Why Cuba? This is not just what we needed, we asked for this.
While our efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq will continue in 2004, we are resolved as well to turn the president's goal of a free and democratic Middle East into a reality. We will expand the Middle East Partnership Initiative to encourage political, economic and educational reform throughout the region. We will also stand by the Iranian people, and others living under oppressive regimes, as they strive for freedom.
This struggle will not be confined to the Middle East. We are working for the advent of a free Cuba, and toward democratic reform in other countries whose people are denied liberty. And we are resolved to support the young democracies that have risen in Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The consolidation of freedom in many new but often fragile democracies will shape the aspirations of people everywhere, assuring that the 21st century will be a century of liberty worldwide. - Powell
The ‘pattern’ that has emerged is that we ‘reform’ countries who have oil and gas reserves or who are considered a nuclear threat to us or Israel. With Afghanistan it is the pipeline, with Iraq it is the oil, with Iran the oil and possibly nuclear weapons. Bush already went to Africa and checked out their gas and oil prospects. So it is with Latin America.
We know that Cuba does not have either oil or gas reserves of consequence nor is there a pipeline involved.
The ‘pattern’ also is that Russia parallels the United States, we are trying to forge an assemblage of bogus democracies headed by compliant thugs as is Russia, we have begun the quest for dominance in space as has Russia, Bush is whittling away at our constitutional rights as is Russia crushing theirs. We have started putting bases in Russia’s ‘near abroad’, in your face arms that threaten Russia at its borders. Hence we see Brazil in negotiations with Russia to possibly gain access to nuclear weapons. Brazil has watched with horror as we have tried to take out their neighbor, Venezuela. Venezuela is the fourth largest producer of oil, and the corporate elites whose political power runs unfettered in the Bush/Cheney oligarchy appear interested in privatizing Venezuela's oil industry. Furthermore, the establishment might be concerned that Chavez's `barter deals' with 12 Latin American countries and Cuba are effectively cutting the U.S. dollar out of the vital oil transaction currency cycle. Commodities are being traded among these countries in exchange for Venezuela's oil, thereby reducing reliance on fiat dollars. If these unique oil transactions proliferate, they could create more devaluation pressure on the dollar. Continuing attempts by the CIA to remove Hugo Chavez appear likely. I feel that the devaluation of the dollar would not be significant enough without the cooperation of OPEC and Russia therefore going after Cuba for that reason does not seem legitimate.
Brazil is very much against, as is the vast majority of the world, our pre-emptive strike policy which in its exactness to that of Nazi Germany has been condemned by Nuremberg. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that some Russian missiles in Brazil will be aimed at the United States. In early 2001, Russian authorities officially expressed their interest in launching Soyuz vehicles from the Guyana Space Centre in French Guyana, Brazil’s other neighbor. Soyuz rockets are due to start launching from France's Kourou space centre in Guyana in 2006. Russia already has an impressive nuclear strike force aimed at the United States from the north. It would be prudent that they also try for the south and get as close to our borders or ‘near abroad’ as possible. To put bases on our porch as we have done to Russia is in keeping with the ‘pattern’ of parallels.
That Bush is going through all of this trouble to free Cuba in order to gain the support of the voting Cubans, when he is almost assured of reelection, does not make sense but more importantly it does not fit the ‘pattern’.
Cuba it would seem is negotiating for or has Russian missiles. Cuba is a logical place to put Russian weapons and it fits the ‘pattern’ of parallels in that it certainly is our ‘near abroad’.
What goes around comes around.
I have never seen such a monstrous regression in world affairs and what is more disconcerting is that a large percentage of United States citizens, steeped in their archaic partisan politics, is completely oblivious to what is going on. IMO -Am
Two pertinent texts regarding the Southern Hemisphere.
Jimmy Carter, the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2002, is being called a Communist by Republicans who in their recent backing of Khodorkovsky, the former head of the Moscow Komsomol communist youth league, who recently bought the political support of two right-wing parties together with some sections of the leadership of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), the heir of the old revisionist CPSU, have proven that the Republicans are not beyond backing Communism. http://www.londoncommunists.org/28907/60026.html
At the very least I show Russia with influence in Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil and French Guyana. Given this, one would have to wonder if Bush’s recent wooing of Mexican illegal aliens is solely for reelection purposes or if there is a more recondite meaning behind his maneuver? Bush is losing it badly; there is a massive unification against us. All this must, of course, be kept from the American voter. http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=2039287
Washington still plays Cold War games in Latin America 01/06/2004 10:30 The US State Department issued a statement in which it accuses Cuba and Venezuela of being a potential danger to democracy in the region. The message comes only one week before a hemispheric meeting in Mexico.
Washington issued a kind of warning to Cuba and Venezuela on Monday, as accused both Governments of being a potential danger to democracy in Latin America. "Venezuela's neighbors are bothered by close ties between the Venezuelan and Cuban governments and their potential dangers to democracy", said US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli, who also said Cuba remains an antidemocratic force in the region.
Ereli criticized any action that "might impede free and fair democratic processes" in the hemisphere and said Cuba has a long history of attempting to undermine elected governments in the region. "For that reason the close ties between the government of Venezuela and the government of Cuba raise concerns among Venezuela's democratic neighbors," Ereli said.
Ereli"s words are quite interesting as said Cuba "has a long history of attempting to undermine elected governments in the region". According to unclassified US State Department documents, Washington plotted the coup that toppled the democratic, constitutional and legal government of Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973, and fueled Argentine military to oust the legally elected administration of Maria Estela Martinez de Peron in Argentina, less than three years later. Mr. Ereli should also look into those files.
