Jim McIlroy & Coral Wynter, Caracas
"By sending gas for heating to poor, homeless people for free and at very low prices for those who can pay, Venezuela is giving a great example of cooperation and solidarity with the people of the United States. And this is being seen by the entire world", Noam Chomsky, well-known US intellectual, told a public meeting of teachers, students, researchers and journalists on February 13 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, according to a special report in the February 15 Caracas newspaper Diario Vea.
Chomsky also said that the majority of North Americans "receive little or no information of the great achievements of the Bolivarian revolution, that is headed by President Hugo Chavez, because the mass media only emphasise the bad, and are silent about the positive.
"The United States, according to the foreign policy of George Bush, thinks it has the right of declaring 'terrorist' whatever person or country it likes. According to this concept, we must accept that our own air force in Washington, under the authority of the US government, protects Luis Posada Carriles and has done so despite the application for extradition made by Venezuela against one of the most infamous terrorists of the continent, who is at the point of being released.
"Posada Carriles, ex-CIA agent, fled from a Venezuelan jail, where he was facing trial for the crime of bombing a Cuban airliner and other actions. He was welcomed in North America and then sent to El Salvador, where together with Captain Oliver North, he organised the Nicaraguan contras among other activities.
"Now, the Cuban-born terrorist is in a jail in El Paso and the Venezuelan request for extradition has not had a reply. It all appears to be in limbo and, for sure, tomorrow, Posada will appear in Miami, walking free. With this example, there is a deep contradiction between what the US government says and does in this country regarding terrorism.
"Venezuela is fighting the US with some success, and [the US] cannot accept any challenges — much less successful ones. And that is the core of the matter."
Chomsky announced that he will visit Caracas at the end of October to participate in conferences and forums commenting on the Latin American situation from the viewpoint of a US observer.
From Green Left Weekly, February 22, 2006.
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