Now, HERE's an idea I can get behind - getting rid of toy guns

symbolic gesture or not, this makes sense to me... i've never been able to stifle my distaste for toy guns and, yes, you gamers out there, controllers on those violent video and computer games are directly analogous to guns...

Venezuela calls on children to lay down toy weapons in exchange for toys.

The toy exchange program comes at a time when the homicide rate in Venezuela has tripled in less than 10 years.

Deborah Lutterbeck reports.

SOUNDBITE: National Crime Prevention Director Edwin Rojas, saying (Spanish):
"This is an activity intended to give a lesson: we are exchanging toys of a belligerent nature, toys that have a violent connotation, for educational toys or sporting goods. We're fundamentally hoping to facilitate and make parents and their families aware that violence is often generated through the stimulation provoked by violent toys."

"the stimulation provoked by violent toys"... < profmarcus pauses to adjust his tin-foil hat > why do you think violent toys are so prevalent...? hmmmmmmm...?

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Like I said the other day, if we can't attack Iran, let's get cranking on Venezuela

i've been following the re-activation of the u.s. fourth fleet in the caribbean... i've also noted that, at the end of april, joint naval exercises were recently conducted with argentina and brazil*... it looks suspiciously like the u.s. is laying the groundwork for more violent conflict...

On Saturday, a U.S. navy plane strayed into Venezuelan airspace. Venezuelan Defense Minister Gustavo Rangel said that the aircraft "practically flew over" the island of La Orchila - where Venezuela has a military base and President Hugo Chávez has a residence - and another island before turning back. U.S. officials claimed the plane had “navigational problems.”

"This is just the latest step in a series of provocations," Rangel said.

Indeed, tensions have been mounting in recent days. The Navy is now reactivating its fourth fleet in the Caribbean. The fleet, which will include a nuclear aircraft carrier, will be based in Mayport, Florida.

The fleet hasn’t seen any action in Caribbean waters since World War II. In February 1942, the Germans sank a number of oil tankers full of Venezuelan crude. The attack caused a nationalist outcry in Venezuela and Caracas began to side more openly with the allies. In response to the attacks the U.S. patrolled the area, hunting down Nazi submarines which were wreaking havoc on allied shipping. After the war, with no more German U-boats prowling Caribbean waters, the Fourth Fleet was dissolved.

So, why resuscitate the fleet now?

The navy claims the move is necessary to protect maritime security. The real reason however may have more to do with Washington’s desire to wage a kind of psychological war against the Chávez government and to foment a climate of political tension.

it's more than "psychological warfare" to re-activate an entire naval fleet and to deliberately fly a military aircraft over a sovereign nation's airspace without permission, it's really an act of veiled aggression... "navigational problems," my ass...

* The aircraft carrier USS George Washington made a port visit in Rio de Janeiro at the end of April, and took part in exercises with the Brazilian and Argentine navies.

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McCain will continue to reward narco-fascist regimes that side with the U.S.

and attempt to interfere with the internal affairs of states that insist on charting their own course independent of the u.s...

"If I am elected president (…) We will work to prevent Venezuela and Bolivia from taking the same road to failure Castro has paved for Cuba, and we will broaden and strengthen ties with key states like Brazil, Peru, and Chile," McCain said.

Likewise, McCain criticized Obama for opposing to a free trade agreement with Colombia.

"Colombia is a beacon of hope in a region where the Castro brothers, [Venezuelan President] Hugo Chávez, and others are actively seeking to thwart economic progress and democracy," McCain added.

what do brazil, chile, colombia, and peru have in common...? that's right... they all have significant energy and mineral resources and are willing to cooperate with the u.s. its own terms... what does colombia have that makes it a "beacon of hope"...? it lets the u.s. military play an unfettered hand within its borders, to say nothing of the billions of dollars the u.s. spends arming the colombian military lining the pockets of its wealthy elites...

what do bolivia, cuba, and venezuela have in common...? bolivia and venezuela have significant energy and mineral resources and are led by populist governments intent on having the final say about how their resources are used... all three insist on charting an independent course, free of controlling u.s. influence...

to the money and power-crazed criminals that preside over my country, governments of, by, and for the people are acceptable only if those governments fully align themselves with u.s. "interests"... if a country is governed by super-rich, narco-fascists AND is fully aligned with u.s. "interests," hey...! that's ok... after all, it's u.s. "interests" that really matter...

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Note to Ecuador's Correa: Look what happens to you when you flip off the United States

just go ask hugo... they turn loose their attack dogs...

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said Saturday he would step down if there is proof that he had ties with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the largest rebel group in Colombia.

"If I had the most minimal relation with the FARC as candidate or as president I will resign as president," Correa said in his weekly radio address. "We have never received illegal (campaign) contributions."

The president said he handed over proof of his innocence to the Organization of American States amid accusations that he had received money contributions from FARC rebels during his presidential campaign in 2006.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was leading a smear campaign against him, Correa added.

tsk, tsk... correa should have never decided to send the u.s. military packing and reclaim the manta base...

from al jazeera...

The only US air base in South America is expected to shut down soon. Manta in Ecuador is home to a fleet of A-WACS spyplanes. Washington says they crack down on cocaine smugglers but the president of Ecuador is convinced the US helped Colombia carry out a recent [illegal] cross border [incursion].

and correa should never have decided to make nice with hugo chávez...

In August 2006, Correa told the Ecuadorian press that he is not part of the Venezuelan Bolivarian movement, although he considers Hugo Chávez a personal friend.[15] In response to Chávez's comparison of President Bush with Satan, Correa said it was unfair to the devil.

i'd read that quote a long time ago and forgotten about it... what a hoot... comparing george bush with satan gives satan a bad name... what a classic...!

anywayz, as usual, the context is missing... the original claims of a chávez/correa connection to farc continue to be strongly supported by uribe's pals in the bush administration and their running dogs...

from the sock-puppet heritage foundation...

