The Other Side Of The Story (Venezuela's Recall) - Intnl Herald Tribune

[Dover]

The other side of the story

Mark Weisbrot IHT Friday, August 29, 2003
Venezuela's recall

WASHINGTON All too often White House statements about Iraq's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, and other dubious justifications for war, were taken at face value by the American press. Now there is another example of the triumph of misinformation, which - not coincidentally - again concerns an oil-rich country where the U.S. government seeks "regime change." Venezuela. This time, however, it is not a dictatorship but a democracy that is under attack.
.
President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela was democratically elected, first in 1998, and then again in 2000 under a new constitution that was approved by voters in a referendum. Despite massive political turmoil, including a 64-day oil strike that crippled the economy, there have been no states of emergency or suspension of constitutional rights under his government.
.
In fact, under the Chávez government, in contrast to past governments of Venezuela, freedom of speech, assembly and association have been absolute. "I believe that freedom of speech is as alive in Venezuela as it is in any other country I've visited," former President Jimmy Carter said during a visit there last year.
.
If the reader has a different impression, it is because American reporting on Venezuela generally includes far-fetched opposition charges - that Chávez is creating a "Castro-communist dictatorship," for example - often without rebuttal....MORE

http://www.iht.com/articles/108059.html

[papau]

1. American reporting includes far-fetched opposition without rebuttal

yep

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. Saw a Canadian report on Venezuela on

News World International a couple of weeks ago.

The thing that struck me seeing that footage, something that the U.S. press has never mentioned, to my knowledge, is that Chavez is dark-skinned and has strong Native American features. He is the first president who doesn't look European.

There seems to be some racism involved in the opposition to Chavez.

[ret5hd]

3. completely correct...

the elite call him "the monkey".

watch the anti-chavez riots/protests:light-skinned

watch the pro-chavez marches: dark-skinned

the few struggling desperately to keep their riches while the rest of the country starves

[Judi Lynn]

7. Have you read the way Greg Palast described the anti-Chavez marchers?

(snip) Look at the Chronicle/AP photo of the anti-Chavez marchers in Venezuela. Note their color. White.

And not just any white. A creamy rich white.

I interviewed them and recorded in this order: a banker in high heels and push-up bra; an oil industry executive (same outfit); and a plantation owner who rode to Caracas in a silver Jaguar.

And the color of the pro-Chavez marchers? Dark brown. Brown and round as cola nuts – just like their hero, their President Chavez. They wore an unvarying uniform of jeans and T-shirts.

Let me explain.

For five centuries, Venezuela has been run by a minority of very white people, pure-blood descendants of the Spanish conquistadors. To most of the 80 percent of Venezuelans who are brown, Hugo Chavez is their Nelson Mandela, the man who will smash the economic and social apartheid that has kept the dark-skinned millions stacked in cardboard houses in the hills above Caracas while the whites live in high-rise splendor in the city center. Chavez, as one white Caracas reporter told me with a sneer, gives them bricks and milk, and so they vote for him. (snip/...)

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=230&row=1

Sounds very similar to what you posted, and he was THERE!

[AP]

17. Mother Jones reported on the racism of the anti-Chavez crowds

Pallast calls it the blonds vs the browns.

Chavez is a Mestizo (sp?) indian, by the way.

[Judi Lynn]

19. A.P. you might be onto "sunthin'"

(on edit, sorry I was trying to respond to your post mentioning oil.)

Take a look at the folks who turned out for his funeral!
(I nearly swallowed my tongue!)

Statement on the Death of Former President Romulo Betancourt of Venezuela

September 29, 1981

I speak for all Americans in expressing our heartfelt sadness at the death of Romulo Betancourt. While he was first and foremost a Venezuelan patriot, Romulo Betancourt was an especially close friend of the United States. During the 1950's he considered the United States a refuge while he was in exile, and we were proud to receive him. We are honored that this courageous man whose life was dedicated to the principles of liberty and justice -- a man who fought dictatorships of the right and the left -- spent his final days on our shores. We join the Venezuelan people and those who love freedom around the world in mourning his death.

Note: Romulo Betancourt, 73, was President of Venezuela from 1945 to 1948 and from 1959 to 1964. He died on September 28 in Doctors Hospital in New York City.

