\r\n \r\n \r\n Choose news site:<\/b> \r\nNarcoNews.com\r\naporrea.org (in Spanish)\r\neinnews.com\r\nSan Francisco Bay Area Indymedia\r\nVenezuela's Electronic News. vheadline.com\r\nZNet. zmag.org\r\n
\r\n \r\n Enter more search terms. Put quotes around phrases:<\/b>
\r\n \r\n \r\n <\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/table>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSome Venezuela news sources. <\/b>
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.aporrea.org (in Spanish)
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.narconews.com (English,\r\nSpanish)
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.vheadline.com\/p1\/ \r\n(English)
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.einnews.com\/venezuela\/ \r\n(English)
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.zmag.org\/venezuela_watch.htm \r\n(English)
\r\nhttp:\/\/sf.indymedia.org (English,\r\nSpanish. Use search engine there to find Venezuela articles and many comments)<\/p>\r\n\r\n SEARCH Venezuela news sources. Standard Google\r\nsearches. Click, and then add additional search terms. Some sites are also\r\nindexed daily by Google News, so try clicking the \"News\" tab. For the\r\nabsolute very latest news click the site's homepage link in any of the result\r\npages. <\/b>
\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+site:flashpoints.net \r\nKPFA Flashpoints Radio. (English).
\r\n<\/b>http:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+site:narconews.com \r\n(English, Spanish)
\r\n<\/b>http:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+site:vheadline.com \r\n(English)
\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+site:zmag.org \r\n(English)
\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+site:einnews.com \r\n(English)
\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+site:aporrea.org \r\n(Spanish)
\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+site:sf.indymedia.org \r\nSan Francisco Bay Area Indymedia. After clicking this link, you can also\r\nclick the \"News\" tab to get very up-to-date results for the only\r\nIndymedia site indexed by Google News. SF Indymedia also has its own\r\nexcellent search engine. <\/p>\r\n\r\n \r\nGoogle News. Some search shortcuts for very up-to-date Venezuela\r\nnews.
\r\nClick, and then add additional search terms. Can also click the\r\n\"sort by date\" link.
\r\n<\/b>http:\/\/news.google.com\/news?q=venezuela \r\nApproximately 4000 Google News sites.
\r\n<\/b>http:\/\/news.google.com\/news?q=venezuela+site:narconews.com \r\nNarcoNews.com
\r\n<\/b>http:\/\/news.google.com\/news?q=venezuela+site:indymedia.org \r\nIndymedia.org sites. Only San Francisco Bay Area Indymedia shows up.
\r\n<\/b>http:\/\/news.google.com\/news?q=venezuela+site:sf.indymedia.org&scoring=d \r\nSan Francisco Bay Area Indymedia. Sorted by date.
\r\n<\/b>http:\/\/news.google.com\/news?q=venezuela+site:sf.indymedia.org \r\nSan Francisco Bay Area Indymedia. Sorted by relevance.
\r\n<\/b>\r\nGoogle does not seem to be indexing the \"Local News\" or \"Global\r\nNews\" columns on the San\r\nFrancisco Bay Area Indymedia<\/b> homepage here:
\r\nhttp:\/\/sf.indymedia.org Only the items\r\nin the \"Other\/Breaking News\" column is indexed by the Google News\r\nspider when it shows up daily.<\/b> If an item is transferred too quickly out of \"Other\/Breaking\r\nNews\", then the spider may not see the item during its daily (or more often?)\r\nindexing of selected news sites. I suggest the Indymedia staff leave copies of items in\r\n\"Other\/Breaking News\" because, for now, San Francisco Bay Area Indymedia\r\nseems to be the\r\nONLY Indymedia news site indexed by Google News.
\r\nA Search Form,<\/b> and compilation of news\r\nexcerpts:
\r\nhttp:\/\/sf.indymedia.org\/news\/2002\/12\/1555816.php <\/p>\r\n\r\n ----------------- <\/p>\r\n Bold formatting and larger text sizes have been added to some of the text in\r\nthe excerpts below. <\/p>\r\n\r\n Outside observers and organizations find Venezuelan\r\nelections to be free and fair. <\/b>
\r\n\"Human Rights Watch, in 2000, cited Venezuela as the only Latin American\r\ncountry where human rights had improved.<\/b> The viciously anti-Chávez Organization\r\nof American States<\/b> sent a team of election observers to monitor both the\r\n1998 and the 2000 elections<\/b> in Venezuela, and despite all motive to\r\ndiscredit the vote, was forced by the facts to conclude that the elections were\r\nscrupulously fair. As for press freedom, Venezuela has stood alone among Latin\r\nAmerican nations: Not a single journalist has ever been imprisoned under\r\nChávez's watch...\"<\/b>
\r\n -- Al Giordano. NarcoNews.com - April 15 2002.
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.narconews.com\/threedays.html \r\nand many more articles:
\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+fair+election+site:narconews.com \r\n--Search shortcut. <\/b><\/p>\r\n\r\n The vast majority of Venezuelans are poor or poor lower\r\n middle class. <\/b><\/p>\r\n\r\n \"The average annual salary of these 22 'strike' leaders is $426,000 U.S.\r\ndollars a year;<\/b> almost 100 times the per capita income of the average Venezuelan\r\ncitizen of $4,760 dollars per year.\"
\r\n<\/b>\r\n -- Al Giordano of NarcoNews.com - December 22 2002.
\r\n<\/b>http:\/\/www.narconews.com\/Issue26\/article571.html<\/p>\r\n\r\n \"When the captain of the Pilin Leon first dropped anchor, he was\r\nexpressing his solidarity with the anti-government strike in Caracas. But the\r\ntanker's crew were opposed to the strike and their captain's piratical action.<\/b>\r\nWhen the marines boarded, on the orders of the embattled president Hugo Chavez,\r\nonly the captain needed to be replaced. ... The trump card of the opposition, in\r\nApril as in December, has been the state-owned oil company, Petroleos de\r\nVenezuela, often described as the fifth largest oil exporter in the world, and\r\nan important supplier to the US. Nationalised more than 25 years ago, it has\r\nbeen run over the years for the exclusive benefit of its employees and managers\r\n- its profits being invested everywhere except Venezuela. Before the arrival of\r\nChavez, it was being prepared for privatisation, to the satisfaction of the\r\nengineers and directors who would have benefited. But with a block placed on\r\nprivatisation by the new Venezuelan constitution, the company's middle class and\r\nprosperous elite has been happy to be used as a shock weapon by the leaders of\r\nthe Pinochet-style opposition, and they have tried to bring their entire\r\nindustry to a halt.\"
\r\n -- The Guardian, Dec 10 2002. Richard Gott: Racist rage of the Caracas\r\nelite. <\/b>
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/comment\/story\/0,3604,857027,00.html <\/p>\r\n \"The organizers of this so-called “strike” are the very same\r\ncollection of slimy forces that backed the April [2002] coup d’etat<\/b> and\r\nDictator-for-a-Day Pedro Carmona, who, once in power, abolished the Supreme\r\nCourt, the Congress,<\/b> shut down Community TV and Radio Stations, assassinated\r\n50 political activists,<\/b> and nullified the Constitution. <\/b>Carmona also freed\r\nthe sniper-assassins<\/b> who had fired shots from rooftops on April 11th into\r\ncrowds of people, creating the pretext for what was, back then, a military coup.\r\n(Stay tuned for our upcoming report about the undisclosed conflicts-of-interest\r\nof one of the foreign reporters that helped to create this pretext last\r\nApril.)\"
\r\n -- Al Giordano of NarcoNews.com - December 22 2002.
