OTI Funneling Money To Venezuelan Opposition Parties
On February 6 2006, an investigative report in the Christian Science Monitor revealed previously undisclosed details about a U.S. program to fund opposition organizations in Venezuela in the leadup to this year's presidential elections. The Office for Transition Initiatives, a little-known division of USAID, is chaneling millions of U.S. tax dollars to fund anti-Chavez organizations.
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Many Americans have raised concerns about similar efforts by the National Endowment for Democracy to fund non-democratic movements in Venezuela, but the scope of the OTI projects is exponentially larger. What's more, the OTI acknowledges that it is an "overtly political" organization, and will play a large role in Venezuela's presidential elections.
Since first elected in 1998, President Chavez has faced a failed coup attempt, a crippling nationwide oil lockout, and a referendum that attempted to cut short his term. Each time, massive popular support kept the president in office. It is time that the U.S. government accept the will of the Venezuelan people, and allow them to live by the principals of democracy without outside interference.
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