On September 30, the White House announced the members of the U.S. Delegation to the funeral services for former President Betancourt in Venezuela on October 2. They are:

The Vice President, Head of Delegation

Mrs. Barbara Bush

Ambassador William H. Luers, U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela

Senator Jesse A. Helms (R-N.C.)

Senator Edward Zorinsky (D-Nebr.)

Representative Robert K. Dornan (R-Calif.)

Ambassador Thomas O. Enders, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs

Ambassador Teodoro Moscoso, former U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela (1961 - 62)

Ambassador Edwin M. Martin, former Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs

Moises Garcia, U.S. International Communication Agency; former TIME correspondent

Robert J. Alexander, professor, Rutgers University
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/resource/speeches/1981/92981b.htm

They say he liked to smoke. I don't know if that's true or not.:hi:



(The Democrat in the group, Nebraska's Senator Edward Zorinsky, as considered a swing-voter, who was connected with pro-lifers. A Republican, for all practical purposes.)

[Freddie Stubbs]

4. James Carville is helping out

Venezuela's embattled private sector is banking on the colorful U.S. political consultant James Carville to help oust leftist President Hugo Chavez. The hire may herald an effort by the anti-Chavistas to focus more on the issues than on personality.

According to several individuals with knowledge of the matter, a group of business executives contracted with Mr. Carville this year to craft a strategy that will unify a fractious and frustrated Chavez opposition and resonate with voters in a possible recall referendum. The executives are hoping that Mr. Carvillethe folksy, 59-year-old Democratic Party consultant from Louisiana known as the Ragin' Cajunwill push a variation of his "It's the economy, stupid" theme that helped propel Bill Clinton to victory in 1992. But analysts say Mr. Carville and his clients face a formidable challenge.

more: http://casavenezuela.org/05persp/articles/economia_stupid.html

[Charlls]

5. amazing

hmm, its amazing how nicely propaganda works on the fertile field of ignorance, simply perfect


first of all, there have been Venezuelan presidents a LOT more dark-skinned than Chavez, in fact, the first democratically elected president in 1959 (Romulo Betancourt) was what is called a mestizo (the offspring of afroamerican and caucasican parents). Mestizo is the main ethnic group in venezuela (around 80%) and all the presidents and main political representatives belongs to this ethnic group since a quite bit (even before entering XIX century).

But chavez as the smart fox he is, takes advantage of the ignorance of some people around the world, which its illustrated by this cartoon : http://www.msxnet.org/humour/america

Despite chavez was elected with the support of almost 60% of the electorship, and big support from the main MEDIA and the main CORPORATE groups, his obsession with his big love Fidel Castro disconnected him from reality, and started to implement step by step what Fidel did in the early 60s in Cuba, like the CDR *(ahh, you probably dont know what the CDR is unless you are a cuban emigrant, then read it at the appendix of the mail), Hence, that (and a big bunch of other totally surrealist, absurd errors) allowed to develop an strong opposition that was almost inexistant just three years ago.


Greetz,

ChllQ



* The Comite de Defensa de la Revolución (Revolution Defense Comitee) is in each corner where people lives in Cuba, and they watch everything you do and report any "contrarevolutionary suspicious activity" to the communist part, which 'takes care from there' of the situation

[Judi Lynn]

6. I looked up a photo of your Romulo Betancourt, whom you said

is far more dark-skinned than Hugo Chavez:




I don't think I see your point!


Chavez
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/092200/lutes.html



By the way, I have also read that the coup supporters refer to Chavez in extremely nasty racially-loaded, insulting ways. They describe him as beast-like, unrefined, etc., etc. There is no secret about this among people who try to read occassionally about Venezuela.


On edit:

I just noticed this post script at the bottom of your post:

>>> * The Comite de Defensa de la Revolución (Revolution Defense Comitee) is in each corner where people lives in Cuba, and they watch everything you do and report any "contrarevolutionary suspicious activity" to the communist part, which 'takes care from there' of the situation <<<

Do you have anything you can post to bear this out, from a reputable publication?

