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Letter from Venezuela's Communications Minister to the Washington Post
Jackson Diehl Deputy Editor, Editorial Page The Washington Post 1150 15th Street NW Washington, DC 20071 March 25, 2008
Dear Mr. Diehl,
Over the past several years, we have informed you of our concerns regarding the hostile, distorted and inaccurate coverage of Venezuela in your newspaper, and particularly on the Editorial Page. Previously, we communicated our alarm at the unbalanced reporting and writing on Venezuela during the period 2000-2006, which evidenced one-sided analyses and false claims regarding President Chávez's tendencies and events within the country. Since then, however, the Post coverage has gotten worse. More editorials and OpEds have been written this past year about Venezuela than ever before, 98% of which are negative, critical, and aggressive and contain false or manipulated information. We are therefore led to believe that the Washington Post is promoting an anti-Venezuela, anti-Chávez agenda.
President Chávez has been referred to in Washington Post editorials and OpEds during the past year as a "strongman", "crude populist", "autocrat", "clownish", "increasingly erratic", "despot" and "dictator" on 8 separate occasions and his government has been referred to 7 times as a "dictatorship", a "repressive regime" or a form of "authoritarianism". Such claims are not only false, but they are also extremely dangerous. The U.S. government has used such classifications to justify wars, military interventions, coup d'etats and other regime change techniques over the past several decades.
Far from a dictatorship, President Chávez's government has the highest popularity rating in the Venezuela's contemporary history and Chávez has won three presidential elections with landslide victories and several other important elections, including a recall referendum against his mandate in August 2004, which he won with a clear 60-40 majority. Hugo Chávez is the first president in Venezuela's history to include the country's majority poor population in key decision and policy-making. The creation of community councils that govern locally and the increase in voter participation are clear signs of a vibrant, open democracy, demonstrating that Venezuela is far from a dictatorship.
The Editorial Page inaccuracies and distortions extend beyond the mere labeling of President Chávez. On more than 11 occasions, editorials and OpEds have falsely claimed that President Chávez "controls the courts and the television media". Venezuela has five branches of government - all of which are autonomous from one other by Constitutional mandate: the Executive, the Legislative, the Judiciary, the Electoral and the People's Power. Unlike the United States, which allows for the Executive to appoint supreme court justices, in Venezuela, the high court magistrates are determined through a selection process and a vote in the National Assembly. The Executive branch in Venezuela plays no role in the assignment of judges to the courts. Communications media in Venezuela continues to be majority controlled by the private sector, despite what the Post Editorial Page claims.
Post editorials and OpEds also erroneously referred to the constitutional reform package last December on more than 8 occasions as enabling President Chávez to "rule indefinitely" or become a "de facto president-for-life". The Constitutional reform did seek to abolish term limits, but not elections. Venezuelans would still have the right and duty to nominate candidates and vote for them in transparent electoral processes. Interestingly, the Post made no similar accusations against President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia when he twice made moves to change constitutional law to permit reelection to a second term. Uribe succeded in 2004 and is now again seeking to amend that law so he can run for a third term. Where are the Post's cries about dictatorship and de facto president-for-life in Colombia?
The Post has also severely manipulated and outrighted censored information about economic growth in Venezuela. Twice, recent publications on the editorial page described the Venezuelan government economic measures as "disastrous, crackpot economic policies". Under Chávez's economic policies, extreme poverty has diminished to an all-time low of 9.4% (2007) from a high of 42.5% in 1996. Unemployment has been reduced to 6.9% (2007) from 16.6% in 1998. Minimum wage has been raised substantially during the Chávez government to become one of the highest in the developing world, and there has been a significant reduction in Venezuela's public debt. Chávez also paid off Venezuela's loans to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and has increased investment in the nation's agricultural production industry.
Nevertheless, the Post fails to reflect any of these positive, progressive advances in its coverage and statements on Venezuela. Instead, Post editorials are dedicated to accusing President Chávez of engaging in an "arms race" (4 occasions), "violating human rights" (3 times), "facilitating/endorsing drug-trafficking" (6 times) and "promoting an anti-American agenda" (6 times). Worst of all, despite Chávez's own statements to the contrary, the Post continues to perpetuate the dangerous myth that Chávez is an "anti-semite" "aligned with terrorist nations or groups" (9 times).
