Simon Cunich
The US is considering enforcing sanctions against Venezuela after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez suspended cooperation with the US "counter-narcotics" Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). According to the August 8 Washington Post, a decision to punish Venezuela with a range of sanctions will be made next month when the US State Department judges whether Venezuela has failed to adequately cooperate in the so-called war on drugs.
Chavez announced the suspension of relations with the DEA on August 7, accusing the agency of being involved in drug trafficking and espionage. He told reporters, "in the case of DEA we have detected intelligence infiltrations that threaten the security and defence of the country". In the same address, Chavez made it clear that Venezuela was capable of combatting drugs without the DEA and would continue doing so alongside other foreign drug enforcement agencies.
Accusations against the US agency initially came from Venezuela's justice minister, Jesse Chacon, who attacked the DEA for operating outside Venezuelan supervision. "If the DEA wants to work with the Venezuelan government, it should do so under defined parameters or at least on the basis of a bilateral agreement that respects the principle of reciprocity", said Chacon.
In an August 11 speech, Chacon confirmed his willingness to recommence cooperation with the DEA, if it "accepts Venezuelan parameters".
Placing responsibility on the US government for drug consumption that drives trafficking through Venezuela, Chacon made the point that the "big consumers of the world are in North America and in Europe, not in Venezuela. The day that they get rid of their social problems that bring about these high levels of drug consumption is when drug consumption will be eliminated."
According to attorney Eva Golinger, Venezuelan government reports provide evidence that DEA agents have been involved in acts of sabotage, drug trafficking and violations of law with the intention of undermining the credibility of the Chavez government. Golinger argued in an article published on <http://www.vheadline.com> on June 30 that "the reports evidence what has been proven in other parts of the world, that the Drug Enforcement Agency is used as yet another political tool of the United States government to promote its interests abroad".
The US State Department has repeatedly denied accusations of interfering with the internal politics of Venezuela. Yet such denials contradict evidence of US funding for opposition organisations through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). In July, four leaders of the Venezuelan "non-government organisation" Sumate were charged over their acceptance and use of US$31,000 granted to them by the NED to campaign against Chavez in the presidential recall referendum last August.
It is also now clear that NED funding was used by the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers, which has been exposed as a tool of the Venezuelan anti-worker opposition and a participant in the 2002 military coup against the democratically elected Chavez government.
In an August 7 address, US State Department spokesperson Tom Casey defended the US's position. "Our funding to groups in Venezuela, as well as to groups throughout the hemisphere, as well as our standing policy worldwide, is to help support the development of democracy, the development of civil society, to help citizens in their own countries understand what their rights are, to support the process of free and fair elections."
Casey went on to reiterate accusations made by State Department official Matthew Reynolds that Venezuela is funding "anti-democratic" groups in "Bolivia, Ecuador, and elsewhere". In response to the Venezuelan foreign ministry's demand that evidence be provided to support the allegations, Casey replied: "If you look at the public actions Venezuela has taken, some of its efforts to use revenues that it's gotten through its oil industry to exercise influence or gain influence over some of its neighbours, you have at least some idea of some of the issues that have concerned us."
The Bush administration has been particularly outspoken in its opposition to the revolutionary process developing in Venezuela since the launch in July of a continent-wide television channel, Telesur, by Venezuelan information minister Andres Izarra. Sponsors of the channel, which is meant to provide an alternative to CNN and Fox News, include the governments of Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba and Uruguay.
During his speech at the launch of the channel, Izzara said, "Telesur is an initiative against cultural imperialism and against imperialism in any of its expressions. But this should not be interpreted as an initiative against the people of the US."
The latest accusations against Venezuela of "undemocratic behaviour" were made in the same week that Chavez's party, the Fifth Republic Movement, along with other allied parties of the pro-Chavez coalition, won 80% of the city and district seats in council elections. The results are a reflection of the success of the "social missions" that Chavez has initiated since his election in 1998, including those to raise literacy levels and establish free health care in poor communities.
According to Venezuela Analysis commentator Gregory Wilpert, the election results show "a trend towards class polarization". In "middle to upper class Caracas neighbourhoods such as Chacao and Baruta ... Chavistas lost seats to the opposition and in poorer Caracas neighbourhoods, such as Sucre and Libertador, Chavistas gained seats".
From Green Left Weekly, August 17, 2005.
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