Hugo Chavez’ Illness and Dirty Tricks
February 3, 2013
On January 16 this year the Organization of American States organized an action which is a part of outright dirty war operation. Panama's Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) Guillermo Cochez said the Venezuelan Constitution was «violated» when the Chavez scheduled inaugural address speech was postponed because of his illness. The President was to take office on January 10. According to the decision of Venezuelan Supreme Tribunal of Justice (the Supreme Court) the inauguration ceremony was delayed to take place sometime later.
Actually everything was clear concerning the issue. A Supreme Court of sovereign states has taken a decision. Calling its ruling into question at an Organization of American States session is an outright interference into another state’s internal affairs. Still the Panama’s Ambassador Cochez expressed doubts about the legitimacy of the Venezuelan Supreme Court’s actions under the cover of Inter - American Democratic Charter. Then he explained that there was a country that didn’t match the democracy standards in the Western Hemisphere. According to Cochez, democracy was paramount and there was a member state at the roadside of OAS going around the basic principles of the organization’s Charter. These words resembled very much the ones said about Cuba when it was ousted from the Organization under the United States pressure, it all goes to show unambiguously who exactly was behind the Ambassador’s attacks against Venezuela and the Latin American states that rebuff the US hegemony.
Cochez compared the Bolivarian government to the past dictatorships of Stroessner, Batista, Trujillo and Somosa. According to the Panama’s Ambassador, the internal issues, including top leaders health problems, should be discussed freely in real democracies. He expressed doubts the Venezuelan people were given full and trustworthy information about the Chavez’s state of health. He called upon the colleagues to adhere to the principles mentioned above while considering the issue to avoid becoming accomplices in the violations of Venezuelan Constitution.
The scandalous and ill-intentioned speech evoked immediate response for Roy Chaderton Matos, the Ambassador of Venezuela in the OAS. In immediate response to Cochez, Chaderton was scathing: "Mr. Ambassador of Panama, I won't allow your aggression towards my country and my government, nor your venomous and miserable comments about the health of President Chávez, whom surely, following orders of your government, you wish to die." From his criticism of the Panamanian government Chaderton moved to the personal qualities of Willy Cochez: "You are neither a politician, nor a diplomat, nor a gentleman, you are a lout." Chaderton doubted the Panama’s government had previously approved the Cochez’s speech. He wished «to talk to the owner of the circus, not a clown» (1). No doubt, the Venezuelan diplomat meant the US while referring to the owner of the circus. Over three years Cochez has been countering the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (in Spanish: Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América, or ALBA) in the Organization of American States day in day out. It hardly met the foreign policy interests of Panama, but fully matched the North American ones (the United States of America and Canada). He managed to get away with these kinds of tricks before, but this time it was not Venezuela only offended. He also attacked José Miguel Insulza Salinas, a Chilean politician and statesman, who is currently the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, who, allegedly, facilitated destructive trends inside the international body.
The Panama's Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Guillermo Cochez, was dismissed the next day by the president of Panama Ricardo Martinelli. It came to light the diplomat had received the instructions to abstain from disputes with the Venezuelan Ambassador and ALBA representatives. The Panama’s Foreign Minister had told him to do so by phone and in the written form. It was a rare occasion he was told what to do in such a detailed way. Obviously the Panama’s Foreign Ministry received the information the US State Department wanted to use Cochez to launch the debates devoted to the «Venezuelan issue». Cochez ignored the instructions sent from above and actually confirmed the fact that he considered the US Department of State to be his main employer. Otherwise it’s hard to explain why the Panama’s diplomat would come out is support of radical Venezuelan opposition giving interviews to the newspapers El Unirersal, El Nacional and Golobovision TV news network without paying much attention to wording (he said Chavez was «fully paralyzed», «dying» «incapable»).
Right after being fired Cochez got involved in the activities to spread around the fake clip allegedly showing Chavez on an operating table. It’s not easy to believe the posting of the fake clip was a mere improvisation.
Italian freelance journalist Tommaso De Benedetti saw a YouTube clip shot in 2008 showing a man resembling Chavez on an operational table. The journalist made pictures and tried to sell them to some European newspapers. Spanish El Pais, that has been waging a war against «the Chavez regime», took the bait. The Newspaper’s editors say they checked the authenticity of pictures. They asked Moisés Naím a Venezuelan writer and columnist, living in the United States and Yoani Sánchez, a Cuban blogger, which has a reputation of intensively cooperating with the CIA, for their expertise. Now, could the people, who devoted their lives to the fight against «dictatorships» in Venezuela and Cuba be impartial? They confirmed the authenticity of the pictures and an El Pais edition saw light with the picture of Chavez on the cover. That’s exactly what was needed. The matter is the US special services normally use El Pais, El Mundo, ABC and other leading Spanish newspapers materials to target Latin America.
The photo was revealed as a fake by Venezuelan TV journalist Walter Martínez, the Dossier program’s anchorman. It sparked panic in El Pais. The edition was urgently withdrawn and reprinted no matter it meant additional expenditure.
Miami is the place where the radical opponents of the Bolivarian regime live. José Rafael Marquina, an impostor, pretending to be Chavez’s attending doctor, spreads around concoctions about the President’s illness and state of health and prospects for recovery.
His Twitter posts have made him rather well-known among the circles involved in information attacks against Venezuela. In a few months he has launched about 150 invented news reports related to the President’s health to make readers pessimistic about the recovery prospects. He mainly tried to make believe Chavez gets worse every day, the Cuban experts fail to cope with the problems emerged, fatality is unavoidable, the process of central power being weakened without a strong hand is unavoidable in Venezuela, and the things inside the country may get out of hand. The Chavez opponents pick the inventions up and spread them around social networks to be repeated by media in the form of alleged «genuine news from reliable Cuban sources». These muddy waters are used by Emili Blasco, the ABC correspondent in Washington, for getting «reliable information». The man is a CIA agent involved in subversive activities against Venezuela. The Venezuelan opposition, instigated from outside, demands «a team of trusted people, including members of parliament and doctors» be sent to Habana. They say if the President is alive then he is practically interned and is under full Cuban’s control. The Cubans actually control Venezuela through their agents – Vice President Nicolas Maduro and Diosdado Cabello, the President of the National Assembly. There is hue and cry raised over the prospects of rescuing Chavez from «Cuban prison» – another good example of black deeds propaganda operations.
The head of the National Assembly Diosdado Cabello commented on the formal vision of the way the Chavez illness is highlighted, saying the best way not to cause anxiety among people was to tell the truth. The opposition wanted the President to be in trouble. That’s why they doubt everything the formal sources say. He added the opposition had great experience of concocting stories trying to demoralize the people and the Chavists. According to Cabello, he told Chavez about the demonstrations in support of Bolivian revolution and the incumbent President while visiting him on Habana. Chavez called on the supporters not to lose vigilance in the conditions of plots orchestrated by imperialism and the right wing forces. He said a lie should be defeated by the truth.
1. In Spanish «polemizar con el dueño del circo y no con el más animado vocero circense».