Mr. Diehl, you should certainly know that the United States is currently waging an international war against terrorism. Within that framework, the Bush administration has clearly stated that those nations associated with or friendly to terrorist states or groups can be subject to preemptive invasion or intervention. Are you seeking such an end in Venezuela?
Your editorial on February 15, 2008, "Mr. Chávez's Bluff", goes one step too far. The piece is an outright call for a boycott of Venezuelan oil, an act that would irreparably harm both the peoples of Venezuela and the United States. As the Post applauds the mafia tactics of one of the world's wealthiest corporations, ExxonMobil, it's evident that its allegiance lies with corporate profits over people's rights.
And your latest editorial on March 5, 2008, "Allies of Terrorism" is well beyond a mere criticism of President Chávez's policies; it's a direct threat to the people of Venezuela. By accepting at face value - with absolutely no investigation or verification - the documents alleged to have been found on a computer belonging to Rául Reyes from the FARC, the Post recklessly condemns both Venezuela and Ecuador as nations that promote and harbor terrorism and justifies the most violating, reviled and dangerous Bush doctrine of modern times: Preventive War. By comparing Colombia's violation of Ecuador's sovereignty to a US attack against al-Qaeda, the Post shamelessly validates the most irrational war in history and calls for its expansion into Latin America. We find the Post's defense of the violation of Ecuador's sovereignty and its satisfaction with such aggressive - and illegal - tactics, together with the warning that Venezuela is in "danger", extremely disturbing.
We are outraged with the Washington Post's editorial coverage of Venezuela. The Post was once the bastion of genuine investigative reporting and truth-seeking. Those days are well gone and the Washington Post has now become nothing more than a tabloid serving special interests. The noble principles Eugene Meyer envisioned for the Washington Post in 1935, including "telling the truth as nearly as the truth can be ascertained", "telling ALL the truth so far as it can be learned, concerning the important affairs of America and the world and "the newspaper shall not be the ally of any special interest, but shall be fair and free and wholesome in its outlook on public affairs and public persons," have been violated by editors like you, Mr. Diehl, who have chosen to promote a harmful personal agenda instead of ensure the ongoing greatness of your newspaper.
Sincerely,
Andrés Izarra Journalist Minister of Communication and Information Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Comments
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97 Comments so far
Show AllAn excellent, judicious letter. Congratulation's Mr. Izarra.
It's not just the Post's op-eds and editorials that are blatantly biased against Venezuela and Chavez; so are the Post's "news" articles, including one that parroted the Bushies' unsupported claim that Chavez gave $300 million to FARC. The Post is nothing more than a propaganda arm of the Bush Administration. Hooray to Izarra for calling the Post on its bias and outright lies. Question is: will the Post publish this letter? Highly doubtful.
And what are the chances that the Washington Post will publish this important letter which sets the record straight?? Slim to none, I am afraid. But it is good to read it here.
Bravo, Mr. Izarra.
This article is absolutely right.
Andrés Izarra: You're wasting your time. After all the crap the WP has published, do you really think they'll tell the truth now?
And Clinton is right on board with the WP and the Bushies. You should send this letter to Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. All the a-hole Bush admin can do is try to manage the damge from the fiasco in the Persian Gulf, you should be safe for now. But if Hillary gets in, you're back in the cross-hairs.
Venezuela should take out a full-page ad in the WP and publish this letter. Otherwise, it will never be seen.
LONG LIVE HUGO CHAVEZ!!
Chomsky wrote a letter to the editor to the NYTimes to correct some slander they perpetrated against him. The NYT refused to publish it. So Chomsky attempted to buy advertising space to publish the letter and the NYT would not sell him the space.
Will history repeat?
I feel good every time I fill up at Citgo.
This is a clear as the picture gets. Jewish dominance of the Washington Post willingly prints obvious lies about Venezuela because of Venezuela's political allignment with Iran. Again it's the interests of Israel that comes before the interests of the United States. The Washington Post now seems to be a stealth neo-con newspaper. No doubt that Jewish hegemony of American policy is a continuing trend. It's best that Jew's understand however that Americans are not so ignorant that they will allow their children to be drafted to fight against American interests and for Israel's interests. No amount of public relations or false reporting is strong enough guarantee that. Jews are close to inviting a backlash in America.
