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1.US Should Kill Venezuelan President
2.Venezuelans are right to back Chavez
3.Chavez bans GM, cancels Monsanto contract

EXCERPTS: "a whole lot cheaper than starting a war." (item 1)

The problem for the Bush administration is Chavez's commitment to using Venezuela's oil revenues for the benefit the people of Venezuela, rather than U.S. oil companies and their shareholders. Chavez also banned genetically modified seeds, which of course, doesn't please Bush's friends at the Monsanto Corp. (item 2)
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1.Reverend Pat Robertson Says US Should Kill Venezuelan President

On Monday's broadcast of "The 700 Club" Robertson said the United States should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Associated Press, 22 Aug 2005
http://www.wfmynews2.com/news/local_state/local_article.aspx?storyid=47339

Virginia Beach, VA -- The founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network says the United States should assassinate Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez.

On Monday's broadcast of "The 700 Club," the Reverend Pat Robertson said, "We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability."

Chavez, who often expresses strident opposition to US policies and influence, has spent the last several days in Cuba meeting with the island's communist leader Fidel Castro.

Calling the president of oil-rich Venezuela a threat to US security, the Reverend Robertson said assassinating Chavez would be "a whole lot cheaper than starting a war." He added, "It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and get it over with."
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2.Venezuelans are right to back Chavez
The Ithaca Journal, Aug 22 2005
http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050822/OPINION03/508220312/1014

After reading your recent guest column written by Marshall Stocker (Venezuela is Cuba all over again, July 15) and taking in comments like "Venezuela's fascist dictator" and "The Venezuelan revolution is a disaster. Any other conclusion is delusional", I had difficulty believing that Mr. Stocker was referring to the Venezuela that has made so much progress bringing health care, education, hope, and dignity to impoverished Venezuelans.

Hugo Chavez is a very popular leader, who not only won a fair and open election in 2000 with 59 percent of the vote, but his popularity and legitimacy were reaffirmed when he won another landslide victory in a recall vote demanded by the U.S. backed opposition in 2004.

Conspicuously absent from Mr. Stocker's opinion piece was any mention of the fact that President Chavez was removed from office in 2002 through a coup that was funded and supported by the Bush administration. Fortunately, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets, demanding and achieving his return to power. The people of Venezuela and the people of Cuba enjoy a mutually rewarding relationship. Cuba purchases Venezuelan oil at reduced prices, and in return, trains doctors, teachers, and other professionals, bringing health care and education to impoverished Venezuelan's who have gone far too long without them.

The problem for the Bush administration is Chavez's commitment to using Venezuela's oil revenues for the benefit the people of Venezuela, rather than U.S. oil companies and their shareholders.

Chavez also banned genetically modified seeds, which of course, doesn't please Bush's friends at the Monsanto Corp. The Venezuelan People have the right to decide for themselves if Hugo Chavez is the man they want to move their country forward. So far, they have spoken very clearly at the ballot box and in the streets.

Henry Hansteen
Enfield
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3.Cultivation of genetically modified crops to be prohibited on Venezuelan soil
April 21, 2004 (excerpt only)
Bylined to: Jason Tockman, Venezuelanalysis.com
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=17960

President Hugo Chavez Frias has announced that the cultivation of genetically modified crops will be prohibited on Venezuelan soil, possibly establishing the most sweeping restrictions on transgenic crops in the Western Hemisphere. Though full details of the administration's policy on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are still forthcoming, the statement by President Chavez will lead most immediately to the cancellation of a contract that Venezuela had negotiated with the US-based Monsanto Corporation.

Before a recent international gathering of supporters in Caracas, President Chavez admonished genetically engineered crops as contrary to interests and needs of the nation's farmers and farm workers. He then zeroed in on Monsanto's plans to plant up to 500,000 acres of transgenic soybeans in Venezuela. "I ordered an end to the project," said President Chavez, upon learning that transgenic crops were involved. "This project is terminated."

President Chavez emphasized the importance of food sovereignty and security -- required by the Venezuelan Constitution -- as the basis of his decision. Instead of allowing Monsanto to grow its transgenic crops, these fields will be used to plant yuca (an indigenous crop), Chavez explained. He also announced the creation of a large seed bank facility to maintain indigenous seeds for peasants' movements around the world...

Read on at http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3307