The Kochs have giant refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas. They can't use Texas oil because it's not heavy and filthy enough, so they have to take almost all their oil from Venezuela. ...more
On January 23, right after a phone call from Donald Trump, Juan Guaidó, former speaker of Venezuela's National Assembly, declared himself president. No voting. When you have official recognition from The Donald, who needs elections? ...more
The fact that the party of the late Hugo Chavez lost two-thirds of the seats in Venezuela’s congress puts a lie to the canard that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela as created by Chavez is some kind of dictatorship, a nasty bit of propaganda long pushed by the US mainstream press.
For BBC, I covered Venezuela elections. There, they count the votes—unlike in the Third World dictatorships of Florida and Ohio.
I know the leader of the opposition, Julio Borges, just as I knew Chavez and the current President Nicolas Maduro.
Borges is no right-wing fascist. It’s important to note that the opposition did not run against Chavez or his legacies and policies. Rather they ran against a sclerotic government, too long in office, petty corruption—and the crushing reality of oil income cut by more than half.
Chavez’ revolution is permanent. The redistribution of wealth and power to the Black and Indian population from the white “Spaniards” is irreversible.
Chavez is gone but Chavismo lives despite the crying and moaning of the world financial elite.
Ironically, Chavez’ socialist party is the victim of the success of its policies: young people, who did not know the crushing poverty and hopelessness that reigned before Chavez, are now college grads, clamoring to maintain the middle-class lives they’ve come to expect.
Chavez would be pleased with the triumph of the real democracy he created.
In honor of this affirmation of democracy, our foundation will offer a free download of “The Assassination of Hugo Chavez.”
And next year, may democracy return to the USA.
Greg Palast in Sarajevo, near where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot, tracing the trail of rogue financier ‘Goldfinger.’ (Photo: Richard Rowley for BBC-TV. The first ten readers to find Palast in the photo, will get a free copy of the film of this story, Vultures & Vote Rustlers.)
Happy birthday, World War One! Walking the mortar-cratered streets of Sarajevo, Bosnia, I was reminded that World War I started here, and World War II and World War III, World War V and VI and the current World War IX. Here in the city where the ghosts of Muslim, Catholic, Orthodox and Jewish victims outnumber the living, as I hunted another corpse-chewing financier, it became clear to me that the endless parade of war is not about a clash of civilizations, but the CASH of civilizations.
Before the Panzers rolled into Poland, they rolled into …more
For Vice Magazine
London, February 2002. A tiny, dark and intense woman waited at the end of a lecture until I was alone, brought her face strangely close to mine and whispered, “President Chavez needs you. Right now. To Caracas. Right now. You must come to see him.†
President Who? All I knew about this Hugo Chavez guy was that he was an Latin-American jefe, led a bungled coup and was filled with a lot of populist bullshit and a lot of oil.
And I also knew that no one at BBC Newsnight …more
Over the years many things have been said about Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez but rarely has the true story of the man Pat Robertson called “a dangerous enemy” been told – that’s what I’ve done in The Assassination of Hugo Chavez.
Since the main stream media has decided that Chavez is “a ruinous demagogue” (NYT) – I’ve decided to release my film, The Assassination of  Hugo Chavez for free. You can download it for free at the link, or leave a small donation so that we can continue making films like this.
Watch the Trailer
Thanks,
Greg Palast
Ecuador’s president promises punishment
after day of chaos.
Rafael Correa promises ‘no forgiveness’ for those involved in uprising, as opposition politicians are accused of staging a coup.
Ecuador remains in a state of siege with the military in charge of public order.
President Rafael Correa is promising to punish his enemies a day after a police rebellion triggered mayhem.
In February 2008 Greg Palast met with Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. They discussed the Lawsuit against Chevron, Eradicating Foreign Debt and Why He Says “Ecuador is No Longer for Sale”
for TomPaine.com/Ourfuture.org
Originally published 6 March
Do you believe this?
In early March Colombia invaded Ecuador, killed a guerrilla chief in the jungle, opened his laptop – and what did the Colombians find? A message to Hugo Chavez that he sent the FARC guerrillas $300 million – which they’re using to obtain uranium to make a dirty bomb!
