Pedro Mario Burelli Comment: CNN: U.S. report: Chavez moving to silence media
The comment below was written by Venezuelan Internationalist Pedro Mario Burelli:
http://pmbcomments.blogspot.com/
PMBComment: Attached to this email you will find the report CNN mentions below. There is a very good (open source) table in the report that documents the abusive use of government mandated simulcasts or "cadenas". I wonder how Chávez's apologists in the US (you know the Joe Kennedys, Sean Penns, Danny Glovers, and Mark Weisbrots types) would react if the White House opted to sequester the airways186 days in a year and do so for a bit over 175 hours total (these are the actual numbers for 2008 in Bolivarian Venezuela). The fact that it is done with no consent, warning or compensation, and mostly for vain reasons, should further prove the point of this report from the Open Source Center. In Venezuela, the government complains bitterly that there is a world wide conspiracy in the media against Mr. Chavez and his incompetent and corrupt regime. What they fail to mention is that those "99% of the editorials [that] are negative" cannot be all wrong, they are simply reporting the facts as they occur. While keeping abreast of troubling events in Venezuela is like drinking water from a fireman's hose, it is gratifying to see that people are paying attention to such absurdities as the last-minute-aborted Media Crimes Law and the recently, and hastily, enacted Education and Urban Land Laws. Some of the most offensive aspects of the media law made there way to the final (approved) draft of "the let's turn Venezuela into a communist society quickly" monstrosity opposed by most of the country.
Venezuela is now a bona fide dictatorship and it's government should receive the dressing down it sorely deserves. No more naive contemplations related to highly manipulated electoral victories. Let's not forget that the National Assembly - one institution that has never even pretended to act independently from the dictates of Mr. Chávez - was voted in by less than 17% of the total electorate. Only that the OAS saw no problem with this obvious lack of legitimacy, preferring to blame (as Mr. Insulza did again recently) the opposition for boycotting an election the electorate had already decided to ignore due to the many irregularities that preceded the vote.
Mr. Chávez and the band of crooks who surround him (and who BTW need him to stay in power in order to retain their ill-gotten riches) have no use for democratic processes. They risk much in a free and fair society, and are willing to promote chaos as a more attractive alternative to transparency, accountability and justice. We are in the early days of a new, no-holds-bar red descent into pre-violence and all out violence. The consequences of losing power are too great for these ruffians and they will drag the country and maybe it's neighbours into a futile, but painful, confrontation. In the days to come, the silence of the OAS, Chile and Mexico; the complicity of countries such as Brazil and Spain; the shortsighted self interest of Colombia and Russia, and the malignancy of Iran will all come to roost in one hell of a Latin meltdown. PMB
U.S. report: Chavez moving to silence media critics
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/08/18/venezuela.radio/index.html
Maru Angarita
My blog is: http://maruangarita.blogspot.com/
http://pmbcomments.blogspot.com/
PMBComment: Attached to this email you will find the report CNN mentions below. There is a very good (open source) table in the report that documents the abusive use of government mandated simulcasts or "cadenas". I wonder how Chávez's apologists in the US (you know the Joe Kennedys, Sean Penns, Danny Glovers, and Mark Weisbrots types) would react if the White House opted to sequester the airways186 days in a year and do so for a bit over 175 hours total (these are the actual numbers for 2008 in Bolivarian Venezuela). The fact that it is done with no consent, warning or compensation, and mostly for vain reasons, should further prove the point of this report from the Open Source Center. In Venezuela, the government complains bitterly that there is a world wide conspiracy in the media against Mr. Chavez and his incompetent and corrupt regime. What they fail to mention is that those "99% of the editorials [that] are negative" cannot be all wrong, they are simply reporting the facts as they occur. While keeping abreast of troubling events in Venezuela is like drinking water from a fireman's hose, it is gratifying to see that people are paying attention to such absurdities as the last-minute-aborted Media Crimes Law and the recently, and hastily, enacted Education and Urban Land Laws. Some of the most offensive aspects of the media law made there way to the final (approved) draft of "the let's turn Venezuela into a communist society quickly" monstrosity opposed by most of the country.
Venezuela is now a bona fide dictatorship and it's government should receive the dressing down it sorely deserves. No more naive contemplations related to highly manipulated electoral victories. Let's not forget that the National Assembly - one institution that has never even pretended to act independently from the dictates of Mr. Chávez - was voted in by less than 17% of the total electorate. Only that the OAS saw no problem with this obvious lack of legitimacy, preferring to blame (as Mr. Insulza did again recently) the opposition for boycotting an election the electorate had already decided to ignore due to the many irregularities that preceded the vote.
Mr. Chávez and the band of crooks who surround him (and who BTW need him to stay in power in order to retain their ill-gotten riches) have no use for democratic processes. They risk much in a free and fair society, and are willing to promote chaos as a more attractive alternative to transparency, accountability and justice. We are in the early days of a new, no-holds-bar red descent into pre-violence and all out violence. The consequences of losing power are too great for these ruffians and they will drag the country and maybe it's neighbours into a futile, but painful, confrontation. In the days to come, the silence of the OAS, Chile and Mexico; the complicity of countries such as Brazil and Spain; the shortsighted self interest of Colombia and Russia, and the malignancy of Iran will all come to roost in one hell of a Latin meltdown. PMB
U.S. report: Chavez moving to silence media critics
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/08/18/venezuela.radio/index.html
Maru Angarita
My blog is: http://maruangarita.blogspot.com/
posted by Maru Angarita at 8:01 PM
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