Hugo Chavez: Students Forced Masked Soldiers to Shoot Them?
Nov 13th, 2007 | 11 responses
In Caracas, it may soon be time to cry, and not just for Argentina. Bad storm up on its hind legs already.
When students take to the streets, whether in our country, or in Burma, in China, in Hungary, or elsewhere in the world, they have often been ‘the yellow canaries in the mines,’ the first ones to realize and to react to something being horribly wrong, unfair, deadening, illegal, unbalanced, against decency, against freedoms.
A summary of this storm walking the land in Venezuela. Rory Carroll, from Guardian UK, in Caracas:
Campuses are the focus of opposition to Mr. Chavez’s referendum on December 2 to permit him to run indefinitely and accelerate what he terms a socialist revolution.
Raul Isaias Baduel, a retired army commander and long-time Chavez ally, has joined the opposition to the draft constitution, saying it amounts to a coup.
The government called him a traitor, but the switch underlined unease among supporters as well as public opposition as registered in polls.
But the same polls suggest the referendum will pass because of measures such as shortening the working day to six hours, and Señor Chavez’s popularity among the poor.
Students have filled an opposition void with rallies accusing the president of Cuba-style authoritarianism.
The justice minister, Pedro Carreno, said the students were responsible for the violence.
A faculty president, Victor Marquez, said that claim was a lie. “They know perfectly well where the violence is coming from. These are the ones responsible, the government’s paramilitary groups.”
The violence referred to occurred when masked gunmen… the Miami Herald put it this way: “ambushed” anti-Chavez marchers last Wednesday, and opened fire on a university campus, shooting two students and injuring 7 others.
That was on the eve of tens of thousands of students planning to march through Caracas and other cities in protest of Hugo Chavez’s sudden announcement that he will amend Venezuela’s Constitution which does not allow him to run one more time. He has, by fiat, said he will rewrite the Constitution himself so that he can continue to rule, presumably without end?
The university said the government used thugs to intimidate protesters but Mr. Chávez blamed the marchers. “They generally take the path of fascist violence and confront the laws and the people, and they are always looking to the Pentagon, high-ranking generals,” he told a summit in Chile yesterday.
Presidente Chavez earlier last week at an summit of leaders from many Latino nations, called the former Presidente of Spain a ‘fascist’ several times. A Spanish dignitary reminded Chavez that people could disagree without name-calling, but Chavez kept on repeating ‘fascist’… until King Juan Carlos of Spain intervened, saying to Chavez, “Why don’t you shut up?”
Presidente Chavez has not moved on from that incident yet. Today he attempted to redefine his name-calling episode from last week by
comparing his wounded pride to the suffering of Jesus Christ and Latin America’s colonial oppression.
One wonders in terms of the blame game, where the buck, er, Bolivar stops in Chavez’s zeitgeist.
I’m personally of the mind, coming from an ethnic peoples massacred and pulverized more than once, that there’s a point to remembering and telling the blood lines of the story every once in a while, to honor and remember… and to teach. But, we’ll never win the most good for us, by reminding others how bad they’ve been to us.
There are lots of strategic philosophies out there about having a voice, doing good, turning the tide; all of them often ample and also imperfect, but some are far better and gain far more, than others.
There are millennia of egregious wrongs done to many classes of Venezuelans. Chavez seems to have tried to correct some of these, but also, it makes no sense to turn the groups of Venezuelans living now who had nothing to do with then, against each other. Blindly taking one side makes everyone walk crippled and blinded in one eye.
Division is the mark of a conqueror. In South America, where have we heard that before? Mending is the mark of a healer.
Which will it be, or is there a third and a fourth option? No matter what happens in Venezuela next, we could hope that Chavez will do no further harm to life just so that he can rule for life.
