Danilo Anderson And Condoleeza Rice
by Toni Solo
On Tuesday November 16th, George Bush put forward Condoleeza Rice as his proposed Secretary of State to take over the
diplomacy of US warmongering from the outgoing fraud, Colin Powell. Two days later on November 18th leading Venezuelan
judicial prosecutor Danilo Anderson was killed in a car bomb attack eerily reminiscent of the murder of Orlando Letelier
and Ronni Moffit in Washington in 1976 by Cuban terrorists working for Augusto Pinochet and protected by the CIA. The
Venezuelan authorities believe Anderson was killed by two charges of C4 plastic explosive fixed to his car and detonated
remotely, apparently by cell phone. The timing of Rice's nomination and Anderson's murder are unlikely to be fortuitous.
With Rice's appointment, George Bush sustains the incestuous link between his regime and earlier, still extant,
plutocrat state terror Godfathers like George Bush Sr., James Baker and George Schultz. Rice, a protege of Schultz, the
former Bechtel president, could hardly be a more emblematic representative of the nexus between state terror and big
business. Chevron may have renamed the former "Condoleeza Rice" oil tanker "Altair Voyager", but that all-too-recent
link to an outfit boasting it "... now ranks among the most important international petroleum producers in Venezuela and
Colombia, is one of the largest private integrated oil companies in Brazil and is the third-leading producer in
Argentina." (www.chevrontexaco.com/operations/ docs/latin_america_caribbean.pdf) bodes ill for people in Latin America.
Why was Anderson murdered?
Danilo Anderson was an investigating magistrate in charge of several prominent and politically sensitive cases. His work
proceeded in the context of recent elections confirming overwhelming popular support for President Hugo Chavez. Among
the cases within Anderson's brief were those against the leader of a mob that attacked the Cuban Embassy in Caracas
during the failed coup d'etat of April 12th (2002) and against members of the Caracas Metropolitan Police accused of
unlawful attacks under opposition ex-mayor Alfredo Pena. Anderson was also processing cases against owners of Venezuelan
TV and Press media implicated in the April coup of 2002 as well as the signatories of the coup declaration overthrowing
the elected government.
Perhaps the most internationally sensitive case he was working on was that against the Sumate organization, a supposedly
impartial NGO funded by the CIA's companion organization the National Endowment for Democracy. In fact, Sumate actively
campaigned with US government money to defeat President Chavez throughout the long process ending in last August's
recall referendum. Such activity contravened Sumate's neutral non-profit status, breaking Venezuelan law in the process.
Writer and academic Heinz Dieterich has written cogently about Anderson's murder, "The menace of Danilo for Washington's
terrorist project was two-fold: he threatened one of its main instruments of power, Venezuela's corrupt class justice
system and too he was becoming a symbol of the honest patriot and servant of the majority of the new Bolivarian
nation....Danilo Anderson's murder shows that the subversion has made a qualitative leap to a generalised offensive.
From now on, people emblematic of the process whose death may have a high propaganda value for Washington will be in
danger. Likewise, the subversion will begin attacks against energy and transport infrastructure and carry out more
murders and incursions along the Colombian border...Looking back in history, we can say that the Bolivarian revolution
has entered the phase of the Cuban revolution of 1960 when the US-Cuban counter-revolution launched attacks, sabotage
and murders from nuclei in the Sierra Escambrey or, too, Nicaragua from 1983 onwards."
(http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=7885)
The silence from international media has been eloquent. An ever ready litmus test of mainstream media hypocrisy is to
check out the less reactionary media that preen themselves on their "balance". But if you review the web sites of UK
media like the Guardian, the Independent or the BBC you will look in vain for any report on the murder of Danilo
Anderson. Why is this? Presumably for the same reasons UN supervision of the murder and rape of opponents to the US
puppet regime in Haiti fails to make the news - lazy complacency, herd instinct, advertiser-conscious self-censorship
and jobsworth respect for the limits of dissent.
Rice on the April 2002 coup
In effect, mainstream media serve as the echo chambers of empire, colluding in imperial silences as well as projecting
hyperbolic PR spin. Condoleeza Rice's commitment to the subversion of Venezuela's elected government has been clear ever
since the coup of April 2002. The perversity of her analysis of Venezuelan affairs can be seen in this quote from NBC's
"Meet the Press" on April 14th 2002. Interviewed by Tim Russert after Chavez was returned to power by massive popular
demonstrations against the coup plotters, here's what Rice had to say:
"I hope that Hugo Chavez takes the message that his people sent him that his own policies are not working for the
Venezuelan people, that he's dealt with them in a high-handed fashion. And I hope what he said in his speech this
morning, that he understands that this is a time for national reflection, that he recognizes it's time for him to
reflect on how Venezuela got to where it is. He needs to respect constitutional processes....."
