The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Venezuela, known since 1999 as the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, (Spanish: República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America.

International Influence
Under the leadership of democratically elected (1998, 2000, 2006) President Hugo Chavez, Venezuela leads Latin America toward unity and freedom in a global insurgency for change by establishing a Democratic Socialism form of government and policies supportive of a southern hemisphere unity of resistance against northern hemisphere interferences, citing a long and malevolent history of Imperial terror in South America.

Reviled by United States
Venezuela was named in 2005 as "the leading Latin American nation to be alarmed about" by Porter Goss, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Eva Golinger reported February 16, 2006, for Venezuelanalysis.com.

Venezuela headed the list of five Latin American countries. Others on the list were Colombia, Haiti, Mexico and Cuba. 

"In testimony before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence regarding 'Global Intelligence Challenges 2005: Meeting Long-Term Challenges with a Long-Term Strategy', Goss classified Venezuela as a 'potential area for instability' for this year. Considering Venezuela as a 'flashpoint' in 2005, the CIA Director alleged that President [Hugo] Chávez 'is consolidating his power by using technically legal tactics to target his opponents and meddling in the region.' Goss also raised alarm that Chávez is 'supported by [Cuba's] [Fidel] Castro'," Golinger wrote.

"Furthermore, the use of the term 'technically legal tactics' demonstrates the Bush Administration’s conundrum with Venezuela. While the U.S. Government has on numerous occasions publicly acknowledged that President Chávez has been democratically elected twice and won a transparent recall referendum by a landslide in August 2004, it has also launched a well coordinated campaign to isolate Venezuela internationally, labeling Chávez as a 'negative force to the region' and a 'threat to democracy.' The 'technically legal' also shows that the CIA is struggling to find a way to justify regime change in Venezuela: 'technically' Chávez’s actions are 'legal', but... [fill in the blanks]," Golinger wrote.

Attempted 2002 Coup
Venezuela faced an attempted coup in 2002 - brought on by an alliance of the country's oil and media industries and America's CIA in cahoots with the NED in order to stop or subvert President Hugo Chavez's social and political reforms.

In reaction, the people of Venezuela surrounded the presidental palace to protect the president. Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Briain's 2003 documentary, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, provides more information of events that otherwise have recieved very little coverage. 

The attempted "regime change" came under the radar of most international news services, as the Americans acted as a shadow power, funding and advising Chavez's opponents, and by the time the story was uncovered, the U.S. administration involved had already made better headlines in Iraq (and it could be purely coincidental that once maintaining Western oil prices was no longer a possibility, the adminstration in question began making a case against another oil-rich/economical-poor country).

Pernicious Reporting
Robert W. McChesney and Mark Weisbrot report on the smear campaign by the U.S. administration and complicit media via "Common Dreams" on 1 Jyl 2007
 * "the US media coverage of Venezuela’s RCTV controversy says more about the deficiencies of our own news media that it does about Venezuela. It demonstrates again, as with the invasion of Iraq, how our news media are far too willing to carry water for Washington than to ascertain and report the truth of the matter."

and disclose the details of how ...
 * "This is a common means of distorting the news: a fact is reported as accusation, and then attributed to a source that the press has done everything to discredit.”

Similar exposure was brought in May 2006 by "medialens" in an article titled "Ridiculing Chavez - The Media Hit Their Stride" and in a June 2007 feature Chavez and RCTV - tilting the Balance Against 'the Bad Guy'

Venezuela's Oil Industry
"At the heart of recent strife in Venezuela is a fight over the country's oil industry. On one side is leftist President Hugo Chavez. Elected largely with the support of Venezuela's poor, Chavez is an ardent supporter of OPEC's efforts to keep world oil prices high," CBC News (Canada) reported November 27, 2003.

"In February 2002, Chavez appointed a board of directors at the state-controlled oil monopoly PDVSA, leading to suspicions he was trying to exercise direct control over the country’s oil industry. The appointments were the focus of demonstrations in April [2002], where there were calls for Chavez to resign. Fourteen demonstrators died in a day of violence that saw gunmen loyal to Chavez fire into a crowd," CBC wrote. "The violence prompted military commanders to take Chavez into custody for several days.

