Re: [OPE] Venezuela and Human Rights Watch

> I think there's no real evidence that the US has intentions to invade Venezuela, Bolivia or Cuba,
> although various scenarios have no doubt been drawn up which meantime sit in the policy cupboard,
> and there's a bit of the usual subversion here and there - but actually Latin American intelligence
> services are getting a whole lot better at spotting CIA and other subversive Yanqui geeks in their country.

Hi Jurriaan:

It is not "paronoid reification" for Venezuela, Bolivia, and Cuba to fear a US invasion or US-sponsored
coup. There was, after all, the 2002 coup in Venezuela which was planned and orchestrated by the
US. Just recently, some military leaders in Venezuela were caught on tape planning Chavez's
assasination and a coup. If you don't think the US had a hand in that then I don't think you've
been paying enough attention to Latin American history. Meanwhile, there is evidence that the US
is behind the "sessession" movement by the reactionary opponents of Morales. This is what led to the
diplomatic crisis between Bolivia (and Venezuela and other Latin American nations) and the US.
Then there's Cuba. Surely there isn't a single Cuban who has forgot the role of the US in the
attempted invasion of their nation (not to mention CIA plots to assasinate Fidel Castro). And,
as was pointed out in the introduction to the article by Charley Allan, no one in Latin America
has forgotten the US-planned and financed junta which assasinated Allende and thousands
of others and brought decades of repression against the Left and working class of Chile.

> It is true that there are still some maniacs in the NSC, and one hopes that if Mr Obama wins the
> election, all those people will be purged.

_That_ is what there is no evidence to believe!

> I would say that the biggest threat to Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba is bad socialist economics - an
> unrealistic, doctrinaire approach to ownership relations; a paranoid hostility to financial economics,
> premised on the idea that the general aim is to get rid of markets altogether because they are all bad;
> and an unwillingness to experiment with different organisational styles to create a better life.

"Socialist economics" in Venezuela and Bolivia? Where did you get that from? Although there is a
desire by the Bolivarians in Venezuela for "21st Century socialism" this has not been codified into
a series of policies like you suggest above. Nor has there been "socialist economics" in Bolivia -
unless you think that land reform and basic redistribution policies qualify as socialist economic
policies. Indeed, I don't think there is any serious person in either Venezuela or Bolivia who actually
believes those nations are socialist and/or their economic policies are of the character - or even have
the "aim" - that you assert above.

In solidarity, Jerry

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Received on Sat Sep 20 21:12:13 2008