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.narconews.com\/Issue26\/article571.html <\/p>\r\n \"Much of this struggle is about oil. <\/b>Venezuela\r\nis the world's fourth largest oil producer and its oil industry is critical to\r\nits economy. Chavez's 'bolivarian revolution' argues for a role for the\r\nstate in the oil industry, the redistribution of oil income, and the use of\r\nrevenues from this resource to build economic independence. But since\r\n1974, the oil industry has been moving in the opposite direction. At\r\nthat time [1974] , the state-run-oil company kept 20% of its revenue in\r\noperating costs and turned 80% over to the state. In 1990 it was 50-50 and\r\nin 1998, when Chavez was elected, the company kept 80% and turned 20% over.<\/b> \r\nWhat the neoliberals had in mind in the late 1990s was full privatization-not a\r\nreversal of the trend of the previous 20 years. Added to this, the\r\nadministration of the oil industry is in the hands of anti-Chavez forces, making\r\nit possible for them to go on strike in order to promote privatization.<\/p>\r\n \"What are Chavez's other crimes? Severance pay was restored in\r\nthe constitution of 1999, <\/b>after being eliminated in 1997. Social\r\nsecurity was set to be privatized in 1998, but was also impeded by the\r\nconstitution of 1999.<\/b> The Land Law, passed last year,<\/b> was an\r\nagrarian reform law that tries to make rural life viable for Venezuelans and\r\nslow rural-urban migration at the expense of large plantation owners and\r\nreal-estate speculators.\"
\r\n -- by Justin Podur. ZNet, December 10, 2002.
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.zmag.org\/content\/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=2729 <\/p>\r\n ---------------------------<\/p>\r\n \r\n<\/p> \r\n \r\n \r\n | \r\n The Narco News Bulletin\r\n <\/td>\r\n | \r\n \r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n | <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n | \r\n narconews.com - Reporting on the Drug War and Democracy from\r\n Latin America\r\n <\/td>\r\n | \r\n Home | Mailing\r\n List | Search | Print \r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n | <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Why Are the Coup Plotters So Impatient?\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n …And How Venezuela Can Defeat Them Legally\r\n By Heinz Dieterich Steffan
\r\n Rebelion.org<\/span>\r\n December 8, 2002<\/b>\r\n \r\n [Snip. Excerpt from article:]
\r\n http:\/\/www.narconews.com\/Issue26\/article556.html
\r\n
\r\n The second reason for the pro-coup haste<\/b> is the entrance\r\n in vigor of various important laws that come into effect\r\n on January 1, 2003,<\/b> that touch vital interests of the\r\n economic elite: Among them, the Land Law<\/b> that affects\r\n not just the large plantation owners in the country but\r\n also real estate speculators and vacant lots in urban\r\n zones. The Hydrocarbon law<\/b> is even more important\r\n because it will permit the dismantling of the meta-State\r\n of the petroleum business PdVSA,<\/strong> the\r\n corrupt oil group that controls the economic life of the\r\n country and that is an integral part of the New World\r\n Energy Order of George Bush.
\r\n
\r\n Today, only 20 percent of the income of this\r\n mega-company goes to the State. Eighty percent\r\n goes to “operating costs” that enrich secret\r\n accounts of the beneficiaries of this economic cancer.<\/b>\r\n The power of this petroleum “steal-ocracy” has\r\n become propped up progressively during recent decades. In\r\n 1974, the company delivered 80 percent of its income to\r\n the State and kept 20 percent (“operating costs”).<\/strong>\r\n In 1990, the ratio tied at 50 to 50 percent and in 1998\r\n it reached the ratio of 80 to 20 percent. It’s logical\r\n that they are going to fight to the death – of the\r\n nation – to defend “their” black gold.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n [Snip. end of excerpt]\r\n <\/p>-----------------\r\n <\/p><\/span><\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n \r\n <\/table>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n \r\n <\/table>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n \r\n<\/table>\r\n --------------------------<\/p>\r\n \r\n<\/p> \r\n \r\n \r\n From vheadline.com\r\n December 22 2002.<\/strong><\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n \r\n | \r\n External\r\n link to this page at URL:
\r\n http:\/\/www.vheadline.com\/0212\/14349.asp<\/p>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n | <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n \r\n <\/table>\r\n \r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n | \r\n \r\n \r\n Former PDVSA director confirms past\r\n poor performance<\/p>\r\n Former Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) board director Carlos Mendoza\r\n Potella has confirmed a last Sunday Ultimas Noticias report about\r\n PDVSA’s poor performance compared to other countries based on an\r\n America Economia magazine report “iIt shows the company has been run\r\n with little interest in Venezuela.\"<\/p>\r\n \r\n In 1976 PDVSA received $9 billion for all its operations and\r\n handed $7 million to the Treasury whereas in 1995 income reached its\r\n highest at 27.261 billion and the treasury receive $4.9 billion.<\/b><\/p>\r\n \r\n [snip. End of excerpt]<\/p>\r\n ------------------------<\/p>\r\n <\/span>\r\n \r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n \r\n<\/table>\r\n \r\n\r\nThe Narco News Bulletin\r\n\r\n \r\n<\/p> \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Chronology of the Strike that Wasn’t\r\n By Al Giordano\r\n December 22, 2002<\/b>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n \r\n<\/table>\r\n\r\nMid-December:
\r\nThe Oil Sector Sabotage\r\nhttp:\/\/www.narconews.com\/Issue26\/article571.html<\/p>\r\n [snip. Excerpt begins]<\/p>\r\n There was, this month, one sector of oil company executives that claimed they\r\nwere on “strike,” but who in fact have spent this month actively working to\r\nlock-out rank-and-file employees and, according to their own public statements,\r\nto facilitate the sabotage, including eco-terrorism, of oil facilities.
