Let them eat cake…boxes?
I showed you two instances where old pictures from old chavista demonstrations were being passed as recent photos.
Yes, there is disinformation campaign. Perhaps that’s why responsible people like @fanzinero and other HR activist are addressing this concern, and asking people to verify pictures before posting them or sharing them, using Google images tool. I can’t speak for the newspapers abroad that doesn’t do their due diligence, but I know that small tutorials on how verifying these pictures have been passed along both in Facebook and Twitter. And it’s actually working, because the incidence of the false pictures is receding.
Who is behind this disinformation campaign? I have to suspects: One, radical elements in the Venezuelan opposition. As you know, the Venezuelan opposition is not, as many in this forum seem to believe, a monolithic bloc of “right wingers”. Is something more messy and more complex than that, with groups that ranges politically from left to right.
Two, I think it can be the Venezuelan government itself, trying to ridicule and undermine the protests. Given the fact they are being assessed by the Cuban, who had done similar things against their dissidence, that seems like a credible alternative to me.
Again, I cited two instances. And one of those was of a government official, Jorge Rodríguez, mayor of Caracas, and key figure of chavismo. That he was caught doing that speak volumes about that particular incident.
Just like the USSR. Once the aristocracy had all been shot, or taken their liquid assets and fled, the only target left was the kulak, and the only thing left to confiscate was his cow.
Venezuela seems to be getting near to that stage.
Do you even know what a kulak was? You appear to be fundamentally unaware of what a kulak even was…
You write “There were multiple reports of witnesses from the opposition evicted from poll centers, gunpoint. In a way not too different from what’s going on now.” without addressing that hundreds international observers (selected in a transparent non-partisan process) have vouched for the fairness of the elections. The election process in Venezuela has been described by such monitors as among the best in the world.
I was asked for any evidence, and so provided a link to one of the sources with many citations. The Center for Policy Research, CounterPunch and The Nation all allege that Capriles Party, Primero Justicia,as being heavily funded by State Department NGOs through its National Endowment for Democracy. Or do you only accept evidence supporting your forgone conclusions?
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Something like that. it adds a great depth to the cover image.
More pieces that don’t jibe with the story being told here:
Incredibly biased piece from an incredibly biased person, like George Ciccariello-Maher. Although it got some points mildly right (like the one of the colectivos, regarding having their own agenda) his statement that this is nothing like a “protests of the elites” misses the point completely. Bassil Dacosta, the first person killed in this protest wasn’t “elite”, and he was actually a carpenter living in the outskirts of Caracas.
And he is not even in Venezuela at the moment, so, why would anybody should trust anything he has to say?
If you want someone that is not aligned with the ultra-left, or the traditional/conservative media, and someone that is actually in Venezuela witnessing what is happening, you would do yourself a favor considering HR activist Rafael Uzcátegui (@fanzinero). He doesn’t publish in English, but he had this little entry translated into English, for a better diffusion:
In this case I am willing to accept the Wikipedia quote:
In May 1929, the Sovnarkom issued a decree that formalised the notion of "kulak household" (кулацкое хозяйство). Any of the following defined a kulak: use of hired labor ownership of a mill, a creamery (маслобойня, butter-making rig), other processing equipment, or a complex machine with a mechanical motor systematic renting out of agricultural equipment or facilities involvement in trade, money-lending, commercial brokerage, or "other sources of non-labor income".By the last item, any peasant who sold his surplus goods on the market could be automatically classified as a kulak.
Sounds like a pretty good analogue for “middle class businessman” to me.
And your proof is?
Weird that you accuse others of spreading propaganda, when you don’t discuss the censorship, dead and hurt people. Again, we can see very clearly that you care more about the reputation of the Venezuelan govt than about the Venezuelan citizens,
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So, no evidence at all. Just name calling, insulting and poisoning the well because you don’t agree with me. And lousy analogies.
Agenda driven? Of course I have an agenda of a better Venezuela.
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I was born in poverty. I learned English with the Internet and videogames. As many are doing now. A large part of my family still lives in poverty, and they are against Chavez. We are not doing well. Even university professors are not doing well. When I used to work in the university, my full salary, 100% of it, would not be enough to pay for the rent of an apartment. Let’s not even talk about minimum wage.
That poor people in Venezuela has always been SOL is not true. For a while they were not doing that badly, and there was quite a bit of social progress, but then the oil prices went down a lot and Venezuela collapsed. We have had free university education since long before Chávez. Some things have improved, but also things have improved in Peru and other countries with no “revolution” and no billions of petrodollars.
