I've written enough stories about Venezuela and Hugo Chavez' slow march towards totalitarianism. I'd been hoping to just let the issue rest for a while and focus on more pleasant parts of the world. Most people seem to have made up their minds about Chavez, either against him or for him despite all the evidence, so they probably aren't listening anyway. But when I start getting news digests from the services I subscribe to and they fill my email with story after story of things going sour in Venezuela, I can't ignore it because no matter how predictable or inevitable, it's news and deserves to at least be noted.
It's already old news that when tens of thousands of student protesters took to the streets of Caracas, Chavez had the army attack them and ultimately had masked chavista thugs gun down 8 students on the university campus in the grand Latin American death squad tradition. This was all because of Chavez' campaign to change the Venezuelan constitution to allow more complete autocratic control. Voters are being urged to approve 69 revisions to a constitution which is already weak and provides too little protection for the Venezuelan people. In addition to a highly publicized provision to allow Chavez to rule indefinitely, changes include authority to shut down all media outlets solely on presidential authority and to arrest citizens and hold them indefinitely without charges.
As part of that campaign in a speech this week Chavez declared that anyone who votes against his proposed constitutional changes in the December 2nd election is a traitor who is "against me, against the revolution and against the people." Clearly implied is the fact that under Chavez' rule those he considers traitors are going to face serious consequences for their betrayal.
Chavez' attempt to threaten his own people seems to have had the opposite of the desired effect as the most recent poll shows likely voters split 49% to 39% against Chavez' proposed constitutional revisions. That might still be enough for a win if Chavez' followers use the same intimidation tactics which have kept opposition voters away from the polls in past elections, but it certainly makes Chavez look bad.
Earlier this month another Chavez speech didn't go so well when the oil princes of OPEC gave a cold and bewildered response to his attempts to exhort them to use oil as a weapon in a grand crusade against imperialism. With comments which sounded like they thought that what Chavez called imperialism was a pretty good thing representatives from the major middle eastern oil producers dismissed Chavez' cry for unity against the US and voted against proposals supported by Chavez and his political allies in Ecuador and Iran. Abdalla el-Badri, OPEC's Secretary General dashed Chavez' hopes when he summarized the view of OPEC's ruling oligarchs: "we are not using the oil we sell to the world as a political weapon."
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - brian
Dave: 'I've written enough stories about Venezuela and Hugo Chavez' slow march towards totalitarianism'
and thats all they are Dave, stories by an obsessed fanatic.
2 - brian
Dave: 'Most people seem to have made up their minds about Chavez, either against him or for him despite all the evidence, so they probably aren't listening anyway.'
You need to read your own writing...YOUVE made up your mind, and invent stories to fill up that empty space.
en eg:
'Despite all of Chavez' claims of reform and wealth redistribution the sad reality is that Venezuela's GINI rating which represents the gap between rich and poor has gotten worse, not better, from .44 to .48 under Chavez' rule. Wealth has been redistributed, just not to the poor.'
This is real desperation....its also completely bogus, as is your link:
'Problem with link
Unfortunately the link you have requested on Economist.com is not valid.
If you followed this link from another website, you may wish to inform the referring site that link is invalid.'
HAhahaha
3 - Lapdog
Why worry about Chavez in Venezuela when there's a crazy gang of thugs in the White House?
I mean get serious for a moment.
Bush and his gang are war criminals but you're freaking out about Chavez who's only crime is trying to give the poor in his country a head start.
The Venezuelan pie is going to be divided up a bit more evenly and the greedheads are having fits. As I've said before, if they don't want to be part of a just society they're free to leave.
Chavez is on the right track and I hope he stays on it for the next 10 years at least.
Here's an honest look at Venezuela.
