Hmmm, I hearing QUITE different stuff from my friend in Venezuela. (I hope I get all the line breaks needed.)

Please pardon the typos, it's late, he's too tired to type, and I'm too tired to clean it up. This is posted with Ian's permission.

ianfe(01:09 AM) :
it seems that the situation in Venezuela is far from normal, even beyond what I knew. I've been out of touch lately because it just had me depressed.

I'm not sure if I told you this, but my college decided to extend vacations for one week extra. It was believed that this was due to the time lost in teh whole crisis (almost one week), but I just heard that what's going on is that they're on STRIKE 'cause the governmenet owes the proffesors tons of money.

There's another march on May 1st, too. I'm worried about another massacre
Brassfire(01:09 AM) :
Oh no.
ianfe(01:09 AM) :
yup
ianfe(01:10 AM) :
if teh university does not get paid by the end of that weeek, they might go on indefinite strike, too. What'll happen to me then?
Brassfire(01:10 AM) :
I heard that it was mostly Chavez's supporters who died in the last one, though.

Aiee.
ianfe(01:12 AM) :
and I don't have my certified grades either, so it's not like I can apply for a transfer to another school.

You heard WRONG. Very, very wrong. Where did you hear that? WE were massacred. I was there, a guy was shot a few feet next to me, his neck blew out tons of blood. I breathed the tear gas, I got stained with blood, and heard teh shots.

There's even a video of these people shooting at us, and a lot of them were identified as leaders of one of CHavez's political parties
ianfe(01:12 AM) :
where did you get those news?
Brassfire(01:13 AM) :
Mudcat. That's why I want you to read that thread.
There's a lot of pro-Chavez stuff, but we haven't heard from anyone who's actually THERE. I'm hearing completely different stuff from you.
ianfe(01:15 AM) :
whoa
Brassfire(01:16 AM) :
and the only thing from someone who is there is from some journalist guy.

Oh, and Kat's guy's business partner was visiting at the time, and one of their engineers was injured.
ianfe(01:17 AM) :
yeah. a lot of foreigners who didn;t have anything to do with the whole business were inconvenienced and hurt by the incident. I'm very ashamed
Brassfire(01:17 AM) :
Yeah. That's what happens during total chaos.
ianfe(01:18 AM) :
yup
Brassfire(01:20 AM) :
And a lot of points were brought out that Chavez has a dictatorial attitude, but that he hasn't declared himself the ruler... and that he was making certain reforms that were not good for the richest strata, and were good for the poorer. I'd like your input on that.
ianfe(01:32 AM) :
Chavez is a communist, and a socially resented person, at heart. He is now talking of dialogue, but he is just buying time, distracting the opposition. He hasn't declared himself dictator, but he has said many, many, many times these words "I'm here until 2021" (I'm not sure about the exact year, but it's well over 2012. Weeelll over)

He *has* said a lot of things and made a lot of promises about helping poor people. He hasn't done much for it, though. You hear people from the lower classes on the streets now expressing how they're completely disillusioned with him.

Most of the laws he's actually passed, though, seem to have the single purpose of reverting all power and decision-making in the country onto the President (namely, him). Also, some laws have been made which would allow the government to appropiate lands that are privately owned (nad have been documented so since the 1800's) on pretexts such as being within 100 meters of a stream, lake, or sea (absurd!). He wants to grant a mysterious "terrain department" the right to enter, investigate, and appropiate literally every single property in the country. Where do you think that will lead?

You see, Chavez did two terrible things (among others): first he created a resentment, even hatred, between social classes. This was something unheard of before he arrived. Yes, there were poor people and there were rich people, and yes the former were a much bigger group than the latter. But now you hear people actively say "I HATE you because you have money and I don't." Secondly, he literally said stuff like "I'm going to make every property the middle and high classes have property of the lower classes. Soon, you will be able to walk in on the "oligarchs's" (that's his name for his enemies) houses and live there". He almost promised it.

What reaction did the ape expect? You hear things on the street like "you're a criminal because you have means. I want what is yours and I'm going to take it". Crime has soared, violence has soared... I can't keep talking about this
Brassfire(01:36 AM) :
*Speechless*
Sorry, Ian. So sorry...
ianfe(01:42 AM) :
I don't have the info on hand, but I can tell from what's going on in my college that it smells lie he literally wants it to close down. By people the education low he can manipulate people easier. Just like Mao in China, who burned all the books not approved by him.

And his favoritist deals with Cuba, whici nobody but he approves of. How can he sell Castro petroleum for half the price on the market?

There's a taped recording circulating of a call Chavez made during the march, in which he told a General to activate "plan Avila", which was what happened: Forcing a TV chain of a taped 2-hour speech by Chavez,shut down and military takeover of TV and radio stations, and in the meantime snipers (possibly from the Colombian guerrilla, or even from the middle-east, it's rumored) and military shooting at civilians with nobody to air it on the news.

The first general to whom Chavez gave the order refused, so he demoted him and then went on to order another person, which agreed. Al that on tape
ianfe(01:44 AM) :
I tell you, it's scary