Chavez "We have proof of the CIA's clandestine activities in Venezuela"

by Gregory Wilpert

In a three-hour lunch meeting with foreign journalists last week, 
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez roamed over a wide variety of topics, 
from the cancellation of his trip to the US, to the recall referendum, to 
the WTO meeting in Canczn, and to Venezuela-Colombia relations, among other 
issues.

One of the first and perhaps more puzzling topics that was broached was the 
relatively sudden cancellation of the president's trip to the US, scheduled 
for late September. President Chavez was supposed to give a speech at the 
opening of the UN in New York, to visit Houston, Texas, the city where the 
state-owned oil company Citgo will have its new headquarters, and to give a 
speech in Harlem.

While the President said he regretted not being able to give the speech in 
Harlem and to visit Houston, he said he cancelled the trip for two main 
reasons.

First, he said that the main reason was that there were security concerns, 
the details of which he could not disclose.

Second, he said that he does not like UN summits. "I go there and I don't 
feel like speaking because practically no one listens. It's a dialogue of 
the deaf; it's silly. You go there to listen to one discourse after 
another, one day after the other and for what? What is the purpose?

"I prefer to denounce, to say that this system is not working. I have a 
natural rejection of these summits."

He then went on to elaborate how fundamentally undemocratic the UN is and 
that it needs to be democratised.

With regard to the letter of protest that representatives of the opposition 
coalition Democratic Co-ordinator sent to the Organization of American 
States, the UNDP, and the Carter Center, Chavez said that it does not 
surprise him, since the opposition wants "a referendum according to their 
preferences".

He elaborated that in the past the National Electoral Council was an arm of 
the two main governing parties, Copei and AD, which helped them organise 
fraud and which funded their election observers.

The other, mostly leftist, parties never had enough resources to post 
witnesses at all polling places. Now, however, there is a National 
Electoral Council that is independent and the opposition complains, since 
they are not used to that, said Chavez.

International issues

On the international front, Chavez revealed that his government is in the 
possession of a video, which his security forces secretly recorded, of a 
CIA officer giving a class to Venezuelans on surveillance.

Joking he said, "The technique could not have been very good, since we did 
manage to film him".

He argues that this is evidence that the CIA is involved in clandestine 
activity in Venezuela, after the coup attempt, in addition to the evidence 
he has of US involvement before and during the coup; but his government has 
so far not issued a formal complaint to the US Government.

Some day, he said, these pieces of evidence will be released, but he does 
not know when.

With respect to the unclear stand Venezuela recently took with regard to 
international property rights at the WTO meeting in Canczn, the President 
promised to clarify Venezuela's position, saying that "it's not the first 
time that there are contradictions" within the government on an issue.

While Venezuela's Minister of Commerce and Production took a strong 
position on the issue of eliminating agricultural subsidies for first world 
countries, along with other third world countries, organised in the "Group 
of 21", Venezuela almost signed an agreement which would have limited the 
use of generic medications to only three diseases, AIDS, malaria, and 
tuberculosis.

This would have gone directly against the policy of Venezuela's office on 
intellectual property rights (SAPI), which maintains that public health 
must take precedence over the profits of transnational pharmaceutical 
companies.

OPEC

Referring to the upcoming OPEC meeting, Chavez announced that his 
government would not recognise the Iraqi representative as an official 
representative because "unfortunately there is no government in Baghdad, it 
is anarchy, with constant destabilisation".

"They have not been able to restart their production anyway", added the 
President. Rather, there would be informal talks at the next OPEC meeting 
on September 24 with an observer from the occupation forces in Iraq.

Finally, Chavez said that relations between Venezuela and Colombia are very 
complicated because there are people who are interested in sabotaging this 
relationship.

He reiterated that his government is not providing any kind of support to 
the Colombian guerilla movements, despite what the opposition claims. 
Rather, Venezuela's position with regard to the conflict in Colombia is one 
of neutrality, of neither opposing nor supporting the guerilla movement.

"We don't want to support the path of war in Colombia, we want to support 
the path of peace", added Chavez.

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