Let's send a link to this page to as many newspapers as we can, daring them to stop being cowards and print the thing.
long live hugo & fidel! bulwarks against american imperialism in the southern hemisphere.
i ONLY purchase gas from citgo - granted, a small gesture - and have mailed mr. chavez a letter telling him there ARE those of us in el norte that support him and his efforts.
Hip, hip, hooray, Mr. Izarra. Excellent letter.
Doom n Gloom March 28th, 2008 1:12 pm:
"It's best that Jew's understand however that Americans are not so ignorant that they will allow their children to be drafted to fight against American interests and for Israel's interests"
Hi there "Doom n Gloom". I have to comment on your comment for two reasons. First, Yes Americans have been and continue to be "so ignorant". I think that current US policy is in no one's interest, not even that of Israelis. The current state of affairs cannot continue. A political settlement is needed, the sooner the better.
Secondly, in WWII, a lot of good people died fighting to put down this kind of anti-minority garbage. Let's not allow them to have died in vain. What Americans are doing, they are doing to themselves. There is no need to find scapegoats. You cannot even pin this just on Bush. I see Democrats and Republicans, Christians all, helping him.
The official tone of the United States towards Venezuela in general, and to Hugo Chavez in particular, is set at The White House and State Department, not at the Washington Post. The Post may editorially adapt if we voters put a new different tone in The White House. And if we put in Bush III with John McCain, letters to newspapers from Chavez's employees will not matter much as to what we citizens are given by corporations to read. Media follows government, even in the USA.
Wonderfully written. If the WP truly had any real journalistic integrity, they would take this letter and independently and objectively fact check everything. They would find that Mr. Izarra is quite correct. The reason they won't do that is because it would amount to saying what many in this country have know for many decades:
The United States is a country run on a false reality, one in which nothing we do comes back to us; one that says we are immune to the realities of other nations around the world; one that says lying to the people is all the time is easier than telling the truth some of the time.
The chickens have indeed come home to roost and we are slowly beginning to see the effects. Bring it on I say. It's time for the United States -as a country- to fess up and deal with the ramifications of the decision that have been made on her citizens' behalf by a criminal government.
Mr. Diehl's response will be escalation.
When the maggots rear up, they must be crushed. Power people don't accept challenges.
I would just like to take exception to Doom n Gloom's assessment: Venezuela and Iran are both members of OPEC. And Venezuela's "alignment" (if it can be called that) with Iran dates back as far as its membership in OPEC.
Venezuela has sought to diversify its trade partners. It also trades with Israel, China, India and South Africa, for example, not to mention its trading partners in South America.
So the WP's parroting of the administration's lies transcends any purported "alignment" between Iran and Venezuela, or the Jewish identity of some of their staff. It has a lot more to do with the vertical integration of the media in the US and its corporate ownership by just a handful of players. The media in the US is exactly like the media in Venezuela: ultra right-wing, mendacious, meretricious and paranoiac.
Venezuela, by diversifying its trade partners is doing exactly what I would do if I were its president--not being beholden to a large trading partner by having several trading partners is a sound guaranty of its sovereignty.
Excellent letter. I'll wager it never see the light of day in the WP. I only wish we had Citgo in the Pacific Northwest, so I could get my gasoline from there. Bush has his phoney "War on Terrorism" wherein he loves to attack other countries from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Venezuela, Ecuador, etc. There is no such thing as a "War" on Terror. It is a tactic and other countries have more smarts than Bush (but then most anybody does) by treating terrorism as a criminal tactic and catching many more real terrorism suspects than the US will ever be able to catch. We want innocents so we can torture them. Viva Chavez!!
Total BS. Chavez DOES control the supreme court, he DOES rule by decree, He DID try to change the rules so he could rule for "the next fifty years". 60 % of all add space and television space is either fawning tributes to Chavez or Chavez himself (up to six hours a day on TV.) Anyone that pisses him off, whether foreign or domestic, will be threatened with him seizing their property- then he wonders why no one wants to invest and money is leaving the country to the tune of 50B a year.
