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28 May 07 - 06:45 PM (#2062649) Subject: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Dickey Hugo "Tha Man" Chavez seeks to shut down second TV chanel that is critical to his administration. Chavez claims "There's no country in the world where there is so much freedom of expression," Anything to the contaray is labled "Capitalist, Imperialist lies" Chavez moves against second opposition TV channel Brian Ellsworth, Reuters Published: Monday, May 28, 2007 Hours after President Hugo Chavez shut down Venezuela's main opposition broadcaster, his government demanded an investigation of news network Globovision today for allegedly inciting an assassination attempt on the leftist leader. Mr. Chavez took Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV, off the air at midnight yesterday and replaced it with a state-run channel to promote his socialist programs. The move sparked international condemnation and accusations from the opposition that he was undermining democracy in the OPEC nation. Seizing on the momentum of RCTV's closure, Communications Minister Willian Lara presented a case to the state prosector's office saying experts hired by the ministry had found that opposition broadcaster Globovision was inciting assassination attempts on Mr. Chavez. As evidence, he cited Globovision showing footage of an assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in 1981 accompanied by the song "This Does Not Stop Here," sung by Ruben Blades, now Panama's minister of tourism. "The conclusion of the specialists ... is that (in this segment) they are inciting the assassination of the president of Venezuela," Mr. Lara told reporters at the prosecutor's office. Globovision was not immediately available to respond to the government's charge, but one of its reporters at the prosecutor's office said the footage was taken out of context. The journalist said Globovision had been showing archive footage from RCTV accompanied by songs with a farewell theme the week before RCTV's closure. At a Caracas news conference, Benoit Hervieu, Americas director at Reporters Without Borders, said: "Yesterday we saw the takeover of the principal media critical of President Chavez. ... Besides Globovision, what television media is left that can criticize the government of Mister Chavez?" Mr. Chavez's reforms, since he assumed the presidency in 1999, have given him greater control over the country's judiciary, the military and the oil sector. Critics had said an independent media was the only safeguard against Mr. Chavez forging a Cuban-style regime. The closure of RCTV leaves Globovision as the main media voice opposed to Mr. Chavez, but it does not broadcast nationwide. Venezuela's opposition media has been widely accused of violating basic journalistic standards. Mr. Chavez accuses both Globovision and RCTV of backing a bungled 2002 coup against him. RCTV ran movies and cartoons when protests by Mr. Chavez supporters turned the tide in Mr. Chavez's favor during the 2002 coup. It also joined a grueling two-month strike that year by showing only anti-Chavez propaganda and marches for weeks. http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=9afed4e1-b750-4f12-8325-bdd7629b6f4f |
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28 May 07 - 08:02 PM (#2062700) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: McGrath of Harlow TV channels which actively support an armed coup against an elected government can normally expect a hard time when their licence comes up for renewal - in any country. |
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28 May 07 - 08:14 PM (#2062708) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: beardedbruce So, you agree that Bush can shut down any station critical of his administration? Or does your statement only apply to other countries? |
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28 May 07 - 08:16 PM (#2062710) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: katlaughing McGrath, I'll ask my Rog to come in later tonight if he has time, but it is my understanding this is a move to quash ANY kind of opposition to Chavez and most of the Venezuelans are against it. (Kind of like what George Bush has tried to do, with some success, to our media.) As you may remember, Rog worked down there for several years as a television broadcast engineer and came to know many very well. he is also on a daily blog with Venezuelans, both living in their country and elsewhere, with front row seats to this latest action by Chavez. I asked him how the situation was, today, from those people he is in contact with. His reply was an understated "pretty bad." If he doesn't have time to come in, I'll ask him for some links to other thoughts on the subject and post them. |
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28 May 07 - 08:22 PM (#2062717) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Richard Bridge Margaret Thatcher revised the entire system of allocation of broadcast TV channels in the UK in order to get Thames TV after they made and broadcast "Death on the Rock". |
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28 May 07 - 08:23 PM (#2062718) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Dickey Troops Fire Upon Protesters in Venezuela Washington Post Radio Riot police officers jump from a truck upon their arrival to a student protest in Caracas, Monday, May 28, 2007. Crowds of students demonstrated across Caracas saying they fear for the future of free speech after the popular opposition-aligned TV station radio Caracas television, RCTV, was forced off the air under a decision by President Hugo Chavez to replace it with a public broadcasting station By FABIOLA SANCHEZ Associated Press Writer CARACAS, Venezuela May 28, 2007 (AP) National Guard troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets Monday into a crowd of protesters angry over a decision by President Hugo Chavez that forced a critical television station off the air. University students blocked one lane of a major highway hours after Radio Caracas Television ceased broadcasting at midnight and was replaced with a new state-funded channel. Chavez had refused to renew RCTV's broadcast license, accusing it of "subversive" activities and of backing a 2002 coup against him. Two students were injured by rubber bullets and a third was hit with a tear gas canister, said Ana Teresa Yepez, an administrator at Caracas' Metropolitan University. She said about 20 protesters were treated for inhaling tear gas. The new public channel, TVES, launched its transmissions with artists singing pro-Chavez music, then carried an exercise program and a talk show, interspersed with government ads proclaiming, "Now Venezuela belongs to everyone." "I plan to keep protesting because we're Venezuelans and it's our right," said Valentina Ramos, 17, a Metropolitan University student who was hit in the head with a tear gas canister and received stitches. She said the protest was peaceful, but National Guard troops said they acted after students hurled rocks and sticks. Police said 11 officers were injured in separate protests on Sunday that were broken up with water cannon and tear gas. Thousands of government supporters reveled in the streets as they watched the midnight changeover on large TV screens, seeing RCTV's signal go black and then be replaced by a TVES logo. Others launched fireworks and danced in the streets. Inside the studios of RCTV the sole opposition-aligned TV station with nationwide reach disheartened actors and comedians wept and embraced in the final minutes on the air. They bowed their heads in prayer, and presenter Nelson Bustamante declared: "Long live Venezuela! We will return soon." The socialist president says he is democratizing the airwaves by turning the network's signal over to public use. Germany, which holds the European Union presidency, expressed concern that Venezuela let RCTV's license expire "without holding an open competition for the successor license." It said the EU expects that Venezuela will uphold freedom of speech and "support pluralism." Founded in 1953, RCTV regularly topped viewer ratings with its talk shows, sports, soap operas and comedy programs. But Chavez accused the network of helping to incite a failed coup in 2002, violating broadcast laws and "poisoning" Venezuelans with programming that promoted capitalism. RCTV's managers deny wrongdoing. The government promises TVES will be more diverse, buying 70 percent of its content from independent Venezuelan producers. "We've come here to start a new television with the true face of the people, the face that was hidden, the face that they didn't allow us to show," said Roman Chalbaud, a pro-Chavez filmmaker appointed by the government to TVES' board of directors. TVES received $4 million in startup funds from the government, but officials say it also may seek commercial advertising. Most Venezuelan news media are in private hands, including many newspapers and radio stations that remain critical of Chavez. But the only major surviving opposition-sided TV channel is Globovision, which is not seen in all parts of the country. http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=111&sid=1152194 |
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28 May 07 - 08:37 PM (#2062723) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Dickey Chávez of Venezuela jabs at banks and a steel maker By Simon Romero Published: May 7, 2007 CARACAS: President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela is deepening efforts to assert greater control over the economy by dictating changes to the operations of a large Argentine-controlled steel maker and threatening to nationalize banks controlled by financial institutions from the United States and Spain. Markets here have reacted with distress to his latest moves. The main index of the Caracas stock exchange fell 2.7 percent Friday, while Venezuela's currency, the bolivar, also weakened by about 3 percent, to 3,950 to the U.S. dollar in unregulated trading, as rich Venezuelans rushed to take money out of the country. The announcements by Chávez are part of a broader project to reconfigure Venezuela's economy to strengthen worker-led cooperatives and state enterprises. Chávez is also trying to build regional financing alternatives to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, to be financed largely by his government. Chávez dressed down the foreign owners of the steel maker Siderurgica del Orinoco over the weekend, asking them to halt exports and focus on meeting domestic demand. The company, also known as Sidor, is controlled by Techint Group of Argentina. Chávez said he had summoned Paolo Rocca, the company's chairman, to Caracas for talks. "I'll grab your company," Chávez said in a taunt to Rocca on Saturday at an event celebrating the creation of a single Socialist party among his followers. "Give it to me, and I'll pay you what it's worth," the president said. "I won't rob you." Chávez threatened Thursday to nationalize Sidor, and to take over the banking system unless banks agreed to offer low-cost financing to domestic industry. He made similar threats before nationalizing telephone and electricity companies. Erratic policy shifts have led foreign direct investment to plunge in Venezuela, the only country in Latin America besides tiny Suriname to register an outflow of those investments last year, of $543 million. Comparable economies in the region enjoyed high levels of direct foreign investment, with Argentina receiving $4.8 billion and Colombia $6.3 billion, according to the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Cushioned by high oil prices and $25 billion in reserves, Venezuela is still far from a painful crash of the type that plagued it in the wake of past oil booms, according to economists. But problems like a widening budget deficit are growing more acute as growth slows from the torrid 10.3 percent of last year. "There is fear that all of Chávez's different spending projects will lead to a depletion of funds," said Francisco RodrÃguez, a former chief economist at Venezuela's national assembly who teaches at Wesleyan University. "Chávez's threat to the banks may reflect increasing resistance in the sector to rolling over internal debt." Both Chávez and Venezuelan banks face a dilemma as a surge in public spending widens the budget deficit this year to an estimated 4.9 percent of gross domestic product from 1.8 percent in 2006. The government can cover that shortfall by getting banks to buy its debt or by printing more money, a choice that could cause inflation to jump. The government is already trying to reduce inflation, the highest in Latin America at 19.4 percent a year. And officials are grappling with continuing scarcity of foods subject to price controls, like beef, eggs, sugar and milk. Producers say the controls have made it hard to meet demand while labor costs are soaring. Showing exasperation with these claims, senior officials are growing increasingly adversarial in their treatment of private industry. ElÃas Jaua, the agriculture minister, said last week that a "destabilization campaign" was to blame for the short supply of some food products. Beyond such talk is a redistribution of income under Chávez, making imports like cellphones and refrigerators and services like modest plastic-surgery procedures more widely available. Monthly stipends to the poor or indirect subsidies to buy food and consumer goods, channeled through an array of social-welfare programs, have also lifted corporate income. Profits for the banking sector climbed 33 percent in 2006, led by a jump of more than 100 percent in credit card loans and a 143 percent increase in automobile credit, according to Softline Consulting, a financial analysis firm in Caracas. Blessed with such profits, few bankers are explicitly critical of Chávez. Some, in fact, express admiration. "President Chávez is saying it's the job of all of us for Venezuela to press ahead," Francisco Aristeguieta, president of Citibank Venezuela and director of the Venezuelan Banking Association, told the government's official news agency. Still, economists fear that a bill is coming due for the spending spree and the nationalizations. They point to the costs of reimbursing foreign owners for seized assets and meeting their debt obligations, which could be more than $10 billion for oil projects the government is taking over from U.S. and European companies. Unregulated trading in the bolivar has become the most visible indicator of eroding confidence. |
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28 May 07 - 09:15 PM (#2062742) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Little Hawk Dickey, if you were to get a job with the CIA, maybe you could arrange to be stationed down there in Venezuela and be instrumental in arranging another coup. Look into it. If it didn't pan out, there's always plently of work down in Latin America serving as a triggerman in a CIA-connected death squad, and I hear that the pay is really good too. All you have to do is kill anyone who stands in the way of North American big business interests... There are a lot of silly buggers down there who have got the crazy idea that their own national sovereignty and independence is more important than US corporate interests. Such people, clearly, cannot be allowed to flourish nor can they be allowed to be openly defiant. The Mafia doesn't allow it on their turf...why should we? |
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28 May 07 - 09:27 PM (#2062744) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: kendall The republicans have been trying to shut down NPR for years. Is there a difference? |
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28 May 07 - 10:43 PM (#2062774) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Dickey The two TV chanels have nothing to do with US corporate interests. The steel company is Argentinian. evidently LH thinks Teargas and rubber bullets for protestors are OK. I guess I will have to recite the old acid test for people who support dictators. Go live there a while and then tell me how great it is. Some 70 to 80 per cent of Venezuelans opposed the closure, according to recent polls. Chavez announced the decision not to renew RCTV's licence soon after he was re-elected in late 2006. During the campaign, RCTV openly called for the president's defeat, and Chavez never forgave the network for calling for an April 2002 coup that deposed him for two days. "The decision was mine" to close RCTV, Chavez said on Saturday, calling its steamy soap operas "a danger for the country, for boys, for girls." RCTV, which notably airs the popular "telenovelas" and variety shows, had one of the largest audiences in Venezuela and is one of the few stations with national broadcast capabilities. As of Monday, the government will control two of the four nationwide broadcasters in Venezuela, one of them state-owned VTV. However, the government renewed the broadcast licence for Venevision, RCTV's main competitor, which expired on Friday. Venevision is owned by billionaire Gustavo Cisneros, who dropped his open opposition to Chavez in 2004. Since 1999, Chavez has gradually tightened his grip on the levers of power in Venezuela, and in January the National Assembly allowed him to rule on most matters by decree, without legislative debate. Criticism of the RCTV shutdown poured in from around the world, including from Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders and the US Senate, which unanimously approved a resolution last week expressing "profound concern" over the move. El Nacional daily in a front-page editorial said RCTV's shutdown marked "the end of pluralism" in Venezuela and the government's growing "information monopoly". Chavez and his ministers deflected criticism, saying other media could still carry the RCTV signal. However, Granier said, "the government is pressuring cable and satellite companies not to carry us." RCTV filed charges Saturday with the Inter American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States. http://www.worldnewsaustralia.com.au/region.php?id=137314®ion=4 |
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28 May 07 - 10:47 PM (#2062775) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: katlaughing My Rog has to work tonight, after working most of the day. All he has time to say at the moment is Chavez is a fascist in all things and as always in VZ, nobody knows (anything for sure when it comes to politics, etc.) until it happens. |
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28 May 07 - 11:51 PM (#2062814) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Peace Sometimes a guy just HAS to call bullshit, and I do so now, Dickey. "Speakout: Picture of Venezuela's Chavez twisted By: Charles Hardy While I was watching a huge rally in support of Venezuela's current government, President Hugo Chavez passed through the crowd on the back of a truck. A stranger nearby commented: "Look at the eyes of the men. They're crying." They were - a reaction few presidents could provoke. I have lived in Venezuela for most of the past 19 years. As a Catholic missionary priest, I spent eight of those years in a cardboard-and-tin shack with mice, rats and cockroaches, surrounded by human and animal excrement. It was part of a public housing project constructed during the first presidency of Carlos Andres Perez (1974-1978) when oil money was pouring into the country. In 1989, a few months before the happenings in Tiananmen Square, I witnessed the Caracas massacre when hundreds were shot down in the streets. I saw naked bodies strewn on the floor of a hospital morgue. A year later I slept in the cemetery several nights when bodies that the government had buried in black garbage bags were being excavated from a pit that it denied ever existed." Article continues in next post. |
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28 May 07 - 11:52 PM (#2062815) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Peace " Speakout: Picture of Venezuela's Chavez twisted Saturday, Jun 26, 2004 Print format Send by email By: Charles Hardy While I was watching a huge rally in support of Venezuela's current government, President Hugo Chavez passed through the crowd on the back of a truck. A stranger nearby commented: "Look at the eyes of the men. They're crying." They were - a reaction few presidents could provoke. I have lived in Venezuela for most of the past 19 years. As a Catholic missionary priest, I spent eight of those years in a cardboard-and-tin shack with mice, rats and cockroaches, surrounded by human and animal excrement. It was part of a public housing project constructed during the first presidency of Carlos Andres Perez (1974-1978) when oil money was pouring into the country. In 1989, a few months before the happenings in Tiananmen Square, I witnessed the Caracas massacre when hundreds were shot down in the streets. I saw naked bodies strewn on the floor of a hospital morgue. A year later I slept in the cemetery several nights when bodies that the government had buried in black garbage bags were being excavated from a pit that it denied ever existed. The beautiful democracy that the aristocracy here painted for the world was a fraud. In 1998, Hugo Chavez was elected president with almost 60 percent of the votes, incredibly overthrowing the entrenched and well-financed elite that had controlled the country for decades. That elite has never forgiven him and today is doing everything possible to tumble him. Sadly, the U.S. government and mass media have joined in this very undemocratic effort. Their accusations have some common themes. First, Chavez is a communist because of his close association with Cuba. Is George W. Bush a communist because the U.S. has close ties with China? Chavez's hero is Simon Bolivar, not Marx or Lenin. Bolivar liberated much of South America from the Spaniards, but he was also concerned about another colonial power, saying that "the United States appears to be destined by Providence to plague Latin America with misery in the name of liberty." It is a concern Chavez shares. After the April 2002 coup against him, Condoleezza Rice warned Chavez, not the coup leaders, to "respect constitutional processes." A second accusation is that Chavez is a dictator and will limit freedom of expression very shortly. This has been said since 1998 when he was just a candidate for the presidency. To date, there is not one deprecating word against Chavez that has not been printed or spoken. But I have government-censored Venezuelan dailies, before the time of Chavez, with blank pages." And in the next post. |
