Not This Again
Well, this is familiar. Familiar and stomach-turning. What was that we were saying about ‘democracy’? Sometimes that seems to translate to democracy Henry Ford style. Any colour so long as it’s black; any candidate so long as it’s one the US approves of.
But critics of the NED say the organisation routinely meddles in other countries’ affairs to support groups that believe in free enterprise, minimal government intervention in the economy and opposition to socialism in any form. In recent years, the NED has channelled funds to the political opponents of the recently ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide at the same time that Washington was blocking loans to his government.
Shades of 1954. I thought we’d learned our lesson, I thought (idiotically, I admit) we’d stopped doing this kind of thing, if only for reasons of sensible caution and prudence. I thought we’d kind of realized it has a tendency to turn around and bite us now and then. I thought, not to put too fine a point on it, that we’d finally realized that such behavior is not the way to win allies and that yes as a matter of fact we do need allies, despite being The World’s Only Superpower. Oh what’s the use. My own fault for thinking anything so silly.
Thanks for bringing this topic to the fore, Ophelia. As somebody who was raised in Venezuela, this topic strikes close to home. I am extremely appalled that this information has been continually overlooked by the mainstream press since it first appeared several weeks ago.
Chavez’s government was legitimately elected and ratified by popular vote (which is much more than we can say about Bush’s). His penchant for confrontation and his openly populist attitude have made him enemies in the upper classes, but he remains enormously popular with the poor and lower middle classes.
I personally don’t like him much (in my view he’s somewhat of an oaf and spews a nationalistic rhetoric that I find distasteful), but after having grown up hearing about the widespread corruption of most Venezuelan politicians, including several presidents, I disapprove of the opposition (mainly formed by these old politicos and their supporters) even more. 45% of Venezuelans support neither the government nor the opposition, while about 35% of the population there actively supports Chavez. I’m not surprised that after all the allegations of US involvement in the coup attempt and the actions of NED, anti-Americanism (an overly simplistic word I dislike ) is becoming the prevalent attitude in a country that used to be extremely US-friendly.
This link has some more information about NED’s activities in Venezuela, from a pro-Chavez point of view:
http://www.venezuelafoia.info/
Ah, it’s been around for weeks, has it? Dang, I’d missed it until the other day. Mainstream media indeed. I would have linked to it on the front page as well – nearly did, in fact – had the database entry filled out – but then remembered that it’s not really our subject matter. We try to be on topic on the front page, whereas things are much looser back here in the blog-like area. But if it’s getting ignored…
Legitimately elected? Well who cares about that?! So were Mossadegh and Arbenz and Allende; so what?
Yes, I gather there’s plenty of reason not to like Chavez, but the US secretly funding an opposition is a whole different matter. Obviously.