Down, Not Out

Hugo chavez like Fidel Castro one day will realize their moments of personal glory are self defeating when they have so mercilessly crunched their adversaries while in power . It is all so well known in the Universe :an action always creates a reaction..
Fidel castro is at the end of his life and tenure as a lider ,he will be remembered for the good he did to many but also for the blood of many which tarnishes his hands forever .
Perhaps Chavez will learn in time and become more conciliatory in dealing with his foes. and will be better remembered.

California,you are unfortunately buying into the propaganda of the Chavez government.I understand this because people in the U.S. see and hear what the Venezuelan government wants them to believe.The official 'Bolivariaran News Agency" is about as free and open as Granma in Cuba.Chavez pays millions of dollars annually to public relations firms in New York to promote his image.I live in Venezuela and I am an American.I have witnessed the decline of this country from a democracy (however flawed) to an "elected" dictatorship.The allegations of fraud are absolutely correct.The past election referred to by many as a landslide was fake.Just because international observers say an election is fair, doesn't make it so.Our elections here are handled electronically by Smartmatic.It has been proven that these machines are easy to manipulate.Couple that with the software being overseen by the Venezuelan military and the Smartmatic company having direct ties to family members of government officials and what do you get?Election results at your service!!I can also testify to the fact that the government was trying to find a way to steal this election too because of friends that actually work in the government, and by the large contigents of police in riot gear , heavily armed posted around Caracas in the hours leading up to the announcement of the results(saw them with my own two eyes).

ghimiob, no matter how you slice it, Chavez has been elected overwhelming in successive elections monitored by at least three international agencies. I am sure if your charges were substantiated, the opposition candidate would have made them an issue in the last election where Chavez received a +60% mandate.

ghimiob, no matter how you slice it, Chavez has been elected overwhelming in successive elections monitored by at least three international agencies. I am sure if your charges were substantiated, the opposition candidate would have made them an issue in the last election where Chavez received a +60% mandate.

People please, dont bee so bllind on this, the venezuelans said NO to the hipocrisy of politicians. How come you are going to tell me that being poor is OK with a gold rolex worth more than $10,000, dressed in an Armani suit taylored in Italy, with Gucci shoes, and Burberris tie? People in Venezuela are openning their eyes to this hipocresi of revolution. C-mon, Chavez is behind a super corporation known as Pro Arepa, how can you explain that the son of a Citgo Director in Florida crashed a $500,000 lamborghini killing the passenger and nothing happened? simple, the Venezuelan way: with bribery, lawyers and money [he is currently enyoing the $$$ in Venezuela]. Or for example, Mr. Guido Antonini, who was caught with $800,000 in cash trying to get them in Argentina. Or that Alex Del Nogal [narc traffiker] had a DISIP ID [the pollitial police in Venezuela]. What I am trying to say is that if all these changes in the constitution passed, well imagine the corruption, it would have been worst than now. Chavez is not doing it for the Venezuelan people but only for his gain and by gain I mean $$$. I would advise people who have nevver been to Venezuela to live there for at least 5 years to understand why we need changes, but not political, but of politcians.

freemedia, my point was that after decades of economic control by the oligarchy, it will take time for Chavez and Venezuela to recover.
My original post was directed at Mr. Contreras and Newsweek for writing this ridiculous propaganda piece and providing cover for it in Newsweek. Our corporate media is on a mission to discredit Chavez. The misinformation and name-calling exposes their hypocrisy and purpose. In Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and others, Latin Americans are turning their back on U.S. corporations and our government policies, exploitation and the violent tyranny of the past. These articles are designed to focus on just Chavez, to make him into a boogey-man and thereby discredit the movement and/or provide the pretext for another attempted coup by the U.S.
The discussion is interesting.

