The War on Democracy

The U.S. is at it again – trying to overthrow a Latin American government and claiming it is in the name of democracy. This time it is Venezuela. It’s an old game and the corporate media is falling for it again. Journalist John Pilger gives us a little historical background in his 2007 film The War on Democracy. This documentary demonstrates the brutal reality of the US’s notion of 'spreading democracy', which actually amounts to a war on democracy. True popular democracy is now more likely to be found among the poorest of Latin America whose grassroots movements are often opposed in the west. For nearly 20 years our governments have been working to destabilize Venezuela, weakening the economy so that it can now play the “good guy” and send in “humanitarian aid.”

Journalist John Pilger conducts an exclusive interview with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. He also goes to the United States and in some remarkable interviews, speaks exclusively to US government officials who ran the CIA's war in Latin America in the 1980s. This reveals more about US policy than all the statements and postures of politicians; it also reveals how what's happened in Latin America is a metaphor for how the rest of the world is being "ordered." The War on Democracy, however, is a hopeful film, for it sees the world not through the eyes of the powerful, but through the hopes and dreams and extraordinary actions of ordinary people. Although set mostly in Latin America, it is a metaphor for all the world.