From Havana to New York to Beirut, the voices of resistance to U.S. imperialism and the Bush administration took center stage in mid-September. Venezuelan President Hugo Ch’aacute;vez was widely covered for calling George W. Bush “the devil.” In focusing solely on Chavez’s characterization of Bush as the devil, the mainstream media has succeeded in aiming attention away from the Venezuelan president’s most important point made during his UN speech; CIA control of terror cells around the world and their protection of plane bomber Luis Posada Carriles, referred to as Posada.
Posada was a CIA agent from the 1960s until mid-1976. Posada instigated a reign of terror in seven countries the spanned the mid-1970’s. He carried out more than 50 bombings and political assassinations, including the October 1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger plane as it took off from Barbados, killing 73 innocent people on board, all at the order of the current president’s father and then CIA Director George Bush Sr., according to Chavez.
Posada was finally arrested by federal agents in Miami in May 2005, but a recent ruling by U.S. magistrate Norbert Garney in El Paso, Texas will pave the way for the CIA asset and mass murderer to be released once again.
“And where is the biggest terrorist of this continent who took the responsibility for blowing up the plane? He spent a few years in jail in Venezuela. Thanks to CIA and government officials, he was allowed to escape, and he lives here in this country, protected by the government. And he was convicted. He has confessed to his crime. But the U.S. government has double standards. It protects terrorism when it wants to,” Chavez said. “I accuse the American government of protecting terrorists and of having a completely cynical discourse.”
Fox News seized the “devil” quote and used it to demonize President Chavez as having lost his mind, absent of any mention of the Posada topic. “Bush has called me worse things – tyrant, populist dictator, drug trafficker, to name a few,” Chavez said. “I’m not attacking Bush; I’m simply counterattacking.”
Bush administration officials dismissed the Chavez flare-up. “We’re not going to address that sort of comic-strip approach to international affairs,” said John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the UN. And while the Bush administration is busy labeling President Chavez as “comical,” they themselves are doing nothing but dirty underhanded tricks to cover up this rising against the US imperial rule. The next day, Chavez gave a speech at the Mount Olivet Church in Harlem, N.Y. in which he announced that he will discount oil for the poor because Bush has done nothing to help the poor.
How did the NYPD respond? They cut off his satellite feed, which was broadcasting his speech to Venezuela, as a way to retaliate. On top of that, the Venezuelan foreign minister, Nicolas Maduro was detained at JFK airport in New York for more than 90 minutes while his diplomatic identity was questioned, which caused him to miss his flight back home. He was verbally abused, strip-searched and accused of being a terrorist. His travel documents were taken away. The police frisked him, and threatened him with a beating. after he identified himself as the Venezuela’s foreign minister and presented his diplomatic passport.
Is it really such a wonder that the rest of the world hates us? Is it really such a wonder that people like Chavez, who actually dared to do something to help his fellow countryman, who dared to speak against the terrorist rule of the United States in Latin America including bombings of civilians, slap the President of the so-called “Great American Nation” in the face?
Remember, it is not the American people who are hated but rather the leaders and policymakers who represent us.