"California" is being misleading. Venezuela WAS suffering from years of neglect and hoarding by the oligarchy. Opposition to those conditions is what got Chavez elected after that period. Ironic that Newsweek should suggest Chavez is guilty of vote tampering after we've had two completely fabricated presidential elections, and have been manipulated by the same Bush empire for decades. Our media obfuscates and distracts from the truth. After over 40 years of control by a destructive plutocracy, Chavez is turning his country around. (not too late for us to do the same.) He has erased their world bank debt and created an international banking system for latin america based on constructive socialist ideals (that means helping out your neighbor instead of killing them for money or oil) instead of neo-liberal exploitation for a wealthy few, like we have here. Remember that the CIA tried to overthrow him twice and failed. Why? because of the oil. If he wasn't sitting on one of the largest tar sand reserves in the world, the US would have much less interest in him. However, we are currently building huge military bases in latin america, in anticipation of another US-backed coup. Don't just react and act like a sheep. Educate yourselves. Find out about the School Of The Americas. Read Noam Chomski. Read Eva Golinger. Question the Bush-controlled Media lies.

Venezuela Solidarity Network (US) Statement on the Dec. 2, 2007 Referendum, Dec. 3, 2007
Part One of Two:

I DARE Newsweek to print this. If you doubt the content, or the source, look them up.

With a registered voter turn-out of about 55%, Venezuelan voters rejected
two referendum questions asking for approval of a total of 69 amendments to
their constitution. Each question was defeated by a margin of 1.5 percentage
points.

As a result, Venezuelans will not have a constitution that gives them a 36
hour work week, that gives informal sector workers social security, that
recognizes the contributions of African and indigenous peoples to the
building of Venezuelan identity, that eliminates discrimination in all
forms. They also won??t have a seven year presidential term without term
limits, definitions for the four classes of property, and other changes that
?? on paper ?? would move the country more rapidly toward what is being called
??21st century socialism.??

Venezuelans get to vote on constitutional amendments unlike citizens in the
United States. In the US, two-thirds of both houses of Congress must
approve an amendment and then it must be approved by three quarters of the
state legislatures. Voters never get a direct say. Which country has the
greater democracy? With 11 national votes in the past nine years since Hugo
Chavez was first elected president in 1998, is it any wonder that
Venezuelans follow only Uruguay among Latin Americans in their satisfaction
with their democracy?

It is time for the US government and the US corporate media to acknowledge
that Venezuela is a vibrant democracy and that Hugo Chavez is its elected
president. He is not a dictator and he obviously does not have autocratic
control of the system or the amendments he supported would not have been
voted down.

It is time for the US government and the US corporate media to acknowledge
that freedom of speech and assembly are alive and well in Venezuela. The
wealthy opposition to the ??Bolivarian process?? owns the great majority of
print and electronic media and was completely free to attack the proposed
amendments and Chavez himself, which it did daily and in language that we
would never see outside of blogs in the United States.

Venezuela Solidarity Network (US) Statement on the Dec. 2, 2007 Referendum, Dec. 3, 2007
Part Two of Two:

I DARE Newsweek to print this. If you doubt the content, or the source, look them up.

It is time for the US government and US corporate media to acknowledge that
Venezuela??s electoral process is free and fair. Its electronic voting
machines issue paper receipts which make fraud almost impossible. We only
can wish that electronic voting in the US were as reliable. A defeat by
only 1-1/2 percent would have been converted to a victory by those in power
in many countries. Mexico??s long tradition of dirty elections easily comes
to mind, as do our own last two (or more) rigged elections.

It is time for the US government to stop interfering in Venezuela??s
democracy and time for the US corporate media to stop aiding and abetting
it. Reports are that the US government, through the US Agency for
International Development and the National Endowment for Democracy, spent $8
million of US taxpayer??s money to influence the vote on the referendum.
That would be the equivalent of a foreign country spending $92.6 million on
a national referendum ?? if we had such a democratic tool ?? in the US. Would
we tolerate that? The Venezuela Solidarity Network organized a delegation to
Venezuela in October of 2006 to investigate US government interference in
that year??s presidential election. The US embassy official who met with us
freely admitted that the US was spending $26 million on Venezuela??s
presidential election. What would be the reaction in the US if Venezuela
spent the equivalent $301 million on our upcoming presidential election?

