Venezuelan media crackdown: TV anchors sign off, mouths shut

In this video, you can see the strange and sad way that the news program on RCTV shut down this past Friday, after Venezuela's president arbitrarily decided to close it.

Each worker at the TV station, hundreds of people whose jobs depend on this network which has been critical of Chavez, will be unemployed tomorrow.

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/27/venezuelan_media_cra.html

Video of the sign-off is available at the site.

"Boing Boing has become a right-wing propaganda arm of the CIA" in 5...4...3...2...

He's every much a piece of shit as any of the others are. Total scumbag. Fuck Chavez.

You and I are insane. The rest of the people who don't dig what Chavez is doing know it's a waste of time.

Binary World is a world of opposites. If one is good, the other is bad. No shades of gray, and there's no way that two opposing contestants can both be on the same side of the fence.

See, Chavez hates Bush. That means Chavez is GOOD, because Bush is bad.

Fidel hates Bush. Thus, Fidel is a saint, because Bush is bad.

Ahmahdinejad hates Bush, too. Therefore, he's GOOD, because Bush is bad.

There actually are people in this world who, sadly, don't seem to understand that even in a play, there can be more than one villainous asshole on the stage. It's quite a naive perspective, really--the old "Enemy of my enemy is my friend" routine. Unfortunately, sometimes the enemy of your enemy is a bigger enemy than your enemy!!

The inability to see shades of gray and make everything either good or evil, depending on their mood.

http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/m/manichaenism.html

making claims about a culture and a society they know nothing about.

And I think all humans should be granted them.

So long as the society/culture in question hates Bush, even if they eat newborn babies for breakfast, they're 'good.' They've got that BPD "all or nothing" thing going.

You know I lived with a borderline for 12 years, so I really do get black and white thinking and its problems.

I don't see that happening in the case of Chavez.

/Ack! I will always make the its/it's error. Ack.

Venezualan soil. What to do. What to do.

Time for another coup attempt. Oh, heck, let's just go all out. I mean we have the * Doctrine. We have "Shock and Awe" down to a science.

:sarcasm:

throw rocks at others. Until then, we have not one right to whimper in protest.

Let's get to work on our own house. We have our own dictator to contend with.

until they get rid of their batshit crazy Midget Mayor President and the oppressive guardian council.

By that logic, Venezuelans shouldn't say anything about the US either, until they get THEIR shit together.

People with brains have a right to make assessments, form opinions and express them. That's one advantage of living in a society where, despite excesses from the Monkey and his crew, rule of law isn't entirely dead.

I'll do more than whimper when I see the kind of shit these jerks pull--here, there, or anywhere. And I won't be dragged from my home in the dead of night for so doing, either.

Binary thinking isn't very productive, IMO.

That standard for when we will be allowed to finally criticize Chavez is impossible to meet.

http://www.wkrn.com/nashville/news/ap-venezuelans-protest-as-tv-station-shuts/98134.htm

Those five thousand protesters, pissed off students, people who want to be allowed to think for themselves--eh, just a few rabble rousers! Or better yet, CIA plants!!

But gee, look how much BETTER the new "government" TV programming is than that awful station that "...regularly topped viewer ratings with its talk shows, sports, soap operas and comedy programs....

The new public channel, TVES, launched its transmissions early Monday 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." ....

Yeah, if they pulled THAT shit over here in the US, gee. we'd be THRILLED...wake up in the morning to the "Up With People" singers belting out "How Great Bush Art"--sure, that would be a real home run. Why, then, is it "OK" to some people here for those Venezuelans to put up with this kind of shit? How obtuse can people possibly be?

Oh, that's right--because Hugo doesn't like the Monkey!!!! So who CARES about democracy, so long as Hugo shakes his fist at George??? Jesus H. Christ on a bicycle:

Some protesters on Monday blocked roads with rocks and burning trash, saying they fear for the future of free speech...."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. ...Two other students were injured by plastic bullets, said Ana Teresa Yepez, an administrator at Caracas' Metropolitan University. She said about 20 protesters were treated for inhaling tear gas.

The group Reporters Without Borders called for international condemnation of the RCTV decision as "a major setback to democracy and pluralism."

Robert Menard, the Paris-based group's secretary-general, called the measure Chavez's "first serious international political error."

Germany, which holds the European Union presidency, officially declared its concern that Venezuela let RCTV's license expire "without holding an open competition for the successor license."