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28 May 07 - 11:53 PM (#2062816) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Peace "Third, it is said that Chavez opposes the forthcoming Aug. 15 presidential referendum that could oust him from power. The reality is that it is the opposition that rejected the idea of the referendum and has done everything possible to avoid it: the two-day coup; a two-month lockout/strike by big business and by many well-paid executives and workers in the national petroleum industry; and, millions spent on media campaigns against him. Chavez himself proposed the idea of a presidential referendum midway through the term and has constantly voiced it as the constitutional way to remove him. Fourth, international news releases often refer to Chavez as "a former lieutenant colonel who led a failed bloody rebellion in 1992." This would be similar to continuously identifying President Bush as "a former National Guard captain who avoided service in Vietnam and had a bout with alcoholism in his youth." About 12 militants died in the rebellion. What is not mentioned is the multitude that had been shot down on the streets by the Perez government before and after that attempt. Perez was impeached in 1993 and now lives in New York. A great difference exists between what one reads in the U.S. newspapers and what one hears in the barrios and villages of Venezuela, places where the elite do not tread. Adults are entering literacy programs, senior citizens are at last receiving their pensions, and children are not charged registration to enter the public schools. Health care and housing have improved dramatically." |
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28 May 07 - 11:54 PM (#2062817) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Peace :Is the present government perfect? No, but the country is light years ahead of where it was under those who ruled before and want to control it again. They still have power and money. If you doubt it, just look at most news releases and editorials about Venezuela. But if you want to know what is really happening in Venezuela, come and look at the eyes of the men the next time Chavez passes by. Charles Hardy is a free-lance writer living in Venezuela. He is a native of the U.S. state of Wyoming. This article was originally published by The Rocky Mountains News on June 25th." There ya go, Dickey. A little light reading for you. |
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29 May 07 - 12:12 AM (#2062824) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: katlaughing Would suggest, to any who are interested, also reading The Devil's Excrement's daily blog entry about this.The entry is from the trenches. An excerpt: And to close a long list of international organizations with exquisite credentials in the defense of human rights and freedom of speech, Reporters without Borders published a strong condemnation of the shutdown of RCTV on the part of the Chávez Government, which left no doubt in the clarity of its words: "The closure of RCTV, which was founded in 1953, is a serious violation of freedom of expression and a major setback to democracy and pluralism…President Chávez has silenced Venezuela's most popular TV station and the only national station to criticize him, and he has violated all legal norms by seizing RCTV's broadcast equipment for the new public TV station that is replacing it…The grounds given for not renewing RCTV's license, including its support, along with other media, for the April 2002 coup attempt, are just pretexts." |
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29 May 07 - 12:27 AM (#2062831) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Peace "Two students were injured by rubber bullets and a third was hit with a tear gas canister, said Ana Teresa Yepez, an administrator at Caracas' Metropolitan University. She said about 20 protesters were treated for inhaling tear gas." Sounds like the Washington Moratorium. |
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29 May 07 - 12:36 AM (#2062834) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Peace However, Chile has condemned his action in taking control of RCTV, and if there is a country that should know about human rights abuses, they qualify. |
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29 May 07 - 01:21 AM (#2062845) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Peace 'With that in mind, this is usually the time when the left wing and the right wing take their positions. On the right-wing side, always in the name of freedom, people will defend the right of RCTV to stand for whatever it is they believe and condemn Chavez's decision of revoking their license, calling it "political." On the left-wing side, people will call RCTV an instrument of the Venezuelan oligarchies, used to manipulate the population against Chavez's socialist revolution, to the benefit of the elites. Then they will call the mainstream media decision to criticize Chavez "political." The problem is that in this case, both sides are right.' From here. |
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29 May 07 - 02:12 AM (#2062861) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Dickey Multilateralism is something well known in Canada, as it has been intrinsically part of our foreign policy designs for decades. By assuming multilateralism, we are not overlooking the limitations and challenges that multilateral organizations present, but rather understanding that working within them potentially amplifies the reach of our policies. Within multilateral arrangements, individual gains are diffused and outweighed by collective gains from shared principles and frameworks. Multilateralism is an option that complements and enhances a sovereign independent foreign policy. Why then would a government choose to withdraw from these arenas? The answer to this question exposes how similar the Venezuelan strategies are to those of the "empire" it proclaims to oppose. Chavez's actions in multilateral fora are explained by a hegemonic ambition of setting the rules, and subjecting partners to compliance with his desires, if in hope of benefiting from his oil-financed largesse. In the context of the Bolivarian Alternative (ALBA) Summit, Bolivian President Evo Morales accused the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes of consistently ruling in favour of multinational corporations, while Chavez' reaction was to propose that all ALBA countries withdraw from that institution. And so they did. This means no real change for Venezuela, already in the process of withdrawing from membership to the World Bank; no change for Cuba, which is not a member to begin with; but for Bolivia and Nicaragua, two countries that rely heavily on being able to attract foreign investment, the decision sends a very counterproductive message of disdain for international rules. http://www.embassymag.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2007/may/9/chavez/ |
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29 May 07 - 02:47 AM (#2062871) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: akenaton Thanks for that Peace... Those who watch Bush pass also have tears in their eyes.............Tears of shame..Ake |
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29 May 07 - 02:59 AM (#2062875) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: akenaton If anyone is interested, here is the real RCTV story..Ake |
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29 May 07 - 02:59 AM (#2062876) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Richard Bridge How long can any democracy permit the ceaseless propaganda, and poisoning of minds and voting patterns by media owned by right-wing capitalists, bent on promoting their own causes, and with the power to blackmail the government? For example the Sun and the Times and Sky TV. The troops of capitalism have their ways to control the media. Occasionally, the troops of socialism must strike back, and break out of the agenda controlled by the same capitalist media. |
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29 May 07 - 09:37 AM (#2063098) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Dickey Occasionally, the troops of socialism must strike back, and break out of the agenda controlled by the same capitalist media like they did in North Korea, the workers paradise. |
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29 May 07 - 10:15 AM (#2063120) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Dickey University students demonstrate on behalf of RCTV EL UNIVERSAL Caracas Students at the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB) and the Simón Bolívar University (USB) early on Friday staged demonstrations showing support for private television station RCTV, the broadcast license of which expires next May 27 and will not be renewed by President Hugo Chávez' government. At UCAB, students blocked a major avenue near campus, while at USB, the demonstrators staged their protest in campus and surrounding areas without blocking roads or avenues. Freddy Guevara, a journalism student at UCAB told local news TV station Globovisión they are advocating "two fundamental principles, namely, freedom of expression as a right of all Venezuelans and human beings, and the autonomy of universities, following President Hugo Chávez' remarks late Thursday." Chávez late Thursday announced a comprehensive transformation of universities nationwide. Students of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) took Friday the Francisco Fajardo highway in Caracas to refuse the government decision not to renew a concession to use the radio spectrum for private TV channel Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV). Students started the protest inside the campus and then came out to express their disagreement with the action. They marched holding placards, chanted slogans, blew whistles and sounded horns. They also delivered fliers to the drivers on transit nearby. The protest caught the attention of multiple pedestrians. They stopped by to watch the demonstration and even some of them exchanged words with the students. Countryside University students in several towns in Venezuela demonstrated to reject President Hugo Chávez' refusal to renew the broadcast license for private television station RCTV, which expires next May 27 at midnight. Hundreds of people staged demonstrations in southwestern Táchira and Mérida states, central Aragua state, southwestern Barinas state, and southeastern Bolívar state. |
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29 May 07 - 11:50 AM (#2063187) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: McGrath of Harlow So, you agree that Bush can shut down any station critical of his administration? There is a slight difference between being critical of an administration and supporting an armed coup which temporarily succeeded in overthrowing a democratically elected government. |
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29 May 07 - 03:21 PM (#2063387) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Wolfgang I see the reflexes of the left are still working as ever: The enemy of my enemy just has to be my friend. With the benefit of these reflexes and with a blind eye to populism as long as it uses loosely phrases of the left they greet one of the worst caudillos Latin America has brought forth. Of course, it is fun to watch as Chavez plays opposition to a really stupid US government. But that should not blind us to the dangers of another authoritarian lider. I can only shake my head at the bad memories of those who swallow Chavez' reasoning for the closure and regurgitate it here. We have the usual suspects telling us how bad it was that the TV station has supported a coup and that it should be expected that such a TV station may be closed. I nearly cry for pity with Chavez. The government controlled one TV station and 2 radio stations in 1999. Now it controls 4 TV stations and 7 radio stations. But still poor Chavez has to listen to voices of dissent. That may give him ulcers and we surely would not wish for that. Do you really not remember (or do you prefer not to mention?) that Chavez first appearance in national politics was a failed coup with several people killed? A coup against a president who was for three consecutive terms vice-president of the Socialist International and has received the "Earth Care" award for his efforts in environmental protection? Chavez was pardoned two years after the failed coup but now he can no longer listen to a TV station that once has supported a coup? Chavez is in the game for power and nothing else. Right now, he uses socialist phrases to rally the poor masses against the elites. Mugabe has led this way. Of course, each Latin American leader always knows that applause can be elicited by attacks against Bush. Bush deserves all these attacks, but that should not blind us to the ugly faces and deeds of some of his critics. Chavez does not deserve any of our support. Wolfgang |
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29 May 07 - 04:26 PM (#2063434) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: McGrath of Harlow I suppose the right time to have closed down the stations that supported the coup might have been immediately afterwards. But that would have been attacked as excessively hardline and as a totalitarian reaction. The option (copied from Thatcher) of waiting till the licence expired and needed to be renewed, and then not renewing it, did at least open the possibility of a move to a more measured and responsible type of opposition - which from all I have read was not taken. (And by "measured and responsible type of opposition" I mean real opposition, such as is demonstrated every day in other countries.) "...one of the worst caudillos Latin America has brought forth" - not really. Caudillo is a fair enough term to use, but as Latin American caudillos go calling Chavez "one of the worst" is hardly justified. (Batista, Somoza, Pinochet...) He's a populist politician, which is what most politicians actually aspire to be, one way for another. Better than some, worse than some. No grounds for idolising him or demonising him. |
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29 May 07 - 11:14 PM (#2063725) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Dickey Protests are continuing and larger today. High school students are protesting now. Chavez has asked supporters to protest the protesters. But it is all rightwing imperialist propaganda right? The newspapers are next. |
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29 May 07 - 11:31 PM (#2063733) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: katlaughing Well said, Wolfgang. |
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30 May 07 - 12:22 AM (#2063749) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Peace The terms 'left' and 'right' don't really mean anything within the context of this situation. I think that despite doing so much good for the poor of his country, Chavez is making moves we have seen before in some other South American countries. In Kissinger's words, "Even paranoids have enemies." Chavez is not loved by the US administration. This article from a few years ago is a must-read. Whether Chavez is making a power grab because he wishes to keep effecting change in Venezuela, or because he feels a definite threat of another attempt to overthrow him, he is taking a shot at having more power. For what I have no idea--meaning has he gone over to the 'darkside', and if so, whose? And if not, then who would have an interest in seeing him topple. Another thing to look at besides the news we're fed is the relationship between Venezuela and China. And who would find the cooperation between those countries to be against its corporate or national interest? I don't think the thing in Venezuela is quite as simple as it seems. There are lots of dancers on the main screen, but the people in the shadows are even more interesting, IMO. |
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30 May 07 - 12:44 AM (#2063760) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Dickey If you want the Pros and Cons on Chavez read this In there it talks about how most of the land belongs to the elite and then it discusses "Fátima Vieira, the daughter of a Portuguese truck driver who moved to Venezuela 50 years ago, said she was struggling to receive compensation for a 170-acre sugar cane farm controlled by squatters. As on other seized estates, she said squatters burned much of her sugar cane in an attempt to intimidate her. Vieira, 43, said she also feared for her life after a gunman shot her brother, Antonio, in the neck one balmy night in August in 2003, on the edge of his sugar cane farm. He died in the cab of his Ford pickup truck. After that incident squatters took over his property, she said." The Daughter and Son of an immigrant truck driver are elite? |
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30 May 07 - 01:05 AM (#2063769) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Lonesome EJ "The troops of capitalism have their ways to control the media. Occasionally, the troops of socialism must strike back, and break out of the agenda controlled by the same capitalist media."..Richard Bridge This is Socialism like Castro's Cuba is Socialism. What it is is self-coronation by a revolutionary stongman as the Savior of the People. Don't think it was what Jefferson, or even Lenin, had in mind, do you? You remember Benevolent Dictatorship don't you? Napoleon had it down..first declare liberty, equality, and fraternity, then declare your self Emperor. Otherwise, the enemies of freedom will crush your fledgling Democracy. We hear plenty of enlightened opinions from those safely ensconced within the borders of Canada, the US, Ireland, etc. Would love to hear someone from Mainland China voice the joys of Socialist Autocracy. |
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30 May 07 - 01:21 AM (#2063773) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Peace I am sorry that someone having an opinion bothers you. |
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30 May 07 - 02:22 AM (#2063791) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Lonesome EJ Come on, Peace. It's an argument. It's no fun if it doesn't bother you a little!;>} |
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30 May 07 - 10:23 AM (#2064006) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Riginslinger We do it differently here. Here we have our largest defense contractor in possession of NBC, and other large corporate conglomerates snapping up media outlets that serve their interests. It's a lot more efficient than storming the radio station of a banana republic, and it's all behind the scenes, doesn't draw a lot of attention, and the people who end up getting shot are all somewhere else. |
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30 May 07 - 10:49 AM (#2064026) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Dickey "I am sorry that someone having an opinion bothers you." Tell that to Chavez. Meanwhile the student protests enter day three and growing. Assessment of Chávez' government down 9 percent During the first months of President Hugo Chávez' third period in office, the positive assessment of his administration has declined 9 percent, compared to the weeks prior to the presidential election held last December 3rd. Oscar Schemel, director of research firm Hinterlaces, said that ending November last year 49 percent of Venezuelans rated Chávez' administration positively. In March, support for Chávez' government was 40 percent. Schemel attributed the decline to "tiredness, fatigue, lack of hope or frustration at unfulfilled promises and poor results" achieved through the Venezuelan government's policies. Priority approach of ideological issues above day-to-day life problems, such as personal high crime rates, is another factor Schemel suggests to have undermined Chávez' support. When assessing the satisfaction of the people who voted Chávez last December 3rd, Hinterlaces found that out of every 10 people, "three have regrets, and are angered and disappointed." Further, Hinterlaces found that 81 percent of Venezuelans reject the closure of private television station RCTV, and brand Chávez' move not to renew the broadcast license for RCTV as "arbitrary, personal and limiting people's access to diverse choices." http://english.eluniversal.com/2007/05/16/en_pol_art_assessment-of-chavez_16A869899.shtml |
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30 May 07 - 10:57 AM (#2064038) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: McGrath of Harlow Bush or Blair would be green with envy to have those kind of poll results. "tiredness, fatigue, lack of hope or frustration at unfulfilled promises and poor results" achieved through the Venezuelan government's policies. That sounds remarkably familiar. Politicians are politicians and they pull the same tricks for the same kind of reasons wherever you go. No reason to demonise Chavez particularly. At least he hasn't invaded anybody. |
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30 May 07 - 11:25 AM (#2064074) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Peace '"I am sorry that someone having an opinion bothers you." Tell that to Chavez.' Personally, I don't give a shit. It's South America. Fucked up at the best of times thanks to multinationals and greedy bastards either supported by this or that superpower (in the financial world). |
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30 May 07 - 11:28 AM (#2064079) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Lonesome EJ A free press is the mainstay of a free society, and was wisely included in the Bill of Rights of the US Constitution by the framers. Government shut down of a news outlet by a despot like Chavez is an obvious violation of this principle and is unlikely to be tolerated by people in a free society. What those of us living in a democracy with a tradition of free press need to be mindful of is the potential of gradual corporate takeover of news outlets through acquisition (Rupert Murdoch, anyone?)by individuals with a political agenda. |
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30 May 07 - 01:01 PM (#2064152) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Q (Frank Staplin) Wait till he moves against Chanel No. 5 |
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30 May 07 - 01:14 PM (#2064167) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: McGrath of Harlow When news outlets are bought and sold and controlled by the likes of Rupert Murdoch or Conrad Black that is every bit as much an assault on freedom of the press as anything Chavez has done. Agreed, a free press would be a mainstay of a free society - but it's a mainstay that in large part we haven't got. And a corrupt and venal press is destructive of a free society, and in large part that is what we do have. |
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30 May 07 - 04:18 PM (#2064315) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: GUEST Well said Mr McGrath! |
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30 May 07 - 05:09 PM (#2064350) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Lonesome EJ McG, I agree with your first stanza. That's why I brought it up. As to stanza 2, I couldn't disagree more. Venal, it certainly can be and often is. But for every Fox News example, I can show you examples like Atlantic Magazine which are bastions of truth and integrity. Freedom of the Press is not freedom from disinformation. It is the freedom, unfettered by punishment or retribution, to publish the truth for those who would seek it out. |