[Charlls]

10. FAR more

Yes, he was FAR more dark skinned than Chavez







Of course, i can bring you a B&W picture with Martin Luther King looking white too


I repeat you: The racial stuff belongs to strategic international propaganda, but i guess i understand that viewpoint, since USA was one of the last countries around the world to fight slavery and racism, its waaaaay too easy to make americans think in that topic things cannot be different around the rest of the world,... you know, that area with the big "X" on the map :)


About the CDR, isnt a 'who has the most credible posts' on his side. Just go, meet a cuban emigrant, and ask him/her (but with touch, because they usually arent exactly eager to remember those things) whats is a CDR


Greets

[Judi Lynn]

13. First of all, your example of a dark Romulo Whatzis is a PAINTING

I found a helpful snippet:

(snip) Also, fueled by centuries of ingrained racism, the ruling class went a step further and demonized President Hugo Chavez, a dark skinned mulatto. It is worth noting that the vast majority of poor Venezuelans are darker skinned and make up the core support for Chavez, the first dark skinned president in Venezuelan history.

http://www.media-alliance.org/mediafile/21-3/venezuela.html

[Charlls]

15. hmm?

well, ¿whats your point? ¿because its written then its true? its a lie, he wasn´t, stop spreading disinformation

[Judi Lynn]

16. Interesting remarks, following up on the coup supporters' racism

(snip)....After the coup, which revealed that the opposition sought to impose a regime on Pinochet lines, the people realised that they had a government that they needed to defend. The opposition's protest marches have now conjured up a phenomenon that most of the middle and upper classes might have preferred to have left sleeping - the spectre of a class and race war.

Opposition spokesmen complain that Chavez is a leftist who is leading the country to economic chaos, but underlying the fierce hatred is the terror of the country's white elite when faced with the mobilised mass of the population, who are black, Indian and mestizo. Only a racism that dates back five centuries - of the European settlers towards their African slaves and the country's indigenous inhabitants - can adequately explain the degree of hatred aroused. Chavez - who is more black and Indian than white, and makes no secret of his aim to be the president of the poor - is the focus of this racist rage. (snip/...)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,857027,00.html

Yep, here's another one:

(snip) the most common complaints one hears about Chavez have more to do with his style than with any concrete policies he has implemented. There often is a racist undertone to such complaints, implying that Chavez, because of his folksy and populist style and his Indio appearance, is sub-human, a "negro." (snip/...)

http://www.canadiandimension.mb.ca/extra/d0416gw.htm

I definitely can provide more examples if it seems appropriate. Hugo Chavez is the first non-European looking President they have had in Venezuela, or they wouldn't keep both writing and talking about it.

It's the European descendants who are the core of the coup supporters, and it's racism, just as it has manifested THROUGHOUT this hemisphere. What could be clearer?

The wealthy, European people control the wealth, they will NOT easily release their death grip on the power of these countries, no matter what cost to humanity. Devious side-stepping and misdirection can't conceal this fact.

[Charlls]

21. sorry...

Sorry Judylin, i wont help you here in your desperate history-twisting propaganda


have fun

[AP]

18. What were his politics?

Oil/US friendly, no doubt?

[el_gato]

8. charlls your post is nothing but disinformation

the corporate controlled media in Venenzuela is rabidly anti-Chavez.

[Charlls]

11. indeed

indeed, NOW they are ALL against him.


You know why?


There is a proposal of law that is in hold at parlament called "law of TV and Radio reponsibility", in which between a lots of funny things, there are jewels like, "offensive language against the honor of a representant of the government can undertake fines or over (the equivalent of) 500.000 US$", of course, you may say, thats not big deal, lots of country have such legislations, and i will say "indeed! but in that case, who decides if "offensive language" was used or not?", No my dear friend, its no the court...


Its the information Minister who decides it!, yeah you guessed it, its named by the president


If you dont believe me, go and look for the declaration of Jose Miguel Vivancos, director of Humans Right Watch about that law promoted by the government


However, when Chavez won the elections two of the main national TV and newspaper (televen and "El Nacional" newspaper) where backing up his campaign, and give him wide support at the beginning of his office



Greets

[Judi Lynn]

12. There's a TON of information available in any search

concerning Gustavo Cisneros, owner of Venezuelan tv, print, internet properties. I think his Univision goes all over South America.

