spartan
24th March 2008, 16:51
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/24/venezuela
Peruvian leaders cry foul as Chavez expports healthcare
· 400,000 Latin Americans take up free surgery offer
· Humanitarian schemes are political front, says Lima
The plane door opened and the elderly visitors, all visually impaired and in some cases blind, shuffled out slowly and carefully into Venezuela.
Disease, age and poverty had stolen their eyesight but now they were in the land of Hugo Chávez and that was about to change. A scheme called Misión Milagro - Mission Miracle - had flown them here from Peru for free surgery which would transform their lives.
A portrait of Venezuela's president gazed down from the airport terminal. "It is thanks to Chávez we are here," beamed Rosario Vilcavilca, 88, a peasant farmer in a traditional highland skirt.
Mission Miracle has helped 400,000 impoverished Latin Americans see again and cast Venezuela's revolutionary leader as the region's humanitarian benefactor.
Critics, however, see an agenda behind this and other Venezuelan-linked initatives. They claim Chávez is trying to export populist leftwing rebellions and further tilt the region away from US influence.
Peru waded into the fray last week by accusing Venezuela of funding Peruvian militants under cover of humanitarianism. It said dozens of anti-poverty centres which have sprung up across Peru to promote Mission Miracle, among other schemes, were fronts for political agitation which may have fuelled protests against the government's free market economic policies.
Many centres were linked to a radical leftist organisation known as the Continental Bolivarian Committee, claimed the prime minister, Jorge del Castillo.
"No sovereign country needs to accept actions of other sovereign countries that are done under the table" he said. "Venezuela should act through normal channels."
The president, Alan García, has backed a congressional investigation into the allegations that Chávez is trying to destabilise one of South America's few centre-right governments.
Peruvian police have arrested nine suspected militants who allegedly received cash and directions from Venezuela via leftwing allies Bolivia and Ecuador. Most of the suspects were said to be former members of the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, a guerrilla group which had faded since the 1990s.
The anti-poverty centres, whose bank and telephone records are expected to be checked, deny any agenda beyond helping people access education and healthcare.
Venezuela's ambassador to Lima, Armando Laguna, said Caracas was not offering financial or ideological support to Peruvian militants and said if Peru had proof it should expel him.
There is an unashamed political tinge to the eye-surgery visits to Caracas. Patients are greeted at the airport by officials wearing T-shirts with revolutionary slogans and ushered aboard red buses.
Some of the Peruvian arrivals said their gratitude to Venezuela's president would boost support for Ollanta Humala, Chávez's Peruvian protege who narrowly lost a presidential bid and has vowed to run again. "We're all Chavistas on this bus. Viva Humala!" said Santiago Sanchez.
But it did not add up to subversion. These elderly Peruvian visitors, stricken with cataracts, glaucoma and other ailments were about to have their sight restored courtesy of a pioneering initiative to spread the benefits of Venezuela's oil wealth. Upon returning home they would sing Chávez's praises but seemed unlikely to foment rebellion.
Venezuela also denied another Peruvian allegation - that Venezuela's new embassy in La Paz, Bolivia, would stir indigenous unrest across the region. "It will be a simple building, bigger than the one we have at the moment as we need more space but the rumours about it being a place for training and propaganda are completely false," said Luis Oblitas, a diplomat.
There is no doubt Chávez is seeking to project his influence across South and central America and the Caribbean. He is estimated to have spent up to £18bn on foreign aid largely through subsidised oil and soft loans. He has also promoted trade deals to lure nations out of Washington's ambit.
The question is whether he is breaking laws and infringing sovereignty, something the US practised for decades by sponsoring rightwing coups and shoring up dictatorships.
Opposition movements in Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua claim Chávez has made clandestine payments to their governments to shore up his anti-American alliance. Prosecutors in Argentina are investigating a suitcase filled with $800,000 in cash allegedly destined for the election campaign of President Cristina Kirchner, another Chávez ally. Both vehemently deny it.
More seriously, Colombia has alleged that Venezuela's president gave, or planned to give, $300m to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). Chávez has scorned the claim but makes no secret of his sympathy for Marxist guerrillas who are deemed narco-traffickers and terrorists by Europe and the US.
Hawks in Washington want Venezuela added to the US list of state sponors of terrorism, bracketing it with Iran and North Korea. So far the Bush administration has demurred rather than risk disrupting Venezuela's oil flow.
For impoverished Latin Americans such as Luis Nieto, a 67-year-old Ecuadorean who is almost totally blind and has been shortlisted for surgery through Mission Miracle, the politicking is irrelevant. "If Hugo somehow benefits, fine, good for him." What matters to Nieto is having his vision restored. "If I can see again," he said, a smile creasing his face. "Now that, that would be something."
Thoughts?
It seems to me that the Imperialists and their puppets will just about use anything to try and make an enemy look bad, even when that so called bad thing is helping treat people with curable illnesses for free when they otherwise couldnt afford medical care in "good" countries like the US and Peru.
It says alot about the current state of Imperialism when they have to sink this low to critiscise an anti-Imperialist state.