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30 May 07 - 05:28 PM (#2064363) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: McGrath of Harlow "In large part" isn't the same as "wholly". The point is that while there are some relatively uncontaminated news sources they are largely swamped by the corrupted media. Press freedom is desperately important - but that means freedom from the people who buy and sell and use media for their own ends as well as from governments that play the same game. |
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30 May 07 - 05:29 PM (#2064364) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Stringsinger thanks Ake, "Radio Caracas Television — RCTV — and its multi-millionaire owner, Marcel Granier, who are about to lose their unceasing political war against Chávez and Venezuela's Bolívarian revolution, are claiming that 'independent media are being closed down,' that Chávez is a dictator intent on 'restricting freedom of expression and democratic rights.'" Imagine what Bushco would do if a TV program(s) threatened Bush with assasination. The corporate interests in the US have been working for years to undermine Chavez and Castro. If a counterpart to Fox News were to be established on TV, imagine how the Bushies would react. Maybe institute an executive directive to inculcate martial law. The title of this thread should be RCTV moves against Chavez and his reforms. I still buy Citgo. |
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30 May 07 - 08:27 PM (#2064507) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Bobert Well, if all of a sudden NBC were to go after Bush with all their furry, what do you think would happen... Heck, Dan Rather, was just about lynched by the Bushites for s staory on why Bush didn't complete his National Guard stint, which BTW, Bush hsas never been able to prove he did... A few years back therer was an attempted coup against Hugo and Bush was so anxious to cllebrate that he had his administration welcome the coup-ster as the next leader of Venezuela... Okay, I don't like news agencies shut down but if they are instruments of folks who care more about power than spreading the news, then, hey, bye-dee-bye.... (Think Fox News here...) Bobert P.S. Viva la revoultion... |
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31 May 07 - 12:52 PM (#2065022) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: McGrath of Harlow Here's a list of Television Channels in Venezuela, according to Wikipedia. Quite a long list too. |
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31 May 07 - 08:44 PM (#2065373) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Nickhere "Occasionally, the troops of socialism must strike back, and break out of the agenda controlled by the same capitalist media like they did in North Korea, the workers paradise" Lonesome EJ and Dickey believe Latin America would be much better off in grinding poverty under the heel of the US-backed boot. Then the multitudes of destitute peasants in the capitalist paradise could at least *see* the fruits of capitalism, as enjoyed by the rich elite who benefit most from the kind of right-wing governments favoured by the US and US corporations. I suppose they would at least die happy knowing they lived in grinding poverty in the shadow of such a beautiful flag as the stars and stripes rather than that rotten old rag they fly in North Korea ;-)) |
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31 May 07 - 09:13 PM (#2065385) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Lonesome EJ Nickhere believes that any dictator who anoints himself as the savior of the people and condemns the United States as the source of all of their problems deserves to be supported regardless of his motives or actions, and that heroes such as Idi Amin, Kim Jong-il and Sadam Hussein represent national independence in the face of capitalist oppression. There, Nickhere. See how easy that is for me, too? Now if you want to argue about something I actually said instead of setting up a strawman of what you think I believe, I'll deal with you the same way, and we can have an honest disagreement. Or you can stand on your soapbox and fume. If it's the soapbox, just leave me out of it, please. I often disagree with McGrath and with Little Hawk, but I respect them, and you don't find me putting words in their mouths to try to slant the argument. That's what separates this forum from many of the slam-arenas on the net. |
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31 May 07 - 10:37 PM (#2065428) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Dickey Morales, Correa target TV foes By Martin Arostegui THE WASHINGTON TIMES May 31, 2007 SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia -- The leaders of Bolivia and Ecuador are moving with Cuban encouragement and in concert with their mentor, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, to restrict press freedom in their countries. Bolivian President Evo Morales and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa both announced steps to crack down on independent broadcasters within days of Mr. Chavez's closure on Sunday of Venezuela's main independent television station, RCTV. Speaking before an international gathering of leftist intellectuals in Cochabamba last week, Mr. Morales proposed creating a tribunal to oversee the operations of privately owned press and broadcast outlets. Mr. Correa announced over the weekend that he would order a review of the broadcasting licenses of opposition news channels in his country. Both leaders have drawn support and inspiration from Mr. Chavez's increasingly authoritarian government since coming to power in the past 18 months, and both are drafting new constitutions that would greatly increase their own powers. Mr. Correa has ousted 51 opposition deputies from his nation's Congress and Mr. Morales this week ordered the arrests of four high court judges after they issued rulings that challenged his government. "The main adversaries of my presidency, of my government, are certain communications media," Mr. Morales said at the Fifth World Conference of Artists and Intellectuals in Defense of Humanity, a Venezuelan-backed group supporting "the process of change in Latin America." Appearing alongside Cuba's minister of culture, Abel Prieto, Mr. Morales suggested "drawing on the experience of our friends in Venezuela and Cuba" to establish closer controls over the press. Mr. Prieto suggested that some owners of the independent press should receive long prison sentences. "I wish that we could imprison the owner of a media outlet. With much pleasure we would give him a life sentence for lying, for confusing the people," Mr. Prieto said. The Cuban official said it was "imperative" to establish a tribunal that would "permit the evaluation and work of the media. Not only local and national but of all the great disinformation machinery in decisive media outlets with enormous world influence." Mr. Chavez announced Monday that he would investigate CNN as well as Venezuela's last remaining opposition news channel, Globovision. He has remained defiant in the face of international condemnation and daily street protests in Caracas, telling his opponents to "take a tranquilizer." In Ecuador, meanwhile, Mr. Correa issued a statement saying that "radio and TV frequencies have been granted in ways that are frequently dark and it's time to analyze the matter." He accused owners of major news outlets of using political influence to get their broadcasting licenses and using the press "to defend private interests that are often corrupt." He also announced legal action against Ecuador's opposition newspaper La Hora. Mr. Correa has repeatedly attacked the ownership of news channels by current and former opposition legislators. A reporter for one such radio network was expelled last week from a press conference given by Economics Minister Ricardo Patino. Indications that Mr. Morales is preparing to follow the example of his close Venezuelan ally have alarmed Bolivian opposition leaders and news editors, who are frightened by his moves against the judiciary. "Morales identifies his enemies," read a banner headline in the Santa Cruz newspaper El Mundo, which pictured a newsroom in the cross hairs of a telescopic rifle. Mr. Morales tried to deflect mounting protests on Sunday by saying that he had no immediate plans to close down any TV station and that his criticism was aimed at owners of news organizations and not at individual journalists. http://www.washtimes.com/world/20070531-121115-7740r.htm |
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01 Jun 07 - 11:37 AM (#2065764) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Dickey "P.S. Viva la revoultion..." Howcome the freedom of speech is so vital and inviolable here in the US but in Venezuela it is not necessary? |
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01 Jun 07 - 12:26 PM (#2065803) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Dickey Day five of the protests: Venezuelan Students Spreading News of Killing via Internet Malury de Morales is a Venezuelan living in Florida who has been following these events closely through a constant stream of e-mails and instant messages coming from students in Caracas. According to a student who e-mailed Ms. Morales and who claims to have been an eyewitness to this afternoon's murder, the security officers who killed Ms. Guevara went out of their way to do so. Her source says that Ms. Guevara was peacefully protesting, but the police broke ranks in order to go get her and shoot her on the street. The government of Chavez has issued a statement claiming that the student was killed while engaged in violent protest. Chavez has also broadcast statements that he will "defend Venezuela against violent people." Venezuela College Students Demonstrate Peacefully According to e-mails Ms. Morales has received, the students' protests have involved such slogans as, "We want freedom of speech. We don't want a Communist regime. We don't want violence." All the protests are said by the students to have been peaceful. Pictures e-mailed out of Venezuela by the students show masses of young people peacefully marching the streets of Caracas. Prior to today's killing, the students have reported violence being used to try to intimidate them. One e-mail reports over 120 minors having been returned to their homes by police after having been beaten. Chavez Stops Venezuelan Media, Takes Aim at College Media outside of Venezuela have reported that the student protests, which are now in their fifth day, having begun on May 27, were sparked by the closing of the most popular TV station in Venezuela, RCTV. But the students' opposition to the Chavez regime had another important trigger. On May 24, Chavez had announced he would end the autonomy of the Central University of Caracas. This university has existed since the beginning of Venezuela and is highly respected. The students of Venezuela are said by Ms. Morales' e-mail correspondents to have viewed the threat to Central University as symbolic of a general attack on Venezuelans' freedom. One e-mail concludes with these words: "This is a call for aid, a S. O. S. to all the planet: Do not be deceived by a tyrant, by someone who is unhinged and who promotes the destruction and the death of his people." With the close of RCTV, the only media outlet said to be still willing to report honestly on events in Venezuela is the very weak T.V. station Globovision. Recently members of the Chavez-dominated national assembly threatened to close it. The students' e-mails also report that Chavez has now threatened to shut down the Internet. "This is a call for aid: Do not be deceived by a tyrant who promotes the destruction and the death of his people." â€"An e-mail from a Venezuelan student http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-6-1/55953.html |
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01 Jun 07 - 02:13 PM (#2065884) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: McGrath of Harlow Back in 1972 and 1973 in Chile, at the time of the Allende government, there was a wave of strikes involving truck-owners, businessmen and professionals, and some students. This was widely presented in the media as being a defence of freedom against a tyrannical regime. It led up to the September 11 coup in Chile, which brought the Pinochet regime to power and ushered in a period of vicious repression, involving torture, and the killing of thousands of people. Backing from the USA was crucial in enabling this to happen. I'm sure there are serious flaws in Venezuelan democracy under Chavez, as there was in Chile under Allende, and as there is is many other countries, including the UK and the USA. But I am equally sure that the regime that is likely to replace Chavez if it gets toppled will be vastly worse, as was the case in Chile. |
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01 Jun 07 - 04:34 PM (#2065993) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Peace I would bet the new regieme would be more friendly to some national interests and corporate interests--other than China's. |
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01 Jun 07 - 04:47 PM (#2066009) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Peace regieme How 'bout "regime"? |
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01 Jun 07 - 06:06 PM (#2066072) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Riginslinger "This was widely presented in the media as being a defence of freedom against a tyrannical regime. It led up to the September 11 coup in Chile, which brought the Pinochet regime to power and ushered in a period of vicious repression, involving torture, and the killing of thousands of people. Backing from the USA was crucial in enabling this to happen." The same thing happened in the US in 1981 and we ended up with Ronald Reagan. |
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01 Jun 07 - 07:24 PM (#2066111) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Nickhere By way of example Lonesome EJ: "This is Socialism like Castro's Cuba is Socialism. What it is is self-coronation by a revolutionary stongman as the Savior of the People. Don't think it was what Jefferson, or even Lenin, had in mind, do you? You remember Benevolent Dictatorship don't you? Napoleon had it down..first declare liberty, equality, and fraternity, then declare your self Emperor. Otherwise, the enemies of freedom will crush your fledgling Democracy. We hear plenty of enlightened opinions from those safely ensconced within the borders of Canada, the US, Ireland, etc. Would love to hear someone from Mainland China voice the joys of Socialist Autocrac" You have also described Chavez as a 'despot'. You evidently believe that Chavez and Castro are autocrats etc., and their socialist republics are the efforts of despots to grab power to themselves. It would be much 'better' if these countries embraced our western democratic model. This is of course despite decades of evidence to the contrary, that capitalism in south America has meant despotic rich elites lording it over supine populations, a position backed up by a regime of terror. this terror has often been endorsed, aided or guided by the USA (the dreadful 'School of the Americas' at Fort Benning being an example of this kind of 'intervention'). This kind of political model is based on the interests of big business, not on people. In fact the USA isn't so far behind here either. Ask the destitute homless survivors of Katrina about their experiences. The National Guard arrives down not to protect and help them, but to protect (well-insured) property from those filthy starving desperate masses. It took ages for them to get any assistance at all, and many fleeing were turned back. Then there's America's two-tier health system - another disgrace in such a wealthy country. It is horrible to hear of hospitals actually turning people away because they lack medical insurance. At least Castro's people get free medical aid. if they don't have everything they need, you could do well to look no further than the US' petty embargo on Cuba. It is also interesting to note Cindy Sheehan's recent comments on stepping down from the anti-war movement. She said she was sick of teh two party system, where the Democrats were only interested in her as long as she was perceived to be anti-Republican (and didn't hold the Democrats up to the same standards). She said she now knows her son literally died for nothing, killed by his country beholden to a corporate machine that feeds off war. By contrast, under Chavez, Venezuela's poor are finally getting a look in at last. Old people are getting their pensions, money is being put into health (Chavez even has a deal with Cuba to swop Cuban medical expertise for Venezuelan oil) and hospitals, schools, etc., In short, the weaker and more vulnerable are gettinga slice of the cake which the rich had had all to themselves up to recently. Can yopu imagine the cheek of Chavez finally aksing the big earners to cough up a whole 15% in income tax after years of practically no tax at all!! Where will it all end, we wonder!! Chavez is one of the first South American leaders to acknowledge that US and Western interference in South America is bad news for the ordinary people of that continent. And for that, he is castigated by the right-wing press on a pile of spurious grounds. And that is what has the richer Venezuelan's and big US corporations knickers in a twist - looking after poor people is not good for profit margins. It's all very well to criticise these 'autocratic socialist regimes' but at least in Venezula the poor are getting looked after. The USA (hardly one of the world's poorest countries) could do well to take a leaf out of Venezuela's book. |
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02 Jun 07 - 12:57 AM (#2066307) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Dickey Day six: Rising unease slows Chávez agenda In the past few weeks, President Hugo Chávez has hit some speed bumps in his rapid transformation of Venezuela into a socialist state, with polls showing a drop in support. BY PHIL GUNSON AND STEVEN DUDLEY CARACAS -- Recent street protests, polls and delays in government projects have put the normally aggressive Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on the defensive as he tries to rapidly implement ''21st Century Socialism'' in Venezuela. ''This is part of the transitions, transitions that are sometimes tumultuous,'' Chávez said this week as university students led protests in a half-dozen Venezuelan cities over the government's decision not to renew the broadcast license of a popular television station. ``There's no revolution that isn't tumultuous.'' Calling his landslide Dec. 2 reelection the beginning of an era, Chávez -- a former army lieutenant colonel who led a failed coup in 1992 before he was elected president in 1998 -- charged into his agenda with great success. After obtaining power to rule by decree for 18 months from a legislature that has no opposition members -- the opposition boycotted the last election -- Chávez took over the country's main telecommunications company, the electric utility in Caracas and the heavy oil production facilities formerly run by multinational corporations. But unexpected obstacles in the last few weeks appear to have slowed the once steady march toward what Chávez has called Bolivarian Socialism -- an expansion of the state's role in the economy and significant increases in funding for social welfare programs paid from oil revenues that have made Chávez wildly popular here. NO CHECKS ON POWER He has won three presidential elections, but opponents say he has undermined democracy and put the nation under virtual authoritarian rule by stacking the courts and once-independent government institutions with allies...." "COUNCILS UNDER FIRE The president's idea for grass-roots democracy through so-called ''community councils'' also has run into trouble. Resources that normally go to local government bodies are being diverted to these organizations to ''empower'' ordinary Venezuelans. But there are complaints of widespread corruption, and some community councils have split into rival factions, with angry disputes over how the money is spent. Intellectuals sympathetic to the regime also have criticized the councils as an idea imposed from above and whose practical application is doubtful. Social historian Margarita López Maya wrote recently that the councils' ''potential autonomy'' from the government is weak, adding that the authorities failed to submit the proposal to an adequate popular debate. FOOD SHORTAGES Meanwhile, issues such as violent crime, unemployment, inflation and food shortages have begun to erode the public's confidence in the authorities and possibly in the president..." http://www.miamiherald.com/583/story/125072.html |
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02 Jun 07 - 03:24 AM (#2066332) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Lonesome EJ Someone mentioned the closed-down channel advocating Chaves' assassination. And McGrath said "TV channels which actively support an armed coup against an elected government can normally expect a hard time when their licence comes up for renewal - in any country." Has anyone cited specific passages by RCTV that advocate assassination or an armed coup ? |
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02 Jun 07 - 03:56 AM (#2066342) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: akenaton Paraguay to follow Chavez!! "we have to be aware to guarantee that the forces of chaos do not sabotage the awakening." Read this and weep you weasels...Ake Viva Chavez...go on click!! |