\r\n
\r\nAccording to public records at the Venezuela Secretary of Mining and Energy (MEM,\r\nin its Spanish initials), these were the annual salaries of the 22 major oil\r\n“strike” leaders,<\/b> including their bonuses, paid vacations, and other\r\nbenefits, at the trough of the state-owned oil company, Petroleum of Venezuela,\r\nor PdVSA:<\/b>
\r\n
\r\nEdgar Paredes makes 837 million bolivars a year ($643,000 U.S. dollars).
\r\n
\r\nThe lowest paid of these 22 ringleaders, Luis Ramírez, makes 310 million\r\nbolivars a year ($238,000 U.S. dollars).
\r\n
\r\nThe highest paid, Karl Mazeika, makes 990 million bolivars a year ($761,000).
\r\n
\r\n\r\n\r\nThe average annual salary of these 22 “strike” leaders is $426,000 U.S.\r\ndollars a year;<\/b> almost 100 times the per capita income of the average Venezuelan\r\ncitizen of $4,760 dollars per year.<\/b> In the Venezuelan economy, $426,000 gives\r\nsomebody more buying power than people who make millions of dollars a year in\r\nthe United States.
\r\n
\r\nCheck out the rest of their salaries in the Venezuelan currency of Bolivars (at\r\n1,300 bolivars to the dollar), here they are, the annual booties of the\r\noppressed “vanguard” of The Strike That Wasn’t:
\r\n
\r\nLuis Andrés Rojas: 688 million
\r\nVincenzo Paglione: 979 million
\r\nRaúl Alemán: 687 million
\r\nHoracio Medina: 320 million
\r\nJuan Fernández: 399 million
\r\nEdgar Rasquin: 668 million
\r\nRogelio Lozada: 410 million
\r\nLuis Matheus: 533 million
\r\nCarlos Machado: 542 million
\r\nIván Crespo: 498 million
\r\nLuis Aray: 530 million
\r\nAndrés Riera: 508 million
\r\nMaria Lizardo: 444 million
\r\nArmando Izquierdo: 501 million
\r\nLuis Pacheco: 542 million
\r\nGabriel García: 322 million
\r\nFrancisco Bustillos: 643 million
\r\nSalvador Arrieta: 596 million
\r\nArmando Acosta: 471 million
\r\n
\r\n\r\nEach of these oil executives, of course, had their own team of highly-paid\r\nmiddle managers underneath them:<\/b> controlling the paperwork, the computers, the\r\nhiring and firing, and all other aspects of the company.
\r\n
\r\nIn recent weeks, they locked out the workers, and installed their own men at key\r\nstrategic points where sabotage has been committed to facilities under their\r\nwatch.<\/b>
\r\n
\r\nThe “opposition” complains about graffiti on the wall of a Commercial TV\r\nstation and calls it “vandalism” or “violence.” These guys, meanwhile,\r\nhave presided over the destruction of pumps, pipelines, tankers and other ships,\r\ntrucks, and other key points in the flow of oil <\/b> from the ground to the consumer,\r\nincluding to the United States.
\r\n
\r\nIf they had tried anything like this inside the United States, we would see the\r\nWhite House calling them terrorists, locking them up in Guantanamo Bay, and\r\nsuing them for the millions of dollars of losses that they have caused. Some of\r\nthe members of the “oil-igarchy” have made public statements that some oil\r\nsupplies have been contaminated, and some facilities have been booby-trapped to\r\ncause environmental disaster if they are re-started.<\/b>
\r\n
\r\nBetween the oil drilling facility and the gas pump there are many stops along\r\nthe road. Shut down or sabotage one of those points, and you shut down the\r\nentire pipeline.<\/b> That has certainly happened at various points. \r\n<\/p>\r\n [snip. End of excerpt from NarcoNews]<\/p>\r\n ------------------------<\/p>\r\n ------------------------<\/p>\r\n\r\n Reports disagree as to how many of the middle\r\n class agree or oppose the Chavez reforms. Pro-Chavez rallies have been huge<\/b> and have\r\n had many, many middle class participants. The situation is fluid and the\r\n reforms help much of the middle class too. Many progressive Chavez reforms\r\n are listed at this link:
\r\n http:\/\/www.vheadline.com\/0212\/14352.asp
\r\n The Gregory Wilpert article below lists some additional progressive Chavez\r\n reforms. <\/b><\/p>\r\n\r\n <\/p>\r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n | \r\n ZNet\r\n | A Community of People Committed to Social Change<\/b><\/p>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n \r\n | \r\n http:\/\/www.zmag.org\/content\/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=2546\r\n <\/p> Why\r\n Venezuela's Middle Class (for the most part) Opposes Chavez<\/b><\/p>\r\n <\/td>\r\n | \r\n <\/p>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n | \r\n ZNet\r\n Top
\r\n Venezuela Home<\/p>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n \r\n <\/table>\r\n \r\n <\/p> <\/p>\r\n
\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Recent\r\n Venezuela<\/strong>
\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n | <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n | AP's\r\n One Sided Venezuela Coverage<\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n | US\r\n Still in Venezuela<\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n | Coup\r\n D'Petrol<\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n | Gaviria\r\n Should Leave<\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n | <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n \r\n <\/table>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n \r\n <\/table>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Recent\r\n Wilpert<\/strong>
\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n | <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n | Coup\r\n D'Petrol<\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n | <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n | Opposition\r\n and Government Supporters Rally Their Forces<\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n | Venezuela\r\n after the Coup Attempt<\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n | Coup\r\n in Venezuela: An Eyewitness Account<\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n \r\n <\/table>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n \r\n <\/table>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n | <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n \r\n <\/table>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n \r\n <\/table>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n \r\n <\/table>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n by\r\n Gregory Wilpert<\/b>