His government has no problem attacking other countries on the flimsiest of evidence. Crime is the highest in South America, as is the inflation rate. The exchange rate of B's to dollars has doubled in the past two years- in spite of a falling dollar. The payroll of the Government owned oil company has also doubled in the past two years- and production has fallen 25%.
Don't ask me how I feel about his job- the latest polls put his approval rate at 37%- around the same as Bush's.
The poor of Venezuela are finally getting some relief, as any good politician would take care of their base.But I am not convinced that it is not more about Hugo than any help that is going to the underclass.
I'm tired of hearing all the excuses about his rule. He is a loose cannon who is obviously wrecking his economy and stifling individual freedom in V.
Total Chavez dictatorship in less than two years- that is my bet.
Thank you, Mr. Izarra, for pointing out the Fascism in the US media. It is most all coming from one of the biggest Fascists of all -- Rupert Murdoch. The Republican Party IS the Fascist Party.
WTF wrote:
"Venezuela should take out a full-page ad in the WP and publish this letter. Otherwise, it will never be seen."
Why would they even permit this in the form of a paid ad? Various newspapers and TV/Radio broadcasters rejected numerous paid ads against the Iraq invasion and occupation over the past few years.
Daniel David,
1. A newspaper's news content and editorials follow the dictates of their customers.
2. The customers of the mass media are corporate advertizers, NOT the readers/viewers/listeners, and not the government.
3. In fact, the readers, and indirectly, governments (specifically, propaganda-fed compliant readers and polycymakers) are the PRODUCT that is being sold to the corprotation for their favor and advertizing bucks.
4. Newspapers seem to be following government policy at teh present time only because the current government is itself in complete service to corporate and capital interests.
So, your idea that a supposdly "liberal" democratic president will result in a more "liberal" press has absolutely no merit. I ask you to recall how friendly the media has been toward the Bushes and Reagan (remember the "teflon") compared the hostility of the press toward even the most moderate center and center-right Democrats like Carter and Clinton.
I also ask you to consider the 24/7, uniform, absolute, slanderous, seditious hostility of the Venezuelan MSM toward Chavez and the Bolivarian Government.
If you havent already done so, please read: "Manufacturing Consent" - The Political Economy of the Mass Media, by Herman and Chomsky
Thank you, jlocke, for your post. One can rightly deplore what Israel has done and is continuing to do without scapegoating an entire group of people ("the Jews"), just as I wouldn't want to be judged by the policies and practices of my government.
Chavez did not cheat to get elected. Chavez does not promote policies that the majority of his population opposes. Indeed, when in doubt he holds a plebiscite and he respects its outcome. Venezuela is a far more democratic country than the USA. Chavez is a better leader than all the American presidents that I have seen in my lifetime, and I'm not young. Chavez would make a far better American president than McCain, Clinton, and Obama combined. Too bad Chavez is not an American.
Excellent article. How do these creeps at the Washington Post tell so many lies and still keep their jobs? That's just it, they are there to lie, that is what they were hired for.
If a news journalist ever told the real truth he would be fired, and black balled for life. Such is the country we live in. The 9/11 inside job opened my eye's to reality.
anne faith, you are most welcome
On topic, does anyone know if the US is still paying journalists to plant these stories? I remember it being done in "Radio Marti", as well as in El Nuevo Herald. There were "faux news" items on Iraq, Cuba and Venezuela.
Bravo Andres. Please tell President Chavez that the stench of sulphur that he noticed while in New York has spread across the entire United States and can be smelled around the world clearly now. I smelled the sulphur long before Hugo mentioned it.
Several years ago I was living on St. Croix and stood on the island's far eastern tip looking south towards Venezuela thinking about it being only about 500 miles away over those beautiful waters of the Caribbean. I knew a good man was in power in that country and nothing the media in the US can convince me otherwise. Now I am back in the states having to listen to politicians justify and obfuscate the reasons why they sent our armies to slaughter hundreds of thousands and ruin the lives of millions of people in Iraq. The smell of sulphur is too much and I am choking on it.
bligh2: your accusations do not square with reality.
willo, that is how they keep their jobs.
OREZ-ENO
'chavez would make a far better american president than mccain, clinton and obama combined. too bad chavez is not an american' bloody good job he isn't. they would assasinate him.............
