Former defense minister detained in Venezuela

[robcon]

Source: AP

Once a close Chavez ally, Baduel quickly became a fierce critic after retiring from the military in July 2007. He helped persuade Venezuelans to vote down a constitutional referendum last year that would have, among other things, allowed the president to run for re-election indefinitely.

Baduel has repeatedly raised concerns that Chavez loyalists may use trumped-up charges to move against him politically.

"Everything is false and it's a defamatory campaign," Baduel's lawyer, Omar Mora Tosta, said of the detention. "Very few details were presented by (prosecutors) to accuse Gen. Baduel."

Baduel told The Associated Press earlier Friday that military intelligence agents approached him while he was at a crafts shop with his family and shoved him into an SUV in a "violent manner."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081004/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_venezuela_dissident_general;_ylt=AoY9Fyw6z0og7YFqiKiElTBvaA8F

---

The campaign of intimidation, arrest and elimination of enemies continues in Venezuela.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[UK populist]

2. um released without charge

Those be the actions of a dictator. I would much rather live under Chavez than I would fucking Mccain.
Seriously when are you going to realize that Venezuela has more accountable democracy than the US.
Even Jimmy Carter said the last election there was better than the last two in the US.

[ronnie624]

3. Presumably you read the article.

"Baduel is being investigated in connection with US$14 million that allegedly disappeared from armed forces coffers when he was defense minister."

Can you elaborate on "The campaign of intimidation, arrest and elimination of enemies". I'm not familiar with it.

[amdezurik]

6. that comes from the nether regions

of Crash-cart Dick and his tame CIA stooges

[ronnie624]

11. That or it was pulled from a nether orifice. n/t

[Joe Chi Minh]

4. An interesting snippet from Chomsky's recently published book,

WHAT WE SAY GOES, which puts this laughable post in some sort of rational context:

Chomsky is referring to the "Bush is a devil" speech Ugo Chavez made at the UN on Sep. 20 2006. After deploring that kind of name calling, also favoured by the right wing in the US - he cites Rumsfeld in particular, he continues:

"What's important is the content, which was systematically evaded in the discussions of Chavez's recent speech. If I had the resources, I'd like to do a media search and see if there were any references to the substance of his remarks. After all, if you read the New York Times news account, what's called a news account, it was mostly kind of gossip and making fun of the speech. However, the Times did include a sentence that was interesting. The reporter said Chavez received "loud applause that lasted so long that the organizations's officials had to tell the cheering group to cut it out". Any serious journalist or commentator would ask the question, "Why did Chavez receive prolonged applause? Is it because he called George Bush a devil? No. It was because he was expressing a point of view that happens to be very widespread in the world. In fact, it's the overwhelmingly dominant position. Chavez's views are called "controversial". It's quite the opposite. It's the views of the US media and commentators that are controversial."

Just about every article you see about Venzuela calls Chavez a "tin-pot dictator." By what standards is he a dictator? He's been repeatedly elected in elections certified as free and fair. The media in Venezuela bitterly condemn him in terms that are virtually unimaginable in the United States.

(snip)

The most important question is what do Venezuelans think about Chavez? That's the question you ask about political leaders. And we know the anwer. In the years that he's been in office, support for the government has steadily risen. It is now the highest in Latin America. That's of some interst. The next question is, Why has support grown for Chavez? It's because there are social programs that are helping the great majority of the population. Venezuela should be a very rich country. It has plenty of resources. It has a very small super-rich elite, some highly privileged sectors, and a huge mass of impoverished people who apparently believe - you can argue about whether they're right or not - that this is the first government that has ever cared about them. Is that undemocratic?

In fact, what is called "undemocratic" by the United States is extremely interesting. For example, when Evo Morales in Bolivia made moves toward nationalisation of Bolivia's resources, he was condemned as authoritarian, dictatorial, ATTACKING DEMOCRACY. BUT DID IT MATTER THAT HE WAS SUPPORTED BY 95 PERCENT OF THE POPULATION? IS THAT WHAT "DICTATORIAL" MEANS (.... my capitals)? We have a particular concept of democratic which means "do what we say." Then a country is democratic or becoming democratic. It's shocking that people can't see this.

