Venezuelans convinced Chavez is doomed

[windansea]

Venezuelans convinced Chavez is doomed
Resignation or ouster possible as support ebbs


Caracas, Venezuela -- In bars and restaurants these days, the debate among Venezuelans is no longer whether or not populist President Hugo Chavez will finish his term, but when he will go and how.

"At the rate of decline, it is hard to see him staying in power for more than 90 (more) days," said Eric Ekvall, a U.S. corporate consultant, who has lived for some two decades in Venezuela.

The 3-year-old administration of the once seemingly invincible Chavez faces not only a precipitous drop in popularity -- in some polls lower than 30 percent -- but a severe crisis of governance and economic stagnation.

In recent weeks, thousands of protesters from organized labor and the political opposition have taken to the streets to yell "Chavez, go now!" while several senior military officers have made impassioned public pleas for him to change course or stand down before his term ends in 2007.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/03/12/MN110115.DTL

[AP]

1. Or at least the one's in "bars and restaurants"

and the ones who can convince their betrotheds to say so on DU 24/7.

[AP]

2. Is this a joke, by the way:

The first quote in the article that, in theory, should support the claim in the headline of what VENEZUELANS think:

"At the rate of decline, it is hard to see him staying in power for more than 90 (more) days," said Eric Ekvall, a U.S. corporate consultant, who has lived for some two decades in Venezuela.

????

(and see below for who this guy is! The TOP QUOTE is from a guy who has an agenda!!! I wonder if windansea knows this guy personally?)

[AP]

3. And quote number two sounds familiar:

"Angel Alvarez, director of the political studies institute at the Central University in Caracas, says Chavez has failed to deliver on his promises to improve living conditions and end corruption, and has no clear plan how to do so.

"Chavez has shown no ability to maintain stable alliances and lacks an adequate policy toward the opposition," Alvarez said. "

Doesn't Angel turn up pretty requently in the oppostion propaganda? When you need a good quote about hatred of Chavez, go Angel. 'Cause you wouldn't want your only quote to be from an American business consultant, right?

[AP]

6. It doesn't get any better with quote number three:

"I hung up my uniform because the concept of the armed forces I was taught is no longer the one being applied," said Gen. Guaicaipuro Lameda, who was sacked by Chavez as head of PDVSA and recently resigned his commission.

"Last month, four uniformed officers, including a captain in the national guard, a rear admiral and an air force general, called on the 47-year-old president to resign. "

Is this article for real?

Next thing I expect is a quote from a certain DU'er about the "fascist" national guard!

[AP]

8. "the concept of the armed forces I was taught"

Wonder what that was? Shooting civilians and defending wealth?

[ThirdWheelLegend]

4. lol

I am convinced! A person linked to globalizing corporatists is against Chavez!?!

That's all I need to know, DOWN WITH CHAVEZ, UP WITH CORPORATIONS!

:o
TWL

[not systems]

5. That crowd looks very pale.

Not very representative of the population of that county.

Maybe representative of the ones in Houston or bloging on salon though.

[Joanne98]

15. The opposition is white

Chavez supporters are dark and poor. I'm glad someone finally noticed that.

[Ms. Clio]

16. you have black people in Brazil??

A crowd Chimy McCokespoon would feel at home with.

[Zorra]

46. Something else is really fishy about the picture!!!

If you right click on the picture, and then left click on "properties", it appears that the picture was taken on 3/12/2002!

On edit: Oh, yeah .. the article is 2 years old. That would explain it.

[plurality]

7. more on Phil Gunson and Eric Ekvall

http://www.narconews.com/Issue32/article572.html

Phil Gunson and Eric Ekvall Are Upset with Narco News

Eric Ekvall is a political consultant in Venezuela who used to work for the state-owned oil company PdVSA and the Ford Motor Company. He popped up last April, during the brief coup d’etat in Venezuela, defending Dictator-for-a-Day Pedro Carmona in an article by Juan Forero of the New York Times.

snip

Prologue: Ekvall’s Para-Journalists

There is a fourth player in Venezuela (who like Gunson and Ekvall is not a native Venezuelan) who has been a party to some of these correspondences: Michael Rowan, former business associate of Ekvall and columnist for the pro-coup daily El Universal in Caracas.

