Comments on: Obama outflanks Chevez to set up Colombia base camp

By: Nicholas Houston

Nicholas Houston — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:19:23 +0000

There are some nice comments posted! I would still like to know who Terry Maher is professionally and who pays him for writing. Is he a professional journalist, does he work for an “independent” think tank, does he have special knowledged of latin american / US relations, is he a media adviser to a security agency or a centre for security studes or some such thing or is he just a guy in the street with a view? Crikey, could you please reveal this information and why you thought the article worth publishing? Thank you.

By: Liz45

Liz45 — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 07:34:35 +0000

Put CIA + Drugs into your search engine, and then spend a few hours doing some interesting reading. The US presence in Latin America over the last 40? years has never done anything for the people in the region. History has told us this to be the case. I don’t blame Hugo Chavez for his dislike/ hatred of the US. They’ve either invaded or interfered with almost 50 countries since the end of WW2. IF Hugo Chavez did what the US wanted, what his predecessors did, he’d be a mate! His people prefer his brand of politics to the US - they’ve only voted that way at least 10 times! His mates in neighbouring countries are sick of US interference too! I agree with them!

By: warwick fry

warwick fry — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 07:20:11 +0000

oops - typo

Should we be forgetting the OllieGate, illegal contra funded war with cocaine money of the late 90s?

that should be ‘late 80s’

and get a geezer at Eva Golinger’s latest post !

http://links.org.au/node/1147

End note: …

The headline is not going to help Obama ‘outflank’ anyone. He’s in there - he doesn’t need a cheersquad anymore. He needs intelligent critics.

Saludos
Wf

By: warwick fry

warwick fry — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 07:04:16 +0000

I didn’t mind Terry’s article for what it said, but there was a lot that he didn’t say (but that’s what spin doctors do - wish they would pay me to do that … )

- and he does seem to have a problem with bearded men …

Leaving that aside … Uribe was (once upon a time) on the top thirty of the DEA list of drug dealers, along with a few dozen other, current, Colombian politicians.

Venezuela has halved the source of drug trafficking from that country, since the Chavez government pissed off the DEA agents within Venezuela.

Colombian paramilitary forces have gone into Venezuela, over the border with Columbia to support regional landowners in their attempts to backtrack, or over rule the Venezuelan goverment’s attempts to introduce basic reforms for humane conditions for peasant workers, and some efforts at land reform. This has been in conjunction with attempts by governors of regional states to seek ‘autonomy’ from the central government of Venezuela - similar to similar attempts and actions in Bolivia last year.

The so called ‘war on terror’ and ‘war on drugs’ is just another substitution (in discourse analysis) for ‘reds under the beds’. Clinton ( I think ) was forced to shut down the “School of Americas” training school for its’ success in churning out an assembly line of dictators, death squads, and torturers over thirty or fourty years. I am not exaggerating here.

It has been ‘replaced’ by a string of police and military training colleges all through the isthmus and beyond. There have been efforts to let observers see the curriculum of the ‘Police training college’ in El Salvador, and they have been refused. As Humpty Dumpty said … “as a master, words mean what I want them to mean”. SOA (School of Americas) has been shut down, but long live the network of Anti-terrorist, anti-drug training stations that the US has set up as a similar training network. Wouldn’t mind, if they let outside observers get a geezer at the curriculum and what they are teaching, but they wouldn’t let me, or anyone else do that. Could be excused for wondering why.

So let’s take a second look at the DEA’s presence in Colombia. Is it ‘all good’? Should the FARC be loaded with all the blame for the cocaine traffic in the US? Should we be forgetting the OllieGate, illegal contra funded war with cocaine money of the late 90s?

Should, or should we not, accommodate an historical perspective without being labelled (and possibly decomissioned) as ‘weird left’ for asking these questions. I wouldn’t mind being paid for the work I do, but obviously I don’t have the talents of Terry.

By: Nicholas Houston

Nicholas Houston — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:28:11 +0000

Who is Mr Chevez, and who is Terry Maher (or is it Meher?) that he cannot get this basic fact right? And what about the fact that Colombia is the world’s most dangerous place to be a trade unionist? Does Terry Meher not give a fat rat’s about this either? Following the recent meeting between President Obama and Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe to discuss security, development and trade Obama stated that Colombia must cooperate with the U.S. in “improving the rights of the trade unions and the efforts to protect union leaders.” Obviously Terry Meher is more concerned to agitate against “bourgeoisie Bolsheviks” than report on the facts. Who pays Terry Meher and why does Crikey print this rubbish?

By: jungarrayi

jungarrayi — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:07:41 +0000

The guy’s surname is Chavez (strictly speaking Chávez with an accent).
When he publicly denounced president Bush as a war criminal he became one of my anti-gringo anti-imperialist heroes. Subsequently I was dissilusioned when I saw bits of a Venezuelan television programme (which apparently is run regularly) in which Hugo Chavez bignoted himself by berating his ministers. The style of criticism was reminiscent of Mao’s cultural revolution.
Sadly Hugo Chavez is nothing but a bully. A pity, because intelligent dignified criticism of U.S. policies in relation to Latin America wouldn’t go astray