Franz JT Lee is a longtime socialist activist who participated in South Africa in the struggle against the apartheid regime. He now lives in Venezuela.
I am submitting this to inspire further information, and also because the Times coverage led me to suspect an organized move against the Chavez government, and an attempt to provoke a "crisis" atmosphere around alleged repression. To my knowledge students in Venezuela have not been in the forefront of the attempt to carry out a democratic anti-imperialist national revolution of the workers, peasants, and poor. Fred Feldman Vheadline.com Published: Tuesday, May 30, 2006 Bylined to: Franz J.T. Lee Riots break out in southwestern Merida: Chavez' Revolution in immediate and serious danger ... challenging times for Latin America: for Venezuela, Bolivia and Peru... University of Los Andes (ULA) professor Franz J. T. Lee writes: Riots and 'guarimbas' are running wild in southwestern Merida State, led by the delinquent student leader, United States CIA and "opposition" stooge Nixon Moreno. Over the past few days, a small group of reactionary students of the University of The Andes, Merida ... with the probable aid of paramilitary forces smuggled into the university from inside the Faculty of Law & Political Science campus, opened fire at police forces guarding the streets, wounding twenty-six policemen ... three very seriously. At present time, the bloody political carnival continues around the Plaza de Toros (the bull-ring), in front of the faculty, where student "matadores" are using military arms ... shotguns and pistols ... and seem to be well-organized, aided by some university authorities who oppose the Chavez government. Many buses full of anti-chavistas students from other national universities were detained by security forces in nearby Ejido preventing their arrival to Merida City in destabilization attempts to cause total chaos. The disturbances have spilled over to the adjacent Faculty of Humanities. Sporadically the armed conspirators are shooting at the police, or anybody, or anything in red for that matter. The police find themselves in a defenseless situation, since they are prohibited by law from using firearms at public demonstrations. At any moment, classes could be suspended in the schools, educational institutions and universities throughout the region. Shakespeare's Juliet had once asked a semantic question: "What is in a name?" Well, in Venezuelan politics the name of a leader tells the true story: the reactionary student leader in Merida is called Nixon Moreno and his delinquent anti-chavista counterpart in the Caracas student federation is called Stalin Gonzalez! Hence the alliance of "Nixon and Stalin" against "Les Miserables" (Hugo) against the "Big Dictator." According to the daily "Ultimas Noticias" (30/05/06), Chavez' special electoral commando is ready for launching to get a possible ten million favorable votes in the December presidential elections ... this is the very last thing that Washington D.C. can afford to happen. As fake window-dressing, the "opposition" has also named its candidates; among them, Teodoro Petkoff, who has already begun his anti-chavista campaign in Merida. In a press conference at the airport, he caustically launched his diatribal garbage against the "Chavez regime," against the Bolivarian Revolution ... he was fetched and welcomed at the airport by Nixon and cohorts. The subversive idea is to keep the streets "hot" ... to cause permanent social unrest, and even to try to sabotage the OPEC meeting in Caracas and to discredit the Chavez government in the eyes of the world awaiting the results of the OPEC conference. All this just to create favorable conditions for US military or paramilitary intervention. In any case, the mastermind behind all these maneuvers is the Bush military regime. The coming 141th Extraordinary OPEC Conference in Caracas, June 1-3, is already confirmed ... at the same time a number of opposition destabilization plans have been uncovered as being hatched for this week ... this will be a really trying week for Latin America, especially for Venezuela. Two of the main topics to be discussed at the OPEC venue concern Iran's program for peaceful nuclear energy and possible conversion to the euro as international currency for oil sales. As we know, Iran may launch its euro-based oil bourse any moment. A possible cooperation between Russia and OPEC will be discussed with reference to the USA-Iran conflict ... this will be followed by a trip described as a cordial visit to Russia where Chavez and President Putin will discuss matters concerning the future of both nations and mankind itself. Nevertheless, as I have already explained in previous commentaries, international relations of the world market are already very hot and explosive on the information highway ... what is happening is that an "atomic" economic war is already being declared against the USA and we could expect a bellicose retaliation at any moment too. We should not forget, that Chavez is blamed for the North American economic and energetic fiasco ... but, for the United States of America, time is running out. Every fleeting second in which a US dollar is converted into an euro, Bush is singing "Nearer My God to Thee!" as his Titanic sinks. The initial stages of this colossal belligerent preparation for military conquest of Latin America ... especially of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Peru ... are already in the final stages. CIA destabilization is already exhausted, the dictatorial image of "Chavez the Tyrant" is already cemented in the brains of all the "Friends of Venezuela." Hence, the planned military attacks may begin soon after the OPEC conference, after the results of the Peruvian elections, Chavez' visit of to Moscow or the launching of the Iranian oil bourse. There may be multiple attacks against the "axis of evil," ushered in by another Bin Laden "attack." And this time, it must be a realm big one. Blowing up the Statue of Liberty will not suffice ... it must be the use of something real big, a convincing pretext for a nuclear war, the use of a biological or chemical weapon of mass destruction in some metropolitan country. The blowing up of an atomic reactor or throwing a pocket atomic bomb in a large industrial city ... in London, Berlin, Los Angeles ... for war criminals who organize hoaxes like 'Pearl Harbor' and the 'Twin Towers' the latter would be sufficient pretext to raze Iran to the ground and to invade Latin America. This is not shouting Wolf! We are living in a brutal, heartless world, where power, capital and money reign, we face the eve of yet another severe United States directed military coup against President Chavez. Such situations have occurred manifold over the last seven years ... their early discovery and our warnings in time aborted many a military coup already. This time, it will not be an easy walk to liberty ... the USA is desperate, is facing total bankruptcy, extinction as a world power. It will defend itself mercilessly at all costs. Meanwhile, nationwide, the Chavez government is making preparations for self-defense against a possible asymmetric protracted war. As a result of the current situation in Merida state, the people's reserve army is already called to be on the alert. On May 29, Venezuela's Minister of Defense, Admiral Orlando Maniglia informed the public that this week the first batch of 33,000 Russian-manufactured rifles and ammunition will arrive, ready to be used for defense purposes ... he also stated that military training against asymmetric war, in which the armed forces and the people will participate, will take place in coastal Vargas State very soon. In the meantime, National Assembly deputies Tarek El Aissami and Alberto Castelar have presented video clips and documentary evidence that Teodoro Petkoff and Julio Andres Borges -- pre-candidates in the upcoming presidential elections (December 2006) are implicated in sabotage, acts of violence and destabilization in conjunction with Nixon's student movement ... they have shown videos of the war materiels used by the student fifth columnists. Yes, the Bolivarian Revolution is indeed in serious danger ... both from within and from without ... we face extreme and immediately challenging in Latin America: for Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba and Peru... Franz J. T. Lee [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [email protected] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
