Festive Left Friday Blogging: Ahem.

Yesterday morning, I got an electrifying surprise in my inbox. My friend Anthony, who lives in Sweden, sent me this:

oliver-stone-rt

Yup, that’s THE Oliver Stone, retweeting this link. And here’s how it got there:

A few days ago, Venezuelanalysis picked up my translation of Raúl Capote’s explosive interview about his time as a CIA asset in Cuba. Z Magazine in turn picked it up from them, and kindly linked back to my blog. A reader tweeted the link, and it was RT’d several times thereafter. Including this time:

luvparis-retweet

So there you go, folks…no less than the famously progressive director of JFK has been reading at least one thing I blogged.

If that’s not cool, I don’t know what is.

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Posted in A Bit of a Brag..., Bina's Band of Brigands, Festive Left Friday Blogging | 1 Comment

María Corina Machado, the patriotic…Panamanian?

machado-bush

The other day, I saw that a certain right-wing Venezuelan parliamentarian, legendary for whining to anyone who will listen (including the Shrub, above) about how her country’s been ruined, had spoken to the OAS using Panama’s seat. At the time I wondered how that could be — and why was that even allowed? She wasn’t allowed to kvetch about Venezuela, so that much was good. But what the hell was she doing there when she had a parliamentary seat back home to occupy? Why was she neglecting her own duties?

Well, mystery solved:

The president of the Venezuelan national assembly, Diosdado Cabello, informed on Monday that María Corina Machado had quit being a deputy of the Republic upon accepting and exercising her duty as alternative representative of the government of Panama before the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington.

Cabello pointed out that the right-wing spokeswoman violated Article 191 of the Venezuelan constitution, which states: “Deputies of the National Assembly may not accept or exercise public charges without losing their investiture, except in cases of docent, academic, accidental or assistant activities, always without exclusive dedication.”

“Being there (in the OAS), Ms. María Machado made declarations, actions, petitions, as a funcionary of the Panamanian government. That is public, notorious and communicational, when she acted she was accepting any duty the Panamanian government gave her,” said the president of the Venezuelan parliament, who also read out Panama’s communiqué to the OAS, in which Machado’s accreditation was solicited “as an alternate representative of the delegation of the Republic of Panama before the OAS, as of this date (March 20, 2014).”

Cabello said that this was not an accidental nomination, not for one day but “as of this date”, and Machado currently occupies a seat as alternate representative of Panama before the OAS.

Machado also violated Article 149 of the Venezuelan constitution, which states: “Public functionaries may not accept charges, honors or recompense from foreign governments without the authorization of the National Assembly.”

“That would be a violation of Article 149, because being a public functionary, she accepted a charge from a foreign government without the authorization of the National Assembly,” Cabello pointed out, referring to Machado’s nomination to the OAS, where she expressed her support for violent actions perpetrated inn certain sectors of the country from February 12 onward, on the part of shock-groups of the Venezuelan right, which have caused the deaths of more than 30 persons, as well as much damage and destruction, with the objective of unseating the government of President Nicolás Maduro, elected by the majority of the people.

The right-wing spokeswoman, the National Assembly president pointed out, represents “a government hostile to the government and people of Venezuela”.

On March 5, the Venezuelan government decided to suspend political, diplomatic and economic relations with Panama, following the interference of the government of Ricardo Martinelli in Venezuela’s internal affairs, and having promoted sanctions against Venezuela at the OAS.

Cabello recounted that last week, the Attorney General of Venezuela had received proofs in order to initiate an investigation and trial against Machado, on presumption of involvement in crimes against the independence and security of the nation, calls to violence, instigation to crimes, terrorism, violations of the Constitution, and treason, with the objective of promoting a coup d’état and foreign intervention in Venezuela’s internal affairs.

With the objective of rescinding her parliamentary immunity, the president of the National Assembly, along with the socialist bloc, presented the Attorney General with documents which give evidence of the alleged ties of Machado to the events in question.

On Monday, the deputy stated that now there was no need to strip Machado of parliamentary immunity, “because according to Article 191, according to this nomination (on the part of Panama), and according to her own actions and behavior, Ms. Machado has ceased to be a [Venezuelan] deputy.”

Cabello said that the opposition spokeswoman had the right to express herself and associate as she liked, but not to violate the national consitution.

He added that the now ex-deputy, who had signed the Carmona Decree which derogated all the powers of the Republic on April 12, 2002, will no longer have access to the Parliament, and her seat will be occupied by a replacement deputy, with all attributions according to law.

“What does it mean that she is not a deputy? That she doesn’t have parliamentary immunity, she doesn’t have access to the National Assembly (as would any deputy), she can be directly investigated for all the things that have been taking place, and to that can be added, with more force — high treason,” stated Cabello.

Last Friday, at OAS headquarters, María Corina Machado received the rejection of the hemispheric organization, which decided not to make public her speech in the Ordinary Session of the Permanent Council.

In a customary debate over OAS meetings, Nicaragua proposed to hold a closed-door meeting, a proposal which received the support of 22 ambassadors of the member states, while 11 voted against and one abstained.

Following the vote, the Brazilian representative, Breno Dias da Costa, who voted in favor of the closed-door session, stated that this decision was not to “impede a dialogue, but to prevent a ‘show’ for an outside audience.”

Translation mine.

So, there you have it. MariCori wasn’t fired; she quit. She thought she was going to get a greater international platform for her crapaganda. But this move is gonna backfire on her, because the name of Martinelli and his government, just like that of her “democratic unity table” back home, is MUD.

Actually, it’s backfired already, as the rejection of the OAS ambassadors has clearly shown. Rather than let MariCori have an open bully pulpit, they moved to a closed-door session. And while she wasn’t shut out, she was forced to shut up about Venezuela, at least…a country in whose parliament, as of her appearance at the OAS in Panama’s seat, she is now persona non grata. Ha, ha.