I've seen the thing from that documentary, and the coup-plotters thanked the TV station but the dude is like don't look at us we just covered it, if I recall correctly. Any television network anywhere, if they weren't state-sponsored, would cover a coup against just about any government. It's obviously news when someone overthrows the government.

That station was a staging venue for the coup. And your representation of their involvement is laughable if not intentionally misleading.

They aired a statement or two of his unedited right after 9/11. Does that make them co-conspirators?

A figure relevant to current events makes a statement and sends it to a television station. Except in Venezuela, they shut down the television station for it, because they are supposed to act like it didn't happen. In the US, they just accuse the television stations of unwittingly aiding a terrorist group with an argument that bin Laden may be sending secret messages embedded in his speeches.

What a victory for the Venezuelan people and their infallible leader!

maybe Iraq should take care of it's fundamentalist Ayatollahs who impose strict Quaranic laws upon the masses, despite quite a moderate leaning within the populace of Iran. (Especially Tehran, the capital.)

But, having said that, your point is valid. I'm not a fan of Chavez. I don't hate him either. I do think that his leadership has been MUCH more grey than either side of the argument is willing to admit.

chart another nation's policy when we have no handle on our own internal affairs. We have no right to dictate the internal affairs of other nations. Period.

And I hate to disappoint you...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x284235#top

Because every other democracy in the world allows
TV Stations to call for the overthrow of the government, right?
And to cheer and support it when it actually happens?

Pfft. :eyes:

They went after Clinton from that year until he left the White House. Hell, they're STILL after the guy.

Pfffft, indeed.

Free speech is free speech.

:eyes:

Calling for Clinton to be removed at gunpoint by rebels?
I don't think they ever actually did that.

what, whining by spoilsports?

Sorry, I don't care for Faux Snooze, but if I saw this kind of shit in front of their station, I WOULD fear for freedom of speech and democracy. And anyone who can't see the problem here is whistling in the dark:


Police stand in front of Venezolana de Television (VTV) station during a
student's demonstration to support Radio Caracas TV (RCTV) in Caracas
May 25, 2007. RCTV goes off the air on Sunday night. Dozens of armored
cars and military vehicles filed down the highways of Caracas in a
slow-moving cavalcade on Friday, making a show of force before the
controversial closure of an opposition television station. President
Hugo Chavez's decision to close the RCTV television channel, which he
accuses of backing a 2002 coup against him, has prompted international
condemnation and several demonstrations. (REUTERS/Christian Veron)


The decision came hours after a convoy of troop carriers, motorcycles and armored anti-riot vehicles patrolled the highways of Caracas in what authorities called an effort to deter any disturbances by opposition demonstrators.

Chavez, clad in military fatigues at the inaugural flight of Sukhoi fighter jets bought from Russia, said the country was ready for any attack by "the oligarchy," a rich, pro-U.S. elite which he says RCTV epitomizes.

"We will be on alert, we are always on alert. Whatever flares up, we will snuff it out," he said.....Chavez's critics say he has sought to build a Cuban-style system in Venezuela, accusing him of politicizing the military, judiciary and oil industry of the OPEC member country.

(OK, let me get this straight--when BUSH pulls that shit...it's BAAAAAAD....when CHAVEZ does it, it's good?)

Political analysts have often identified Venezuela's critical media as the main obstacle to Chavez following the model of his mentor -- Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

(Ahh, a critical media is a DANGER!!!!!! Gee, Bush was right on that score, too??? Is that what the point is, here? )

I've never seen such pretzel-twisting hypocrisy in my life. When Bush does it, it's BAAAAAAAAAAAD. When Chavez does it, it's wonderful.

Horseshit.

Yeah, that's a rational, well reasoned arguement.

You have a nice night.

The point I'm making is that people, like you, who HATE Bush, just have to LOVE Hugo. Because Hugo HATES Bush too. How special.

However, when I point out that HUGO is doing the EXACT SAME undemocratic shit as Bush, I get a "You have a nice night" response, because apparently you cannot answer the charge that you are being stunningly HYPOCRITICAL about your viewpoint.

Is that clear enough for you? Don't be deliberately obtuse, now. The argument IS rational, and it IS well-reasoned. Your response was a major "run away, flailing, and pretend to be offended" feint.

If it's OK for Hugo, is it OK for Bush?

And if it's NOT OK for Bush, it isn't OK for Hugo, either.

Go on, give it another go. Read for COMPREHENSION this time.