Nonetheless, it is clear that Colombia launched a joint air-land operation against a FARC encampment that crossed into Ecuador. The distance of the incursion remains in dispute. While Colombian President Alvaro Uribe apparently briefed President Rafael Correa of Ecuador on the operation hours after the attack, Correa now claims he was misled and misinformed by his Colombian counterpart and has denounced Reyes' death as "the worst aggression suffered by Ecuador at the hands of Colombia." The details of the operation will be disputed and investigated in the weeks ahead.

On March 2, the Colombian military reported that it had recovered "revealing" information from computers captured in Reyes' effects, including records of contacts with senior security officials in Ecuador who were reportedly interested in "formalizing a relationship with the FARC." Authorities in Quito denied any links between the FARC and officials in Ecuador.

The situation surrounding Reyes' death demands further objective investigation. Furthermore, governments and citizens must recognize that terrorists and insurgents, be they narco-terrorists in the FARC, al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan, or Kurdish terrorists in Iraq, show no respect for frontiers and national sovereignty.

followed by this more recent broadside directly from the u.s...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez must explain documents found on Colombian rebel computers that Washington and Bogota charge show deep ties between the leftist leader and the guerrillas, a top U.S. official said.

[...]

"President Chavez has a lot of explaining to do," White House drug czar John Walters told Colombian newspaper El Tiempo in a Spanish-language interview published on Sunday.

"They were fluid contacts from both sides. This is a group that wants to violently overthrow a democratic government. This is very serious and requires more than just a simple denial."

and, finally, manta may NOT be the ONLY u.s. air base left in latin america, as i've posted here on this blog repeatedly...


Estigarribia Airbase, Paraguay

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Hey... If we can't go to war with Iran, how about Venezuela...?

if the u.s. can't manage to get a war with iran going, there's always venezuela, and ecuador too if they don't mind their p's and q's...

Venezuela's president has warned Colombia against building a US military base on the countries shared border, saying he would consider such a move an act of "aggression".

Hugo Chávez said on Thursday that he would not allow a US military base to be established in La Guajira, a region spanning northeastern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela.

"We will not allow the Colombian government to give La Guajira to the empire," Chávez said, referring to the US during a speech to a packed auditorium of uniformed soldiers.

"Colombia is launching a threat of war at us."

The Venezuelan leader said that if Colombia built the base, his government would revive a decades-old territorial conflict and stake a claim to the entire region.

The US maintains a military base at the Pacific port of Manta in Ecuador, but Rafael Correa, Ecuador's president and an ally of Chávez, has repeatedly said he will not renew the 10-year leases when it runs out next year.

Chávez said that William Brownfield, the US Ambassador to Colombia, had suggested that the Ecuador base could be moved to La Guajira.

and, of course, the u.s. is still banging the same drum that it's been banging on since the illegal attack by colombia on ecuadorean soil of a couple of months ago...

Diplomatic relations between Caracas and Bogota have come under increasing strain in recent months after Colombia unveiled documents allegedly showing that Chávez sought to arm and finance Farc, an armed anti-government group in Colombia.

Last week the US claimed the documents, contained on a laptop, were "authentic" and showed ties between Chávez and Farc.

Chávez, whose sympathies for Farc are well known, said the files had been faked by the Colombian government.

The computer files were found after Colombian forces mounted a raid inside Ecuador to kill a Farc commander at his camp across the border.

The raid sparked a regional crisis when briefly raised fears of war when Chávez threatened to send troops to the border with Colombia.

"authentic" like the syrian nuclear reactor was "authentic," like the iranian weapons in iraq are "authentic," like saddam's wmd's were "authentic"... horse hockey...

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Calling Hugh Chávez a populist and thinking it's an epithet

yes, hugo chávez has a big mouth, but calling him a "populist" and thinking you've insulted him is just too funny...

The president of the European Commission has responded to Hugo Chavez's bitter attack on Angela Merkel by describing the Venezuelan president's words against the German chancellor as "inflammatory, populist and aggressive."

ooooooooo... you, you, you, you POPULIST, you...!!!

epithet

Pronunciation:
\ˈe-pə-ˌthet also -thət\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Latin epitheton, from Greek, from neuter of epithetos added, from epitithenai to put on, add, from epi- + tithenai to put — more at do
Date:
1579

1 a: a characterizing word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing b: a disparaging or abusive word or phrase c: the part of a taxonomic name identifying a subordinate unit within a genus

populist

Pronunciation:
\ˈpä-pyə-list\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Latin populus the people
Date:
1892
1: a member of a political party claiming to represent the common people; especially often capitalized : a member of a United States political party formed in 1891 primarily to represent agrarian interests and to advocate the free coinage of silver and government control of monopolies
2: a believer in the rights, wisdom, or virtues of the common people

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Sovereign debt default, inflation and denial - a long overdue update on Argentina

i've posted extensively on argentina in general and particularly its $95B 2001 bond default (see here)... over seventy percent of the bondholders opted for a 2004 swap deal that offered them 30 cents on the dollar, leaving about $20B outstanding... the remaining bondholders, mostly in the u.s., refused the swap, and continued to hold out past the 25 february 2005 expiration date... they're still trying to get all of their money...

A United States judge granted on Wednesday a request by bondholders suing Argentina to extend a freeze on as much as 16 billion US dollars in sovereign bonds issued by the country and which now held by the Depository Trust Co. in New York.

Argentina claims it no longer has any interest in the bonds and that they are worth only 2 billion US dollars. The order stems from a class-action, or group lawsuit brought by bond holders who claim Argentina wrongly failed to pay interest or principal on its 11 percent global notes due in October 2006. The plaintiffs, who claim the bonds are worth as much 16 billion, are seeking more than a billion US dollars in damages.