Vince "Bligh2 your accusations do not square with reality"
Really?- in what way? Did not Chavez stack his supreme court with his followers, almost doubling the number of Justices-something that Human Rights Watch called " a direct attack on an independent judiciary". (the new justices were reported to have given the "chavez salute"when inaugerated-nice touch)
I haven't even gotten started on the guy. Show me where I am wrong- without referring to the governments own self serving figures- and I will admit it.
Chavez will continue to scare his people with "The US is about to invade" or some such crap- until he can declare a state of emergency. Then the country belongs lock, stock, and barrel to Chavez and his cronies governing under "decrees". Just watch.
Thank you! This letter, if only found here, is still such an eloquent and necessary respose to all the static that surrounds and is kept around Chavez here in the States.
Also, a thanks to jlocke123. It's incredible to me how gentle I too feel in responding to anti-Jewish sentiments. For me, it is first a wince and then a softening of the heart.
War is not just some neo-con enterprise. War is something, I believe, with which we all have a certain comfort. How then, can you explain the spewing of hate in any direction we feel in a given moment?!?
In order to end a war - any war, to whatever degree and in whatever place it exists - we have to have to look honestly, both internally and externally, and we have to have compassion for what we see.
We are all responsible for what happens in our world, and we feel this - deeply! Thus, we need to have compassion for the confusion we feel in the face of this task. A good place to start is practicing compassion for those other people around us we may at war with unwittingly.
Why is it that for honest world news and information coverage, we must look to news from other parts of the world. If the owners and editors of the Washington Post really admired and promoted democracy, they would be heaping praise on Hugo Chavez and his accomplishments. Take a look at the steep slant in their coverage as compared with the truth as told by many of the international papers and trusted internet sites and you'll see it, too - the Washington Post is a fraud. (and the NYT as well)
A good source of information about the mainstream media's gross misrepresentations and blatant bias, you can go to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=100
With unprecedented advances in communication technology, we no longer have to sift through the lies in order to get accurate news. The citizens of this country are slowly but surely coming to the realization that these cheerleaders for wars and agression, who pretend to be honest reporters of the truth, are nothing but cheerleaders for fascism and brutality around the world.
We don't have to purchase anything from anyone who advertises in these discredited papers. I will avoid these papers altogether and I refuse to purchase any product from anyone who advertises within their pages.
bligh2 wrote
Chavez will continue to scare his people with "The US is about to invade" or some such crap- until he can declare a state of emergency. Then the country belongs lock, stock, and barrel to Chavez and his cronies governing under "decrees". Just watch.
My Response
BUSH will continue to scare his people with "The TERRORIST ARE about to ATTACK" or some such crap- until he can declare a state of emergency. Then the country belongs lock, stock, and barrel to BUSH and his cronies governing under "decrees". Just watch.
Oh, that already happened. I guess Chavez is one step behind.
In what way? What the hell that you said DOES square with reality?
"Total BS. Chavez DOES control the supreme court"
Explain how.
"he DOES rule by decree"
The Venezuelan constitution, voted on in a national referendum (this is what Stalin regularly did right?) says that if 10% of the people disagree with ANY law Chavez passes they can put the law up for public referendum.
"He DID try to change the rules so he could rule for "the next fifty years"
Actually, again, he allowed the people to vote on the matter, and it wasn't rule for the next 50 years you rube. He'd have to run to get re-elected each year, just like Bush's ally Howard who just finished his FOURTH term in Australia. Colombia, who's a US ally, is attempting to do the same, does the press here go crazy? Is Australia a dictatorship because Howard just got done with the FOURTH term? France, since they don't have term limits? The US before the mid 20th century? Such stupidity.
"60 % of all add space and television space is either fawning tributes to Chavez or Chavez himself (up to six hours a day on TV.) Anyone that pisses him off, whether foreign or domestic, will be threatened with him seizing their property- then he wonders why no one wants to invest and money is leaving the country to the tune of 50B a year."