(http://embajadausa.org.ve/wwwh1789.html)
Perhaps only in the United States could an analysis so totally contrary to the facts be taken seriously. But the
profound mendacity of individuals like Rice is nothing new. Their conscious doublespeak - averring concern for democracy
while doing all in their power to destroy it - serves as a cover for deniable operations by Rice's shadowy covert
operations colleagues - operations like the murder of Danilo Anderson.
Destabilization - breaking out the standard tool kit
The United States terror machine has always used covert armed violence to complement bribery, political subversion,
economic thuggery, trade and aid blackmail, media falsification and electoral dirty tricks. Proof of the well-armed
subversion in Venezuela, probably abetted by United States covert agencies like the CIA, came on Tuesday, November 23rd
when a young lawyer wanted for questioning in relation to Anderson's murder died in a shoot out with Venezuelan police.
In his house the police found explosives, rocket launchers and missiles. The discovery is yet more evidence indicating a
well-financed terrorist network organized from outside Venezuela, based mainly in Colombia and the United States.
The Venezuelan authorities have good reason to be suspicious of US motives despite last week's statement by US
ambassador Brownfield condemning Anderson's murder. No action has been taken by US authorities against Venezuelan
opposition terrorist training camps in Florida or against opposition figures like well known Venezuelan actor Orlando
Urdaneta who recently in Miami publicly called for assassinations of leading members of the Venezuelan government.
Former Venezuelan army officers wanted by the Venezuelan courts in relation to the bombing of foreign embassies in
Caracas have found sanctuary in the US.
Similarly, earlier this year exiled and disgraced former President Carlos Andres Perez was widely reported calling for
the violent overthrow of Venezuela's elected government. Colombia protects the leader of the April 2002 coup, Pedro
Carmona. Venezuela has requested his extradition, so far without result. It's worth remembering that Colin Powell held
at least one meeting with the exiled Carmona in Bogota in December of 2002.
In June this year, Miami's Channel 41 TV station broadcast a programme featuring anti-Castro and anti-Chavez terrorists
in what was in effect a fundraiser. Counterpunch reported, "Adding weight to recent accusations of Venezuela's President
Hugo Chavez, former Venezuelan army captain Eduardo Garcia was also present in full uniform to discuss the help Comandos
F4 were giving in his efforts to bring down Chavez by force. Chavez has frequently charged that Miami Cuban-American
terrorist organizations are involved with Venezuelans seeking to assassinate him....The host of the Round Table program,
Randy Alonso, simply asked viewers to form their own conclusions after seeing such an astonishing program, commenting
that the message that Frometa gave was clear: his paramilitary organization was ready and trained--it just needed the
money. And, said Alonso, the money is there--$36 million recently earmarked by the US government to support such
groups." (http://www.counterpunch.org/wire06112004.html)
Continent-wide offensive
The Bush regime has begun to pay more urgent attention to Latin America. Just this month, Donald Rumsfeld visited
Nicaragua on his way to Ecuador for a summit meeting of Defence Ministers from the Americas. In Quito, Rumsfeld pressed,
among many other things, for the region's military to take on civilian policing roles. In Chile, President Bush himself
attended the Asia Pacific Economic Conference, making time also to visit Alvaro Uribe, propped up by
narco-paramilitaries as President of Colombia. Uribe's dismal repressive army dominated security regime has led to
increasing numbers of disappearances of members of the civil opposition and murders of trades unionists. President Bush
promised even more support from the US taxpayer for Colombia's state terrorist government.
As its economic position weakens in relation to Europe and Asia, the US plutocrat class-warrior government will
increasingly need to rely on control of Latin America to sustain their budget and trade profligacy. Everything they do
in Latin America is inter-related: trade and investment deals, military bases, ruthless pressure for more failed
neo-liberal policies through the IMF and World Bank, corporate pillage of energy and mineral resources, legal or illegal
introduction of genetically manipulated grains, insistence on multinational-friendly intellectual property rules,
training paramilitaries in Colombia, promoting subversion in Venezuela, continuing economic and armed terrorism against
the people of Cuba. The list of activity goes well beyond legitimate defence of US interests and reaches far into the
realms of terrorism and militarist aggression.
It is reasonable to suggest that when George Bush named Condoleeza Rice as his next Secretary of State, he signalled the
all clear for an escalation in covert action against opponents of US policy in Latin America. Danilo Anderson was the
first victim of that escalation in Venezuela. Rice's appointment and Bush's personal enthusiastic endorsement of Alvaro
Uribe sends a clear message that Venezuela in particular and Latin America in general can expect higher levels of US
government inspired terrorism from now on.
*************
Toni Solo is an activist based in Central America. Contact via www.tonisolo.net