(snip)

As to whether his(Chavez's) policies will lead Venezuela into a ditch, Thomas Friedman is hardly an authority. The economic policies he supports have been a disaster for most of the global south.

(snip)

The countries that have done very well - China, South Korea, Taiwan - have done so by violating the rules that Friedman advocates. These countries radically violated International Monetary Fund and World Bank rules - the Washington consensus, which he praises - and they grew.

[UK populist]

5. Well said, It just shows how uninformed most the US is.

[EFerrari]

8. I remember that the cable channels accidently showed

the laughter and applause a few times. That was cool. :evilgrin:

[ronnie624]

13. Thanks very much for the excerpts.

For some reason I was unaware of this book. I'm leaving this minute to purchase it.

[Judi Lynn]

14. Thanks for the effort in sharing this info. from the book. He points out such unbearable truths!

It looks exactly like an undertaken permanent goal between the rigid, controlling, racist right-wing, and almost all of Latin America as it struggles to come to life, and come together for their own defense.

In the past, they found ways to arrange genocide, destruction of entire villages, silencing the opposition through U.S.-trained death squads, bought-off military officials leading violent coups, dirty scum oligarchic power players, etc.

The people of Latin America don't want this pattern to remain in place and they intend to prevent it, working together. They've had a good long look at where the divide-and-conquer by U.S. right-wing Presidents took them, and they are resisting that possibility in their future.

Oh, yeah. One more thing, in closing. Our corporate media trumpeted the story they got when the N. Y. Times misquoted Hugo Chavez when they reported he said Noam Chomsky was dead. He never did say that. They didn't check the translation, he said he regretted he had not met the he regretted not meeting John Galbraith before he died. That correction never did get any play whatsoever. Clowns, villains.

[Joe Chi Minh]

20. No. They don''t have a pulse. They don't even rise to the level of

humanity - which we know is no great shakes a lot of the time.

[Swagman]

17. what is the title of Chomsky's book ?

[ronnie624]

18. What We Say Goes n/t

[Joe Chi Minh]

19. Thanks, Ronnie.

[AlphaCentauri]

22. Tnx great post

[EFerrari]

7. Yeah, that ruthless dictator should just allow millions to be stolen

like our leader does!

lol

[Joe Chi Minh]

21. Well spotted sfexpat!

[IndianaGreen]

9. In defence of democracy and sovereignty for Venezuela

Chavez's opposition is the Venezuelan version of the GOP, and they must be condemned together with their lackeys in America!

In defence of democracy and sovereignty for Venezuela

A statement from the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network
September 14, 2008

On September 11, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez gave the United States ambassador in Caracas 72 hours to leave the country. The announcement was made in solidarity with Bolivia, after Bolivian President Evo Morales expelled US ambassador Phillip Goldberg for collaborating with the far-right opposition movement that has been organising violent protests for weeks to seize control of Bolivia's wealthy eastern provinces.

The United States responded by expelling Bolivian and Venezuelan envoys from its territories.

Venezuela and Bolivia’s actions were responses to a series of destabilising actions in Latin America “made in the USA”, Chavez said on September 11.

On September 10, a recording was broadcast on the television program The Razorblade in which a new coup and assassination plot against Chavez is discussed by former and active military officers. "We are going to take over Miraflores Palace, we are going to take over television plants", the recording said. Also outlined was a plan to take over control of the Army general command with "the troops inside", and possibly to strike while Chavez was on a plane, aiming to "blow him up or capturing him with planes while in the air”.

Venezuela’s National Assembly has announced a special commission to investigate the coup plot. National Assembly president Cilia Flores said the privately owned media and opposition political parties “are promoting war” in Venezuela, “openly urging people to rebel, generate violence and not recognise the democratic government".

In Bolivia, which with Venezuela is at the forefront of a Latin America-wide rebellion against neo-liberalism and US domination, a “civic coup” was unleashed by the right-wing opposition on September 9. The violent attacks on government supporters and infrastructure aims to destabilise the government and depose Indigenous president Evo Morales, aims publicly supported by the US ambassador to Bolivia.

The coup plot in Venezuela and the violence in Bolivia follow other attempts this year by the US administration and the Latin America governments it controls to intimidate and destabilise the Venezuelan revolution, and to create a pretext for military intervention against it.

