Workers Daily Internet Edition Year 2008 No. 41

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Supporting Venezuela's Social Progress - Challenging Media Distortions & Misrepresentations

Media Lies Exposed

Venezuela Information Centre

In the aftermath of Colombia's violation of Ecuador's territorial sovereignty, much of the international media continued its disinformation campaign against Venezuela, and also attempted to discredit the Ecuadorian government, falsely accusing both of giving official support to the FARC. Two examples of this, in the Spanish daily El Pais and the Colombian El Tiempo, with regards to Ecuador have now been exposed as false.

The first is now being referred to as "Photogate". During the recent Organisation of American States (OAS) meeting, somebody distributed photographs among the foreign ministers alleging that Ecuador's Minister of Security appeared in a photo meeting Raul Reyes of the FARC. This was then published in the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo and elsewhere as news, in an attempt to discredit Ecuador's government. However, the truth was in fact that the person in the photograph is Patricio Etchegaray, a member of the Argentine Communist Party, who met Raul Reyes sometime ago. El Tiempo has now had to publicly apologise and admit they did not get the picture officially.

El Pais meanwhile published a piece by their Bogotá correspondent Maite Rico in which she asserted that the FARC operate freely in Ecuador and that not only was there evidence of FARC drug trafficking but of their enjoying official Ecuadorian support (similar charges have been made elsewhere in the international media about Venezuela) and that all of this was witnessed by one OAS functionary who, Rico affirmed, expressed dismay. This has now been rebutted in a letter by José Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the OAS. In this letter, Insulza says that such information – that a OAS functionary saw FARC guerrillas moving about freely and busily carrying out all sort of activities in the northern border of Ecuador with Colombia – was absolutely false, since the OAS does not have either special missions, nor functionaries of any kind, deployed in the north of Ecuador. Thus it is impossible that anybody in the OAS could have made such a statement. Insulza went on to say that they checked with OAS reps in Bogotá and Quito and nobody had spoken to Maite Rico.

OAS Countries Ratify Declaration Rejecting Colombia's Violation of Ecuadorian Sovereignty

Venezuela Information Centre

On March 18, the Foreign Affairs Ministers of the Organisation of American States (OAS) approved a resolution rejecting the recent violation of the Ecuadorian sovereignty by Colombia.

The document was approved despite the reservations of the United States, a key backer of Colombia in terms of military aid, and ratified the Declaration issued by the Rio Summit of Latin America presidents earlier this month. The British government has said it "welcome[s] the outcome of the meeting of the Rio Group summit" and "the initiation of a process through the Organisation of American States, including the commission which reported to OAS Foreign Ministers on 17 March".

The OAS statement reaffirmed "the full applicability of the principle of territorial sovereignty, enshrined unrestrictedly and without any exception in Article 21 of the OAS Charter, as a vital principle for harmonious relations among the nations of the Americas".

Likewise, they agreed "the full applicability of the principles enshrined in international law of respect for sovereignty, abstention from the threat or use of force, and non-interference in the internal affairs of other states, which are embodied in Article 19 of the Charter and are founding principles of the inter-American system – principles that are binding on all its member states in all circumstances".

They also rejected "the incursion by Colombian military forces and police personnel into the territory of Ecuador, in the province of Sucumbíos, on March 1, 2008, carried out without the knowledge or prior consent of the Government of Ecuador".

Ecuadorian Foreign Affairs Minister, María Isabel Salvador, celebrated the resolution as a "victory" for her country. The Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister, Nicolás Maduro, meanwhile argued that the resolution represents the victory of peace and justice against the aggressive attitudes of the US and its allies, adding that the Latin American countries were the winners in this "game of peace".

In March, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Chile and Brazil in an attempt to shore up support for Washington's pro-Colombian policies in the region. The Italian Ansa news agency reported that, in a meeting with President Lula, Rice proposed the "flexibilisation of borders" so as to allow the Colombian military to move across its borders to combat the FARC – a proposal rejected by Brazil.

