Venezuelan Opposition Governors Instigate “Rebellion” Against Centralization of Ports and Airports

[EFerrari]

March 25th 2009, by James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com

Mérida, March 25th 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – As Venezuela’s President Chávez followed through on the decision to transfer control of the nation’s ports and airports to the national government this week, a group of opposition officials from several regions of the country have declared themselves in “rebellion” against the measure, and called for a consultative referendum on the issue.

The National Assembly reformed the Law on Decentralization, Limitation, and Transfer of Public Power two weeks ago to allow the national government to take control of ports, airports, and highways that had deteriorated and become dominated by drug trafficking and contraband mafias, according to government officials.

Last week, the National Guard occupied the Port of Maracaibo, in Zulia state, and Puerto Cabello in Carabobo state, and this week, with authorization from the National Assembly, national officials initiated the transfer of airports in Táchira, Miranda, and Nueva Esparta, states which elected opposition governors last November.

All 17 governors from the PSUV have collaborated with the transfer of the transportation hubs. Governor Tarek William Saab of Anzoátegui state said the turnover of the state’s airport Saturday “forms part of a national reunification plan that will strengthen us and develop the nation because the country was fractured.”

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4328

[Judi Lynn]

1. So management by the FEDERAL government was in place for these ports, airports until 20 yrs. ago.

Very interesting to learn that from your article, EFerrari!

~snip~
Acosta also told the opposition legislators that the transfer will clear up the accounting of the ports and airports and “now Zulia will know how many resources you robbed” by treating the port and airport budgets as a “petty cash drawer” since the administration of the ports and airports was previously transferred from the national to the state governments two decades ago.

Likewise, workers at Zulia’s main port and airport who are members of the National Worker’s Union (UNT), declared their support for the administrative centralization, saying their labor rights and collective contracts have been violated by the state administration.

Thanks for posting very interesting details on this.

Will be watching how this progresses, along with you and the other serious, conscientious posters.

[Peace Patriot]

2. There goes Rumsfeld's war plan for gaining corporate predator control of Venezuela's oil!

This is so important! I don't think it's just the rightwing corruption at the ports and airports--using revenues as a "petty cash drawer"--and their collusion with Colombian drug lords, and their failing to maintain infrastructure--ports, airports and roads (typical rightwing malfeasance, there and here--but especially characteristic of Venezuela's selfish, petty oil elite); and it's not just the rightwing's efforts to destroy unions (and decent wages, benefits and working conditions). The Chavez government has taken control of the ports and airports very likely for a yet more important reason: Rightwing control of the ports and airports was/is likely a critical element--and one that I didn't know about--in Rumsfeld's civil war plan to instigate a fascist insurrection in Zulia--Venezuela's main oil port and also the location of much of its oil resource--and split it off into a fascist mini-state in control of the oil. That way, with one blow, they could destabilize and possibly topple the elected national government (the Chavez government), and "circle the wagons" in the Caribbean, against the new leftist "common market," UNASUR, using the oil to bully and beat down countries like El Salvador, Nicaragua and Cuba.

As to whether or not this war plan was contingent upon Bush/Cheney being in the White House, it is interesting that my first hint of the plan came from a Donald Rumsfeld op-ed in the Washington Post, a year after Rumsfeld resigned from the Pentagon (Dec 07--he had resigned a year earlier in Dec 06). Why is the 'retired' Donald Rumsfeld interesting himself in South America? --I wondered. The hint was this: Among other things--in an article entitled, "The Smart Way to Defeat Tyrants Like Chavez"--Rumsfeld urged "swift action" by the U.S. in support of "friends and allies" in South America. What was he talking about? How would "swift action" by the U.S. help support the Bushwhacks' only "friends and allies" in South America (and very nearly their only allies in the hemisphere): Colombia and Peru? The answer, I think, is that he was talking about "friends and allies" within the leftist countries with the oil, and a plan for them to secede from their leftist national governments, claim to be "freedom fighters," and ask for U.S. military support ("swift action").

