Honduras and a Naked Woman in Venezuela

by Charlie Hardy

A few days ago I bought a copy of the Venezuelan daily, El Nacional, and asked God for forgiveness. Many years ago it was my favorite newspaper here. Now I feel I am sinning whenever I put two more bolivars into their coffers.

I wanted to see their coverage of the situation in Honduras. But what I quickly discovered on page three was their un-coverage of a woman. In a half-page ad, black and white, there was a naked woman! Don’t get excited. She wasn’t a French, Italian, or Venezuelan model. She could have been any ordinary barrio mother. Her arms covered her breasts. Her face looked sad. She almost appeared to have been beaten.

The white words that penetrated the blackness were: “The Social Property Law will take everything from you. NO to the Cuban law.” The ad was sponsored by “CEDICE.”

I mentioned the ad to a friend and he said that he had seen it also, “but Charlie that was a man, not a woman.” Was I going blind? No, he saw a similar ad in Ultimas Noticias. I found it. This one had a photo of a black man, also naked, with the same words.

Facing the ad in El Nacional was an article saying the law of social property that the National Assembly is discussing has nothing to do with private property. It is about the management of government lands. But that isn’t of importance to CEDICE. Its object is to terrify the Venezuelan population.

These ads are a good example of what is happening here. People are being told that the government is going to take away their homes, their businesses and even their children.

It is in the newspapers, on television, and even in handouts on the street.

A good question is: who is paying for all of this propaganda? Jeremy Bigwood and Eva Golinger have documented some of the funds that CEDICE and CIPE (an organization that calls CEDICE its “partner in Venezuela) have received from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). I also did a bit of checking back in 2003 and discovered that $490,441.00 was approved for the two organizations during the seven years from 1994 to 2000. Then, for some reason, $273,352 was approved for one year: 2002, the year of the coup d’état against Chávez.

If you check NED’s website today, you will see that they no longer give much specific information on Venezuela although it does say that CIPE was allotted a grant of $99,925 in 2008. But check Eva Golinger’s website, www.chavezcode.com, and you will be given a much clearer picture of the U.S. involvement in Honduras and in Latin America through the work she and Jeremy have done.

While President José Manuel Zelaya was on the plane trying to return to Honduras Sunday, he said that if the coup leaders succeed in Honduras, every president in the world will be threatened. It might have been something of an overstatement. Personally, I don’t think a coup is possible in the United States. (That might be because the military-industrial complex already controls the government). But what he said was certainly true in Latin America.

Before the ousting of Zelaya, there was an intensive media campaign against his government. The same is happening today in Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela to name a few of the countries where attempted coups are possible. Who is coordinating these efforts? I do not know. However, it is interesting to see that the NED website indicates CIPE also received grants in Argentina and Ecuador in 2008.

I think the ordinary person here in Venezuela sees through this propaganda. But what about the upper classes? Today I spoke to a fifteen-year-old youth who attends a private school here. Daily he has classes in French and twice a week in English. He told me he is “anti-Chavista.” “Why,” I asked. He replied because his mother is “anti-Chavista.” He then added that he doesn’t pay much attention to politics.

He may not, but he does have an opinion, and one that U.S. funded CEDICE and CIPE would like to multiply in all the social classes—and not just in Venezuela.

I bought El Nacional the other day to see what the opposition was saying about the recent events in Honduras. A naked woman told me that other coups are also in the making elsewhere.