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Posted in A Man, A Plan, A Canal, BushCo Death Watch, Crapagandarati, Fascism Without Swastikas, Huguito Chavecito, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, Schadenfreude, The United States of Amnesia, The WTF? Files | Comments Off on María Corina Machado, the patriotic…Panamanian?

The ironies of the Venezuelan opposition, part 45

oppo-thug-puerto-ordaz

A hooded opposition “protester” in Puerto Ordaz, mocking a local man who was tied up and abused for trying to clean up an illegal barricade on the street. As you can see, the victim is bound with steel wires, the same that have been used to kill several motorcyclists from poor and predominantly pro-government neighborhoods. There it is, for all you doubters…your peaceful, democratic, law-abiding Venezuelan opposition!

And here’s some more of that, too:

The Venezuelan opposition uses paramilitary terrorism as a new means of doing politics, and in these moments, the security bodies of the state are conducting raids and detentions of a paramilitary coup [gang] which came supplying armaments, revealed a deputy of the National Assembly, Andrés Eloy Méndez, on Tuesday.

During an interview with VTV, Méndez said he had all the proofs of this paramilitary group, which has provided weapons to snipers, as well as “hunting” rifles to assassinate civilians and military members, in his hands to show them to the country.

Méndez also revealed that the home of Carlos Yáñez, “jokeologist” of RCTV, had been raided for this reason, in the sector of Prados del Este in Baruta, Miranda. It was a centre of fabrication for clandestine weapons for paramilitary snipers, he said.

Méndez played back an audio in which Yáñez, alias “Camión” (“Truck”), spoke with Luis Raúl Ramírez over new terrorist plans, trafficking and adulteration of weapons, fabrication and distribution of lethal armaments, to the barricades and guarimbas.

“This country is facing a terrorist organization, paramilitary, co-ordinated by the violent opposition, which has participated in the recent violent events our land has lived through, which have left 36 dead to date,” said Méndez.

The minister of Communication and Information, Delcy Rodríguez, released the video of the conversation revealed by Deputy Méndez.

Translation mine.

Here’s Andrés Eloy Méndez, showing all the proofs:

And here’s the incriminating conversation in question:

But what am I saying? Everyone knows that the Venezuelan oppos are nothing but a peaceful student movement with no outside ties or ulterior motives beyond freedom and democracy, right? RIGHT???

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Posted in El NarcoPresidente, Fascism Without Swastikas, Filthy Stinking Rich, Fine Young Cannibals, Huguito Chavecito, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, Sick Frickin' Bastards, Spooks, The United States of Amnesia | 1 Comment

It was 20 years ago today…

…that this happened:

Lt. Col. Hugo Chávez, ex-army officer, was freed from Yare prison. He was one of the last political prisoners in Venezuela; that practice ended when he came to power five years after this video was taken. With him came the reopening of history, the uncovering of secret prisons and torture chambers, the end of Venezuela’s association with the School of the Assassins, and the death of the feared and hated political police, the DISIP.

Yes, there are currently politicians and soldiers in prison in Venezuela…but they are not political prisoners. They are criminals and thugs, and none of them has the broad popular current of history behind them, the way Chavecito did. When he rose up, it was against a president who was himself an assassin. Carlos Andrés Pérez set the army against the people in 1989, and left over a thousand dead during the Caracazo. That he deserved to die for that is beyond question; ask any Venezuelan who lost someone to that week of violence. And yet, he got off unpunished. This is why Chavecito, despite leading a military uprising, was hailed as a hero when he came out of jail. He was willing to take some action against a corrupt, murderous, false president, even if it failed…and the people never forgot that he stood up for them, and took a fall for them too. They gave him 15 unbroken years in office.

One only wishes it could have been more!

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High treason in the Venezuelan air force; three generals arrested

Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, addressing all of South America’s foreign ministers at the UNASUR summit today. He’s referring to these events from yesterday, in which three Venezuelan air-force generals were arrested for conspiring against the government.

It’s worth noting that all of UNASUR is behind Madurito, and that he’s repeatedly offered the opposition peace talks, all of which have been rejected. At this point, I think we can safely cut all the bullshit about “protests” and just call this month-long shitstorm what it really is: another coup attempt. Which is, mercifully, failing — and failing badly. The military was no doubt the putschists’ best hope, but the bulk of it is loyal to the government, and it shows in the fact that the traitors are now being captured. Madurito is finally getting down to brass tacks, and I have to say that he’s been awfully patient. Here in Canada, such “protests” wouldn’t have lasted a day.

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Quotable: Gloria Steinem on “passing the torch”

gloria-steinem-quote

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“A dignified conversation with protests”

Irish peace activist Margaretta D’Arcy was recently released from prison. She’s 79, she has cancer and arthritis (from a broken neck!), and one would think someone in that condition would be more than happy to take to her rocker and never mind the wicked old world at all anymore. But one would be wrong. She’s more engaged with the world than ever, and if you want to know what it’s like when someone just up and tells death to go to hell, well…listen to her. She takes on everything from the CIA and its torture flights (out of Shannon Airport, which is why she was arrested), to gender discrimination and the crappy situation of the Mountjoy women’s prison. And she even finds time to give the interviewer a hand-knit teddy bear for his child. Dignity? She’s got it in spades, and she doesn’t give a good goddamn for what she’s supposed to do, or how she’s supposed to sound. Martyrdom? Look elsewhere. She’s got no time for it. As soon as her health is looked after, I predict we’ll be seeing her right back out on the runway at Shannon again. Probably knitting another teddy bear, and having tea with the ladies, and making fools of the airport’s security team, as she did the last time.

