Venezuela's Chavez calls U.S. immigration measures 'fascism

[Nutmegger]

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sharply criticized bills in the U.S. Congress that seek to crack down on illegal immigration, saying they resemble fascism.

Chavez made the remark in a televised speech Friday, while thousands of students marched in California, Texas, Nevada and other U.S. states to protest the immigration bills.

The Venezuelan leader asked how U.S. President George W. Bush could justify supporting a "horrific" immigration law "against millions of human beings."

"It looks like fascism," Chavez said. He did not elaborate, but critics in the United States have taken strong issue with House legislation that would make illegal immigration a felony and expand walls along the Mexico-U.S border.

Full article: http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/international/americas/news/20060401p2g00m0in028000c.html

[Rainscents]

1. Chavez knows Fascism when he sees one!

I said... good for him for speaking up!

[TheFarseer]

2. So I guess it would be fine

If thirteen million people moved to Venezuela and didn't follow any of the procedures for citizenship, overwhelmed the school and healthcare system, didn't speak spanish, took jobs that used to go to Venezuelans and took up 30% of the space in Federal Venezuelan prisons. Am I to assume he would have no problem with that? usually I like Chavez but STFU Hugo.

[ConcernedCanuk]

7. Overwhelming the Healthcare system?

.
.
.

43 million without coverage

And it's also up to the government to secure their damm borders

The Billions spent to massacre innocent Iraqis could have secured that border ten times over

[EFerrari]

10. Yes! From all those al Qaida gardeners. And those Nannies

of Mass Destruction. :sarcasm:

[EFerrari]

8. Link, please! I want to be informed. n/t

[TheFarseer]

13. here is your link

http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=iic_immigrationissuecenters0b9c

I assume you wanted the link to the 30% illegal immigrant prison population (29%, eh, close enough) since the rest of that was opinion or common knowledge.

[EFerrari]

16. Thanks, TheFarseer. n/t

[ngant17]

14. unfair analogy

Venezeula's population is 25 million, US population is roughly 10x that, at 296 million.

13 million in proportion to US population is approx. 4%. That would compare to about
570 thousand illegal immigrants in Venezuela. However, in proportion, it's clear that Venezuela is absorbing more than that. Just in the case of illegal Colombian immigrants that enter Venezuela, there is practically a civil war between factions in Columbia, an 1995 estimate puts 1.5 million undocumented Colombian immigrants in Venezuela. That's more than 6% of their population in illegal Columbian immigrants alone.

Tens of thousands of Colombians have been naturalized since President Hugo Chavez took office in 1999. There are a lot of problems with car theft and drugs between the borders, not unlike Mexico and US.

Given that Venezuela is committed its national resouces to education and healthcare instead of fighting wars on the other side of the planet, my guess is that Venezuela could handle an influx of 4% and in fact it's probably already haveing to cope with double that amount, coming from other parts of South America and elsewhere. Whether or not they speak a different language is not a big problem, as I see it.

I agree it's a problem anytime the number of illegal immigrants surpasses the number of legal immigrants into a particular country, which is happening now in US.

[corporate_mike]

15. Mexicans live better than Venezuelans

they would never move to Venezuela :)

[Laughing Mirror]

18. WHAT health care system?

Where is it written people coming into the US have to speak English?

Taking up space in federal prisons? I'll be willing to bet you any amount of money that Venezuela has per capita far fewer people locked up in their federal prisons than the US does in theirs, and that's just our federal prisons we know about. That's not counting all the secret detention centers we have all over the world.

[Judi Lynn]

3. These "news articles" are turned out like sausages.

The "news" is that Hugo Chavez critized the immigration bills, and then the article, AS ALWAYS, reminds us for the _Bush administration, that

"Chavez, a constant critic of Bush, said he is sure the 21st century will mark "the end of American imperialism."

Chavez, a close ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro, says he is leading Venezuela toward socialism. The United States, meanwhile, remains the top buyer of Venezuelan oil."

That dose of right-wing propaganda is in EVERY damned boiler plate "news article" we read from AP and usually Reuters, etc., etc., etc.

Simply amazing. Maybe _Bush is justified in invading Venezuela, do you think? Every damned article.

On edit: adjusted for emphasis, blockquote.

[Judi Lynn]

4. They spend a moment informing one of real or concocted "news"

then use the rest of the article to remind you to hate Chavez, since _Bush wants to destroy him, and one way or another, you'd better go along with it.

[MrPrax]

5. Right said, as usual Judi Lynn n/t

[LynnTheDem]

6. Mr. pResident TEAR DOWN THAT WALL!

Fascism indeed.

[EFerrari]

9. If I disappear for a while, I'll be in the closet. n/t

[hollowdweller]

11. What is VZ's Immigration Policy?

[Judi Lynn]

12. This is the only thing I could find really quickly:

The Government of Venezuela was commended for its open-door immigration policy and for its accession to the Andean instrument on migrant workers, the Andean instrument on social security and the Simón Rodríguez Convention. Remarking that the report stated that workers throughout the country were covered in respect of "long-term social security benefits", the explanation of that term was requested as well as the clarification of any distinction which existed between long-term and short-term benefits.
(snip)

http://www.bayefsky.com/./html/venezuela_t4_cerd.php


The United Nations Human Rights Treaties
http://www.bayefsky.com/

[Mnemosyne]

17. And he is unfortunately correct.

http://www.veteransforpeace.org/The_14_characteristics_030303.htm

The 14 Characteristics of Fascism

Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

Some great quotes on blind patriotism that seem relevant with all the screaming about illegal immigration here at DU lately:

"A nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestry and a common fear of its neighbors." : W. R. Inge

"One of the great attractions to patriotism, it fulfills our worst wishes. In the person of a nation we are able, vicariously, to bully and cheat while feeling we're profoundly virtuous." : Aldous Huxley

"Blind patriotism has been kept intact by rewriting history to provide people with moral consolation and a psychological basis for denial." -William H. Boyer

=
"Patriotism is a superstition artificially created and maintained through a web of lies and falsehoods, robbing us of our dignity and increasing our arrogance and conceit." : Emma Goldman

"Politically speaking, tribal nationalism always insists that its own people are surrounded by 'a world of enemies' - 'one against all' - and that a fundamental difference exists between this people and all others. It claims its people to be unique, individual, incompatible with all others, and denies theoretically the very possibility of a common mankind long before it is used to destroy the humanity of man." -Hannah Arendt, The Origins Of Totalitarianism p.227