Venezuelan National Guard's brilliant rescue operation of baseball player Wilson Ramos

[Peace Patriot]

The operation was personally authorized by President Hugo Chavez, and involved both excellent intelligence work and swift and brave action by the Venezuelan national guard in a dangerous situation, when the kidnappers began shooting at the national guard troops who had been helicoptered in to a remote jungle location to rescue Ramos.

The most unjustly reviled good leftist government on the planet forced the Corporate News to stand on their heads in an effort to somehow spin this as "bad."

For instance, check out this headline:

"Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez praises police in violent rescue of baseball player Ramos" (my emphasis)
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/international/americas/view/20111112venezuelas_hugo_chavez_praises_police_in_violent_rescue_of_baseball_player_ramos/srvc=home&position=recent

Intended impression of this headline: Hugo praises violence! If it's U.S. drone bombing civilians in Libya, Afghanistan, Colombia, Yemen or God knows where else, and President Obama cheers them on, do they headline it: "America's Obama praises violent mistaken murder by U.S. forces"? No, they do not. But let a LEFTIST president, especially Hugo Chavez, praise Venezuelan police for a LEGITIMATE use of force to rescue a kidnap victim, and "violence" gets into the headline and wreaks havoc with the truth.

Jerks.

But there are subtler ways to spin this example of good, competent government into a negative. Check out this BBCons story. Here's the final paragraph:

"The rising rate of violent crime has become a major source of public concern in Venezuela in recent years, with many accusing President Chavez's government of not doing enough to combat the problem." --BBCons

See, the "many" accusing President Chavez's government have been unable to topple that government--by a U.S.-backed violent coup, by an oil bosses' lockout (trying to destroy the Venezuelan economy), by a USAID-funded recall election, nor by use of any of the multi-millions in U.S. taxpayer money for rightwing groups, causes and candidates in Venezuela, nor with the help of CIA dirty ops, corporate media and all the rest--because MOST Venezuelans keep voting for Chavez, approve of his government and understand that all countries have difficult problems and not all problems can be easily solved, so that, when the rightwing whines about the crime rate or anything else, MOST Venezuelans know that the rightwingers and their CIA coaches really don't give a fuck about it, they just want back in power to loot Venezuelans all over again.

The word to the downsized, corporatized BBCons was to push whatever the rightwing and the CIA/USAID decide are today's anti-Chavez "talking points." Hard to say what this pervasive, relentless anti-Chavez campaign in the Corporate Media is aimed at, ultimately--war? keeping us all ignorant of the benefits of leftist government (universal free medical care, universal free education through college, etc.)? More "free trade for the rich" in Latin America? But there it is, in nearly every Corporate News report on Venezuela: the strangely incoherent, contradictory CIA/rightwing "talking points": one moment Chavez is a "dictator" and the next, he can't stop crime. Gee, you'd think he would love stopping crime--with all its jackbooted, militaristic fun! ...if he's a "dictator."

Here are some more such articles. Play the game: Spot the CIA "talking point"!

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/12/us-baseball-ramos-kidnapping-idUSTRE7AA4M020111112
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/11/venezuelan-baseball-player-found-alive.html
http://abcnews.go.com/International/missing-baseball-player-wilson-ramos-found-alive/story?id=14930280#.Tr9jeGDN5dg
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-12/washington-nationals-catcher-ramos-rescued-after-kidnapping-in-venezuela.html

---

This CNN article deserves high praise for pushing no such spin, just telling the straight story. They outclass the BBCons!

Venezuelans used intelligence operation to find missing catcher
By Mariano Castillo, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/12/world/americas/venezuela-mlb-player-kidnapped

And here's another fairly decent article:
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=443157&CategoryId=13002

---

Beware of the BBCons on Latin America! They are as bad as the Wall Street Urinal and the Miami Hairball on this subject.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Thanks for taking the time to highlight this perversion. I was shocked by their spinning, too.

What a woild. It's a big deal when a hit team goes to assassinate powerful leaders without benefit of a trial, but the really bad stuff happens when a powerful leader asks his country's specialists to go rescue man from some Colombian criminals who might otherwise murder him with no compunctions.

My, my, my.

Thank you, Peace Patriot.

[bemildred]

2. Seized sportsman survives Venezuelan shoot-out

---

El Aissami said investigators' first break in the case came when they found the kidnappers' stolen 4WD abandoned in the town of Bejuma alongside the mountains of central Carabobo state. They studied past crimes in the area and ended up checking a rural house that authorities believed had been used in a previous kidnapping.