He's a close friend of George H.W. Bush, which can be verified by anyone who has some time to do a search.

(snip) Newsweek reported in its April 29 issue that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was investigating contacts between US officials and the Venezuelan military officers involved in the botched takeover. Among those suspected of financing the plot is Gustavo Cisneros, a media tycoon and fishing buddy of former president George H.W. Bush. (Cisneros denies any role, Newsweek said. But Pedro Carmona, the president of Fedecámaras, the main national business confederation, who was sworn in as Chavez's replacement on April 12, was seen coming directly from Cisneros' office.) (snip)
http://www.populist.com/02.9.edit.html

(snip) "The conspirators, including Carmona, met at the offices of Venevisión. They stayed until 2am to prepare "the next stage", along with Rafael Poleo (owner of El Nuevo Pais) and Gustavo Cisneros, a key figure in the coup. Cisneros, a multimillionaire of Cuban origin and the owner of Venevisión, runs a media empire - Organización Diego Cisneros. It has 70 outlets in 39 countries (9). Cisneros is a friend of George Bush senior: they play golf together and in 2001 the former US president holidayed in Cisneros's Venezuelan property. Both are keen on the privatisation of the PDVSA (10). Otto Reich, US assistant secretary of state for Interamerican affairs, admits to having spoken with Cisneros that night (11). At 4am on 12 April <2002>, to avoid bloodshed, Chávez allowed himself to be arrested and taken to the distant island of Orchila." (snip)
http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/01/1560075.php

(snip) Venezuela's five largest television channels - Venevisión, Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), Globovisión and CMT - are privately owned and universally hostile to the Chavez government. Aligned with them, are nine of the ten major national newspapers.

The most important and widely-watched television network - Venevision - is part of a media empire owned by multimillionaire Gustavo Cisneros. The Organizacion Diego Cisneros has over 70 outlets in 39 countries. These include: Univision, which accounts for 80 percent of Spanish language broadcasts in the US; Canal 13, Chilevision, DirectTV Latin America, Galavision, Playboy TV Latin America, Playboy TV International, Uniseries, Vale TV, Via Digital, AOL Latin America
(see Maurice Lemoine, Le Monde Diplomatique, Sept 2002).

In addition to its joint ventures with Playboy and US media giant
AOL, the Cisneros group also enjoy profitable partnerships with Coca Cola and Pizza Hut. Not surprisingly, Cisneros is a strong advocate of the neoliberal economic model tirelessly promoted by bodies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. (snip)
http://www.chavezthefilm.com/html/backgrd/media.htm

(snip)Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was elected by a majority of his fellow citizens. However, TV magnate Gustavo Cisneros, who golfs and fishes with former US President George H. W. Bush, thinks he has the right to reverse that verdict by using his TV network to incite coups, riots and political strikes.

Because Cisneros runs the Miami-based Univision network and has friends among Panama's elite, we get to see his propaganda on TV in this country. It's crude and scurrilous. It plays to social and racial prejudices. It relies on guilt by association. It makes allegations without seriously trying to support them. It writes off most Venezuelans as of no consequence.

A dozen light-skinned Venezuelan citizens resident in Panama, half of them too young to vote and one of them with his face painted in the colors of the Venezuelan flag, ham it up for the video cameras and this is represented to us as the local Venezuelan community's demand for Chávez's ouster. We are told again and again that Hugo Chávez has adopted Fidel Castro's policies, even though Venezuela has multiple political parties and an economy mostly in private hands. Chávez is accused of taking an illegal campaign contribution from a foreign bank, but the evidence presented is that he accepted a donation from Venezuelans who work at that bank, and meanwhile the people making the argument are subsidized by the US government. On the TV we see expensively dressed white women slapping dark-skinned soldiers in hope of provoking a reaction that would be trumped up as an act of savagery. (snip)
http://www.thepanamanews.com/pn/v_09/issue_04/opinion_04.html

(snip)

Media Resources and the Question of Bias


Gustavo Cisneros Group
This site is part of the media empire of Gustavo Cisneros, owner of the Cisneros Group, which is also a large shareholder in America Online Latin America, Venevision, Caracol Television (the local DirecTV affiliate) and the U.S.-based Spanish-language network, Univision. Cisneros is Venezuela's wealthiest man and a close friend of U.S. president George W. Bush. Chavez supporters accuse Cisneros of fanning opposition to Chavez.