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Ex-CIA agent reveals how Venezuelan “students” get putschist training

Entrevista a Raúl Capote

Who is this man, and why does the CIA fear him? Because they thought he was one of theirs, and it turns out he’s quite the opposite. And now he’s spilling the beans on them. Read on:

Raúl Capote is a Cuban. But not just any Cuban. In his youth, he was caught up by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). They offered him an infinite amount of money to conspire in Cuba. But then something unexpected for the US happened. Capote, in reality, was working for Cuban national security. From then on, he served as a double agent. Learn his story, by way of an exclusive interview with Chávez Vive, which he gave in Havana:

Q. What was the process by which you were caught up?

It started with a process of many years, several years of preparation and capture. I was leader of a Cuban student movement which, at that time, gave rise to an organization, the Saiz Brothers Cultural Association, a group of young creators, painters, writers, artists. I worked in a city in southern-central Cuba, Cienfuegos, which had characteristics of great interest to the enemy, because it was a city in which an important industrial pole was being built at the time. They were building an electrical centre, the only one in Cuba, and there were a lot of young people working on it. For that reason, it was also a city that had a lot of young engineers graduated in the Soviet Union. We’re talking of the last years of the 1980s, when there was that process called Perestroika. And many Cuban engineers, who arrived in Cuba at that time, graduated from there, were considered people who had arrived with that idea of Perestroika. For that reason, it was an interesting territory, where there were a lot of young people. And the fact that I was a youth leader of a cultural organization, which dealt with an important sector of the engineers who were interested in the arts, became of interest to the North Americans, and they began to frequent the meetings we attended. They never identified themselves as enemies, or as officials of the CIA.

Q. Were there many of them, or just always the same person?

Several. They never presented themselves as officials of the CIA, nor as people who had come to cause trouble, or anything.

Q. And who do you suppose they were?

They presented themselves as people coming to help us and our project, and who had the ability to finance it. That they had the chance to make it a reality. The proposal, as such, sounded interesting because, okay, a project in the literary world requires that you know a publisher, that you have editorial relations. It’s a very complex market. And they came in the name of publishers. What happened is that, during the process of contact with us, what they really wanted became quite evident. Because once they had made the contact, once they had begun frequenting our meetings, once they began to promise financing, then came the conditions for being financed.

Q. What conditions did they demand?

They told us: We have the ability to put the markets at your disposal, to put you on the markets of books or sculpture or movies or whatever, but we need the truth, because what we’re selling in the market, is the image of Cuba. The image of Cuba has to be a realistic one, of difficulties, of what’s going on in the country. They wanted to smear the reality of Cuba. What they were asking is that you criticize the revolution, based on anti-Cuba propaganda lines, which they provided.

Q. How big was these people’s budget?

They came with an infinite amount of money, because the source of the money, obviously, we found out over time from whence it came. For example, there was USAID, which was the big provider, the overall contractor of this budget, which channeled the money via NGOs, many of them invented just for Cuba. They were NGOs that didn’t exist, created solely for this type of job in Cuba, and we’re talking thousands and thousands of dollars. They weren’t working on small budgets. To give you an example, at one time, they offered me ten thousand dollars, just to include elements of anti-Cuba propaganda, in the novel I was writing.

Q. What year are we talking about?

Around 1988-89.

Q. How many people could have been contacted by these people, or captured?

In reality, their success didn’t last long, because in Cuba there was a culture of total confrontation with this type of thing, and the people knew very well that there was something behind that story of them wanting to “help” us. It was nothing new in the history of the land, and for that reason, it was very hard for them to get to where we were. In a determined moment, around 1992, we held a meeting, all the members of the organization, and we decided to expel them. They weren’t allowed to attend any more of our meetings. Those people, who were already coming in with concrete proposals, and also preconditioned economic aid they were giving us. What happened is that at the moment we did that, and rejected them, we expelled them from the association headquarters, then they started to particularize. They began to visit with me, in particular, and other comrades as well, young people. With some they succeeded, or should I say, they succeeded in getting some of them out of the country as well.

Q. What kind of profile were they looking for, more or less, if any kind of profile could be specified?

They wanted, above all at that time, to present Cuba as a land in chaos. That socialism in Cuba had not managed to satisfy the needs of the population, and that Cuba was a country that socialism had landed in absolute poverty, and which, as a model, no one liked. That was the key to what they were pursuing, above all, at that time.

Q. How long were you an agent of the CIA?

We were in this initial story until 1994. Because in 1994, I went to Havana, I came back to the capital and here, in the capital, I began to work for the Union of Cultural Workers, a union which represented the cultural workers of the capital, and I became more interesting yet to them, because I went on to direct — from being a leader of a youth organization with 4,000 members, to directing a union with 40,000 members, just in the city of Havana. And then, it gets much more interesting. Contacts followed. In that period there appeared a woman professor from a new university who came with the mission of kick-starting the production of my literary work, to become my representative, to organize events.

Q. Can you give her name?

No, because they used pseudonyms. They never used real names. And that type of work, promoting me as a writer, was what they were very interested in, because they wanted to convert me into a personality in that world. Promoting me now, and compromising me with them in an indirect manner. And then, in 2004, there arrived in Havana a person well known in Venezuela, Kelly Keiderling. Kelly came to Havana to work as Chief of the Office of Press and Culture. They set up a meeting. they arranged a cocktail party, and at that party I met with 12 North American functionaries, North Americans and Europeans. They weren’t only North Americans. All of them people with experience, some also inside the Soviet Union, others who had participated in training and preparation of the people in Yugoslavia, in the Color Revolutions, and they were very interested in meeting me. Kelly became very close to me. She began to prepare me. She began to instruct me. I began to receive, from her, a very solid training: The creation of alternative groups, independent groups, the organization and training of youth leaders, who did not participate in the works of our cultural institutions. And that was in 2004-5. Kelly practically vanished from the scene in 2005-6. And when I started to work, she put me in direct contact with officials of the CIA. Supposedly, I was already committed to them, I was ready for the next mission, and they put me in touch with Renee Greenwald, an official of the CIA, who worked with me directly, and with a man named Mark Waterhein, who was, at the time, the head of Project Cuba, of the Pan-American Foundation for Development.