Last June, I received a letter from Rowan, claiming to be writing a column for El Universal, asking me how I make my living and from what sources. Of course I answered him right away. I think this is a question that every individual in public life – including journalists – should answer, and I answered Rowan immediately: those sources are already disclosed on our links and disclosures page:

While offering mine, I also asked Rowan to make his own disclosure: Why, if he was a newspaper columnist for El Universal, did he send me his letter from the same email address used by partisan political consultant Erik Ekvall? And didn’t he see a conflict-of-interest in using a shared email account with a political spin-doctor?

snip

Fast forward to October 2002: Ekvall pops up on the isle of Jamaica, during the respected and important Mind States conference “for a consciousness-expanding seminar unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before,” where one of my disclosed supporters was also slated to attend. There in Negril, Jamaica, Ekvall asked a lot of questions about Al Giordano and did his usual lobbying-complaining about me as well. I find it extremely entertaining that Ekvall can afford to go to Jamaica to this conference (the listed cost was $1,300; well worth the price; wish I could have afforded it) on entheogenic plants and hallucinogenic drugs, even as Ekvall claims that Chávez has destroyed the economy of Venezuela.

Then came the December 2002 coup attempt in Venezuela. Apparently, whatever Ekvall was doing in Negril, Jamaica, he didn’t take any of the lessons to heart, nor was his consciousness sufficiently expanded, obviously. Because despite the blood of 50 Venezuelans on his hands still from last April – through his defense of their butcher, Carmona – Ekvall is back at the pro-coup spinning wheel once again.

Much more, read the link

[ThirdWheelLegend]

10. thanks for the link!

whoop there it is...


TWL

[AP]

11. Thank you windansea for the heads-up on who not to trust in the media.

You do your own cause a great disservice in your effort to defend it. But you do us -- the people who know the difference between fascism and democracy -- a great service by helping us sharpen our arguments and gather our facts.

Carter, Frank, Lee, UN, I know I know.

Well, uh, Phil Gunson and Eric Eckvall.

The SF Chronicle should be ashamed. However, I suspect they're beyond shame. I suspect they know what they're doing..

[AP]

12. Makes you wonder if this "news story" was issued as a press release by the

Organization of Former PDVSA Executives.

How many ethical rules of journalism do you think Gunson and the SF Chron violated by not making clear who Erik Eckvall is?

And do you really need any more evidence who the bad guys are down in VZ.

If Chavez is so bad, why does the opposition live on the air of lies like these?

[plurality]

19. check below for more on Gunson and Ekvall n/t

[Tinoire]

34. Naw... You're wrong. Did you not get the memo?

Eric Ekvall is a "progressive" speaking for the elite people.

:eyes:

Did you not get the memo?

Dark people are not "people". Their votes should not count and certain people are going to do their damndest to ensure that the zombie-poor and their dangerous socialist leanings are put back in their place so that the light-skinned elites can keep selling the country's resources to Uncle Sam for a comfy little cut.


====

Thanks for revealing yet another propagandist.

[lutherj]

9. What's your point? This is your second post against a popular

leftist latin american leader in less than an hour.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=latest_threads&page=2

[not systems]

13. I think it is a professional interest...

in this case.

Although love is his given reason.

[Tinoire]

37. 2nd only? That's a slow day. You should have been here the day

Aristide was kidnapped!

[Ms. Clio]

14. another day

Another anti-Chavez post.

Do you think you're convincing anyone that you're the expert in this subject?

[tom_paine]

17. Sounds like the Black Ops Boys are gettin' us ready...

Though who can tell when one lives in the New Soviet Union of Imperial Amerika?

[plurality]

18. more on the 'reporter' Phil Gunson

http://www.narconews.com/Issue32/article598.html

Gunson Comes Clean, Finally, About
Political Consultant Eric Ekvall:

Gunson comes clean, finally, admitting that he considers the rabidly pro-coup media manipulator Eric Ekvall to be his friend (something Gunson never did when quoting Ekvall in his “journalistic” work).