\r\n October 27, 2002<\/b>\r\n \r\n <\/p><\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n | \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/p> \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n | <\/td>\r\n | <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n | VENEZUELA<\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n \r\n <\/table>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n \r\n <\/table>\r\n \r\n [First part of article snipped]<\/p>\r\n The government's health care and education policies have benefited\r\n the poor more than the middle class because the middle class tends to\r\n rely on private health care and education. In contrast, the poor have\r\n benefited from the institution of universal health care for the\r\n first time in Venezuela's history,<\/b> even if that health care is\r\n relatively miserable, at least it is more accessible to the poor than\r\n it has ever been. The situation is similar with education. The\r\n government has introduced thousands of \"Bolivarian\"\r\n schools throughout the country, which provide three free full meals\r\n per day to all students;<\/b> something they would never be guaranteed\r\n if they stayed at home. As a result, one million new students have\r\n been matriculated in schools,<\/b> who were never part of the school\r\n system before.<\/p>\r\n One of the most significant achievements of the new constitution is\r\n that it permanently broke the two-party system of Venezuela and has\r\n thus enabled the participation of large sectors of society that were\r\n traditionally excluded from government before. Important in this\r\n regard are the constitution's inclusion of women, indigenous\r\n peoples, and homosexuals,<\/b> who in the earlier constitution had few\r\n real rights. Again, these are changes that, at best, the vast majority\r\n of the middle class feels quite indifferent about.<\/p>\r\n Another area that is high on the Chavez government's agenda, but\r\n which leaves the middle class out, is land reform. The government has\r\n introduced two kinds of land reform programs-rural and urban. The\r\n rural land reform has caught quite a bit of attention and its passage\r\n in November 2001 was arguably the beginning of the opposition's\r\n campaign against the president. The land reform law is essentially\r\n designed to put idle land into production and to redistribute idle\r\n land to landless peasants<\/b> if landowners refuse to put their land\r\n into production. The basic purpose is to both create greater social\r\n justice and to increase the country's agricultural production. This\r\n program is also supplemented by a wide variety of agricultural credit\r\n and training programs.<\/p>\r\n The urban land reform program, in contrast, is designed to confer ownership\r\n titles to land which the urban poor currently occupy illegally through\r\n land invasions<\/b> and to help them improve their communities through\r\n self-governance. The urban reform program sets up land committees of\r\n up to 200 families in the poor neighborhoods that help measure plots\r\n of land, determine communal property, negotiate with government for\r\n services such as water and electricity,<\/b> and create a communal\r\n identity. This democratization of property is to be combined with a democratization\r\n of local governance through participatory planning processes<\/b> for\r\n local projects, such as has been spearheaded in parts of Brazil under\r\n the Labor Party there.<\/p>\r\n Other major government programs that primarily benefit the poor,\r\n but not the middle class are the public housing program and the micro-credit\r\n programs. <\/b>Related to this, the government recently announced the\r\n creation of a new \"Social Economy\" ministry. This ministry\r\n would support workplace democracy, especially the creation of\r\n cooperatives and other social justice projects, such as the\r\n micro-credit programs.<\/p>\r\n A policy that directly hurts the interests especially of the upper\r\n middle class is the government's effort to collect income taxes for\r\n the first time in Venezuelan history.<\/b> Only those with incomes\r\n in the top 20%<\/b> or so are required to pay income taxes.<\/p>\r\n [Rest of article snipped]<\/p>\r\n Gregory Wilpert is a freelance journalist and sociologist, who\r\n lives in Caracas and is currently working on a book on Venezuela\r\n during the Chavez presidency, which will be published by Zed Books in\r\n 2003. He can be reached at: Wilpert@cantv.net<\/p>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/p> \r\n \r\n \r\n Print-Friendly\r\n Version
\r\n Email\r\n This Article To A Friend<\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n | \r\n | ZNet\r\n Top | <\/b>Venezuela\r\n Home<\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n \r\n <\/table>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n \r\n<\/table>\r\n ----------------------<\/p>\r\n\r\n <\/p>\r\n Women and the new\r\n 1999 Bolivarian\r\nConstitution of Venezuela.
\r\n 72% of men and women voted FOR it. <\/strong>Many more details on the progressive aspects<\/b> of the new constitution and\r\n legislative reforms, and how they effect women and others, are in the source messages\r\n here:
\r\n <\/b>http:\/\/www.vheadline.com\/0212\/14352.asp\r\n --Most complete version.
\r\nhttp:\/\/indymedia.ie\/cgi-bin\/newswire.cgi?id=22333&start=0<\/p>\r\n“We women reject the organizers of hate and chaos.<\/p>\r\n \"We women<\/b> are on the front line for our right to live in\r\npeace and to defend the Bolivarian Constitution of Venezuela,<\/b> which gives us,\r\nfor the first time<\/b> in history, the right to full legal equality,<\/b> to social\r\nsecurity,<\/b> to a pension for housewives.<\/b> We are on the streets backing our\r\nPresident and our Bolivarian Revolution.<\/p>\r\n \"Long live the Constitution! No to the fraudulent\r\nreferendum! No to the pro-coup fascist stoppage! Don’t stop for the\r\nstoppage!”<\/p>\r\n ----Go to the link above for many more details.--------<\/p>\r\n --------------------------<\/p>\r\n <\/p>\r\n Le Monde diplomatique<\/b>. June\r\n 2002 article. \"The perfect crime.\" by Ignacio Ramonet.