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02 Jun 07 - 04:53 PM (#2066714) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Dickey Food shortages in the Workers Utopia: A Circus But No Bread By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY May 21, 2007; "...Here's how Chavez economics "works." As petro-dollars pour into state coffers, the government takes them to the central bank to get new bolivars printed, which are then pumped into the economy through government spending. Mr. Chavez has also been regularly increasing wages. The result is a consumption boom. Under free prices, too many bolivars chasing too few goods would produce inflation that would show up at the supermarket checkout counter. But price controls make that impossible. Instead, serious shortages are emerging. Free prices are to an economy what microchips are to a computer. They carry information. As Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises explained in his legendary treatise 60 years ago, it is free prices that ensure that supply will meet demand. When Mr. Chávez imposed price controls, he destroyed the price mechanism. And so it is that the Venezuelan egg is now a delicacy, the chicken an endangered species, toilet paper a luxury and meat an extravagance. White cheese, milk, tuna, sardines, sugar, corn oil, sunflower oil, carbonated drinks, beans, flour and rice are also in short supply. The reason is simple: Producers have no incentive to bring goods to market if they are forced to sell them at unprofitable prices. Ranchers hold back their animals from slaughter, fisherman don't cast their nets, food processors don't invest in equipment and farmers don't plant. Those who do produce find it makes more sense to take their goods across the border to Colombia or to seek out unregulated (black) markets. Importers also have little incentive to work these days even though the country needs food from abroad. Some things like wheat are not grown in Venezuela. Other products like milk, sugar and potatoes are imported to supplement local supplies. But the Chávez government has made it difficult to buy a dollar at the official exchange rate of 2,150 bolivars and if an importer has to buy dollars at the market rate of 4,000 bolivars it is impossible to make a profit under price controls. Even imports not subject to price controls can be difficult to find since import permits and licenses, as well as dollars, are hard to come by. This is putting a crimp in more than just the food supply. According to local press reports, some 40% of the country's air fleet has been affected by delays in getting spare parts and the automotive industry's supply chain is hampered by a lack of access to dollars. Earlier this year hospitals began complaining that the servicing of medical equipment has been delayed because spare parts are not available. Hospitals are also reporting shortages of medicines for diabetics, antibiotics and hypertension drugs. Price controls on construction materials have damaged the reliability of supply. To stock the state-owned grocery stores called Mercal, the Chavez government goes shopping abroad with dollar reserves. Of course, Mercal shelves are often bare as well. Moreover, some enterprising government employees seemed to have learned something about market economics: The Venezuelan media is reporting that Mercal supplies are turning up for sale just across the Colombian border, where market prices prevail. Venezuelan policy makers can't be this dumb. The intention is not to feed the country but to destroy the private sector and any political power it might still have. In this environment survival independent of good relations with Mr. Chavez is nearly impossible. In the revolutionary handbook, capitalist producers and importers who buy things from the imperialists will be replaced by socialists living on cooperatives that will feed the country. The only trouble is that that effort is not going well, as Jose de Cordoba reported on the Journal's front page on Thursday. Lack of knowledge, equipment, incentives and organization have left the co-ops "mostly a bust so far." To end the shortages all Mr. Chavez would have to do is lift the price controls. But with inflation already running above 20%, he no doubt fears the price jump that would follow. Much safer to seize RCTV and accelerate the consolidation of the military dictatorship. When the crisis comes, the chavistas will be ready. http://daniel-venezuela.blogspot.com/2007/05/marai-anastasia-ogrady-on-venezuela.html |
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02 Jun 07 - 07:43 PM (#2066794) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: McGrath of Harlow Another pastie... |
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02 Jun 07 - 08:04 PM (#2066805) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Peace Dickey: You sound a bit sad that things have improved for the people of Venezuela. Or have I misunderstood? |
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02 Jun 07 - 10:04 PM (#2066855) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: akenaton Interesting to see people like Katlaughing, who pretend to be democrats, whining about media freedom when he indigenous folk of Latin America have suffered centuries of exploitation and poverty. The situation in the United States should make it clear to all whether they be evil or simply dumb, that "freedom" is only a word if not accompanied by representation. If "freedom" is to have real meaning it should be available to all, not just those with wealth and power. AS stated further up the thread, When an extremely corrupt system like that which has controlled Latin America for so long is being changed fo one which is more democratic. "We have to be aware to guarantee that the forces of chaos do not sabotage the awakening."............Ake |
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03 Jun 07 - 02:08 AM (#2066965) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Dickey Peace: If you consider growing unrest over growing food shortages and rampant inflation good and if you consider people marching with a flag with the hammer and sickle am improvement, then you must be happy. Have you packed your bags yet? |
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03 Jun 07 - 02:11 AM (#2066967) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Peace So it's the Russians that bother you? |
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03 Jun 07 - 02:30 AM (#2066968) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Lonesome EJ Let's see. The Venezuelan governmental system was totally corrupt and gave the people no representation, right? Somehow, though, the people acted through the system to elect Chavez, right? And now that Chavez has gained power through the democratic process, he begins dismantling said democratic process in favor of a benevolent dictatorship, so the people can be better served, right? Is there something I'm missing here? And Katlaughing dares to call herself a Democrat, as I do by the way, and yet we dare to criticize the benevolent-dictatorial-process! The gall! |
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03 Jun 07 - 03:15 AM (#2066983) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Dickey Peace: Does North Korea bother you? benevolent dictatorship? Is that an oxymoron like military inteligence? Ruling by decree = better served??????? How are the students that are demonstrating better served? |
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03 Jun 07 - 04:09 AM (#2067011) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: GUEST,dianvan Is it true that Chavez has been responsible for a dramatic rise in literacy rates, the introduction of national health care, increased per capita income and reduced poverty? So what if he shut down a tv station? He's in S. America (the land of coup). I think he was looking after the stability of his country. In America, you're arrested as a terrorist if you express your hatred for the U.S. and discuss ways of disrupting the economy. Its called conspiracy. The media calls it a plot even when there is no evidence of a plan that could succeed. At least Chavez improves the lives of his people. Thats more than Bush does. Chavez has a healthy disrespect for the U.S. At least he's strong enough to protect his country from exploitation. More power to him. |
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03 Jun 07 - 07:52 AM (#2067092) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: akenaton Bravely said Diana and lots of good sense from Bruce. The squeals of our heroic "democrats" are becoming more strident. Isn't it wonderful to see the desperation of the right, as their castles crumble before their eyes. How Hugo Chavez deals with the problems of increased prosperity in the future. An unlimited money supply is not a good catalyst for a true socialist revolution....Ake |
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03 Jun 07 - 07:57 AM (#2067097) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: akenaton Sorry about that. Last sentence shoul read..."It will be interesting to see how H.C. deals with the problems which will accompany increased prosperity." |
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03 Jun 07 - 11:11 AM (#2067231) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV chanel From: Nickhere It might be worth pointing out that RTC hasn't been actually shut down in the literal sense - it is still operating through cable internet etc., so people can still access its news and opinions if they wish. It hasn't been granted a state broadcasting licences under terms allowed by law: its support of an anti-democratic coup (backed by elements within the US and Venezuela's rich fearful they might have to share the crumbs from their table) disqualifies it from state support. If a media outlet in the USA backed an assassination of President Bush, I doubt it would remain on air for long if the putsch didn't succeed. The 'problem' for some people with Cuba and Venezuela is that they musn't be allowed to succeed, as they present alternatives to the 'American Dream' for all their shortcomings. If they succeed, people who have blind faith in the corporate capitalist model of the US might begin to question its wisdom. They might begin to wonder why a country that produces such fabulous wealth is unable to look after its poor, elderly and sick. Canada has a far lower GNP yet manages adeqaute medical cover for its citizens (Canadians, correct me if I'm wrong!) They might also wonder why Cuba with its much-derided one-party system is yet able to provide medical care for all (OK, short on supplies - again, the embargo: any ship that docks at a Cuban port is banned from any US port for the following 6 months, making it very costly to ship / import / export to Cuba) while the USA with a whole TWO parties (that can find hundreds of millions of dollars to elect a president) is quite unable to do the same except for the rich or those with medical insurance. So the best policy is to undermine these systems through coups, embargoes, covert subversion etc., etc., and then when they collapse (as most countries would under such determined and well-financed efforts to destroy them) the finger can be pointed at what rubbish models of society they are. It reminds me of a Bob Dylan song "Only a Pawn in Their Game" when he sings something like 'and don't help the black guy because remember you're better of than him' True, China is an autocratic country, and it's hardly neceesary to even say that North Korea is a failed state. But there is a happy balance, and I believe Cuba and more particularly Venezeula are getting there. There needs to be some balance between profit (a perfectly legitimate business pursuit) and people's welfare (the over riding factor). BTW, it recently occured to me one reason why so many Chinese abroad are paranoid about being spied on by their goverment all the time. Well, so would you if everywhere you went - shops, petrol stations, streets etc., - you saw signs saying 'smile, you're on CCTV' and 'CCTV monitored area' and 'CCTV in operation' In China, CCTV is the abbreviation for Central China TeleVision - the main State television channel!!! Weird, but true! Anyone with satellite access can watch it for themselves. ;-) |
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03 Jun 07 - 11:53 AM (#2067281) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Dickey Dianavan: In Venezuela, you're arrested for protesting the government confiscation of the most popular TV station. Freedom of speech vital to the US but uneeded in Venezuela because they have a benign dictator. "You get up at dawn to hunt for a breast of chicken all over town. Housewives are in a foul mood." says Lucylde Gonzalez, a Caracas homemaker, who says she hasn't seen an egg in a week." Mr. Chávez blames the shortages on "speculation" by distributors and producers. Agriculture Minister Elias Jaua recently called a news conference to deny there's been any decline in food production during the eight years of Chávez rule. The central bank stopped publishing agricultural statistics in 2005. A private farm association called Fedeagro estimates Venezuela grew 8% less food last year than the year before, citing factors including the price controls, land seizures and the wave of kidnappings of farmers. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117934540971705299.html?mod=googlenews_wsj Such an improvement. |
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03 Jun 07 - 11:53 AM (#2067282) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: katlaughing Boy, LeeJ, there's some really twisted "logic" going on in this thread, isn't there. I've never pretended to be a Democrat, I am one, and being one does NOT automatically guarantee my being lock-step with anything that party or any other party might propose. What I know about Venezuela comes first-hand from my Rog working there AND from his friends who live there. But then, what would they know. |
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03 Jun 07 - 12:54 PM (#2067328) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: McGrath of Harlow Mr. Chávez blames the shortages on "speculation" by distributors and producers....A private farm association called Fedeagro estimates Venezuela grew 8% less food last year. They might both be telling the truth. They might both be lying. Or they might both be selecting which bits of the truth to emphasize and which to ignore and which to distort, which is what generally happens when politicians or lobbyists indulge in spin, in all countries. That's where a free press should come in, to sort out the spin from the truth - but partisan media that deliberately distorts information for an agenda are not part of a free press, they are parasitic hangers on who undermine a free press capable of carrying out investigation. It may be necessary to tolerate them as part of the price to pay for enabling free media to exist, but this is a contingent decision not a universal principle. A TV station which has in the past backed an armed coup that nearly succeeded, and which has not changed in any significant way is a serious danger in a country such as Venezuela, This is especially so where the coup was actively supported by a hostile US government with a long history of promoting bloody coups in neighbouring countries such as such as Chile, Guatamala, and indeed throughout the continent. |
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03 Jun 07 - 01:29 PM (#2067351) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: GUEST "...the coup was actively supported by a hostile US government with a long history of promoting bloody coups in neighbouring countries such as such as Chile, Guatamala, and indeed throughout the continent." Ain't that the truth! |
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03 Jun 07 - 01:30 PM (#2067354) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: GUEST,dianavan That was me. |
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03 Jun 07 - 01:39 PM (#2067362) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Stringsinger In Venezuela, you're arrested for protesting the government confiscation of the most popular TV station. Freedom of speech vital to the US but uneeded in Venezuela because they have a benign dictator. "You get up at dawn to hunt for a breast of chicken all over town. Housewives are in a foul mood." says Lucylde Gonzalez, a Caracas homemaker, who says she hasn't seen an egg in a week." Eggs aren't that good for you and are not really needed for healthy sustenance. And besides why should anyone give credence to a single disgruntled Caracas homemaker? She is only one person. " A private farm association called Fedeagro estimates Venezuela grew 8% less food last year than the year before, citing factors including the price controls, land seizures and the wave of kidnappings of farmers." The fact that it's a private farm association make their stats suspect to begin with. It's like trusting Archer Daniels Midland to estimate the efficacy of agribusiness in the US. Propaganda. |
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03 Jun 07 - 02:23 PM (#2067414) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Lonesome EJ Those supporting the Benevolent Dictator philosophy would do well to study the ascent to absolute power of Benito Mussolini. First, organize and head a party that promises restoration of power to the people and an end to bureaucratic paralysis. Second, use the existing democratic process to elevate the party and its head man to power. Third, demand temporary dictatorial powers to seize control of parliamentary and other branches of the government, and site outside threats and traitors within the government as the reason. Fourth, design and prosecute large-scale "people's projects", such as Mussolini's Land and Grain Reforms to solidify the image as the People's Leader. Fifth, through threat or direct action, silence all press opposition and outlaw public protest. Sixth, demand further, open-ended extension of dictatorial powers in favor of the ruling party/headman's prepared list of candidates, effectively outlawing the opposition. Anyone who sees a difference between this approach and Chavez' is welcome to dispute it. He, at least, is showing himself to be a conscientious student of history. |
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03 Jun 07 - 02:40 PM (#2067431) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: GUEST,dianavan I'd still rather live under Chavez than Bush. Chavez has inherited a lot of problems but Bush inherited a land of prosperity and look what he's done with it. |
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03 Jun 07 - 02:42 PM (#2067432) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Lonesome EJ Bush will be out of office in a year and a half. Taking any bet on Hugo, Diana? |
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03 Jun 07 - 03:20 PM (#2067457) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Lonesome EJ Contrast Chavez with the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua. Nicaragua was under the iron boot of a dictator, Somoza, for many years. He was pro-America, it was the Cold War Era, and the US supported him. Through an armed insurrection, he was overthrown and the Sandinistas and Daniel Ortega took power. Despite this, Ortega refused to follow the Cuban Benevolent Dictator model. Cuba was instrumental in supporting the Sandinista Revolution and in providing health care and teachers in its aftermath in helping the Sandinistas apply the program of educating and caring for the people. They also had, as a stated mission, the establishment of a multi-party system with free elections, and these took place under the eye of UNESCO. The Sandinistas were eventually voted out of power, but the democratic reforms they put into place remained, and they accepted political defeat and retired. But in the last election, Ortega was voted back into power, and the Sandinista Party is again at the helm. Yes, I understand that the Sandinistas were opposed by the Reagan administration, wrongfully as it turns out. But my point is that revolutionary reform CAN be accomplished without resorting to Dictatorship. Nicaragua is a shining example of how successfully socialism coupled with democratic reform can work in a revolutionary environment. |
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03 Jun 07 - 03:22 PM (#2067460) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: akenaton Katlaughing the spelling was "democrat" with a small d. A real democrat would never support media who encouraged an armed coup against a democratically elected govt...Ake |
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03 Jun 07 - 03:42 PM (#2067482) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Peace "Those supporting the Benevolent Dictator philosophy would do well to study the ascent to absolute power of Benito Mussolini." How about George Bush. He's more recent. |
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03 Jun 07 - 05:08 PM (#2067560) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: McGrath of Harlow "the Sandinistas were opposed by the Reagan administration," That's a slight understatement for long years during which Reagan sponsored and financed a proxy terrorist campaign against the Nicaraguan people in which many thousands were murdered. Finally the Nicaraguan voters were ground down by all this and understandably gave up and voted for a quiet life, in face of threats by the USA if they kept voting Sandanista That's part of the background which explains why the Venezuelan government feels pretty nervous about giving their own Contra equivalent too much leeway. |
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03 Jun 07 - 05:28 PM (#2067576) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Lonesome EJ "Finally the Nicaraguan voters were ground down by all this and understandably gave up and voted for a quiet life, in face of threats by the USA if they kept voting Sandanista" ...and under Bush's enlightened attitude toward Nicaragua, they felt comfortable putting Ortega back in power? The fact that the people COULD vote out the Sandinistas speaks volumes about what they accomplished. Not a strong argument for the Chavez-Castro School of Demagoguery in that comment. As for Bush following Mussolini's tenets, he sure accomplished 1 and 2, and took a good crack at three, but our system is resilient enough to prevent further damage. I believe the US needs to overhaul many of the ways in which we deal with the world, that our system is flawed but repairable. Maybe some of you would suggest we need a good socialist strong-man to fix it, but I disagree. |
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03 Jun 07 - 06:22 PM (#2067608) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Peace Folks are making lots of assumptions based on very little data, IMO. What is clear is that Chavez took his business to China--specifically, his oil. That should be an indicator that he was no longer happy selling to the north. He has antagonized the USA (recall gas at really low prices for Americans who were too poor to afford the prices in the US?). We in Canada know exactly how it feels to piss off the most powerful country in the world. The damage to our economy caused by Mad Cow Disease was unnecessary, but we got it between the eyes. (I always felt that's because we chose not to be part of "The Coalition of the Willing", preferring instead to follow the UN's lead.) It would not surprise me to find out that the US has people (people who have bulges under their arms and receivers in their ears) helping to keep stuff hopping in Venezuela. A change of leaders would be one helluva lot easier than having to go through all the lead-up to an invasion of yet another oil-rich country. |
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03 Jun 07 - 06:38 PM (#2067625) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: McGrath of Harlow ...the people COULD vote out the Sandinistas ... The people of Venezuela have had the opportunity last year to vote out Chavez, and declined to do so. In fact his vote went up. Hundreds of international monitors confirmed that it was a fair and democratic election. It just so happened it didn't go the way Bush would have liked it to go. When the next election comes up they can expect to have another opportunity to vote Chavez or his successor out, if they so wish. That is, so long as a successful coup cannot be engineered to put in power a regime that would be more to the liking of Washington, which is a real possibility, and one which lies behind the actions that sparked off this thread. |