On March 1, in violation of all international treaties regarding national sovereignty, the Colombian government of President Alvaro Uribe - which receives more US military funding than any other country in Latin America - bombed Ecuadorian territory to assassinate Colombian leftists waging an armed struggle against the Uribe government. Ecuador and Venezuela responded by mobilising troops to their respective borders with Colombia to defend their national sovereignty. Subsequently, the Colombian government tried to claim the existence of documents that link the Venezuelan government and Chavez to “terrorism” and “narco-trafficking”, which Venezuela denounced as absolute lies.

Then on July 1, after 58 years, the US Navy reactivated the Fourth Fleet, a high level command dedicated to supervising US warships and submarines in Latin American and Caribbean waters.

Meanwhile, the US continues to provide millions of dollars of military and financial aid to the Colombian government, and the opposition forces in Venezuela and Bolivia. It also maintains a constant media campaign that portrays Chavez as an insane dictator leading the Latin American people on a path to destruction.

In fact, the opposite is true. The pro-poor, pro-peace policies of Venezuela’s revolutionary government are inspiring millions more people into struggle against their exploitation and strengthening Latin American unity against imperialist plunder of their resources.

For centuries, the US has aided and abetted violence and conflict throughout Latin America, and trampled democratic and human rights. Every new step towards democracy, peace and stability in the region weakens imperialism’s ability to do this. As Chavez said on September 11, addressing the US administration: “Do not think … that you are going to do what you did to Chile 35 years ago on a day like today. Unfortunately, the Chilean revolutionary people were alone in South America; but today it is not like that.”

http://www.venezuelasolidarity.org/?q=node/5864

[EFerrari]

10. The Thuggery is losing the propaganda war -- which is amazing. Poll:

Poll: US Voters Disagree With Government Policy on Latin America


According to the latest Zogby poll concerning US attitudes to South America, Washington’s policies towards region are at sharp odds with public opinion.

The poll shows that 60% of likely voters favor a change in US policy towards Cuba while 76% of people asked believe the war on drugs is failing.

The poll also shows that 85% of people likely to vote for Obama in the forthcoming US election support improving diplomatic relations with Venezuela ,a figure which drops to 15% among McCain voters polled.

http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=73804

[Judi Lynn]

12. Fantastic learning over half the country actually has NOT swallowed that heavy load of propaganda

being stuffed down their throats 24/7 by our corporate media for years and years.

Looks as if they (the majority) are developing some deeper wisdom about evaluating what they read, or hear.

Thanks for this positive news. The country's waking up!

[Peace Patriot]

15. What a joy it is when the Corpo/fascist 'news' monopolies fail at their assignments!

I've known for a long time that the people of the U.S. are a lot smarter and better informed than anyone gives them credit for. It's one of the secondary arguments for stolen elections. The peoples' views and Diebold & brethren's election 'results' often don't gel. For instance, back in the leadup to the Iraq War, I really wanted to know, had my fellow and sister Americans gone fascist, goosestepping to Bush, or was something else going on? So I started watching a range of opinion polls, and, lo and behold, nearly 60% of the American people opposed the invasion of Iraq (Feb 03--all polls).

Surprise, surprise! The 2004 stolen election then didn't surprise me too much (especially given what I knew about the horrendous insecurity of the Corpo/fascist voting systems that had been fast-tracked all over the country, via the $3.9 billion e-voting boondoggle, passed by the Anthrax Congress in the same month as the Iraq War Resolution--Oct 02). Seems like a lot of people weren't aware of the huge opposition to the Iraq War, but the people who destroyed the transparency of our election system, and put it into private Bushwhack Corpo hands, certainly were. It was to defeat that big anti-war majority that 'TRADE SECRET' code voting systems were designed. They could have made them transparent--easily. But somehow they forgot about that bottom-line requirement of democracy--PUBLIC VOTE COUNTING!

Anyway, these polls on Latin America do surprise me a bit. I was afraid that our people weren't paying attention on this matter, and thus were more vulnerable to Corpo/fascist propaganda--and I could see the evidence of a massive psyops campaign, for instance, to portray Chavez as a "dictator." And it would be funny, if it weren't so disgusting, how they've tried to extend that epithet to other leftist leaders as they have been elected presidents of their countries, and have strongly allied with Chavez--Morales in Bolivia, and Correa in Ecuador, in particular. They're all "dictators," don't ya know?! The stupid peasants are electing "tyrants" and "dictators" in the most transparent elections in the hemisphere.

