Posted on 02/24/2005 1:16:53 PM PST by alekboyd
London 24.02.05 | The image of failed coupster Hugo Chavez is taking a proper battering these days. For the first time since his ascent to Venezuela's presidency some of the world's most powerful media outlets have been publishing articles that show a reality heretofore thought to be gross exaggerations or desperate ranting of a dislocated opposition. We have been denouncing the authoritarian streaks of lieutenant colonel Chavez to no avail. Things are changing though. The capture in Venezuela of Peru's official security apparatus boss Wladimiro Montesinos was taken very lightly by the international community. It was considered an isolated event. Then came the arrest of aero-pirate Ballestas, also overlooked and played down. But Rodrigo Granda's capture in Caracas and subsequent diplomatic spat with Colombia have placed the burden of the proof on president Chavez shoulders.
Aggression has been stepped up in other fronts; army raids to confiscate private properties; oppression of criticism and dissent by way of passing draconian media laws; imprisonment and disappearance of political opponents; in sum president Chavez, taking stock of Marta Harnecker's words of advice, is wasting no time in the radicalization of his pseudo revolution. Evidence about the huge electoral fraud conducted by official authorities has also surfaced; moreover Chavez himself admitted that had the nationalization plan (known as Mision Identidad) failed he would have lost the recall referendum.
A detached and observant media has been recording the events all along which has translated in articles, editorials and opinion pieces that, based on facts, are driving the inanity propagating voices of the Chavez administration absolutely crazy. The mechanisms for counteracting the odd unfavourable article used to be handled by a very small group of agents employed by the Venezuelan regime in Washington DC. However, the Venezuela Information Office's staff can barely cope with the avalanche of 'bad news' nowadays. By the time they produce a 'coherent' response to a given article five others have appeared. Lacking talent and output capacity they seem to have recourse to official help. Other equally active spinmeisters are to be found in Venezuelanalysis.com, Vheadline.com, Axisoflogic.com and Venezuelafoia.info. Save axisoflogic the members of the aforementioned websites have working relationships with the Chavez administration; Venezuelanalysis and Vheadline do not hide the source of their funding and Venezuelafoia's main collaborator -Eva Golinger- is so deep with the regime that none of her arguments can be taken as impartial observations.
Curiously there exists divergence of opinions within the propagandistic apparatchiks. Roy Carson editor of Vheadline (a.k.a. Carlos Herrera) reappeared after a short hiatus during which funds were requested to Andres Izarra Venezuela's Information Minister. On his website one can read very many opinion articles centered on the imminent invasion of Venezuela by US forces. The driving force behind the alleged invasion and subsequent assassination of Colonel Chavez is, in Carson's view, the vast energy reserves of the country. Without providing one shred of evidence Carson pounds day in and day out about the enemies of Venezuela, invasion, wars, assassination plots, expropriation of resources and other themes. However his predicament could not be furthest from the 'truth' reported by the writers of Venezuelanalysis who in turn maintain a coordinated effort to convince their readership that a) Venezuela will not sale its energy assets in the US (CITGO); b) that Venezuela has the most cordial of relationships with oil companies; c) that PDVSA partnership with foreign conglomerates in energy projects is in an ever increasing curve; d) that Venezuela celebrates and welcomes foreign investment in the energy sector and e) that Venezuela is a reliable oil supplier. The outlook, tone and manner of Venezuelanalysis' reporters are equally distant from those of Carson and his alter egos. Whilst 'chic' logos of PDVSA and ConocoPhillips are displayed on Venezuelanalysis Vheadline continues bashing the Big Oil lobby.
However, as it happens in any autocracy, the word that counts and the one that carries weight is that of Hugo Chavez. Thus whatever achievement in the 'media war' that his asinine employees mark is shattered in a couple of hours of his Sunday's telethon "Alo President". Apart from having to 'refute' the arguments brought forth by international commentarists Chavez apologists have to devote half of their time to excuse the boss. Other similarly damaging issues such as stacking of the courts, acquisitions of weapons of war and closure of franchises have painted a worrying sign in the face of the international community.
