Between The Lines - Steve Ellner: Activists in Unsuccessful 2002 Coup d'état Now Leading Venezuela's Protests (Week Ending March 7, 2014)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

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Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

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Activists in Unsuccessful 2002 Coup d'état Now Leading Venezuela's Protests

Posted Feb. 26, 2014

Interview with Steve Ellner, lecturer at the Universidad de Oriente in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, conducted by Scott Harris

After anti-government protests took to the streets in western Venezuela early in February, they spread to other parts of this oil-rich nation, where violence has broken out between many middle-class students and police. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who has been in office just 10 months after his predecessor and mentor Hugo Chavez lost his battle with cancer last March, has vowed to quell the violence while also calling for peace talks with opposition groups. More than a dozen people on both sides have been killed, with an estimated 150 injured and 500 arrests.

Protesters have demanded Maduro’s resignation over a rising crime rate, high inflation and a shortage of food and other basic goods. But Maduro, elected by a small margin in April following Chavez’s death, has accused the United States of fomenting the unrest, and expelled three American Embassy staff who he says have encouraged opposition protests. The U.S. in turn recently expelled three Venezuelan diplomats from Washington.

Protest leader Leopoldo Lopez, arrested after a demonstration he led devolved into rock throwing and arson, is associated with the unsuccessful U.S.-supported coup attempt against Hugo Chavez in April 2002. Despite U.S. government and media sympathy for the protesters, Maduro retains substantial support from Venezuela’s poor majority who have benefited from his United Socialist Party’s social programs. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Steve Ellner, professor of economic history at the Universidad de Oriente in Puerto La Cruz in Venezuela, who discusses the anti-government protests and violence in Venezuela, with a focus on opposition group's objectives and their relationship with Washington.

STEVE ELLNER: The protests were actually surprising. I think they took the whole country by surprise because elections had just taken place in December, and the Chavistas did quite well. They received a vote of ten percentage points above the united opposition. So it looked like at that point that the government of Nicolas Maduro was firmly in control. But there is a problem of ongoing shortages, and it had intensified in the last several months, so that outbreaks of violence took place in the border state of Táchira, bordering on Colombia two weeks ago, and they spread throughout the country, especially the western part of Venezuela, a little bit in the eastern part as well, and certainly the capital city Caracas.

One aspect of these protests that I may emphasize is that they are almost exclusively taking place in middle class and upper middle class areas; you know, the barrios where the poor people live and the "popular" sectors are concentrated are almost 100 percent exempt from the violence that is taking place. For instance, in Caracas, Caracas is neatly divided: the eastern part of Caracas is mostly middle and upper middle class, and the western part of Caracas is exclusively "popular" sector, as well as the downtown area. And the violence in Caracas, the protests and disruptions have taken place pretty much exclusively in the eastern part of Caracas. The same thing in the industrial city of Ciudad Guayana; it’s divided, the Caroní River divides it between San Felix, which is popular and has not had any violence or protests at all, and Puerto Ordaz which is middle class and upper middle class, where considerable violence has taken place.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Now the protesters in the streets are talking about their dissatisfaction with government policies and rising violent crime, corruption, and the shortage of food and other basic goods, as you mentioned Steve. But what are the stated objectives of these protests?

STEVE: The slogan of the protests is, in Spanish, Salida. Salida means exit. And the protesters are calling on the government — the president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, to resign.

Now you may say, well, that means that he would resign, and there would be a constitutional process in which the second in command according to the constitution would take over. But the person who would become president if Maduro were to resign, is the second in command of the Chavista movement, Diosdado Cabello. And the opposition certainly is not calling for that. So that it is generally recognized, by everybody, both the opposition people and Chavistas, and observers as well, that really what’s at stake here is regime change — that’s what the opposition is calling for. The protests are not really centering on specific demands; there are specific issues — you mentioned three of them, especially the lack of security, as well as the inflation and shortages. Those are issues, but the protesters are not putting forth specific demands.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Venezuelan government officials have discussed cables, leaked by WikiLeaks, some of them several years old. And U.S. government officials have responded saying, these are old and outdated; they don’t really relate to the current situation in Venezuela. Do we have evidence that the United States government is involved in any way in supporting these opposition groups and the sometimes violent street protests?

STEVE: Yes. These WikiLeaks documents do demonstrate U.S. — not necessarily direct involvement — but certainly communication, and being much aware of what is happening, and taking very definite positions in favor of the opposition, favoring those who are out to destabilize Venezuela.

The other point is that on several occasions, the Chavista government has expelled diplomats from Venezuela. Over the last year this has happened twice; it just happened a few weeks ago, and it happened prior to that about six months ago. And one of the diplomats who was expelled from Venezuela had traveled throughout Venezuela, met with an NGO that is very much involved in the anti-Chavez movement, whose former vice-president is Maria Corina Machado, who is one of the radical anti-Chavistas. And then the diplomat went to the state of Amazonas, which is one of the few states in which the governor belongs to the opposition. So obviously, there is activity on the part of the U.S. Embassy that I think would indicate goes beyond just collecting data. There is more of an activist role. Exactly what that role is, I can’t really say.

Steve Ellner is the author of the forthcoming book, “Latin America’s Radical Left.” Find more analysis of the situation in Venezuela by visiting venezuelanalysis.com.