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AGUSTIN BLAZQUEZ |
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Venezuela Si, Cubazuela No!
Agustin Blazquez with the collaboration of Jaums Sutton
Thursday, April 18, 2002
The news on April 11 could not have been better for the cause of freedom
in the Americas: Hugo Chavez, the dictator of Venezuela, had been
deposed by popular, pacific demonstrations reminiscent of the fall of
communism in Eastern Europe.
Chavez in Venezuela is a close friend and ally of the last tyrant in
this hemisphere, Fidel Castro. In addition to Cuba, he is associated
with other equally anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-democracy terrorist
states including Libya, Iran and Iraq. Chavez also sought and obtained
an alliance with communist China.
Chavez called Gadhafi's Libya "a model of participatory democracy."
Embracing the fundamentalist Ayatollah of Iran, he declared, "We have
Sister Revolutions with equal struggles and the same destiny." Chavez
praised Iraq's Saddam Hussein, calling his regime a "model" for "my
Venezuela."
And of his mentor, Castro, he said, "Now we can talk of a single team."
He also said that Cuba and Venezuela are "swimming together toward the
same sea of happiness."
In addition, Chavez took an active part in the international terrorist
network by helping the violent Marxist narco-guerrillas of Colombia and
offering sanctuary in Venezuela's territory for their operations on the
border with Colombia.
Chavez's plan for Venezuela (in cahoots with Castro) is to build a
regime similar to Cuba's. To that end, an invasion of Cuban "workers"
replaced many Venezuelan workers (leaving Venezuelans unemployed),
started mingling in internal affairs, and introduced communist
indoctrination.
This indoctrination extends from children in elementary school through
university. Cuba sent many "teachers" and "doctors" to help in the
proselytizing. And China – notorious for violations of human rights and
unfriendliness to America – sent "workers" to help Chavez's regime.
As Castro did in Cuba after 1959, the armed forces of Venezuela were
reorganized by putting Chavez's cronies in charge of all important
positions in the military. And as in Cuba, promotions became conditional
on political beliefs.
Cuban military advisers and intelligence operatives descended on
Venezuela to help organize the repressive apparatus necessary to keep
the new dictator in place.
The so-called "Cubanization" of Venezuela was well under way when, on
June 10, 2001, Chavez, following Castro's example and guidelines,
created paramilitary battalions to repress and intimidate his political
adversaries. In Cuba they are called "Rapid Response Brigades." Chavez
called his "Bolivarian Circles."
As with the infamous Cuban "Committees for the Defense of the
Revolution," Chavez created in Venezuela similar repressive
organizations to spy on the citizenry in each neighborhood, with
branches in companies, hospitals, schools and universities.
His excuse for the creation of these repressive organizations was "to
defend the Bolivarian revolution against counterrevolution." Meanwhile,
Chavez exported great quantities of oil to Cuba at subsidized prices in
exchange for Castro's help with all of these efforts.
In a June 26, 2001, article published by the Washington Times, pg. A14,
titled "Chavez Angles for Absolute Power," Jack Sweeney said:
Since returning to Caracas from a 21-day tour of Russia and Asia, Mr.
Chavez has sharpened his rhetoric. During a rally on June 9, he warned
bankers, industrialists and owners of news media that they would soon be
arrested on tax-evasion charges and would have to forfeit personal and
corporate assets. The next day the president announced the expulsion of
foreigners critical of his government.
And in his radio address to the nation on the first weekend of August
2001, Chavez declared, "Private property is not sacred." He also began
close surveillance and intimidation of the free press with the goal of
controlling freedom of expression.
No wonder the people of Venezuela are fed up with their dictator and the
way he is driving their country into the same "sea of happiness" – a
euphemism for catastrophe and despair – as Castro's Cuba. Chavez's
popularity dropped to 20 percent.
Thus, on April 9, 2002, the people of Venezuela began a general strike
and demanded the resignation of Hugo Chavez.
More than 500,000 people took to the streets of Caracas, the capital of
Venezuela, for a few days of peaceful demonstrations and marched to the
presidential palace, Miraflores. The U.S. network television media did
not report this unprecedented popular uprising, thus denying the people
of Venezuela international support for their effort to get rid of the
only dictatorship left in South America.