Court Rules against ExxonMobil and Cancels Order to Freeze PDVSA's Assets

Venezuela Information Centre

In a ruling against ExxonMobil handed down in the High Court in London on March 18, a judge revoked an order to freeze US$12 billion of assets belonging to PDVSA, the Venezuelan state oil company. ExxonMobil was also ordered to pay PDVSA US$766,000 within 21 days to cover their legal costs.

"I have decided that the legal order of freezing assets," issued on January 24 against PDVSA, "must be revoked," said Judge Paul Walker to the court.

Responding to the news, the Venezuelan Ambassador, Samuel Moncada, said, "This is the beginning of the end of the pestering campaign of ExxonMobil against PDVSA and Venezuela," adding, "we are pleased that the English court rejected being used as an instrument of ExxonMobil."

Gordon Pollock, one of PDVSA’s lawyers, said that "ExxonMobil should see this decision as a sign that its illegal and arrogant tactics are not appropriate to solve legal fights because they just make it more difficult to reach agreements. All the oil companies operating in Venezuela have reached satisfactory agreements in accordance with Venezuela’s laws, with the exception of ExxonMobil. The decision made by this London’s court represents an unforgettable lesson to ExxonMobil."

Colin Burgon MP, Chair of Labour Friends of Venezuela said: "I thoroughly welcome this ruling. Under neo-liberalism, multi-national companies act like they have greater rights than those of elected governments. We must defend government’s abilities to use their countries wealth for the good of the people. In Venezuela, under Hugo Chávez, greater state control of the oil wealth has seen millions get access to healthcare and education for the first time in their lives"

Gordon Hutchison, Secretary of the Venezuela information Centre, said: "This ruling represents a victory not just for Venezuela and its people but also for the countries and peoples of the south who are struggling to assert their sovereignty in the face of hostile actions by trans-national corporations such as ExxonMobil who seek to exploit natural resources for profit rather than allowing countries to use their resources to benefit their own people".

ExxonMobil’s attempt to freeze PDVSA’s assets was also unanimously rejected at the March 5 meeting of OPEC, which issued a statement saying: "The Conference expresses its support to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Petroleos de Venezuela SA, in the exercise of its sovereign rights over its natural resources, in accordance with international law, a right reiterated by the Algiers, Caracas and Riyadh Summit Declarations of OPEC Heads of State and Government." The Conference called for the resolution of any such disputes through good faith and amicable negotiations, and excluding pre-judgment measures which would make finding fair solutions more difficult.

Exxon Mobil and PDVSA will now return to the process of international arbitration through the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), as the Venezuelan government had requested throughout.

Campaigners in Britain and internationally had rejected ExxonMobil's action, showing the broad support for Venezuelan self-determination that exists across society. A statement published in the Guardian was signed by over 50 prominent figures in British society, a motion was put down in the Scottish Parliament and a demonstration, organised by the Venezuela Information Centre and attended by 100 people, was held outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

British Minister Loses Union's Support over Aid to Colombia

The trade union Unite has been urging members not to campaign for Labour MP Kim Howells due to his ongoing support for Colombian military units that have murdered trade unionists. Howells is the Minister responsible for British relations with Colombia and was recently photographed posing with soldiers involved in killings of civilians and with an Army General with alleged links to paramilitary death squads and drugs traffickers.

Here is the Guardian article reporting the issue:

Minister loses union's support over aid to Colombia

March 12th 2008, by Owen Bowcott, The Guardian

Foreign Office minister Kim Howells has lost the backing of a major union over his involvement in sending British military aid to Colombia.

Unite in Wales has urged members not to campaign for the south Wales ex-miner, after Andy Richards, regional secretary of the union travelled to Latin America last summer to investigate the killing of trade union activists.

The row over the Pontypridd MP's stance has escalated since he appeared in a photograph posted on the Foreign Office website last month with troops of the High Mountain Battalion of the Colombian army. The unit has been accused of killing trade unionists, peasants and anti-narcotics police.

Richards told the Guardian: "Kim has had support from our union at election times. We won't be supporting him in future.

"We can't support politicians who take this type of stance on the provision of military aid to Colombia where there have been numerous murders of trade unionists with impunity.

"Kim Howells is a member of our union. The Wales TUC wrote to him inviting him to the next meeting of the general committee. To date, we haven't heard from him.

