[R-G] Foreign Intervention Won the Venezuelan Elections by Eva Golinger

[Anthony Fenton]

December 6, 2008...8:15 pm
Foreign Intervention Won the Venezuelan Elections by Eva Golinger
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/4010

Foreign Intervention Won The Venezuelan Elections
Author:
Eva Golinger

Years of work penetrating communities and financing “democracy”  
programs and projects with an anti-socialist vision in the communities  
of Petare, Sucre Municipality of Miranda State, and Catia, Libertador  
Municipality in Caracas, and in other zones where the vast majority of  
the population of Caracas and Miranda is located, allowed the  
opposition to retake control of these areas. The strategic political  
consultation, with its separatist vision and in favor of the  
infiltration of paramilitaries in Zulia and Tachira, allowed these  
areas that are of such importance to the security of the Venezuelan  
state to be controlled by an opposition that is subordinate to the  
agenda of Washington and the objectives of Plan Colombia that plague  
the region.

It’s not just the 4.7 million dollars invested in the opposition’s  
campaign for the regional elections in 2008 by the United States  
Agency of International Development (USAID), the National Endowment  
for Democracy (NED), and their affiliated agencies, but also the 50  
million dollars, along with expert political consultation, donated by  
the US and used since 2000 to construct a solid base of the Venezuelan  
opposition, who, beginning in 2004, began to set their sights on  
infiltrating communities supportive of Chavez as well as students.

Still, we can’t rule out or ignore the responsibility of certain  
politicians who used the revolution and the good faith of President  
Chavez to come to power and then abused it with their corrupt  
practices that hurt the people they represented. But the media  
campaign that blames the Pro-Chavez movement for crime and corruption  
in the in the country – mainly in the large capital city of Caracas –  
had a major impact, and the local and national government didn’t  
respond effectively. The short memory of those Venezuelans who forgot  
how the mayor-elect, Antonio Ledezma, governed as mayor of the Federal  
District in 1993 when he prohibited any protest or rally in the city.  
Or how Ledezma was one of those responsible for the deterioration of  
public services in the city, along with its infrastructure. As a  
result, the Chavista elected officials of 2000 and 2004 inherited a  
capital city in total ruin – the historic center almost destroyed,  
streets full of
potholes and buildings stained after being forgotten and abandoned for  
years. Could the same mayor who destroyed the city 15 years ago be the  
one to save it now? Only time will tell, but the odds are slim and the  
unfortunate short-term memory of some Caraqueños will make them to pay  
for their impulsive decision.

The most strategic and populated states of the country, Carabobo,  
Miranda, Tachira, Zulia, and the metropolitan mayor of Caracas, have  
been handed like a prize to the same political players who, in the  
last seven years, have carried out attacks against Venezuelan  
democracy, including a coup d’état (all of these new elected officials  
were top leaders in the coup d’état of April 2002), the economic  
sabotage that almost destroyed the country and its petroleum industry  
in 2002-2003, and the numerous protests and attempts to destabilize  
since then that have tested the patience of Venezuelan society. Why  
then did these important regions fall back in the hands of coup- 
plotters?

The answer is simple and complex at the same time. There is a lack of  
understanding within the revolution about the importance and about the  
impact of subversion and the interference of foreign agencies in the  
country. We aren’t just talking about the financing of opposition  
political parties – something that should be strictly prohibited by  
law – but a complex web of different actors, entities, front groups,  
and agencies that have managed to infiltrate the ranks of the pro- 
Chavez movement, and have been able to snag and remove political  
parties like PPT (Homeland for All) and Podemos (We can), which  
previously sided fully with the revolution. This web – which I call  
the Empire’s Spider Web – also penetrates communities and barrios and  
promotes alternative projects and programs to those proposed by  
President Chavez that may be more attractive in the short term,  
providing instant satisfaction to these needy sectors.

These foreign agencies, like the aforementioned USAID and the NED, and  
others such as Freedom House, the National Democratic Institute (NDI),  
the International Republican Institute (IRI), the Konrad Adenauer  
Foundation (Germany), FAES (Spain), FOCAL (Canada), Friedrich Ebert  
Foundation (Germany), among others, have been working in Venezuela for  
years, advising and financing parties such as Primero Justicia  
(Justice First), Un Nuevo Tiempo (A New Era), and Podemos to help them  
create political platforms and strategies that reflect the needs and  
wants of the Venezuelan people, but maintain a hidden agenda that  
promotes a neo-liberal, anti-socialist vision. Remember that we are in  
a battle of ideas and in this war without a battlefield all weapons  
within reach are employed to neutralize the enemy.

The work of these agencies has also been extremely effective with the  
NGOs and within right-wing student groups, such as Súmate, Cedice,  
Hagamos Democracia, Sinergia, “White Hands” student movement, and  
others. With this help, these groups have taken over sectors of  
society that have been neglected by the revolution, if not forgotten  
entirely.

The ability and effectiveness of foreign interference, like an  
imperial fist, cannot be underestimated. The strategy of “promoting  
democracy” in countries like Venezuela is more dangerous than a  
military invasion. Why? Its detection is difficult and the cover-up is  
almost perfect – it is hidden behind NGOs and programs with noble- 
sounding names and missions that claim to help communities and improve  
the country, but in reality they aim to destabilize and implement an  
agenda against the sovereign interests of the nation. Its web is  
immense and it is seen in Venezuelan society through the mainstream  
media, the touching speeches of spokesmen such as Yon Goicoechea, who  
try to trick Venezuelans with poetic and comforting phrases, and the  
complaints of human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch,  
Inter American Press Society, and the Human Rights Commission of the  
Organization of American States (OAS).

This is the most dangerous foreign interference that the Bolivarian  
Revolution faces. Its deadly web extends across the country after the  
results of November 23. The people and national government need to act  
now to neutralize this growing threat to their future. The fact that  
the new United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV, Spanish acronym)  
won 17 governors races with nearly six million votes is an important  
step for the strengthening of the revolution. It also shows the  
revolutionary commitment of the majority of Venezuelans. Despite this,  
the strategic victory of the opposition forces can’t be denied or  
discounted, and its recovery of these regional governments should be a  
wake up call for the revolutionary citizens and the Venezuelan  
government. They will use these spaces to introduce and promote their  
individualist, anti-socialist vision, shrouded in the message of  
“democracy and liberty.” And they will open up their regions even more  
to the imperial web. The border area is in serious risk. The  
Venezuelan “half moon” could further strengthen with Zulia and Tachira  
in the hands of the most reactionary right-wing political players in  
the country.

Its time for strong actions to combat the interference of foreign  
agencies in the country. If they aren’t neutralized now, they will  
embed their followers so deeply in the country that they will be here  
for good.

Eva Golinger is a lawyer, researcher and writer, and author of The  
Chavez Code, Bush vs. Chavez: Washington’s War against Venezuela, and  
The Empire’s Web: Encyclopedia of Interventionism and Subversion (in  
Spanish), which was published in Venezuela in November 2008. Contact  
her at evagolinger at gmail.com.
Translated by Erik Sperling

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/4010