By Harold Meyerson - Washington Post, Apr 14th 2005
While Condi Rice waxes eloquent about our concern for democratic rights in Central Asia and the Middle East, the most the Bush administration has managed to say about democracy in the unimaginably faraway land of Mexico has been the comment of a State Department spokesman that this is an internal Mexican affair.
By Sarah Wagner and Gregory Wilpert – Venezuelanalysis.com, Apr 12th 2005
An interview with Education Minister Aristobulo Isturiz, one of the longer serving members of the Chavez cabinet. Isturiz talks about the government's educational philosophy, the tripling of investment in education, and how the educational "missions" fit into the overall program of educational policies.
As a result of the unfulfilled promises rendered by the “Washington Consensus” and the quite understandable drive to carve out greater regional autonomy, South America is closer to an authentic unification than ever before, while Washington's plan to isolate Chavez fails.
Eva Golinger discusses the impact of her book, her reasons for writing it, and her plans to continue her investigation into U.S. government interference in Venezuela's affairs.
As the Bush administration tries to craft a new foreign policy toward Venezuela, Pentagon and military officials say they cannot blunt that nation's regional influence unless a law meant to protect U.S. personnel from prosecution in the International Criminal Court is changed.
By Jorge Martín - Hands Off Venezuela Campaign, Apr 8th 2005
CNV, which produces valves for the state owned oil company PDVSA, should be expropriated and put under workers' control and management, following the example of Venepal.
For George Bush the news could not have been worse. Having failed, according to credible accounts, to dislodge firebrand Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez by force in an April 2002 coup d’etat, Bush now must come to terms with the fact that Venezuela has cultivated strong European ties.
"We proposed a bank which would be a public institution for small loans. We call it the different bank because we not only offer women loans and support them while they're building up their businesses, we offer help and support on sexual and reproductive health because these are human rights too."
Bare-chested, clad in traditional dress and wielding bows and arrows, hundreds of representatives of the Barí, Yukpa and Wayúu indigenous peoples from the westernmost region of Venezuela marched on the capital to demand a halt to coal mining near their lands in the Sierra de Perijá mountain range.
By Michael Parenti - ZNet Commentary, Apr 4th 2005
Successive Venezuelan administrations did nothing about the rampant corruption and nothing about the growing gap between rich and poor, the growing malnutrition and desperation. Far from ruining the country, there are some good things the Chavez government has accomplished.
The helicopters of Chávez arrived to bomb the mountain range with water to put out the fire; they did not come to drop incendiary bombs like the helicopters of Bush in Fallujah, Iraq.
By Larry Birns and Sarah Schaffer - COHA, Apr 1st 2005
The U.S. State Department accused Caracas of embarking on a unilateral arms race, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisting that Chávez’s actions threatened the stability of other Latin American nations. If any country can be accused of igniting local arms races, surely Washington is a prime candidate for such a distinction.
By Pánfilo Narváez de Soto - Foreign Affairs Studies Bulletin, Apr 1st 2005
After years of vitriolic rhetoric on the part of United States leaders, the government of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has decided on a policy of containment of the U.S.
By Eva Golinger - Venezuelanalysis.com, Mar 30th 2005
After a brief period of reevaluation, the Bush Administration has recently launched a new strategy intended to isolate and eventually topple the Venezuelan Government. The new aggression towards Venezuela is direct, open, public and hostile.
Chavez’s rhetoric suggests the Venezuelan leader earnestly seeks to challenge U.S. regional hegemony by putting together a formidable coalition of like-minded nations.
