The Largest Minority

March 8th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

The presidents of Colombia and Ecuador have agreed to resolve a conflict which started when Colombia invaded Ecuadorian territory to kill around 20 FARC rebels, including an important FARC commander and negotiator, Raul Reyes. After the raid, US-puppet President Uribe of Colombia accused Chavez, who had successfully brokered several hostage releases with FARC, of aiding the group with $300 million (investigative journalist Greg Palast discredits that reckless accusation in this article).

At a Dominican Republic summit this Friday, Colombian President Uribe went a step further to also accused Ecuadorian President Correa of funding FARC and not co-operating in “the fight against terrorism”. Correa responded by rightly calling Uribe a liar, saying “your insolence is doing more damage to the Ecuadorian people than your murderous bombs,” and told him to, “Stop trying to justify the unjustifiable.”

After a morning of insults and accusations, pressure from other Latin American leaders at the summit eventually led to Uribe and Correa shaking hands. Both leaders shook hands with Hugo Chavez as well. Chavez later announced that Venezuela would reestablish diplomatic ties and trade with Colombia, as did Nicaragua. However, Colombia still has not promised that it will never carry out another raid into neighboring countries without permission. The developments came on the same day that a second senior commander of FARC was extrajudicially killed in western Colombia.

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March 7th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

American foreign policy is recognized as a failure, yet has changed little over the decades because our goal is to protect American business interests and not national interest. Pepe Escobar, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, delivers the truth as always.

h/t Dandelion Salad

March 6th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Since we have a brief intermission before Israel steps up its campaign once more to murder Palestinians in the world’s largest concentration camp, I thought I’d take this opportunity to catch everyone up on what’s been going on in South America. The following information comes mostly from BoRev. Give them a visit.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, an authoritarian US-ally (as if there is any other kind), was temporarily under the impression that his country was the USA itself and decided to invade Ecuador to extradjudicially kill 20 sleeping FARC rebels. FARC’s top diplomat, who was negotiating hostage releases with Venezuela, France, Switzerland and Spain, was killed in the attack.

Ecuador and Venezuela, who both share a border with Colombia, broke off their diplomatic relations with the country on account of this dickery and moved troops to their borders in order to protect their national sovereignty. Never failing to present false information, the American corporate media immediately used the troop movement along the border to claim that Chavez wants war with a US-ally.

The Colombian government then emulated the US government once again by completely making shit up. They claimed to have found the laptop of a senior FARC member which conveniently incriminated both Venezuela and Ecuador in FARC dealings and that the group had even bought and sold uranium to take “big steps in the world of terrorism to become a global aggressor”. Sound familiar? There are so many damn terrorists in this world and they’re all seeking uranium.

Colombian President Uribe then took a lesson from our House, which called on the UN Security Council to punish the Iranian president for violating international genocide laws, by insisting that the International Criminal Court bring charges of financing “genocide” against Hugo Chavez for supposedly backing the FARC rebels that Colombia went into Ecuador to kill. Uribe is a busy man, so it’s understandable that he forgot to give any evidence, details, or proof to support his claims.

After awhile, Colombia’s accusations even began to sound like bullshit to the US. Now that’s irony. US officials said Colombia’s claim that FARC was seeking uranium should be treated with extreme skepticism, and requested to review the supposed laptop with all this wonderfully incriminating evidence on it. As for the FARC attack inside Ecuador, which started this whole mess, the US has still refused to confirm or deny its participation in the raid (which means we were heavily involved). It’s been known that the US provides the Colombian military with satellite intelligence and communications to locate FARC, as well as $5 billion (with a B) since the year 2000.

Despite the common knowledge of illegal US ties with Colombia, their joint assassination operations, and Colombia’s invasion of Ecuador, it’s President Chavez who is once again being painted as the bad guy for recently calling the Colombian operation on Ecuadorian soil a “war crime”. It’s true of course, but how dare he say it.

Diplomatic relations and hostage negotiations are all fucked up now, and somehow it’s gotta be all Chavez’s fault. Go get the bastard Keith. Make Murrow proud. Wait, did I say Murrow? I meant ExxonMobil.

February 16th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

That tyrant Hugo Chavez is at it again. This time he’s picking on poor lil’ ExxonMobil by outrageously choosing the interests of Venezuelan citizens over those of foreign corporations. It’s a shame that Chavez is preventing Venezuelans from enjoying the same level of corporate-sponsored democracy that we have here. What a dictator.

The state oil company of Venezuela said on Tuesday that it has stopped selling crude to ExxonMobil Corp in response to the US oil company’s court bid to freeze billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets.