El Universal
This site offers daily news from Caracas, Venezuela. El Universal and El Nacional are Venezuela's two major dailies. El Universal owner Andrés Mata was one of several media owners who met with interim president Pedro Carmona during the brief coup d'état in April 2002. (snip)

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/venezuela/links.html#05

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyone who wants to spend the time will find far more than he/she can use to get a sense of the actual information gathering and disseminating resources available to Venezuelan citizens, and their level of integrity, or lack thereof.

I'll bet you remember that during the coup, the tv stations there covered it live, and when the masses started protesting in the streets, the tv stations broke off ALL live coverage, all NEWS COVERAGE, and started running truly crappy old movies, and infomercials. It was discussed in our own press, and it was discussed right here, by a DU'er who was IN VENEZUELA at that very time, which all DU'ers will remember who were reading DU then.

[Charlls]

14. i agree..

JudiLyn, i also think that the silence all the media casts during april 12th is a shame that will follow them for years to come. Dont confuse me with a big media apologist here. screw them, they serve their interest and the rest is sh*t.

But what was being discussed is that Chavez is not the "big democrat" he wants to make all believe, and that he cannot stand critics. He didnt stand even the critics of his near colaborators, and now they are in the opposition.

Which i think is a shame, because if Chavez would have dropped that "Militar Gorilla" attitude from the start and had just listen to what enemies had to say, things would have been VERY different

its said "keep your allies close, and your enemies even close". The political floor that has know the opposition was built with error after error, and the stubbornness to totally refuse to learn from them.



However, about the racial stuff, i can only say that you are a bit naive or either disinformed.

Greets

[newyawker99]

22. Hi Charlls!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Judi Lynn]

9. This is a G-R-E-A-T article, Dover

Isn't it refreshing to see something of this quality?

(snip) In fact, under the Chávez government, in contrast to past governments of Venezuela, freedom of speech, assembly and association have been absolute. "I believe that freedom of speech is as alive in Venezuela as it is in any other country I've visited," former President Jimmy Carter said during a visit there last year.
(snip)

Thanks so much. :hi: :hi:

[Judi Lynn]

20. VENEZUELA: Massive show of support for Bolivarian revolution

VENEZUELA: Massive show of support for Bolivarian revolution

BY CHRISTANO KERRILA

When Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez began his six-year second term in 2000, his party only controlled the executive and the parliamentary arms of government. The Venezuelan oligarchy continues to control some regional and city administrations. Provincial governors organise resistance against Chavez and the Caracas mayor's metropolitan police are used to repress revolutionary activists and workers. However, the only federal institution in the elite's control is the Supreme Court of Justice.

The court has dismissed charges against the leaders of the April 2002 military coup (even though the plotters dissolved the Supreme Court) and this year's bosses strike. These decisions have left the right-wing forces a free hand to organise sabotage inside and outside Venezuela.

However, the court is also influenced by mass mobilisation of Venezuela's poor and working class. For example, after hundreds of thousands of people mobilised against the devastating employers' December-February shutdown, the Supreme Court ruled that the managers and technocrats sabotaging the oil industry must return to work, calling their “strike” illegal. This was a big blow to the opposition.

More recently, the court has shown its pro-opposition bias by ruling against Cuban doctors working for free in Venezuela's slums, where Venezuelan doctors refuse to work. The ruling undermines a social program that is crystallising support for the Chavez government in the poor barrios.

According to an article in the August 18 Forbes magazine, the court is siding with the owners of a Caracas paper factory against its workers, who have taken over the plant in reaction to mass illegal sackings. The company is being blockaded by the workers, and they are not letting anyone in or out. They have confiscated weapons and vehicles from the company's security personnel. (snip/...)

http://www.greenleft.org.au/current/552p16.htm



I'm sure the Washington Post would say there were DOZENS of Venezuelans who turned out in support of Hugo Chavez.