Treason is treason.

Let's pretend we're from Tonga, why don't we, and discuss what Chavez is doing on it's merits--not against a backdrop of "Ooooh, Bush is a BAD man, and he was MEAN to Hugo" for a change.

Is it "OK" to politicize the military and judiciary?

OK to politicize the oil industry to fund/support/strengthen your party and political base?

OK to shut down "critical media?"

OK to abrogate civil rights? To shoot rubber bullets at teenagers who disagree with you?

In my book, it isn't. And coups, no coups, Bush or no Bush, that's the behavior of a power-mad dictator.

That coup attempt happened a while ago--when was it, 2002?

FIVE years ago? What took old Hugo so long???

Apparently treason is a dish that needs to age? If "treason is treason" and it takes five years to get upset about that, then how long do they wait to arrest you for murder? Twenty, thirty years?

Horseshit.

He waited until the license ran out, and then swiped the station.

No one but pipedreamers think what he did was right. Certainly none of the major nations in the UN think his behavior was acceptable. It's the behavior of a THUG, and there's just no way to put lipstick on that big pig.

But hey, he hates Bush, so that makes the crazy bastard a hero. Whatever.

Those thousands of people in the street protesting the move had a different idea.

The EU, Human Rights Watch, and Reporters Without Borders agree with me as well.

But no, Saint Hugo can do no wrong. Those entities are just being silly.

When Bush does it, it's bad. When Hugo does it, he's a freedom fighter.

That's called HYPOCRISY.

Apparently. :eyes:

And ask HUGO CHAVEZ. Here, read--read it CAREFULLY, and WEEP (and take note of the phrase "MORE THAN HALF"): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4487686.stm

A fourth Venezuelan opposition party has withdrawn from this Sunday's congressional election amid a dispute over electronic voting machines.
Primero Justicia's decision means more than half the opposition groupings have now pulled out.
Opposition parties are worried the election board could rig the vote.




I'm amazed at how you can look with such a jaundiced eye at the events happening in this country, yet suspend all criticism when contemplating the joyous Presidency of Saint Hugo.

Everything Hugo learned, he learned from BUSH.

Wake up.

:eyes: indeed.

intentionally boycotted. The polling was monitored, as the article says, by the OAS and EU monitors. Claims of election fraud had been dismissed. Otherwise, those monitors would've condemned the election.

at the HRW and other links I provided.

Just because Bush stole an election in 2000 doesn't mean that wasn't an important fact.

Hell, the coup everyone is whining about in this thread, as though it were yesterday, happened two years before this "old" citation.

If we're not going to forget about coups, let's not forget about Hugo's.

...and declared that the results were fair and valid.

And funny how you can't seem to make your point without CONTINUALLY
argueing against things I'VE NEVER SAID.

So now I've "suspended all criticism" of Chavez, eh? When did that
happen? I sure as hell wasn't aware of it. Did I miss a memo from
my own mind? And, if so, how did you get it?

And funny how you've been insinuating that I'm no different from
the B*sh-bots....then you turn right around and claim that my view
of the USA comes through a "jaundiced eye".

Do you even know what that expression means? Or did you just hear
it somewhere and like the sound of it?

You DO NOT KNOW my full opinion of Chavez. You've never asked.
But you've made it very clear that, unless it is "Chavez=Satan",
you aren't interested in hearing it, only attacking it.

Frankly, I doubt that you would even UNDERSTAND my opinion of
Mr. Hugo Chavez. Because it's based upon a worldview wherein people
are not CARTOONS who always either "good" or "evil".

You make me sad.

I doubt your views are so terribly complex that we'll have trouble wrapping our poor simple brains around them.

My point stands. There's no difference between the two. They both use power in ways that don't put their constituencies first. The only difference perhaps is that Bush has been less successful. There are a few weak voices in the opposition media against him here. Chavez just crushed the last one in his country--and he controls all the oil, too.

And gee, 'you make me sad,' too (no, not really--I'd have to care) that you can go on and on with a dramatic dissertation about how I couldn't possible "UNDERSTAAAND" your opinion, instead of engaging in honest debate.

You toss mysterious comments about how no one KNOWS how you FEEL, instead of just getting off your ass and explaining yourself.

Perhaps that's too hard for you to do, and that's why you give excuses rather than engaging in real discussion?

