Venezuela: A Threat to Washington?

From the first time that Hugo Chavez was elected president of Venezuela in 1998, Washington and its allies have sought to undermine its mandate. When Chavez was just a presidential candidate, the U.S. government denied him a visa to participate in televised interviews in the United States. Then, when he won the presidential election, the then-U.S. ambassador in Caracas, John Maisto, called him personally to congratulate him and offer him his visa. The following months were filled with attempts to “buy” the new president of Venezuela. Businessmen, politicians and heads of state, from Washington to Spain, pressed him to be subordinate to their agendas. “Come with us,” urged the then-Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, seducing him with offers of luxury and wealth, if he simply complied with his orders.

When Chavez didn’t sell out, they got him out with a coup on April 11, 2002, financed and designed by Washington. When the coup failed and the people rescued democracy and its president in less than 48 hours, they began to destabilize the country, trying to make it impossible to govern. They overwhelmed the nation with economic sabotage: executives went on strike in the oil industry; there was chaos in the streets and a brutal media war that misrepresented the reality of the country at the national and international levels. The plot to assassinate him with Colombian paramilitary forces in May 2004 was prevented by security forces in the country. Months later, they tried to revoke his mandate through a recall referendum in August 2004 but the people saved him by a vote of 60-40.

The more popular he became, the more millions flowed from Washington agencies to anti-Chavez groups to destabilize, discredit, delegitimize, overthrow, assassinate, or get him out of office in any way possible . In December 2006, Chavez was re-elected with 64 percent of the votes. The public’s approval of him was growing in Venezuela and throughout Latin America. New governments in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Uruguay and several Caribbean nations joined the integration initiatives, sovereignty and unity promoted by Latin American and Caribbean Caracas. Washington began to lose its influence and control over its former “backyard.”

The Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), PetroCaribe, PetroSur, Telesur, The Bank of ALBA, The Bank of the South and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (ECLAC) were created. In none of these organizations is Washington present, not even the elite that once dominated the region, imposing their interests above the people.

In January 2005, the new Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Chavez was “a threat” to the region. Just then, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) placed Venezuela on its list of “Top 5 Hot Spots —the 5 most unstable— in the world. A few months later, Reverend Pat Robertson publicly declared that it was better to “assassinate” Chavez, rather than start a war with Venezuela, which could cost millions of dollars. That same year, Venezuela suspended cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), for interfering in its internal affairs, spying and sabotaging its anti-drug efforts. Washington classified Venezuela as a country “uncooperative in the fight against drug trafficking.” The United States never presented evidence to substantiate its serious allegations.

In February of 2006, then-National Intelligence Director John Negroponte referred to Venezuela as a “danger” to America. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld compared Chavez to Hitler. That same year, Washington established a special intelligence mission aimed at Venezuela and Cuba, redirecting resources from the U.S. intelligence community to increase its operations in these places, considered “threats” to America. In June 2006, the White House put Venezuela on a list of countries that “do not support the fight against terrorism sufficiently” and was sanctioned with a ban on purchasing weapons and military equipment from U.S. companies or those that use American technology. The U.S. never showed evidence of Venezuela’s alleged links to terrorism.

In 2008, the Pentagon reactivated the Naval Fourth Fleet, the U.S. military command in charge of Latin America and the Caribbean. It had been deactivated in 1950 and had been inactive ever since, until the U.S. decided it was necessary to increase the presence “and force” of the U.S. military in the region. In 2010, Washington agreed with Colombia to establish seven military bases on its territory. An official U.S. Air Force document justified these bases because of the “threat of anti-American governments in the region.”

The international press said that Chavez was a dictator, tyrant, authoritarian, drug lord, anti-American and a terrorist but never presented evidence for such dangerous nicknames. Violence, insecurity, crime, corruption and chaos became the image of Venezuela leaving out the great social achievements and progress made during the last decade, or the causes of social inequalities left from previous governments.

For years, a group of U.S. congressmen, Democrat and Republican, have attempted to place Venezuela on its list of “terrorist states.” Highlighting the relationship between Venezuela and Iran, Cuba and China, as evidence of what a “serious threat” to Washington the South American country poses. They tried to destroy ALBA with the coup against Manuel Zelaya in Honduras in 2009. UNASUR sought to undermine the coup against Fernando Lugo in Paraguay in June 2012. It did not work.

They say over and over again that Venezuela and Chavez are threats to the United States. “We must stop him before he launches his Iranian bombs against us.”

President Barack Obama recently said that Chavez was not a threat to U.S. security. [Republican] candidate Mitt Romney said he is. The rage of the extremists fell on Obama. But they should not worry, because Obama increased funding for anti-Chavez groups this year. More than 20 million dollars have been channeled to U.S. agencies for the opposition campaign in Venezuela.

Is Venezuela a threat to Washington? In Venezuela, the only terrorism that exists is coming from groups seeking to destabilize the country, most of it supported politically and financially by the United States. Drug traffickers are from Colombia, where drug production and traffic have increased during the U.S. invasion of that country through the Colombia Plan. The relationship with Iran, Cuba, China, Russia and other countries of the world is a bilateral cooperation — or multilateral — normal between countries. No bombs, no plans of attack, no sinister secrets.

No, Venezuela is not that kind of threat to Washington. It’s another.

Poverty has been reduced by more than 50 percent since Chavez came to power in 1998. His government’s inclusion policies have created a society with high participation in economic decisions and social policies. Social programs — the missions— have guaranteed free medical care, free and accessible education from basic levels to advanced levels, food at affordable prices and tools for creating and sustaining co-ops, small and medium enterprises, communal councils and communes for all the people. Venezuelan culture has been rescued and valued. Recovering national pride and identity and creating a sense of dignity instead of inferiority. The mediums of communication and information have proliferated over the past decade, ensuring a space for all to express themselves.

Venezuela’s oil industry—nationalized in 1976 but operated as if it were a private company—has been recovered for the benefit of the country and not the multinationals and oligarchic minority. About 60 percent of the annual budget is devoted to national social programs, with the main focus on the eradication of poverty.

Caracas, the capital, has been embellished. The parks and squares have become spaces for gathering, enjoyment and security for visitors. There’s music in the streets, art on the walls and a rich exchange of ideas between people. The new community police force works together with communities to address the terrible problems of violence, insecurity and crime, and to attack issues not only from the surface, but from the root.

The awakening of Venezuela has expanded across the continent and to the north by the Caribbean Sea. The sense of sovereignty, independence and unity in the region has buried the shadow of underdevelopment and subordination imposed by colonizing powers for centuries.

No, Venezuela is not a threat to U.S. security. Venezuela is an example of how a people rise in the face of great adversity and the brutal forces of great powers, and build a model where social justice and human prosperity reign, and human prosperity is celebrated over economic prosperity. Venezuela is the country where millions previously invisible are now visible, where they now have a voice and the power to decide on the future of their country, without being suffocated by the imperial grip. Today, thanks to the revolution led by President Chavez, Venezuela is one of the happiest countries in the world.

That is the threat posed by President Hugo Chavez and the revolutionary Venezuela to Washington. It is the threat of a good example.