The majority of the press there is privately owned (the majority of what isn't, is community run and outside the role of the government). The RCTV case is maybe what you are talking about, and it illustrates how blindly stupid you are. RCTV worked on behalf of the coup and received money from the US, who financially supported the coup. When the coup was going down RCTV and the other private stations worked on behalf of the coup, showing misleading footage. The coup went down and all branches of government were dissolved. The constitution voted on in a national referendum was tore up, the head of the central bank removed and orders were given to kill Chavez. Everyone in the world, from the OAS to the UN condemned the coup, the US and Canada backed it. When the coup happened the plotters got on TV and actually, in front of a national audience, thanked RCTV in particular! Chavez is restored and what does he do to RCTV? He waits five years and doesn't renew their license. What if CNN, with Iranian or Chinese money, did the same? Do I even have to ask? What replaced RCTV? A COMMUNITY channel, democratically run by Venezuelans themselves. Again, how Stalinist.
Seriously, not only are you obviously stupid you're too ill informed on the issue to make any comments. Not a single thing you said had any basis in reality. "Individual freedom"? Code word, used by brain dead "libertarians". It means freedom for those who own capital. For those who don't, their freedom is to accept the terms of those who own capital or to starve to death. So it isn't "coercion". Stupid philosophy that belongs only in a classroom discussion. Any times it's been attempted it has been disaster. If you want a good example of the disaster, look to pre-Chavez Venezuela.
Regarding investment in Venezuela, have any idea how the system you favor works? The capitalists take resources out of the country, put it into the financial markets then loan back the funds that they basically stole from Venezuelans as high interest loans. THIS to idiots like you, is "individual freedom".
Tell me, do you have a damn thing to say about Colombia? Do you want a list of horrors with the Colombian state? More union leaders killed than the rest of the world combined, the president there with a decades long connection to drug runners and death squads (which our own government has acknowledged), evidence recently coming out that death squads met on his ranch to plan attacks against Colombian citizens, his cousin and dozens of his party members under arrest now for connections to death squads, his former campaign manager was arrested at a US airport in the 1990's with hundreds of pounds of drug making materials, he was listed as the 81st or 82nd worse drug offender in the Colombian government by the US government in the early 1990s, and people like you say NOTHING.
You fifth rate propagandist.
"Chavez will continue to scare his people with "The US is about to invade" or some such crap- until he can declare a state of emergency."
So this, according to you, is a lie. The US, according to you, DOESN'T fund groups that about six years ago attempted to install a military dictatorship, with funding from the NED. Are you telling me that the US doesn't to this day support these same groups though the NED and USAID? Tell me, if China or Cuba gave money to a the military in the US to take out the democratically elected government and attempted to install a military dictatorship that would do the orders of the Chinese or Cuban government, would the US be paranoid in cracking down on groups connected to the Chinese or Cuban governments? Again, I don't have to even ask this question, the answer is obvious. You, on the other hand, don't like Chavez so being objective and coming up with logical arguments doesn't matter.
Here is a link to the US government documents (from the NED, USAID, DOD, amongst others), of the funding the US gave to the groups who attempted to install a military dictatorship in Venezuela in 2002. Is reality a conspiracy too?:
http://www.venezuelafoia.info/english.html
The Home of the Brave
the evil eagle empire is on the skids
the eagle evil empire is up for bids
the war payola plundering puppets know no bounds
like back room banker predator power pomp driven hounds
with chutzpah to the power of ten
are moving up the dooms day clock again
with a little help from faithful big (Ber bankie) Ben
Sure they may throw us some bones as we loose our homes
while they buy summer Mc mansions with some shady loans
oh the chutzpah oh the chutzpah of this corporate banker brass
who wipe their ass with us servile ants
while the land of milk and honey becomes
the land bilk and baloney
the warrior whipped wussy class
have mortgaged the nation to the hilt
and are tilting windmills like a Vanderbuilt
while the levers on the levers won't be able to check
the long drawn out impending financial wreck
but heck
we soon may be able to breath a sigh of relief
while the evil eagle empire looses it's teeth
The fight for truth is a tough one for sure.
Media control has been key to the hijacking of the United States, merely a shadow of democracy itself, standing aloof lobing its own greanades at others who dare address the whole spectrum of their societies.
The Post is bad enough.
What about the positions of the candidates for the Oval Office?
It has become an act of faith that no one who deviates from the "Ameirca is Great" Myth can even be heard in America if they are running for office. Similar to heresy.
bligh2: I have been following, as best I can, U.S. meddling in Venezuela for some time. Do I jump on the bandwagon and say "rah, rah, Chavez"? No.
