On
Tuesday November 16th, George Bush put forward Condoleeza
Rice as his proposed Secretary of State to take
over the diplomacy of US warmongering from the outgoing
fraud, Colin Powell. Two days later on November
18th leading Venezuelan judicial prosecutor Danilo
Anderson was killed in a car bomb attack eerily
reminiscent of the murder of Orlando Letelier and
Ronni Moffit in Washington in 1976 by Cuban terrorists
working for Augusto Pinochet and protected by the
CIA. The Venezuelan authorities believe Anderson
was killed by two charges of C4 plastic explosive
fixed to his car and detonated remotely, apparently
by cell phone. The timing of Rice's nomination and
Anderson's murder are unlikely to be fortuitous.
With
Rice's appointment, George Bush sustains the incestuous
link between his regime and earlier, still extant,
plutocrat state terror Godfathers like George Bush
Sr., James Baker and George Schultz. Rice, a protege
of Schultz, the former Bechtel president, could
hardly be a more emblematic representative of the
nexus between state terror and big business. Chevron
may have renamed the former "Condoleeza Rice"
oil tanker "Altair Voyager", but that
all-too-recent link to an outfit boasting it "...
now ranks among the most important international
petroleum producers in Venezuela and Colombia, is
one of the largest private integrated oil companies
in Brazil and is the third-leading producer in Argentina."
(ChevronTexaco
in Latin America & The Caribbean) bodes
ill for people in Latin America.
Why
was Anderson murdered?
Danilo
Anderson was an investigating magistrate in charge
of several prominent and politically sensitive cases.
His work proceeded in the context of recent elections
confirming overwhelming popular support for President
Hugo Chavez. Among the cases within Anderson's brief
were those against the leader of a mob that attacked
the Cuban Embassy in Caracas during the failed coup
d'etat of April 12th (2002) and against members
of the Caracas Metropolitan Police accused of unlawful
attacks under opposition ex-mayor Alfredo Pena.
Anderson was also processing cases against owners
of Venezuelan TV and Press media implicated in the
April coup of 2002 as well as the signatories of
the coup declaration overthrowing the elected government.
Perhaps
the most internationally sensitive case he was working
on was that against the Sumate organization, a supposedly
impartial NGO funded by the CIA's companion organization
the National Endowment for Democracy. In fact, Sumate
actively campaigned with US government money to
defeat President Chavez throughout the long process
ending in last August's recall referendum. Such
activity contravened Sumate's neutral non-profit
status, breaking Venezuelan law in the process.
Writer
and academic Heinz Dieterich has written cogently
about Anderson's murder, "The menace of Danilo
for Washington's terrorist project was two-fold:
he threatened one of its main instruments of power,
Venezuela's corrupt class justice system and too
he was becoming a symbol of the honest patriot and
servant of the majority of the new Bolivarian nation....Danilo
Anderson's murder shows that the subversion has
made a qualitative leap to a generalised offensive.
From now on, people emblematic of the process whose
death may have a high propaganda value for Washington
will be in danger. Likewise, the subversion will
begin attacks against energy and transport infrastructure
and carry out more murders and incursions along
the Colombian border...Looking back in history,
we can say that the Bolivarian revolution has entered
the phase of the Cuban revolution of 1960 when the
US-Cuban counter-revolution launched attacks, sabotage
and murders from nuclei in the Sierra Escambrey
or, too, Nicaragua from 1983 onwards." (Magnicidio
en Caracas: Washington acelera plan terrorista)
The
silence from international media has been eloquent.
An ever ready litmus test of mainstream media hypocrisy
is to check out the less reactionary media that
preen themselves on their "balance". But
if you review the web sites of UK media like the
Guardian, the Independent or the BBC you will look
in vain for any report on the murder of Danilo Anderson.
Why is this? Presumably for the same reasons UN
supervision of the murder and rape of opponents
to the US puppet regime in Haiti fails to make the
news - lazy complacency, herd instinct, advertiser-conscious
self-censorship and jobsworth respect for the limits
of dissent.
Rice
on the April 2002 coup
In
effect, mainstream media serve as the echo chambers
of empire, colluding in imperial silences as well
as projecting hyperbolic PR spin. Condoleeza Rice's
commitment to the subversion of Venezuela's elected
government has been clear ever since the coup of
April 2002. The perversity of her analysis of Venezuelan
affairs can be seen in this quote from NBC's "Meet
the Press" on April 14th 2002. Interviewed
by Tim Russert after Chavez was returned to power
by massive popular demonstrations against the coup
plotters, here's what Rice had to say:
"I
hope that Hugo Chavez takes the message that his
people sent him that his own policies are not working
for the Venezuelan people, that he's dealt with
them in a high-handed fashion. And I hope what he
said in his speech this morning, that he understands
that this is a time for national reflection, that
he recognizes it's time for him to reflect on how
Venezuela got to where it is. He needs to respect
constitutional processes....." (Condoleeza
Rice Interview with Tim Russert, Meet the Press,
NBC News)
Perhaps
only in the United States could an analysis so totally
contrary to the facts be taken seriously. But the
profound mendacity of individuals like Rice is nothing
new. Their conscious doublespeak - averring concern
for democracy while doing all in their power to
destroy it - serves as a cover for deniable operations
by Rice's shadowy covert operations colleagues -
operations like the murder of Danilo Anderson.