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03 Jun 07 - 07:00 PM (#2067647) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: katlaughing Some words from the Venezuelan who started and owns the blog, The Devil's Excrement, the link of which I posted earlier: Written from the Venezuelan provinces, this blog started as private letters to my friends overseas, letters narrating the difficult days of the 2002/2003 strike in Venezuela. These letters became this mix of news, comments, pictures of the Venezuelan situation. Unknowingly, I have written the diary of Venezuela slow descent into authoritarianism, the slow erosion of our liberties, the takeover of the country by a military caste, the surrendering of our soul to our inner demons. Also, posted by another Venezuelan regular there, to the tune of American Pie: Venezuelan Pie: music and bolivarian poetry A long, long time ago I can still remember How your speeches used to make me smile And I knew if you had a chance You could make those people dance And maybe they'd be happy for life But May 28 made me shiver With the bad news you delivered No more RC on the TV Just because you said it had to be I have to wonder if you cried Cause it seems they wounded your pride And I realized down deep inside That was the day the Robolution died So bye, bye Bolivarian guy I thought you were a democrat now I know it's a lie And the Chavistas are drinking whisky all night Not knowing it's the day their dreams died It's the day their dreams died I remember back in 98 Everybody thought you were great Didn't we all tell you so? Then you wrote the book in blue And we put all our faith in you To follow wherever you would go Well, I know you were a coupster too But I thought that you had paid your dues And turned over a new leaf Not taking power like a thief And all those guys before you sucked A blow for freedom I thought you'd struck But I knew I was out of luck The day the Robolution died I started singing Bye, bye Bolivarian guy I thought you were a democrat now I know it's a lie And those Chavistas are drinking whisky all night Not knowing it's the day their dreams died It's the day their dreams died Now for eight years we've been led by you And it hasn't been perfect, yes that's true But that's the price of being empire-free Like the endogenous economy Seems to mean more of you and less of me Well, if that's how it has to be You promised a new future for our land And we were eating out of your hand We leftists finally got our turn The IVth would never return And you quoted Lenin and Marx Though in their time they missed the mark Now we're singing dirges in the dark On the day the Robolution died Now we're singing Bye, bye Bolivarian guy I thought you were a democrat now I know it's a lie And those Chavistas are drinking whisky all night Not knowing it's the day their dreams died It's the day their dreams died Now I probably should have got a clue By those other things you used to do But I wanted so bad to believe You packed the Assembly and courts too With folks who never would argue And it seemed you'd never want to leave And oil prices have been sky-high And there's still not enough food to buy But I thought I'd still give you a chance Because I liked your anti-Bush stance But now though the country appealed You say you'll never, ever yield Your autocratic ways were not concealed The day the Robolution died --- --- --- --- --- OK, maybe hard to sing on occasion as the meter blows from the original, but still, the point comes across, no? FWIW, kat |
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03 Jun 07 - 07:14 PM (#2067653) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: katlaughing My apologies...the above(lyrics) were copied from a blog which is accessed off of the Devil's Excrement: click here. |
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03 Jun 07 - 07:53 PM (#2067676) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: GUEST,beardedbruce My question is, if Bush were to do what Chavez is doing, what comments would be made here about the situation? |
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03 Jun 07 - 07:55 PM (#2067677) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Peace What's Chavez doing? |
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03 Jun 07 - 08:13 PM (#2067683) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Peace Back in 2002 that station helped to overthrow a democratically elected government. (That government [Chavez's] WAS overthrown for two days.) Chavez let it continue to broadcast for five years. It didn't renew its broadcast license. I think Chavez has made PR error, big time. However, if he was the monster some are trying to make him out to be, some folks woulda disappeared already. If Bush did that, I have no idea what people would say. He's such a bad President that I'm sure it wouldn't be nice. |
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03 Jun 07 - 08:36 PM (#2067708) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: McGrath of Harlow There haven't been any armed coups against the elected government in the USA, so the question of what would be appropriate in regard to any TV channels that supported and encouraged such a coup does not arise. (I know some people have said that what happened in November 2000 was a kind of coup against the elected government, but that's another matter.) |
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04 Jun 07 - 06:54 AM (#2067987) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Nickhere Lonesome EJ: Ok, you make a fair point about the ascent to power of the dictator. I believe it is one of our duties as citizens of democracies to keep a close eye on those in power to make sure they don't seize absolute power. It is almost more important to keep an eye on the oligarchs, as they are often the movers and shakers behind a figure head. If you're interested in history, you might be interested to study how the Roman Republic, almost 700 years old, transformed into first a dictatorship, then an Empire in a relatively short space of time. It might yet prove instructive in the case of the USA. As for freedom of speech etc., Wasn't a journalist fired for publishing photos of US dead coming back from Iraq? Can't show reality too strongly to the public in case they have a change of heart. My friends stateside reliably inform me that (especially immediately post 9-11) anyone who wanted to protest about the war in Iraq, had to do so in designated 'free speech zones' (which of course also implies that everywhere outside those zones is not free speech!) where they would be out of the public eye. Which US media criticises the Iraq war and roll-back of civil liberties that accompanies Bush's regime? CNN? Fox? Maybe there's one or two, and they have to watch their P's and Q's. Have the US population ever been more spied on? You might say if you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear. But that's missing the point. Once you go down that road it only depends on who has access to and control of all this information for a free society to degenerate into an un-free one. Don't forget that the words 'democratic' and 'free' mean nothing unless they are applied in practice (as someone already mentioned up the thread). Indeed, it has always struck me as one hallmark of totalitarian regimes how much they bandy about the words 'democratic' 'people's' and 'free' as if to make up for the actual deficit. Once again, read the history of Rome's transformation from ancient Republic to autocratic Empire. It happens more easily and quickly than you might think. |
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05 Jun 07 - 10:12 AM (#2069087) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Dickey Venezuelan Currency Weakens as Demand for U.S. Dollars Jumps By Guillermo Parra-Bernal June 4 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela's currency weakened in unregulated markets as investors and companies bought dollars to protect their money from quickening inflation. The bolivar weakened in the parallel market to 4,110 bolivars to the U.S. dollar at 4:30 p.m. New York time from 4,080 bolivars on June 1, traders said. The decline widened the bolivar's losses this year to 21 percent, the biggest drop among 72 currencies tracked by Bloomberg. Venezuelans are pulling money out of the country as a two- fold increase in government spending over the past two years flooded the economy with bolivars and fueled the highest inflation rate in Latin America. Annual inflation accelerated in May to 19.5 percent, the fastest in three months. Opponents to President Hugo Chavez and supporters of Radio Caracas Television, Venezuela's most-watched channel that Chavez closed on May 27, peacefully protested in Caracas and other cities today, the ninth day of demonstrations, adding to investors' concerns. The closure triggered criticism that Chavez was curbing free speech. Investors will be attentive to the marches, said Henry Travieso, a trader with Global Capital Valores in Caracas. ``You could call the situation a tense calm,'' said Giorgio Milani, a trader with Caracas-based Sequoian Sociedad de Corretaje de Valores CA, said. ``There are several reasons why demand for dollars should remain high for some time: the politics, the excess liquidity, consumer prices.'' Venezuela pegs the bolivar at an official exchange rate of 2,150 bolivars per dollar under restrictions Chavez imposed in February 2004. Venezuelans turn to unregulated markets when they can't get approval from the government's Foreign Exchange Administration Commission to buy dollars at the official exchange rate. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aiAqGalFOjCQ&refer=news |
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05 Jun 07 - 10:24 AM (#2069094) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Dickey A total of 182 people _ mostly university students and minors _ have been detained in nearly 100 protests since Sunday, Justice Minister Pedro Carreno said late Tuesday. At least 30 were charged with violent acts, prosecutors said, but it was unclear how many remained behind bars. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/30/AR2007053001867.html |
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05 Jun 07 - 12:25 PM (#2069199) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Peace Sheesh. More folks than that have been detained for less in the USA. |
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05 Jun 07 - 07:44 PM (#2069564) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: McGrath of Harlow If Chavez models his civil rights on what seems accepted practice for the USA today that would be pretty bad news... |
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06 Jun 07 - 01:51 AM (#2069733) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: akenaton In his latest "speech"Here Bush says that "freedom is under assault in Venesuala" "Chavez is using shallow populism to dismantle democratic institutions" Bush also says that Cuba is "one of the world's worst dictatorships" I suppose he must be refering to Guantanamo!! The American public must be stark raving mad to swallow this crap. Why don't you all just come over to the "new" Scotland we're on the road to freedom at last. |
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06 Jun 07 - 01:08 PM (#2070057) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Dickey In Hugo Chavez's Venezuela it's a crime to "insult" the president. The offence became part of the penal code in March and mandates prison terms of up to two and one-half years. |
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06 Jun 07 - 02:02 PM (#2070099) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Peace Anyone serving time for insulting him? |
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06 Jun 07 - 02:49 PM (#2070129) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Peace Laws like that are dangerous. However, look at the various EOs on the books in the US and they are dangerous, too. Is Chavez an angel? Nope. But then, there aren't too many angels left on Earth. It doesn't excuse depots, but then no one has demonstrated that Chavez is a despot. It's the kinda situation one watches. He has done much good for the poor of Venezuela. The fact it doesn't meet with US approval seems not to matter to Chavez. IMO, it shouldn't matter to us, either. |
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07 Jun 07 - 01:46 AM (#2070514) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Dickey "...Carlos Eduardo Izcaray Pinto, solo cellist of the Venezuela Symphony orchestra, was arrested during the night of March 2 near Altamira Plaza, where he had been watching anti-government protests close to his home. Izcaray told Human Rights Watch that the National Guard had come under a barrage of stones and fireworks and had charged the demonstrators, who ran in all directions. He decided to walk home but was intercepted by a National Guardsman riding a motorbike, who stopped him for questioning. Ignoring his protests that he was only a bystander, the guardsman beat him repeatedly around the head, insulted him, and forced him onto the back of the motorbike. He was later put into a truck in which there were five or six other detainees. He told Human Rights Watch: The guardsmen in the truck continued to hit me on the neck and body with their nightsticks, helmets, and even traffic cones. One hit me on the elbow with a stick so hard that my arm and hand went numb. Another emptied a teargas bomb and smeared the contents on my hair and face, then set light to my hair, burning my neck. One guy put a pistol in my mouth and made me repeat a phrase after him, "I am going home to my husband." I suppose it was meant to humiliate me. After a while they moved us into a second truck. Inside, they made us inhale tear gas after closing the canvas sides of the truck and putting on their gas masks. They threw one of the big [teargas] bombs inside, closed all the doors and if any one pushed on the canvas sides to escape they got beaten. My lungs were burning and I really thought I was going to die. Eventually I managed to get out the side of the vehicle and they didn't try to stop me. We were taken to the 51st Detachment of the National Guard at El Paraso in Western Caracas. They made us all kneel in a corner looking at the ground and they hit anyone who moved with their helmets or sticks. Then they gave me electric shocks on the neck and arms from some equipment I couldn't see because it was above my head.Izcaray told Human Rights Watch that there were three minors in the group with whom he was arrested, including a fifteen-year-old. "They were treated as badly as the rest of us. The guards made us stand up and sit down in quick order and the slowest would get teargas powder thrown in his eyes. Most of the time it was the kid they threw the powder at." According to Izcaray's father, orchestral conductor Felipe Izcaray, "Carlos was released thanks to a kindly soul in the National Guard who allowed him to make a phone call, as he was on a list of people to be transferred to La Planta. The alert mobilized his family, friends and colleagues and he was eventually set free, but he was not allowed to see his lawyer during all the time he was detained." Carlos Izcaray told Human Rights Watch that, before he was released, a National Guard officer warned him of reprisals if he publicly denounced his maltreatment. When Human Rights Watch spoke to him on March 19, he said that his hand was still numb and he was unable to hold the bow of his cello. ..." http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/04/12/venezu8423.htm |
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07 Jun 07 - 09:39 AM (#2070696) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: McGrath of Harlow I'm sure there are people in other countries, including the USA and the UK, to whom that account will sound very familiar. Thugs in uniform are thugs in uniform the world round. |
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07 Jun 07 - 11:47 AM (#2070788) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Dickey "..Although arrested by a different police force, the experience of eighteen-year-old high-school student Asdrúbal Joaquín Rojas Monteverde was similar. Rojas was arrested on March 1 in Maripérez, Caracas, by armed officers of the military police. He told Human Rights Watch that his mother had sent him to buy some cell-phone cards. He was on his way to buy them accompanied by two friends (one of them a minor), when they were stopped by the military police. Rojas told Human Rights Watch: The military police took us to the Plaza Venezuela, where they put us in a truck. They beat me with their helmets, especially on my left arm. They sprinkled powder from a tear gas can over my eyes. It stung like crazy. Then they threw a tear gas bomb into the truck. I took a deep breath and held my breath as long as I could, but then I was breathing pure gas. I was suffocating…the police did nothing to help us, but I beat against the canvas sides of the truck and managed to find an opening. I was able to breathe air again. After this, the officers made me appear in front of the television cameras in the Plaza Venezuela and say that I had received the money I was carrying from the Acción Democrática as payment for participating in the protests. They threatened to beat me more if I refused. The truck then took us to the military police headquarters in Fuerte Tiuna, where they continued to mistreat me. They gave me electric shocks five times from a baton that they carry (one of them also used it when he arrested me). It made my muscles contract from the effect of the electricity, and then my whole body started trembling. Rojas' mother, Ivette Monteverde de Rojas, told Human Rights Watch that she saw bruises on his neck and his shoulder when she visited him on the following day. Rojas was released conditionally on March 25 after being held for more than three weeks in the military police's 35th regiment headquarters in San José de San Martín, Fuerte Tiuna. He was charged with illegal assembly, obstruction of the street, resisting authority, and possession of inflammable substances. He was required to sign in every fifteen days at the courts until his case was heard. Rojas told Human Rights Watch after his release that he had never participated in the protests, which he didn't agree with..." http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/04/12/venezu8423.htm |
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07 Jun 07 - 03:18 PM (#2070930) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Nickhere Does anyone else here smell a rat? With all this talk about how democracy is being trampled in Venezuela, it seems we're being groomed for a regime change. The long suffering people of Venezuela (and its oil) can probably expect a US-led invasion (as that country is famous for bringing democracy and freedom to all suffering countries with oil) sometime, unless they're willing to install a right wing puppet who'll give big business a free hand. Next you'll be hearing how Venezuela is trying to develop the atom bomb!! ;-)) Sorry, btw, I take that back about a US-led invasion: I know many US citizens are just as fed up as the rest of the world with the belligerent and destablising neo-Reganites in the White House. Just try not to vote for them next time.... ;-) |
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07 Jun 07 - 05:35 PM (#2070978) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: McGrath of Harlow Here's a piece in today's Guardian which puts a different slant on this. The battle over the media is about race as well as class: ...The debate in Venezuela has less to do with the alleged absence of freedom of expression than with a perennially tricky issue locally referred to as "exclusion", a shorthand term for "race" and "racism". RCTV was not just a politically reactionary organisation which supported the 2002 coup attempt against a democratically elected government - it was also a white supremacist channel. Its staff and presenters, in a country largely of black and indigenous descent, were uniformly white, as were the protagonists of its soap operas and the advertisements it carried. It was "colonial" television, reflecting the desires and ambitions of an external power. And the article is followed on this link by a lively debate from a variety of points of view. |
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08 Jun 07 - 10:46 PM (#2071908) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Dickey Hugo Chavez on Condolencia Rice (verbatim): "Give me the "I can do it" (reading) method, to send it to Condolencia, who continues to show she is a total illiterate. It seems that she dreams with me, I am capable of inviting her to a meeting to see what happens with me. First she said she was mad. The next day she said she was sad and depressed because of Chavez. Oh daddy! Forget about me. What bad luck that lady has. I won't do that sacrifice for the country. Let someone else do it. Cristobal Jimenez, Nicolas Maduro or Juan.. |
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09 Jun 07 - 12:35 AM (#2071938) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: katlaughing McGrath, my Rog says the fellow who wrote the "comment" in the Guardian is a fucking idiot!:-) |
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09 Jun 07 - 04:48 AM (#2072018) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: akenaton We should put him in touch with Dickey then. They should get on really well. |
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09 Jun 07 - 11:07 PM (#2072595) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Dickey Hurricane Chávez What's worse for energy security: a natural disaster or a petro-bully? Washington Post Sunday, September 24, 2006; Page B06 HUGO CHAVEZ got the attention that he craves by comparing President ush to Satan last week. But the Venezuelan leader's absurd talk may be less threatening than his equally absurd incompetence. Since Mr. hávez took power seven years ago, Venezuela has mismanaged its oil so disastrously that production may have fallen by almost half, according to the estimates of outsiders, reducing global oil supply by a bit more than 1 percent. Along with natural disasters and Nigerian rebels, Mr. Chávez's ineptitude has contributed to high energy prices. It takes sustained determination to reduce output by that much, and Mr. Chávez has provided it. He inherited a competent national oil company that produced three times more per worker than its Mexican counterpart. He immediately starved it of investment capital and dispatched ignorant political cronies to oversee it. When this abuse provoked a strike, Mr. Chávez fired the staff en masse, getting rid of two-thirds of the skilled employees and managers. Mr. Chávez imagines that he can damage the United States by rerouting Venezuelan oil to other markets. He fails to understand that oil is fungible: If Venezuela's crude is sold to the Chinese, the Chinese will buy less of it elsewhere, freeing up supplies for U.S. consumers. But Mr. Chávez also appears oblivious to the technical difficulties in sending oil halfway round the world rather than selling it in his own hemisphere. Oil tankers do not come cheap, and China will have to build special refineries to process the heavy brand of crude that Venezuela produces. Despite Mr. Chávez's bluster about tripling exports to China in three years, Venezuela will depend on Yanqui consumers for the foreseeable future. To the extent that Mr. Chávez's wild talk stirs up anti-American feeling, he must be regarded as an irritant. If he secures a temporary seat on the U.N. Security Council, as he hopes to do next month, he will doubtless render U.N. diplomacy even more challenging than it is already. Yet it is not the United States but rather Mr. Chávez's own countrymen who should most fear his intentions. Venezuela's courts, media organizations and civil society groups have been bullied into submission, and Mr. Chávez is talking about a constitutional change that would allow him to remain in power indefinitely. "The people should not be stripped of their right if they wish to reelect a compatriot whoever it may be three, four, five, six times," he said recently. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/23/AR2006092300721.html |
