Tuesday, August 30, 2005

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From: billmon@billmon.org Subject: RE: Your post: Bring me the Head of Hugo Chavez Date: August 30, 2005 12:26:18 PM EDT To: Edgar Brown Reply-To: billmon@billmon.org --> Fuck off, pig. Billmon
From: Edgar Brown Sent: Monday, August 29, 2005 11:39 PM To: billmon@billmon.org Subject: Your post: Bring me the Head of Hugo Chavez I hope you take the time to read this, as it took me much longer to research it. A friend sent me your article, and I have noticed that you do not seem very aware about the actual situation in Venezuela, which might help you to understand Pat Robertson's position (either way, BTW). Don't take this as a call for action or anything, just that the next time that you have an article that mentions Venezuela you should keep some of the things that I am saying in mind. Preamble: I am Venezuelan, I emigrated to the US 9 years ago, I have been here before Chavez got elected, I know how things work down there and I have many relatives and friends in Venezuela, a couple of them are still Chavistas, so I am very abreast of the situation. I do not represent any 'organization' and obviously I am not formally 'opposition.' Only in the sense that any individual would oppose a dictator. I recently created a blog precisely because I could not stand the amount of media manipulation that was going on. I have posted my position regarding Pat's comment here: http://paspalum.blogspot.com/2005/08/pat-robertson-5-days-later.html and regarding the 'actual assassination' here: http://paspalum.blogspot.com/2005/08/extirpate-assassinate-or-castrate.html . Venezuela keeps a team of people whose only function is controlling, and manipulating, all the information that is generated about Venezuela, there is a long track of evidence in this regard (some of its actions can be seen through public documents that can be obtained through the freedom of information act). The main instrument of this system (at least concerning the web) is www.venezuelanalisys.com, which I have no doubt you used for your report. I recommend that you go to the 'equivalent' opposition site (with the difference that it is a financed by a single individual): http://www.vcrisis.com/ , I will concentrate my links here, as it is a cross-section of the opposition blog-space. You can find information about the 'Venezuela Information Office' here: http://www.vcrisis.com/index.php?content=letters/200406211040 . I am also sure that you might have received e-mails from the system portrayed here: http://www.vcrisis.com/?content=letters/200412210833 My current view on the media manipulation can be gleaned here: http://paspalum.blogspot.com/2005/08/venezuela-international-media-cesspool.html I have some of your same suspicions about Robertson, and given some recent events I would not be surprised if he received some direct payments from Chavez to generate that outburst, don't get me wrong, I don't believe in conspiracy theories, but there have been too many coincidences that point to some form of smoke screen to keep the media distracted. Very important elections for the Venezuelan senate are approaching (BTW: 100% of it changes, yes, I know, that's dumb) and Chavez's modus operandi has been to keep the opposition running in circles before any election, this seems to follow the same pattern. Now to your misconceptions: But, since Chavez is not a dictator... Chavez is a dictator, in the same way that Hitler (and I am sorry to use that example, but think of his early years) became a dictator. He got elected, he was extremely popular, he changed all the institutions around him to suit him. Yes he was elected fair and square, twice, however he has manipulated all the state institutions (including the oil industry, and the electoral bodies) in a way that he is the ONLY power that exists, if you read spanish I recommend this: http://www.sumate.org/democracia-retroceso/intro-spanish.asp it contains only the _facts_ about how the system has been transformed from a democracy into a dictatorship. The key to such a power grab was the constitutional reform, by forcing changes in _ALL_ institutions at a time that he was extremely popular he manage to get an inordinate amount of his people in power (as a sample, the Constitutional assembly was 90% Chavista). Just read what the highest ranking member of the Venezuelan Christian Clergy (a Cardinal), previous assistant to the Pope, has to say: http://www.vcrisis.com/?content=letters/200507180522 ....I have been saying for a long time that here there is neither democracy nor Rule of Law. What we have is a veneer of democracy. Those laws passed by a weak majority, but ultimately a majority, against the Constitution, according to which organic laws need to be passed by a qualified majority, represent neither justice nor right, but rather a means for achieving an oppressive