If the “revolution” really wants to destroy the oligarchs and the benefit of its people, can you explain to me why the govt blocks Internet sites devoted to expose corruption of the real elites? Infodio.com is not workin in Venezuela, but you use a proxy a it’s there.
These bastards are even more corrupt than the previous govt, they just have had more crumbs to give away while hoarding everything.
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And yet another piece that doesn’t jibe with the narrative being sold here:
For over a week now, the world’s press and media have carried images of a Venezuela in flames. Burning buses, angry demonstrations, public buildings under siege. But the pictures are rarely explained or placed in any kind of context, and people are left to assume that this is just one more urban riot, one more youth rebellion against the crisis, like those in Greece and Spain.
Sounds familiar!!! haha.
Oh but it’s another “biased source”…
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Ha. whilst you two just continue to dismiss every single other source that doesn’t jibe with your stories…
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Isn’t that exactly what you are doing?
Your thing with OSGuido (and with me, for sure) at this point is obviously personal. Obviously, you have serious issues about two persons you don’t even know, just for the kick of it.
I’ve already pointed out the detailed account of Rafael Uzcátegui, HR activist. Just in case you’re asking, he is from the Left, has been from the Venezuelan Left for many years. And no, he is not friend of the opposition. Or the traditional media:
Unlike that Mike Gonzalez guy, Mr. Uzcátegui is here, in Venezuela. And since he doesn’t bend to the fringes in the Left or Right, I believe his portrait of the situation is accurate.
Guido’s story is pretty consistent with what Mr. Uzcátegui is telling, with the minor difference regarding the position of Left wing movements in Venezuela, and HR activists, or the “role of U.S. imperialism in Venezuela”:
- What role does US imperialism play in Venezuela?
- President Barack Obama and the State Department publicly condemned the restriction of democratic liberties in Venezuela. This led Nicolas Maduro and his followers to accuse them of meddling in the internal affairs of another country and violating Venezuela’s sovereignty. Despite insisting that the US is behind the protests, Maduro has also invited the North American government to reestablish diplomatic relations between the two countries. On the other hand, Chevron continues to have many productive business deals in Venezuelan territory in the areas of gas and oil exploitation through contracts signed by President Chávez that are good for another 30 or 40 years. The US continues to be Venezuela’s greatest “commercial ally.” Venezuela sends its largest quota of exported energy to the US and in turn imports many products from the US to address the country’s scarcity problems. Finally, Maduro’s government revoked CNN’s working credentials, accusing the network of “violating Venezuelan laws,” only to renew them 24 hours later, inviting CNN to return to the country. The governments of other countries in the region have also expressed either support or concern regarding the situation in Venezuela.
Now, if what you want is the typical fringe story “Venezuelan opposition baaaaaaad, Venezuela’s government goooooooooood” that just confirm your prejudices regarding this issue (prejudices, because facts or context you don’t have, as you haven’t even visited Venezuela once) you may want to look elsewhere.
And one more thing: If Maduro is supposedly in the Left, then why one of the biggest tycoons in Venezuela and Spain, Gustavo Cisneros, is supporting him?
By offering a one-sided view of ferocious antiChavez writers as Tarre or Mujica, BB is not standing to the principles it consistently upholds in other issues. The Nations’s take on current events is the kind of view that one would expect from BB: #LaSalida? Venezuela at a Crossroads - “The protests this week have far more to do with returning economic and political elites to power than with their downfall” By George Ciccariello-Maher, an assistant professor of political science at Drexel University in Philadelphia, author of We Created Chávez: A People’s History of the Venezuelan Revolution (Duke, 2013). [Spoiler: mr jgratero will most certainly reply with one of his smart “blahblah” lines once again, as part of his intense contribution to the misinformation BB is spreading with these biased takes on Venezuela today. Maybe The Nation is as “red” as anything he opposes. So good for you!]
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Please respond intelligently to this, which seems to lay out what is going on pretty clearly: http://www.thenation.com/article/178496/lasalida-venezuela-crossroads.
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Unfortunately, George Ciccariello-Maher is an extremist, far-left wing guy writing from the fringe point of view. It’s hard to take a guy like that seriously, specially when he says these protests are about “a bunch of rich kids”.
Specially, if we consider this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/el-carabobeno/12754366603/in/set-72157641472853475
I know for a fact that was on La Isabelica, neighboorhood in Valencia. Hardly a rich neighborhood (in fact, a poor neighborhood, that has not seen an episode like this one since the 1990’s)
Now, you want the perspective of a Left wing guy? Then read this:
And one would have to ask, why the students movements in Chile are now divided between supporting Maduro, or not?
