Michael wrote:
Has anyone proved we assisted his ousting? Besides, my comment had nothing to do with Bush administration policies, only Chavez's. I think his efforts to shut down the news media are terrible.
I guess we can never know "who is right or who is wrong" but can't we have opinions?
My only point was that we get a lot of negative press in the US about Hugo Chavez and his atrocities, but I'm not sure they're any worse than what Bush does. Just as Chavez gets a bad rap here, yet is beloved elsewhere, Bush gets a bad rap worldwide, yet is beloved in some circles. We can of course have opinions on who is right and wrong. I have the personal opinion that the US tries to paint Chavez's Venezuela in a less-than-positive light because we want their cheap oil, and he's not cooperating in that regard.
Michael wrote:Has anyone proved we assisted his ousting?
It's not currently known what support may have been provided. What we do know is that the Bush Administration immediately applauded the action and recognized the coup government as legitimate
By the way, it's not just that TV station. He is known to threaten journalism organizations and has introduced nasty penalties for defamation. Several reporters have been tried before the courts for things they've written about.
Michael wrote:By the way, it's not just that TV station. He is known to threaten journalism organizations and has introduced nasty penalties for defamation. Several reporters have been tried before this courts for things they've written about.
Many of these cases are well documented by Amnesty International.
Michael wrote:By the way, it's not just that TV station. He is known to threaten journalism organizations and has introduced nasty penalties for defamation. Several reporters have been tried before this courts for things they've written about.
Many of these cases are well documented by Amnesty International.
Nothing in that report is particularly surprising for a country like Venezuela, and I don't see anything about journalists being taken to court for criticizing the Chavez government.
That said, these things are definitely of concern, and if I were a Venezuelan they would probably be a priority. However as Americans, our responsibility is for our own actions not those taken by Venezuelans. That means we ought to avoid amplifying the propaganda efforts to demonize the Venezuelan government which are used to justify U.S. meddling in Venezuelan affairs. The record on this is utterly clear. Human rights violations are fine when they are committed by allies but terrible crimes when they can be linked to official enemies. This is a script that has been played over and over again so many times, that we really have no excuse for falling for it again.
Later this year, there will be a referendum allowing Venezuelans to decide whether to accept the changes.
It should also be pointed out that this was the law in the U.S. until 1951, but yes, this is the problem with cults of personality like Chavez or for that matter FDR.