[...]


Argentina defaulted on 95 billion in debt in late 2001. In 2005, then-President Nestor Kirchner offered holders of defaulted debt 30 cents on the dollar. Holders of about 20 billion in bonds rejected that deal. Argentina has since refused to re-open negotiations, preventing the country from being able to directly tap international credit markets. The country has also been the subject of lawsuits by individual bondholders.

imho, these primarily u.s. based bondholders are throwing away their attorney fees... argentina, while it would like to get back in the good graces of the international credit markets doesn't feel any great pressure to do so... for one thing, the country's economy has been pushing forward at an amazing 9% since the default... for another, much of latin america, including argentina, has banded together under the financial assistance umbrella of venezuela and hugo chávez (banco del sur) at considerably more favorable, less restrictive and much less ideological terms than offered by the world bank, the imf or the big transnational banks...

besides, argentina has other things to worry about at the moment...

Inflation has become the main concern of a majority of Argentines, leaving aside other issues such as insecurity and poverty according to the latest public opinion polls from Ibarometro and Hugo Haime & Associates, released this week in Buenos Aires and which refers to the second half of April.

According to Ibarometro, 36.9% of respondents consider their main concern “the hike in prices”, while for Haime 50% of Argentines feel that “inflation is what most impacts daily life”. This suggests a radical change from last January.

At the beginning of 2008, for Ibarometro the main issues were insecurity, education, poverty and fourth rated inflation. But in three months inflation climbed to top of the list. Similarly with Haime, the April 50% was only 31% last January.

To make things even more worrisome, last January 37% believed inflation in 2008 was to be higher than in 2007, but in the latest poll the percentage jumped to 71%. That is 71% believe the current Argentine administration is not considered capable of keeping prices at a reasonable level.

Food, clothing and personal hygiene goods were the most volatile according to the opinion polls.

“Inflation, newspaper headlines almost daily and the discredited image of Indec (the office responsible for calculating consumer price indexes) is fueling the negative perception of the economic situation. We also believe that the camp conflict increases that negative perception”, pointed out Ibarometro.

More specifically compared with January “the inflation issue has jumped 200% from 11% to 36.9%, while insecurity falls ten percentage points. Clearly the increase in prices shadows all other concerns. The education issue also virtually has disappeared from the list of ratings”, added Ibarometro.

As to the overall economic situation, a majority of Argentines have a negative view: 56.8% describe it as “bad” or “very bad”. Only 30% considers it “very good” or “reasonably good”. However in spite of these percentages four out of ten respondents considered positive the sacking of the Economy minister Martin Lousteau.

the argentine government officially claims inflation at just under 10%... my finger in the air calculation is closer to 20%, and, if you're a foreign tourist, it's pushing 30%... it's that inflation, not a suit by disgruntled bondholders, that's going to bite cristina in her expensively-clad tush...

S&P said it had downgraded Argentine bonds’ risk rate precisely because the Kirchner administration refuses point blank to apply any cooling policies and insists that inflation is under control. In spite of the fact that the overall consensus is that inflation contrary to the “official” statistics of just below two digits is in the range of 18 to 24%.

as much as i have a very soft spot in my heart for argentina, it's difficult to let the argentine government off the hook when it's still led by those who think denial is a river in egypt...

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Hugo Chávez on the world food crisis - a "massacre" of the poor

and it ain't by chance either... it's by design...

Soaring food prices are a "massacre" of the world's poor and are creating a global nutritional crisis, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday, calling it a sign that capitalism is in decline.

His comments came only hours after the United Nations' World Food Program called more expensive food a "silent tsunami" that threatens to plunge more than 100 million people on every continent into hunger.

"It is a true massacre what is happening in the world," Chavez said in a televised speech, citing U.N. statistics about deaths caused by hunger and malnourishment.

"The problem is not the production of food ... it is the economic, social and political model of the world. The capitalist model is in crisis."

[...]

Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage, visiting Caracas to meet with Chavez and other allied leaders on Wednesday, accused developed countries of spurring food prices through biofuels.

"Developed countries want to feed the cars of the rich with food -- this is the irrational world we live in today," Lage said, echoing Chavez's frequent accusations that Washington's promotion of biofuel is boosting prices of staples like corn.

don't think for one single second that this wasn't planned...

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Latin America shows the rest of us how it's done (as opposed to the way the U.S. would have liked it to turn out)

Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe (R)
and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
talk after they agreed to resolve the crisis
set off by an attack on a FARC guerrilla
camp inside Ecuadorian territory by the
Colombian armed forces last week at the
20th Group of Rio Summit in Santo
Domingo March 7, 2008.
REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
(DOMINICAN REPUBLIC)

the u.s. wanted a clear branding of the farc rebels as "terrorists," and for colombia to square off with ecuador and venezuela by insisting that, just like their patron, the united states, colombia would pursue "terrorists" wherever, whenever and however was necessary to annihilate them, even if it meant violating another country's sovereignty to do it... instead, the latin american countries decided to do it THEIR way with the result being that the farc rebels are now labeled as an "insurgency" rather than as "terrorists," colombia apologized to ecuador for violating its border and said it wouldn't follow through on its threat to seek genocide charges against venezuela at the hague, committed all the countries to work together to preserve national stability, and ended with the president of colombia and the president of ecuador shaking hands...

and THAT, folks, is how it's done...

South America moved away from talk of war as the presidents of Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador agreed to end a bitter dispute triggered by a Colombian cross-border raid with testy handshakes and an apology.