"We are calling on all our members not to campaign for him at the next election. Kim Howells said in the House of Commons that FARC [the rebel movement] are responsible for most murders of trade unionists. Even the Colombian government doesn't accept that."

In a statement to parliament to clarify the issue last month, Howells told the Labour MP Katy Clark: "It is illegal armed groups including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that are committing the majority of human rights abuses in Colombia, including intimidation and murder of trade unionists.

However, the Colombian armed forces are also guilty of committing abuses, which is why we are helping the Colombian government develop the processes to root out these abuses."

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "Aid to [Colombia] is principally in the area of counter-narcotics, land mine disposal and … encouraging them to protect human rights all over Colombia.

"We and the TUC invited Colombian trade union members over here last week to hear from them. There were discussions about how we could further help. This is an area that is constantly being discussed with the Colombian government.

"The foreign secretary was recently talking to their vice-president.

"We try and make sure that those officers we have dealings with are not those who may have perpetrated human rights abuses."

The government has not revealed the cost of British military aid to Colombia but it is thought to be around £1m a year.

The campaigning organisation Justice For Colombia has called for Britain to end its military support to the country.

Its director, Liam Craig-Best, said: "Nobody in the world has claimed that the FARC are responsible for the majority of killings of trade unionists. We've no idea where Howells could have got it from."

Howells's office in Pontypridd said that although the MP was a member of Unite, he had not received financial support from the union.

Colombia: One Million March against Paramilitary Violence and War

by Anthony Boynton (Justice for Colombia) Wednesday, 12 March 2008

March 6, 2008, was a historic day for Colombia. It was the day the "other" Colombia took to the streets and put the whole country, and the world, on notice that state terrorism and paramilitary violence have failed. The marches were far more important than anyone could have imagined because the Colombian government had brought the country to the brink of war with Ecuador and Venezuela just the weekend before the marches were scheduled to happen.

On Saturday, March 1, the Colombian military invaded Ecuador in order to assassinate Raul Reyes, a key leader of the FARC, one of the guerrilla organisations which have been fighting the Colombian government for decades.

As a result, the marches became a major, and totally unexpected, anti-war protest.

That protest was almost certainly one of the key factors which led to the retreat of the Colombian government from its war-like rhetoric the very next day, at the meeting of the Rio Group of countries in the Dominican Republic.

According to Semana magazine, no friend of the protest, 1,000,000 people marched. In addition to the main demonstrations in Colombia, solidarity marches were held in cities around the world. Some, like the one in Buenos Aires, Argentina, drew thousands of marchers. Others, like the ones in Washington D.C. and New York drew hundreds of marchers.

The marches had been planned months before by MOVICE (MOVIMIENTO DE VICTIMAS DE CRIMENES DE ESTADO – Movement of the Victims of State Crimes) and were backed by the major Colombian trade union organisations and the two opposition political parties: the Polo Democratico Alternativo (Democratic Alternative Pole) and the Partido Liberal (Liberal Party.)

Surprisingly, even some figures from the government backed the marches. Most important were the Procurador General (something like an Attorney General) Edgardo Maya Villazón, and the Fiscal General de la Nación, Mario Iguarán Aranand. (Both of these officials are involved in, and responsible for, the prosecution of the paramilitary organisations in Colombia, and for the prosecution of politicians connected to the paramilitary organisations.)

The official slogans for the march were, "POR LOS DESAPARECIDOS" (For the disappeared), "POR LOS DESPLAZADOS" (For the displaced), "POR LOS MASACRADOS" (For the massacred), and "POR LOS EJECUTADOS" (For the executed.)

The flavour of the demonstrations was sombre, resilient, determined, and also humorous. Marchers carried tens of thousands of placards bearing the photos of people murdered, kidnapped and disappeared by the paramilitaries and the government – some pictures showing the most gruesomely tortured bodies of children and old people - others showing mass graves - but most just the faces of the dead and missing.

Alongside of the placards were banners, street theatre, and lots of chanting. Besides the official slogans there were many banners calling for a humanitarian exchange of prisoners between the government and the FARC, and opposing any effort by the government to rescue FARC hostages through military action. Sprinkled throughout the crowd were banners supporting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa.