\r\n He described the likely scenario for overthrowing Chavez:
\r\n <\/b>\r\n http:\/\/mondediplo.com\/2002\/06\/01edito\/ <\/p>\r\n [Excerpt begins]<\/p>\r\n “[T]here will be a coalition of the well-to-do,<\/b>\r\nbringing together the Catholic Church …, the financial oligarchy, the\r\nemployers’ organizations, the bourgeoisie and corrupt trade union leaderships\r\n– all repackaged as ‘civil society.’ The owners of major media will\r\ncollude<\/b> ... to support the campaigns that they will each launch against the\r\npresident, in the name of defending that ‘civil society.’...<\/p>\r\n “The press and TV will brandish terms ‘the people,\r\ndemocracy, liberty,’ etc. They will mobilize street demonstrations and any\r\nattempt by the government to criticize them will be immediately described as\r\n‘a serious assault on freedom of expression,’ ... they will revive the\r\ninsurrectional strike and encourage ideas of a coup and an assault on the\r\npresidential palace. ...<\/p>\r\n “The Venezuelan media currently uses lies and\r\ndisinformation in the biggest ever destabilization campaign\r\nagainst a democratically elected government. <\/b>Since the world hardly\r\nseems to care, the media hopes that this time it will succeed in committing the\r\nperfect crime.”<\/p>\r\n Excerpt above was found toward the end of this article:
\r\nhttp:\/\/sf.indymedia.org\/news\/2002\/07\/138635.php <\/p>\r\n --------------<\/p>\r\n <\/p>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Anti-Strike Multitudes Flood Open Market to Defend Democracy\r\n By Al Giordano
\r\n A Narco News Press Briefing<\/span>\r\n December 2, 2002<\/b>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n \r\n <\/table>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n <\/table>\r\n[snip. First part deleted. Excerpt begins]
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.narconews.com\/Issue26\/article549.html <\/p>\r\n Here’s a photo of the “anti-strike day” [Dec 2 2002]\r\nmega-market<\/b> organized by defenders of the 1999 Bolivarian Constitution and the\r\nelected presidency of Hugo Chávez that the pro-coup elements want to abolish…
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\nHere’s an aerial view of the multitudes who flooded the streets [Dec 2 2002]\r\nto violate the “strike”<\/b> ordered by the super rich…
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\nSee the photos by VenPres in their full size and glory, with moment-by-moment\r\ncoverage (in Spanish) of how the “strike” is collapsing in every region of\r\nVenezuela:
\r\n
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.aporrea.org\/dameverbo.php?docid=1934<\/p>\r\n ----end of NarcoNews article excerpt---<\/p>\r\n --------------------\r\n <\/p>\r\n
\r\nThe April 2002 coup by media. <\/b>\r\n \r\n \r\n\"The conspirators, including Carmona, met at the offices of Venevisión.<\/b>\r\nThey stayed until 2am to prepare \"the next stage\", along with Rafael\r\nPoleo (owner of El Nuevo Pais<\/b>) and Gustavo Cisneros, a key figure in the\r\ncoup. Cisneros, a multimillionaire of Cuban origin and the owner of\r\nVenevisión, runs a media empire -<\/b> Organización Diego Cisneros. It has 70\r\noutlets in 39 countries<\/b> (9). Cisneros is a friend of George Bush senior:<\/b>\r\nthey play golf together and in 2001 the former US president holidayed in\r\nCisneros's Venezuelan property. Both are keen on the privatisation [theft] of\r\nthe PDVSA [Venezuelan oil company]<\/b> (10). Otto Reich, US assistant\r\nsecretary of state for Interamerican affairs, admits to having spoken with\r\nCisneros that night (11).<\/b> At 4am on 12 April [2002], to avoid bloodshed,\r\nChávez allowed himself to be arrested and taken to the distant island of\r\nOrchila.\"
\r\n -- Maurice Lemoine. Le Monde Diplomatique.<\/b> August\r\n2002.
\r\nhttp:\/\/mondediplo.com\/2002\/08\/10venezuela \r\nand
\r\nhttp:\/\/sf.indymedia.org\/news\/2002\/12\/1551768.php \r\nand
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.zmag.org\/content\/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=20&ItemID=2321 \r\n <\/p>\r\n \"After the shooting began, authorities of the\r\ngovernment of President Hugo Chávez immediately apprehended some of the rooftop\r\nsnipers<\/b> who had lit the fuse to the violence. But after Chávez himself was\r\nplaced into custody later that day by military generals, the rooftop assassins,\r\nwhose identities are still unknown, were incredulously set free by the\r\ndictatorship of Pedro Carmona<\/b> - and this tells us everything about which\r\nside hired those snipers - as the dictator-for-a-day Carmona simultaneously\r\nabolished the Congress, the Supreme Court and the Constitution.<\/b> For a more\r\ndetailed history of these events, in which the Venezuelan people overthrew the\r\nU.S.-sponsored dictatorship within three days and changed the history of our\r\nAmérica, see \"Three Days that Shook the Media,\" (Narco News, April\r\n18, 2002: http:\/\/www.narconews.com\/threedays.html \r\n).
\r\n -- Al Giordano of NarcoNews.com<\/b> - Summer 2002.
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.narconews.com\/communitymedia1.html \r\n <\/p>\r\n ------------------------\r\n <\/p>\r\n Venezuela opposition, state waging battle through media.
\r\n Caracas, Dec 21 2002. AP <\/b>
\r\n http:\/\/www.petroleumworld.com\/story0048.htm
\r\n
\r\n [Excerpt begins]<\/p>\r\n In recent days, seven national private TV channels repeatedly have\r\n broadcast slickly produced ads blaming Chavez for everything from street crime\r\n to gasoline shortages. The gas problem stems from the TV-supported strike.<\/p>\r\n \"We will not give up the fight, we won't give up until he\r\n resigns,\" one ad drones on Venevision.<\/p>\r\n \"Not one step backward. Out! Leave Now!\" states another, paid for\r\n by the Democratic Coordinator opposition umbrella group and repeatedly\r\n broadcast on the Globovision 24-hour news network.<\/p>\r\n Yet another ad, titled \"History of a Failure,\" shows clips of\r\n dirty street kids, long unemployment lines and acts of political violence. A\r\n voiceover repeatedly accuses Chavez of \"Failure! Failure!\"<\/p>\r\n Commercials for Christmas gifts have been replaced by political propaganda \r\n since the strike began Dec. 2. Normal programming - soap operas, cartoons,\r\n sitcoms - has been swapped for near-constant news coverage and marathon talk\r\n shows with opposition politicians.<\/b><\/p>\r\n [Excerpt ends]<\/p>\r\n ------------------<\/p>\r\n <\/p>\r\n Associated Press. Centralized propaganda. <\/b>\r\n [Excerpt begins]
\r\n \"Associated Press (AP) is a 'non-profit' company run by the AP Managing\r\n Editors Association; your local managing editor or news director is\r\n technically the boss, and therefore responsible for the errors and\r\n distortions of fact that have plagued AP's coverage from Venezuela<\/b> and\r\n other lands.<\/p>\r\n \"But there's zero accountability at AP.<\/b> 'The AP is\r\n unaccountable to its millions of readers,' notes Feder. 'Unlike at many\r\n newspapers, there is no AP ombudsman who 'speaks for the readers.' There is no\r\n letters page for the AP, and individual newspapers rarely print letters\r\n responding to wire stories.'<\/p>\r\n \"And it's only going to stop when your local managing editors and news\r\n directors find the backbone to send inaccurate stories back to AP - like they\r\n would with one of their own reporters - and insist on a rewrite.\"
\r\n -- Al Giordano. NarcoNews. Dec 18 2002<\/b> email to his Yahoo Group:
\r\n http:\/\/groups.yahoo.com\/group\/narconews\/message\/478 \r\n --Many more details at links below:
