US Works To Delegitimize Venezuela's December Presidential Election

Venezuela is politically polarized. We witnessed the extremes of this during a dinner with lawyer and author Eva Golinger. Some very drunk opposition supporters recognized Golinger as author of The Chavez Code and a strong Chavez partisan. Some of them surrounded our table and began screaming at Golinger and the delegation, calling us "assassins" "Cubans," and "Argentines." The verbal abuse went on for long minutes until waiters ejected the most out-of-control anti-Chavez woman. We were later told that she worked in the Ministry of Justice, highlighting one of the many contradictions arising from the fact that Chavez' Bolivarian revolution came into power democratically through the ballot box rather than by force of arms. Armed revolutions generally sweep opponents out of government jobs and places of influence such as the media, but in Venezuela many in the opposition are still in the civil service and most of the media is virulently anti-Chavez. The one issue that unifies both the opposition and the supporters of the government is rejection of the Bush government's foreign policy. Nearly everyone we met with criticized President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The opposition uniformly volunteered that statements from the White House or State Department strengthened Chavez and, of course, supporters of President Chavez remember the attempted coup of April 2002 and the ongoing US hostility to the democratic advances they feel they have made. This year initially there were 23 candidates running for president from 86 political parties and organizations. Several have withdrawn. President Hugo Chavez and Zulia Governor Manuel Rosales are the leading contenders and a popular comedian is the only other candidate to top 1% in the polls. http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/print.php?artno=1860

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