To mark the vote taking place today on constitutional reform, I thought I’d offer a little more information on the situation - especially since so many Americans feel the overwhelming desire to bash Chavez over affairs they really know nothing about. The CIA has been fomenting unrest throughout Latin America since the organization was created. A recent memo from a CIA operative in Venezuela confirms that a US-backed coup is in play against the Chavez government. James Petras joins Democracy Now! to discuss the reality of the situation, and what the privileged opposition is actually fighting against.

Petras makes a very good point in the first video when he says: “Secondly, the Venezuelans are very tolerant of their opposition. The Chavez government has not expelled the operative here, Michael Middleton Steere. There have been discussions, I’ve gotten from my sources in Venezuela, in the foreign office to expel this official, but they haven’t actually taken that step. And it goes along with this very libertarian outlook in Venezuelan government. You know, many of the people involved in the overthrow of the president, the military takeover for forty-eight hours in 2002, many of them never were put on trial and never were arrested, and they’re back in action in this referendum. So law enforcement regarding what would normally be called insurrectionary activity in the United States—many of these people would have been locked in Fort Leavenworth and the key thrown away—in Venezuela, the golpistas, the people involved in coup planning and operations, are having a second, third chance.”

full transcript here