That’s what George Bush tells us. …more
This week, Colombia’s military invaded Ecuador, killing a guerrilla leader hiding there. Undoubtedly, the invasion, which has brought Ecuador, Colombia and their border-mate Venezuela, to the bring of war, was meant to undermine the new, progressive, and very popular government of Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s new President.Correa, shining new star of South America’s rising Left, and an ally of President Hugo Chavez, granted an extraordinary interview to Greg Palast, Correa’s only English-language interview of his presidency.
Watch or listen to an excerpt as broadcast two weeks ago on Democracy Now!
And catch Palast’s interviews with President Hugo Chavez for BBC Newsnight and on-the-ground investigations on the DVD, “The Assassination of Hugo Chavez.” Trailer here.
Bush: If it’s our oil, why do Venezuelans get to vote on it?
GOP panicked that counting votes in Venezuela will spread to Florida
Monday December 3, 2007
The Family Bush can fix Florida. They can fix Ohio. But it’s just driving them crazy that they can’t fix the vote in Venezuela.
[Note: Watch the reports taken from the Palast BBC investigations in Venezuela in the newly released DVD, “The Assassination of Hugo Chavez.“]
The Bush Administration and its press puppies – the same ones who couldn’t get enough of the purple thumbs of voters of Iraq – are absolutely livid that this weekend the electorate of Venezuela had the opportunity to vote.
Typical was the mouth-breathing editorial by the San Francisco Chronicle, that the referendum could make Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s President, “a constitutional dictator for life.” And no less a freedom fighter than Donald Rumsfeld, from the height of the Washington Post, said that by voting, Venezuela was “receding into dictatorship.” Oh, my!
Given that Chavez’ referendum was defeated at the ballot box, we now know that, as a dictator, Chavez is a flop. Of course, without meaning to gainsay Secretary Rumsfeld, maybe Chavez is not a dictator.
Let’s get clear exactly what this vote was about. Firstly, it was a referendum to change the nation’s constitution to end term limits for President.
Oh, horror! Imagine if we eliminated term limits in the US! We could end up stuck with a president – like Franklin Roosevelt. Worse, if Bill Clinton could have run again, we’d have missed out on the statesmanship of Junior Bush. While US media called Chavez a “tyrant” for suggesting an end to term limits, they somehow forgot to smear the tyrant tag on Mr. Clinton for suggesting the same for the America.
We were not told this weekend’s referendum was a vote on term limits, rather, we were told by virtually every US news outlet that the referendum was to make Chavez, “President for Life.” The “President for Life” canard was mis-reported by no less than The New York Times. …more
Greg Palast investigates for BBC Newsnight –
Chevron: “Nobody has proved that crude causes cancer.”
Wednesday, November 27 – Available on Democracy Now!
BBC Television Newsnight has been able to get close-in film of a new Cofan Indian ritual deep in the heart of the Amazonian rainforest. Known as “The Filing of the Law Suit,” natives of Ecuador’s jungle, decked in feathers and war paint and heavily armed with lawyers, are filmed presenting a new complaint in their litigation seeking $12 billion from Chevron Inc., the international oil goliath.
It would all be a poignant joke – except that the indigenous tribe is suddenly the odds-on favorite to defeat the oil company known for naming its largest tanker, “Condoleezza,” after former Chevron director, US Secretary of State Condoleezza 
Rice.
For Newsnight, reporter Greg Palast, steps (somewhat inelegantly) into a dug-out log canoe to seek out the Cofan in their rainforest village to investigate their allegations. Palast discovers stinking pits of old oil drilling residue leaking into drinking water – and meets farmers whose limbs are covered in pustules.
The Cofan’s leader, Emergildo Criollo, tells Palast that when Texaco Oil, now part of Chevron, came to the village in 1972, it obtained permission to drill by offering the Indians candy and cheese. The indigenous folk threw the funny-selling cheese into the jungle.
Criollo says his three-year son died from oil contamination after, “He went swimming, then began vomiting blood.”
