By Eva Golinger - Postcards from the Revolution, Aug 12th 2011
Since Hugo Chavez won his first presidential elections in 1998, the US government has been trying to remove him from power. With multimillion-dollar investments, every year Washington’s agencies advise and aid anti-Chavez groups with their campaigns and strategies against the government.
On Thursday members of the Venezuelan opposition formed a new “progressive” political coalition which includes numerous political forces that once backed President Hugo Chávez.
The Venezuelan opposition has released a list of possible candidates to stand for the Table of Democratic Unity (MUD) against the United Socialist Party of Venezuela’s (PSUV) candidate, Hugo Chávez Frias, in the 2012 presidential elections.
Diplomatic cables written by the U.S. Embassy in Caracas between 2006 to 2009 and released by Wikileaks state that the opposition leaders here asked for financing and favours from the U.S. government. The cables also reveal some of the opposition’s internal problems, struggles over leadership, and lack of vision and strategy.
The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) has announced that the party grew by more than one million new members during a month-long registration drive in May. Meanwhile, most of the principal opposition parties in Venezuela have formed a new alliance called the "Democratic Unity Roundtable" (Mesa de la Unidad Democrática).
A group of Venezuelan university students and administrators, opposition political party officials, and employees of the opposition television station Globovision marched to the Higher Education Ministry on Wednesday to protest the government's 6% cut in university budgets as part of an overall government spending reduction amidst the world economic crisis.
A
United States institution linked to security and defense agencies in Washington,
D.C. has established a program in Venezuela to train youth in the principles of
"individual liberty, free markets, and limited governments."
By Zachary Lown – Venezuelanalysis.com, Apr 29th 2009
In
recent statements and proclamations Venezuela's political opposition declared
that President Hugo Chavez has initiated "a reign of terror" against his opponents.
It also proclaims that the government is weaker than ever and that the time is
ripe for a new round of massive street protests.
On Monday, Peru's Foreign Relations Ministry granted political asylum to Manuel Rosales, a leading opposition figure and former presidential candidate who is wanted in Venezuela for stealing public funds and accepting bribes during his term as governor of Zulia state.
A Venezuelan court has issued an arrest warrant and requested that the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) apprehend the mayor of Maracaibo, Manuel Rosales, who fled to Peru and sought political asylum this week to avoid being tried for corruption.