"My point stands. There's no difference between the two. They both use power in ways that don't put their constituencies first. The only difference perhaps is that Bush has been less successful. There are a few weak voices in the opposition media against him here. Chavez just crushed the last one in his country--and he controls all the oil, too. "

* does things to enrich is buddies at the expense of the people

Hugo does things to enrich the people at the expense of the elites.

Why the irrational hatred of the man? Did he do something to you?

The oil revenue funds HIS PARTY first, and then the remainder goes to the people. His FRIENDS run the Army. They use rubber bullets to stifle dissent--REGULARLY.

This isn't "irrational hatred." Only someone with an immature perspective and an incomplete understanding would say such a thing.

I happen to DISLIKE DICTATORS. You, apparently, don't have a problem with "Father Knows Best" leadership, so long as it isn't YOU under the thumb of a dictator.

The GOP clowns who say "Don't question our leader President Bush" are wrong, too. You should ALWAYS be able to question your leaders. Even if you're "just" a Venezuelan.

Chavez just shut down the only remaining opposition media outlet. That's been there for over fifty years. The oldest tv station in the country.

And you think that is a good thing????

I just don't get some of the arguments here. I object to dictatorships, and I'm accused of "irrational hatred." I actually provide links that state plainly how the guy crapped on human rights, strangled opposition, used the Army to bully the masses, bent the judiciary to his will, way worse than Bush ever could...and that's "irrational hatred."

I've never seen anything quite like this in my life. I'm astounded at the denial of reality. The guy is a thug, a bully, a dictator. If he were so fucking popular, he wouldn't have to shoot people in the street with rubber bullets, would he?

But hey...he hates Bush!!! So he MUST be OK!!! :eyes:

than to fill the pockets of some Exxon/Mobil/Shell/BP exective. At least the people have healthcare, food subsidies, he's redistributing the land to the poor.
Him hating Bush is just a bonus. :)

He's using the profits to build local TV and radio stations to tout HIS policies all across the country.

Wouldn't you just love it if BushCo logged all the trees out of Yellowstone and used the cash to turn every TV and radio station into 'GOP media?' Would that warm your heart?

The profits go FIRST to pay Chavez, his friends, and build an infrastructure, most particularly a strong Army and internal police force, to enable him to rule with an iron fist. Then and only then does he give the money that's left to the people. It's trickle-down economics, of a sort.

Dictatorships are WRONG. There's nothing nice about them. The "benevolent dictator" myth is just that. How would you like to be spoon-fed a party line of total horseshit? We may have to look for real news, but at least it's out there. How would you like to live where dissent is punishable? How would you like to be tossed in jail for saying "Bush is an asshole?" If you say that about Saint Hugo, that's what could happen to you--no "insulting authorities" allowed. How long would anyone here put up with THAT shit?

To critics, the most controversial program is "The Razor," a late-night show in which the host, Mario Silva, wears pro-government T-shirts and caps and sits in front of a giant photograph of Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara. He lambastes the opposition and Americans and frequently discloses "news" of counterrevolutionary efforts aimed at toppling Chávez.

Two and a half years ago, Venezuela passed a law stipulating that the news media cannot put out reports that endanger national security or incite disruption of public order. The criminal code was also amended so that insulting authorities became a crime.

From the WAPO link cited elsewhere in this thread.

Pretty disgusting, IMO. It's all very well and good to help the poor, improve healthcare, improve education--all the things everyone supports. But what is he afraid of? Why does he have to silence people? Why is it suddenly a crime to say "Hugo, you're a shithead and you suck?"

This is NOT what democracy looks like.

to take over the country's oil fields, to silence opposition media, to do any number of actions which would be labeled as the action's of a dictator by the very same people here defending him if he were a supporter of Bush's instead of a critic. The man is dangerous. I wouldn't want to live in that country. And I bet if a few of you could live there, you might have a very different opinion of him too.

"Cast not your pearls before swine", and all that jazz.

As you rant and attack, you describe your SELF.
You've got more PROJECTION than an IMAX Multiplex.

PS- congratulations! You are the straw that broke this camel's back:
The first person I have ever placed on "ignore".
You're nothing special; no worse than a thousand others that have
come and gone.....But then, you're nothing special- I've seen everything
you have to offer a thousand times before.

Life is too short to play these tired, tiresome games.

Good day.

Richard.

You can't argue the basic points, can you?

I'm not ranting, I am not attacking.

I'm plainly stating my objections to the man. You respond with insults and suggestions that I can't possibly know how you FEEEEEEEEL.