\r\n http:\/\/www.narconews.com\/Issue26\/article567.html \r\n and
\r\n http:\/\/zmag.org\/content\/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=2775 <\/p>\r\n --------------------<\/p>\r\n <\/p>\r\n \r\n From San Francisco Indymedia homepage: <\/b>
\r\n http:\/\/sf.indymedia.org
\r\n <\/p>\r\n \r\n Narco\r\n News on the Venezuelan Coup, the Media and How to Stop Both of Them<\/strong>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n Interview with Al Giordano<\/strong>: San Francisco IMC has\r\n interviewed Al Giordano, of Narco News,\r\n about the Venezuelan coup attempt, the media's complicity in the coup, and\r\n perspectives on how we can stop them. Read\r\n the Interview<\/strong>
\r\n
\r\n After carrying out a two-week \"national strike,\" or lock-out, and\r\n despite a helping hand from Associated\r\n Press and other media agencies, the Venezuelan elite has so far failed\r\n to force populist President Chavez to resign. In implementing reforms which\r\n benefit primarily the poor, Chavez has inspired well-funded opposition by oil\r\n barons and other business leaders, union\r\n bureaucrats and portions of the military,\r\n with the complicity of corporate\r\n media.\r\n Thousands of Venezuela's poor have rushed\r\n into the streets to prevent the \"coup of the rich.\"
\r\n
\r\n The Organization of American States has voted overwhelmingly to reject any\r\n future coup attempt in Venezuela or alteration of that nation's\r\n constitution. US religious and labor organizations and some members of\r\n Congress have asked President Bush, who had previously called for\r\n unconstitutional \"early\r\n elections,\" to support democracy by opposing any move to oust\r\n Chavez by force. In San Francisco on 12\/18,<\/b> around 50 protesters\r\n gathered at noon at the Venezuelan consulate to show support for Chavez and\r\n the Venezuelan democratic process. Photos\r\n Read more: 1 2\r\n 3<\/b>\r\n <\/div>\r\n-----end of San Francisco Indymedia homepage excerpt---<\/p>\r\n -----------------<\/p>\r\n *Terrorism of USA. Death Squads, Drug War. LINKS\r\nworldwide. Revised. Millions killed over decades. <\/b>Mostly US-run or\r\nUS-aided terrorist death squads worldwide. Other death squads, too. Today's\r\ndeath squads, and older ones such as the US-run Phoenix Program during the Vietnam war.\r\nTerrorism and corruption at all levels of politics, police,\r\nsociety, media, business, unions, government, etc.. Lists in alphabetical and chronological order. Huge LINKS list.
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.angelfire.com\/rnb\/y\/squads.htm\r\n and
\r\n http:\/\/corporatism.tripod.com\/squads.htm\r\n <\/p>\r\n *Stop corporatism. \"Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.\"<\/b> -- Benito\r\n Mussolini<\/b> (from Encyclopedia Italiana, Giovanni Gentile, editor).
\r\nhttp:\/\/corporatism.tripod.com \r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n Hemp for Oil! Stop Big Oil! <\/b>
\r\n Hemp biomass conversion to fuel. No more oil wars, oil politics, and oil coups. <\/b>
\r\nhttp:\/\/groups.yahoo.com\/group\/cannabisaction\r\n <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"In 1974 80% of oil income went to the state. Today 80% of Venezuelan oil income goes to the rich, and to "operating costs." Only 20% goes to the state. Chavez reforms will help reverse this in January 2003. This is why the coup-plotters, "strike"-promoters, and corporate media are in such a hurry to overthrow the fairly-ELECTED Chavez government. They want to prevent these reforms, and reverse others already-implemented. Reforms that help the poor and lower middle class. Massive corporate-media disinformation, destabilization campaign going on inside Venezuela. Support President Chavez! Please forward widely. ","numcomment":14,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2003\/01\/25083.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":25584,"heading":"More Venezuela news sites, search shortcuts, and article excerpts.","article":""When Andres Perez tried to give the country away to the rich in 1989 the poor complained and Perez had 1000 of them gunned down in the riots called the Caracazo. Chavez led a coup against Perez in 1992. Perez was impeached for corruption in 1994 and Chavez was freed from jail. Chavez was elected President in 1998 and 2000 by landslide votes. In 1998 Chavez had the luxury of a mandate to purge and restructure the judicial, military and administrative branches of the government. Even the right wing in the US applauded some of these efforts." \r\n --December 18 2002 article: \r\nhttp:\/\/sf.indymedia.org\/news\/2002\/12\/1551928_comment.php \r\nhttp:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/news\/feature\/2003\/02\/ma_208_01.html --Much more on 1989 Caracazo deaths. \r\n\r\n"And when the big oil dollars started flowing in the early 1970s, it was a system that organized one of the longest-running fiestas of the 20th century. Awash in a seeming sea of money, Venezuelan elites built themselves wide highways, a sparkling subway, a glittering array of office towers and luxury apartments, a beautiful national theater. They imported great chefs, danced in glamorous clubs, vacationed in Paris, annexed large chunks of Miami. Jeep Wagoneers, bottles of Johnny Walker Black, kilos of French cheese -- all were heavily subsidized with public money.\r\n\r\n"In February 1989, the era of black gold came to a sudden, violent end. Oil prices had been falling for years, and everyone knew the party had to slow. But when the P\u00e9rez government tried to pass much of the bill on to the country's poor through higher bus fares and bread prices, hundreds of thousands took to the streets. At first the mobs burned buses, then they looted and burned stores, then they looted the apartments and houses of anyone who seemed to have more. Scores died in battles among neighbors. And when the army came, many hundreds more were shot down. Yet thousands of people refused to go home, even after soldiers opened fire with automatic rifles. In some neighborhoods, mobs armed only with sticks and rocks repeatedly charged ranks of terrified soldiers trucked in from the countryside. No one knows exactly how many people died, but many estimates put the total at well over 1,000. "The Caracazo," as the riot was called, was the single bloodiest uprising in Latin America in the last half century. ...\r\n\r\n"Even at the height of the good times, the country's democracy was a preserve of the upper and middle classes, and it was protected at gunpoint. Anyone who tried to oppose the government from outside the two-party system ran a risk of being arrested, beaten, or killed by the National Guard or the federal police known as the DISIP."\r\nhttp:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/news\/feature\/2003\/02\/ma_208_01.html Excerpts from January 2003, Mother Jones article.