But
that's not the way Chavez works.
The Venezuelan president quickly
passed "enabling" laws which gave him special powers to provide
emergency aid and housing to flood victims. Chavez then cleared out the
presidential palace and turned it into living quarters for 60 people,
which is the equivalent of turning the White House into a homeless
shelter. The disaster victims are now being fed and taken care of by the
state until they can get back on their feet and return to work.
The details of Chavez's efforts have been largely
omitted in the US media where he is regularly demonized as a "leftist
strongman" or a dictator. The media refuses to acknowledge that Chavez
has narrowed the income gap, eliminated illiteracy, provided health care
for all Venezuelans, reduced inequality, and raised living standards
across he board.
While Bush and Obama were expanding their foreign wars
and pushing through tax cuts for the rich, Chavez was busy improving the
lives of the poor and needy while fending off the latest wave of US
aggression.
Washington despises Chavez because he is
unwilling to hand over Venezuela's vast resources to corporate elites
and bankers. That's why the Bush administration tried to depose Chavez
in a failed coup attempt in 2002, and that's why the smooth-talking
Obama continues to launch covert attacks on Chavez today. Washington
wants regime change so it can install a puppet who will hand over
Venezuela's reserves to big oil while making life hell for working
people.
Recently released documents from Wikileaks show
that the Obama administration has stepped up its meddling in Venezuela's
internal affairs. Here's an excerpt from a recent post by attorney and
author, Eva Golinger:
"In a secret document authored by current Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Craig
Kelly, and sent by the US Embassy in Santiago in June 2007 to the
Secretary of State, CIA and Southern Command of the Pentagon, along with
a series of other US embassies in the region, Kelly proposed "six main
areas of action for the US government (USG) to limit Chavez's influence"
and "reassert US leadership in the region".
Kelly, who played a primary role as "mediator"
during last year's coup d'etat in Honduras against President Manuel
Zelaya, classifies President Hugo Chavez as an "enemy" in his report.
"Know the enemy: We have to better understand how
Chavez thinks and what he intends...To effectively counter the threat
he represents, we need to know better his objectives and how he intends
to pursue them. This requires better intelligence in all of our
countries". Further on in the memo, Kelly confesses that President
Chavez is a "formidable foe", but, he adds, "he certainly can be taken".
(Wikileaks: Documents Confirm US Plans Against Venezuela, Eva Golinger,
Postcards from the Revolution)
The State Department cables also show that
Washington has been funding anti-Chavez groups in Venezuela through
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that pretend to be working for
civil liberties, human rights or democracy promotion. These groups hide
behind a facade of legitimacy, but their real purpose is to topple the
democratically elected Chavez government. Obama supports this type of
subversion just as enthusiastically as did Bush. The only difference is
the Obama team is more discreet. Here's another clip from Golinger with
some of the details on the money-trail:
"In Venezuela, the US has been supporting
anti-Chavez groups for over 8 years, including those that executed the
coup d’etat against President Chavez in April 2002. Since then, the
funding has increased substantially. A May 2010 report evaluating
foreign assistance to political groups in Venezuela, commissioned by the
National Endowment for Democracy, revealed that more than $40 million
USD annually is channeled to anti-Chavez groups, the majority from US
agencies....
Venezuela stands out as the Latin American nation
where NED has most invested funding in opposition groups during 2009,
with $1,818,473 USD, more than double from the year before....Allen
Weinstein, one of NED’s original founders, revealed once to the
Washington Post, “What we do today was done clandestinely 25 years ago
by the CIA…” (America's Covert "Civil Society Operations": US
Interference in Venezuela Keeps Growing", Eva Golinger, Global Research)
On Monday, the Obama administration revoked the
visa of Venezuela’s ambassador to Washington in retaliation for Chávez’s
rejection of nominee Larry Palmer as American ambassador in Caracas.
Palmer has been openly critical of Chavez saying there were clear ties
between members of the Chavez administration and leftist guerrillas in
neighboring Colombia. It's a roundabout way of accusing Chavez of
terrorism. Even worse, Palmer's background and personal history suggest
that his appointment might pose a threat to Venezuela's national
security. Consider the comments of James Suggett of Venezuelanalysis on
Axis of Logic:
"Take a look at Palmer's history, working with
the U.S.-backed oligarchs in the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Paraguay,
and Sierra Leone, South Korea, Honduras, "promoting the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)." Just as the U.S. ruling class appointed
an African-American, Barack Obama to replace George W. Bush with
everything else intact, Obama in turn, appoints Palmer to replace
Patrick Duddy who was involved in the attempted coup against President
Chávez in 2002 and an enemy of Venezuelans throughout his term as U.S.
