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Posted on 10/11/2006 5:31:16 PM PDT by StJacques
The following photo essay is put up as an antidote to this week's reporting from Venezuela of Associated Press correspondent Elizabeth Nuñez for her errors of fact which, if taken as accurate and viewed from an international perspective, appear to suggest that the opposition to sitting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is only of modest intensity. Nuñez has erroneously reported on the strength of support for Chavez's opponent Manuel Rosales, who will face the Venezuelan President in a December 3 election, specifically for her drastic understating of the attendance of Rosales supporters at Sunday's "Caracas Avalanche" rally. Ms. Nuñez has been publicly challenged on the accuracy of her reporting by the Chavez watchdog web site VCrisis.com. Given that she has been in Venezuela under official press credentials and in her own reporting cites conversations with the Caracas Metropolitan Police and unnamed "reporters on the scene" -- which could potentially include Chavez's media spokespersons -- we have reason to ask whether she has either been influenced directly by the Chavez government or its sympathizers to portray Rosales as only representing an insignficant segment of the Venezuelan electorate and thus perpetuate the widespread international opinion that Hugo Chavez and his "Bolivarian Revolution" enjoy overwhelming support among the Venezuelan people.
In her article reporting the rally Ms. Nuñez wrote the following to describe the attendance of Rosales supporters:
. . . Caracas' metropolitan police estimated the crowd at about 9,000, but reporters on the scene estimated the turnout was above 10,000. . . .
Admittedly; estimating crowd size is not an exact science, but that having been said, there are implications which follow from published estimates of attendance, especially with respect to the significance of a particular event. Hugo Chavez has turned out very large crowds in the past in Caracas, which is the political base of his support, perhaps numbering above 200,000 at a time. When compared with totals such as that the "10,000" figure Ms. Nuñez reports makes the event, and by implication Rosales's challenge to Chavez, appear altogether insignificant. And then there are other reports against which Ms. Nuñez's estimate can be compared. One Venezuelan source estimated the crowd at 200,000. Rosales's own campaign stated 250,000. But regardless of how you see it, the difference between "10,000" and a more realistic estimate based on the visual evidence presented below is striking. Given that Ms. Nuñez of the Associated Press, who spoke by phone with the VCrisis.com correspondent Aleksander Boyd and stated that she was present at the rally, has not amended her story or responded to the challenge VCrisis.com has issued her (see "publicly challenged" link in paragraph #1 above), her reporting must be called into question.
So I ask that you please examine the following pics and judge Ms. Nuñez's objectivity for yourselves. They are in two groups. The first are a series of photos from this past Sunday's "Caracas Avalanche" rally, upon which Ms. Nuñez reported as cited above. There follows a second group of three additional pics to give all of you an understanding that Rosales also has demonstrated significant popularity at other rallies in the interior, which may help to put the impression Ms. Nuñez and the Associated Press are circulating into perspective.
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Note on Sources for the Following pics: Sites include VCrisis.com, the BBC, Daniel-Venezuela's Blog, Venezuela 2001 (Venezuelan Newspaper), El Impulso (Venezuelan Newspaper), and Flickr.com.
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| Rosales Rally in San Cristobal, 09/09/06 | ||
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| Manuel Rosales in Valle de la Pascua, 09/22/06 | Manuel Rosales in Chavez's Home State of Barinas, 09/24/06 | |
ping
I hope Rosales is careful and wearing a "vest".
It really is difficult to estimate. But the figure of 10,000 does not seem credible. If there is an honest election in December, Chavez could be thrown out.
I think Nunez likes to give "sheehans" to ol Hugo.
Having said that, I have to be realistic and say that it is too late for Venezuela. Chavez's grip is backed by cuban advisors, cuban secret service, cuban military(in Venezuelan soil), Russia, China, and well organized, brain washed, full of hate and envy, mobs.
The only thing that can save Venezuela is an armed struggle that will not happen.
That's bigger than the hippie smoke out, illegal alien demonstrations, and protests against the holy Father and cartoons combined.
Now that's "People Power", lefties.
But if Hugo is not re-elected, who will Cindy Sheehan have to visit?
By the way, whatever happened to Cindy? The Left and the LSM seem to have dropped her like a used condom.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
Not to worry. I believe the AP less and less every day.
Don't forget Carter!
While I tend to agree with the fact that I'm sure half or more of Venezuelans disagree with Chavez, there are photos just like this of liberal anti-war protests in San Francisco, New York and Washington... That doesn't mean that President Bush is hated by the entire USA either. There are PLENTY of communists in Latin America that agree with Chavez.
I get the first two rows of images, then three (on top of each other) do not appear.
Dunno. Perhaps if, God willing, Murtha gets dumped she can go on the trail preaching how the election was 'stolen' from him.
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