This man, Mark, as well as directing Project Cuba, had a direct link to Cuba, in terms of financing the anti-revolutionary project, as well as being involved in working against Venezuela. That is, he was a man who, along with much of his team of functionaries of that famous project, also worked against Venezuela at that time. They were closely connected. At times it took a lot of work to tell who was working with Cuba, and who was not, because many times they interlocked. For example, there were Venezuelans who came to work with me, who worked in Washington, who were subordinates of the Pan-American Foundation and the CIA, and they came to Cuba to train me as well, and to bring provisions. From there arose the idea of creating a foundation, a project called Genesis.

Genesis is maybe the template, as an idea, of many of the things going on in the world today, because Genesis is a project aimed at the university youth of Cuba. They were doing something similar in Venezuela. Why? The idea was to convert universities — which have always been revolutionary, which have produced revolutionaries, out of those from which many of the revolutionaries of both countries came — and convert them into factories for reactionaries. So, how do you do that? By making leaders. What have they begun to do in Venezuela? They sent students to Yugoslavia, financed by the International Republican Institute (IRI), which was financed by USAID and by the Albert Einstein Institute, and sent them, in groups of ten, with their professors.

Q. Do you have the names of the Venezuelans?

No, we’re talking of hundreds being sent. I spoke with the professor, and watched one group and followed the other. Because they were working long-term. The same plan was also in place against Cuba. Genesis promoted, with in the university, a plan of training scholarships for Cuban student leaders and professors. The plan was very similar. Also, in 2003, they prepared here, in Havana, a course in the US Interests Section, which was called “Deposing a leader, deposing a dictator”, which was based on the experience of OTPOR in removing Slobodan Milosevic from power. And that was the idea, inside the Cuban university, to work long-term, because these projects always take a long time in order to reap a result. For that reason, they also started early in Venezuela. I believe as well — I don’t have proof, but I believe that in Venezuela it began before the Chávez government, because the plan of converting Latin American universities, which were always sources of revolutionary processes, into reactionary universities, is older than the Venezuelan [Bolivarian] process, to reverse the situation and create a new right-wing.

Q. Did the CIA only work in Caracas?

No, throughout Venezuela. Right now, Genesis has a scholarship plan to create leaders in Cuba. They provide scholarships to students to big North American universities, to train them as leaders, with all expenses paid. They pay their costs, they provide complete scholarships. We’re talking 2004-5 here. It was very obvious. Then, those leaders return to university at some time. They’re students. They go to end their careers. Those leaders, when they end their student careers, go on to various jobs, different possibilities, as engineers, as degree-holders in different sectors of Cuban society, but there are others who go on constantly preparing leaders within the university. One of the most important missions of the university leaders was to occupy the leadership of the principal youth organizations of the university. In the case of Cuba, we’re talking about the Union of Communist Youth, and the University Student Federation. That is, it was not to create parallel groups at that time, but to become the leaders of the organizations already existing in Cuba. Also, to form a group of leaders in the strategies of the “soft” coup. That is, training people for the opportune moment to start the famous “color revolutions” or “non-violent wars”, which, as you well know, have nothing to do with non-violence.

Q. What were they looking for in a professor, in order to capture them?

Professors are very easy. Identify university professors discontented with the institution, frustrated people, because they considered that the institution did not guarantee them anything, or didn’t recognize their merits. If they were older, even better. They didn’t specify. Look for older persons, so you can pick them. If you send a scholarship plan, or you send it and, first crack, they receive an invitation to participate in a great international congress of a certain science, they will be eternally grateful to you, because you were the one who discovered their talent, which has never been recognized by the university. Then that man you sent to study abroad, if you’re from his university, and participating in a big event, and publish his works, and constructing him a curriculum. When that person returns to Cuba, he goes back with a tremendous curriculum, because he has participated in a scientific event of the first order, has passed courses from big universities, and his curriculum reaches to the roof, then the influence he could have in the university will be greater, because he could be recognized as a leading figure in his specialty, even though in practice the man could be an ignoramus.

Q. And how effective were these types of captures, that type of missions they came to accomplish here?

In the case of Cuba, they didn’t have much of a result. First, because there was a most important reason, because I was the one directing the project, and I, in reality, was not an agent of the CIA, I was an agent of Cuban security, and so, the whole project passed through my hands, and they thought I was the one who would execute it. And the plan always passed through the work I was able to do, and what we did was slow it down as much as possible, knowing right away what was being planned. But just think, the goal of their plan, they were calculating for the moment in which the historic figures of the Revolution would disappear. They were figuring on a five- or ten-year term, in which Fidel would disappear from the political scene, and Raúl, and the historic leaders of the land. That was the moment they were waiting for, and when that happened, I was to leave university, with all the support of the international press and that of the NGOs, USAID, and all the people working around the CIA’s money, and that there would arise an organization which would present itself before the light of the public, as an alternative to what the Revolution was doing. That is what was to have happened with the Genesis Foundation for Freedom.

Q. What is that Foundation?

The Genesis Foundation for Freedom was to have a discourse, apparently revolutionary, but the idea was to confuse the people. The idea is that they would say they were revolutionaries, that what they wanted was to make changes in the government, but, when it comes to practice, when you get to the essence of the project, when you ask yourself “What is the project?” the discourse was, and the project was, exactly the same as those of the traditional right-wing. Because the changes they promoted, were the same that the right-wing, for a long time, has been promoting in the country. In practice, they almost had their big opportunity, according to their criteria, in 2006, when the news came out on TV that Fidel, for health reasons, was stepping down from his governmental responsibilities, and they have always said that the Cuban Revolution would die when Fidel died. Because the Revolution was Fidel, and on the day Fidel was no longer there, either by dying or leaving government, the next day the Revolution would fall. And they calculated that there would be internal confrontations, that there would be discontent with this or that. Calculations that I don’t know where they got them from, but they believed it. And in that moment, they believed that the time had come to act.