After intense regional diplomacy and emotional debate, Latin American leaders Friday approved a declaration resolving to work for a peaceful end to the crisis, which saw Venezuela and Ecuador send troops to their borders and Colombia accuse its neighbors of backing leftist rebels seeking to topple its government.

The leaders at the summit in the Dominican Republic wasted little time in reversing their steps toward conflict.

Colombia pledged not to follow through on its threat to seek genocide charges against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at an international court for allegedly supporting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which finances its insurgency through kidnapping and the cocaine trade.

Nicaragua said it would restore diplomatic relations with Colombia, broken off only the day before. Chavez said trade with Colombia should "keep increasing," two days after saying he didn't want even "a grain of rice" from his neighbor.

"We're going to begin to de-escalate," Chavez said. "Hopefully this compromise will be honored so this never happens again."

The statement approved by the presidents notes that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe apologized for the March 1 raid inside Ecuadorean territory that killed 25 people including a senior rebel commander, and that he pledged not to violate another nation's sovereignty again.

But it also commits all the countries to fight threats to national stability from "irregular or criminal groups," a reference to Colombia's accusation that its two neighbors have ties to rebels.

latin american countries have their problems, no doubt about it, lots of them, in fact... but i've always maintained that, if they could just figure out how to work together, they would be an unstoppable global force with a tremendous potential for making a positive difference in the world...

what just took place in la republica dominicana is an event of truly historic proportions that should be held up as a model for what ought to be happening in the rest of the world, most notably in the near and middle east... i've never been prouder of being a part-time resident of latin america than i am today...

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Is the U.S. using Colombia to instigate a new proxy war in Latin America?

i've been following the colombia, ecuador and venezuela story which, btw, is one hell of a lot bigger story here in latin america than it is in the u.s...

most americans are unaware of just how much u.s. money goes into colombia, so much, in fact, that it can, for all practical purposes, be considered a client state of the u.s... for starters, check this graphic from today's edition of the argentine newspaper, la nacion that compares the armed forces of the three countries, something you likely won't see in the u.s. media... rest assured those sizable military assets in colombia are heavily subsidized by the u.s...


(Click on graphic for scalable version)

so, if i'm right, and the u.s. is indeed setting things up for a war by proxy between colombia and venezuela, let's see what's being tossed out there by way of inflammatory propaganda...

let's move right into high gear with the title and teaser of an editorial in today's wapo (where else?)...

Allies of Terrorism

The presidents of Venezuela and Ecuador are revealed as backers of the criminals who fight Colombia's democracy.

but wait... it gets better...

the ap from yesterday...

Colombia: Rebels considering dirty bombs

Colombia's vice president on Tuesday defended his country's attack on a rebel base on Ecuadorean soil, telling a U.N. disarmament panel that the leftist guerrillas were trying to acquire radioactive material that could be used to make "dirty bombs."

Vice President Francisco Santos said evidence in two computers found after the attack indicated rebels trying to acquire radioactive material — "the primary basis for generating dirty weapons of mass destruction and terrorism."

got your adrenaline pumping yet...?

still more...

Colombia seeks criminal charges against Chavez

President Alvaro Uribe said today that his government would ask the International Criminal Court to try Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez for financing and supporting Colombia’s main rebel group.

The Uribe government claims documents found in the laptop of a slain commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia indicate Chavez’s government recently gave $300 million to the group known as the FARC.

The United States and the European Union classify the FARC as an international terrorist organization.

and, of course, the bush administration, always eager to take down anybody who doesn't toe the line of united states global hegemony (read: hugo chávez), trots out george to make sure everybody knows how strongly the u.s. backs colombia (read: wants a free trade agreement)...

Statement by the President on Colombia

THE PRESIDENT: This morning I spoke to President Uribe of Colombia. He updated me on the situation in his country, including the continuing assault by narco-terrorists, as well as the provocative maneuvers by the regime in Venezuela.

I told the President that America fully supports Colombia's democracy, and that we firmly oppose any acts of aggression that could destabilize the region. I told him that America will continue to stand with Colombia as it confronts violence and terror and fights drug traffickers.

President Uribe told me that one of the most important ways America can demonstrate its support for Colombia is by moving forward with a free trade agreement that we negotiated. The free trade agreement will show the Colombian people that democracy and free enterprise lead to a better life. It will help President Uribe counter the radical vision of those who are seeking to undermine democracy and create divisions within our hemisphere.

meanwhile, you have to travel all the way across the u.s. to find something that even faintly resembles genuine news reporting about what's REALLY going on here in latin america...

from the la times...

Neighbors take aim at Colombia over incursion

An increasingly isolated Colombia came under heavy criticism from its neighbors at an emergency Organization of American States session Tuesday for killing a top Colombian rebel leader in Ecuador last weekend.

A sense of crisis has enveloped the region as diplomats worked to avoid an armed conflict that could be devastating to a continent that has successfully transitioned into a mostly democratic region after the military juntas and "dirty wars" of the 1970s and 1980s.

Virtually all South American nations, though urging patience, have denounced the cross-border attack that killed Raul Reyes, the No. 2 commander of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

yes, that's right, folks... the countries of latin america are united in their opposition to colombia's action... but, naturally, the lone voice of support at the oas meeting was ----- well, golly ----- the u.s...

One of Colombia's few backers at the OAS meeting was acting U.S. representative J. Robert Manzanares, who said the Colombian troops ordered into Ecuador had a right to "pursue this terrorist menace."

something else unreported by u.s. media is that argentina's president, cristina fernandez de kirchner, is flying to caracas this afternoon to hold a long-scheduled meeting with chávez to sign a broad agreement exchanging argentine food for venezuelan energy... however, the tension in the region, understandably, is adding a new twist to the meeting...

from an article in today's mercopress...

CK calls for peace and confirms planned Venezuela trip
[CK = Cristina Kirchner]

[...]