Peruvian leaders cry foul as Chavez expports healthcare
· 400,000 Latin Americans take up free surgery offer
· Humanitarian schemes are political front, says Lima
The plane door opened and the elderly visitors, all visually impaired and in some cases blind, shuffled out slowly and carefully into Venezuela.
Disease, age and poverty had stolen their eyesight but now they were in the land of Hugo Chávez and that was about to change. A scheme called Misión Milagro - Mission Miracle - had flown them here from Peru for free surgery which would transform their lives.
A portrait of Venezuela's president gazed down from the airport terminal. "It is thanks to Chávez we are here," beamed Rosario Vilcavilca, 88, a peasant farmer in a traditional highland skirt.
Mission Miracle has helped 400,000 impoverished Latin Americans see again and cast Venezuela's revolutionary leader as the region's humanitarian benefactor.
Critics, however, see an agenda behind this and other Venezuelan-linked initatives. They claim Chávez is trying to export populist leftwing rebellions and further tilt the region away from US influence.
Peru waded into the fray last week by accusing Venezuela of funding Peruvian militants under cover of humanitarianism. It said dozens of anti-poverty centres which have sprung up across Peru to promote Mission Miracle, among other schemes, were fronts for political agitation which may have fuelled protests against the government's free market economic policies.
Many centres were linked to a radical leftist organisation known as the Continental Bolivarian Committee, claimed the prime minister, Jorge del Castillo.
"No sovereign country needs to accept actions of other sovereign countries that are done under the table" he said. "Venezuela should act through normal channels."
The president, Alan García, has backed a congressional investigation into the allegations that Chávez is trying to destabilise one of South America's few centre-right governments.
Peruvian police have arrested nine suspected militants who allegedly received cash and directions from Venezuela via leftwing allies Bolivia and Ecuador. Most of the suspects were said to be former members of the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, a guerrilla group which had faded since the 1990s.
The anti-poverty centres, whose bank and telephone records are expected to be checked, deny any agenda beyond helping people access education and healthcare.
Venezuela's ambassador to Lima, Armando Laguna, said Caracas was not offering financial or ideological support to Peruvian militants and said if Peru had proof it should expel him.
There is an unashamed political tinge to the eye-surgery visits to Caracas. Patients are greeted at the airport by officials wearing T-shirts with revolutionary slogans and ushered aboard red buses.
Some of the Peruvian arrivals said their gratitude to Venezuela's president would boost support for Ollanta Humala, Chávez's Peruvian protege who narrowly lost a presidential bid and has vowed to run again. "We're all Chavistas on this bus. Viva Humala!" said Santiago Sanchez.
But it did not add up to subversion. These elderly Peruvian visitors, stricken with cataracts, glaucoma and other ailments were about to have their sight restored courtesy of a pioneering initiative to spread the benefits of Venezuela's oil wealth. Upon returning home they would sing Chávez's praises but seemed unlikely to foment rebellion.
Venezuela also denied another Peruvian allegation - that Venezuela's new embassy in La Paz, Bolivia, would stir indigenous unrest across the region. "It will be a simple building, bigger than the one we have at the moment as we need more space but the rumours about it being a place for training and propaganda are completely false," said Luis Oblitas, a diplomat.
There is no doubt Chávez is seeking to project his influence across South and central America and the Caribbean. He is estimated to have spent up to £18bn on foreign aid largely through subsidised oil and soft loans. He has also promoted trade deals to lure nations out of Washington's ambit.
The question is whether he is breaking laws and infringing sovereignty, something the US practised for decades by sponsoring rightwing coups and shoring up dictatorships.
Opposition movements in Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua claim Chávez has made clandestine payments to their governments to shore up his anti-American alliance. Prosecutors in Argentina are investigating a suitcase filled with $800,000 in cash allegedly destined for the election campaign of President Cristina Kirchner, another Chávez ally. Both vehemently deny it.
More seriously, Colombia has alleged that Venezuela's president gave, or planned to give, $300m to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). Chávez has scorned the claim but makes no secret of his sympathy for Marxist guerrillas who are deemed narco-traffickers and terrorists by Europe and the US.
Hawks in Washington want Venezuela added to the US list of state sponors of terrorism, bracketing it with Iran and North Korea. So far the Bush administration has demurred rather than risk disrupting Venezuela's oil flow.
For impoverished Latin Americans such as Luis Nieto, a 67-year-old Ecuadorean who is almost totally blind and has been shortlisted for surgery through Mission Miracle, the politicking is irrelevant. "If Hugo somehow benefits, fine, good for him." What matters to Nieto is having his vision restored. "If I can see again," he said, a smile creasing his face. "Now that, that would be something."
Thoughts?
It seems to me that the Imperialists and their puppets will just about use anything to try and make an enemy look bad, even when that so called bad thing is helping treat people with curable illnesses for free when they otherwise couldnt afford medical care in "good" countries like the US and Peru.
It says alot about the current state of Imperialism when they have to sink this low to critiscise an anti-Imperialist state.