"The head of Venezuela's largest business association, Pedro Carmona, took over as the country's transitional leader. Two days into his reign, however, Carmona resigned under pressure from Chavez supporters, and the former leader was returned to power.

"Since that time there have been repeated calls for Chavez to relinquish the presidency, either through resignation or by calling elections. The calls came to a head in December 2002 when millions of workers walked out in a general strike aimed at ousting Chavez from power," the CBC reported.

Government Officials

 * Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuela's ambassador to the United States
 * Hugo Chavez, President
 * Rafael Ramirez, Venezuela's oil minister

SourceWatch Resources

 * Anibal Romero
 * BRIC Alliance
 * Bolivarian Circles
 * Bush administration smear campaigns

Government Information

 * Venezuela Government Official website.

General Information

 * CIA World Fact Book: Venezuela.
 * Venezuela, U.S. Department of Energy, Undated.

Undated Material

 * Eva Golinger, "The proof is in the Documents: The CIA was involved in the coup against Venezuelan President Chavez", Venezuelafoia.info, Date Unknown.
 * Venezuala Today, an anti-Chavez news source.

2003

 * "Venezuela and oil," CBC News (Canada), November 27, 2003.

2004

 * "The US State Department Counterterrorism Office report on the fight against terrorism is inconsistent in relation to Venezuela," Embassy of Venezuela in the United States (Venezuelanalysis.com), April 30, 2004.
 * Stephen Johnson and Ariel Cohen, "Minimizing Mischief in Venezuela, Stabilizing the U.S. Oil Supply," Heritage Foundation, August 12, 2004.
 * Sudhir Chadda, "After Iraq it is Venezuela - the next oil confrontation between America and Euro Zone and this time a new super power coalition of India, China, Russia and Brazil makes the difference," India Daily, November 27, 2004.

2005

 * Jessica Leight, "Venezuela: Oil-Flush Chávez Begins to Strut His Stuff," COHA (Venezuelanalysis.com), February 15, 2005.
 * Sarah Wagner, "Venezuelan Government Charges U.S. Government of 'Dirty' Media Campaign," Venezuelanalysis.com, February 22, 2005.
 * Jonah Gindin and Gregory Wilpert, "At OAS Venezuela Says US Interventionism is Prelude to Aggression," Venezuelanalysis.com, February 23, 2005.
 * Stuart Munckton, "Venezuela: Bush's next oil war?" Green Left Weekly, March 16, 2005.
 * Philip Agee, Interview with Dennis Bernstein, Flashpoints, March 24, 2005. Discussion of US attempts to destabilize Venezuela.
 * Dr. Michael A. Weinstein, "Venezuela's Hugo Chavez Makes His Bid for a Bolivarian Revolution," PINR, April 4, 2005.
 * Danna Harman, "Chávez seeks influence with oil diplomacy. In just one month, Venezuela has cut deals with five countries," Christian Science Monitor, August 25, 2005.

2006

 * Eva Golinger, "CIA Classifies Venezuela as Top 'Potentially Unstable Country'," Venezuelanalysis.com, February 16, 2006.
 * Juan Forero, "Chávez using oil money to buy influence abroad," New York Times/International Herald Tribune, April 5, 2006.
 * Ian James, "Dollars, democracy and Venezuela," Associated Press (Seattle Times), August 27, 2006: "Much of the spending is overseen by USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives, which also works in such 'priority countries' as Iraq, Afghanistan, Bolivia and Haiti."
 * Jens Erik Gould, "Plan for South American Pipeline Has Ambitions Beyond Gas," New York Times, December 2, 2006.

2007

 * Gregory Wilpert, "An Account of April 11-13, 2002, in Venezuela: The 47-Hour Coup That Changed Everything?" Venezuelanalysis.com, April 15, 2007
 * "Venezuelan, Colombian presidents open gas pipeline, seek regional energy integration," Associated Press (International Herald Tribune), October 12, 2007.