Noam Chomsky -- Green Left
Oct. 21, 2006 -- At an Oct. 6 public meeting in Boston, U.S. dissident intellectual Noam Chomsky gave the following remarks on the threat posed to the radical governments of Venezuela and Bolivia by Washington in response to an audience member’s question:
Noam Chomsky: "We know that the US did support a military coup, which briefly overthrew [Venezuelan President Hugo] Chavez [in 2002] and the US had to back down when he was restored quickly, and also had to back down in the face of a very angry reaction in Latin America. In almost all of Latin America, there was a very angry reaction. They take democracy there more seriously then we do here.
"Right after trying to overthrow the government by force, the United States immediately turned to subversion, supporting anti-Chavez groups. That’s described in the press, the way it’s described is, the United States is supporting pro-democracy groups, which are opposed to President Chavez.
"Notice it’s true by definition that if you oppose the president, you are pro-democracy. It’s completely irrelevant that according to the best polls (Latin America has very good polling agencies which take regular polls on these issues around the continent) support for democracy has been declining -- not for democracy but for the democratic governments -- has been declining through Latin America, for a pretty good reason: the governments have been associated with neoliberal programs which undermine democracy -- IMF [International Monetary Fund], treasury department programs … There are exceptions, and the major exception by far is Venezuela.
Since 1998, when Chavez was elected, support for the elected government has been rising very fast. It’s now by far the highest in Latin America. He has won several elections that have been recognised to be free and fair, he has won numerous referendums, but he is a “dictator”, a tin-pot dictator, which is proven by the fact that our Dear Leader said so. And, since we are voluntary North Koreans, when the Dear Leader says it, it’s true. So therefore, he’s a dictator, and if you carry out subversion to overthrow him, that’s pro-democracy by definition …
We might ask ourselves how we would react if Iran, say, had just supported a military coup that overthrew the government in the United States and when they have to back off from that, immediately turned to supporting pro-democracy groups in the United States that are opposed to the government. Would we give them ice cream and candy?
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