US aggression towards Venezuela.

• Author: Golinger, Eva
• Position: Shaking Off El Norte

Washington's efforts to discredit the Venezuelan Government have increased. Tactics and strategies applied in prior years--an illegal oil industry strike that crippled the Venezuelan economy and a constitutional recall referendum infused with illegal campaign contributions by the US government to the Venezuelan opposition--all failed miserably. After a brief period of reevaluation, the Bush Administration has launched a new strategy intended to isolate, and eventually topple, the Venezuelan Government. The new aggression towards Venezuela is direct, open, public, and hostile. The Bush Administration, through Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Porter Goss, has made clear that Venezuela is a target for Washington in 2005.

This time around, the strategy is clear: turn President Chavez into an international pariah in the world media and justify an intervention to save democracy. Even more transparent are the mechanisms utilized to implement the strategy. Since early January 2005, major US publications and television stations have published or broadcast well over 60 articles and programs regurgitating State Department accusations that President Chavez presents a "negative force in the region," is a "threat to democracy," a "semi-dictator," or that the Venezuela Government provides refuge and collaborates with "terrorist" groups, such as the Colombian FARC and ELN. [1]

The new strategy applied towards Venezuela represents a major policy shift for the Bush Administration. While prior actions were more subtle, the revised plan is confrontational. Washington is now trying to openly intervene in Venezuela to remove Chavez from power, attempting to excuse such actions by branding Chavez as a dictator and a major threat to US national security. Several recent articles in US media have demonstrated such objectives.

The April 11, 2005 edition of The National Review, an ultraconservative magazine, presents a cover image of President Chavez, in military fatigues, a red beret, and a face 10 years younger, alongside President Fidel Castro of Cuba, with the byline, "The Axis of Evil--Western Hemisphere Version." The feature article is by rabidly anti-Castro Cuban-American Otto Reich, former Special Advisor to George W. Bush on Latin American Affairs and former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. The article attempts to terrorize readers into believing Venezuela has become the primary threat to US national security in the region. Reich...