Ambassador to Venezuela."
(http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/printer_60511.shtml)
Venezuela is already crawling with US spies and
saboteurs. They don't need any help from agents working inside the
embassy. Chavez did the right thing by giving Palmer the thumbs down.
The Palmer nomination is just "more of the same";
more interference, more subversion, more trouble-making. The State Dept
was largely responsible for all of the so-called color-coded
revolutions in Ukraine, Lebanon, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan etc; all of which
were cookie cutter, made-for-TV events that pitted the interests of
wealthy capitalists against those of the elected government. Now
Hillary's throng want to try the same strategy in Venezuela. It's up to
Chavez to stop them, which is why he's pushed through laws that
"regulate, control or prohibit foreign funding for political
activities". It's the only way he can defend against US meddling and
protect Venezuelan sovereignty.
Chavez is also using his new powers to reform the
financial sector. Here's an excerpt from an article titled "Venezuelan
National Assembly Passes Law Making Banking a “Public Service”:
"Venezuela's National Assembly on Friday approved
new legislation that defines banking as an industry “of public
service,” requiring banks in Venezuela to contribute more to social
programs, housing construction efforts, and other social needs while
making government intervention easier when banks fail to comply with
national priorities."...
The new law protects bank customers’ assets in
the event of irregularities on the part of owners... and stipulates that
the Superintendent of Banking Institutions take into account the best
interest of bank customers – and not only stockholders... when making
any decisions that affect a bank’s operations."
So why isn't Obama doing the same thing? Is he
too afraid or is he just Wall Street's lackey? Here's more from the same
article:
"In an attempt to control speculation, the law
limits the amount of credit that can be made available to individuals or
private entities by making 20% the maximum amount of capital a bank can
have out as credit. The law also limits the formation of financial
groups and prohibits banks from having an interest in brokerage firms
and insurance companies.
The law also stipulates that 5% of pre-tax
profits of all banks be dedicated solely to projects elaborated by
communal councils. 10% of a bank´s capital must also be put into a fund
to pay for wages and pensions in case of bankruptcy.
According to 2009 figures provided by Softline
Consultores, 5% of pre-tax profits in Venezuela's banking industry last
year would have meant an additional 314 million bolivars, or $73.1
million dollars, for social programs to attend the needs of Venezuela’s
poor majority." http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5880
"Control speculation"? Now there's a novel idea.
Naturally, opposition leaders are calling the new laws "an attack on
economic liberty". But that's pure baloney. Chavez is merely protecting
the public from the predatory practices of bloodthirsty bankers. Most
Americans wish that Obama would do the same thing.
According to the Wall Street Journal, "Chávez has
threatened to expropriate large banks in the past if they don't
increase loans to small-business owners and prospective home buyers,
this time he is increasing the pressure publicly to show his concern for
the lack of sufficient housing for Venezuela's 28 million people."
Caracas suffers from a massive housing shortage
that's gotten much worse because of the flooding. Tens of thousands of
people need shelter now, which is why Chavez is putting pressure on the
banks to lend a hand. Of course, the banks don't want to help so they've
slipped into crybaby mode. But Chavez has shrugged off their whining
and put them "on notice". In fact, on Tuesday, he issued this terse
warning:
"Any bank that slips up…I'm going to expropriate
it, whether it's Banco Provincial, or Banesco or Banco Nacional de
Crédito."
Bravo, Hugo. In Chavez's Venezuela the basic
needs of ordinary working people take precedent over the profiteering of
cutthroat banksters. Is it any wonder why Washington hates him?
In late November, Venezuela was hammered by torrential rains and
flooding that left 35 people dead and roughly 130,000 homeless. If
George Bush had been president, instead of Hugo Chavez, the displaced
people would have been shunted off at gunpoint to makeshift prison
camps--like the Superdome--as they were following Hurricane Katrina. 