Q. We’re talking about 2006. What was the plan?

They called me automatically. We met, the CIA station chief and I, here in Havana. Diplomatic functionaries also showed up, and one of them said to me, we’re going to organize a provocation. We’re going to organize a popular uprising in a central neighborhood in Havana. There will be a person going there to rise up for democracy, and we’re going to execute a group of provocations, in different locations, in such a way that Cuban security forces will be forced to act against these people, and later we’ll start a big press campaign and start explaining how all of this will function. The interesting part of that, what really caught my attention, was this: How was it possible that a functionary of the US Interests Section could have the power to call upon the principal media, and that those people would obey with such servility? It was really attention-getting. The idea was — and I even told them this — what you’re telling me is just crazy. This man you mentioned to me, called Alci Ferrer — the guy they picked, a young agent, a doctor — they picked him to be the ringleader of the uprising. I told them, that guy won’t budge anyone. No one is going to rise up in the centre of Havana. The date they picked was none other than Fidel’s birthday, and they told me that day! And I said, Look, buddy, if that man, on that day, decides to go make proclamations, or to start some kind of uprising in the middle of Havana, the people are going to respond harshly. It’s even possible that they might kill him. Why, how could you put him in a humble working-class neighborhood to start those things, the locals…And he told me, flat out, the best thing that could happen for us is if they kill that man, it would be perfect, and they explained to me what would happen. All he had to do was provoke. They would go into the street, and there would be a clash there. If that happened, the press would do the rest, and they told me, we’re going to start a huge media campaign to demonstrate that there is chaos in Cuba, that Cuba is ungovernable; that in Cuba, Raúl is unable to hold the reins of government; that the civilian population is being killed; that students are being repressed in the street, and the people in the street, that the police are committing crimes. What a resemblance to Venezuela! It’s not a coincidence. It’s like that.

Q. So, what was supposed to happen in those circumstances?

Once all the opinion matrices were created, and all the media matrices had constructed that image, the whole world was supposed to have the image of Cuba as a great disaster, and that they’re killing the people, that they are killing them all. Then, my organization was to complete the final task.

Q. What was the final task?

Well, to gather the international press, in my capacity as a university professor, and as a writer, and as a leader of that organization, that I go out publicly to ask the government of the United States to intervene in Cuba, to guarantee the lives of the civilians and to bring peace and tranquility to the Cuban people. To speak to the country in the name of the Cuban people. Just imagine that!

That plan fell apart on them. It gave them no result, but as you could see, later, the way the war in Libya went, and the way it was set up. More than 80% of the information we saw, was fabricated. They’re doing the same in Syria, and they’ve done the same in Ukraine. I have had the opportunity to converse with a lot of Ukrainians, since they were in the bases. People in favor of uniting with Europe. I tried to talk with them these days. Trying to find out, what are those processes like? And they were surprised at the images which were transmitted around the world. What happened in Miami, and they themselves said so, but we’ve been protesting there, but those things that appear on TV, that was a group, or rather, there were sectors, there were places where there were right-wing groups, of the very far right, where there were incidents of that type, and where they burned things, but the greater part of the demonstrations didn’t have those characteristics. Or that this is, once more, the repetition of the scheme, using all the communication media.

Q. The relationship between the CIA and the embassies, in the respective lands, are they direct, then?

Yes, completely direct. In every embassy in Latin America, all the US embassies have CIA officials, working within them, using the façade of diplomatic functionaries.

Q. From what you know, is there a greater CIA presence in the region?

Well, at a certain moment, Ecuador was a major power in that, it had a strong concentration of them, and of course, Venezuela, because in 2012, when I attended the Book Fair in Caracas, all those people who had worked with me against Cuba, all the CIA officials, including Kelly Keiderling, were in Caracas at that time. And I was on a TV show, on VTV, where we talked about this subject, being very careful, because we were talking about two countries who have relations. That’s not the case with Cuba, or rather, Cuba has no relations with the United States. That’s a declared enemy. But we were talking about functionaries who had diplomatic relations, and it was very awkward to do it, without having concrete proofs you could present. However, the interview happened, and the denunciation was made of what was going on. Kelly Keiderling is an expert in this type of war. I have not the slightest doubt. When one follows the itinerary she has, in the countries where she’s been, and when I was in that type of conflict.

She has toured a series of countries in the world where very similar situations have occurred, like what she tried to do in Venezuela. And when you analyze Venezuela, and what has happened nowadays and the way in which she has acted, I think that in Venezuela, the characteristic that has been that they are tremendously aggressive in the manipulation of the information. Tremendously aggressive. To the point where you say it’s a blunder, because there are images which are so obviously not from Venezuela. I saw a very famous one, in which a soldier appears with a journalist, with a camera.They are Koreans. It’s an image from Korea. They’re Asian. They don’t look like Venezuelans at all. Also, the uniforms they wear. They’ve been very aggressive with that image which has projected what’s going on in Venezuela to the world. The greater part of the world’s people, this image is the one they’re seeing, of what they’re trying to say.

Q. They control the media. Do you know any case of any journalist which has been, as you have seen, known or unknown, which you have seen in the process of training?

No.

Q. CNN, for example?

No, there was a guy who had a lot of ties to me at the time here, who served as a link for meeting an official from the CIA., Antony Golden, of Reuters. But, all right, he was an element independent of Reuters. CNN has always been very closely linked to all these things. CNN, from its first moments of operation, above all this latest step, and above all, CNN en Español, has been an indispensable tool for these people, but the problem is that you have to understand one thing: to understand what’s going on, and to be able to mount a campaign, you have to understand that nowadays, there is no TV station that acts on its own. There are the conglomerates, and the communications conglomerates — who directs them? Because, for example, Time Warner and AOL, and all those big communications companies — cable TV, movie TV, TV in general — who is the boss, in the end? Here it’s Westinghouse, there it’s General Electric. The same who build warplanes, the same US arms industry, the same people who are the owners of TV networks, movie studios, publications, book publishers. So, the same guys who produce warplanes, the cookie you’ll eat at night, that presents an artist to you, are the same who rule the newspapers of the entire world. Who do these people answer to?

