Irked by US-Colombia deal, Chavez warns of war

PressTV
Sun, 16 Aug 2009

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez has again slammed US plans to increase its military presence in Colombia, echoing his earlier remarks in which he warned of an imminent war in the region.

The US President Barack Obama is ‘lost in the Andromeda’ galaxy on Latin American policy, Chavez said on Sunday in his weekly address.

He made the comments after Bogota announced a deal that will allow US troops to use seven military bases on Colombian soil. The leftist president believes that a larger US troop presence ups the prospect of a war in the region.

[…]

via Irked by US-Colombia deal, Chavez warns of war

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Eva Golinger: America wants to attack Venezuela

Why the U.S. Government Hates Venezuela By Shamus Cooke

Eva Golinger: America wants to attack Venezuela

Updated: August 19, 2009

Eva Golinger stated, “And for the record, I never said the US was going to “attack” Venezuela, but anyway, the media…”

RussiaToday
August 12, 2009

A military agreement between the United States and Columbia has led to widespread concern in South America. Leaders want to know why the United States is trying to increase its military presence in the region. The Colombian government says that having more US troops in the country will help fight drug trafficking and combat terrorism. Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, however, ardently opposes these plans. He says that the military bases in Columbia will provoke conflict in Latin America. Venezuelan-American Attorney and Author Eva Golinger joins RT’s Dina Gusovsky from Caracas via skype to discuss this matter.

Why the U.S. Government Hates Venezuela By Shamus Cooke

By Shamus Cooke
August 04, 2009 “Information Clearing House”

The propaganda wheels are turning fast.  The barrage of anti-Venezuela misinformation that began while Bush was in office has intensified in recent months.  Not a week goes by without the U.S. mainstream media running at least one story about the “dictatorial” Venezuelan government.  Historically, the U.S. government’s foreign policy “coincidentally” matches the opinion of the media and vice versa.

A front page New York Times article on August 2, 2009 cited  “new evidence” that the Venezuelan government “still” supports the FARC — a peasant-based guerrilla group that has fought the Colombian government for decades.

This “new evidence” is a mere recycling of the last tactical attempt to link the Venezuelan government with the FARC:  computers were supposedly confiscated from FARC leaders that showed innumerable ties to Venezuelan government officials.  Of course anybody can write anything on a computer and say it came from somewhere else.  Evidence like this needs only a willing accomplice — the media — to legitimize it.

South Asia, Latin America: Pentagon’s 21st Century Counterinsurgency Wars by Rick Rozoff

by Rick Rozoff
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Stop NATO
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/message/40948
July 29, 2009

More than half a year after the departure of the George W. Bush administration the United States is embroiled in its largest combat operation since the second attack on Fallujah in November of 2004 and the most extensive and lengthy offensive in its nearly eight-year-old war in Afghanistan.

It has also announced plans to intensify its involvement in the 45-year counterinsurgency war in Colombia with deployments of 1,400 additional soldiers and contractors to five more military bases there.

The qualitative escalations of counterinsurgency wars in Afghanistan and Colombia are, first of all, integrally related and, second, both part of far broader regional strategies. The current Obama administration has continued and accelerated the expansion of the Afghan war into neighboring Pakistan, with almost six times the population of its neighbor and nuclear weapons; and its enhanced role in Colombia, a nation that launched a military assault into Ecuador in March of last year and has been installing bases and deploying troops on its border with Venezuela, can also drag the entire Andean region into the vortex of armed confrontation and eventual war.

Forrest Hylton: US military to set up in Colombia

Dandelion Salad

TheRealNews
July 28, 2009

Forrest Hylton: Rest of South America has reason to be alarmed by future US military presence on Colombian bases

Tensions Rise in Latin America over US Military Plan to Use Three Bases in Colombia

Dandelion Salad

Democracy Now!
July 27, 2009

Tensions Rise in Latin America over US Military Plan to Use Three Bases in Colombia

The Colombian government has agreed to grant US forces the use of three Colombian military bases for South American anti-drug operations. The move has heightened tensions between Colombia, the largest recipient of US military aid in the Americas, and its neighbors, particularly Venezuela and Ecuador. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned that the US Army could “invade” his country from Colombia. [includes rush transcript]

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John Lindsay-Poland, co-director of Fellowship of Reconciliation Latin America Program, and author of a history of US military bases in Panama called Emperors in the Jungle: The Hidden History of the US in Panama.

via Tensions Rise in Latin America over US Military Plan to Use Three Bases in Colombia

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StartLoving1
July 27, 2009

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more about “DN! Tensions Rise in Latin America ov…“, posted with vodpod

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US-Colombia military ties face resistance

Chavez: US plans to invade Venezuela through Colombia

US escalates war build-up against Latin American revolution by Federico Fuentes

Chavez: US plans to invade Venezuela through Colombia

Exclusive: Venezuela – In Great Danger from US Imperialism by Gary Sudborough

Colombia: US Escalates War Plans In Latin America by Rick Rozoff

US-Colombia military ties face resistance

Dandelion Salad

AlJazeeraEnglish
July 27, 2009

The United States is in the final stages of negotiations with Colombia to shift its anti-drug operations from Ecuador to Colombian airbases.

The plan has faced resistance in Colombia, where a senator says the US uses its fight against drugs as an excuse to increase its influence in Colombia’s internal affairs.

Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo reports from the capital, Bogota.

