Latin America
Related: About this forumCorporate media articles are getting funnier, if possible, following Chavez' death.
Now they are attempting to acknowledge certain positive aspects of Chavez' history as President they never mentioned in the past, like his "charisma," even though they called him every name in the book before this, which we ALL know beyond a shadow of a doubt.
They HAVE to hold up some feature of his record in order to try to show some unworkable contrast they hope to make against Maduro.
A typical example from a new BBC story:
15 April 2013 Last updated at 14:40 ET
Venezuela poll: Caracas poised for rival rallies
~snip~
The government has called on its supporters to turn out in a central square in Caracas to celebrate Mr Maduro's win. But opposition groups are planning to march in the capital Caracas, possibly on the national electoral council itself, amid demands for a recount.
~snip~
He is due to be sworn in on 19 April and serve until January 2019 to complete the six-year term that Mr Chavez would have begun in January.
Mr Chavez was a divisive leader. To his supporters he was the reforming president whose idiosyncratic brand of socialism defeated the political elite and gave hope to the poorest Venezuelans.
He effectively used his country's vast oil reserves to boost Venezuela's international clout, and his strident criticism of the US won him many political allies in Latin America.
More:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22160684
ocpagu
(1,954 posts)I've noticed it too. Here in Brazil, newspaper Folha de S. Paulo is already saying Maduro is "less charismatic", "less eloquent", etc., than Chávez (who they used to describe as Darth Vader).
They have absolutely no respect for their readers' intelligence.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)The denizens of our State Dept. are not creative thinkers...
But it is amazing how often it has worked in the past. You can go read about the Phillipines War 100+ years ago and see many of the same things. Torture, creating chaos to prevent ones enemies from exploiting their victories, decapitation, bombing, and of course not keeping your word.
Or Vietnam, or Iraq, or AfPak, or ...