Q. When you see what’s happening in Venezuela, and you compare it with what you did here [in Cuba], what conclusion can you draw?

It’s a new strategy, which they’ve been developing based on the experience they’ve had all over the world, but I see, I’m convinced, that they’ve only gotten results when people in those places don’t support the revolution. They managed it with Milosevic, because Milosevic was a Yugoslavian leader whose image had fallen far, thanks to things that happened in Yugoslavia. The same happened in Ukraine, because Yanukovych was a man with very little popular support, and it has given results in other places where the governments had little support from the people. Wherever they have a legitimate government, a solid government, and people disposed to defend the revolution, the plan has failed on them.

Q. And what phase do they enter when the plan fails?

They’re going to keep on doing it, they’ll go on perfecting it. We are the enemy. That is, Venezuela, Cuba, everything going on in Latin America as an alternative. We are the dissidents of the world. We live in a world dominated by capitalism. Where that new capitalist way of being dominates, so that now one can’t even call it imperialist, it’s something new, something that goes way beyond what students of Marxism wrote in history years ago. It’s something new, novel. It’s a power, practically global, of the big transnationals, of those megalopolies they’ve created. Therefore, we are the enemy. We are presenting an alternative project. The solution that the world proposes to us, is not that. We know how to do it, and Cuba, Venezuela, the ALBA countries, have demonstrated that it can be done, that one or two days more are nothing. The Cuban revolution has been in existence for 55 years, and with political will, it has achieved things that the US government, with all the money in the world, has been unable to do. So that’s a bad example.

And I’ve told my students: Can you imagine that the Indignants in Spain, the thousands and millions of workers out of work in Spain, that the Greeks, that all those people in all the world, know what we’re doing? Can you imagine that these people get to know who Chávez is? Or who Fidel is? Or of the things we’re doing here? Or the things we’re doing with so few resources, only the will to make revolution and share the wealth? What will happen to capitalism? How much longer will capitalism last, which has to spend billions of dollars, every day, to build its image and fool the people? What would happen if the people knew who we really are? What is the Cuban Revolution, really, and what is the Venezuelan Revolution? Because, if you talked to a Spaniard and asked him about Chávez, and he gives you a terrible opinion of Chávez, because it’s what they’ve constructed in his mind/ And you meet an unemployed person who tells you that Chávez is a bad guy, because the media have convinced him of that, but if these people knew how things really were! So they can’t allow that such formidable enemies as ourselves should be there, at the door.

Q. From the viewpoint of the national sovereignty of our people, how can we stop the CIA? We’ve already talked about the consciousness of the people, which is fundamental in these types of actions, but, in the concrete, how does one foresee the CIA’s work? What can be done? What recommendations do you have?

I think of a thing that Chávez said, and that Fedl has always said, that is the key to defeating the empire, and that is unity. It’s not a slogan, it’s a reality. It’s the only way you ahve of defeating a project like that. A project that comes from the Special Services and from capitalism. One can only do it with the unity of the people.

Q. Are we talking about the civilian-military?

Yes, unity in all senses. Unity based in diversity, in the peoples, but unity as a nation, unity as a project. Wherever the people are divided, there is another reality.

Q. Where do they have to concentrate? In what area must they concentrate forces to defend us from this type of actions, this type of attacks?

The army to defeat that is the people. I believe that the Cuban experience has taught that very well. There are experiences in the world which mark you very clearly. What has happened in the world, when the people have not been protagonists in defence of the Revolution? And when the people have been protagonists, what happened? And there’s the case of Cuba. We have managed to defeat the CIA and the empire millions of times, because the people have been the protagonist.

Q. Does the CIA use the databases of the social networks, and that sort of thing, to define their plans?

They’re the masters. They’re the masters of that. Fine, there are the denunciations of Snowden and all that has come out of Wikileaks, and all those things that are no secret to anyone, because we suspected, but it’s been demonstrated. It’s been demonstrated that the servers, the Internet, are theirs. All the servers in the world, in the end, die in the North Americans’ servers. They are the mother of the Internet, and all the networks and services are controlled by them. They have access to all the information. And they don’t hesitate to record it. Facebook is an extraordinary database. People put everything on Facebook. Who are your friends? What are their tastes, what movies have they seen? What do they consume? And it’s a source of firsthand information.

Q. Have you been in contact with Kelly Keiderling, after what happened in Venezuela?

No, I haven’t had contact with her. I don’t know what was her final destination, after what happened (she was expelled from Venezuela for meeting with and financing terrorists).

Q. With the experience she has, how far was she able to penetrate into Venezuela, and Venezuelan universities?

I am certain that she got quite far. She’s a very intelligent agent, very well prepared, very capable, and very convinced of what she’s doing. Kelly is a person convinced of the job she is doing. She is convinced of the justness, from her point of view, of what she is doing. Because she is an unconditional representative of capitalism. Because she comes from capitalism’s elite. She is organic of the actions she is doing. There is no contradiction of any kind. And, based on the experience of her work, of her capability, I am sure that she managed to get very far, and gave continuity to a job which is not just for now, it’s a job she will go on doing for a long time, to reverse the process in Venezuelan universities. What’s going on is that up to whatever point they can reach, in the long term, that is what will show the Bolivarian process, in the measure of which the people are aware of what could happen. If that fascist right wing becomes uncontrollable, it could get into power again.

Q. What kind of person who has contacts, who could reach the people, such as by being an activist in a movement, could be captured by the CIA?

