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Vol. 72/No. 18      May 5, 2008

 
Conference opposes U.S. threats vs. Venezuela
 
BY SAM MANUEL  
WASHINGTON—An April 18-20 national educational conference on Venezuela condemned efforts by members of the U.S. Congress to add Caracas to Washington’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. More than 130 people from across the United States participated in the meeting, which was held at Howard University.

The conference featured panel discussions on a series of topics including Venezuela’s trade union and peasant movements, energy and the environment, and the country’s international relations.

“We will not sacrifice our agenda of social change,” said Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuelan ambassador to the United States, at the opening session. Alvarez reviewed a range of government-sponsored social programs in health care, education, employment, agricultural production, and housing that have increased popular expectations in the South American nation.

It is because of these programs, Alvarez said, that there is now talk of adding Venezuela to Washington’s list of sponsors of terrorism. Florida congressional representatives Connie Mack and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen have asked the State Department to add Venezuela to the list, which would mean sanctions, restrictions on foreign aid, and penalties for individuals and countries engaging in certain types of trade with Venezuela. Alvarez noted that the Organization of American States (OAS) has rejected charges of terrorism against Venezuela.

“There is no evidence, and no member country, including this one [the United States], has offered the OAS such proof,” José Insulza, the head of the Organization of American States, told an April 10 hearing of the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.

In early March the Colombian military carried out an air strike in Ecuador against a base of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Bogotá claims that computer files retrieved from the site show support by the Venezuelan government for the guerrilla group.

“The U.S. government hasn’t a shred of evidence for its accusation of terrorism against Venezuela,” said José Pertierra, an attorney in Venezuela’s request for the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles. “There is, however, much evidence of the terrorist activities of Posada and U.S. government knowledge of it.”

Posada has a long record as a leader of U.S.-trained Cuban counterrevolutionary groups that have carried out deadly attacks against Cuba. He is wanted to stand trial in Caracas for his role in the 1975 bombing of a Cuban passenger jet over Barbados that killed 73 people.

Other speakers at the conference included Adina Bastidas, a vice president of Venezuela from 2000 to 2002; Julio Chavéz, mayor of Torres, Venezuela; Jorge Guerrero, Venezuelan consul in New Orleans and a founder of the Network of Afro-Venezuelan Organizations; Manuel Rodríguez, Venezuelan vice minister for the environment, and Eva Golinger, a Venezuelan-American lawyer and author of The Chávez Code.

In a final session conference participants discussed plans to tour trade unionists and officials from Venezuela as part of an educational campaign.  
 
 
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