3 responses so far ↓

• 1 Jason // Sep 2, 2005 at 3:46 pm

  Mightn’t Chavez’s rise to power be a result of the racism, inequality, and economic protectionism as practiced by the elite of Venezuela? When you’ve got every privately owned paper and television station calling for your ouster, mightn’t you want to combat it with a little propaganda of your own? I can’t really blame him for being quixotic. And I have little sympathy for his enemies. I do have sympathy for poor there, but do you really believe those trying to pry power from Chavez have their interest at heart? Chavez, although his policies don’t reflect it, seems to.
  As for our involvement: I remember seeing editorials in the New York Times applauding what was at the time perceived as a successful coup. When it became apparent that it wasn’t, they quickly backtracked. Who wrote those pieces and why (ie at whose prompting)? I’ve also heard that those controlling the media there have close ties to the political elite here. Sure, not much to build a case on, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see declassified documents in my dotage substantiating the claim that we did have something to do with the coup attempt.

• 2 Julian Sanchez // Sep 2, 2005 at 7:19 pm

  Well, it’s now clear that at least we were aware one was in the works beforehand; whether we had more to do with it than that remains to be seen, though it wouldn’t surprise me. I’m certainly not defending past U.S. policy here.

• 3 herbiecollie // Sep 17, 2005 at 8:30 pm

  you write, “There’s also no small amount of evidence to suggest that ChÃ?¡vez’s government has provided supportââ?¬â?in the form of both sanctuary and materiel to the Marxist terrorist group FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.”

  If there’s no small amount of evidence then why does yours come from a single writer of a single publication, The Weekly Standard. In fact your entire 5 link accusation boils down to the testimony of one man, Juan Bautista Ramirez, a FARC defector, saying the Venezuelan air force covered them on an operation one time. Like I’m sure that no U.S. military ever covered a Colombian contra-insurgency operation, too…

  All in all, a rather hollow, fear-baiting portrait. For some food for thought and a better understand of the Chavez phenomenon, check out some of the recent posts at Caracas Chronicles (an anti-Chavez blog).