They will find them, they will try to do it. If it’s a young person and a leader, they will try to capture them for their interests. We have to train our leaders. We can’t leave that to spontaneity, we can’t leave that to the enemy. So, if we leave them to the enemy, those are spaces which the enemy will occupy. Any alternative project that we leave unattended, any alternative project that we don’t realize the necessity of getting close to, that is a project that the enemy will try, by all means, to take advantage of. Using the enormous amount of money they have for that, which has no limits, in terms of resources to be used, because they are playing with the future and, above all, the young are the key.

The good thing is that the young are the present of Latin America. The Latin American revolution which is there, which is everywhere, is of the young. If not, fine, it will never have results, and if you manage to make young people think differently, if you succeed in getting these youngsters to believe that savage capitalism is the solution to all their problems, then there will be no revolution for Latin America. It’s that simple.

Translation mine.

So we can see that the same pattern which is currently playing out in Venezuela, exactly parallels that of Cuba. The CIA was not above a little human sacrifice then, and it still isn’t now. Then, it was this unlucky fellow named Alci Ferrer, who would very likely have been killed if Raúl Capote had not spoken up to inform them that the plan was crazy, that it could not work. Now, in Venezuela, it’s Leopoldo López…or would have been, had the Venezuelan authorities — yes, the same bunch of Bolivarians he hates so murderously — not saved his life by informing him of the plot to sacrifice him, and not taken him into custody before that could happen. The CIA were perfectly willing to take this expensively educated upper-class darling of theirs and throw him to the dogs. And then they would have blamed it all on the Bolivarians, just as surely as they would have blamed Alci Ferrer’s intended death on the Castroites in Cuba. That’s what’s so sickening about all of this: They have infinite money and resources to educate any “leader” they care to cultivate, and they’re still perfectly willing to let that person die, if it can somehow be made to further their twisted cause.

And of course, we see a lot of already-known suspects emerging from the woodwork: USAID, the IRI, and the same CIA agents operating in Venezuela as tried to corrupt Raúl Capote in Cuba. Would it surprise anyone terribly to see the same people who corrupted Serbia, Croatia, etc., now at work in, say, Ukraine? Or at the very least, the same fascist connections and strategies? Because those same have actually tried it before, in Bolivia in 2009, and failed. Evo and his parliamentarians are still alive, thanks to some good shooting on the part of the local federal police, and an investigation which turned up mercenaries who not only trained in the Balkans, but actually came from there, had fought there in the 1990s…and who were well enough experienced, or so their handlers thought, to turn Bolivia into another former Yugoslavia.

And would it surprise anyone to see how the financing for those ex-Balkan mercenaries came from the coffers of the CIA, via the so-called ambassador to Bolivia, Philip Goldberg? Indeed, would anyone be surprised anymore to learn that all so-called US diplomats are, in fact, CIA spooks? And that they are the key to how the CIA does all its dirty work, wherever it can be found?

Nah…didn’t think so!

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Music for a Sunday: Trouble, please be kind

A Cat Stevens classic, set to scenes from the movie “Harold and Maude”. I was in the mood for this, since I’ve got bad muscle spasms in my neck after a major headache two days ago. I’ve got medication (Tylenol with muscle relaxant), and now all I’ve got to do is wait this one out. A good mopey song, counterintuitively, often helps.

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Wankers of the Week: Fred Phelps Memorial Edition

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Crappy weekend, everyone! Time for a final farewell salute to the late sack of shit, Fred Fucking Phelps, too…and by “salute”, I propose that we all stick our thumbs against our noses, waggle our fingers, and blow a big, loud razzberry as we send ol’ Fred off to the great eldritch horror that is the maw of Cthulhu. Right in time for the Spring Equinox…and doesn’t the world smell better already? Oh hellz yeah. So, since we don’t have Fred to kick around anymore (sob!), how about the following, instead?

1. Scarlett Fucking Johansson. Right in time for the anniversary of Rachel Corrie’s murder, Apartheid Israel’s #1 apologist in Hollywood decides to mouth off about how evil Oxfam is for supporting Palestinians, and how nasty the BDS movement is for daring to stand in the way of Soda Stream’s profits…and by extension, her own. Oh yeah, and about Woody Allen: apparently, it’s socially irresponsible for victims of child sexual abuse to come forward and impugn a “great” filmmaker who is famous for demeaning women and children. Nice to know that she’s so much more than just a pretty face, eh?

2. Troy Fucking Mader. And speaking of nice-to-know, isn’t it nice to know that HE is standing by all the filthy old lies he peddled in the mid-1980s, about gay people and AIDS? Never mind that so much information has since come out to prove him wrong. He stands by it a hundred and ten percent, and rah rah!

3 and 4. Louise Fucking Mailloux and Pauline Fucking Marois. Well, that didn’t take long. Turns out that the infamous Québec “charter of values” has all sorts of totally unforeseen prejudicial implications…and the prejudiced are taking full advantage, in a totally fucking unforeseen fashion. Harrumph.

5. Rob Fucking Ford. Because of course. And because by now, we expect nothing less.

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6. Doug Fucking Ford. Because whenever Robbo farts, he’s right behind him with the air freshener. Not that it does a lick of good, mind you!

7. Phil Fucking Jensen. And there you have it, folks…”freedom of religion” and “free enterprise” mean that business owners should be able to get away with whatever fucking prejudiced shit they like. Not, of course, that anyone patronizing a business should be treated equally, or anything like that. Thanks for clearing that up, Phil. Now fuck off.

8. Dianne Fucking Reidy. Denial…ain’t no river in Egypt, Cleo. And, sadly, sometimes extreme religiosity IS a sign of mental illness. Or temporal-lobe epilepsy. Having a psychotic break at work is unfortunate. Leaving it untreated out of a misguided belief in God’s will, however, is just a plain old wank.

9. Scott Fucking Beason. “McCarthy was right”? Funny, everyone else in the world remembers ol’ Tailgunner Joe as a rampaging, paranoid, fanatical drunken fascist asshat. If that’s “right”, I’ll cheerfully stay in the “wrong”.

