Posted on 03/04/2006 5:39:49 PM PST by blam
Venezuelan middle class flees Chávez rule of hate
By Sophie Arie in Caracas
(Filed: 05/03/2006)
Venezuela's once-thriving middle class is packing its bags and fleeing the country, afraid for the future as the socialist president, Hugo Chávez, calls on the slum-dwelling masses to rise up and seize wealth from those better off than themselves.
Growing numbers of professionals, business owners and shopkeepers are fed up with the climate of hostility that the Left-wing president has encouraged in his effort to boost his populist credentials.
President Hugo Chávez
María Carolina García was blowing up helium balloons in her party-decorations shop in Caracas one day when two customers asked her how much they cost.
"When I told them the price, which was just a few dollars, they started yelling at me that it was far too much," Mrs García recalled. "You're a thief! You're all thieves! You just came to this country to steal from the poor," the men shouted before marching out of the shop.
Mrs García, 46, a mother of two whose parents emigrated to Venezuela to escape the Spanish civil war and made a new life as jewellers, was upset. But it was nothing new.
"Ever since Hugo Chávez was elected [in 1998] he has been fomenting hatred for those who have, among those who have not. 'Rich is bad.' That's his message. So the people who follow him have decided it's not just the world's superpower they hate, it's people like me too."
Mrs García said her parents were prepared to emigrate again as they see the same kind of autocracy, blind political allegiance and hatred in society that they saw in Spain years ago. They are gathering the documents that the entire family needs to claim Spanish citizenship, ready for the day they have to flee.
Many Venezuelans complain of the government's increasing control of the media and intimidation of opposition supporters. People report that their middle-class appearance leads to their being robbed, kidnapped or spat at.
The streets of Caracas have always been rife with crime but in recent years the city centre has become seedier, with homeless people sleeping alongside piles of rotting rubbish by blackened walls.
"It's never been a really safe city," said Mrs García, joining a queue outside the Spanish embassy with her identity papers. "But different people walked happily alongside each other not so long ago. I have never felt as threatened as I do now."
Since Mr Chávez, a former paratrooper and close ally of Fidel Castro, the Cuban president, was elected promising a 21st-century socialist revolution and making fiery anti-American speeches, the lines outside the foreign consulates have been growing.
Demand for Venezuelan passports is reported to be so high that the Chávez government has rationed the number of requests it can handle per day, pleading a shortage of passport-making materials.
Professionals, businessmen and women and educated office workers are seeking visas for countries such as Australia, Canada, Spain and Britain. Those with emigrant ancestry are asserting their rights to European passports.
There are no official figures and government supporters deny that anyone is leaving, but most middle-class people questioned by the Sunday Telegraph on the streets said that at least half their friends had left since Mr Chávez came to office.
Vanessa Bertran, 32, who works in public relations, said she would be sad to leave but could see her country going only backwards. She is moving to Canada as soon as her visa comes through.
"If you're middle class or you don't vote for Chávez, you find it's harder and harder to get ahead in life," she said. "Doors keep closing. It's hard to get credit at the bank let alone a job in the state sector. They are squeezing us out."
Marcial Rivera, a 30-year-old business graduate, packed his bags and left for neighbouring Colombia this week. He believes that it is a more stable place to live, despite its own huge problems. "I'm all torn up," he said. "I would like to stay but I don't want to be here when the big bang comes and I think it will be very soon."
Mr Chávez's supporters seem untroubled by the exodus, arguing that if the well-off are leaving it is simply to avoid paying higher taxes to provide benefits for the poor.
"He has united the country," said María Calderón, a middle-aged maid working in the smart Las Mercedes district. "He knows what it is to be poor. It is the first time we've had a leader on our side."
We know the next few verses of this song. We learned them in 1917. The middle class had better get out, or their song will be a funeral hymn.
The oil workers won't need to sabotage. FDI will dry up and the place will slowly fall into ruin. In ten years it will turn in a Zimbabwe.