4 - brian
Dave: 'Through all of this, Chavez sails on as a popular demagogue, posturing, making speeches, raising his fist and using threats and hollow promises to bind the people to him as he gradually closes the fist of tyranny on every aspect of life in Venezuela'
He is popular and the mass of people love him for making promises and keeping them; so before you lose any more hair, dave, i suggest you consult them barrio poor, who make up Chavez base (as opposed to Bushs 'base')
'Bush gazed around the diamond-studded $800-a-plate crowd and commented on the wealth on display.
"This is an impressive crowd - the haves and the have-mores," quipped the GOP standard-bearer. "Some people call you the elites; I call you my base."' CBS News report
5 - brian
Dave: 't's already old news that when tens of thousands of student protesters took to the streets of Caracas, Chavez had the army attack them and ultimately had masked chavista thugs gun down 8 students on the university campus in the grand Latin American death squad tradition'
Moer lies peddeld by an obsessive compulsive...and YOUR link returns this:
'404 - Page Not Found
This might be because you typed the web address incorrectly. Please check the address and spelling ensuring that it does not contain capital letters or spaces.
It is possible that the page you were looking for may have been moved, updated or deleted.'
Those snipers are like the onesin april 2002....unidentified but clearly antichavistas
6 - Lapdog
With help from the New Statesman we get both sides of the story:
"Skirmishes in major Venezuelan cities in recent weeks have culminated in a shoot-out in Caracas at the Central University on 7 November, leaving nine people injured."
Read the rest including the comments
7 - Dave Nalle
Why Brian, I'm sorry. The RTF editor for some reason inserted extra spaces at the end of the URLs. I've fixed it for you because I know how eager you are to read some actual facts about Venezuela.
Now back to your regularly scheduled shilling.
dave
8 - Lapdog
Nalle's scare tactics re the constitutional revisions are really getting tedious. I'm going to tack up this Rational observation by Prof. James Petras and then make a cup of delicious organic fair trade espresso coffee.
"The amendments providing for unlimited term elections is in line with the practices of many parliamentary systems, as witnessed by the five terms in office of Australian Prime Minister Howard, the half century rule of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, the four terms of US President Franklin Roosevelt, the multi-term election of Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair in the UK among others. No one ever questions their democratic credentials for multi-term executive office holding, nor should current critics selectively label Chavez as an 'authoritarian' for doing the same."
There's more honest commentary on the amendments here.
9 - Dave Nalle
Last time I checked the Australians, Japanese and British didn't have thugs stationed outside the polls to remind people how to vote, Lapdog. That makes a big difference when it comes to getting elected president for life.
And how about the provisions allowing Chavez to declare a state of emergency and arrest people without any kind of due process and hold them indefinitely?
But thanks for linking to that article. I hadn't realized prior to this that Global Research was a tranzi front group. The bias in that article makes their lack of objectivity abundantly clear.
All you have to do is look at the changes Chavez is pushing and if you have any ability to think for yourself the possibilities for abuse are impossible to ignore.
Dave
10 - Clavos
"All of the country's vast petrochemical wealth which Chavez promised to use to alleviate the suffering of the pot is instead going into the pockets of a new class of corrupt officials and favored businesses in a system which looks a lot more like fascism than Bolivarian socialism."
True, but it should also be noted that even more of the petrodollars are leaving the country; some to shore up inept and bumbling "allies" like Evo Morales in Bolivia and Fidel Castro in Cuba (more than $2 BILLION this year alone), Rafael Correa in Ecuador, and to subvert governments of countries opposed to him (Colombia). He's also sending enormous amounts of money to countries he hopes one day will align with him (Argentina).
This is money that belongs to the people of Venezuela, but they get no say-so in its distribution to foreigners.
11 - Clavos
"the four terms of US President Franklin Roosevelt,"
Poor example; for reasons we all know....
12 - Dave Nalle
True, Clavos. One of the articles I linked to had a bizarre story about a Chavez agent caught entering Argentina with a suitcase full of cash.