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10 Jun 07 - 01:54 PM (#2072977) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: McGrath of Harlow The more oil you extract the less is there to be extracted in the future, when the price can be expected to be higher. I don't know if that's what Chavez is trying to do, but cutting back on oil extraction would make excellent sense. Getting it out of the ground and onto the market as fast as possible is a crazy idea. |
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10 Jun 07 - 09:09 PM (#2073271) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: robomatic What I really think we need to know is what does Noam Chomsky think? |
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11 Jun 07 - 09:11 AM (#2073576) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Dickey The film, ''Two Minutes of Hate,'' is to include real footage of Chavez's speeches and his supporters firing guns from a bridge when chaos erupted at a large opposition march that led up to a short-lived 2002 coup. http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2007/05/01/actress_maria_conchita_alonso_to_play_ch |
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11 Jun 07 - 10:08 AM (#2073630) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Peace Yep. The rich are really pissed off with Chavez. However, he keeps getting elected. Doesn't that tell you folks something? Good to hear from you, Robo. Love the Chomsky remark. |
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12 Jun 07 - 09:51 PM (#2075370) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Dickey Angus Reid Global Monitor : Polls & Research Venezuelans Deem Chávez a Dictator June 13, 2007 (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Most people in Venezuela believe their president's recent actions recall those of an authoritarian leader, according to a poll by Hinterlaces. 51 per cent of respondents say Hugo Chávez is behaving like a dictator, while 31 per cent think he is acting like a democrat. Chávez has been in office since February 1999. In July 2000, he was elected to a six-year term with 59.5 per cent of all cast ballots. In August 2004, Chávez won a referendum on his tenure with 59 per cent of the vote. The special election was called after opposition organizations in Venezuela gathered 2.5 million signatures to force a recall ballot. In December 2006, Chávez earned a new six-year term with 62.89 per cent of the vote. In January, Venezuela's National Assembly approved the Enabling Law, which grants the president special powers to enact presidential decrees in 11 different areas for a period of 18 months. Chávez said he would use the legislation for "the construction of a new, sustainable economic and social model" in order to "achieve equality in the distribution of wealth." Last month, Venezuela's Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) was taken off the air after the government decided not to renew its broadcasting license. The RCTV network had been on the air for 54 years, and boasted the country's largest audience. Chávez accused the network of harming his "revolution" and repeatedly said it was aligned with the opposition. Earlier this month, Chávez discussed the current state of affairs in Venezuelan, saying, "What hurts me most is poverty, and that's what led me to become a rebel. (...) I'm not singing victory yet. It's a long road. There will continue to be all the individual freedoms, collective freedoms, fundamental rights. We accept private education. We accept private health care, as long as it's regulated and in keeping with national policy. (...) The same goes for banks." Polling Data Do you think Hugo Chávez is behaving like a dictator or like a democrat? Like a dictator 51% Like a democrat 31% No reply 18% http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/16100 |
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12 Jun 07 - 10:08 PM (#2075376) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Dickey Chavez TV channel accused of piracy By Martin Arostegui | Published Jun/8/2007 | Latin America , Business | Unrated Miami producer threatens million-dollar law suit Mr. Chavez has said the new station aims to have a "more human, socially responsible and educational content." Programming so far has combined light entertainment with educational programs, group discussions and news reports highlighting Mr. Chavez's achievements. Mr. Guerra said that TVes obtained "Destino X" "through distributors that we don't deal with, and that we don't know. They pirated the series and are illegally trafficking our product." The new Venezuelan state channel has agreed to take the program off the air temporarily until a settlement can be reached. "I hope it's [off the air] permanently," said Mr. Guerra. "It's creating a negative situation for us." Mr. Guerra said he is also seeking to have "Destino X" taken off the TVes Web site, http://tves.com.ve/parrillaprogramacion.html. According to the show's producers, the distributor has agreed to pay a penalty by today as demanded by Wide Angle Productions, which has threatened to initiate a million-dollar law suit. "But we haven't received the check yet," Mr. Guerra said yesterday. http://wpherald.com/articles/5101/2/Chavez-TV-channel-accused-of-piracy/Miami-producer-threatens-million-dollar-law-suit.html |
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13 Jun 07 - 06:10 PM (#2076205) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Nickhere Is Dickey a mudcatter or a newspaper? |
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13 Jun 07 - 06:22 PM (#2076213) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: akenaton He's a newspaper that Teribus wiped his arse with! |
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13 Jun 07 - 09:13 PM (#2076332) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Dickey Peruvian author urges action against Chavez He calls on Venezuelans to mobilize against leader The Associated Press Posted June 12 2007 BRASILIA, Brazil � Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa urged Venezuelans to mobilize against their nation's "dangerous trajectory" toward totalitarianism after President Hugo Chavez forced an opposition-aligned television station off the air, according to a Brazilian news agency. Vargas Llosa, who was in Brazil for a series of conferences, criticized Chavez's decision not to renew the broadcast license of Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV, in an interview with Agencia Estado news service. Click here to find out more! LocalLinks "The important thing is for Venezuelans to resist," Vargas Llosa said. "Shutting down RCTV ... will hopefully encourage opposition against a very dangerous trajectory which for Venezuela and the rest of Latin America is very dangerous. "Venezuela's opposition must become more and more energetic against a demagogue who can destroy Venezuela," he said. RCTV, Venezuela's oldest and most-watched private channel, went off the air May 27, and its license was turned over to a state-funded channel. Chavez accuses the station, which was fiercely critical of his government, of playing a key role in backing a short-lived 2002 coup against him. He says he respects freedom of speech. International journalism watchdogs call the move a blow to freedom of the press, and Chavez opponents in Venezuela have protested the closure...." http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/caribbean/sfl-hvargas12jun12,0,1262787.story?coll=sfla-news-caribbean |
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14 Jun 07 - 06:31 PM (#2077285) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Nickhere Hmmm. A newspaper. |
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15 Jun 07 - 12:37 AM (#2077504) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Dickey Meat, sugar scarce in Venezuela stores CARACAS, Venezuela - Meat cuts vanished from Venezuelan supermarkets this week, leaving only unsavory bits like chicken feet, while costly artificial sweeteners have increasingly replaced sugar, and many staples sell far above government-fixed prices. President Hugo Chavez's administration blames the food supply problems on unscrupulous speculators, but industry officials say government price controls that strangle profits are responsible. Authorities on Wednesday raided a warehouse in Caracas and seized seven tons of sugar hoarded by vendors unwilling to market the inventory at the official price. Major private supermarkets suspended sales of beef earlier this week after one chain was shut down for 48 hours for pricing meat above government-set levels, but an agreement reached with the government on Wednesday night promises to return meat to empty refrigerator shelves. Shortages have sporadically appeared with items from milk to coffee since early 2003, when Chavez began regulating prices for 400 basic products as a way to counter inflation and protect the poor. Yet inflation has soared to an accumulated 78 percent in the last four years in an economy awash in petrodollars, and food prices have increased particularly swiftly, creating a widening discrepancy between official prices and the true cost of getting goods to market in Venezuela. "Shortages have increased significantly as well as violations of price controls," Central Bank director Domingo Maza Zavala told the Venezuelan broadcaster Union Radio on Thursday. "The difference between real market prices and controlled prices is very high." Most items can still be found, but only by paying a hefty markup at grocery stores or on the black market. A glance at prices in several Caracas supermarkets this week showed milk, ground coffee, cheese and beans selling between 30 percent to 60 percent above regulated prices. The state runs a nationwide network of subsidized food stores, but in recent months some items have become increasingly hard to find. At a giant outdoor market held last weekend by the government to address the problems, a street vendor crushed raw sugar cane to sell juice to weary shoppers waiting in line to buy sugar. "They say there are no shortages, but I'm not finding anything in the stores," grumbled Ana Diaz, a 70-year-old housewife who after eight hours, had managed to fill a bag with chicken, milk, vegetable oil and sugar bought at official prices. "There's a problem somewhere, and it needs to be fixed." Gonzalo Asuaje, president of the meat processors association Afrigo, said that costs and demand have surged but in four years the government has barely raised the price of beef, which now stands at $1.82 per pound. Simply getting beef to retailers now costs $2.41 per pound without including any markup, he said. "They want to sell it at the same price the cattle breeder gets for his cow," he said. "It's impossible." After a meeting with government officials Wednesday, supermarkets association head Luis Rodriguez told the TV channel Globovision that beef and chicken will be available at regulated prices within two to three days. He did not say whether the government would be subsidizing sales or if negotiations on price controls would continue. http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=292144 |
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04 Jul 07 - 06:50 PM (#2094312) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Nickhere See? I'm a newspaper too!! ;-)) Free Speech is Alive and Well in Venezuela By Greg Grandin, AlterNet Posted on June 22, 2007, Printed on June 22, 2007 The government of Venezuela decided not to renew a broadcast license for RCTV, one of the oldest and largest opposition-controlled TV stations in the country, when its 20-year term expired on May 27. The US media, in keeping with its reporting on Venezuela for the last 8 years, has seized upon this opportunity to portray this as an assault on "freedom of the press." It's not clear why a TV station that would never get a broadcast license in the United States or any other democratic country should receive one in Venezuela. But this is the one question that doesn't seem to come up in any of the news reports or editorials here. RCTV actively participated in the U.S.-backed coup that briefly overthrew Venezuela's democratically elected President Hugo Chavez in 2002. The station promoted the coup government, reported only the pro-coup version of events. It censored and suppressed the news as the coup fell apart. Even ignoring RCTV's role in the coup, its broadcast license would have been revoked years ago in the U.S., Europe, or any country that regulates the public airwaves. During the oil strike of 2002-2003, the station repeatedly called on people to join in and help topple the government. The station has also fabricated accusations of murder by the government, using graphic and violent images to promote its hate-filled views. The whole idea that freedom of expression is under attack in Venezuela is a joke to anyone who has been there in the last eight years. Most of the media in Venezuela is still controlled by people who are vehemently (sometimes violently) opposed to the government. This will be true even after RCTV switches from broadcast to cable and satellite media. All over the broadcast media you can hear denunciations of the president and the government of the kind that you would not hear in the United States on a major national broadcast network. Imagine Rush Limbaugh during the Clinton impeachment, times fifty, but with much less regard for factual accuracy. Pick up a newspaper -- El Universal and El Nacional are two of the biggest -- and the vast majority of the headlines are trying to make the government look bad. Turn on the radio and most of what you will hear is also anti-government. Television now has two state-run channels, but these only counterbalance the rest of the programming that is opposition-controlled. Venezuela has a more oppositional media than we have in the United States. In fact, if the government carries through on its promise to turn RCTV's broadcast frequency over to the public, for a diverse array of programming, then this move will actually increase freedom of expression in Venezuela - rather than suppressing it, as the media and some opportunistic, ill-informed politicians here have maintained. Sadly, some human rights officials here have also, without knowing much of the details, jumped on the media and political bandwagon. In a press release this week, José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, said that "The move to shut down RCTV is a serious blow to freedom of expression in Venezuela." (Of course RCTV will not be "shut down," since it can continue to distribute its programs through cable and satellite media). But in an interview the same week Vivanco gave a different view, criticizing "those who claim that the fact that the Chavez government is not renewing the license for RCTV, per se implies a violation of freedom of expression. That is nonsense. . . you are not entitled, as a private company, to get your contract renewed with the government forever." So why is a station that has repeatedly violated the most basic rules of any broadcast license entitled to another 20-year state-sanctioned franchise? It is not surprising that a monopolized media here would defend the "right" of right-wing media moguls to control the airwaves in Venezuela. Still it would be nice if we could get both sides of the story here - like Venezuelans do from their major media, which is right now saturated with broadcasts and articles against (as well as for) the government's decision. Then Americans could make up their own minds about whether this is really a "free speech" issue. Is that really too much to ask from our own "free press?" Greg Grandin teaches Latin American history at New York University and is the author of a number of books, including the just published Empire's Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism. |
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24 Jan 09 - 12:56 PM (#2547937) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Sawzaw Venezuela seeks investments from Big Oil The Associated Press January 16, 2009 CABIMAS, Venezuela: Squeezed by slumping crude prices, Venezuela is reaching out to the multinational oil companies it once demonized as imperialist profiteers. Venezuela is soliciting bids from the world's major oil companies to extract heavy crude from vast deposits in its Orinoco River region. Despite President Hugo Chavez's criticism of U.S.-style capitalism, it has become clear that state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA needs both the cash and expertise of Big Oil. These international oil companies have made windfall profits in recent years, but analysts doubt many will want to invest again given Chavez's history of seizing foreign stakes in Venezuela's oil. "When it comes to Venezuela, there's still going to be a lot of skepticism," said Greg Priddy, a global oil analyst at the Eurasia Group in Washington D.C. "Chavez is still there and you haven't had a change in government." Venezuela's oil wealth funded a bonanza of social spending that has made Chavez a populist hero not only in Venezuela, but across much of Latin America. But times have changed since Chavez nationalized Venezuela's last privately run oil fields in Orinoco in May 2007, shouting "Down with the U.S. empire!" as Russian-made fighter jets streaked overhead. The government took majority control of those projects, siphoning off more of the profits and reducing private companies to minority partners. Exxon Mobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips pulled out altogether, while Chevron Corp. and others begrudgingly accepted the new terms. Venezuela's oil industry has stagnated under Chavez. Thousands of veteran employees with critical expertise were fired for backing an oil strike in an attempt to oust Chavez from office, even as the payroll expanded by more than half since 2002 to 70,400. Chavez has turned PDVSA into an all-purpose social service agency. An urban development arm builds houses, and a subsidiary sells milk, chicken and beans at metro stations and plazas. Chavez even gave PDVSA the task of training Venezuela's Olympic team. The neglect of the company's core business is evident along the eastern shore of Lake Maracaibo, where for every few pump jacks pulling crude, another one hovers motionless above an abandoned well. Here in the petroleum heartland — home to 78 billion barrels of Venezuela's most accessible reserves — machinery lies broken amid the weeds along muddy lakeside roads. Steam hisses from rusted pipes. PDVSA insists output is steady at an average 3.3 million barrels a day. But according to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, to which Venezuela belongs, production has dropped 16 percent since Chavez won office in 1998 and averaged 2.4 million barrels a day last year. Chavez has talked often of partnerships with the state oil companies of Iran and Russia — but falling oil prices have left these countries with less cash to spend on distant projects. "There is no international financing in sight for Venezuela," said Heliodoro Quintero, Venezuela's former OPEC representative, who says the only option left is to seek help from the very companies Chavez spurned. PDVSA is in an extremely tight spot, with oil prices plummeting more than 70 percent since July. Venezuela's heavy crude is particularly expensive to upgrade to usable crude — not a problem when prices were sky-high. Now shrinking profit margins make it harder to finance production. Venezuela also needs new upgraders to make this extra-heavy crude refineable — which is why PDVSA is requiring bidders to help build three of the facilities. Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez each would cost $6 billion, to be completed by 2014. PDVSA says it has invited bids for minority stakes in projects to explore seven areas of the Orinoco delta, and that 19 companies, including Chevron Corp., Total SA, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Petroleo Brasileiro SA, spent $2 million each for a "data package" of technical information about the deposits. But it remains unclear whether any have actually presented bids. Chavez's history of nationalizations and tax hikes is surely fresh on the oil executives' minds. "It's very hard to build a billion-dollar project on shifting legal sands," said Russell Dallen, head of Caracas capital markets at BBO Financial Services. The companies themselves aren't saying — "We don't comment on bids," Total spokesman Kevin Church in Paris said Thursday, in a typical statement. StatoilHydro ASA bought the data package, but it is too early to say whether it will bid, spokeswoman Mari Dotterud in Norway said. "We haven't come that far yet." The world's major oil companies may end up bidding on the Venezuelan projects in the end, simply because global supplies are dwindling, and much of the remaining reserves are locked up by governments from Iran to Mexico. The moral of the story is that Socialism does not work unless it is feeding off of the profits of Capitalism PS: Chavez is an Idiot |
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24 Jan 09 - 01:10 PM (#2547951) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Stringsinger Chavez is not a fascist because fascism means an alignment between corporate interests and state control of government. He is no more of a dictator than Bush was. Here's the problem. The CIA and certain shadowy figures in the State Dept. of the US are trying to do to Chavez what they tried to do to Castro. They pour propaganda money into Venezuela to influence right-wing values into the media. Chavez is reacting to this in the only way he knows how. It's not the democratic ideal that we have here, (which hypocritically many in the Congress, Senate, Executive Branch (hopefully this will change) and Supreme Court ignore in favor of an authoritarian right-wing ideology.) Chavez is caught between a rock and a hard place. To keep Venezuela from becoming another "banana republic" he is forced into a corner as was Castro. The solution is to present an alternative approach using real democratic ideals instead of political grandstanding by the US media. This alternative approach means lowering the anxiety that these countries feel about the encroachment of American corporate interests and right-wing ideologies in their political systems. The American mainstream media is part of the problem. It has biased reporting by Faux News, CNN, NBC and the like controlled by ideologues such as Murdoch. When the fear of Corporate takeover by American firms is lessened, you will probably see a lessened restriction on media in Venezuela. |
