Saturday 13 March 2010

Spain attacks Venezuela, ETA and FARC

The Spanish National Court [which has international jurisdiction] would like to link the Bolivarian government of Venezuela with the Basque group ETA (Euskadi ta Alkartasuna) and FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) accusing Venezuela of preparing 'terrorist attacks' against Colombia. Spain charged the Bolivarian government of Hugo Chávez of working as an intermediary between ETA and FARC. The groups were allegedly plotting against prominent political figures living in or travelling through Spain, including plots to kill Colombian President Álvaro Uribe.

The Spanish journalist Serrano has affirmed that this bogus accusation comes from the Spanish right-wing and is intended to label Hugo Chávez as a ‘dictator’ and also to link him to an ‘evil axis’.

This campaign was started by Spain’s racist centre-right Partido Popular (People's Party) in open opposition to current Spanish President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. They are using Cuba and Venezuela to discredit Zapatero.

It is Spanish National Court Judge Eloy Velasco making the bogus accusations and he is clearly identified with the right-wing in Spain for whom it is expedient to write such propaganda so they can use the information to malign Venezuela. The right-wing uses these types of articles to attack progressive governments in Latin America. Everything it seems is valid for attacking Hugo Chávez and Venezuela.

Venezuelan officials condemned the declarations of the Spanish judge. On 3 March 2010, the Venezuelan National Assembly rejected the declarations of Velasco in which he affirmed the supposed link between Venezuela, ETA and FARC.

This propaganda campaign is being carried out against Venezuela at a particular moment when a new inter-governmental union of American nations, excluding the US and Canada, is being created under the provisional name of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELC), planned to begin in July 2011. This body is parallel to the pro-imperialist Organization of American States (OAS) and will replace the Rio Group. According to the journalist and author Earle Herrera, the Spanish and North American media have propagated this information to demonise the Venezuelan Government. Venezuelan chair of the Science, Technology and Media Committee in the National Assembly, Manuel Villalba, said ‘Venezuela is the country that has made it possible to have good relationships with all our brother countries in Latin America.’

On 5 March 2010, Chávez said that tensions with the Spanish government were over, after President Zapatero had initially asked for ‘explanations’ regarding Venezuela having a so-called ‘pact’ with ETA and FARC to carry out 'terrorist' acts against Colombia. President Chávez responded saying he would not be giving explanations to any country, but Spain hastily backed off with Spanish Foreign Minister, Chancellor Miguel Angel Moratinos diplomatically saying his government ‘requested information’ from the Venezuelan government.

During an event with the Bolivarian National Police, Chávez said that relations were back to normal, thanks to the Spanish President and Moratinos ‘because we always have been mates’.

Chávez confirmed that it was the Spanish right-wing and the European right-wing, on orders from the US who dominate the media and international courts, that organise against Venezuela.


Maria