Rene — VENEZUELA FLORIDATED
Topic(s): Venezuela | Comments Off on Rene — VENEZUELA FLORIDATEDVENEZUELA FLORIDATED
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Will The Gang That Fixed Florida Fix the Vote in Caracas this Sunday?
by Greg Palast
Hugo Chavez drives George Bush crazy. Maybe it’s jealousy: Unlike
Mr. Bush, Chavez, in Venezuela, won his Presidency by a majority of
the vote.
Or maybe it’s the oil: Venezuela sits atop a reserve rivaling
Iraq’s. And Hugo thinks the US and British oil companies that pump the
crude ought to pay more than a 16% royalty to his nation for the
stuff. Hey, sixteen percent isn’t even acceptable as a tip at a New
York diner.
Whatever it is, OUR President has decided that THEIR president has to
go. This is none too easy given that Chavez is backed by Venezuela’s
poor. And the US oil industry, joined with local oligarchs, has made
sure a vast majority of Venezuelans remain poor.
Therefore, Chavez is expected to win this coming Sunday’s recall
vote. That is, if the elections are free and fair.
They won’t be. Some months ago, a little birdie faxed to me what
appeared to be confidential pages from a contract between John
Ashcroft’s Justice Department and a company called ChoicePoint, Inc.,
of Atlanta. The deal is part of the War on Terror.
Justice offered up to $67 million, of our taxpayer money, to
ChoicePoint in a no-bid deal, for computer profiles with private
information on every citizen of half a dozen nations. The choice of
which nation’s citizens to spy on caught my eye. While the September
11th highjackers came from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and the Arab
Emirates, ChoicePoint’s menu offered records on Venezuelans,
Brazilians, Nicaraguans, Mexicans and Argentines. How odd. Had the CIA
uncovered a Latin plot to sneak suicide tango dancers across the
border with exploding enchiladas?
What do these nations have in common besides a lack of involvement in
the September 11th attacks? Coincidentally, each is in the throes of
major electoral contests in which the leading candidates — presidents
Lula Ignacio da Silva of Brazil, Nestor Kirschner of Argentina, Mexico
City mayor Andres Lopez Obrador and Venezuela’s Chavez — have the
nerve to challenge the globalization demands of George W. Bush.
The last time ChoicePoint sold voter files to our government it was to
help Governor Jeb Bush locate and purge felons on Florida voter
rolls. Turns out ChoicePoint’s felons were merely Democrats guilty
only of V.W.B., Voting While Black. That little ‘error’ cost Al Gore
the White House.
It looks like the Bush Administration is taking the Florida show for a
tour south of the border.
However, when Mexico discovered ChoicePoint had its citizen files, the
nation threatened company executives with criminal
charges. ChoicePoint protested its innocence and offered to destroy
the files of any nation that requests it.
But ChoicePoint, apparently, presented no such offer to the government
of Venezuela’s Chavez.
In Caracas, I showed Congressman Nicolas Maduro the
ChoicePoint-Ashcroft agreement. Maduro, a leader of Chavez’ political
party, was unaware that his nation’s citizen files were for sale to
U.S. intelligence. But he understood their value to make mischief.
If the lists somehow fell into the hands of the Venezuelan opposition,
it could immeasurably help their computer-aided drive to recall and
remove Chavez. A ChoicePoint flak said the Bush administration told
the company they haven’t used the lists that way. The PR man didn’t
say if the Bush spooks laughed when they said it.
Our team located a $53,000 payment from our government to Chavez’
recall organizers, who claim to be armed with computer lists of the
registered. How did they get those lists? The fix that was practiced
in Florida, with ChoicePoint’s help, deliberate or not, appears to be
retooled for Venezuela, then Brazil, Mexico and who knows where else.
Here’s what it comes down to: The Justice Department averts its gaze
from Saudi Arabia but shoplifts voter records in Venezuela. So it’s
only fair to ask: Is Mr. Bush fighting a war on terror — or a war on
democracy?
Greg Palast is author of the NY Times bestseller The Best Democracy
Money Can Buy (Penguin USA 2003). See Greg Palast’s award-winning
reports for BBC Television and the Guardian papers of Britain at
http://www.GregPalast.com. Contact Palast at his New York office:
media@gregpalast.com.