The Chavez Code: Cracking US Intervention in Venezuela

When in 2005 Bush ally and Christian fundamentalist Pat Robertson called for Chavez's assassination ("It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war"), public outcry forced some questions: Was that, in fact, a CIA goal? Did the US have plans to invade Venezuela (as Chavez alluded to receiving intelligence about on Nightline in September 2005)? And exactly what was the extent of US knowledge of or involvement in the April 2002 coup against Chavez? (He was back in power within two days, after 250,000 took to the streets in Venezuela to protest.)

Venezuelan-American attorney Eva Golinger and journalist Jeremy Bigwood have used the US Freedom of Information Act to obtain government documents about US intervention in Venezuela. The Chavez Code contains this irrefutable evidence that, at the very least, the US knew about the plot to overthrow Chavez before it happened. The history of US interventions across Latin America, the suspicious blacked-out lines and pages, and the ongoing investigation suggest an even darker tale.

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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

Crappy research leading to crappy conclusions., 2008-05-06
A few quotes from somebody who actually *checked* the sources:

"In every case involving a specific quote linked by footnote to a specific U.S. official document in the book's appendix, VenEconomy found that none of the statements she attributes to various U.S. diplomats in the main text of the book are found there."

"Golinger claims in her biographical description that she obtained "ultra-secret" CIA documents through the FOIA. This is untrue. The CIA documents in question were never even designated as classified documents. They consisted of intra-government security briefings the CIA provides daily to a restricted number of U.S. government officials. The reports are confidential, but they are not secret."

"VenEconomy read the documents in the appendix, and then consulted other documents at her web site, and none of the documents substantiate her claim."

"Golinger claims on page 103 that the CIA had "detailed knowledge" about the coup against Chávez that could only mean the CIA was in close direct contact with the conspirators. However, the CIA documents she cites are not any different in content than the reports that were being published and broadcast daily during those tense days in April 2002 by the Venezuelan news media."

"Golinger cites former CNN correspondent Otto Neustadt's alleged claim that on April 10, one day before the march against Chávez ended in death by gunfire in downtown Caracas, he was approached by a group of generals and admirals that wanted to pre-tape a message to be shown on April 11 after people had been killed and injured. Neustadt lost credibility. He was sacked by CNN soon after the events of April 2002 because unedited videotape he transmitted to CNN's world broadcast center in Atlanta contained outtakes that showed the CNN reporter had a close personal relationship with then-Vice President Diosdado Cabello. CNN's management concluded that Neustadt was compromised professionally and they terminated his employment contract."

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

US meddling, 2007-11-12
The book is well researched and backed by official documents. The facts seem to irritate some people.

The US was a shining example in the 50's, it has since become like a big locust, it reaches around the world consuming natural resources at an alarming rate, destroying the environment as it does so. Relegating the peoples of their own countries to second class status. Deposing democratically elected leaders. All for the purpose of capitalism, not democracy.

This is not about the spread of Democracy or Socialism, particularly when the US is known to incite insurrection against a democratically elected leader and throw its support behind military dictators who commit human rights violations such as Marcos, Pinochet, Noriega, Franco, etc.

Greed.

This is all about control of world resources and the US companies are losing control around the globe. When they are not allowed to consume someone else's resources at will, the Govt. quickly moves to label that leader in an unfavorable manner, then tries to depose him or her. We would think in the year 2007 the US would have grown up to a point where it simply trades for goods instead of trying to control all goods.

In South America, Hugo just happens to be the most outspoken of the various Presidents. Another problem for the US is that Chavez and the Iranian Pres both want to change selling their oil from the petrodollar (US dollar) to the Euro. (Btw, Saddam made that same threat.) All of a sudden these two have become the biggest threats to democracy? More like a huge threat to US dollar which has been backed by oil since the changeover from the gold standard in the 70's.

I'd like to see your next book delve more into the oil situation and how its sale is tied to the US dollar. I think it would give people a better understanding of why the US meddles in other country's internal affairs, particularly OPEC member and resource rich countries.


4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

Trustworthy information, 2007-05-14
If you've ever doubted that the US played a part in the Venezuelan coup against Chavez, or suspected that the charges against the US were trumped up by the left, read this and weep. The Freedom of Information Act has released documents that cannot lie, that reveal the extent to which we were complicit once again in trying to overthrow a democratically elected government. This is a fabulous book, and the author has paid a high price for speaking truth to power. You can read this with complete confidence that in these pages is at least a part of the truth.


