If the fascist theocrats and criminal war mongers in Washington are reelected, expect an ever-more intensified propaganda campaign aimed at oil-rich Venezuela. In anticipation, here's a useful reality check on that country:
"77% of Venezuela's farmland is owned by 3% of the population, the 'hacendados.'
"I met one of these farmlords in Caracas at an anti-Chavez protest march. Oddest demonstration I've ever seen: frosted blondes in high heels clutching designer bags, screeching, 'Chavez - dic-ta-dor!' The plantation owner griped about the 'socialismo' of Chavez, then jumped into his Jaguar convertible.
"That week, Chavez himself handed me a copy of the 'socialist' manifesto that so rattled the man in the Jag. It was a new law passed by Venezuela's Congress which gave land to the landless. The Chavez law transferred only fields from the giant haciendas which had been left unused and abandoned....
"For the first time in Venezuela's history, the 80% Black-Indian population elected a man with skin darker than the man in the Jaguar.
"So why, with a huge majority of the electorate behind him, twice in elections and today with a nearly two-to-one landslide victory in a recall referendum, is Hugo Chavez in hot water with our democracy-promoting White House?
"Maybe it's the oil. Lots of it. Chavez sits atop a reserve of crude that rivals Iraq's....
"Chavez had his Congress pass another oil law, the 'Law of Hydrocarbons,' which changes the split [on oil revenue]. Right now, the oil majors - like PhillipsConoco - keep 84% of the proceeds of the sale of Venezuela oil; the nation gets only 16%.
"Chavez wanted to double his Treasury's take to 30%. And for good reason. Landless, hungry peasants have, over decades, drifted into Caracas and other cities, building million-person ghettos of cardboard shacks and open sewers. Chavez promised to do something about that.
"And he did. 'Chavez gives them bread and bricks,' one Venezuelan TV reporter told me. The blonde TV newscaster, in the middle of a publicity shoot, said the words 'pan y ladrillos' with disdain, making it clear that she never touched bricks and certainly never waited in a bread line.
"But to feed and house the darker folk in those bread and brick lines, Chavez would need funds, and the 16% slice of the oil pie wouldn't do it. So the President of Venezuela demanded 30%, leaving Big Oil only 70%....
"So began the Bush-Cheney campaign to 'Floridate' the will of the Venezuela electorate. It didn't matter that Chavez had twice won election. Winning most of the votes, said a White House spokesman, did not make Chavez' government 'legitimate.' Hmmm. Secret contracts were awarded by our Homeland Security spooks to steal official Venezuela voter lists. Cash passed discreetly from the US taxpayer, via the so-called 'Endowment for Democracy,' to the Chavez-haters running today's 'recall' election.
"A brilliant campaign of placing stories about Chavez' supposed unpopularity and 'dictatorial' manner seized US news and op-ed pages, ranging from the San Francisco Chronicle to the New York Times...."
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By the way, the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Times are part of the "liberal" media, for those keeping track.
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