Following this oped, the Bushwhacks tried to instigate a war between Colombia and Ecuador/Venezuela, in March 08, with the bombing/raid on Ecuador (using ten U.S. "smart bombs" to wipe out a temporary FARC hostage release camp). Around the same time, I read remarks of Ecuador's President, Rafael Correa, who said there was a 3-country, coordinated, Bushwhack strategy to incite civil war in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia. And I wonder now if the U.S./Colombia bombing/raid on Ecuador, and Ecuador's and Venezuela's response (both rushed military battalions to their borders) was not supposed to be the trigger for the fascist "declaration of independence" in Venezuela's and Ecuador's northern oil states, both bordering Colombia. If so, Chavez headed that off by calming down his ally, Correa--a brand new leftist president, inexperienced in foreign policy. Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, called Chavez "the great peacemaker" after that event. I was thinking that Chavez smelled a rat--this quite deliberate provocation of Ecuador to draw them into a war.

Then, in the summer--while UNASUR was being formalized--the Bushwhacks re-constituted the U.S. 4th Fleet (mothballed since WWII) in the Caribbean. The U.S. military had already been harrying Venezuela's oil coast (Zulia) and its offshore islands with illegal overflights. The 4th Fleet poses yet more of a threat. Lula da Silva said that it even threatens Brazil's coastal oil reserves--and proposed that UNASUR create a common defense (which all have agreed to).

By September, the Bushwhacks had tried the civil war strategy in Bolivia--and failed, due to the solidarity among South American leaders against U.S. interference and fascist coups. That fascist rebellion--a white separatist rebellion--in Bolivia was concentrated in the gas/oil rich eastern provinces--a fascist movement to secede and gain control of Bolivia's resources. President Morales of Bolivia threw the U.S. ambassador and the DEA out of Bolivia, for their collusion with these fascist rioters and murderers--and UNASUR backed him up. UNASUR was only formalized a few months prior to the Bolivian white separatist war, in summer 08. In the March war plan against Ecuador/Venezuela, earlier in 08, the other country leaders also helped isolate Colombia, and forced its president to apologize and promise to cease violating sovereign countries, at the Rio Group meeting.

And all this while, the rightwing governor of Zulia, and other rightwing governors in Venezuela, had control of the ports and airports! If Ecuador/Venezuela had been drawn into a hot war with the U.S./Colombia in March, then what we might have seen was the coordinated fascist groups in their northern oil states seceding, parading as "freedom fighters" (using all the corporate 'news' monopoly psyops here that Chavez is "a dictator"), and calling for U.S. support, from U.S. forces in the Caribbean, in Colombia, and at the U.S. military base in Manta, Ecuador (in the northern oil region--the base that Correa has vowed to evict this year, when it's lease is up), and part of that plan would surely have been the U.S. securing Venezuela's ports, airports and roads, against the Venezuelan military (commanded by Chavez), with the traitorous collusion of the local fascists.

And that would have been that. Either Chavez would have had to go to war to recover Venezuela's territory, with ally Correa having to make a similar decision--and with their two countries far away from each other, on either end of Colombia--or they would have had to accept division of their countries, enforced by the U.S., with fascists in control of the oil. Win or lose in such a war, the result would have been catastrophic for Chavez and Correa and the people of their countries (and for the people of Colombia as well), and would have caused great turmoil in South America. War is the ultimate 'divide and conquer.'

What Chavez's move to secure the ports, airports and roads tells me is that that war plan is still alive--possibly now reconfigured as a private corporate resource war, to be conducted with money stolen from us, with private armies created at our expense, and with fascist operatives within these countries, developed over 8 years of Bushwhack activity, which the perpetrators would try to draw the Obama administration into (i.e., JFK and the "Bay of Pigs). The problem of corruption at the ports/airports could be solved by federal action short of seizing these facilities. You create a commission, you investigate, you purge the corrupt and install new management. But apparently Chavez is so distrustful of these fascist governors, and has so little reason to trust the Obama administration (thus far), that he is taking full strategic control of these vital assets and lands, in the region most vulnerable to U.S. (or Exxon Mobil and brethren) interference.

