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Op-Ed: Barack Obama's war against democracy
By Ruth Hull
From Iran to Vietnam to Chile to Libya to Venezuela, the world is tired of America's opposition to democracy. The people with the world's best elections, according to Jimmy Carter, are fighting back against another American-sponsored attack on democracy.Former U.S. President and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Jimmy Carter has hailed Venezuela as having the best election process in the world. Unlike American elections, the winners in Venezuelan Presidential elections actually choose to take office. It is an example that would have changed America had Al Gore and John Kerry chosen to respect the will of the people who elected them in 2000 and 2004.
Democracy Now did a show on the current American-sponsored attempted coup in Venezuela that has now killed a number of people. in the news program, Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales interviewed George Ciccariello-Maher, author of We Created Chávez: A People’s History of the Venezuelan Revolution. Mr. Ciccariello-Maher teaches political science at Drexel University in Philadelphia and previously taught at the Venezuelan School of Planning in Caracas. Here is some of what this scholar had to say about America's bloody interference with democracy that is taking place in Venezuela and about the American-backed leader of the attempted coup. Leopoldo López represents the far right of the Venezuelan political spectrum. In terms of his personal and political history, here’s someone who was educated in the United States from prep school through graduate school at the Harvard Kennedy School. He’s descended from the first president of Venezuela, purportedly even from Simón Bolívar. In other words, he’s a representative of this traditional political class that was displaced when the Bolivarian revolution came to power. … Sure. Well, the Obama government continues to fund this opposition even more openly than did the Bush—than did the Bush regime. If you look at the budget there, you know, Obama specifically requested funding for these Venezuelan opposition groups despite—you know, despite anti-democratic activity in the past, despite the fact that López and others were involved in signatories of the coup in 2002 and engaged in violent actions that they were brought up on charges for in 2002. And so, for López to come now and to claim that he’s an actor for democracy in the streets is really quite—you know, quite laughable. But what he is trying to do is to really seize control of this opposition away from the more moderate elements.
Part of the problem in America is that the public is not told the truth about foreign governments. The culprit is a biased press engaged in yellow journalism. The press is owned and operated by corporate interests with a desire to hide the truth and demonize good governments when the time comes to grab their oil. Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the Western World. Here is what the London Guardian had to say about press coverage of Venezuela. Such is the state of misrepresentation of Venezuela – it is probably the most lied-about country in the world – that a journalist can say almost anything about Chávez or his government and it is unlikely to be challenged, so long as it is negative,
If you wish to learn more about Venezuela, some neutral sources are: Cindy Sheehan's Revolution: A Love Story , Greg Palast's: The Assassination of Hugo Chavez, and the acclaimed documentary, The Revolution will not be Televised.
Here is what American journalist Greg Palast had to say about the popular election of Nicolas Maduro. Still, it’s fair to ask if Maduro and the Chávistas stole last week’s presidential election? Answer: They didn’t have to. Even the Wall Street Journal accepts that, “for a majority of Venezuelans, Mr Chávez was a messiah,” and Maduro, the successor Chávez chose from his deathbed, had too big a lead to lose. Still, the election was nearly stolen — by the US-backed anti-Chávistas.
In 2013, following the death of Hugo Chavez, six term Congresswoman and international human rights leader Cynthia McKinney flew to Venezuela to participate in the transition from Hugo Chavez to Nicolas Maduro. On her way to Caracas, she referred people to her HOV twitter page, which contained the international cry, "Hands off Venezuela."
Peace and Freedom Vice Presidential candidate, Gold-Star Mother for Peace and California Gubernatorial candidate Cindy Sheehan, stated, The struggle will continue and the Bolivarian Revolution will never die–and neither will Chavez as long as we honor his memory and be half as brave as he was. Long live Chavez and long live the Bolivarian Revolution: I will never forget you and neither will history,
Indeed, as U.S. backed insurgents use weapons and sabotage to try to topple democracy in the streets of the government with the best election system in the world, the people of Venezuela are standing up for their government and for their elected leader Nicolas Maduro. The Venezuelan people are proving they are willing to die for the cause of democracy, their freedom, and their way of life.
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