Moreover, as early as in 1954, Washington sponsored a military coup in Guatemala. One year later supported the military after overthrowing Peron"s ruling in Argentina. All along the eighties supported all sort of bloody dictatorships in Central America, as invaded Panama in 1989. The death toll of the US intervention in Latin America should be in the region of 500.000 casualties, taking into account thousands of deaths in Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay and Bolivia in the seventies and Central America in the eighties.
However, lack of memory makes US hawks to say Cuba and Venezuela are working together to oppose pro-American, democratic governments in the region with money, political indoctrination and training. PRAVDA.Ru correspondent in Buenos Aires is in position to confirm that neither Venezuela nor Cuba are financing such activities neither in Argentina nor in Uruguay, as doubts something similar may happen in other South American nations.
In Caracas on Monday, Tarek William Saab, head of Venezuela's congressional foreign relations commission and a supporter of President Hugo Chavez, assailed an Associated Press story that recounted U.S. worries about Chavez's activities. Saab accused the U.S. government of "using slander and defamation to weaken a constitutional government like ours." "It's false and irresponsible and cowardly," Saab said.
Aside from his ties to Cuba, Chavez's US officials have increasingly questioned democratic spirit of Chavez, as his political foes are trying to depose him through a recall election. Both President Bush and Chavez are expected at a hemispheric summit meeting Jan. 12-13 in Mexico.
However, as principal US administration goal for the hemisphere is to conclude a free trade agreement to extend from Alaska to Argentina by early 2005, it makes sense that Washington insists in its attacks to Venezuela and Cuba. As for the Caribbean Island, it has been already excluded from the negotiations. Unfortunately for Washington they cannot do the same with Venezuela as Chavez administration is absolutely legal and constitutional. Aside from the political considerations, Venezuela is a key nation for the Agreement, as it is hemisphere"s largest -by far- oil exporter. Cuba, in turn, is as big for the Caribbean market, as Brazil is for South America.
In response to Washington accusations, Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said his government has never allowed Colombian rebels to use Venezuelan territory, as also rejected allegations by U.S. officials of Venezuelan support for backers of an uprising in Bolivia that deposed the country's pro-U.S. president, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, last October.
A Special Summit of the Americas will be held in Monterrey, Mexico, on January 12 and 13, a prelude to the planned 2005 Fourth Summit of the Americas, in Argentina. During this particular event, officials have indicated that the focus will be on economic growth, social development and democratic governance in the Western Hemisphere.
George W. Bush will attend, and sidebar to the summit he is scheduled to meet with Mexican President Vicente Fox Quesada to further discuss immigration and binational security matters according to Fox’s office.
Altogether the Special Summit will assemble 34 heads of state from all of the perceivably democratic countries in the hemisphere — that more bluntly means Fidel Castro of Cuba is not invited. Still, it appears that Castro will be represented by a perchance and/or wannabe successor, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
Chávez continues to be under heavy fire at home, where opponents are advancing the drive for his recall. On December 19 opposition leaders delivered recall petitions with 3.46 million signatures to Venezuela’s National Elections Council, a sizable number over the requisite 2.4 million signatures needed to initiate a referendum. However due to holiday vacations, the counting and verification of the signatures are to begin on January 5. Once the counts officially begin, the council will have 30 days to decide if a referendum on Chávez remaining in office will be held.
Supporters claim that Chávez has given the poor a voice in Venezuela, whereas his detractors charge him with ruining the economy and wanting to change Venezuela into a Cuban-style communist dictatorship — with the help of best buddy Fidel Castro.
Since even before the signature drive began Chávez has been crying foul. Using terms like “mega-fraud, gigantic fraud” and more colorful invectives, he charges that people signed petitions more than once and that unregistered voters were given fake identification cards so they too could sign. He also is accusing private business, entrepreneurs and some unionists of threatening to fire workers if they would not sign the petitions. And the ex-paratrooper is warning that discharged military officers, who participated in the failed 2002 coup, are again plotting against him.
Chávez says that he will fight recall virtually beyond extremes, plus he has vowed to verify each and every signature on the petitions. Part of this latter strategy, if needed, is undoubtedly to delay a possible referendum until after August — when the less than two-year date before the 2006 elections comes around. After that the president could be removed, but legally there could not be a presidential election and the vice president would takeover (while Chávez campaigns for 2006).
On December 22 Fidel Castro made a hurried trip to Venezuela for secretive talks with Chávez, supposedly on healthcare and education issues. Also in Venezuela for the meetings was Evo Morales, Bolivia’s outspoken anti-capitalist congressman who heads both the Movement Toward Socialism party and organized coca growers in his homeland. (Morales has also been meeting with Jimmy Carter, a common denominator joining Castro, Chávez and Morales.)
Soon after the meetings Chávez started to talk about forthcoming plans and “his” international agenda. In this regard, it should be noted that there is growing concern in Washington and certain other western capitals that Chávez and his coconspirators are up to no good.
Chávez says that he will visit a number of countries in 2004, starting with Mexico in order to attend the Special Summit of the Americas. In late December, on his weekly radio and TV “Aló Presidente” program, Chávez said that he plans to speak against the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) during the summit. Likening participation in a FTAA to “committing suicide,” Chávez expounded on his rhetorical argument that such an accord would further impoverish Latin Americans by subjecting them to unfair U.S.A. and Canadian competition. News reports say that Chávez, while in Mexico, will also call for governments to support a redistribution of wealth through a new hemispheric social contract.
Saying that the world cannot have a single pole, Chávez told Prensa Latina that he would travel to Russia this year. “The objective of the visit to Russia will be to raise the level of bilateral relations, that have already been moved forward with the visit of Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov to Caracas, when several cooperative agreements and letters of intent were signed,” Chávez told the Cuban news agency. Chávez also talked about plans to visit France and several other European nations.
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