What I heard the most were three chants, "Uribe paraca, la gente barraca." (The translation is more or less - Uribe paramilitary, the people are tough, resilient and mad!), "Uribe, Gonorea - La Gente esta con Correa (Uribe Gonorea, the people are with Correa!), and "Uribe fascista, Usted es terrorista!"

This march was smaller than the anti-FARC demonstrations a month earlier, but the conditions under which the marches took place were radically different.

The anti-FARC march had the blanket and total support of all mass media in Colombia, and of all major businesses and schools. It was a show of what the ruling class can mobilise when it pulls out all the stops, shuts the doors of businesses, closes schools, and advertises on page one for two weeks in advance.

The March 6th demonstrations were opposed by the government, threatened by the government and paramilitaries, and barely mentioned before hand in the press. The fact that 1,000,000 were brave enough to march despite this must have given pause to the Uribe government as it headed toward war with Venezuela and Ecuador.

In February, the men who marched wore suits and ties, and a lot of the ladies wore heels. A lot of those protestors were busy getting their visas in order in case of a war with Venezuela and Ecuador on March 6th. This no doubt explains why they did not have time to demonstrate against paramilitary violence.

Instead of the ladies in heels and the men in ties, the March 6th protests were led by women in blue jeans, carrying pictures of their children, brothers, sisters, and husbands who had been killed by the army and the paramilitaries. They were followed by high school and university students, by women and men from the factories, and by tens of thousands of displaced people. Very few people marched in high heels or suits and ties.

Despite the differences, one fact united most of the people who marched in the two opposed demonstrations. The people of Colombia are tired of war, and desperately want peace.

This truth extends to the soldiers in the Colombian army who are drawn from amongst the poor - the people who demonstrated on March 6, and who by and large stayed home for the February anti-FARC demo.

Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe Velez backed down at the Rio Group meeting, partly because he is deathly afraid of what will happen in Colombia if there really is a war with the country’s neighbours. But his retreat may only be temporary.

The offensive against the FARC has escalated, with the assassination of a second member of the FARC secretariat, Ivan Rios, and newspaper headlines calling for the assassination of Mono Jojoy (Jorge Briceño) the FARC’s military commander. The government of Colombia is offering "Dead or Alive" rewards from between $2,500,000 and $5,000,000 (US dollars) for FARC leaders. It monitors all FARC internet and electronic communications.

The Bush government is clearly unhappy about Uribe’s retreat from war. According to the Miami Herald and Nuevo Heraldo, they are now working on putting Venezuela on their list of "terrorist" governments along with Iran and North Korea. If this happens, it will almost certainly set the stage for a new round of conflicts here in the northwestern corner of South America.

Whatever happens next, the "other" Colombia has decided to step onto the stage as an actor against war, and against paramilitarism.

Is The Hillary Clinton Campaign Being Deliberately Sunk?

by F. William Engdahl, April 9, 2008, (Global Research)

American Presidential politics are at best a cynical business. The outcome is typically determined, at least since the ill-fated campaign of George McGovern in 1972, by major corporate lobbyists and behind-the-scenes money interests who have little interest in national issues other than their own. Now, with the sudden departure of Hillary Clinton’s main campaign strategist, Mark Penn, it is clear that the powerful interests originally backing Clinton have decided to end the game with her.

On the surface the issue was a discovered conflict of interest between Penn and Hillary over Penn’s outside consulting for the government of Colombia on a policy which Hillary stated she opposed. Penn had agreed to be hired as a high-price lobbyist by Colombia to help secure Congressional passage of a bilateral US-Colombia free trade bill that US unions claim would cost American workers hundreds of thousands of jobs. Hillary desperately needed trade union support to win the primary in Pennsylvania, and unions are strongly opposed to the US-Colombia trade deal.

The curious career of Mark Penn

The figure of Mark Penn is revealing as to what the machine of Hillary Clinton represents in terms of power politics. Penn had been a political adviser of the Clintons since managing Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election fight. His firm ran the election polls that helped define Clinton’s campaign strategy, itself a cynical modern US electoral innovation, updating with high tech means the motto, "tell the people what they want to hear." Penn’s polling firm, Penn, Schoen and Berland (PSB) has been used by Britain’s Tony Blair, Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi, by Menachim Begin in Israel and Senator Joe Lieberman to shape election strategy.

