Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Venezuela, oil and political interference?
This press release came out on Sept 10th.
I find it interesting that the official subject concerns "foreign government's efforts regarding trafficking in persons" (officially, the determination addresses the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, Division A of Public Law 106-386)
Apparently Venezuela is one of several countries that isn't doing enough to address the problem of human trafficking, yet rather than imposing sanctions we are planning to "help" them in a few ways.
The final paragraph of W's September 10th (note that it was released on a Friday right before the Sept 11th anniversary, perhaps in an effort to avoid drawing much attention?) determination about the Trafficking Victims Act as it relates to Venezuela states:
Is this somehow W's way of using a piece of legislation aimed at solving a human rights problem to potentially meddle in the politics of a foreign country with a natural resources which we are keenly interested in? If I'm reading this correctly, we can participate in activities promoting the purposes of the Act (perhaps supporting political parties opposed to Chavez?), or that are otherwise in our national interest (oil, perhaps? which Chavez has vowed not to let the US control). Hmmm.
Here are a couple more sources of info about the act. The first summarizes the sections and the second has the exact text from the act.
¶ 10:57 AM
This press release came out on Sept 10th.
I find it interesting that the official subject concerns "foreign government's efforts regarding trafficking in persons" (officially, the determination addresses the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, Division A of Public Law 106-386)
Apparently Venezuela is one of several countries that isn't doing enough to address the problem of human trafficking, yet rather than imposing sanctions we are planning to "help" them in a few ways.
The final paragraph of W's September 10th (note that it was released on a Friday right before the Sept 11th anniversary, perhaps in an effort to avoid drawing much attention?) determination about the Trafficking Victims Act as it relates to Venezuela states:
Determine, consistent with section 110(d)(4) of the Act, with respect to Venezuela, for all programs, projects, or activities designed to strengthen the democratic process, including strengthening of political parties and supporting electoral observation and monitoring, that provision to Venezuela of the assistance described in sections 110(d)(1)(A)(i) and 110(d)(1)(B) of the Act for such programs, projects, or activities would promote the purposes of the Act or is otherwise in the national interest of the United States. (italics mine)
Is this somehow W's way of using a piece of legislation aimed at solving a human rights problem to potentially meddle in the politics of a foreign country with a natural resources which we are keenly interested in? If I'm reading this correctly, we can participate in activities promoting the purposes of the Act (perhaps supporting political parties opposed to Chavez?), or that are otherwise in our national interest (oil, perhaps? which Chavez has vowed not to let the US control). Hmmm.
Here are a couple more sources of info about the act. The first summarizes the sections and the second has the exact text from the act.
¶ 10:57 AM