Additional blogs to look to on this:
Hall of Shame of Violence in the Venezuelan Bolivarian Revolution re Chavez
It never ceases to amaze it when the supporters and cheerleaders of the robolution and their leader Hugo Chavez are capable of defending him on the face of the violence of the last week, as if Chavez did not have a bloody and violent past.
http://blogs.salon.com/0001330/2007/11/11.html#a3720
A left/ right/left/right set of punches and interesting commentary of how controversy about ‘what really occurred,’ here at ‘A columbo-american’s perspective’ blog:
http://rolita816.blogspot.com/2007/11/let-misinformation-of-izmierda-begin.html
A call for Venezuelans to immigrate, given Chavez’s shut-down of media: at the English language news-blog of Panama:
http://www.panama-guide.com/article.php/20070602205950846
Radioactivecommunistzombies has a picture on his/her site taken by AP photographers, of the armed ‘masked’ guy (con t-shirt and firearm) is on the right, the fellow with the respirator who is unarmed, trying to close the door…well, you go see…
http://www.radioactivecommunistzombies.com/radioactive_communist_zom/2007/11/violence-begets.html
And here is a link to truthout blog, an editorial from July 07 praising Presidente Chávez.
Few world leaders are the objects of as hateful demolition campaigns as Mr. Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela. His enemies have stopped at nothing: coup d’etat, oil strike, capital flight, assassination attempts… We haven’t seen such relentlessness in Latin America since Washington’s attacks against Mr. Fidel Castro. The vilest calumnies …
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080307G.shtml
11 Responses to “Hugo Chavez: Students Forced Masked Soldiers to Shoot Them?”
Chavez misuses “fascist” as much as the wackiest lefties in the US and Europe. No wonder the wackos like and defend the guy.
“It’s the students’ fault,” of course, just as Ron Settles killed himself in Signal Hill — those officers there taking the Fifth meant nothing.
The US won’t do anything about it. My sister pointed this out for me.
US Crude Oil Imports
(Thousand Barrels per Day; that’s X thousand times a thousand.)
Country Apr-07 Mar-07
#1 CANADA 1,909 1,780
#2 MEXICO 1,460 1,621 (Yet, they spend as much as Haiti does on education for their people)
#3 SAUDI ARABIA 1,458 1,216
#4 VENEZUELA 1,182 1,036
The US should do something about it if any US citizens are harmed there.
But even then, our government, with particularly strong oil interest ties, will not. What are we going to do, ask the Iranians to be nice to us and sell us some of their oil?
Incidentally, PEMEX, corruption, and all, Mexico’s leadership remains better-behaved than that of Venezuela. (Maybe it’s because they know down there that this nation is that nation’s safety valve as well as income source.)
Yea, the USA should do something about it. We should go in there with “shock and Awe” and waterboard the sob. While were at it we can reprivatize the oil industry and get our oil corporations back there, thereby re-empowering the Venezualean elite.
Who are we to go messing around in another countries sovereign affairs? I wonder what would have happened if Russia took it upon themselves to interfere with American affairs when the military shot dead those Kent State students? There are by now thousands of accounts of government infiltration into activist groups here in the USA and more than one police department has been accused of inciting the riot that occurred, encouraging violence, even being the first to engage in violent acts to encourage the others, not to mention the brute force and high tech toys they now have (pepper spray, rubber bullets, tazers) and seem to use without restraint.
There are rumblings that along with executive overreach, Bush does not wish to leave office. At the moment I would call the rumblings paranoid, but he does now have the power to declare marshal law, yes from the executive branch as I understand it…. yes, only in the case of disease or famine……….or disorder, much like Musaraf had to suspend the democracy until he can reorder the pieces to his liking……than we can all enjoy democracy again and he promises to divest himself of one or two or three key titles he holds.
Finally, apparently there is more to the Aznar flap or the upset Spanish king than meets the eye including a culturally indoctrinated Venuzulian disdain for Spain as it’s former colonizer, Aznar’s family’s fascist leanings, and the involvement of the King in Chavez’s near overthrow. Read here– http://www.counterpunch.org/kozloff11132007.html
But I do agree, he is a bit nutty, a fruitcake, and egotistical too.
– Spirasol
We could just put chemicals on Baby Huey’s state oil infrastructure. That would work great in Iran, too.
Heh, heh.
