezuela was listed as the 19th happiest in a list of 156 countries, the 2nd highest in Latin America (behind Costa Rica), and the happiest country in all of South America. Meanwhile, numerous recent polls show Pres. Chavez to have a 55% or higher approval rating, including a recent study by the opposition-connected Datanalisis, which shows that 62.4% of voters rate Chavez‘ performance as above average.
* Pres. Chavez and Venezuela are leaders in bringing stability to Latin America and in defending sovereign peoples against transnational corporate domination and military adventurism around the world. Venezuela has played a direct role in starting up peace negotiations for the first time in over 10 years to end decades of armed conflict in Colombia. It has been a force for peace and against Empire worldwide, speaking out against US and NATO interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Syria and elsewhere. It has created and participated in new and alternative international trade and political organizations, such as the ALBA fair trade partnership, which stands in stark contrast to so-called Free Trade Agreements.
FOR MORE IN-DEPTH BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Click on the following links to read two articles by AfGJ staff with more in-dept information about the possibilities for US interference in Venezuela’s electoral affairs:
Intervention in Venezuela-A Personal Reflection by Bruce Wilinson
Manipulators and Media Prepare to Intervene in Venezuela by James Jordan