So what does a revolutionary lieutenant do? He cries bloody murder foolishly thinking that somebody, taken into account his anti-democratic preceding actions, will take pity and empathize with his void predicament. Another technique that has proven successful is that of killing the messenger. Thence the speakers of the Venezuelan government dismiss those who have dissimilar stances as paid agents at the service of imperialism, read the USA. Of course such futile accusations coming from the Chavez camp flight into the realm of preposterousness for the very same voices condemning criticism are demonstrably paid advocates of Chavez. Furthermore none of them can deny the acts for which Chavez is being criticized.
Andres Izarra, at the helm of the counteracting effort, utilizing highly questionable sources such as once guest of the regime Justin Delacour or VIO employee Andres Mateo Jarrin, denounces that the US media is waging a war whose aim is to isolate Venezuela. He fails to mention that Venezuela under Chavez has become the annoying neighbour; the country that uses its abundant oil income to destabilize other democratically elected governments of the region. But who is this Andres Izarra? Has he got the appropriate profile for such a job? Son of one of the ideologues of the 'revolution' (the Venezuelan voice of the asymmetric war) Izarra's curriculum is equal to that of any up and coming chavista; absolute lacking of credentials but infinite capacity to suck it up to the boss, a fine exponent of the perfect yes-man. Ergo can his comments and denouncements be taken seriously? Go figure...
Are you in Venezuela by chance ?
There is no excuse for this POS. He's a loon.
Another Peace Prize for Jimminy Carter.
--when I was in El Callao in 1981 a "Carlos Herrera" was a popular columnist in a nationally distributed Caracas newspaper, writing expose's of government corruption--is he the same one?
Did he cheat to win his first election? I hope the people of that country didn't willing elect the failed leader of a Coup de'tat. I know there are reports of fraud in the recall.
Sadly, he won the first one hands down. So great was popular support for him that the traditional parties were unable to mount any credible response to him at all.
He announced in advance that his intention was to fire Congress, fire the Supreme Court, throw out the Constitution and re-write it himself. The traditional parties imploded and he won huge. He did as he said he would, from the podium during his inauguration speech he announced that Congress and the Supremes were all fired, and so demoralized were they that they simply cleaned out their desks and went home, there was very little effort to resist what was an openly unConstitutional order.
Part of the problem was that the parties had already tried to coopt his rhetoric and program, and had already run the economy into the ground by trying to out-Chavez Chavez. The only reason he, as an ex-coupster, was able to run for office was that a previous president (Caldera) had pardoned him in an effort to tap into his populist popularity.
Caldera's emotional harangue in support of Chavez on the day of the coup still makes me ill.
If ever there was a self-inflicted political disaster, it was this one. But he is in, now, and he isn't leaving alive.
Alek may have a different take on it, but this is the way it looked to me as an interested bystander...
Nope. I'm in London, UK.
He won the 1998 election quite easily and yes very many Venezuelans, nearly 3.8 millions of them, did vote for him. He also announced that he was going to do away with all the established powers. It is the way in which he did that deligimitized his future actions. By the time he called for the formation of the National Constituent Assembly, the constitution (that of 1961) did not have any such previsions. Hence all the subsequent acts are, from a strictly constitutional viewpoint, illegal. Hence it is preposterous for instance for Chavez to accuse Carmona of dismantling the constituted institutions of the country for Chavez did exactly that in December 1999.
Re Caldera, he dismissed the rebellion charges against Chavez even before the failed coupster stood trial. As a result Chavez does not have a criminal record after having attempted to oust the democratically elected Carlos Andres Perez. Yeah I know only in Venezuela...
Your comments are quite accurate Marron, I would like to add only that back in 1998 Chavez had all the support from pretty much every sector. He could have transcended the cycle but he didn't, enamoured as he ever has been with the prospect of becoming the second Lat Am liberator. That's is why I despise the man so much; he had the historic chance to change things and he didn't. That tells me that all his populist rethoric is mere humbug.
I have a buddy who works in the energy sector in Venz. He's kept me updated on the various developments down there via e-mails. Hope he can hang on.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.