“There are no changes to the presidential trip to Caracas on Wednesday”, said Casa Rosada [Casa Rosada is the Argentine equivalent of the U.S. White House] sources quoted by the Buenos Aires press.

Argentine analysts don’t discard last minute changes given the rapidly escalating military tension and accusations between the three countries involved.

here's the REALLY interesting part of the above article, information almost guaranteed NOT to be reported in u.s. media...

Argentine government officials revealed that Mrs. Kirchner talked to Chile’s Michelle Bachelet and Brazil’s Lula da Silva, among others, trying to cool the situation and in search of a regional diplomatic stance to find a solution.

Apparently following on Brazil’s suggestion, the conflict should not leave the region, should avoid the UN and most important keep down the incidence of United States. The Brazilian president foreign affairs advisor Marcos Aurelio said that the “best way” to solve the crisis is in a “South American environment” and anticipated Brasilia would seek support from Argentina and Chile to join the group of countries interested in “a maximum reduction of tension”, and leaving aside “partners” from outside the region.

translation: dear george... keep your nose the hell out...

my assessment is, given the heavy use of the "terrorism" talking point, the accusations of wmd and genocide, the call to protect "democracy," and the fact that george and the neocons can't seem to get the iran war off the ground, our war-mongering leaders have decided to open up another front, using colombia as a lever to go after two more energy-rich opec countries, both of whom have been telling the u.s. where we can stick it...

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Making people suffer through corporate and state-initiated economic warfare

Vs.



i posted the other day on exxon's move to freeze $12B of venezuela's assets via court orders obtained in britain, the netherlands, and the netherlands antilles, and also via a pending court action in the u.s... my point was that those assets belong to the PEOPLE of venezuela... they do not belong to hugo chávez nor do they belong to pdv (petróleos de venezuela s.a.), the state-owned oil company... exxon has declared economic WAR on the people of venezuela much as israel has done with gaza... given that the prime responsibility of the head of a sovereign nation is to his people, chávez has responded... unfortunately, his response stoops to the same low level as exxon, although i honestly don't see any other viable options...

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez yesterday threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States if ExxonMobil pursues international court orders it has obtained against billions of dollars of Venezuelan state assets in a contract dispute.

"If you end up freezing [Venezuelan assets] and it harms us, we're going to harm you," Chavez said in his weekly radio and television show. "Do you know how? We aren't going to send oil to the United States. Take note, Mr. Bush, Mr. Danger."

Venezuela sells about 1.3 million barrels a day of oil to the United States, making it the fourth-largest source, at 14 percent, of U.S. petroleum imports.

naturally, those who worship at the twin altars of greed and power are thrilled at exxon's move...

"Hugo Chávez foolishly thought he could get away with it," said Fadel Gheit, oil analyst at Oppenheimer & Sons. "You just cannot go unilaterally and confiscate assets at will like that especially when your largest customer is the government of the company you're seizing assets from. Obviously Exxon is going to have the last laugh."

i'm so glad he thinks exxon will be laughing... israel must be positively doubled over now that egypt has re-sealed the border wall...

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In an Israeli-style move, Exxon, the most profitable company ever, freezes $12B belonging to Venezuela's people

vs.


lovely...

Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) has won court orders freezing up to $12 billion in Venezuelan assets around the world as it fights for compensation for operations lost to President Hugo Chavez's nationalization drive.

The largest U.S. company sought the asset freeze to guarantee repayment should it win arbitration over the Cerro Negro heavy oil project.

The move is the boldest challenge yet by an international oil major against any of the governments around the world that have moved to increase their holds on natural resources as energy and commodity prices have soared.

"To me it sounds like a very aggressive tactic," said Stephen Zamora, professor of international law at the University of Houston Law Center.

"I can't really say that I'm aware this has been used in other investment disputes. They may be trying to get the government to settle."

Exxon -- which last week posted the largest ever year's profit by a U.S. company -- said on Thursday it has received court orders in Britain, the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles each freezing up to $12 billion in assets of Venezuela state oil firm PDVSA. An Exxon spokeswoman said the total that could be frozen worldwide was $12 billion.

[...]

The move underscores Exxon's reputation for toughness in dealing with foes as varied as governments and fishermen, as it has been willing to wage prolonged legal battles to defend its interests around the world.

you need to read this carefully... besides the "nobody fucks with us" game that exxon's playing, the $12B that's being frozen DOESN'T just belong to the state-owned oil company, it belongs to the venezuelan PEOPLE... these are precisely the assets that chávez has pledged to help his people escape from poverty... of course exxon knows this and is engaging in this unprecedented move for precisely the same reasons that israel is blockading gaza - to stir up unrest among the people such that they will be more inclined to overthrow their government...

and why...? because, in exxon's world, the first duty of the president of a sovereign nation is to protect businesses, corporations, the holders of capital, and the owners of private property... the people of the country need to accept their role as secondary and subservient to those interests... in fact, insuring that ALL of a country's resources are devoted to serving those interests is the lesson that exxon is attempting to force mr. chávez to learn... putting a fine point on it, the insatiable desire for power and money knows no bounds...