Another thing I've noticed is the way the Corpo/fascist 'news' monopolies manage to ignore and blackhole the overwhelming evidence that the South American leaders are pulling together, and repelling "divide and conquer" tactics. Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Paraguay--they've all been helping each other, in really significant ways, for instance, Chile finally giving landlocked Bolivia access to the sea (a 130 year old dispute); and Brazil and Venezuela putting up the money for a highway stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, through Bolivia (which will make Bolivia an important trade route); and Brazil's president jawboning Paraguay's Brazilian hydroelectric customers to re-negotiate those contracts, to give Paraguay a better break (and help out its new leftist president); and on and on. They have each other's backs on 'divide and conquer' tactics, and they are moving forward swiftly and strongly on cooperation, mutual aid and political/economic integration.

Again, it would be funny, if it weren't so disgusting, how our Corpo/fascist 'news' hides these amazing developments from us folks up here in the north. It is also pathetic. The Bushwhacko and Corpo/fascist policies in Latin America are failing on a colossal scale, and, to admit these major democratic and integration successes in South America (now moving into Central America) is to admit how ill-intended the policies were in the first place, and--the thing they most want to hide--how the people in democratic countries can pull together and defeat them.

Anyway, I was very worried that this sneaky brainwashing--of "Big Lies", and of black holes in the 'news'--was having an effect on our people, who have so much to worry about these days. And it is a joy to me that it is not succeeding--just as it was a joy to me, and gave me hope, that the great majority of our people didn't buy the bullshit about Iraq either. Now we just have to work on getting the will of the people implemented by our government, as they are succeeding at doing in South America. Together we would make one helluva powerful "Common Market" stretching the length of the hemisphere, if the Latin Americans will have us. That's my dream--fairness, social justice and respect, at long last, between these two great cultures and peoples of the western hemisphere.

When we talk about "the American people," we should mean both. The Corpo/fascist 'news' sometimes calls Hugo Chavez "anti-American." They forget that he IS an American. All Americans, north and south, have fought for independence from foreign monarchies. Today, the South advocates for democracy, justice and human rights far more sincerely and effectively than we have ever done, and certainly provide a stark contrast to the Bushwhacks, with their torture, mass murder, and shredding of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Baduel should be glad that he is being investigated, and possibly prosecuted, by the Venezuelan justice system. Can you imagine his fate at the hands of the Bushwhack Department of 'Justice,' if he were in the opposition here?

Does anybody know the facts of this case, by the way? I read somewhere that his underlings were stealing, he was subpoened by the court to testify about it, and refused to appear, and that is why he was arrested. I've read conflicting reports--some that he himself was stealing, others that he defied the court.

---------

That's a whopping number on the failure of the "war on drugs"--76%! And guess who first started rejecting the corrupt, failed, murderous U.S. "war on drugs"--our leftist kindred to the south, the leaders of Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador!

Now it's an issue throughout Latin America, with even a center-right Corpo president like Calderon in Mexico saying that small time marijuana and coke users shouldn't be criminalized. And it's furthermore become a "sovereignty" issue for a wide spectrum of Latin American governments.

When are we going to throw this dreadful "war" off our backs--as we did with Prohibition?

[EFerrari]

23. There is a thread in the LA forum with multiple items reporting this

story.

We already knew Baduel was dirty when he collaborated with the media attacks in the run up to last December. And it would unsurprising if Baduel forced this detention. This is why:

He has become involved with (Rabbi) Pynchas Brener, who was at Carmona's side when the latter was "inaugurated". And, these men, along with others, had taken to meeting at at least two facilities that were associated with the Jewish community. Remember the thread last week that denounced Chavez's "anti-semitism"? The government was alerted to these meetings, there were two raids and *that* gets reported as "repression". Pretty smart, when you think about it. Nothing was damaged, no one detained and nothing confiscated but now they have a new meme (or, it was new at the time) for their media attacks.

[edwardian]

16. So believable...

from that paragon of balanced journalism, the Ass-hole-iated Press, or does AP stand for American Propaganda?