from the page: "..At the end of the summit's first day, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that member countries had agreed to contribute 1% of their international reserves toward the bloc's main bank in order to create a reserve fund. The Bank of the Alba was established in 2008 with the intention of providing economic support to people-centred regional projects and to contribute to sustainable social and economic development across the region. The Bank is also cited as acting as a continental alternative to the International Monetary Fund... The heads of state also discussed the possibility of increasing the commercial use of the sucre, the bloc's virtual currency. The sucre is currently used for direct trading between the ALBA countries, allowing them to circumvent the U.S dollar and minimise the foreign-exchange risk.

from the page: "..To the end of the ’50s there were in Latin America several military dictatorships, which had been imposed and supported by the Empire... There’s evidence of U.S. intervention in the fall of some of these dictatorships: they killed Trujillo when he refused to abandon office. They didn’t protect Pérez Jiménez. The support they gave Batista against Fidel’s guerrilla was not enough to thwart his fall... When Washington really supports a government it does everything to protect it: financing and training puppet groups of influence, instigating coups d’état, separatist initiatives and eventually direct invasions, to mention only a few items of its political panoply. Or they tolerate or promote an alternative government that’s acceptable for Washington.. It did nothing to prevent the fall of the late ’50s Latin American dictatorships that it had previously instigated and buttressed. Instead it promoted acceptable allied substitutions with a healthier political aura.

from the page: "...Nonviolent resistance – also more aptly called nonviolent warfare – is about taking power, not making a point. It’s not pacifism or a principled religious or ethical position based on abhorrence of violence. It’s power politics. Ackerman and other nonviolent warriors believe that mass civil disobedience – the shrewd use of strikes, boycotts, demonstrations, and nonviolent sabotage backed by sanctions and demonization of target governments – can be more effective in taking political power than military intervention... They advocate nonviolence, not because they hate violence, but because they think nonviolence works better than armed revolt or military intervention. With the help of people like Lester Kurtz, the ICNC trains a modern cadre of mercenaries, who travel the world in the pay of NGOs, Western governments, wealthy individuals and corporate foundations, in order to train local groups in regime change through nonviolent warfare...

from the page: " As students in the United States and Europe protest against soaring tuition and lack of funding for public higher education, the Venezuelan National Assembly has passed an unprecedented law to include professors, students, workers, and local community members in university decision-making and to eliminate barriers to higher education. The law is based on the principle that the government has the responsibility to provide free, high-quality, public education from childhood through the undergraduate university level. This principle is established in Article 103 of the nation’s constitution. The law says students will have the right to an equal vote in the election of university authorities, evaluate professors and participate in self-evaluation, freely express opinions, access university administrative records, and receive a range of services including housing, transportation, meals, health care, and monthly stipends, among other rights...

from the page: "...The bulk of the Indian movement (CONAIE) adopted a complex position of denying that a coup was taking place, yet rejecting the police violence and setting forth a series of demands and criticisms of Correa’s policies and methods of governance. No effort was made to either oppose the coup or to support it... The passivity of CONAIE and most of the trade unions has its roots in profound policy disagreements with the Correa regime... facing declining revenues due to the world recession, Correa made a sharp turn to right... The absence of continuous social reforms, while agro-mining elites prosper, opens the door for the return of the right and provokes divisions in the social coalitions supporting the center-left regimes. Most important the implosion of the center-left provides an opportunity for Washington to subvert... The successful coup in Honduras (2009) and the recent failed coup in Ecuador are symptomatic of the deepening crises of "post-neo-liberal" politics.."

from the page: "...On Dec. 15, however, the Afghan resistance hit a USAID base in Gardez, the capital of Paktia Province in the southeast, killing security staff and a guard working for Development Alternatives Inc. DAI is the major supplier of mercenary forces to the occupation. According to a report by North American lawyer and investigative writer Eva Golinger, now in Venezuela, DAI is active throughout Latin America. One of their employees is the captured U.S. agent in Cuba who was handing out illegal materials to anti-revolutionary groups. DAI has a $40 million contract to administer the “Cuba Democracy and Contingency Planning Program.”DAI is running a similar program for USAID in Venezuela. USAID has also been expelled from two cities in Bolivia, accused of intervening. According to Golinger, “A high-level USAID official confirmed two weeks ago that the CIA uses USAID's name to issue contracts and funding to third parties in order to provide cover for clandestine operations..."