And you accuse me of "projection?"

Come on, now--let's hear your side. Enough with the drama, enough with the snark, I'm listening.

Make your points.

Tell us why you like this despot?

so you pull out the IGNORE card...AND, you quite cravenly go back and edit your original remarks in order to "let me know"--hoping, I'd wager, that I wouldnn't see it, having already responded.

Of course, you can't see this, because you've (drum roll) 'placed me on IGNORE!!!!"

Your response to my repeated requests for information? "You're nothing special!!!" Wow, that cuts to the quick! :rofl:

Good day, indeed. That had to be easily the most wanting use of debate skills and logic I've seen on this forum in some time. If I'd known you were so challenged in those areas, though, I wouldn't have bothered in the first place. What I took for obstreperousness was actually a deficiency in reasoning talents. I do appreciate not having to go through this again, so you be sure to KEEP me on ignore.

Life is, indeed, too short to debate with people who don't know their subject matter, and prefer to sling insults instead of discussing the real issues.

:rofl:

funded by BushCo.

for dictatorships. Plenty of those include right wingers, like certain elements of the anti-Castro crowd. The Taiwanese love them, too, understandably. Their 'schtick' is anti-dictator, and that does cross party lines. Democrats happen to like democracy, too.

Are these HRW guys in Bush's pocket, too? http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/05/22/venezu15986.htm

And he's got the entire EU in his wallet as well? Amazing....

to "Reporters Without Borders" aka, a swiftboat group.

You can continue this hyperbole. The fact is, Chavez is kicking ass and organizing liberals in Latin America. BushCo hates that and the American press takes their orders. That's it.

Answer the damn questions. Respond to the arguments.

He's bringing about these positive changes to counteract the past 100 years of elitist colonialism. You sure can't build a progressive society if there's a shitload of RW hate speech spewing forth. I will give him the benefit of the doubt and let him build his vision of Utopia. And quit comparing him to *. That's like breaking out the old Hitler comparisons. We have no business interfering in their quest for a better life. And remember, Chavez was legitimately ELECTED, so maybe this is what the Venezuelan people want.

Yeah see, cuz that always works.

See the links I provided elsewhere.

They're saying he's turning the place into a dictatorship.

You can't build a progressive society without an opposition party, an opposition media, and a free judiciary.

Ah, but those are just little things, eh? The Venezuelans don't need those things like we USA types do, I reckon.

You're the one with the naive attitude. We wouldn't put up with the shit he's pulling for a minute. You think Bush is bad, he's a fucking piker compared to this guy.

if they pulled the same thing.

Fer Christsakes.

You'd think Hugo would have rounded them all up and hanged them if they did anything more than "laizzez faire" journalism with regard to that matter.

That's just lame as hell.

He waited until the license ran out, and then, instead of opening the station up to the bidding process, as was called for before he became the fucking dictator, he seized the station and made it an arm of his party.

How long do you think the American people would sit by if CNN was taken over and we had to here Bush musical anthems every morning?

I'm stunned at the rank hypocrizy I'm seeing here. Two wrongs still, no matter how you parse it, make a right. Bush is an asshole, and does terrible things like use the judiciary and the military for his own purposes, and we're enraged. When Chavez does the exact same thing, you bend over backwards to make excuses for him.

That's just not right. So says the EU, Human Rights Watch, and Reporters Without Borders--not RNC contributors, any of them....

And let me see if I have this straight.

You are upset because Chavez didn't shut down these BFEE outlets SOONER?

LOL

of those interests converge with Bush. But Taiwan gives them money, too. As do other interests.

And let me see if I get this straight--you aren't reading anything I'm writing.

Let me be PLAIN, as though I haven't been all along.

You're cheering Chavez on for the same behavior for which you excoriate Bush.

You know, behavior like using the crony judiciary to make law or get around it. Rigging elections. Voter supression. Using the military to beat the shit out of the opposition, to the point that AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL (gee, are THEY in Bush's pocket, too????) put out several reports about the problem: http://web.amnesty.org/library/eng-ven/reports

LOL indeed.

Hypocrisy is such a hoot.

This is because Amnesty International is a right wing organization. We know this because they criticized Chavez. :crazy:

I thought this kinda stuff was so twentieth century. I never thought I'd get to see how it works, little by little, coming from people I kinda know.

But "Reporters Without Borders" is a RW BushCo swiftboat operation. Maybe Judy Lynne has the links. I don't.