Destabilization
- breaking out the standard tool kit
The
United States terror machine has always used covert
armed violence to complement bribery, political
subversion, economic thuggery, trade and aid blackmail,
media falsification and electoral dirty tricks.
Proof of the well-armed subversion in Venezuela,
probably abetted by United States covert agencies
like the CIA, came on Tuesday, November 23rd when
a young lawyer wanted for questioning in relation
to Anderson's murder died in a shoot out with Venezuelan
police. In his house the police found explosives,
rocket launchers and missiles. The discovery is
yet more evidence indicating a well-financed terrorist
network organized from outside Venezuela, based
mainly in Colombia and the United States.
The
Venezuelan authorities have good reason to be suspicious
of US motives despite last week's statement by US
ambassador Brownfield condemning Anderson's murder.
No action has been taken by US authorities against
Venezuelan opposition terrorist training camps in
Florida or against opposition figures like well
known Venezuelan actor Orlando Urdaneta who recently
in Miami publicly called for assassinations of leading
members of the Venezuelan government. Former Venezuelan
army officers wanted by the Venezuelan courts in
relation to the bombing of foreign embassies in
Caracas have found sanctuary in the US.
Similarly,
earlier this year exiled and disgraced former President
Carlos Andres Perez was widely reported calling
for the violent overthrow of Venezuela's elected
government. Colombia protects the leader of the
April 2002 coup, Pedro Carmona. Venezuela has requested
his extradition, so far without result. It's worth
remembering that Colin Powell held at least one
meeting with the exiled Carmona in Bogota in December
of 2002.
In
June this year, Miami's Channel 41 TV station broadcast
a programme featuring anti-Castro and anti-Chavez
terrorists in what was in effect a fundraiser. Counterpunch
reported, "Adding weight to recent accusations
of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, former Venezuelan
army captain Eduardo Garcia was also present in
full uniform to discuss the help Comandos F4 were
giving in his efforts to bring down Chavez by force.
Chavez has frequently charged that Miami Cuban-American
terrorist organizations are involved with Venezuelans
seeking to assassinate him....The host of the Round
Table program, Randy Alonso, simply asked viewers
to form their own conclusions after seeing such
an astonishing program, commenting that the message
that Frometa gave was clear: his paramilitary organization
was ready and trained--it just needed the money.
And, said Alonso, the money is there--$36 million
recently earmarked by the US government to support
such groups." (Miami
TV Station Invites Terrorists to Talk Openly About
Their Planned Attacks on Cuba and Venezuela, Counterpunch
Wire)
Continent-wide
offensive
The
Bush regime has begun to pay more urgent attention
to Latin America. Just this month, Donald Rumsfeld
visited Nicaragua on his way to Ecuador for a summit
meeting of Defence Ministers from the Americas.
In Quito, Rumsfeld pressed, among many other things,
for the region's military to take on civilian policing
roles. In Chile, President Bush himself attended
the Asia Pacific Economic Conference, making time
also to visit Alvaro Uribe, propped up by narco-paramilitaries
as President of Colombia. Uribe's dismal repressive
army dominated security regime has led to increasing
numbers of disappearances of members of the civil
opposition and murders of trades unionists. President
Bush promised even more support from the US taxpayer
for Colombia's state terrorist government.
As
its economic position weakens in relation to Europe
and Asia, the US plutocrat class-warrior government
will increasingly need to rely on control of Latin
America to sustain their budget and trade profligacy.
Everything they do in Latin America is inter-related:
trade and investment deals, military bases, ruthless
pressure for more failed neo-liberal policies through
the IMF and World Bank, corporate pillage of energy
and mineral resources, legal or illegal introduction
of genetically manipulated grains, insistence on
multinational-friendly intellectual property rules,
training paramilitaries in Colombia, promoting subversion
in Venezuela, continuing economic and armed terrorism
against the people of Cuba. The list of activity
goes well beyond legitimate defence of US interests
and reaches far into the realms of terrorism and
militarist aggression.
It
is reasonable to suggest that when George Bush named
Condoleeza Rice as his next Secretary of State,
he signalled the all clear for an escalation in
covert action against opponents of US policy in
Latin America. Danilo Anderson was the first victim
of that escalation in Venezuela. Rice's appointment
and Bush's personal enthusiastic endorsement of
Alvaro Uribe sends a clear message that Venezuela
in particular and Latin America in general can expect
higher levels of US government inspired terrorism
from now on.
Toni
Solo is an activist based in Central America. Contact
via www.tonisolo.net