\r\n\r\nMore on April 2002 coup:\r\n"Carmona\u2019s fate was sealed when the military refused to fire on the slum dwellers, leaving the repression to the metropolitan police force. The police, controlled by Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pe\u00f1a, killed dozens of Ch\u00e1vez supporters after the coup, according to Human Rights Watch, but proved unable to defend the new regime. ... Today, despite an oil industry that generates $30 billion a year, 80 percent of Venezuela\u2019s 24 million inhabitants are poor, according to government figures, and half of those are malnourished. ... The main business group, Fedec\u00e1maras, and the largest labor organization, the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV), united to organize one \u201cgeneral strike\u201d December 10 and another that began April 9. Fedec\u00e1maras didn\u2019t accept a Ch\u00e1vez offer to talk. And the government refused to negotiate with the CTV leadership, which appeared to have won its October 25 [2001] election through fraud (the union\u2019s filings with the national electoral commission included signatures for only half of the alleged voters)." \r\nhttp:\/\/www.americas.org\/News\/Features\/200205_Venezuela_Coup\/20020501_index.htm \r\n\r\n"April 4 [2002]: Another work stoppage led by PDVSA managers interrupts oil production. But the three main oil unions, including the Petroleum Workers Federation (Fedepetrol), urge Venezuelans to go to work and defy calls for a general strike." \r\nhttp:\/\/www.americas.org\/News\/Features\/200205_Venezuela_Coup\/20020501_Timeline.htm \r\n\r\nMore on the Media War:\r\n"They also control the media. All of Venezuela's private television stations and national newspapers are owned by the opposition, and all are employed to deliver an unadulterated flow of anti-Ch\u00e1vez propaganda in the form of news, popular music, even soap operas. The distortions can be dramatic. Today's anti-Ch\u00e1vez march is covered by all four TV channels from five in the morning until midnight. The pro-Ch\u00e1vez march three days later -- though twice as large -- is ignored entirely by three of the channels, and covered only sporadically by the fourth. (The American media also played up the anti-Ch\u00e1vez march, inflating its turnout to a million.)" \r\n -- Barry C. Lynn. Mother Jones article. January\/February 2003 Issue. \r\nhttp:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/news\/feature\/2003\/02\/ma_208_01.html \r\n\r\nMore Venezuela news sites and shortcuts: \r\n\r\nVenezuela news sources. For the latest news click the links below. If needed, use onsite search engines.\r\nhttp:\/\/www.motherjones.com (English). Onsite search. Some URLs indicate year and month.\r\nhttp:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/venezuela (English) Comprehensive Venezuela compilation.\r\nhttp:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/venezuela\/archive (English). Chronological link list.\r\nhttp:\/\/www.alainet.org (English, Spanish, Portuguese, French).\r\nhttp:\/\/www.alainet.org\/venezuela.phtml (English, Spanish, Portuguese, French). Venezuela page.\r\nhttp:\/\/www.thegully.com\/essays\/venezuela\/021220_media_mindshock.html See links to mid-left of page.\r\nhttp:\/\/www.narconews.com (English, Spanish).\r\nhttp:\/\/www.vheadline.com (English). "Venezuela's Electronic News." \r\nhttp:\/\/www.zmag.org\/venezuela_watch.htm (English). Venezuela articles page.\r\nhttp:\/\/www.flashpoints.net (English). KPFA Flashpoints Radio. Text, photos, audio.\r\nhttp:\/\/www.petroleumworld.com (English, Spanish).\r\nhttp:\/\/www.aporrea.org (Spanish). Venezuela news.\r\nhttp:\/\/www.americas.org\/venezuela (English). Up-to-date Venezuela news links. \r\nhttp:\/\/www.commondreams.org (English). Use onsite search for daily indexing. URL indicates exact date. \r\nhttp:\/\/www.einnews.com\/venezuela (English). Must pay monthly fee.\r\nhttp:\/\/italy.indymedia.org\/features\/guerreglobali\/#395 (Italian). Venezuela news link compilation.\r\nhttp:\/\/belgium.indymedia.org\/front.php3?article_id=44547 (English, French, Dutch). Link compilation.\r\nhttp:\/\/sf.indymedia.org (English, Spanish) Onsite search engine returns many Venezuela articles and comments.\r\n\r\nSearch shortcuts to pass on. Sometimes this is easier or more convenient than passing on the search form. Click any of the links below. If the site is not one of those indexed daily by Google News, then go to the sites themselves for the very latest news. \r\n\r\nSEARCH Venezuela news sources. Standard Google searches. Click, and then add additional search terms.\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+site:alainet.org (English, Spanish, Portuguese, French).\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+site:americas.org (English). \r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+site:aporrea.org (Spanish).\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+site:commondreams.org (English). Click the Google News tab, too. \r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+site:einnews.com (English).\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+site:flashpoints.net (English).\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+site:guardian.co.uk (English). Click the Google News tab, too. \r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+site:motherjones.com (English). Click the Google News tab, too. \r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+site:narconews.com (English, Spanish). Click the Google News tab, too.\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+site:petroleumworld.com (English).\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+site:sf.indymedia.org (English, Spanish). Click the Google News tab, too.\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+site:thegully.com (English).\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+site:vheadline.com (English).\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/search?q=venezuela+site:zmag.org (English).\r\n\r\nGoogle News. Very up-to-date Venezuela news. Daily indexing.\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/news?q=venezuela Around 4000 Google News sites. Click "sort by date."\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/news?q=venezuela+site:commondreams.org (English).\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/news?q=venezuela+site:guardian.co.uk (English).\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/news?q=venezuela+site:motherjones.com (English).\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/news?q=venezuela+site:narconews.com (English, Spanish).\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/news?q=venezuela+site:indymedia.org Indymedia.org sites. Only San Francisco Bay Area Indymedia shows up.\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/news?q=venezuela+site:sf.indymedia.org&scoring=d San Francisco Bay Area Indymedia. Sorted by date.\r\nhttp:\/\/google.com\/news?q=venezuela+site:sf.indymedia.org San Francisco Bay Area Indymedia. Sorted by relevance. \r\n","author":"media war","parent_id":25083,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-01-11 14:01:18","modified":"2013-11-10 23:48:04","fileurl":""},{"id":25587,"heading":"Stop spamming","article":"You're spamming the site with all that narconews disinformation nonsense. The most likely result in Venezuela will be a forcible removal of Chavez from office. He simply must go.\n\nThis article tells the real story as opposed to the narconews propoganda pieces.\n\nB.A.