PSB has played a pioneering role in the use of polling operations, especially "exit polls," in facilitating various US-backed "Colour Revolutions" in Serbia and elsewhere. Its primary mission is to shape the perception that the group installed into power in a targeted country has broad popular support. The PSB group began work in Serbia during the period when Mark Penn, was President Clinton's top political advisor.

Manipulating exit polls

The PSB website boasts that they, "have played critical roles behind the scenes of the elections in Serbia and Zimbabwe, helping the opposition parties craft strategies, messages and organise a credible and effective campaign that has enabled them to weaken the dictator, his political party, and eventually throw him out of power. The introduction of cutting edge political and communications techniques is as well as the advice of the best Western political consultants and image makers, is as potent a weapon as the planes, bombs, and intelligence technology used in such conflicts as the Persian Gulf War, Bosnia, Kosovo, and, most recently Afghanistan." In short, PSB is at the cutting edge of the modern politics of images.

In 2004 it was PSB which ran the "exit polls" in Venezuela asserting even as voting was still open, that their polls showed "major defeat for Chavez." The opposite was the case with Chavez winning an overwhelming 59%. Investigation revealed that Penn’s PSB had emailed and faxed their poll results to international media four hours before polls were to close proclaiming, on the basis of the fraudulent polls that Chavez had lost. That was in violation of Venezuelan election law and was intended to rally international support behind a campaign to declare Chavez guilty of vote fraud and organise a recall. It backfired and PSB came under public fire as a result.

Referring to Mark Penn, the influential Washington Post once referred to him as "the most powerful man in Washington you've never heard of." According to PSB’s website, Penn helped elect 15 overseas Presidents in the Far East, Latin America, and Europe. Clients include heads of state or opposition politicians in Greece, Turkey, Israel, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic, Bermuda and Yugoslavia.

About the "permanent establishment"

Mark Penn is exemplary of what US political insiders refer to as a person of the "permanent establishment," the shadowy institutions and insiders behind the curtains who really determine critical policy issues and shape the choices gullible voters then are given to "democratically choose among."

It has been referred to by strategists since the time of Edward Bernays as the "illusion of choice." Penn is above political party, serving the interests of what some call the permanent establishment. As a case in point, he also is CEO of the influential global public relations firm, Burson-Marsteller, which includes among clients the largest US mortgage lender, Countrywide Financial and Blackwater Inc. the Republican led mercenary security firm that has been accused of repeated killings of innocent Iraqi civilians. Penn’s firm was to make sure the "image" of such clients remained positive to the US public.

…political incest?

More interesting is that "Democrat" Penn’s Burson-Marsteller Worldwide owns BKSH & Associates, a major political lobbying firm run by Charles R. Black, Jr. counsellor to Republican Presidents. Black now works full time for the campaign of Republican John McCain. In other words, Black heads a firm whose boss is "Democrat" Clinton top strategist, at the same time Black is Republican opponent John McCain’s top strategist.

In turn, Penn’s firm, Burson-Marsteller is owned by British advertising and Public Relations giant, WPP Group which employs as lobbyists a former Republican National Committee chairman, Ed Gillespie; a former House of Representatives Republican leader, Robert S. Walker, top Republican fundraiser, Wayne L. Berman and the former media adviser to George W. Bush, Mark McKinnon.

In the wake of the resignation of Mark Penn, reports in Washington are that James Carville, former 1992 campaign adviser to Bill Clinton, to Tony Blair and Israel’s Ehud Barak, will assume the role of campaign strategist. It is worth noting that Carville is also deep in Washington political incest. While Carville was running the 1992 Clinton strategy, Carville’s fiancée, Mary Matalin was running the campaign strategy of President George Herbert Walker Bush. As the old expression goes, US politics at least, has indeed strange bedfellows.

F. William Engdahl is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalisation and author of the recently-released book, Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation (http://www.globalresearch.ca. He also author of ‘A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics,’ Pluto Press Ltd. He may be contacted at his website, http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net