If Danny Glover, Harry Belefonte, Barbara Streisand, Michael Moore and Hugo Chavez all lived in modest $80,000 houses and gave the rest of their money away to others I would then respect them.
I wouldn't agree with them but I would respect them.
Since they don't I call them ludicrous holier than thou hypocrites.
"You know your country is circling the drain when people are fleeing to Colombia for prosperity and stability."
There are some sentences that you have to repeat to yourself a few time to make sure you heard it right.
I'm moving to Colombia for prosperity and stability. I'm moving to Colombia for prosperity and stability.
No, still does not sound right.
Atlas Puked... Tax the Rich, feed the poor tax them till there are no more!!!
Doesn't sound like there's much of a future for anybody at all, be they poor, middle-class, or rich.
I had the same thoughts as I read this. Democrats left unchecked would rapidly turn us into the same kind of hell hole.
In all honesty, I don't know but I doubt it. ANyway, Carter certifying does zero to ensure me that it's so.
Presidente "No Neck" Ping
Piece by piece, Ol' Hugo flushes his country further into the crapper.
Venezuela aims for biggest military reserve in Americas
On News/Activism ^ 03/04/2006 6:22:06 PM PST · 17 replies · 238+ views
www.guardian.co.uk ^ | Saturday March 4, 2006
Greg Morsbach in Caracas
Venezuela aims for biggest military reserve in Americas Greg Morsbach in Caracas Saturday March 4, 2006 The Guardian Around 500,000 Venezuelans will start a four-month military training programme today to turn them into members of the country's territorial guard. They are the first group of a total of 2m Venezuelan civilians who have so far signed up to become armed reservists. By the summer of 2007, Venezuela is likely to have the largest military reserve in the Americas, which is expected to be almost double the size of that in the United States. The huge recruitment drive is part of...
This is a very critical and fearful time for Venezolanos. THey are hyper-aware of all of the Cuban "security advisors" infesting all levels of their govt. Rumors must be rampant that the exit doors will be slammed shut at some point, ala Cuba 59. "Get out while you can" must be the catch phrase. And of course, once the doors are closed, the "enemies of the state" will be marched to the wall and shot. It's coming.
Is it almost 1959 in Caracas?
Who gets to be El Che?
And exactly right, too -- assuming only our feckless government can somehow manage to carpe the diem.
He will not be taken out easily. Any attempt to do so will only strengthen him. It plays right into his hands. The Catholic church with its corruption has brought all of this to us. What has Catholicism done to urge the government to educate the people? What has Catholicism done to teach the peoples' hearts that violence for change is not the answer? What is the Catholic church doing right now to help solve the problem? LOL. Nothing. They're waiting to see which side wins so they can hitch their wagon up.
This just in via e-mail from a close friend who is VERY knowledgeable about Venezuela. Certain information blotted out to protect sources and myself:
"Yes, everything there (on Free Republic) is pretty accurate from everything that I either know or have been told. I don't see any exaggerations. I have close friends who have family members there who have escaped. On the street where XXXXXXXXXX lived there have been a lot of Cubans who have been given new houses, new 4WD SUVs and passports of Venezuelan citizenship. You need to read Globovision regularly. It is really on target. I have a friend who keeps me up to date with anything unusual. Chavez banned US flights from Delta, Continental and American airlines. That was supposed to have started on March 1, but Fedecamaras the equivalent of the National chamber of commerce someway got an extension on the decision until March 31. Chavez is buying guns from Russia and military airplanes from Spain. He has imported hundreds of Cuban teachers to brainwash the education system. I have heard first-hand accounts of some of his "education" training sessions. It is scary."
Do you know this website?
"Ever since Hugo Chávez was elected [in 1998] he has been fomenting hatred for those who have, among those who have not. 'Rich is bad.' That's his message. So the people who follow him have decided it's not just the world's superpower they hate, it's people like me too."
Anyone else think this sounds like the Democrats??? Hm???
ping
"Of course, Chavez will declare himself president for life first."
Kind of like Bill Clinton, wouldn't you say?
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