Are you talking to yourself? Don't you realize that we recognize that line of argument as irrational?

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1448

http://www.counterpunch.org/barahona05172005.html

And you know, I don't deserve or accept your calling me a hypocrite. That's just over the top.

...the source that FReeper troll seventhson used to spread the Haitian man-boobs conspiracy theory...nah, they suck.

The other one looks completely objective, too.

You're the one responding to them.

conduct? You are continuing to AVOID the subject, and it's....OBVIOUS.

Like I said, pretend you're from Tonga, and Georgie Porgie is a distant worry to you. Stop comparing the guy to Bush. Look at the bastard on his own merits. Stop avoiding the central issue. Answer these questions:

Do you actually think that making it a CRIME to say anything against "the authorities" is a good thing?

Do you think a President deciding that he could toss out the Constitution, rule by decree, and rule INDEFINITELY is good for any citizens of a country?

Do you think stuffing the judiciary with cronies, who ignore the law and rule contrary to it to enhance Chavez's power, is a good thing?

Do you think his using the nationalized oil companies to build a secret police force and a brutal, rubber-bullet and tear gas Army to stifle dissent is helpful to the democratic process?

Do you think his stifling of ALL opposition media is OK, too?

Do you think the stampede to the border to escape this depot by everyone from the lower middle class on up is going to strengthen Venezuela's future?

That IS what the guy is doing, and this IS what is happening in VZ.

Would you want to live in that environment?

Would you want your kids to grow up in that environment? Would you be happy having your kids indoctrinated at school, taught to fink on their parents, growing up woshipping a fat crazy bastard who thinks he is the next Fidel?

This isn't just about eschewing your nightly soap opera or Millionaire quiz show, for Songs of Praise About The Fearless Leader. It's MUCH WORSE than that.

Would you like to be arrested for calling Hugo or any one of his government thugs, down to the little bully cop on the street, an asshole???

Would you enjoy the continuing inflation, the instability, the inexorable march towards a Cuban-style society?

Would you cheer Chavez on, or join these college students, who plainly see the handwriting on the wall that his American cheerleading squad so blithely ignores? http://english.eluniversal.com/2007/05/29/en_pol_art_university-students_29A877005.shtml

Would you stay home, or would you join these "little" demonstrations, of thousands and thousands of people? http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/search?p=rctv&c=news_photos

Plenty of Venezuelans don't like what is happening in their country--and they aren't all the Mercedes driving, hillside living rich folk, either. The lower to upper middle class are in despair, and they're gathering up their cash, converting it to dollars or Euros, desperately trying to find an escape hatch, and saving against the day they'll have to run like hell--and without a middle class, any country has trouble--ask Iran, ask Haiti.

Think I'm making this shit up? I actually make my case, I provide cites:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1851682.ece

May 29, 2007



Amid protests and fear, thousands prepare to flee the slow revolution


Catherine Philp in Caracas

Jason Chue used to knock off at five o’clock sharp, leave the office and go and enjoy his evening. Now he routinely finds himself stuck there long into the evening answering the plaintive e-mails of hundreds of Venezuelans pleading for information on how they can emigrate to the United States.

“They’re professional people with good jobs,” Mr Chue, a consular officer at the US Embassy in Caracas, explains. “But they’ll say they want to leave because they are frightened for their future and their children.”

For the past eight years, rich Venezuelans have been trickling out of the country, spooked by the socialist bluster of their populist President, Hugo Chávez. But since being inaugurated for his third term in January, Mr Chávez’s talk has begun turning into substance, with an evermore radical series of moves to transform Venezuela into the world’s first “21st-century socialist state”. Now the super-rich are being joined by middle-class professionals and, increasingly, families.

At the US Embassy, citizenship claims and visa enquiries have doubled since January. A Canadian job fair, with a capacity of 500, was swamped by a crowd of 1,500. Every morning snaking queues form outside the embassies of Australia, Spain and Portugal to inquire about emigration there.... Maria Conquita Rodriguez, an agrochemical engineer, could cope with the nationalisation of electricity, telecommunications — even oil. Not active in the opposition, she felt little fear of being purged from a government job. But the President’s snowballing rhetoric since his vow of “socialism or death” has her spooked enough to join the queue at the Spanish Embassy to investigate her rights of residency there. “He is becoming more and more extreme and everything that he says becomes a law,” she said. “We are looking at a dictatorship. You realise you have to have your papers in order in case you have to leave.”