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A tale of three countries

yes, i'll admit... my sense of humor is more than slightly twisted and sometimes the temptations of subtle ironies are simply too powerful for me to resist...

i arrived back in buenos aires a week ago today after having been gone for four months... as i expected, the tires on my poor bicycle - bicicleta (bee-see-CLAY-ta, or BEE-see as the locals call them) - were both flat... on tuesday, i walked it over to the ypf service station (pronounced ee-pay-EF-ay) to use their air hose... (ypf is the former state-owned argentina petroleum company, now owned by spain's repsolypf...) their service wasn't working, so i walked the bike further down the avenue to the petrobras station... (Petróleo Brasileiro S/A - Petrobras - is the state-owned oil company of brasil...) the air pump at petrobras didn't work either, and the two attendants hanging around the gas pump islands were competing with each other to see who could go the longest without looking at me...

feeling a little deflated myself, i went back to the house, where later i talked with my landlady... she reminded me that there was another service station just a few blocks in the other direction... she thought it was a shell station, but i knew just where she was talking about and remembered that it was a pdv station... (pdv is Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., and i'm sure you can already see where i'm going with this...) i walked the bike over there yesterday, and, yes, the air pump worked perfectly and there was also an attendant, a pleasant old man, who stood by just in case i needed any help...

so, there you have it... venezuela came through to save the day... do you suppose there's a message here somewhere...?



p.s. i neglected to mention that compressed air service, along with water, at all service stations in argentina is still FREE, which makes it all the more annoying when i pull in to a u.s. service station and note the increasingly rising prices at those goddam coin-operated machines that SELL AIR...

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U.S. accuses Venezuela of trying to horn in on the CIA's lucrative drug business

oh, this is just too rich...! after the previous post, two from yesterday (here and here), and several others (here, here, here, and here), reading something like this is positively hysterical...

A top US anti-drugs official has accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of being a "major facilitator" of the trade in cocaine.

The official, John Walters, said Venezuela had become "a haven" for shipments of cocaine manufactured in neighbouring Colombia.

Venezuela rejects the charges, saying it is the victim of traffickers.

But Mr Walters, speaking on a visit to Colombia, said failure to deal with the problem amounted to complicity.

Mr Walters, director of the US Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), was meeting Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

US officials say about one third of Colombia's output of 600 tonnes of cocaine a year now passes through Venezuela, most of it going to America and Europe.

once you get an idea of what's REALLY going on, it's incredibly difficult to read this shit without just cracking up...

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Here it comes, the next big story - U.S. inflation

i was largely non compos mentis during the last period of serious inflation in the u.s. in the early and mid-70s... yeah, i knew it was going on and, yeah, i knew it was a problem, but i honestly either don't remember or perhaps didn't experience much of a personal impact... contrast that with my more recent experience in argentina, which has been trying to grapple with what government figures declare is a 9% inflation rate, but my first-hand, on-the-street experience of watching prices rise literally before my eyes tells me is at least 12% percent and maybe even as high as 19%... so, if WHOLESALE inflation in the u.s. for ALL of 2007 is 6.3 percent, you have to believe that, with the recent steep rises in food and basic commodity prices, the real personal impact is a minimum of several points higher...

i had an experience with u.s. inflation just this past sunday while i was perusing the menu prices at a down-scale, storefront, strip mall, family-run, mexican restaurant, usually the very best bet for value... the average entree is now 25% more than last year at this time, and a full 60% more than early 2003...

Wholesale inflation shot up in 2007 by the largest amount in 26 years even though falling gasoline costs allowed price pressures to moderate in December.

The Labor Department reported that wholesale inflation was up 6.3 percent for all of 2007, reflecting a huge increase for the year in various types of energy costs ranging from gasoline to home heating oil.

The year ended on a more positive note, with wholesale prices falling by 0.1 percent in December. That reflected decreasing costs at the time for gasoline and other energy products. It was a significant slowdown after prices had soared by 3.2 percent in November, which had been the biggest one-month increase in 34 years.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department reported that retail sales fell by 0.4 percent in December. It was a worse-than-expected decline and increased worries that the country could topple into a recession.

i've noticed the decrease in gasoline prices and am at a loss to explain why... mexico recently announced that it will cease to ship crude to the u.s. west coast, opec claims it is operating at peak capacity (but george is still asking for more), the u.s. is on the outs with venezuela and iran, and more than 300,000 barrels of oil are missing from the u.s. strategic petroleum reserve, so why are gasoline prices coming down...?

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U.S. issues indictments for crimes committed in Argentina? Help me out here...

seriously, help me out here... i posted on this story back in early october, even though it occurred in early august... (yeah, sometimes i'm a bit slow... so sue me...!)

from the washington post...

Days after authorities discovered a suitcase full of nearly $800,000 that had been taken on a private airplane carrying Argentine and Venezuelan officials, one of those officials has resigned and suspicions of a government scandal have grown.

A Venezuelan businessman was detained at a Buenos Aires airport Saturday when customs officials found $790,550 in undeclared cash in his luggage. The incident preceded Monday’s arrival here of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, leading to questions about the possibility of a link between the businessman and the Venezuelan or Argentine governments.

Aeropuerto Internacional Ezeiza, Buenos Aires

ANYWAYZ, i've been following the story excerpted below for the past week, figuring it was going to cause some heartburn for officials in both argentina and venezuela, and, sure enough, it has...

A U.S. grand jury indicted four Venezuelans and a Uruguayan on Thursday on charges of acting as unregistered foreign agents for Venezuela who allegedly tried to cover up a scheme to smuggle $800,000 in cash to Argentina.

The indictment formalizes charges brought last week when four of the five were arrested in connection with the case, which touched off corruption allegations in South America and diplomatic tensions between Washington and Buenos Aires.

U.S. prosecutors say the men represented the anti-U.S. government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and alleged in court that one of the defendants said the money was destined for the campaign of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who won Argentina's presidential election in October.

[...]

The Venezuelan-American businessman accused of trying to smuggle the $800,000 in a suitcase into Argentina visited the presidential palace two days after the incident, an Argentine prosecutor said on Thursday.

The money was seized by Argentine customs in August.

The case has caused an uproar in Argentine. Chavez has accused Washington of seeking to undermine Argentine-Venezuelan relations, while Washington says its probe is not politically motivated.