from the page: "..It was not a small isolated group within the police trying to carry out a coup, but rather a group of social and political actors at the service of the local oligarchy and imperialism, who will never forgive Correa for having ordered the removal of the US military base at Manta and the audit of Ecuador's foreign debt and its incorporation into ALBA, among many other actions. Incidentally, the Ecuadoran police have for many years, like other forces in the region, been trained and supported by their US counterpart.. Could it happen again? Yes, because the foundations of coups have deep roots in Latin American societies and in the foreign policy of the United States... the rapidity of popular democratic reaction is essential to deactivate the sequence of actions and processes of the coup makers, a sequence which is rarely anything more than the unleashing of initiatives which, in the absence of obstacles placed in their path, are mutually reinforcing...

from the page: "The Central Intelligence Agency has scoffed at an internal memo that cites a few terrorist acts by some American citizens as possibly causing foreign nations to see the United States as an "exporter of terrorism." The CIA notes that the paper came from its "red cell" analysts who are assigned to "think outside the box" to "provoke thought." However, what’s most striking about the secret three-page memo, dated Feb. 4 and disclosed by WikiLeaks last month, is how it reflects CIA self-censorship regarding the agency’s own long history of supporting acts of terror and protecting terrorists... Not that self-censorship by the "red cells" is all that surprising. It's been practiced by U.S. government officials and the Washington news media for decades now. Otherwise, the American people would have been confronted with the uncomfortable reality that many esteemed U.S. government officials..had their hands dipped in the blood of innocent victims of terrorism...

from the page: "Indigenous Yukpa Pueblo communities lie in the Sierra de Perija in northwestern Venezuela on the border with Colombia. Despite the constitutional recognition of their right to their own land, their territory has been very poorly demarcated by the Venezuelan Government in deference to farmers and extractive interests. The conflict has affected several communities resulting in deaths. Despite the constitutional recognition of indigenous jurisdiction, the Yukpa people's rights have not been recognized. The Supreme Court has just rejected, with one dissenting vote, the defense brought by indigenous defendants. To make matters worse, the Yukpa people are in the full line of fire between Colombia and Venezuela."

from the page: "Thanks to the policies of the Bolivarian Government poverty in Venezuela fell to 23% in 2009 from 70.3% in the second half of 1996 accompanied by 40% of extreme poverty and a record inflation rate of 103%... The contraction of 3.3 percent registered in the Venezuelan Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2009 has no direct relation with the social development of the nation, because it is a macroeconomic index referred to the production of the different economic sectors in the country. Jose Rafael Lopez, General Manager of Social Statistics and Environment of the National Statistics Institute (INE) made the explanation and added that the fall registered by the national economy was a consequence of the world's economic crisis produced by he capitalist depression; fall of oil prices; and the cut on oil production established by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)... "Social expenses increased from 12.46 billion dollars in 1999 to 330 billion in 2009," ...

from the page: "April 16 will be the seventh anniversary of the Venezuelan government’s health care program, Mission Barrio Adentro, which has used Cuban doctors to bring free health care to millions of the poor... It began with 53 Cuban doctors. In Venezuela now there are 29,255 Cuban health specialists of which a little more than one third are doctors. The rest are nurses, and technicians in radiology, rehabilitation and engineers who repair the equipment. In seven years, 11,500 medical centres have been built. This includes Integrated Diagnostic Centres, with more facilities than the basic clinics. About 97% of the services of Barrio Adentro are avaliable every day. Millions of people now have access to previously unaffordable or inaccessible basic health care. The government’s education policies, which seek to train Venezuelans to replace the Cuban specialists, have resulted in more than 15,000 Venezuelans working in Barrio Adentro..."

