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10/08/2005:

"How United States Intervention Against Venezuela Works"

It is no secret that the government of the United States is carrying out a program of operations in favor of the Venezuelan political opposition to remove President Hugo Chávez Frías and the coalition of parties that supports him from power. The budget for this program, initiated by the administration of Bill Clinton and intensified under George W. Bush, has risen from some $2 million in 2001 to $9 million in 2005, and it disguises itself as activities to “promote democracy,” “resolve conflicts,” and “strengthen civic life.” It consists of providing money, training, counsel and direction to an extensive network of political parties, NGO’s, mass media, unions, and businessmen, all determined to end the bolivarian revolutionary process. The program has clear short, medium, and long-term goals, and adapts easily to changes in the fluid Venezuelan political process.

The program of political intervention in Venezuela is one more of various in the world principally directed by the Department of State (DS), the Agency for International Development (AID), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) along with its four associated foundations. These are the International Republican Institute (IRI) of the Republican Party; the National Democratic Institute (NDI) of the Democratic Party; the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) of the US Chamber of Commerce; and the American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS) of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the main US national union confederation. In addition, the program has the support of an international network of affiliated organizations.

The various organizations carry out their operations through AID officials at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas and through three “private” offices in Caracas under the Embassy’s control: the IRI (established in 2000), the NDI (2001), and a contractor of AID, a U.S. consulting firm called Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI) (2002). These three offices develop operations with dozens of Venezuelan beneficiaries to which they contribute money originating from the State Department, AID, NED, and, although no proof is yet available, most probably the CIA. The operations of the first three are detailed extensively in hundreds of official documents acquired by U.S. journalist Jeremy Bigwood through demands under the Freedom of Information Act, a law that requires the declassification and release of government documents, although many are censured when released.

Venezuelan associates of the U.S. intervention programs participated in the unsuccessful coup against President Chavez in April 2002, in the petroleum lockout/strike of December 2002 to February 2003, and in the recall referendum of August 2004. Having failed in their three first attempts, the U.S. agencies mentioned above are currently planning and organizing for the Venezuelan national elections of 2005 and 2006. This analysis seeks to show how this program functions and the danger it represents.
globalresearch.ca

Invasion allegation based on war game
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's claim that the United States plans to invade his country stems from a military exercise put together by Spain's armed forces. The U.S. government denied the charge.

...A document outlining the war game, obtained by The Herald from a leftist Internet website and confirmed by Spanish officials, says that the exercise is ``a product of imaginary events even though they may seem like they've been adapted from reality.''

Similarities with Venezuela clearly do exist. The exercise's map for three of the countries involved, named after colors, match exactly the maps of Venezuela, Colombia and Panama.

The country ''Brown'' is rich in natural resources but politically unstable -- just like oil-rich and unstable Venezuela -- and several of the selected targets in the war game correspond to real Venezuelan places.

The country ''Blue'' seems like the United States -- with a mighty military and a need for Brown's resources -- but the exercise map shows the outline of Austria and sets it as an island in the Atlantic.

Venezuelan Vice President José Vicente Rangel has insisted that the war game was designed ''with U.S. advice,'' but offered no evidence. Yet many Venezuelans remain convinced that there is a threat.

''You don't do a war game without any possibility of applying it,'' said Alberto Mueller, a retired army general who consults for the Venezuelan government on military matters.