Flying out of the rainforest, past the Andes volcanoes, Palast gets the other side of the story in Ecuador’s capitol, Quito. “It’s the largest fraud in history!” asserts Chevron …more
Reporting from Lago Agrio, Ecuador
Wednesday November 14 
Before The Lord spoke unto Pat Robertson and told him to endorse Rudy Giuliani, family man, for President, the Reverend got a message that higher powers wanted him to arrange a hit on another President:
“Hugo Chavez thinks we’re trying to assassinate him. I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it.”
Robertson has a tough time separating Church and Hate. But when the vicious vicar declared it was time to take out the President of Venezuela, he was simply channeling the wishes of the Supreme Authority, Dick Cheney.
I’m asking you to see the story they don’t want you to see in the USA: from the original investigations filmed for BBC Television, “The Assassination of Hugo”– a special DVD documentary by myself and Rick Rowley. NOT for general release – ONLY available as a gift to donors to the not-for-profit Palast Investigative Fund. Check out the trailer for the film here.
Why must they kill Chavez?
With the help of guerrila cameraman Rick Rowley (“Fourth World War”), I flew to Caracas to get the answer – from Chavez himself. I also talked to the guy who took Chavez hostage in 2002. (I had to wear a wire for that one.)
The answer is right underneath Chavez’ feet. Oil. How much? According to the inside documents that fell into my hands from the Department of Energy – LOTS of oil, five times the reserves of Saudi Arabia.
The DVD includes Chavez himself, in our extended exclusive interviews. We go over the Bush plans – for his oil, and for his “elimination.” Sing along with the crooning champion of the poor – or, as George Bush titles him, “a demagogue awash with oil money.”
Watch the film – from Caracas malls to the oil tankers by helicopter – the story I guarantee you won’t get on the Petroleum Broadcasting System.
PLUS two incredibly important reports: “Ecuador: Oiled and Despoiled” – my journey into the mud for Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now, PLUS “Florida Con Salsa” – the theft of the Presidential Election in Mexico 2006.
Donate at least $50 and I’ll sign’m and send’m to you – or to whomever you designate for the holidays.
Make that donation at least $75 and I’ll also send you, signed, “Assassination” AND “The Elections Files,” my investigations for BBC, from the original report that busted open the phony “felon” purge by Jeb Bush to never-before-released interviews with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and fired prosecutor David Iglesias on “caging” voters and the scheme to steal the next election.
Your tax-deductible donation keeps us digging for “Just The Facts, Ma’am.” I’m writing this in the rain forest in Ecuador, where oil is prevalent as snakes- but more poisonous. We donate our films to Democracy Now. BBC pays for some of our effort – but not the expensive work of investigation. That’s your job. YOU produce our work.
“Palast’s stories are so relevant they threaten to alter history.” – Chicago Tribune
“Palast … is twisted and maniacal.” Hon. Katherine Harris
“America’s best investigative reporter … and the funniest.” Randi Rhodes, Air America Radio
**************
The Palast Investigative Fund is a 501c3 not-for-profit educational foundation. All donations are tax deductible. 100% of your donation goes to pay our out-of-pocket expenses and investigative team. (Note: Greg Palast takes no fee from the fund.) Make a donation and I’ll send you a signed gift, personalized in appreciation for your help. Or write “NO GIFT” and we’ll just send a note of our gratitude. Real reporting is real expensive – and you make it possible when Corporate Media won’t.
As George W. Bush visits Latin America this week the war of words between Chà vez and Bush continues. For BBC Newsnight, Greg Palast investigated what is really behind all the rhetoric and headlines.
Watch the BBC Report:
Chavez rules out return to cheap oil ...more
Not only has Chavez delivered cheap oil to the Bronx and other poor communities in the United States. And not only did he offer to bring aid to the victims of Katrina. In my interview with the president of Venezuela on March 28, he made Bush the following astonishing offer ...more
Greg Palast reporting for BBC Newsnight
First Broadcast 3 April 2006
Why Venezuela has Voted Again for Their ‘Negro e Indio’ President
There’s so much BS and baloney thrown around about Venezuela that I may be violating some rule of US journalism by providing some facts. Let’s begin with this: 77% of Venezuela’s farmland is owned by 3% of the population, the ‘hacendados.’ …more
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