goal. By the way, all this is vox populi in Venezuela, at all levels, how does it manage to stay out of the international media--almost--baffles me. ...builds health clinics for the poor and (horror!) True, but: These are basically first aid centers, anything more than a headache would need a hospital, or an assistance center, and those are falling to pieces. See: http://daniel-venezuela.blogspot.com/2005/08/death-by-asphyxia-in-venezuela.html for a simple example of a couple of days ago. distributes land to tenant farmers True, but: the biggest land owner is the state, and the targeted farms were mostly for symbolic value (one of them an _internationally_ renowned ecological refuge, and a model for ecological sustainability: http://www.vcrisis.com/?content=letters/200504081223 ). Also no titles are being given, the new 'owners' cannot borrow money or do anything because it does not belong to them. he's milking [the oil company] for the benefit of the country's impoverished mestizo majority. You seem to have fallen for his race struggle card, please read my post here: http://paspalum.blogspot.com/2005/08/racism-in-venezuela.html . And the way he is going the oil industry will not last for much longer, Chavez thinks that by putting a soldier alongside an oil well it will keep producing: http://www.vcrisis.com/?content=letters/200505161048 http://www.vcrisis.com/?content=letters/200505290830 Which let's me segway into his patriotism: http://blogs.salon.com/0001330/2005/08/13.html#a2419 but who also don't want to make the great leap forward into Stalinist repression Repression has been very clear for quite some time, a new media gag law was passed that makes it illegal to protest against anyone in the government, punishable by jail time, Human Rights Watch has criticized it, read this: http://www.vcrisis.com/?content=letters/200412010935 and this http://blogs.salon.com/0001330/2005/07/28.html#a2383. And this is a sample from last week's events: http://blogs.salon.com/0001330/2005/08/22.html#a2429 And more traditional means are also common, read this for yesterday's events (which BTW was the second time that the same march was attempted in just a month, with similar results): http://blogs.salon.com/0001330/2005/08/29.html#a2440 http://blogs.salon.com/0001330/2005/08/27.html#a2437 and communal poverty. Poverty indexes have increased continuously during all of Chavez's presidency, as have all the correlated indicators (malnutrition, infant mortality, etc.) I am sure that you can find multiple sources to verify that, but make sure that you check the actual source, not the manipulated information. Here are some indicators for your verification: http://blogs.salon.com/0001330/2005/08/21.html#a2428 (Under Chavez Venezuela has become such a communist police state that his opponents were only able to collect 1.9 million signatures on their recall petitions.) I see the bias in that 'only', the process was extremely oppressed on the opposition side, however they managed to get through the constitutional bar 3 times, please read the preliminary sections of the actual Carter Center report, specially the part that says that _ALL_ split decisions of the electoral body were taken in favor of the government. And ask yourself how democratic was the process: http://www.cartercenter.org/documents/1837.pdf . Compare the verification process that the electoral body imposed on the signature drive (which in political terms really decides nothing) to the amount applied to the actual referendum. Also see the magnitude of the Caracas opposition march during the Referendum in my blog, and the Chavista opposition march in the Wikipedia, compare and contrast. his popular approval rating is currently north of 70% That is a reported figure of which we very much doubt it's truthfulness, the same way that the polling company itself doubts it. Compare that to the 60% of Venezuelans that think the electoral system is rigged (I believe it was the same poll): http://www.vcrisis.com/?content=letters/200507160845 . And to the 80% (opposition figure) to 70% (government figure) of abstention in the last elections. With the amount of people that were intimidated for signing the referendum (see: Tascón list: http://www.vcrisis.com/?content=letters/200505160410 , that was the first that popped up, any blog search will give you days of reading material on that), I am not surprised that everyone will start supporting Chavez every time that someone asks. The Center for Security Policy has a good analysis of the current situation, and of possible solutions: http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/index.jsp?section=today All that said, I have to admit that I laughed out loud with your article. Thanks for your time, Edgar Brown _____________________________________________ Edgar Brown http://paspalum.blogspot.com/

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