It is time for the US government to close the Office of Transition
Initiatives housed in the US embassy in Caracas. Venezuela??s transition to
a real democracy that began with the rejection of the old political parties
of the elites in 1998 is alive and well and doesn??t need any so-called
??democracy building?? from the United States. Indeed, there??s a lot we could
learn about democracy from the Venezuelans.

One more, there is interesting commentary here: http://blogs.iht.com/tribtalk/opinion/passages/?p=49 and again here: http://blogs.iht.com/tribtalk/opinion/passages/?p=50#comment-5366

To California:
Visit Caracas before you post these comments about how the US is saying Venezuela is doing so well. I've been there numerous times over the past four years. The picture there isn't nearly as sunny as you made it sound. Do some research and look into the programs that Chavez has installed, many of them in exchange for votes (and some, even money). Their infrastructure is suffering, (when I was there, the bridge on the highway to the airport collapsed), the public education system is failing (which is why Chavez wanted the private schools to become public), the healthcare system is mediocre in the barrios, at best (some of the 'doctors' have very little training, if any at all), free speech is very limited (look what happened to the opposition prior to the vote), and crime is still rampant (probably more now than ever - look at the rate of kidnappings, murders, and assaults) and corruption exists from the top to the bottom there. He instituted his programs to try to stay in power, not to do the "right thing" for the people. He is a very selfish man with one thing on his mind: power. I used to be a Chavez fan until I realized that. I thought he was doing good things for the people, but he's really not. I love the people and culture in Venezuela. I just can't respect a man, a President, who abuses and manipulates the citizens of his country. The US, of course, paints a pretty picture in numbers on a page, unfortunately, those numbers don't translate to reality and the money that is in Venezuela isn't being used to improve the country or the lives of its citizens.

This is an huge victory for democracy in Venezuela (I myself was a part of this vote). The venezuelan people have proved that indeed Chavez is not invincible as he himsfelf thought he was. We still have very tough times to go through, and I am sure that he will try to get his way through other methods, but this election has restored hope on my people. Very exciting times lie ahead. Mr. California would be wise to hop on a plane and come visit my country for himself, that way he would havce an objective vision of what is truly happening here. Its far from the democratic socialist pparadise Chavez claims. Pove

This is an huge victory for democracy in Venezuela (I myself was a part of this vote). The venezuelan people have proved that indeed Chavez is not invincible as he himsfelf thought he was. We still have very tough times to go through, and I am sure that he will try to get his way through other methods, but this election has restored hope on my people. Very exciting times lie ahead.

This piece is another example of the script written by the corporate sponsored media. For the record, Chavez was elected with a story-book margin of over 60%+ in an democratic election with a vigorous opposition monitored by several internationally recognized elections monitoring services.
Chavez is widely popular not only in his country but in Latin America. By focusing on Chavez the corporatist media can whip up fear-- sound familiar-- but the real story is much deeper. In Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Peru, and Nicaragua, left-leaning governments have won elections. Many are nationalizing industries including oil. That is the fear and the cause for the unending fear stories directed to the most convenient boogey-man-- Hugo Chavez.
Chavez is not a perfect leader but he is the democratically elected of Venezuela. The U.S. needs to resist their century-old habit of sending in the CIA or the military when change is coming to the plunder and exploitation we have engaged in for the past century. We should support and welcome change. There is much work for them to do. Maybe we could learn something from our neighbors along the way.
Shame on Mr. Contreras and Newsweek for another example of shoddy journalism and total lack of objectivity or historical analysis.

This is good news. Shame democracy failed in Russia though.

One thing Secretary of State Rice said recently is that our relationships with our neighbors in this hemisphere should not be based on ideology but on democracy. If the people freely choose socialism over capitalism it???s their choice and we should support them. In this case they didn???t, which I think is a good thing. But, if they did, I would be okay with that, too.