7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

A Well-Researched Document, A Gripping History, 2007-02-06
"The Chavez Code" is the most important book for Americans to read when wanting to know about Venezuela's revolution and the Bush regime's intense efforts to stop it. Eva Golinger here chronicles the impressive rise of Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution and the amazing failed coup that was pulled off in 2002. Golinger educates the reader with great information and interesting insights, revealing here how Chavez has been dismissed by Washington since first enterting office in 1998, we find out that even in his first days as President the Clinton White House was pressuring him not to visit Cuba before hitting Washington because it would "look bad" (Chavez defied the bullying and still went to Havana first). But the most important and gripping chapters deal with the obvious American intervention taking place in Venezuela, why? Because Chavez has brought a socialist system to the country where the nation's oil wealth is not controlled by a small, white minority. This has of course ticked off the country's rich oligarchy and U.S. corporations which are scared stiff of nationalizations. Golinger provides damning, documented evidence of U.S. involvement and it's knowledge that a coup was in the works. In impressive detail she shows us how much of Venezuela's media has been manipulated to stir chaos and violence through obviously CIA-funded propaganda (think of Fox News times ten). The privately-owned networks have been used to spread false information and were used especially during the coup to shut the public from what was really happening. As Golinger informs us, these tactics are not new and were most famously used by the CIA in Chile during the elected, socialist government of Salvador Allende, who was overthrown by the cruel dictator Augusto Pinochet in a U.S.-backed coup. In "The Chavez Code" we learn the disturbing, documented lengths to which the fascists in Venezuela will go to try and starve their country in order to stir chaos, in on case one of the nation's richest food company barons ordered his workers to dump milk into rivers in order to help spark a shortage. During the coup the frightening attitudes of the coup leaders were displayed when the installed puppet president disassembled congress, shredded the constitution and said everything was fine. When the coup failed due to public outcry, Chavez was brought back by the people, and of course the private TV stations never covered it, they ran cartoons instead. "The Chavez Code" shows us that the age-old tactics of fascism are not dead at all but very well alive and supported by our government. It is a chronicle of a nation striving to better itself and find new means to change society, but the battle against tyranny is hard and here Golinger does a great service to the cause of spreading the truth, because in this day and age, the truth is the most important tool we have.


9 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

Superb study of the US state's illicit intervention in Venezuela , 2007-01-29
Eva Golinger, an American-Venezuelan lawyer and graduate of New York Law School, has produced a remarkable book based on documents obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act. They show how the US state has schemed incessantly to overthrow Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez.

The USA funds opposition movements across Latin America, through its `National Endowment for Democracy'. Since 2000, the US state has spent $34 million to `promote democracy' in Venezuela. This would seem unnecessary, as Venezuela has held three elections and a referendum since 1998. In these open and fair elections, the people of Venezuela elected Chavez as their President three times. Each time he won about 60% of the vote.

In January 2002, the Catholic Church came out against Chavez and backed the opposition. The National Endowment for Democracy increased its funding to the opposition just before the April 2002 coup. Documents prove that the US state knew all about the coup plot. On the day of the coup, the US state at once declared it legitimate and tried to get other governments to do so too. Coup leader Carmona announced that he was dissolving the National Assembly, the Supreme Court and the Constitution. After the coup failed, the State Department gave the NED another $1 million, which it promptly gave to the coup plotters!

In December 2002, the US state called for `early elections', which, just as in the USA, are not allowed under the Constitution. It backed the opposition's next ploy, a 64-day lockout, miscalled a `general strike', which cost Venezuela $10 billion. On its second day, US Secretary of State Colin Powell met Carmona in Colombia.

The US state claimed that Cuban troops and Colombian guerrillas were operating in Venezuela to support Chavez. Later it claimed that Al Qa'ida had terrorist training camps in Venezuela. Needless to say, both claims were outrageous lies: Brigadier General Mixon, the US Southern Command's director of operations, reported, "The Southern Command has no information about Venezuela supporting terrorists."

New US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice accused Chavez of interfering in the internal affairs of other nations! In January 2005, she said that Venezuela belonged in Latin America's equivalent of the `Axis of evil'. In October 2005, the US Army published its `Doctrine for Asymmetric War against Venezuela'. Last year, the US Defense Department called Venezuela a `growing threat'. The US state allows anti-Chavez Cuban and Venezuelan militia groups to run terrorist training camps in the Miami area.

And, as with all the US state's aggressions and interventions, the British state is fully complicit. So the Labour government backs the US threat to Venezuela's sovereignty and independence. For example, Blair told Parliament on 8 February 2006, "It is rather important that the government of Venezuela realise that if they want to be respected members of the international community they should abide by the rules of the international community." It is the US state, not the government of Venezuela, which continually breaks international law by interfering in the internal affairs of other nations.

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