In a debate with a Chavez-hater

He got this from the BBC:

"But Mr Chavez's "revolution" had little real impact on the lives of ordinary Venezuelans, who still suffer from chronic poverty and widespread unemployment despite the country's oil wealth.

His popularity rating had fallen from a high of 80% to 30% last December, when the first mass street protests erupted. "

Help!

EDIT: Found the link myself. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1925236.stm

The article continues with...
"But, as his dramatic return to power showed, Mr Chavez still commanded much grass-roots support."

No idea if this means anything to you. What exactly are you debating, anyway?

What does that prove?

I no longer engage in debate with right wingers that can't back up their dribble with something tangible. Just saying they heard it some where does not get me started like it used to. Give me facts or at least an attempt at a fact!!!

since he had low poll numbers a year before the piece was written, and due to the recession had less funding for his programs.

Gee, I wonder why the author of that piece used year-old poll numbers. :eyes:

It's fairly definitive - all you need is there.

Mr. Palast has written a good deal on Chavez... any idea what the title might be? Or when it was written?

On Edit:

Try this.

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=452&row=1

and note that the article was published in '02.

Read the whole thing and make your assessments.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1925236.stm

Personally, I find the article's account of Chavez' tribulations and roller-coaster popularity an example of the lengths big money will go to in an effort to hold onto concentrated wealth and power.

and mentioned the text following after that blurb.

Thanks...

A late February poll by Datanalisis, a company linked to the president’s opponents, found that support for left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has risen to 70.5%. This is a significant increase in support since August 2004, when a referendum to recall Chavez was opposed by 60% of the population. Analysing the full poll results, Datanalisis estimated that 73% of Venezuelans had benefited in some way from Chavez’s key reforms: free medical attention, free educational programs, the housing missions or the government-run supermarkets that sell food staples at up to a 40% discount. Meanwhile, a poll conducted by the Iberian-American Barometer of Governability released the same week found that Chavez is viewed by Latin Americans as the most important political figure on the continent after Cuban President Fidel Castro. The polls reveals that the continent-wide approval rating for Chavez has leapt from 25% this time last year to 65% now.

From Green Left Weekly, May 11, 2005.

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/626/626p17j.htm



Venezuela's Hugo Chavez greets a police officer while strolling in New York. He is to visit Harlem and the Bronx today (September 16, 2005).

Interesting. Let's see Junior "visit Harlem and the Bronx" with just the same security as Chavez and see who's more popular in the U.S.

:eyes:

:loveya:

Then terminate the "debate" until he or she becomes a little more educated. (I make reference, of course, to the aborted coup in 2002 in a Bay of Pigs-style fiasco in which the United States quickly tried to recognize the inept insurrectionists as Venezuela's legitimate government before it all fell apart over the course of one weekend.)

Sure, the coup-leaders were invited to the White House before it happened...
Sure, the CIA was informed about the coup attempt and said nothing...
Sure, we lied about Chavez stepping down in an attempt to legitimize the coup leaders...
Sure, we were buddies with the media owners that doctored news coverage and who helped organize and were part of the coup...

But you can't prove we were involved!

:sarcasm:

But isn't it astonishing (and sometimes gratifying) when you spring something like that on some know-nothing jerk, who then splutters and stammers because he has no knowledge whatsoever about recent events?

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=46803

The Venezuelan Information Office (VIO): People in Venezuela consider their country "totally democratic" more than any other nation in Latin America, according to region-wide survey results released last week.

The annual poll, conducted by Chilean firm Latinobarometro, is based on 20,000 face-to-face interviews in 18 Latin American countries.

Pollsters found this year that while enthusiasm for democratic governments has generally declined throughout the hemisphere, Venezuela is bucking the trend, fueled by new optimism in the economy and overall satisfaction with government.

He's already run away, it seems. Typical.

And he has improve grassroots democratic participation.

I'm a bit of an agnostic about him, but he's done a lot of things that can only be described as popular and progressive.

One point to ponder is whose poll was it, what was the sampling number, and what were the questions posed?

Also, as a side issue, if this person is a *supporter, if he is using polling results showing low approval ratings as a reason to distrust Chavez, or to prove some point about how he is or was unfit to be president of Venezuela, well, you know what I'm getting at....