“I have no reason, nor any inclination, to hide my friendship with Eric, someone for whom I have great respect,” says Gunson.

Thank you, Phil. Our point, made a month ago, was that you should have disclosed what you today admit is a “friendship” with the spin-doctor for Dictator-for-a-Day Pedro Carmona during last April’s coup d’etat, when you quoted him in your published reports.

Gunson did not, however, answer our questions about why, when quoting Ekvall last April about the Venezuelan oil company, he did not disclose that Ekvall was an ousted consultant to that same company: A favor for a “friend”?

In any case, thanks to this (however tardy) disclosure, readers will be able to understand Gunson’s partisan reporting from Venezuela, from this day on, in the context of his now-disclosed “friendship” with political consultant Ekvall.


Gunson Comes only partly
clean about Eurídice Ledezma:

A central question in our open letter to Gunson last month regarded his use of Eurídice Ledezma – who Phil has told sources is his “ex-girlfriend” – as a source without disclosing that relationship. Ledezma was his sole source to blame the shootings of last April 11th in Caracas on supporters of President Hugo Chávez, a claim that time and facts have since proved to be untrue.

We also had questions about a glaring inconsistency between what Ledezma was quoted as saying by Gunson, and what she was quoted as saying to the Committee to Protect Journalists, last April. Gunson quoted her as saying she saw “plain-clothed” shooters. CPJ quoted her as saying she saw “military shooters.” We repeat our question: Which was it? Plain-clothed or military? How can it be both? And doesn’t this call into question the credibility of her statements?

In his letter to us, Gunson does not directly admit or deny the matter of Ledezma having been his girlfriend. (Again, we don’t care who zooms who: It only became a public matter when Gunson used her as his sole source for a questionable allegation with historic consequences.)

Instead, Gunson addresses his relationship with Ledezma only in the context of “people who are friends of mine,” comparing it to being invited to “a leading economist’s private Christmas party,” or to being “invited aboard a businessman’s private yacht,” or to situations in which a reporter and a source “occasionally have lunch together or a few drinks.”

Somehow, we think the reader can see through this evasion easily enough. We didn’t ask Gunson whether he had been on yachts or private Christmas parties or whether he had a few drinks with his source Ledezma. We – and we believe the reader – can distinguish between that kind of occasional informal relationship and the deeper involvement of long term love affairs. Gunson writes us so many words that dance around the edge of this point without once addressing it head-on. We think his evasion is evident to the reader. It is certainly evident to us.

Regarding the Ledezma matter, Gunson does accuse us of misquoting her. That is the only point in his letter where he at all factually refutes anything from our report. We will address that matter fully – and head-on – below.


Gunson Admits to Plagiarizing Pro-Coup
Spin Doctor Janet Kelly in MSNBC Article:

In our December open letter to Gunson, we pointed out that his “lede” (journo-speak for the opening paragraphs of a published report) contained a ditty comparing President Hugo Chávez to a children’s cartoon character falling off a cliff, and that partisan political analyst Janet Kelly had used the same description during those same days.

We asked Gunson if he plagiarized that reference without crediting the author (thus saddling Newsweek/MSNBC online, for whom he wrote that story, with a possible plagiarism problem).

Here, Gunson comes clean:

“The author of the simile is indeed Ms Kelly. It was a good one, and I stole it.”

Kind readers: Would you – or Newsweek/MSNBC Online – have known about this act of plagiarism by a journalist, if not for Narco News?

[bemildred]

20. The date, people, read the date. nt

[Aidoneus]

29. I see that Chavez has been granted Voltaire's prayer

"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one:
'O, Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it."

[bemildred]

30. Google can trip you up at times. nt

[htuttle]

31. It would appear that the Mighty Wurlitzer is a bit out of tune

[bicentennial_baby]

21. This article is TWO years old!

Give it up, 'cause you're no good at it! Jeebus!

[noiretextatique]

22. you're right!

on both counts :eyes: posting a 2-year old article...really quite pathetic.