Well, I hope this puts an end to it. Chavez couldn't have driven a better stake into its evil heart than to take control of the ports, airports and roads by which local fascists and their Colombian and U.S./Exxon Mobil allies might have sealed a secessionist victory. In Bolivia, I think the election of a strong leftist in neighboring Paraguay may have seriously hampered that Bushwhack civil war scheme, by denying U.S. support to landlocked secessionist forces, over the border from Paraguay. The threat that remains is Colombia--recipient of $6 BILLION in U.S./Bushwhack military aid--with the Defense Minister saying he will not respect the Rio Group agreements--and the vulnerability of Venezuela's and Ecuador's borders, but without Venezuela's ports, airports and roads, this war plan is probably dead. Also, Ecuador is now aware of the hostile nature of the U.S. base at Manta, and is surely watching it closely (and Correa got the CIA operatives out of his military last year, after the U.S./Colombia bombing/raid).

The South American leftist governments' intelligence seems to be quite good--they have fended off a civil war/coup attempt in Bolivia, a war between Colombia and Ecuador/Venezuela, and no doubt innumerable plots we know not of--and they are clearly sharing and coordinating their information. This may be why Chavez took this action--intelligence that we are not privy to, regarding the local fascist secessionists, and their Colombian and U.S./corpo plotters.

[EFerrari]

3. I agree with every word of that. Well done, for seeing it coming so long ago!

I thought of you immediately when finding this.

Have you noticed how many of these leaders have been publicly demanding that the neocolonialists back off? That's what Lula was saying. Chavez is always saying it. Zelaya just said it. Funes must have said something because the temp Ambassador publicly reassured him. The wagons are circling and I'm so happy to see them moving in tight formation.

Oh, and that bs story CIA fronted about Venezuelan elections was released on the same day that Leopoldo Lopez testified at the OAS. Of course they are still gunning for Chavez. I've already mentally prepared myself for something to happen to him, which may be a terrible thing to say but, there it is.

[Judi Lynn]

4. As soon as I read your 1st paragraph the image from EFerrari's link arose:

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com.nyud.net:8090/files/imagecache/medium/files/images/2009/03/pablo_perez_manuel_rosales_mar25_%2009.jpg

Zulia Governor Pablo Perez
(with microphone), former Zulia
Governor Manuel Rosales (right),
the Mayor of Greater Caracas
Antonio Ledezma, and other
opposition leaders. (YVKE)
The first time I saw it I wondered what the guy with the mike was trying to pull off. They all have the look of total sliminess, duplicity. The speaker looks as if he's attempting fiery rhetoric, but you can tell by looking at him he's not very bright, like Rosales, and they ALL look like second rate people.

They are, if they're working with the Defense Department to overthrow the elected leader of their country, too. All indications would point in that direction, since Rosales was involved in the coup, and was implicated in the assassination plot which had roots not only to the Venezuelan oligarchy but also to the head of Uribe's D.A.S. We know _Bush's State Department admits consulting with these guys during _Bush's stolen Presidency. They probably had the plan created for their continuing war against Chavez just as the Eisenhower administration arranged the Bay of Pigs invasion, trained all the idiots who would participate in Guatemala (which he had overthrown and taken for right-wing interests in 1954) and all the dots connected prior to the 1960 Presidential election, all set to go before Kennedy was inaugurated.

There IS total precedent.

Hugo Chavez's plan to take BACK control of the ports, airports for the country undoubtedly sent them all scurrying. I'll bet there were flights to Washington, D.C., or flights arriving there from the same people who are in the same place in the Defense, State Department they occupied under _Bush. Same guys they spoke with last year, no doubt, working on Plan B together.

I'm sure you are completely correct on this, Peace Patriot. I hope it jammed them up really well, and created an irreversible roadblock to their traitorous scheme to secede and steal the entire country's wealth in one fell swoop.