'....Just as ubiquitous now are the huge red posters, each illustrating one of the five “engines of the revolution” unveiled by Mr Chávez ...The first of these, already in place, is the law handing Mr Chávez the power to rule by decree for the next 18 months, circumventing such unrevolutionary nuisances as Parliament. The second is the constitutional reform, which translates as the removal of presidential-term limits, allowing Mr Chávez to govern indefinitely. The remaining three, sceptics say, might as well just say “anything Mr Chávez fancies” because the first two enable him to do exactly that. “I can’t see anyone stopping him,” Mrs Rodriguez said. “We are becoming the next Cuba.”.....Right now, it is the “third engine” of the revolution — morality and enlightenment — that is spooking the middle classes. They are terrified that a socialist curriculum is about to be imposed in schools. Rumours swirled about everything from the abolition of dual nationality to a law putting minors in state custody so they cannot be taken overseas...

Good grief. How ANYONE with a BRAIN could see this as a good thing is beyond me. I guess people who have never lived in countries where this shit actually HAPPENS have little appreciation for how truly awful it is.

There's nothing wrong with Chavez's goal to help the poor--that's about his only saving grace. But to do it by seizing power, tossing the rule of law, fucking the percentage of the population, and not just the rich, the working to middle class, who actually keep the buses running and the engine of the economy working, is just INSANE. It's not a good thing to trade liberty for security, even if that security is ECONOMIC security.

Their country needs a media outlet to counter all of the subversive conservative trash. And this station was only to make one family richer, while the new one will be for everyone's benefit. I would love to see Faux taken over and given to the people.

Venezolana de Televisión is the state owned media outlet, and he appears on his own official state propaganda every Sunday.

The remaining indys are so shit-scared of him, they're reporting what he tells them to, for fear of the Army coming in and nationalizing THEM, too.

This was the LAST opposition voice. That shit's just not right. As I said upthread, I dislike Faux, I never watch them, but I defend their right to spew their lunacy.

Chavez is using the oil revenue, to, among other things, AMPLIFY his media voice--power to the people, my ass. Power to HUGO, more like:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/25/AR2007052502139.html


...Chávez increasingly controls what gets printed and aired here, regardless of whether a media outlet is private or public.

Buffeted by harsh coverage in its first four years, the government has made amplification of its voice a cornerstone of its communications strategy in the past four years. The new reality is a far cry from 2002, when the biggest papers and television stations supported an opposition movement through a coup and a national strike intended to dislodge Chávez from power.

Outlets, particularly television stations, that were once aggressively anti-government have grown docile under threat of sanctions, say press freedom and human rights groups, while the government has used a windfall in oil revenue to start up newspapers and broadcast networks.

If BushCo used US national resources to fund RNC TV, there'd be fucking blood in the streets.

I can't believe that people here actually think what this thug is doing is "OK."

This is NOT what democracy looks like.

then arrest and prosecute those responsible. Why take over the station?

If one must shut down the station, why seize its assets and replace it with a government-controlled station? Why not force a sale?

Too bad they involve Chavez- it seems that any REASONABLE
discussion gets shouted down by the mouth-frothing zealots
whenever it involves him.

I wonder myself about that- where are the arrests and prosecutions?

Is this a REAL struggle, where Chavez has just enough muscle to
shut down the stations, but no more?

Or have deals been made behind the scenes- is the shutdown just some
"political theater" for Venezuela's public consumption?

Is it maybe all just propaganda BS right from the get-go?

These seem like pretty OBVIOUS questions to me. But DU isn't a
productive place to ask them. With the Chavez-bashers here, it's
all black and white: Either you declare that he is evil incarnate,
or you are a person who must be attacked and ridiculed at every turn.

Questions? Reasonable ones? The Hugo-haters don't suffer such
things gladly.

I don't see just one side of this debate being the black or white thinkers.

I don't have a firm conclusion on Chavez... I'm learning a lot by reading these threads. But this TV station thing doesn't sit well with me, and yet people who DO question it are accused of being ignorant bush-bots. That's not right, either.

only happened FIVE YEARS AGO.

They deliberately waited until the license ran out, ignored their own law with regard to accepting bids for a new license, and seized it.

There are no opposition media voices in VZ anymore. None.

Can't handle a little criticism. I don't care how much he hates Bush, I have a huge problem with this. Even if the people voted for him, he has overstepped his bounds. I wonder how long it will be before he declares himself President for Life? He will get no more support from me.