[AP]

55. Clearly, it's all they got.

[Alenne]

23. A two year old article?

You keep this up and you might damage your credibility.

[noiretextatique]

24. LMAO

too funny :7

[Tinoire]

39. Sheesh! Please put a warning on that post!

I think I just lost a keyboard! Red wine spilled everywhere!

LMAO

[ParanoidPat]

45. ROFLMAOPIMP! Now that's FUNNY!

:evilgrin: :toast:

[Cat Atomic]

25. windansea, this is inexcusable.

Honestly- this is the sort of deceptive crap I'd expect from Fox News, not a poster on DU. This article is two years old, and was only part of the bullshit US-sponsored coup attempt when it was written. You're now offering it up as evidence of weak support for Chavez?

I was willing to listen to your argument up to this point, but no longer.

[Tinoire]

40. You have no idea how good your post just made me feel!

This is precisely why we thanked Windansea last week for the invaluable service he was rendering to the Left.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

26. WHAT THE IS THE MATTER WITH YOU KID?

At least have the decency to post recent propaganda. This is pathetic even for the bullshit you've peddling as of late. BTW, where's your other friend? You know the one that always comes in here, Castro blah, blah, blah, Chavez is done, commie blah, blah, blah. I miss him.

[windansea]

32. sorry kid

but the DU cadre of Chavez supporters keeps citing articles and events from 02...just thought I'd join in the fun

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

33. That's it? That's your reply? Now walk slowly into the light....keep going

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

35. It's not even the fact that it's old. Historical reference is one thing.

This happened a month before the coup. So it makes the whole thing irrelevant since he was returned to power by the people. It refutes the whole "unpopular" theory expressed here. Doesn't it?

[Vladimir]

36. Of course not

all truths are absolute. Context is irrelevant. In God we trust.

V

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

38. God bless 'Murika and no one else!

[Vladimir]

27. Did you not notice that the article was from 2002?

I know neoliberals disregard context, but this is pushing even that particular envelope...

V

[Name removed]

28. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Darranar]

41. A little out of date, don't you think? n/t

[windansea]

42. if you knew how many 2002 articles

Chavez supporters here have posted..you might get it

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

43. Why is it that whenever we catch you screwing up

you always manage to have an excuse? Is that part of the SOA training?

[AP]

56. An excuse...and no links.

When have Chavez supporters started a new thread with a two year old article?

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

57. Never, but let's not let the facts get on anybody's way....

[mitchtv]

62. thanks AP these posts are annoying

I think Lula's penis is responsible.

[Darranar]

44. Please provide a link...

to any thread by a Chavez supporter presenting an article from six months or more ago as a recent article.

[TruthIsAll]

49. But I thought windandsea was a democratic liberal who

was for Chavez and was only pointing out the extent to which the Bushistas would go to stage another coup attempt.

In fact, I was expecting him to say:

Sorry Bush, No Coup for You! No Deja Vu! So FU!

[not systems]

50. crickets chirping...

:spank:

windy ... windy ...

[not systems]

52. Hiding?

link?

[not systems]

47. Your very funny.

:shrug:

[FlemingsGhost]

48. Deflection and misdirection aside... you're busted, G.

"I was joking. Really!"

How old are you... twelve?

[ParanoidPat]

51. Got a link to that?

And NOT a two year old one! LOL! :evilgrin:

[Aidoneus]

53. If you're expecting a response, it'll be quite some time

[not systems]

54. Finally.

What a transparent full-time mouthpiece.

I thought he had got TS earlier when he tipped his hand.

[AP]

58. Fer real?

[Aidoneus]

61. check his profile

[AP]

63. How long before another one comes along?

I wonder were the windanseas are going to take their road show next? I wonder who will take his place?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

59. Just about everyone here is onto your game...give it up.

[w4rma]

60. This 2 year old article says Chavez should have been gone in 90 days (n/t)

[bvar22]

64. Ouch...2 yr old propaganda......gotta hurt.

cold & wet in the windy sea tonight.

[Moderator]

65. Locking

discussion veering too far off track