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more about “US-Colombia military ties face resist…“, posted with vodpod

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US escalates war build-up against Latin American revolution by Federico Fuentes

Chavez: US plans to invade Venezuela through Colombia

Exclusive: Venezuela – In Great Danger from US Imperialism by Gary Sudborough

Colombia: US Escalates War Plans In Latin America by Rick Rozoff

Chavez: US plans to invade Venezuela through Colombia

compiled by Cem Ertür
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
30 June 2009

US military presence in the Americas (2009) by David Vine

1) Venezuela Prepares Defense Against Potential U.S. Aggression from Colombia (24 July 2009)

Colombia: US Escalates War Plans In Latin America by Rick Rozoff

by Rick Rozoff
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Stop NATO
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/message/40838
July 23, 2009

On June 29 US President Barack Obama hosted his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe at the White House and weeks later it was announced that the Pentagon plans to deploy troops to five air and naval bases in Colombia, the largest recipient of American military assistance in Latin America and the third largest in the world, having received over $5 billion from the Pentagon since the launching of Plan Colombia nine years ago.

Six months before the Obama-Uribe meeting outgoing US President George W. Bush bestowed the US’s highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom, on Uribe as well as on former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

A press account of the time expressed both shock and indignation at the White House’s honoring of Uribe in writing that “Despite extra-judicial killings, paramilitaries and murdered unionists, Colombia’s President Uribe has won the US’s highest honor for human rights.” [1]

Colombia: Stories That Kill

Dandelion Salad

Warning

These videos may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

linktv
July 06, 2009

More at http://www.linktv.org/latinpulse
(Latin Pulse: July 2, 2009) Plagued by violence, drug trafficking, and corruption, Colombia is one of the world’s most dangerous places to be a journalist. We look at what kind of speech is being silenced, by whom, and how. Today, independent journalists working up against the boundaries of free speech share with us their struggle to tell the stories of the country’s bloody reality, a task they feel is key to creating more peaceful Colombia. Join us as our team, supported by Mark Shapiro of the Center for Investigative Reporting, speaks with award-winning journalist Hollman Morris, who explains why the secret police monitor his activities and the president calls him a terrorist. He and others like him work to expose the reasons and effects of Colombias conflicts. They speak out despite the risk to their lives to give voice to the victims of war, the indigenous, and the opposition, working to achieve peace.

Chiquita in Latin America: From Arbenz to Zelaya by Nikolas Kozloff

Dandelion Salad

by Nikolas Kozloff
ICH
July 17, 2009 “Counterpunch”

When the Honduran military overthrew the democratically elected government of Manuel Zelaya two weeks ago there might have been a sigh of relief in the corporate board rooms of Chiquita banana.  Earlier this year the Cincinnati-based fruit company joined Dole in criticizing the government in Tegucigalpa which had raised the minimum wage by 60%.  Chiquita complained that the new regulations would cut into company profits, requiring the firm to spend more on costs than in Costa Rica: 20 cents more to produce a crate of pineapple and ten cents more to produce a crate of bananas to be exact.  In all, Chiquita fretted that it would lose millions under Zelaya’s labor reforms since the company produced around 8 million crates of pineapple and 22 million crates of bananas per year.

When the minimum wage decree came down Chiquita sought help and appealed to the Honduran National Business Council, known by its Spanish acronym COHEP.  Like Chiquita, COHEP was unhappy about Zelaya’s minimum wage measure.  Amílcar Bulnes, the group’s president, argued that if the government went forward with the minimum wage increase employers would be forced to let workers go, thus increasing unemployment in the country.  The most important business organization in Honduras, COHEP groups 60 trade associations and chambers of commerce representing every sector of the Honduran economy.  According to its own Web site, COHEP is the political and technical arm of the Honduran private sector, supports trade agreements and provides “critical support for the democratic system.”

[…]

via Chiquita in Latin America  : Information Clearing House – ICH

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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Honduras coup leader ready to quit

Washington & the Coup in Honduras + U.S. continues to train Honduran soldiers

Colombia: Stories That Kill

Chiquita: Between life and law

Military Coup Honduras Zelaya

from the archives:

Chiquita pays for paramilitary ties + Colombia Outraged Over Chiquita Fine By Joshua Goodman

Chiquita: Between life and law

Dandelion Salad

Warning

This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

AlJazeeraEnglish

Fined $25m by the US federal court for funding a terrorist organisation, Chiquita, the US-based banana distribution company, is now facing a number of new lawsuits.

Motherboard – Colombian Narcosubs + Dole sued over links to Colombian death squads

Dandelion Salad

http://www.vbs.tv

Like a Latin American Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, except with millions of dollars and people’s lives hanging in the balance, narco-traffickers and the DEA have been locked in an ongoing chase scene carried out in a parade of increasingly ludicrous homemade drug-smuggling vehicles.

In the 80s it was small low-flying planes and secret landing strips. As radar technology improved the cartels switched to superpowered ships that somebody let a kindergarten class name “go-fast boats.” Every time the Feds get hep to the latest conveyance the smugglers head back to the drawing board, making the boats smaller and less detectable, then semi-submersible, and finally developing full-on submarines from old torpedo shells in the middle of the South American jungle. In this edition of Motherboard, we travel to Colombia to chat with the navy’s drug squad and a former trafficker about what kwazy konveyances are bringing us our drugs these days. Of course, given that this is what the authorities have already discovered, God only knows what those scamps have gotten up to in the interim.

For more on Colombia’s homemade narcosubs go to delllounge.com

Pts 2-5 at http://www.vbs.tv/ (not available)

Who is AIG? Part 2 of Investigative Series By Mike Ruppert (2001)

Dandelion Salad

By Mike Ruppert
Speaking Truth to Power
Wednesday, 18 March 2009

Reprinted from FROM THE WILDERNESS
RELINKED BY REQUEST
August 14, 2001

Campaign to close down School of The Americas

Dandelion Salad

Updated: 3.02.09  added Pt 2

TheRealNews

Pablo Ruiz: US tax dollars are used to train Latin American soldiers how to oppress their own people