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25 Jan 09 - 12:50 PM (#2548818) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Sawzaw Chavez is not a facist but an idiot. The second he thinks he has the USA buy the snardlies because of oil, he is a bad ass, seizing corporate assets and teaming up with other badasses. Then when he looses his advantage he is just a poor boy needing help from big business. Venezuela is and was a Banana Republic. Do you see GWB closing down TV stations that do not support him? However I hear Libs saying "I hope they bring on the Fairness Doctrine and get you off the air." |
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26 Jan 09 - 12:16 AM (#2549210) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Sawzaw Chavez Government Raids Official Reserves as Storm Clouds Loom The government has drawn heavily from Venezuela's official reserves to fill the financing gap on state spending in the wake of declining worldwide oil demand and export earnings. Latest official figures show that the Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV) â€" which would once have resisted any such move â€" transferred $12.543 billion to the government. This reduced the official reserves to $29.47 billion â€" a little below the government's estimate of $30 billion for the "optimum" level of reserves required by an economy such as Venezuela's. Anything above this watershed is deemed to be "excess" or "surplus" reserves which should be put to use rather than left to accumulate interest, according to Chavez. The transfer is legal after a reform of the Central Banking Law four years ago. Until then, the BCV had independent control over the reserves and a remit to safeguard them in the nation's interest. However, the central bank's autonomy was curbed drastically when the law was changed in 2005. The official rationale for the drawdown is that the funds will be used for "investment," implying state civil works projects. But there's a suspicion that a substantial part of the money if not all of it will go directly into Chávez' "missions" or social welfare programs. The transfer comes amid growing concern about the likely ramifications of the drop in oil income on the economy and standards of living this year. The widespread conclusion is that 2009 is inevitably going to be a tough year, although nobody yet seems to have worked out just how hard times could become. The transfer is seen as a sign that the government, which initially claimed that Venezuela could ride out the knock-on effect on oil markets of the global financial crisis, has realized this can't be so. Economic growth slowed before the financial storm erupted after Lehman Brothers collapsed last year. At the same time, high inflation prompts warnings that the economy could implode. Inflation, which has Venezuela at the top of the Latin American league at 30.9% last year, shows no signs of abating. If anything, economists warn that the trend is upwards and likely to remain so unless the government imposes some degree of austerity. This basically boils down to reining in state spending, the extent of which is unclear in the absence of regular statistics about the national finances. Chávez has urged "workers" to exercise austerity in their own lives because of the crisis, but is deemed not to have followed suit on government expenditure -- although there is speculation that he is waiting until after the referendum on indefinite re-election on 15 February to announce hard times. Meanwhile, a new study by Miguel Octavio, Head of Research at leading Venezuelan investment bank BBO, concludes that with this latest withdrawal of $12 billion from the Reserves, the money supply in circulation is now 3 times the amount of reserves held by the Central Bank -- a new high. BBO warned that when the money supply reached twice the reserves under President Rafael Caldera in 1994-1995, the country went through one of its largest devaluations ever. |
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26 Jan 09 - 02:40 AM (#2549232) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: CarolC Am I reading that correctly? In the US, hundreds of billions of dollars have been taken from the taxpayers and given to the banks, while in Venezuela, a little less than 13 billion dollars was taken from the banks and given to the taxpayers? Is that how it all shakes down? The US system is better in what way? |
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26 Jan 09 - 08:02 AM (#2549323) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: kendall Remember the old days when American oil interests ran that poor country? A small fraction of the populace enjoyed huge wealth while the great majority of the people lived in squalor. Chavez changed all that, and now the poor people enjoy a higher standard of living and the formerly filthy rich piss and moan about socialism. The French revolution comes to mind. Chavez has one thing going for him; the great majority of his people, and he is fighting any way he has to to keep his country out of the greasy hands of the filthy rich exploiters. Been there, done that, got the poverty. If I could vote for him, I would. |
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26 Jan 09 - 02:25 PM (#2549570) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Stringsinger "Do you see GWB closing down TV stations that do not support him?" Yes indeed. But he has had surrogates such as Murdoch and others attempting to do this by discrediting controversy. Main Stream Media in the US has effectively closed down most alternative Progressive programming in the US with exception of Olbermann and Madow. Bush is just as ideologically corrupt as any dictator. |
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26 Jan 09 - 08:45 PM (#2549851) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: kendall Didn't Newt Gingrich lead a charge to shut off funding for NPR? |
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26 Jan 09 - 10:10 PM (#2549880) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Sawzaw "given to the banks" Please explain how a loan is considered a gift? "closed down most alternative Progressive programming " Care to name some names? |
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26 Jan 09 - 11:34 PM (#2549907) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Sawzaw "now the poor people enjoy a higher standard of living" Venezuela's standard of living has not progressed as much as Latin America as a whole. In fact it was higher than average in 1975, pre-Chavez, but as of 2005 it is below the average. This is based on HDI, Human Development Index which looks beyond GDP to a broader definition of well-being. The HDI provides a composite measure of three dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy), being educated (measured by adult literacy and enrolment at the primary, secondary and tertiary level) and having a decent standard of living http://hdrstats.undp.org/countries/country_fact_sheets/hdi-trends/ven_2.gif |
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26 Jan 09 - 11:43 PM (#2549911) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: CarolC We won't know if it was actually a loan or not until it's been paid back. |
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27 Jan 09 - 12:12 AM (#2549923) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Sawzaw Do we know if a gift will be paid back? Those loans make you a part owner of the banks, if you pay taxes. Funny thing, when the government "bailed out" Chrysler during the great glorious statesman Jimmy Carter's administration, it was called a loan instead of a giveaway. And the loan was paid back with interest. |
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27 Jan 09 - 12:50 AM (#2549938) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Sawzaw Correction: Tarp is actually the Government "buying in" to the financial instituions. But it is still not money "given" to the banks. The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is a program of the United States government to purchase assets and equity from financial institutions in order to strengthen the financial sector. |
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27 Jan 09 - 01:21 AM (#2549949) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: CarolC If the assets and equity are worthless, the taxpayers won't get their money back. The banks were supposed to use that "bailout" money to make loans to people, but they've decided to just sit on it instead. Since the banks don't seem to care about what the government intended for that money, I don't see any reason to expect that we the taxpayers won't get hosed. I will be pleasantly surprised if we don't, but I'm not too hopeful. On the other hand, Chavez used money that was already in Venezuela's reserves, which one would expect are there for precisely that purpose. Considering the trouble that most of the countries in the world are in at this point in time, I think it's hardly remarkable that a country like Venezuela might dip into their reserves to help tide them over. Do we even have any reserves here in this country, or does all of our money come initially from China these days? |
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27 Jan 09 - 09:07 PM (#2550652) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: kendall There is no question that the poor of that country are way better off under Chavez. Gasoline is .12 cents a gallon there. It is $1.89 here, and that's down from $4.00 a gallon. |
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27 Jan 09 - 09:15 PM (#2550658) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: McGrath of Harlow "the profits of Capitalism" That has a rather hollow sound to it right now. True enough there are still some capitalists making big money out of the collapse, but that's not quite the same thing - Hedge fund made millions betting on Barclays crash. |
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29 Jan 09 - 02:25 PM (#2552163) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: McGrath of Harlow What does "â€쳌" and "’s" and "“" scattered throughout in that last post represent? Does this "American Convention on Human Rights" and "Inter American Court" apply to the United States as well? |
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29 Jan 09 - 04:30 PM (#2552273) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: CarolC I don't see those symbols in the second to last post from this one. Only the last post before this one. I think they're something that sometimes appears when someone's computer can't read a character for some reason. It seems to happen a lot with some punctuation marks and also hyphens. |
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29 Jan 09 - 06:18 PM (#2552347) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Sawzaw "If the assets and equity are worthless, the taxpayers won't get their money back." Evidently CC is more concerned with ifs than facts. What it they are not worthless? What if a bullfrog had wings? What if you could recognize facts from hype? It is not a gift as you have falsely characterized it. Do you have any sort of retirement coming to you? If so, part of the money is likely to be invested in equity, (shares of stock) in these same financial institutions. When the Government buys shares, it is beneficial to you. On Tuesday, October 14, the Treasury Department announced the creation of a Capital Purchase Program, through which the Treasury will purchase up to $250 billion of senior preferred shares in qualifying U.S. controlled banks, savings associations, and bank and savings and loan holding companies. The program, which is part of the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), but is a departure from previously announced plans to purchase troubled assets from financial institutions The money might have been given to them to use just like when anybody buys stock in anything but it was not given to them to keep. Is this a gift or not? |
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29 Jan 09 - 06:28 PM (#2552354) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: CarolC Well, the problem with it, as far as I can see, is that the term "senior preferred shares" only means that the holder will be paid before common stock holders, but after debt holders in the case of a bankruptcy. At the rate banks are going bankrupt these days, I don't find the above particularly reassuring. |
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29 Jan 09 - 07:50 PM (#2552429) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: McGrath of Harlow That last post of mine referred to a post that been removed for some reason. |
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30 Jan 09 - 12:07 AM (#2552567) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Sawzaw Well CC, What would you find reassuring? Handouts? Pork Barrel spending? Paying people to fill out voter registration forms for Donald Duck? This is written by a socialist, Michael Brenyo, in the Socialist Worker Mag. I hate to say it but I must be honest and say I agree with him: Stop apologizing for Chávez I CANNOT help but feel that Lee Sustar's article "What's Really Happening In Venezula?" (November 30) is a malicious lie at worst, and grossly misinformed at best. As opposed to analyzing what Chávez is doing in Venezuela with a critical eye, Sustar has acted as an apologist for Chávez's actions. Various points made in the article are contradictory not only to socialist politics, but to the working of a basic democratic society. Take, for example, the way Sustar describes the closure of the RCTV channel. Decried for supporting the coup that deposed Chávez and for espousing the beliefs of the opposition, it has been shut down. Instead of being up in arms about this, we are told that it is an excusable action. Utilizing this logic, what prevents the United States from shutting down papers such as Socialist Worker? Are we not an "opposition" force as well? Aren't we trying to usher in a radical restructuring of society that would ultimately dismantle what is currently in place? Sustar refuses to acknowledge that the bad must also be taken with the good. An opposed viewpoint, no matter how despicable, must be tolerated and not stamped into submission. We are supposed to prove our superiority through politics and organization, not by exercising the power to squelch them out. Another example can be found in the way that Sustar supports Chávez's constitutional "reforms." Regardless of all the wonderful things Chávez is proposing, one cannot help but see his consolidation of power as a sticking point. Someone needs to ask what the motivations are for these actions. I can recall many times throughout history in which leaders have taken it upon themselves to more accurately represent their people through "reforms." Once all of Chávez's oil wealth runs out, what is really going to remain? The massive public works projects or the constitutional power? I also find Sustar's swipe at the U.S. Constitution a low blow as well. I don't really see how one of the most important documents in the history of the world can be considered a relic. If Bush proposed the same alterations to the Constitution that Chávez has, I'm sure there would be a multitude of protests attempting to limit his naked increase of power. But in Chávez's case, it is considered acceptable. Lastly, does Sustar notice the irony in criticizing university students for their participation in protests? Is it not the International Socialist Organization's policy to perform a large amount of recruitment from university campuses all over the United States? Furthermore, just because these students in Venezuela are middle class, it doesn't mean that they are conservative. Class consciousness can be mixed. Creating a broad generalization that university students are anti-Chávez simply because they are conservative is conflating the actual issue. I sincerely hope that in the future, Sustar will analyze issues with an objective lens. Someone cannot be confused as to what is going on simply because it is couched in leftward-leaning terms. I hardly see anything superiorly democratic occurring in Venezuela. |
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30 Jan 09 - 12:27 AM (#2552576) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: CarolC I would find much stricter control of the banks more reassuring, and a lot more strings attached to how we bail them out. |
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30 Jan 09 - 11:45 AM (#2552974) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Teribus Ah but Sawz, Chavez isn't really a "socialist" he's usurping this ideologically perfect system for his own wicked and evil purposes. He is feted and lauded by the "chattering left" at the moment because he's percieved as having stuck it to the "Great Satan" for the past couple of years. As far as those in know in Venezuela goes they must be ripping their hair out at they way this buffoon is squandering the country's resources. His disasterous dealings with international companies first reduced output by 25% when the oil price was at its height and now that oil is one-third of what it was the industry in Venezuela requires massive investment to bring it back up to snuff - To do this ol' Hugo has to attract all those he forced out a few months ago to come galloping back to the rescue - How do you say "Swivel on it" in Spanish?? |
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30 Jan 09 - 01:50 PM (#2553082) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Sawzaw "I would find much stricter control of the banks more reassuring, and a lot more strings attached to how we bail them out." Good point but you do not want to force banks to make loans with too much risk. "for his own wicked and evil purposes" He is just an ideologue who thinks he is doing the right thing and has a high opinion of himself and certain amount of paranoia. He thinks lies and boasts and threats are lawful tools for him to use because of his greatness. ideologue: 1 : an impractical idealist 2 : an often blindly partisan advocate or adherent of a particular ideology. |
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30 Jan 09 - 02:06 PM (#2553105) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: McGrath of Harlow He thinks lies and boasts and threats are lawful tools for him to use Aren't those pretty normal tools generally used by our leaders? |
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30 Jan 09 - 11:26 PM (#2553421) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Sawzaw Maybe yours. |
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30 Jan 10 - 07:28 PM (#2825955) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Sawzaw The Chávez MeltdownThe Wall Street Journal JANUARY 30, 2010To the short and brutal list of life's certainties, let us add that socialism invariably leads nations to economic ruin. Latest case in point: Hugo Chávez's "Bolivarian" Republic of Venezuela. Earlier this month, the Venezuelan strongman moved the official U.S. dollar exchange rate to 4.3 bolivars to the greenback from 2.15. At a stroke, he wiped out the savings and purchasing power of the very working-class people he purports to represent, most of whom have barely been getting by. News of the devaluation instantly sent the countryâ€"where consumer prices had already risen by 25% in 2009, according to official figuresâ€"into a panic, with consumers standing in line to stock up on goods before prices rose. Mr. Chávez next decreed that he would fine and even arrest any merchant caught adjusting prices, eliding the fact that Venezuela imports nearly everything and exports only oil. Now Venezuelans have the Hobson's choice of either complying with the diktat, which means shortages, or disobeying it, which means inflation. Yet no sooner was one catastrophe of "21st-century socialism" inflicted on Venezuelans than Mr. Chávez unveiled another. On January 12, the government instituted a series of rolling blackouts due to an electricity shortage that had been building for months. Ostensibly, the reason for the shortage was a drought that had left water levels at the country's huge Guri Damâ€"the source of more than 70% of its electricityâ€"at critically low levels. But that is a function of the government's failure to maintain the dam and build additional capacity. The instant result of the blackouts was chaos, particularly in Caracas, where people were left "stuck in elevators or in dangerous parts of town without street lighting," according to Reuters. The capital city already has one of the highest per capita murder rates in the world, and Mr. Chávez was forced to suspend blackouts there two days later. The rest of the country, however, remains subject to sporadic power outages. Behind the crack-up of Mr. Chávez's utopia is the fact that he's running out of money because Venezuela's oil production is plunging. In 1998, the year Mr. Chávez was first elected, the country pumped 3.3 million barrels a day. Today, the figure is 2.4 million barrels, and that's an optimistic estimate. Venezuela isn't running out of crude. The problem is that Mr. Chávez has expelled or seized the assets of foreign companies capable of properly maintaining the country's fields, including ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips. It didn't help, either, that in 2002 Mr. Chávez fired thousands of skilled employees of state oil company PdVSA because he didn't like their politics and replaced them with his political cronies. On Monday, Mr. Chávez made a grudging concession to reality when he agreed to a joint venture with Italian oil major ENI, which itself had been run out of Venezuela in 2006. We'll leave it to the Italians to place their own bets about the limits of Mr. Chávez's caprice. They've already had fair warning that Bolivarians, like other predators, rarely change their spots. ¡Viva La Revoluctón! |
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30 Jan 10 - 11:29 PM (#2826091) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: mousethief Short story: Things are going tits up in Venezuela because they're having trouble selling enough oil. Therefore it's because they're socialist. Socialism caused the oil production to plummet? Even the WSJ isn't usually this blinkered. O..O =o= |