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerpt In Caracas, it may soon be time to cry, and not just for Argentina. Bad storm up on its hind legs already. When students take to the streets, whether in our country, or in Burma, in China, in Hungary, or elsewhere in the world, they have often been ‘the yellow canaries in the mines,’ the first ones to realize and to react to something being horribly wrong, unfair, deadening, illegal, unbalanced, against decency, against freedoms. A summary of this storm walking the land in Venezuela. Rory Ca [...]
There is nothing we can do. Venezuela is a sovereitng country.
However, Chavez is more than “a bit nutty, a fruitcake, and egotistical too. “. as Spirasol describes him.
He is dangerous and has a coterie of admirers among Socialists and others disgruntled with the US.
With his oil money, he is capable of doing serious mischief at many points beyoind his borders.
With so many crisis conditions (Pakistan, Iran, Israel and always Iraq and Afghanistan), I’m just hoping that someone at the State Depts is still burning the midnight oil to keep tabs on him.
Domajot said, “He is dangerous and has a coterie of admirers among socialists and others disgruntled with the USA.”
If that is all it takes to make another country a danger to us, well you better look around and in the mirror, for many countries view the USA as the premier terrorist threat in the world and unbridled capitalism (imperialism) as a much greater threat than socialism. The most successful countries in Europe are a combination of both, or “social democracies” as they are called. France, England and all of Scandinavia, for example all have unequivocally free health care for all their citizens.
–Spirasol
Spirasol-
If the USA is a greater threat than Chavez, then try living in Venezuela. Try writiing critical commentary there, or in Cuba.
I disagree with US foreign policy, also.
But not for one moment do I mistake Chavez or Castro for good guys, just because they are not the USA.
BTW, it isn’t socialism that makes a man like Chavez dangerous. It’s the dictatorial governinane that comes with it, as well as his failing marks in money management.
I envy Europe for its socialistic health care and other programs, but they are struggling to pay for them. France has a strike every time it tries to find a reform that will help it pay its bils. There is railway strike right now, and ask the populace how happy they are about that.
Not everything that is not the US is paradise,
As a matter of fact, the USA has been very hands-off about all this, including the Kalashnikov factory and threat of export of unrest elsewhere in the hemisphere.
Chavez — payaso y pendejo.
The Usual Suspects will call the USA an imperalist oppressor (or just “fascist”), but the truth, as usual, is the opposite.
Dear Domajot–
If I had any reason to be in those countries, I would gladly go and with confidence. But I won’t be tweaked by the old love it or leave it stuff. What you are afraid of is largely inflated. And don’t my word for it. Heres a speech given by Congressman Serrano that fills in a lot of gaps, http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2826 –but beware, it is a 13 pager, though very revealing indeed. As a teaser I’ll include the following, “…They’ve tried it all in Latin America. They tried military dictatorships. Then they tried regular dictatorships, if there’s such a thing different from a military dictatorship. But it didn’t work either. Then they tried something new for Latin America in many cases, –They tried democracy. They elected folks. But they elected folks who were very much tied to international corporate interests, who got elected, many in questionable elections, and then neglected the people, and they were getting poorer and poorer every day. So what have they done in the last couple of years? They’ve elected left-of-center candidates in Chile, in Argentina, in Ecuador, in Bolivia, in Venezuela.”
Also it appears that Spain is desperately seeking to repair the damage done by the King’s behavior, see http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-11-13-voa69.cfm
also, Sean McCormack, spokesman for the US State Department criticized Wednesday’s violent events, labeling the events in Caracas “an appalling act, although he admitted that they do not know who is responsible, or who fired the shots.” Apparently Police and journalists were also wounded and the man in custody has supposedly admitted to having a personal spat with one of the protesters from the other group. http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/2815
At best, it is difficult to know where the truth lies, but know that most wars are fought first and foremost in the media………and the US media along with government agencies work hard to negatively portray Venezuelan politics in every instance. Venezuelans, like Americans, are strongly divided about their current Governments, however Chavez’s approval rating is still 60% while Bush’s is in the high 20’s.
There is no paradise, Domajot, only moments where grace seems to permeate the heart. Still, can’t you hear the gigantic training rumbling down the mountain, about to turn the corner?
–Spirasol