First, from VHeadline, we get this:
Writing on National and Homeland Security in today’s Washington Post, William M. Arkin says that the Pentagon has begun contingency planning for potential military conflict with Venezuela as part of a broad post-Iraq evaluation of strategic threats to the United States.
The planning has been precipitated by general and specific directives issued by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his civilian policy assistants.
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Military sources ascribe Venezuela’s emergence on a list of actual military threats as a reflection of an important post 9/11 war reality: The events themselves of September 11 provide justification … and perceived need … to take risks in thinking about unanticipated threats. “The Global War on Terror is rightfully our near-term focus, but we certainly don�t want to be caught flat-footed by a series of other possibilities,” says one Defense Department planning document.
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There is another bureaucratic reality of Venezuela as the pop up threat and recipient of contingency planner attention: US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which is responsible for Latin America, needs something to do. Since 9/11, the Miami-based command has been robbed of much of its responsibilities for homeland and maritime security, relegated to doing little more than fighting the war on drugs. The al Qaeda terrorist threat in Latin America, which Rumsfeld’s office was trumpeting in 2001 and 2002, has also proven to be a bust.
And then this, from BBC:
President Hugo Chavez has warned the US he could give some of his country’s F-16 fighter jets to Cuba or China.
Mr Chavez accused the US of breaking a contract to supply spare parts for the jets it sold to Venezuela in the 1980s.
He suggested that Washington would be less than pleased if military rivals gained access to the advanced planes.
The F-16s were sold to previous governments that had better relations with the White House. The US sees Mr Chavez as an unfriendly head of state.
All of which is leading up to this:
Shouting “Yankee, get out!” and singing protest songs, thousands opposed to President Bush held a massive rally at a basketball arena just days before Bush arrives at this seaside resort for the Summit of the Americas.
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On Tuesday, organizers of the so-called “People’s Summit” gave fiery anti-Bush speeches that echoed through a drab concrete stadium several miles from the site where leaders of 34 Western Hemisphere nations will meet Friday and Saturday.
The protesters included Argentine Adolfo Perez Esquivel, who won the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize for opposing his country’s military regime.
“We’ve had enough of Mr. Bush, who has committed crimes against humanity,” Perez told reporters. He called Bush a “murderer” for his actions in Iraq and elsewhere.
Activists say they not only will protest Bush’s actions in the Middle East but also free trade policies they say enslave Latin America workers. They are hoping to draw 50,000 people for their highlight event _ a protest Friday.
The main subject of the Summit of the Americas is the poverty reduction, but for Bush its really about the failed FTAA.
In response to the 1980s debt crisis, many Latin American countries adopted far-flung economic reforms centered on trade liberalization. The capstone of their efforts occurred in 1994 when 34 Western Hemisphere nations met at the first Summit of the Americas in Miami. There, under U.S. leadership, they proposed a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) to integrate the economies of the Americas, and planned on signing it by January 1, 2005. Since 1994, however, there have been four summits and eight trade ministerial meetings, during which the shape of the proposed FTAA has advanced gradually through rounds of practical negotiations. As a result, three versions have since been created. In 2002, a second text was drafted at the Quito Ministerial Meeting which created a clause whereby the United States and Brazil would become the new, permanent co-chairs of the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC). The third and most recent draft FTAA text was completed at the 2003 ministerial meeting in Miami.
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In his address at the United Nations, President Bush declared that �The United States is ready to eliminate all tariffs, subsidies and other barriers to free flow of goods and services as other nations do the same.� In another venue, the U.S. has offered to slash its agricultural subsidies by 50%. However Washington must go through the difficult task of resolving the agricultural subsidy question in Congress and by engaging U.S. public opinion, if it is to have a prayer of a chance of challenging the current standoff over the issue. Statements by President Bush will continue to reek of hypocrisy until that issue is frontally addressed with no secret agenda using substitute para-subsidy methods near at hand. By continually insisting on equal terms for such controversial issues as the service trade, IPR, and government procurement, while remaining unwilling to eliminate up front its farm subsidy programs, the U.S. stymies the one predictable trade area where Latin America otherwise might have a comparative advantage.
Ok, so far we have covered contingency war plans, weapons trade, protests and free trade. Something is missing. Oh, wait, here it is:
Chavez recently said he is interested in working with Iran to explore peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Chavez has insisted Iran has the right to develop nuclear energy despite opposition from the U.S. government, which fears Tehran may be developing a nuclear weapons program.
Venezuela has asked for technical help from Argentina to develop nuclear energy….
Bush’s response:
Despite tense relations with Venezuela, President Bush says it might be OK for the South American nation to have a nuclear reactor for peaceful energy uses.
Not up for a fight I guess what with the summit coming up. Still, the Iran connection is interesting. Let’s see, we already have the nuclear issue. War plans, check. Weapons trade, check, although flipped since Iran was our “enemy” at the time. Protests, check. And free trade issues, check.*
Which brings us to what this is really about, oil. Plain and simple. They have it, we want it, and this shit will continue until we get these folks out of Washington AND Americans learn to conserve.
Both of which require the truth coming out. Good luck on that happening.
Update- Well, things are heating up.
Chavez, who often spars with the United States, claimed the American delegation is trying to “to revive the FTAA.”
“They aren’t going to revive it even if they produce a 100,000-page document,” he told the Caracas-based television channel Telesur.
I will be watching the news for new developments. In the mean time, check out the Summit website for more info and history.
* Oh, and I almost forgot to add that our government has been “involved” in the electoral processes of both Venezuela and Iran.
