Mumia Abu-Jamal -- The Venezuelan Vote

The Americans have targeted the Chavez regime, ostensibly because of the anti-democratic nature of the regime. In fact, as in a nation on the other side of the world, rap about 'democracy' masks something else. Venezuela matters to Washington because of one thing — oil.

And it isn't that Venezuela isn't interested in selling its prize natural resource to the Americans — it is. It's that a truly independent Venezuela, one which chooses its own friends, which dares to establish its own foreign relations, creates a bad example for other Latin American nations, which are almost all under the heel of U.S. business and International Monetary Fund (IMF) domination.

In April, 2002, the U.S. backed a military-business coup against President Hugo Chavez, when the nation's leader was taken prisoner, and wealthy oil interests named Pedro Carmona to head an unconstitutional, military-backed government. Venezuelans wouldn't accept it, and took to the streets in massive numbers to oppose the Carmona dictatorship