Prosecutor Maria Luz Rivas Diez said a former Argentine government employee testified the man with the suitcase, Guido Antonini Wilson, visited Argentina's presidential palace two days after the money was confiscated.

"Apparently he was with other people at a sort of toast or celebration, while in another office an accord was being signed with Venezuela," Rivas Diez told Radio Del Plata.

Argentine government officials, who allowed Antonini to leave the country but now seek his extradition from the United States to question him about possible money laundering, did not immediately comment.

The case -- dubbed the "suitcase scandal" by Argentine media -- erupted after Antonini carried the cash on a private jet chartered by Argentina's government to ferry Argentine and Venezuelan officials from Caracas to Buenos Aires.

[...]

On Wednesday, Argentina's Congress, in which Fernandez's center-left coalition holds a majority, passed a resolution condemning the United States over the investigation.

Fernandez, a former first lady and senator, succeeded her husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, who has publicly accused Washington of engineering a smear campaign against his wife.

now, HERE'S my big question... where does the u.s. get off indicting these guys for a crime that DIDN'T EVEN TAKE PLACE INSIDE THE U.S...? anyone...?

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Guess who just HAS to comment on Chávez' defeat? Why Lehman Bros. and Goldman Sachs, of course!

in an article on the defeat of venezuela's constitutional referendum, guess who has to have their say...? why, none other than reps of two of the world's super-rich, monied elites, that's who...

"Apart from shelving a package of undesirable reforms indefinitely, the defeat should revitalize the opposition," Gianfranco Bertozzi of Lehman Brothers said.

and...

"President Chavez lost an important battle but hardly the war," Alberto Ramos of Goldman Sachs warned investors in a research note from New York.

hmmmmmm... i wonder why THEY would be so concerned...? (ya, right...!)

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The WaPo furthers the disinformation campaign against the Venezuela referendum [UPDATE: add the NYT]

apropos of yesterday's post on possible cia efforts to destabilize venezuela during and after sunday's referendum, here's an excellent example of how our government's propaganda organ, the wapo, is helping out...

Old Allies Abandon Chávez as Constitution Vote Nears

Few associates had been as loyal to President Hugo Chávez as the governor of the coastal state of Sucre, Ramón Martínez. And few are now more determined to defeat Chávez as he campaigns for constitutional changes that, if approved by voters on Sunday, could extend his presidency for life.

Chávez, 53 and in his ninth tumultuous year in office, was until recently predicted to win a referendum that would permit him to run for 8office indefinitely, appoint governors to federal districts he would create, and control the purse strings of one of the world's major oil-producing countries.

But Martínez and a handful of others who once were prominent pillars in the Chávez machine, have defected, saying approval of 69 constitutional changes would effectively turn Venezuela into a dictatorship run at the whim of one man. They have been derided by Chávez as traitors, but their unimpeachable leftist credentials have given momentum to a movement that pollsters say may deliver Chávez his first electoral defeat.

"The proposal would signify a coup d'etat," said Martínez, 58, whose dapper appearance belies his history as a guerrilla and Communist Party member. "Here the power is going to be concentrated in one person. That's very grave."

needless to say, there's zero mention of the cia memo in the wapo article... i offered this comment to the wapo...

any particular reason this item wasn't mentioned...?

[A]n internal CIA memorandum has been obtained by Venezuelan counterintelligence from the US Embassy in Caracas that reveals a very sinister - almost fantastical, were it not true - plan to destabilize Venezuela during the coming days. The plan, titled "OPERATION PLIERS" was authored by CIA Officer Michael Middleton Steere and was addressed to CIA Director General Michael Hayden in Washington. Steere is stationed at the US Embassy in Caracas under the guise of a Regional Affairs Officer. The internal memorandum, dated November 20, 2007, references the "Advances of the Final Stage of Operation Pliers", and confirms that the operation is coordinated by the team of Human Intelligence (HUMINT) in Venezuela. The memo summarizes the different scenarios that the CIA has been working on in Venezuela for the upcoming referendum vote on December 2nd.

if true, and there seems to be no reason to assume it's not, that's a very explosive piece of information... it would be nice if your crack investigative journalists and fact-checkers could run it down and let us poor peons in on what you find out...

another triumph of context-free journalism...

[UPDATE]

oh, i shoulda known it wouldn't be JUST the wapo... at least the nyt has the good grace to cloak its propaganda onslaught in an op-ed, rather than pass it off as actual news reporting...

the odious roger cohen with an equally odious headline...

Shutting Up Venezuela’s Chávez

Venezuelans will vote Sunday in a referendum that would remove all limits on presidential re-election, grant Chávez direct control over foreign currency reserves, allow him to censor the media under a state of emergency declarable at his discretion, expand his powers to expropriate private property and create the second formally socialist nation in the Americas alongside Fidel’s.

“The measures amount to a constitutional coup,” said Teodoro Petkoff, who edits an opposition newspaper. Certainly, they would prod Venezuela from an oppressive rule comparable to Mexico’s under its once impregnable Institutional Revolutionary Party toward the dictatorial absolutism of Cuba.

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Sunday is the referendum in Venezuela [UPDATE: CIA attempting to destabilize Venezuela during the referendum]

needless to say, our domestic media have nothing good to say, so here's a couple of alternative views...

from james petras via global research...

The outcome of the Referendum of December 2 is a decisive historical event first and foremost for Venezuela but also for the rest of the Americas. A positive vote (Vota ‘Sí’) will provide the legal framework for the democratization of the political system, the socialization of strategic economic sectors, empower the poor and provide the basis for a self-managed factory system. A negative vote (or a successful US-backed civil-military uprising) will reverse the most promising living experience of popular self-rule, of advanced social welfare and democratically based socialism. A reversal, especially a military dictated outcome, will lead to a massive blood bath, such as we have not seen since the days of the Indonesian Generals’ Coup of 1966, which killed over a million workers and peasants or the Argentine Coup of 1976 in which over 30,000 Argentines were murdered by the US backed Generals.