ExxonMobil is locked in a dispute over the nationalization of its Venezuelan oil ventures that has seen Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threaten to cut off all supply to the US. Venezuela is currently the US’ fourth largest oil supplier.

Tuesday’s announcement by state-run Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, was limited to ExxonMobil, which PDVSA accused of “judicial-economic harassment” for its efforts to freeze the company’s assets in US and European courts.

PDVSA said it “has paralyzed sales of crude to ExxonMobil” and suspended commercial relations with the Irving, Texas-based company.

“The legal actions carried out by the US transnational are unnecessary … and hostile,” PDVSA’s statement said. The company vowed to honor any existing contracts it has with ExxonMobil for joint investments abroad, but reserved the right to terminate them if the terms of the contracts allowed.

It was unclear how much oil PDVSA supplies to ExxonMobil, the world’s largest oil company. Both Chavez and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez previously said the company is no longer welcome to do business in Venezuela.

read more…

February 13th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

As my fellow baby-eating pinko readers know, I often post favorably about the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. On Monday, we expanded our vision of South America by delving into an analysis of Bolivia’s revolution with Pepe Escobar. Now ladies and gentlemen, I present you with a documentary from almighty investigative journalist Greg Palast regarding Ecuador’s struggle against The Man.

Palast interviews an indigenous tribe which is suing Chevron for $12 billion for destroying large areas of the Amazon rainforest. Apparently, they got that figure from Doctor Evil, but I sure as hell hope they get every penny. You can’t put a high enough price tag on the Amazon. In fact, there’s a certain paradox I just made up which states that the exact amount of money required to purchase the Amazon would require the Amazon itself to be cut down to provide enough lumber for the paper money. Okay, enough of this jibba jabba. Watch the videos.

In part 2, Palast interviews Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa regarding the lawsuit against Chevron, foreign debt, and his relationship with the US and Venezuela. After marinating in the plastic rhetoric of Obama and Clinton for so long, hearing Correa speak is almost like coming into contact with an alien (the outer space kind you racist bastards). If you want to observe a real liberal in office, you’ll have to look south. We ran out of those in this country decades ago.

February 11th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Social revolutions against the ruling elite continue to change the political face of South America. The tide is quickly turning, and if revolutions in places like Bolivia and Venezuela continue to succeed against the efforts of US-backed opposition, perhaps the American people themselves will soon find the courage to follow suit. Despite what Democrats (who always settle for the lesser of two evils) may say, true liberation is possible for North Americans as well. It’s simply a matter of time before the slaves of the Western world fully revolt against their masters.

h/t to Steve from COA News for the video.

February 11th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States in an “economic war” if the Texas-based oil giant Exxon Mobil wins court judgments challenging Venezuela’s right to hold a majority share in four oil projects. Venezuela’s oil industry was nationalized 30 years ago, but Exxon Mobil is still going after its state oil company in US, British, and Dutch courts.

A British court has already frozen $12 billion USD in assets. Exxon Mobil and Houston-based ConocoPhillips are disputing the terms they were granted last year as minority partners for the four heavy oil projects in the Orinoco River basin, one of the richest oil deposits in the world, in international court as well. Hopefully, Chavez will be forced to stop holding our oil hostage under his country’s landscape.

Chavez rightly accused Exxon Mobil of being one with Washington as part of corporate “worldwide mafias”. During his weekly radio and television program, Chavez said, “I speak to the US empire, because that’s the master: continue and you will see that we won’t send one drop of oil to the empire of the United States.” He continued, “The outlaws of Exxon Mobil will never again rob us.”

Due to the billions from Venezuela’s oil revenue benefiting the country’s citizens rather than Western corporations, oil companies have been challenging Chavez’s right to nationalize projects through various lawsuits. “If the economic war continues against Venezuela, the price of oil is going to reach $200 (a barrel) and Venezuela will join the economic war,” Chavez said. “And more than one country is willing to accompany us in the economic war.” America is Venezuela’s top client, importing 1.23 million barrels of crude oil a day.

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January 25th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

It is widely thought that Chavez was referring to unprocessed coca leaves (which you chew), and not coca paste (which you smoke). Coca leaves have been used in South America for centuries to make tea with a stimulant effect similar to strong coffee. However, the puritanical hysteria towards anything strange and indigenous was too much for the uneducated dopes at Faux News to resist. They used their ignorance of both the plant and socialism to accuse Chavez of being a cokehead “dictator”. Then they did something shocking, even for the fucks at Faux: They accused Sean Penn, Danny Glover, Naomi Campbell, Oliver Stone, and Kevin Spacey of being coke addicts as well for their political beliefs. That’s some mighty fine reporting there.