from the page: "...The military base agreement needs to be understood in the context of two other U.S. initiatives in Colombia. First, Plan Colombia, which began under President Clinton, committed billions of dollars ostensibly to fight the war on drugs but also to fighting the guerrillas, intensifying the country’s already brutal conflict in rural areas. This has led to increasing displacement of people from areas that are strategically important for mining multinationals. Second, the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement, which was signed in 2006, could pry open the country to more U.S. corporate exploitation. But it has been met with opposition in the United States, delaying its ratification. Daza says the signing of the bases deal is part of “a military strategy that complements the push for the free trade agreement.” The trade accord will serve “transnational corporate investments,” and these investments, he says, “are sustained by a military relationship.”..."

from the page: "... The average volume of arms sales increased by 22% over the past five years, compared to the previous five-year period, says the report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)... The report does not give the cost of the arms trade because most governments no longer release the figures... The US remains the world's top arms exporter, accounting for 30% of the total, followed by Russia (23%), Germany (11%), and France (8%)... Germany's arms exports have risen by more than 100%... Arms sales to South America rose by 150%, raising the spectre of an arms race in the region... In south-east Asia, arms sales to Indonesia and Malaysia increased significantly, while Singapore became the first country in the region to be among the world's top 10 arms importers, since the end of the Vietnam war... China was the world's biggest arms importer over the past five years, with 9% of the total, followed by India, South Korea, the UAE and Greece..."

from the page: "Haiti is a country under military occupation since the US instigated Coup d'Etat of February 2004. The entry of ten thousand heavily armed US troops, coupled with the activities of local militia could potentially precipitate the country into social chaos. These foreign forces have entered the country to reinforce MINUSTAH "peacekeepers" and Haitian police forces (integrated by former Tonton Macoute), which since 2004, have been responsible for war crimes directed against the Haitian people, including the indiscriminate killing of civilians. These troups reinforce the existing occupation forces under UN mandate... The militarization of relief operations will weaken the organizational capabilities of Haitians to rebuild and reinstate the institutions of civilian government which have been destroyed. It will also encroach upon the efforts of the international medical teams... There can be no real reconstruction or development under foreign military occupation.”

from the page: "...what has been delineated in Colombia is a classic colonial strategy: the use of repressive force to protect the economic and military interests of the dominant power... The main purpose of this assistance to Colombia is to defend oil company pipelines, which are central to the US drive to achieve a monopoly over world oil reserves... The premises of capitalist political economy rest on a search by central economies for the monopolistic control of global resources. Therefore current capitalist militarism is precisely an expression of the normal expansion of capital. Colonialism is not capitalist production transformed; it is the implementation of capitalist relations on a world scale... The distribution of the world into spheres of influence leads to a situation of conflict, where war is not an expression of a further stage, but rather an integral part of the necessity for capitalist reproduction... "

from the page: "Last week the IMF disbursed $150m to the de facto government of Honduras, and it plans to disburse another $13.8m on 9 September. The de facto government has no legitimacy in the world... This is in keeping with US policy, which is not surprising since the US has been...the Fund's principal overseer... the US government has yet to determine that a military coup has actually occurred. This is because such a determination would require, under the US Foreign Appropriations Act, a complete cutoff of aid... the IMF would likely say that the current funds are part of a $250bn package in which all member countries are receiving a share proportional to their IMF quota, regardless of governance. This is true, but it doesn't resolve the question... Interestingly, the IMF had no problem cutting off funds under its standby arrangement with the democratically elected government of President Zelaya in November of last year, when the Fund did not agree with his economic policies."