\n___\n\n by Bush Admirer ? Friday January 10, 2003 Frit 04:28 AM\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNothing could be more ridiculous than to quote sources of leftwing propoganda and news distortion such as narconews.com. One of the front page articles has the byline "Nessie." That's funny. Nessie is a well known lunatic from SF Indymedia who specializes in conspiracy theories. \n\n If you're going to criticize real news sources, then you'll need to come up with something better than narconews.com, mother jones, or Pacifica Radio or other similar disinformation propoganda outlets for far left radicals. \n\n To find out what's really going on with Venezuela, read news sources with high credibility, such as the Financial Times of London. Furthermore, read articles written and reported by credible authors like the Harvard Professor who wrote the piece below, and not some clown like Nessie. \n\n B.A. \n ____ \n Ch\u00e1vez must yield to election calls \n\n By Ricarado Hausmann \n\n Published: January 7 2003 \n\n Venezuelans used to take uneventful politics for granted. No more. They now march in unprecedented numbers against a president - Hugo Ch\u00e1vez - who is unable to keep things running. A six-week general strike has shut down much of the economy, including the oil industry. The crisis now competes with Iraq and North Korea for space on the front pages. \n\n The decline in oil production has raised world prices and disrupted the supply of petrol in the Americas. Fiscal solvency has evaporated, raising the spectre of a default on Brady bonds and a crisis in the mostly foreign-owned banking system. What is fuelling the passions behind the protests? \n\n The Venezuelan story has three main ingredients: poorly diagnosed bad economic performance; the perils of constitutional reform; and the totalitarian implications of revolutionary ideals. \n\n After being the fastest-growing economy on record between 1920 and 1980, Venezuela experienced an extraordinary reversal of fortune in the following two decades, with income per capita falling by half. Disappointed with their lot, Venezuelans voted for a candidate who blamed corruption and privilege - not lack of growth - for their miseries and who offered a political agenda centred on constitutional reform. Since Mr Ch\u00e1vez took power four years ago, income per capita has fallen by another 20 per cent, in spite of high oil prices. \n\n The constitutional reform approved in 1999 did away with a 40-year-old constitution that had generated enough political stability to ensure the transfer of power to nine elected presidents, seven of them running from the opposition. Enough checks and balances were put into the system and sufficient institutional space was created for political parties so that all constituencies found it in their interest to play by the rules and to search for consensus. \n\n The new constitution, through design and circumstance, ended up concentrating power in the presidency and eliminating most checks and balances. It was drafted by a constituent assembly elected through a rule that gave Mr Ch\u00e1vez 92 per cent of the seats with just over 50 per cent of the vote, essentially disenfranchising the opposition. This winner-take-all assembly dissolved the elected Congress and appointed loyal supporters to the Supreme Court, the attorney-general and the comptroller-general without following constitutional procedures. In addition, the new constitution extended the presidential period, allowed for a one-time re-election and substituted a two-chamber congress with a one-chamber national assembly, in order to lessen the burden of consensus-building. This concentration of power has allowed the government to get away with murder, misuse public funds, arm violent gangs and disarm opposition local police. \n\n Last, Mr Ch\u00e1vez's revolutionary ideology, for all its romanticism, inevitably involves a totalitarian system of values that is inconsistent with an open society. According to him, inherited institutions and organisations are a priori bad, income is a sign of corruption, merit a sign of privilege. Stealing is fine if you are poor. Consensus-building is a sign of weakness. \n\n These ideas rub most Venezuelans the wrong way. After all, the country exhibits the highest social and political mobility in the hemisphere. The middle classes find that their dwindling incomes are well deserved, a product of the dramatic rise in educational attainment over the past generation. They feel that a society that does not reward effort, recognise excellence and punish crime is bound to become chaotic. But these values are eroded by the president in his interminable speeches. \n\n To regain governability, the country must return to a political representation that expresses society's wishes and checks and balances to force consensus and limit abuse. This can be achieved only by new elections and reappointing the Supreme Court, attorney-general and comptroller-general. This would require constitut- ional reform or a constituent assembly. \n\n The government has opposed this because it fears losing its power and impunity. The opposition, meanwhile, thinks it can impose it without negotiations. The deadlock is costing all dearly. The international community instead of just facilitating dialogue, as has been the case, should put its force behind a quick electoral solution. \n\n The writer is professor of the practice of economic development at Harvard University. He was minister of planning in Venezuela \n\n Source: http:\/\/news.ft.com\/servlet\/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com\/StoryFT\/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1039524265782&p=1012571727126","author":"B.A.","parent_id":25083,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-01-11 14:47:31","modified":"2013-11-10 23:48:04","fileurl":""},{"id":25609,"heading":"B.A.","article":"While I have no disrespect for the author of that article, nor of his education, but being a FORMER minister of planning in Venezuela means he has been displaced (voluntary or not). This creates a bias, as how are we to determine if he is not a disgruntled former employee? Also, there really is no need to be baggin on other media outlets (Pacifica, Narconews, etc.), let people read and make up their own minds. Financial Times of London is obviously of a bent more towards finances and economics rather than political reform or social welfare and well-being. That doesn't make it any less credible, but like the outlets you referenced, it must be taken in it's context.\r\nAs for reporting in Venezuela, that is the biggest problem for those outside venezuela. There simply is not broad, independent, informative, substantive, live reporting going on down there. We had CNN anchors broadcasting from Bagdhad while it was being bombed by the US, but there are none offering cogent analysis from the streets of Caracas on a nightly basis. Therefore, all the news we are receiving is being filtered no matter which source we are getting it from.","author":"Marc","parent_id":25083,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-01-11 18:54:29","modified":"2003-01-11 18:54:29","fileurl":""},{"id":25648,"heading":"Latest, expanded Venezuela news search form and news site links. Stop the disinformation!","article":"The author of the article BA posted:
\r\n"The writer is professor of the practice of economic development at Harvard University. He was minister of planning in Venezuela"\r\n Enough said. I rest my case. Disinformation galore in that article. \r\n There are lots of good news sources besides the Indymedia-loved NarcoNews.com, and the fact is that the article above of mine linked to those sources. So get a clue, BA, and pull your head out of your ass. Here is the latest expanded search form and Venezuela news site links. \r\n\r\n Google-Search Venezuela news sites. <\/b>\r\n<\/font> Some sites (such as MotherJones.com, NarcoNews.com, \r\nGuardian.co.uk, CommonDreams.org, and San Francisco Bay Area Indymedia) are indexed daily by Google\r\nNews. <\/b> Click the "News" tab in the Google search results page.\r\nThen click "Sort by date." Some sites (such as Vheadline.com) have search engines onsite that index daily. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |