Inventing Reality

They aren't irrelevant, but they aren't magic either. They're rarely even competent.

They're a bunch of dangerous fuckwits.

As to you saying "based" for Hugo fucking Chavez, you can fuck right off. The man was A monster and a coup attempt against a democratically elected government is never based. He should have been executed rather than just spending years.in prison.

History has shown repeatedly that if you let that sort of monster live after they attempt a coup, they will try again, And if they then succeed in gaining power, the death squads come out.

As to NED, they don't work with the CIA. They've been super careful about that. They do overtly what the CIA used to do covertly. This requires a level of credibility that working with the CIA would rob them of. they still spread right wing propaganda, but are even less competent about it than the CIA was when it had that role.

But no, they weren't involved in the 2002 coup attempt either, and Chavez had everyone involved murdered, because that's what dictators do, especially ones who pretend to be communist.

Really it's the Moonies you have to pay attention to. those fuckers have the unlimited purse strings you think the CIA has, and are willing to fund literaly Nazi death squads all over South America. They were a founding part of the School of the Americas, along with the John Birch Society.

The Moonies also played a major role in Iran Contra, the scandal that got the CIA "outreach" arm removed and transfered to NED, which came with at least some accountability as to where and how the money was spent.