from the page: "RWB [ Reporters Without Borders] defends the coup-supporting channel Globovisión, which RWB considers the symbol of freedom of expression in Venezuela. However, RWB fails to point out that in addition to its active participation in the 2002 coup, Globovisión supported the sabotage of the Venezuelan oil industry that same year, launched a call for taxpayers not to pay their taxes, and called for insurrection and the assassination of President Chavez. Recently, Globovisión supported the junta behind the coup in Honduras that overthrew the democratically elected president Jose Manuel Zelaya... The owner of Globovisión, William Zuloaga Nunez, recognized the illegal government of Micheletti, launching at the same time a call for a coup d’état in Venezuela: “The Micheletti government is following the constitution and we wish, we would love it if in Venezuela the constitution would be respected as it is being respected in Honduras..."

from the page: ".. During his late June White House visit, president Alvaro Uribe gave the Pentagon access to seven new military bases... The move sparked regional outrage with Chavez saying "They are surrounding Venezuela with military bases" and may "soon start sending thousands of North American soldiers to Colombia.... " Ecuador's Minister of Internal and External Security, Dr. Gustavo Larrea, warned of "an increase in military tension" with more US forces in Colombia. On the pretext of fighting drugs trafficking and hemispheric security, militarizing a close Washington ally is meant to intimidate Venezuela, Ecuador, and other center-left governments. They threaten Chavez and his allies... At the time, The New York Times called it "a critical platform in the fight against narcotics smuggling." In fact, it's part of America's global footprint with over 1000 bases on every continent and a key factor behind growing animosity against its intrusive presence... "

from the page: "The Obama administration has, however, learned something from the disastrous failure of the Bush administration’s botched coup against Chavez seven years ago... An unmistakable indicator of the real attitude of the Obama administration to the events in Honduras is the response of the US media. The media, led by the New York Times, immediately embraced the claims of the Iranian opposition that the election had been rigged and a coup had been carried out, without presenting any concrete evidence to support the allegations... In contrast, the US media has provided only minimal coverage of a real coup in Honduras. It has barely reported the police-state measures, arrests and beatings carried out by the Honduran military, and treated the anti-coup protests with utter indifference... What accounts for this stark contrast? The simple fact that the US government opposes the victor in the Iranian election and supports those who ousted Zelaya in Honduras. "

from the page: "Venezuela may add Chinese-made fighter jets to a wish list of planes it plans to buy from China as it strengthens trade ties with its Asian ally, officials from both countries said Thursday. The K-8 flight training and light attack aircraft are due for delivery in January 2010, Chinese aerotechnology official Yang Yng told Venezuela's state-run Bolivarian News Agency... Venezuela may also buy advanced trainer aircraft such as the Chinese-made L-15, said Luis Reyes Reyes, an aide to President Hugo Chavez. Chavez's government has in recent years fed fears in Washington of a military buildup, signing contracts with Russia to purchase more than US$4.4 billion worth of arms since 2005 _ including 24 Russian Sukhoi fighter jets and 53 attack helicopters. Venezuela also plans to install a radar system with China's help."

from the page: "The US Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider the case of five Cubans arrested on espionage charges in 1998. Attorneys for the five, who were charged with spying on Cuban exile groups implicated in acts of terrorism against Cuba, had appealed their 2001 conviction, arguing, among other things, that they had been denied a fair because of the trial judge’s refusal to move the proceedings out of Miami. The city has a population of 700,000 Cuban-Americans and is the base of numerous right-wing anti-Castro exile groups. The Supreme Court did not feel itself obliged to justify its decision... The reality is that the five Cubans who remain imprisoned had worked to prevent acts of terrorism, while notorious CIA-sponsored terrorists such as Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch remain free in Miami. Both men are responsible for numerous terrorist attacks going back to the early 1960s. They were responsible for organizing the 1976 bombing of a Cuban civilian airliner..."

from the page: "Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, says he is breaking off ties with Israel in protest against its war in Gaza, which has left more than 1,000 Palestinians dead. Morales said on Wednesday that he would seek to get top Israeli officials, including Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, charged with "genocide" in the International Criminal Court..."Considering these grave attacks against ... humanity, Bolivia will stop having diplomatic relations with Israel," Morales told diplomats...Morales's move follows the decision by his ally Hugo Chavez..."