[Peace Patriot]

5. Perfect photo, Judi! Thanks! What smug, calculating, cynical looks they have--

much like our Buswhacks. We're talking major money---trillions!--from their Colombian cocaine connections, and the oil. That's serious motivation for these types--people who want yachts and mansions in Miami, while they countrymen and countrywomen starve, and their country falls to pieces from rightwing misrule, neglect, callousness, corruption and mismanagement. I was really amazed at what previous rightwing governments had done, or rather what they had not done with all that oil money. But now that we've seen what the Bushwhack fascists did--neglect of infrastructure, education, medical care, looting of government coffers, total malfeasance, loss of millions of jobs and insane deregulation to the point of total meltdown in every sector, it is less surprising what the Venezuelan fascists did, prior to Chavez--allowing Venezuela to entirely lose food security, never developing local manufacturing, even for the oil industry (machine parts for the oil industry imported--I was flabbergasted by that; ordinary Venezuelans didn't even have that side benefit of their oil); neglect of local and regional infrastructure, and of course savage, traitorous neglect of education, medical care and other vital services for the poor, and for a good society. They basically just pigged off the oil, the way Bushwhacks pigged off war. Totally disgusting people.

The kind who lust after easy billions--and don't mind at all if U.S. soldiers, or anyone else, dies to enrich them. But they would never risk their own hides. Chickenhawks, like Cheney and Rumsfeld. Rich bastards who steal food from the mouths of babies, and who think they are "born to rule" (so like Bush). And, like the Bushwhacks, they can't create anything--they merely plunder what others have created. Incompetent, corrupt, but dangerous.

As EFerrari says, they were no doubt lots of flights back and forth to Washington DC, to visit their Bush cronies in the State Dept., the DEA, the USAID, the CIA and the Pentagon. I remember someone saying that Rumsfeld still had an office in the Pentagon in 2007; don't know if he still does, but I'm sure he's got his private "Office of Special Plans" set up somewhere within "the Beltway." I suspect that's where the "miracle laptop" came from. It's a Rumsfeld/OSP specialty--forged evidence as justification for unjust war. Chavez seizing the ports must have really blown their evil little Bushwhacky minds.

I agree with her that Plan C might be assassinating Chavez. That is the only way that they could recover the ports, and have a hope of Plan B (civil war) working. But it would be a very, very, VERY big mistake. Even if the Colombian and U.S. militaries became involved, the Venezuelan military--a Chavez ally--and the Venezuelan people would be up in arms, and so would Venezuela's other allies--Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and several Central American countries including possibly Guatemala. There would be a continental war, because what every leader in Latin America now knows is that such an attack on Chavez would soon result in a similar attack on them. That's why Chile acted so swiftly on the Bolivian situation, to fend off that Bushwhack instigated coup attempt. That's why Lula da Silva said that the U.S. 4th Fleet poses a threat to Brazil's oil, as well as Venezuela's. That's why Rafael Correa is going to throw the U.S. military base out of Ecuador. And even the rightwing governments--few as they are--with the exception of Colombia, are very strong on the matter of the sovereignty of Latin American countries. Even someone like Calderon in Mexico would not be supportive of the U.S. in such a situation. If the U.S. were blamed--and it would be difficult for Obama to escape blame, even he opposed it--it could lead to permanent alienation of the northern and southern halves of the western hemisphere, and permanent pariah status for the fascists in Venezuela and in other countries. We shouldn't forget that Chavez has a 60% to 70% approval rating, as do most of the other leftist leaders. They and their policies are extremely popular, and there would be no way that the peoples and leaders of South America would permit the fascists in Venezuela to keep their ill-gotten gains or power.

This is not to say the Venezuelan fascists won't try it. Like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld & co., they are essentially stupid, cowardly people, who have no understanding of real power and true legitimacy as leaders, and they therefore rely on blunt force, which they pay or coerce others to inflict for them. They buy or bully their way into power, and thus, when they are denied power, they get petulant and aggrieved, and couldn't care less about the consequences of violence. So I wouldn't put it past them that they have a Plan C. But I think, if they kill Chavez, it will go the way of all Bushwhacky plans: blowback.

[Judi Lynn]

6. That plan C never seems far away, unfortunately, does it? Chavez is completely aware of this, too.

Just like people who believe the Venezuelan majority has the right to elect its own President.

As they've been videotaped saying in front of cameras, the NEED was there before Chavez, and will continue if he no longer is President. I've seen them saying it in documentaries. The Venezuelan people won't just dry up and blow away if one of these fascist a-holes decides to play God and kill Chavez. They will find another President they believe will work for the Venezuelan people. Period.