Fear of Chavez is Fear of Democracy

The Family Bush can fix Florida. They can fix Ohio. But it’s just
driving them crazy that they can’t fix the vote in Venezuela.

[Note: Watch the reports taken from the Palast BBC investigations in Venezuela in the newly released DVD, “The Assassination of Hugo Chavez.“]

The Bush Administration and its press puppies – the same ones who
couldn’t get enough of the purple thumbs of voters of Iraq – are
absolutely livid that this weekend the electorate of Venezuela had the
opportunity to vote.

Typical was the mouth-breathing editorial by the San Francisco Chronicle,
that the referendum could make Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s President, “a
constitutional dictator for life.” And no less a freedom fighter than
Donald Rumsfeld, from the height of the Washington Post, said that by voting, Venezuela was “receding into dictatorship.” Oh, my!

Given that Chavez’ referendum was defeated at the ballot box, we now
know that, as a dictator, Chavez is a flop. Of course, without meaning
to gainsay Secretary Rumsfeld, maybe Chavez is not a dictator.

Let’s get clear exactly what this vote was about. Firstly, it was a
referendum to change the nation’s constitution to end term limits for
President.

Oh,
horror! Imagine if we eliminated term limits in the US! We could end up
stuck with a president – like Franklin Roosevelt. Worse, if Bill
Clinton could have run again, we’d have missed out on the statesmanship
of Junior Bush. While US media called Chavez a “tyrant” for suggesting
an end to term limits, they somehow forgot to smear the tyrant tag on
Mr. Clinton for suggesting the same for the America.

We were not told this weekend’s referendum was a vote on term limits, rather, we were told by virtually every US news outlet that the referendum was to make Chavez, “President for Life.” The “President for Life” canard was mis-reported by no less than The New York Times.

But ending term limits does not mean winning the term. As Chavez
himself told me, “It’s up to the people” whether he gets reelected. And
that infuriates the US Powers That Be.
Secondly, beyond ending term limits, the referendum would have loaded
the nation’s constitution with changes in property law, work hours and
so many other complex economic adjustments that the entire referendum
sank of its own weight.

It’s the Oil.
Term limits and work hours in Venezuela? Why was this a crisis for Washington?

Why is the Bush crew so bonkers about Hugo? Is it because Venezuela sits on the world’s largest reserve of coconuts?

Like Operation Iraqi Liberation (”OIL”) – it’s all about the crude,
dude. And lots of it. The US Department of Energy documents I obtained
indicate that the guys holding Bush’s dipstick figure that Venezuela is
sitting on 1.36 trillion barrels of crude, five times the reserves of Saudi Arabia.

Chavez’ continuing tenure means that Venezuelans’ huge supply of oil will now be in the hands of … Venezuelans!

As Arturo Quiran, resident of a poor folks’ housing complex, told
me, “Ten, fifteen years ago … there was a lot of oil money here in
Venezuela but we didn’t see it.” Notably, Quiran doesn’t particularly
agree with Chavez’ politics. But, he thought Americans should
understand that under Chavez’ Administration, there’s a doctor’s office
in his building with “free operations, x-rays, medicines. Education
also. People who never knew how to read and write now know how to sign
their own papers.”

Not everyone is pleased. As one TV news anchor, violently
anti-Chavez, told me in derisive tones, “Chavez gives them (the poor)
bricks and bread!” – how dare he! – so, they vote for him.

Big Oil has better ideas for Venezuela, best expressed in several Wall Street Journal
articles attacking Chavez for spending his nation’s oil wealth on
“social programs” rather than on more drilling platforms to better fill
the SUVs of Texas.

Chavez has committed other crimes in Washington’s eyes. Not only has
this uppity brown man spent Venezuela’s oil wealth in Venezuela, he withdrew $20 billion from the US Federal Reserve. Weirdly, Venezuela’s previous leaders, though the nation was dirt poor, lent billions to the US Treasury on crap terms. Chavez has said, Basta! to this game, and has called for keeping South America’s capital in … South America! Oh, no!

Oh, and did I mention that Chavez told Exxon it had to pay more than
a 1% royalty to his nation on the heavy crude the company extracted?

And that’s why they have to kill him. In 2002, The New York Times
sickeningly applauded the coup d’etat against Chavez. But that failed.
Therefore, as the electorate of Venezuela is obstinately refusing to
vote as Condi Rice tells them, there’s only one solution left for
democracy-loving Bush-niks, the view express out loud by our
President’s spiritual advisor, Pat Robertson:

“We have this enemy to our south controlling a huge pool of oil.
Hugo Chavez thinks we’re trying to assassinate him. I think we ought to
go ahead and do it. … … We don’t need another $200 billion war … It’s a
whole lot easier to have some covert operatives do the job.”

But Hugo’s not my enemy. Indeed, he’s made a damn good offer to the
American people: oil for $50 a barrel – nearly half of what it sells
today. By locking in a long-term price, Venezuela loses its crazy Iraq
war oil-price windfall. In return, we agree not to let oil prices fall
through the floor (it dropped to $9 a barrel in 1998) and bankrupt his
nation. But Saudi Arabia doesn’t like that deal. And Abdullah’s wish is
George Bush’s command. (Interestingly, Chavez’ fellow no-term-limits
dictator Bill Clinton endorsed the concept.)

I don’t agree with everything Chavez does. And I’ve found some of
his opponents’ point well taken. But unlike Bush, I don’t think I
should have a veto over the Venezuelan vote.

And the locals’ sentiments are quite clear. I drove with one
opposition candidate, Julio Borges, on a campaign stop to a small town
three hours from Caracas. We met his supporters – or, more accurately,
his lone supporter. The “rally” was in her kitchen. She served us
delicious arepas.

The next day, I returned to that very same town when Chavez arrived.
Nearly a thousand screaming fans showed up – and an equal number were
turned away. (The British Telegraph laughably reports that Chavez’
boosters appear “under duress.”) You’d think they were showing for a
taping of “South American Idol.” (Well, the Venezuelan President did
break into song a few times.)

It’s worth noting that Chavez’ personal popularity doesn’t extend to
all his plans for “Bolivarian” socialism. And that killed his
referendum at the ballot box. I guess Chavez should have asked Jeb Bush
how to count votes in a democracy.
So there you have it. Some guy who thinks he can take Venezuela’s oil
and oil money and just give it away to Venezuelans. And these same
Venezuelans have the temerity to demand the right to pick the president
of their choice! What is the world coming to?

In Orwellian Bush-speak and Times-talk, Chavez’ referendum
was portrayed before the vote as a trick, a kind of “Saddam goes
Latin.” Maybe their real fear is that Chavez has brought a bit of
economic justice through the ballot box, a trend that could spread
northward. Think about it: Chavez is funding full health care for all
Venezuelans. What if that happened here?

*****************
Greg Palast has just returned from South America. Catch his investigations for BBC Television and Democracy Now! in the newly-released DVD, The Assassination of Hugo Chavez, including Palast’s interviews with Chavez, his opponents – even the man who kidnapped Chavez.
Watch the trailer on YouTube.

Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Armed Madhouse. This week, Palast will release his new film on DVD, The Election Files: Theft of 2008, with music by Moby.

These films are made available only as gifts to donors to the Palast
Investigative Fund, a not-for-profit charitable foundation supporting
investigative reporting.

More information at www.GregPalast.com or www.PalastInvestigativeFund.org