What I find ironic is all the fuss raised over the efforts of the US to help negotiate Iraq's oil revenue deal which includes substantial distributions to the general population, while not one squawk is raised about how venezuela mismanages their petrodollars.
dave
13 - Clavos
Chavez is systematically (but ignorantly) destroying the economy of a country that has the potential of being one of the richest in the world. In addition to the GINI, he's got uncontrollable inflation and a severe balance of payments problem, as well as rising national debt, which he's exacerbating by selling gasoline at prices radically below market, despite the fact that he has to buy the gasoline elsewhere, due to his lack of refinery capacity.
What irony. If it weren't so serious it would make a great Keystone Kops comedy.
The sad part is that those who vote for him are largely not sophisticated or educated enough to see what he's doing with their economic future and patrimony, so they keep voting for him because he promises them improvements in their lives which are mostly undelivered so far.
And BTW, I'm more convinced than ever that brian and lapdog work for him; they were on this article like ducks on a junebug.
14 - troll
Dave - this is an opinion piece
did you label it 'news' simply to get an argument going over 'journalistic integrity' again- ?
15 - troll
*This is money that belongs to the people of Venezuela*
really - ? I imagine that just as in the US the money belongs to the government to spend and distribute as 'representatives' of the people
further - isn't your sentiment a bit insincere - ? where was the upset during the years that foreign investors drained the country's wealth - ?
16 - troll
if Chavez is able to build a more or less independent South American Union won't the investment have been worth it - ?
...btw lack of refinery capacity is being addressed in several countries in SA as well as in Syria
17 - T
Hugo Chavez is a madman. My wife is Venezuelan. We've seen the bodies on the street after Armed Chavistas break up a peaceful pro-democracy rally. 8 students dead? It's nothing new. Anonymous threats against peoples families? It's happened to her father.
Every year you go to Venezuela the degration of everything hits you in the face. More people on the street. Infrastructure collapse. Complete lack of staple goods. Milk, flour, sugar, gone. Chavez helping the poor? The army of homeless, desolate, unemployed is expanding exponentially. The ranchos stretch as far as you can see in every direction. On the coast, in Caracas, Maracaibo. They get bigger every time I go. Before Chavez downtown Caracas was beautiful, now everywhere you look are homeless. Mostly lower wage workers that were downsized since the economic reforms have crushed the country.
He puts up a low price grocery store that has no food in it, waves a flag. "See what the great Chavez does for you!" It's like cutting a man with an axe and then praising yourself for giving him a band-aid.
And it is going to get worse.
Venezuela was positioned to be the most powerful country in Latin America. Caracas was called the Paris of South America. Now I feel safer in a Bangkok alley at 3am than downtown Caracas at noon.
Everyday I pray none of my friends there are part of an "accident" simply because they signed a petition.
Chavez has positioned his goons in every branch of government. He owns the legislative and judicial branches. He even owns the electoral committee. There is no way to oppose him. You can't vote him out when he counts the votes (something we Americans should think of with electronic voting).
I hate to say this, but the only way Venezuela will ever repair itself is for Chavez to have an accident like he has sentenced so many to.
18 - troll
T - I'm sad to say: prepare yourself to be attacked as a fraud and an agent of the wealthy opposition...or a 'Nalle clone'
eye witness reports are not welcomed here by those who give their unwavering support to Chavez
19 - Franco
#17 "T
Very interesting information and very thankful to receive it. I too hope he will be taken out by one of his own.
Stick around and you will see what troll means in post #18.
20 - Franco
#18 "troll
T - I'm sad to say: prepare yourself to be attacked
Battle stations troll, nnaw " nnaw " nnaw- dive!, dive!, dive!, " nnaw " nnaw " nnaw.
eye witness reports are not welcomed here
I sware I about fell out of my chair.
troll, you have gone from humanist to guerilla jungle fighter is the year I have known you. Now I’m not complaining or putting down, as I will have to confess too that some causes warrant to measure. Who’s going point today?