A Level Gaze

A Level Gaze

"What effect must it have on a nation if it learns no foreign languages? Probably much the same as that which a total withdrawal from society has upon an individual."
--G.C. Lichtenberg

Tuesday, October 29, 2002

Hyde Urges Bush to Help Oust Venezuelan President

Warning of the formation of a potential "Axis of Evil" in the Americas, an influential lawmaker has called on President George W. Bush to support the ouster of left-wing Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez.

Just days before Brazilians elected radical populist Lula da Silva as their president on Oct. 27, House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) sent President Bush a powerfully phrased letter warning that a triumvirate of political extremists leading economic powerhouse Brazil, oil giant Venezuela and the terrorist-sponsoring regime of Cuba constitute an emerging "Axis of Evil" that the United States must stop.

Again with the oil? So our avowed enemy North Korea, which in all likelihood already has nuclear weapons and missiles potent enough to deliver said weapons to our shores, just needs a good talking-to, but Venezuela, which has neither, requires forcible régime change. And this on the strength of a presumed tie between it and Brazil, the new leader of which has made some noises about pursuing nuclear weapons.

Hyde blusters on about how Venezuela's Chavez was elected with the help of "systematic violation of the Venezuelan Constitution," no instance of which he deigns to mention. He also fails to mention that Chavez was elected by a majority, against the vehement opposition of just about every monied interest in the country. And he gets in a jab or two at Bill Clinton.

According to Hyde, "all the pro-democracy elements of the society, including the genuinely democratic political parties, the labor unions, business associations and religious institutions, have been gathered for two days in coalition with a group of active duty military officers of flag rank demanding that President Hugo Chavez resign and that new, free and open elections be held."

I wonder if the timing and means of bringing about the elections Hyde proposes are in accord with the Venezuelan Constitution. Does it have provisions for the military forcing the resignation of the elected president?

This is about two things: oil, and a fit of brutal pique at having our accustomed lapdogs in Latin America attempt to peek their noses out from under US hegemony. To hell with self-determination. To hell with democracy. If any further proof had been needed that brutal pigs are running US foreign policy, this letter supplies it.

via Realpolitik

posted by David at 10/29/2002 10:09:00 AM ::

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