A decisive vote for ‘Sí’ will not end US military and political destabilization campaigns but it will certainly undermine and demoralize their collaborators. On December 2, 2007 the Venezuelans have a rendezvous with history.

James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York.

here's mark weisbrot of the center for economic and policy research via alternet...

[T]he voters [of Venezuela] will decide, with a far stronger opposition media than exists in the United States proselytizing against the government. Venezuelans have not lost civil liberties the way people in the U.S. (or even the UK) have in recent years, and ordinary citizens continue to have more say in their government, and share more in its oil wealth, than ever before. It is doubtful that the referendum will reverse these changes, regardless of the outcome.

here's hoping the cia will stay the hell out of the way...

[UPDATE]

i neglected to include this very key point from the above-referenced article by james petras...

On November 26, 2007 the Venezuelan government broadcast and circulated a confidential memo from the US embassy to the CIA which is devastatingly revealing of US clandestine operations and which will influence the referendum this Sunday (December 2, 2007).

after putting up the original post, i stumbled across the following, and suddenly realized that i hadn't pointed out what just might be a very explosive issue brewing for our "men in black..."

[A]n internal CIA memorandum has been obtained by Venezuelan counterintelligence from the US Embassy in Caracas that reveals a very sinister - almost fantastical, were it not true - plan to destabilize Venezuela during the coming days. The plan, titled "OPERATION PLIERS" was authored by CIA Officer Michael Middleton Steere and was addressed to CIA Director General Michael Hayden in Washington. Steere is stationed at the US Embassy in Caracas under the guise of a Regional Affairs Officer. The internal memorandum, dated November 20, 2007, references the "Advances of the Final Stage of Operation Pliers", and confirms that the operation is coordinated by the team of Human Intelligence (HUMINT) in Venezuela. The memo summarizes the different scenarios that the CIA has been working on in Venezuela for the upcoming referendum vote on December 2nd.

[...]

Officer Steere emphasizes the importance and success of the public relations and propaganda campaign that the CIA has been funding with more than $8 million during the past month - funds that the CIA confirms are transfered through the USAID contracted company, Development Alternatives, Inc., which set up operations in June 2002 to run the USAID Office for Transition Initiatives that funds and advises opposition NGOs and political parties in Venezuela. The CIA memo specifically refers to these propaganda initiatives as "psychological operations" (PSYOPS), that include contracting polling companies to create fraudulent polls that show the NO vote with an advantage over the SI vote, which is false. The CIA also confirms in the memo that it is working with international press agencies to distort the data and information about the referendum, and that it coordinates in Venezuela with a team of journalists and media organized and directed by the President of Globovision, Alberto Federico Ravell.

CIA Officer Michael Steere recommends to General Michael Hayden two different strategies to work simultaneously: Impede the referendum and refuse to recognize the results once the SI vote wins. Though these strategies appear contradictory, Steere claims that they must be implemented together precisely to encourage activities that aim toward impeding the referendum and at the same time prepare the conditions for a rejection of the results.

if you read both articles in their entirety, you will come away with little doubt that what is being described, both in concept and in terminology, is very unlikely to be bogus... i honestly doubt that venezuelan counterintelligence could come up with all those details nor muster the specific phraseology in which those details are framed... maybe i'm full of it and the venezuelans are considerably more sophisticated about the inner workings of the cia than i think they are, and this is an elaborate ruse to discredit the u.s... somehow, i doubt it...

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Earth to the NYT: don't pass the Peruvian FTA

the nyt's wrong-headed editorial, endorsing the peruvian free trade agreement...

Pass the Peruvian F.T.A.

The Peruvian deal would help expand trade between Peru and the United States, which today stands at about $9 billion. It would give American businesses greater access to Peru’s markets in everything from grains to tractors and other machinery.

Perhaps more important, the agreement would strengthen an essential ally in the combat against illegal narcotics in the Andes and tighten relations with one of the United States’ few remaining friends in South America — where Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez is gaining allies by spreading oil wealth around. In an open letter, all eight living former secretaries of state urged Congress to approve the Peru deal.

i'm thoroughly sick and tired of these bogus arguments for reducing yet another country to the status of u.s. chattel... american businesses do not need "greater access" to anywhere... they're already heavily exploiting peru, and all the fta will do is to make such exploitation easier... it certainly won't fix la oroya (see here and here)...

and then there's the bogus drug war, simply another way of shackling a country to the united states in the form of mountains of aid that also opens the door to the permanent stationing of u.s. troops as we are seeing in both colombia (here and here) and paraguay (see here)...

finally, could we PLEASE stop making hugo chávez the latest embodiment of the great satan...? why, ferchrissakes, do we ALWAYS have to have a great satan threatening us...? (never mind... i know why...)

let's stop the bullshit... we need to stop kidding ourselves about what these so-called "free" trade agreements are really meant to accomplish...

from my post of october 18...

The Peru Trade Agreement: Exploiting the Rainforest and Workers

Democratic leaders are threatening to try to pass a trade agreement with Peru that would give U.S. oil companies powerful new rights to exploit Peru’s Amazonian rainforest. It would also give Citibank the right to sue Peru if the country reverses the failed privatization of its Social Security system. No U.S. union or environmental, faith or development group supports the agreement. Peruvian indigenous leaders are calling for its rejection.

This agreement was negotiated by the Bush administration on the same principles as NAFTA. Some Democrats claim to have added labor and environmental standards, but these do nothing to fix many of the worst effects of the agreement.

when are we going to learn that the world is not ours to do with as we goddam well please...?

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