Venezuela is not Ukraine
Venezuela is not Ukraine
Venezuela's struggle is widely misrepresented in western media. This is a classic conflict between right and left, rich and poor
Mark Weisbrot
theguardian.com, Tuesday 4 March 2014 11.45 EST
The current protests in Venezuela are reminiscent of another historical moment when street protests were used by right-wing politicians as part of an attempt to overthrow the elected government. From December of 2002 through February 2003, there was strike of mostly white-collar workers at the national oil industry, along with some business owners. The US media made it look like most of the country was on strike against the government, when, in fact, it was less than one percent of the labor force.
The spread of cell phone videos and social media in the past decade has made it more difficult to misrepresent things that can be easily captured on camera. But Venezuela is still grossly distorted in the major media. The New York Times had to run a correction last week for an article that began with a statement about "The only television station that regularly broadcast voices critical of the government
" As it turns out, all of the private TV stations "regularly broadcast voices critical of the government". And private media has more than 90% of the TV-viewing audience in Venezuela. A study by the Carter Center of the presidential election campaign period last April showed a 57 to 34% advantage in TV coverage for President Maduro over challenger Henrique Capriles in the April election, but that advantage is greatly reduced or eliminated when audience shares are taken into account.
Although there are abuses of power and problems with the rule of law in Venezuela as there are throughout the hemisphere it is far from the authoritarian state that most consumers of western media are led to believe. Opposition leaders currently aim to topple the democratically elected government their stated goal by portraying it as a repressive dictatorship that is cracking down on peaceful protest. This is a standard "regime change" strategy, which often includes violent demonstrations in order to provoke state violence.
The latest official numbers have eight confirmed deaths of opposition protesters, but no evidence that these were a result of efforts by the government to crush dissent. At least two pro-government people have also been killed, and two people on motorcycles were killed (one beheaded) by wires allegedly set up by protesters. Eleven of the 55 people currently detained for alleged crimes during protests are security officers.
More:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/04/venezuela-protests-not-ukraine-class-sturggle
Tarheel_Dem
(31,237 posts)Venezuela's poor join protests as turmoil grips Chávez's revolution
Government claims protests bear the hallmarks of US-backed coup plot led by jailed opposition leader Leopoldo López
Virginia López in Caracas and Jonathan Watts
The Guardian
The poor neighbourhood of Petare in western Caracas is not an obvious hotbed of anti-government sentiment. In the past, its residents have been among the major beneficiaries of Venezuela's public health and education campaigns, and an economic policy that resulted in one of the sharpest falls in inequality in the world.
But as demonstrations sweep several major cities, even the people of Petare have taken to the streets to protest again surging inflation, alarming murder rates and shortages of essential commodities.
Jorge Farias, a self-employed motorcycle taxi driver, once voted for the late president Hugo Chávez, but this week he joined opposition rallies. "This country can't stay like this for much longer. If it's not lack of food, it is the fear of being killed when you step out of your house to go to work", he said. "I would like to wake up without this fear," he added. "I have never seen this country in this state of total collapse. We are going from bad to worse, and we are losing faith".
"Ya esta bueno ya", is phrase which Venezuelans are hearing with increasing frequency. Roughly translated as "Enough already", the slogan captures a wide-spread sense of discontent and growing uncertainty over the country's future.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/20/venezuelas-poor-protests-chavez-revolution
"Chavismo" = Blame the U.S.
Judi Lynn
(160,596 posts)In Venezuela the poor celebrate and the rich protest. Why?
By Arturo Rosales writes from Caracas. Axis of Logic
Tuesday, Mar 4, 2014
The Colombian novelist William Ospina observed that throughout the world the rich celebrate and the poor protest. On the other hand, in the strange country called Venezuela, the poor celebrate and the rich protest. Why?
The traditionally privileged sectors of Venezuelan society have tried to rise up against those who have won democratic elections in fourteen years the Bolivarians have triumphed in 18 out of 19 electoral processes and the opposition has either refused to accept the results or accept them begrudgingly except for one national referendum they won in December 2007 and isolated victories in local and regional elections.
In the December 8th municipal elections the Bolivarians won 76% of mayoralties (256 out of 337 240 by candidates on the ticket of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela PSUV) and for this reason it has not been a surprise that recent disturbances by paid agent provocateurs have been concentrated in 18 municipalities controlled by opposition mayors and dominated by the middle classes. The disturbances have been declining from 18 foci to 8 and now 6 municipalities after the uprising started on February 12th.
The disturbances have been localized and the idea that this has been a popular uprising by the Venezuelan people against the Maduro government is just media fantasy, manipulation or outright lies by the international media. This media represents the interests of the bourgeoisie desperate to regain power in Venezuela and control the biggest oil reserves on the planet so as to sell them off to the highest bidder probably the US multinationals - at a knock-down price.
More:
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_66441.shtml
yurbud
(39,405 posts)not destroy their elected government.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)the president's agenda.
Actually it's not that weird, unfortunately
cprise
(8,445 posts)The Guardian are quite phobia-bound when the subject has anything to do with Russia. It took some time after the S. Ossetia conflict started before the truth could surface on their pages.
The US is trying to impose austerity on Ukraine, and hoping they will eventually land NATO right on Moscow's back porch.
US Asst. Sect. of State V. Nuland
Here is why the incident looks like an unjustified coup to me:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1017&pid=178804
And what would you think of a situation where protesters in Venezuela had turned violent, and then the US State Dept. subsequently shows up handing out cookies to them?