We're not talking a newcomer to the broadcasting arena. That was the oldest station operating in the country.

Seventy percent of the country quite strongly DISAPPROVES of this stunt, and many of those who disapprove are Chavez supporters. They aren't upset about the news reports, their angst comes mainly because that station had all the "Must See" shows, like the Spanish language version of Millionaire and all of the good telenovelas (soaps).

I don't think that lame-ass, Castro-like anthems to Hugo and exercise programs will fill that void.

This could very well be a turning point in that country. What ginned-up coups couldn't do, taking away soap operas just might. Hell, when they aren't glued to the screen, they have a tendency to do dangerous things, like...THINK.

And anyone who believes that probably has a whole stack of deeds to the Brooklyn bridge in their house.

that the media in Venezuela is even more bought than ours?

Holy cow. If MSNBC collaborated with a coup against Bush, what would you expect?

These people were caught on tape by independent filmmakers.

What if Bush decided that he wanted CBS to be RNC TV? That OK with you? That's what Hugo did.

How you can endorse his abrogation of law is beyond me. It makes no sense.

And if those tapes of which you speak were so goddamned compelling, why didn't Hugo arrest the evildoers five whole years ago, when the coup attempt happened? 2002 was a LONG time ago.

You need to consider the source when the talk turns to 'solid evidence.' Entities do have agendas.

And why didn't Hugo follow law and put the station out for bid? Why did he wait and have his pal judges (gee, who in the US had pal judges) do the dirty work for him?

And why is the EU condemning Chavez? Are they in league with Bush, too? How about Human Rights Watch? Reporters without Frontiers? All right wingers?

Come on. This perverse support of a guy who is a despot, this ignoring that he fucked with the voting machines, this pretending that more than half of the country never boycotted the congressional elections, has everything to do with the fact that he is a despot that you call a freedom fighter, just because he hates Bush, unlike, say, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, who is a despot in waiting who LIKES Bush....

It is rank hypocrisy. And if you can't see that, you can't see it. This has nothing to do with "approving" of BushCo. Hell, he likes to breathe air, so do most of us. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Supporting what Hugo is doing is opposing basic democracy. And don't give me "corruption." VZ was corrupt before Hugo and it certainly is even more so under him. If they ever unload him, it will probably be corrupt after him. But he's taken the whole 'corruption' business to new lows.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4487686.stm

And it might be a good idea to do it before you call out any more DUers.

can you respond to them? Or is just insulting people considered a valid argument in your neck of the woods?

If anyone should do some reading, it's you. You've bought the bullshit that is so far out there, it's not even on this planet. You're ignoring the simple fact that this guy is a despot. He's OK because he opposes Bush. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they're secret pals, trading ideas on how to steal elections and consolidate media influence...Hugo sure seems to be taking page after page from the BushCo book. And still, you cheer him.

Let's look at your pal, Saint Hugo:

He steals elections. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4487686.stm

He rigged the VZ Supreme Court, packing it with his political cronies: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/12/14/venezu9864.htm
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/07/07/venezu9015.htm

He PERSECUTES political opponents: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/07/08/venezu11299.htm

He abrogates human rights. http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/04/05/venezu10423.htm

He stifles free expression; http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/05/22/venezu15986.htm
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/03/24/venezu10368.htm

He uses the military to beat the shit out of the opposition. http://web.amnesty.org/library/eng-ven/reports

There's NO opposition media in VZ anymore. That station had been on the air for over fifty years. Now it's the "Hugo News." How you can call that a good thing is BEYOND ME.

This is similar to what Bush* did with Iraq before the war. Chavez has repeatedly spoken as if we're just about to invade his country.

Shit, we couldn't invade fucking Aruba at this point, we're stretched so thin....

They're using the same fucking playbook. I swear, they probably call each other all the time, comparing notes!

:applause:

usual Chavez apologists with their lengthy links to pro Chavez columns? When this guy starts shooting people in the street I am sure there will be some here who will say they deserved it.

Is shooting at protesters ok with you?

unless you trust Authorized Propaganda.

Let me guess: the first one that clears Chavez's administration.

they continue their pap till you are just fucking exhausted showing them the REAL version of things...they keep asking the same questions even after answered..and then a few people come in at the end to shore them up...it is a pattern..they NEVER ignore a Chavez post EVER...and they might not post on any other posts ever..just post against Chavez...??? Makes one wonder?