Do you remember, when Chavez was last (fairly and decisively)elected, how the U.S. got caught with it's hand in the cookie jar by funneling U.S. government funds to the right-wing Venezuelan media and wealthy opponents of Chavez' socialist revolution? I do.
Venezuela is second only to Saudi Arabia in the total of U.S. oil imports. WTF do you think this is all about? There are many wealthy interests that stand to lose much with the success of the "Bolivarian Revolution." Good, it is about time. Chavez isn't perfect, but I trust him a lot more than I do Bush. Or Clinton. Are not George Bush and Dickhead Chaney authoritarians? re: signing statements, political manipulation of DOJ, "we don't bow to public opninion," "you're either with us or against us," "free-speech zones" of barbed wire and armed gestapo.
Are you proposing, with your stance, that the U.S. is justified in contemplating armed aggression against Venezuela?
One correction, he wouldn't have to run each year if term limits were changed, he'd have to run every election cycle against opposition candidates.
BushCo is the enemy -- Venezuela is our ally.
Oh, an addendum to your correction, Grant: not only would Chávez have to run against the opposition every election cycle, but the Venezuelan constitution stipulates that the people can recall Chávez at any point during his mandate--just like France. If enough people sign a plebiscite for his recall, he would be out just like Charles de Gaulle.
The MSM in the US never mentions this and, needless to say, in the country most full of itself for its «democracy», the US, there is no such stipulation in its constitution.
Here's the coup plotters thanking RCTV on national TV:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAalLAYl0VA
My local paper, Rochester (MN)Post-Bulletin has a similar tendency. A recent straight news item inferred a press censorship attitude by Chavez. No context and no honesty in the impression given. This is from a paper that usually tries to give decent coverage of news and issues. Those on the Right despise Chavez and I fear they've won over the uncritical moderates.
jlocke wrote: "Secondly, in WWII, a lot of good people died fighting to put down this kind of anti-minority garbage. Let's not allow them to have died in vain. What Americans are doing, they are doing to themselves. There is no need to find scapegoats. You cannot even pin this just on Bush. I see Democrats and Republicans, Christians all, helping him."
First my father fought in WWII and was among those who largely ended it at the Battle of the Bulge. He also liberated concentration camps. I am also a veteran. I have every right to call out Jews for their meddling through AIPAC in both American domestic and foreign policy. This clear attempt at hegemony is destructive to the interests of Americans. Even Jews are beginning to call out Jews. This is no big secret nor is it stereotyping or bigotry. No one should hide behind the Holocaust to tell lies or to create war. Jews like anyone else can and should be openly criticized. Jews are very influential in the media and there is little doubt in my mind what is behind the Washington Post's lies regarding Hugo Chavez.
Secondly, Jews including Jewish intellectuals have avoided and failed to openly recognize the American Genocide of American Indians. Why is that?
So lets button up those shallow assertions of stereotyping.
Bravo!!! If only the WP had as much intelligence and integrity as this fine fello.
And to those that might assert that this is just one propagandist responding to another, think again! All of the information about Venezuelan economic and social successes are factually accurate. The irony is that Venezuela is getting its shit together whilst the U.S. is losing everything.
American political leaders and hopefuls better start looking inwards soon and leave the Venezuela's of the world alone; they're doing just fine.
Oh, just to cite chapter and verse, here is article 72 of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela:
«[b]Article 72[/b]: All magistrates and other offices filled by popular vote are subject to revocation. Once half of the term of office to which an official has been elected has elapsed, a number of voters constituting at least 20% of the
voters registered in the pertinent circumscription may extend a petition for the calling of a referendum to revoke such official's mandate. When a number of voters equal to or greater than the number of those who elected the official vote in favor of revocation, provided that a number of voters equal to or greater than 25% of the total number of registered voters* have voted in the revocation election, the
official's mandate shall be deemed revoked, and immediate action shall be taken to fill the permanent vacancy in accordance with the provisions in this Constitution and by law. The revocation of the mandate for the collegiate bodies shall be performed in accordance with the law. During the term to which the official was elected, only one petition to recall may be filed.»
So it wasn´t «any time» during his mandate, as I stated in an earlier post, but think of the possibilities, the damage that could have been avoided, if in the US the people could have recalled Bush two years into his mandate!