10. Cari Fucking Christman. Women are “too busy” to need equal pay legislation? Damn straight…they’re working twice as many jobs to make half as much money. That sure as hell sounds too busy to me, yup!

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11. Rob Fucking Anders. Well, well. Looks like Sleepyhead has awoken from his Rip Van Winkle stupor to declare a new Cold War on Russia. Or is that a shootin’ war that no one in their right mind wants? I dunno. I don’t think His Somnolence has thought this one all the way through, do you?

12. Daryush Fucking Valizadeh. I enjoy typing that name out in full, because every time I do, Roosh V’s odds of getting laid somewhere on this planet crash and burn just that little bit more. Women google; women get wise. Sort of the inverse of “every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings”.

13. Tony Fucking Perkins. I’m sure it will come as a terrible shock to him to know that Canada did not disappear off the map in 2003, when same-sex marriages first became a legal thing here. And that no one stopped trading with us, or valuing our dollars, because of it.

14. Pamela Fucking Geller. She wants Muslim pilots banned from the airways? I want her banned from the Internets. Because, newsflash: Muslims have been flying planes for a very long time…and, with very few exceptions, have done so quite uneventfully.

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15. Ralph Fucking Reed. Because women shouldn’t get divorces, or food stamps. Yeah, that’s right: He wants to see them suffer in miserable, abusive, loveless marriages (and being cheated blithely by their husbands) rather than happily alone and eating. Either that, or he’s really into abandonment…because that’s what men did to the “wives of their youth” all the time, back in the good ol’ days before no-fault divorce.

16. Pat Fucking Buchanan. Bring back imperialism! Oh wait, that came out wrong. Ha, ha. No, actually, that’s what his racist argument basically amounts to.

17. Bill Fucking Hemmer. Actually, Noah’s Ark has never been found…because it never fucking existed. Like so much else in the Old Testament, it’s just a badly made-up fiction.

18. Sandy Fucking Rios. Saying people should be shot is “using words of life”? Words of LIFE??? Words…what do they even mean?

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19. Jenny Fucking McCarthy. No, generating a lot of controversy does not make you authoritative. It makes you an imbecilic hack who is killing kids by telling their parents not to vaccinate them. Hope you’re enjoying the measles epidemics! PS: Ha, ha.

20. Ted Fucking Cruz. “School choice is the civil rights issue of the 21st century”? Funny, I thought that was gay rights. Oh wait…I forgot. This is Tailgunner Ted we’re talking about here. So of course, the issue is the “choice” to bring your kids up devout and stupid. Just look how well that worked out for him!

21. James Fucking Bull. Oh, Florida Man. You just can’t go a single week without literally screwing the pooch…can you?

22. Rupert Fucking Murdoch. Guinness is a “bully” for supporting gay rights and pulling out of a St. Paddy’s parade run by bigots? Only in Rupee’s backward universe, folks. And on that note, let’s show ’em some love and drink up!

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23. Beth Fucking Cubriel. Women are crappy negotiators? Yeah, I guess we must be. We haven’t been able to negotiate sexism out of existence yet, and we’re still just making 77 cents on a man’s dollar. Why the hell is THAT, I wonder?

24. Anne Fucking Graham Fucking Lotz. Why the double Fucking? Because that’s how loopy it is to think that the missing Malaysian jetliner had anything to do with the fucking Rapture. People…it’s a MYTH. It is never gonna happen. Whoever wrote Revelation was tripping on bad acid. Get a fucking grip!

25. Pavel Fucking Ushanov. Nothing says “entitlement run amok” quite like beating the shit out of your girlfriend for breaking up with you…and then running off before the cops can find you. Also, nothing says cowardice quite like that, either.

26. Mark Fucking Regnerus. How’s it feel to have a judge throw out your not-so-scientific “study” which is in fact just anti-LGBT propaganda? Ha, ha.

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27. Kathy Fucking Afzali. So, she’s worried about a “guy in a dress” using the ladies’ room? Honey, I don’t think Catholic priests swing that way, as a general rule. And if you’re worried about trans women, trust me…the only thing they’re in there for is what all the other women are in there for: to use a toilet, wash their hands, do a mirror check, and leave. That doesn’t sound like terribly “abnormal behavior”, does it now?

28. Phyllis Fucking Schlafly. So, the living dinosaur says she’s vewwy, vewwy disappointed because “nobody” is saying anything against marriage equality? Well, it’s kind of refreshing to see her admit that she and her fellow wingnuts are all nobody.

29. Meir Fucking Kin. He won’t give his ex-wife the Orthodox Jewish divorce she demands (because then she could remarry, oh the horror!), but he will marry another woman while not properly divorced from her? Mazel tov, you fucking bigamist.

30. Richard Fucking Ross. Why?

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That’s why. As if anyone is gonna go to a judge for permission to act like a grown-ass fucking ADULT.

And finally, to the troll, “Caracas Canadian”, who pooped here. I don’t believe you’re actually from Caracas, because your IP number tells me you’re in Valencia, 150 km to the west of the Venezuelan capital. Valencia, to state the blinding obvious, is NOT Caracas. That’s further away from there than I am from Toronto, fer fucksakes. Do you hear me calling myself a Torontonian? No, you do not, because I am not one. And I don’t believe you’re a Canadian, because your English is so fucking crappy, it couldn’t possibly be a product of our decent public schools. And you claim to have lived in Venezuela for the last eight years, but then have the temerity to kvetch that the Bolivarian Revolution is a big robbery while you’re in there living high off its hog? If you’re an actual Canadian, why did you move there in the middle of a fifteen-year-old “robbery”-in-progress…eh? You could have stayed the fuck home and saved yourself an awful lot of stomach ulcers. If you WERE an actual Canadian, that is. Ha, ha.

Good night, and get fucked!

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