[A-List] Documents from 1992 Coup Show Chavez's Path

[Charles Brown]

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/01/AR200704010
1284.html>
Documents from 1992 coup show Chavez's path
By Brian Ellsworth
Reuters
Sunday, April 1, 2007; 11:14 PM
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The blueprints -- for a militaristic yet utopian government that would
upend the South American country's corrupt politics -- now read like a
road map for Chavez's drive this year to nationalize industries and
put power in the hands of communities.

Among his moves, Chavez has decreed that foreign oil companies
including household names like Exxon Mobil must hand over control of
four multibillion dollar oil projects in the Orinoco basin by May 1.

But one of his most ambitious goals remains to entrench new community
councils that will administer billions of dollars in oil wealth in
what may be his biggest effort to redistribute political power since
coming to office in 1999.


"Communal power, a state dedicated to social justice -- all of this
comes from those days," Chavez told supporters earlier this year.


His takeover this year of utilities such as telephone company CANTV
echoed the coupsters' Decree No. 13 calling for the suspension of all
privatization.

^^^^^
CB: Yep,  I guess Chavez has been "exposed" as a radical democrat and
anti-monopolist from way back .

^^^^^

And last month, in what the opposition called an abuse of power by a
dictator-in-the-making, 

^^^^
CB: a dictator from the proletariat, and brother from this planet...

^^^^^

Chavez decreed it a crime to hoard food as he
sought to combat a rash of supermarket shortages.

^^^
CB: Opponent of starvation: what a terrible guy ?

^^^



Garrido said Chavez's opponents failed to realize that his early
insistence on state control of strategic resources foreshadowed his
campaign this year to grab multibillion dollar projects from major oil
companies.

"There's no big discoveries to make here, it's just a question of
reading what he's already written," Garrido said.

^^^^
CB:   We already knew Chavez was the greatest thing since Fidel Castro.

^^^^

BUILT ON BOLIVAR


The decrees themselves are attributed to Kleber Ramirez, a long-time
guerrilla and leader of the Party of the Venezuelan Revolution, a
division of the communist party that first drew Chavez into the circle
of armed forces conspirators.

^^^
CB: From his activities, policies and speeches it has always seemed like
Chavez was a Communist Party member from way back, a true democrat.

^^^^^

The political treatise known as The Blue Book offers an outline of
citizen-driven "participative democracy" that formed a key plank of
his 1998 anti-poverty presidential platform.

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This idea will become reality as Chavez implements the new system of
Communal Councils, citizen groups that will receive some $3 billion
this year to address local problems -- emasculating traditional
municipal governance in the process.

^^^^^
CB: Radical democrat

^^^^

Chavez cultivates intrigue surrounding his past, with frequent stories
of how he almost joined leftist guerillas, recalling during a news
conference this year that by 23 he was already talking revolution with
other cadets.

"Those who think I'm just improvising ... oh, how mistaken they are,"
Chavez said in February.
--
Yoshie

^^^^^
CB: We commies believe in planning with a  longview.