But Chavez's paramilitary "Bolivarian Circles" were ordered to shoot the
demonstrators. About 40 of them were killed and hundreds wounded.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, among the dead was
journalist Jorge Tortoza and among the wounded journalists Jonathan
Freitas, Enrique Hernandez and his brother Luis Enrique.
The military took Chavez away from the presidential palace and flew him
to Fort Tiuna, an army facility in Caracas. Jubilation followed among
the population, who believed he was gone for good, and a new provisional
president, Pedro Carmona, was appointed until new elections could be
held.
But soon the jubilation turned to despair.
In an April 14, 2002, an article in Spanish titled "Perro no come perro"
[Dogs do not eat dogs] by Jose Luis Fernandez of the agency La Voz de
Cuba Libre in Los Angeles, an intriguing analysis is presented of the
sudden political reversal in Venezuela that returned Chavez to
Miraflores.
According to Fernandez's analysis, contrary to popular understanding,
the armed forces of Venezuela were not all against Chavez. Most of those
against him had already been replaced. And when Chavez's security was at
stake during the mass demonstrations that broke out around Miraflores,
those loyal to him intervened, took him to safer ground and provided him
protection for the following 24 hours.
Fernandez said that during that period, Chavez and his cronies were able
to identify all their opposition leaders for future retribution. After
the names were recorded, the farce was over and the same loyalists that
rescued him from Miraflores returned him to power. All part of a very
carefully prepared plan developed for just such a crisis.
Chavez returned with more power than when he had left a few hours
earlier. Fernandez, as well as other political analysts from Venezuela,
said that this incident is the equivalent of Castro's 1961 Bay of Pigs
victory, which gave Castro even more power and control over Cuba.
If that is the case, according to Fernandez and others in Venezuela,
Chavez will use the incident as reason to first nationalize the private
radio and TV stations as well as the main newspapers, then the printing
houses, the big businesses and eventually all private property – just as
Castro did in Cuba.
According to reports coming directly from Venezuela (not being reported
by the U.S. network television), Chavez's paramilitary thugs have been
well-armed with expensive weapons. They are intimidating people on the
streets and forcing them to stay inside their houses. Gunshots from
automatic weapons have been heard in many neighborhoods. Calls for
police protection are not being answered. There has been heavy looting
by Chavez's thugs of the businesses that participated in the general
strike.
Radio, TV stations and newspapers have been surrounded by Chavez's
paramilitary thugs, reporters have been intimidated and many remain
hidden inside their offices. There is chaos and fear in Venezuela.
Among the many messages asking for international help and to help
publicize the nightmare that has befallen that country since Chavez came
back to power, is the voice of a Venezuelan woman (for obvious reasons I
will not disclose her name) who sent this desperate message via e-mail
on April 15, 2002, to the international community:
My country has been deceived. We need to ask for help more than ever
from international organizations and beg them to come to Venezuela to
see what is really going on. The reality is not as it appears.
I worry about my country, the freedom of expression and its security.
Don't let yourself be deceived. This man [Chavez] instructed by Fidel
has been intelligent enough to manipulate the whole world.
Are the U.S. media going to do justice to the people of Venezuela and
report what is happening? Are American television journalists going to
support and show their solidarity with the Venezuelan journalists
killed, the injured and those whose lives are in peril by Chavez's
thugs?
Somehow I doubt it, based on their long record of protecting left-wing
dictators, especially Chavez, a protégé of their beloved Castro.
So far, the U.S. television network media have only superficially
reported the incidents in Venezuela and always in relation to the effect
on the price of crude oil. This clearly shows their disdain for the
welfare of the people of that nation located in our own Americas.
Jim Guirard Jr., former chief of staff of U.S. Senators Allen Ellender
and Russell Long, called me on April 12 and told me of a motto that he
created and gave me permission to use. It clearly defines the reality of
the struggle of the people from Venezuela:
Venezuela si, Cubazuela no!
I pass it on to you.
© 2002 ABIP
Agustin Blazquez is producer/director of the documentaries "Covering
Cuba," Covering Cuba 2: The New Generation," and the upcoming Covering
Cuba 3: Elian," and author with Carlos Wotzkow of the book "Covering and
Discovering."
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Augustin Blazquez is a documentary film
producer.
For a preview and information on the
documentary and books
click here:
ABIP
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