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31 Jan 10 - 12:27 AM (#2826106) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Sawzaw Hey Mouse, is any other country that lives on oil exports going tits up? "Mr. Chávez has expelled or seized the assets of foreign companies capable of properly maintaining the country's fields, including ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips." Then: In anticipation of Thursday's Carabobo oil field auction, outspoken Marxist president Hugo Chavez quietly pleaded for foreign investment. "Investment and experience from foreign oil firms is necessary in Venezuela. We need it," Chavez said. The statement is a serious turnaround for a government that has nationalized dozens of foreign oil companies in recent years. But they 'need' foreign investment because mismanagement is turning the country into another failed petro-state. This is also the second instance of Chavez backtracking today. Chavez reversed a six-year ban on the sale of U.S. dollars by Venezuela's central bank, in an effort to control the vast amount of money that was leaving the country through unregulated exchange, according to Bloomberg. He had previously threatened to "burn the hands" of speculators who speculated against the bolivar. Riots Disrupt Venezuela's Biggest Oil Auction In Years Hugo Chavez targets Venezuela media The Venezuelan leader says the steps he is taking shift communications 'hegemony' away from private interests to the people, but critics express fear for free speech rights. July 22, 2009 LA TIMES: CARACAS, VENEZUELA â€" Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has made moves to tighten government control over national media, say critics who warn that the Internet and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter could be his next target. Chavez recently announced that the government would review the licenses of and possibly close as many as 240 radio stations -- more than one-third of all AM and FM broadcasters. He has proposed rules that would limit the sharing of programming by stations, something that helps many stay economically viable. |
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31 Jan 10 - 12:40 AM (#2826109) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Sawzaw Military Takes Control of Major Venezuelan Cities Amid Protests CARACAS, Venezuelaâ€"The Venezuelan National Guard moved into Mérida, Venezuela on Tuesday, in response to protests which have erupted across the country. Seemingly unmoved, university students expressed they will continue to march through the streets to protest several new policies enacted by the Venezuelan government. "The city is militarized since early hours of the morning (from tuesday) and will remain like that as long as its necessary in order to avoid further confrontations in the city of Mérida," said Marcos DÃaz, governor of Mérida State on Wednesday. Waves of protests errupted throughout all of Venezuela on Jan. 23, in response to rationing of water; new increase on the devaluation of the Venezuelan currency; and the recently established weekly rationing of electricity. Even larger protests were triggered after the government ordered the blocking of six television channels. Among them was “RCTV Internacional", a channel characterized for having an editorial style critical of the government. The government suspended the channels on the grounds of “not complying with Venezuelan laws,â€쳌 for refusing to broadcast nationally chained transmisions of presidential speeches. Protests escalated in Mérida to violent confrontations with police. Two students have been reported killed and close to 30 students and policemen have been reported wounded. The governor of Mérida, declared the military action is due to the presence of "snipers and urban warfare in the state," which aim "to subvert order." He noted that the National Guard and the state government are taking measures to control these groups that, according to the governor, allegedly belong to the opposition. El Trigal Highway was taken by the military in the city of Valencia, capital of Carabobo State. The soldiers said it was a precautionary measure to prevent further unrest among the population. There is a tense uncertainty among residents in Venezuela. Many fear the conflicts will continue to escalate. Teetering Power The events are viewed as what could be the beginning of the end for Chavez. The National Assembly is occupied by an overwhelming majority of government supporters. A victory by the opposition could limit Chavez's ability to implement laws and policies to his liking. Things have not changed much since Venezuela President Hugo Chavez took office 11 years ago. Many residents believe that the situation has instead worsened. For Chavez the protests are a further inconvenience, as they are taking place in the same year the legislative elections will be held. Suspicion behind recent events have gone unanswered. In the last several days, two officials have renounced their positions without providing explainations. The vice president of Venezuela who is also the defense ministerâ€"renounced his position. His wife, the environment minister also renounced. Even the president of the Bank of Venezuela has renounced his position, saying he has health problems. Last week, after the disasterous rationing of electricity, Chavez asked the minister of energy to renounced as well. The rationing of electricity was so poorly implemented that states outside Caracas were often without electricity for up to nine hours. The plan was implemented the day it was announced. Another plan to ration electricity will be implemented next week. Rising Tension Before it was blocked, “RCTV Internacionalâ€쳌 continued to broadcast its signal through private cable networks despite having been denied a renewal of its broadcasting consession as a national channel by the Venezuelan government two years ago. This consession was instead granted to a new channel called TVes (Social Venezuelan Television). The situation led to numerous protests around the country and residents complained that their freedom of speech was being violated. Several months after the protests, “RCTVâ€쳌 changed its name to “RCTV Internacionalâ€쳌 and began broadcasting through cable and satellite networks. The Venezuelan government said that as soon as television channels are willing to comply with Venezuelan law, their signals will be restored on cable and satellite networks. The claims, however, have not deterred the ongoing protests. The international community has condemned the actions of the Venezuelan government. "The Rapporteur exhorts the government to reconsider these measures, and to re-establish the guarantee to freedom of expression and opinion and the proper respect to procedures," said a statement from Frank La Rue, the special rapporteur of the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression. His statement adds that the international treaties and internal legislation should be respected as well. La Rue noted that no tribunal ordered the closing of the television channel. He added that, “Any closure of a media must obey a previously established legal procedure, conducted by an independent state authority, and cannot be the product of an administrative decision by the government.â€쳌 Human Rights Watch director José Miguel Vivanco said in a statement that, “In 2009, Hugo Chávez forced radio and TV stations to broadcast live 141 speeches, including one which he prolonged for 7 hours and 34 minutes. Now he also wants to punish those channels that refuse to spread his personal political agenda.â€쳌 During an OAS (Organization of American States) meeting in Washington on Wednesday, the United States, Colombia, Peru, Panama, and Canada also condemned the Venezuelan government for its decision to suspend the six channels. The Venezuelan government has not taken the criticism well. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested the Venezuelan government to "reverse quickly" its decision in order to guarantee the "pluralism of information." The Venezuelan government responded harshly by rejecting the claims, saying in a statement, “The comments from the spokesman of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs are inacceptable and reprehensible, and they prejudice against the principle of noninterference with the state's internal affairs. |
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31 Jan 10 - 12:43 AM (#2826112) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: mousethief Hey Mouse, is any other country that lives on oil exports going tits up? Ah well yes then that proves it then, doesn't it? The only reason to go tits up if your main import is oil is socialism. There is no other reason, for instance, that your government could be incompetent or capable of mismanagement. Thanks for explaining that. O..O =o= |
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31 Jan 10 - 12:45 AM (#2826114) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Sawzaw Cable TV Station Critical of Chávez Is Shut Down THE ASSOCIATED PRESS January 25, 2010 The station was taken off the air after defying new government regulations requiring it to televise some of the Venezuelan president’s speeches. Venezuela: 15-Year-Old Is Killed During a Demonstration REUTERS January 26, 2010 A 15-year-old student was killed and nine police officers injured on Monday in violence linked to protests over the suspension of a television station opposed to President Hugo Chávez. Cable providers, responding to government orders, stopped carrying the station, RCTV Internacional, on Sunday. The interior minister, Tareck El Aissami, said the student, Josino Jose Carrillo, who he said was a supporter of Mr. Chávez, was killed while participating in a peaceful demonstration in the Andean city of Merida. There were also protests in the capital, Caracas, and elsewhere. |
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31 Jan 10 - 08:56 PM (#2826897) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Sawzaw "If your main import is oil" I think you have your imports and exports mixed up Mouse. If no other countries that are oil rich are going broke "because they're having trouble selling enough oil" then why would the reason be anything other than mismanagement? and if the management is a socialist dictator, why could that not the reason? Perhaps you can analyze the situation for us better than the WSJ. First he seizes the assets of foreign oil companies and the he says we need "Investment and experience from foreign oil firms" |
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07 Feb 10 - 09:24 AM (#2832018) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Sawzaw Chavez blames U.S., Canada for enticing dissent in Venezuela "The United States and its allies, such as the ultraconservative Canadian government, are attacking Venezuela in an attempt to unleash violence and destabilize the situation in the country" REUTERS 7/02/2010 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has accused the United States and Canada of encouraging opposition rallies to destabilize the situation in the Latin American country. A wave of student protests against Chavez social and economic policies has recently swept through the country. Police have used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse the crowds. At least two students died in clashes with police. "The United States and its allies, such as the ultraconservative Canadian government, are attacking Venezuela in an attempt to unleash violence and destabilize the situation in the country," Chavez said on national television on Saturday. Chavez criticized, in particular, the new U.S. ambassador to Brazil, Thomas Shannon, for "throwing darts at Venezuela." Shannon, a former Assistant Secretary of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, earlier called on the Chavez government to stop repressions against the Venezuelan people, which protested against frequent power outages, the closure of opposition TV channels and rising crime in the country. According to Venezuelan officials, at least 12,200 people were murdered by criminals in the country in 2009.[Population 28 M] The U.S. Department of State has rated Venezuela a critical threat country for crime, and many experts have named the capital city of Caracas murder capital of the world. Murder, kidnappings, armed robberies, car-jackings and residential break-ins occur with impunity and perpetrators are rarely brought to justice. Chavez announced on Saturday that special anti-crime measures will be introduced on March 1 in 10 states and 36 municipalities, which registered the highest crime rates in the past. ¡Viva La Revoluctón! |
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07 Feb 10 - 09:33 AM (#2832030) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Sawzaw Venezuelan police break up anti-Chavez protest Washington Post Feb. 4, 2010. CARACAS, Venezuela -- Police used tear gas, plastic bullets and water cannons to scatter hundreds of students protesting against the government Thursday, while President Hugo Chavez's supporters celebrated the 18th anniversary of his failed coup as an army officer. Caracas Police Chief Carlos Meza said authorities broke up the protest because university students had not been granted permission to march. He said the denial was aimed at preventing clashes with thousands of "Chavistas" marching across the capital to mark the botched 1992 military rebellion that Chavez led as a lieutenant colonel. "They don't have permission to march," Meza said. Student leaders countered that they have the right to stage peaceful protests, and they said authorities loyal to Chavez frequently deny them permission to demonstrate. Before the protest was dispersed, students chanted: "We're students, not coup plotters!" "This is one more demonstration of the government's abuse of power," student leader Roderick Navarro said. Students started leading protests last week after the government pressured cable and satellite TV providers to drop an opposition channel. Students have organized demonstrations in cities across the country, accusing Chavez of forcing Radio Caracas Television International off the airwaves as a means of silencing his critics. Chavez challenged the students to continue staging demonstrations, saying they won't weaken his socialist government. But he warned them against stirring up violence, suggesting authorities would break up protests that get out of control. "Don't make a mistake with us. You'll get a firm response," Chavez said during a speech to his supporters at Venezuela's largest military fort. Thousands of Chavez's backers gathered to listen to Chavez, who hailed the Feb. 4, 1992, military uprising against then-President Carlos Andres Perez as a justified rebellion seeking to topple a corrupt government that ignored the plight of Venezuela's poor. More than 80 civilians and 17 soldiers were killed before troops loyal to the government quelled the coup attempt, which Chavez commemorates annually. |
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27 Feb 10 - 12:47 AM (#2851364) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Sawzaw Cuba's Doctor Abuse Health Care: Remember Cuba's vaunted medical missionaries, those who treated the poor abroad for nothing, supposedly out of selfless motives? A lawsuit shows they were nothing but a communist slave racket. It ought to bear a few lessons for our own country as the role of doctors in the health care debate drags on. Back in 1963, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro launched a much-praised initiative to share Cuba's medical doctors with the poor around the world. The idea, of course, was to appear to be acting on higher motives than the profit-driven doctors in free societies. It was small scale and propaganda-oriented. But in 2003, Castro went big, and shipped 20,000 doctors and nurses to Venezuela's jungles and slums to treat the poor, doing the work "selfish" private-sector doctors wouldn't. Hugo Chavez touted this line and the mainstream media followed. Now the ugly facts are getting out about what that really meant: indentured servitude to pay off the debts of a bankrupt regime. This week, seven escaped doctors and a nurse filed a 139-page complaint in Miami under the RICO and Alien Tort acts describing just how Cuba's oil-for-doctors deal came to mean slavery. The Cuban medics were forced to work seven days a week, under 60-patient daily quotas, in crime-riddled places with no freedom of movement. Cuban military guards known as "Committees of Health" acted as slave catchers to ensure they didn't flee. Doctors earned about $180 a month, a salary so low many had to beg for food and water from Venezuelans until they could escape. What they endured wasn't just bad conditions common inside Cuba. The doctors were instruments of a money-making racket to benefit the very Castro regime that has ruined Cuba's economy. "They were told 'your work is more important to Cuba than even its sugar industry,'" their attorney, Leonardo Canton, told IBD. That's because their labor was tied to an exchange: Castro took 100,000 barrels of oil each day from Venezuela's state oil company in exchange for uncompensated Cuban labor. Most of the oil was then sold for hard currency, bringing in cash. Cuba also charged Venezuela $30 per patient visit, meaning a $1,000 daily haul per doctor. But the doctors never saw any of it. In a situation like this, it's pretty obvious that when the state gets involved in medical care telling doctors whom they can serve, what they can charge and what they can treat it doesn't take long for slavery to result. The Cuban government has told other doctors, such as surgeon Hilda Molina, that her brain "is the property of the state" as reason to control her travel. That ought to be lesson to those who seek to reform medical care in the U.S. on the backs of doctors. Free medical care is never free. |
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27 Feb 10 - 12:54 AM (#2851365) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Sawzaw France 24 By Lorena Galliot 25 February 2010 - Eight Cuban medics sue Caracas and Havana for 'forced labour' Seven Cuban doctors and a nurse have accused their government of engaging in a modern form of slavery with Venezuela after bartering their services for cheap Venezuelan oil. Seven Cuban doctors and a male nurse who claim they were made to work against their will in inhuman and degrading conditions in Venezuela have filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Miami, where they have been granted asylum. The lawsuit seeks at least 60 million dollars in compensation for each plaintiff, naming Cuba, Venezuela and Venezuela’s state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) as defendants. In 2000, Cuban President Fidel Castro and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez concluded an oil for manpower deal, known as the Convenio Integral de Cooperacion", under which the communist island supplied Caracas with trained professionals and equipment in exchange for cheap subsidized Venezuelan oil. The doctors have described the deal as a modern form of slavery and say they fled to Miami to escape servitude for debt . 'A modern form of slavery' The eight medical workers, two women and six men, were enrolled in a Venezuelan government mission called Barrio Adentro , in which doctors are posted in poor neighborhoods to provide care to Venezuelans free of cost. Cuban doctors are often sent to remote or dangerous parts of the country, like the border area with Colombia, home to drug traffickers and FARC rebels. The doctors told reporters at a press conference in a Miami suburb on Tuesday that they were forced to enrol in the programme with Venezuela due to dire economic circumstances and political pressure at home. According to several US and Venezuelan media sources, the plaintiffs described being held captive in crowded lodgings or with families affiliated with the Venezuelan regime, and forced to work seven days a week. We were under strict surveillance at all times. We weren’t allowed to go out when we wanted to or interact with Venezuelans other than our guardians, plaintiff Frank Vargas, a 33-year-old general practitioner from Havana, told reporters. His colleague Maria del Carmen Milanés, 34, added that interacting with known regime opponents was especially forbidden. Five months in hiding Had they protested, the doctors explained, they would have been forced to return to Cuba where they would have paid for their insubordination. They said they went into hiding for over five months before they were able to travel to the United States in January, sneaking out less than once a week to find food and plan their escape. The eight plaintiffs are represented by Miami lawyer Leonardo Canton, who has indicated to reporters that he is ready to represent any other Cuban doctor in the same situation who wishes to join the lawsuit. Canton believes there is a 70% to 80% chance that the suit will be successful, adding that if this is the case, PDVSA assets in the United States could be frozen by court order. In 2008, a Miami judge awarded 80 million dollars to three Cubans who claimed they were forced into slave labour at a shipyard on the island of Curacao. However, so far none of it has been collected. |
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27 Feb 10 - 02:51 PM (#2851715) Subject: RE: BS: Chavez moves against second TV channel From: Sawzaw Venezuela annuls election of anti-Chavez mayor Washington post 2 24, 2010 CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela's highest court on Wednesday annulled the election of an opposition mayor, replacing him with a supporter of President Hugo Chavez until a new vote is held. The Supreme Court threw out the 2008 election of Jorge Barboza, mayor of the Sucre municipality in western Zulia state, on grounds that he failed to pay $292 in local taxes. The justices ruled Barboza was ineligible to continue as mayor because he lacked "the suitability (required) for the management of a mayoral post." In brief comments on the local Globovision television channel, Barboza called the ruling a coup against a democratically elected official and denied any wrongdoing. His brother, Omar Barboza, said the arguments behind the ruling "constitute proof that the justice system is being used to politically persecute opponents" of Chavez's socialist government. Barboza said the owner of a house rented by the mayor apparently failed to pay the $292 in taxes. He called the court's ruling ridiculous, saying his brother should not be held responsible for the home owner's lack of responsibility. The Supreme Court appointed Humberto Franka Salas, a member of Chavez's ruling party, as interim mayor. Franka Salas, who was runner-up in the 2008 mayoral vote, will hold the post until a new election. Chavez foes have long accused the president of using judges and prosecutors to bring trumped up criminal charges against government opponents. International rights groups have criticized the lack of independence of Venezuela's judiciary, noting that Chavez appears to hold sway over the system. Chavez rejects the allegations, saying he has never pressured judges or prosecutors to target his adversaries. ¡Viva La Revoluctón! |