...that we see at DU, especially in the LatAm Forum, who focus exclusively on the murder rate in Venezuela and ignore the literal bloodbaths occurring next door in Colombia, and the higher (than Venezuela) murder rates in two other U.S./corporate "client states," Honduras and El Salvador.
They and the corporate media LIE about this, constantly. It is COLOMBIA--run by fascists and the Pentagon--that is the most violent country in Latin America. And it includes a particular kind of violence as well. It includes prep for U.S. "free trade for the rich," i.e., the murders of thousands of labor leaders, teachers, community activists and other advocates of the poor and the brutal displacement of FIVE MILLION peasant farmers from their lands. Venezuela has a high murder rate--partly because of Venezuelans' love of guns--but it is street crime, personal crime, NOT the government brutally clearing the peasants off the land for Monsanto or Occidental Petroleum, or murdering labor organizers for Drummond Coal or Chiquita.
Jeez! Over 90% of the "free trade" prep murders in Colombia are committed by the Colombian military, paid for by you and me ($7 BILLION in U.S. military aid!). Half by the military itself; the other half by their closely tied rightwing death squads. (Amnesty International stats.) And not just murder--horrendous atrocities, such as the murdering of recruited youths and dressing their bodies up like FARC guerillas, to earn bonuses and to impress U.S. senators with their "body counts," or such as the slaughter in La Macarena (where the USAID and Pentagon were involved in the "pacification" plan).
The Venezuelan government doesn't do this. The Venezuelan military doesn't do this. These are peaceful, lawful institutions. Not so in Colombia, where the Bushwhacks installed Alvaro Uribe as 'president,' a man with close ties to rightwing death squads from early in his career and who ran Colombia like Murder, Inc., using U.S.-assisted spying ops to identify his "enemies" and using the military and its death squads to kill them--and, furthermore, spying on judges and prosecutors, to anticipate their moves and protect his criminal organization.
It is NO WONDER that Colombia is so violent--larded with U.S. military billions, deeply involved in the U.S. "war on drugs" RACKET (total fraud), and with one of the worst rich/poor discrepancies in the region (while Venezuela, next door, has the best). Venezuela has problems. Colombia has INSOLUBLE problems--because of where the problems are really coming from: above! from HERE!
Our rightwing/corporatist DU posters don't want DUers to know this. They post corporate media items about the murder rate in Venezuela and COMPLETELY IGNORE the STATE violence in Colombia, and all the bloody mayhem of the corrupt, murderous, failed U.S. "war on drugs" (which has also struck Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico, particularly hard).
Sneaky disinformation--which NEVER mentions the worst situation (Colombia's violence), focuses entirely on the lesser situation (murder rate in Venezuela), and of course never blames the Colombian government or the U.S. government for the huge number of murders in Colombia--which they are clearly responsible for--while constantly blaming the Venezuelan government for street crime. The irony is that, when the Venezuelan government takes measures to address street crime--such a gun laws, or use of the national guard for policing--then they cry "fascism" and "police state." The Venezuelan government can never win; the Colombian government can never lose. Because the first is socialist and the second is fascist. Socialist is bad; fascist is good. THAT is the viewpoint of our DU rightwing bloggers.
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