A 4WD parked outside had mud on it even though there was no mud in the area, El Aissami said.

Investigators suspected that the vehicle was being used to shuttle food to another spot nearby, and eventually determined the house was probably being used by the kidnappers as a support base while holding Ramos elsewhere, he said.

President Hugo Chavez personally authorised an aerial search, and teams also set out on foot in the mountainous area, El Aissami said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10765778

[naaman fletcher]

3. It's a good thing for Ramos that he was famous

Or else Chavez would have done nothing. Since when did progressives cheer special perks for the 1%?

[Peace Patriot]

4. Right. The Chavez government does something great and you find fault.

Typical.

You think that breaking up a gang of Colombian/Venezuelan kidnappers is nothing? Who else might they have harmed? Who else did they intend to harm? What other crimes were they contemplating? And what bigger criminal organization were they connected to, or planning to create? All of their potential for harm has been stopped! Or would you have preferred them to continue to operate, to get more anti-Chavez headlines?

Why can't you just say, "Job well done! Now they should apply those improved police forces and strategies to bring down the overall kidnapping rate." ?? No, you have to snipe.

There is value in setting an EXAMPLE. This puts other kidnappers on notice that Venezuela's police forces have been greatly improved, have good intelligence and are becoming capable of busting these criminals. But no, you have to put the worst construction on it. Why? Hm?

Busting a high-profile kidnapping like this is also extremely valuable for MORALE. Bad morale is endemic in Venezuela's police forces at the level that is not in the Chavez's government's control--the local state level, that is, as often as not, controlled by rightwing governors. And this is true throughout Latin America and has been for a couple of centuries. Morale is a huge problem. Imagine the pride and motivation that this has infused into Venezuela's police forces! They now have a great "can do" example--to help overcome corruption and to improve professionalism. The Chavez government is very active, in fact, at the level that they control--the national level. For instance, they have created a national police academy to promote professionalism in the police forces. This success can only help! Human beings can only be human beings, you know. They need inspiration--in this case to overcome centuries of poor policing.

You furthermore imply motives to Chavez that you cannot know--that he and his government don't care about crime. And you have no approval for--and NEVER MENTION--the vast accomplishments of this government, against very great odds, including the active hostility of the U.S. government and its Corporate/War Profiteer rulers. Venezuela was recently designated "THE most equitable country in Latin America" on income distribution, by the UN Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean. Venezuelans have seen vast improvements in access to health care and education, in civic participation, in fair taxation, in wages/benefits and other quality of life indicators, and, indeed, have rated their own country one of the highest in the world, on their own welfare and prospects for the future. These are enormous achievements--and that the Chavez government hasn't solved every problem in the country is understandable to any reasonable person. You are the utopian--expecting leftist government to solve everything instantly--meanwhile carping away--like the rightwing in Venezuela, like the CIA, and like the Corporate Press--at any flaw or failure that you can find.

It's certainly appropriate to criticize any politician or government. They all deserve to be scrutinized. But your posts and comments are uniformly negative on the Chavez government--a government that Venezuelans approve of and have voted for, time and again. THEY certainly know what the problems in their country are. And they have made a choice that the Chavez government--strongly inclined toward socialism and social justice--and despite any of its flaws or failures or slowness to change something (for instance, (incompetence/corruption in the police forces) is the best for their country. Like the rightwing in Venezuela and their U.S./Corporate allies and backers, and the rightwing throughout Latin America, until YOU offer an alternative that is not Corporate Looting and the "rich getting richer" at the expense of the poor, Latin American voters will continue to make the sensible choice of LEFTIST government.

Carp away! Impute bad motives, as you will! Push outright lies--that the Chavez government doesn't care about crime, and only rescued Ramos because he's rich! Pile on the B.S.! As long as Latin Americans have clean elections--which they have worked so hard to achieve--they will continue, by and large, to choose LEFTIST government, because that is the kind of government that tries to solve problems for the benefit of THE MANY. Government is never perfect! Some problems are difficult to solve and some are impossible to solve. Such is life! Such is democracy! Show me a rightwing/Corporate solution that is better! Ha! Show me a rightwing/Corporate-run government that gives a damn about anybody but their rich cronies!

If Chavez were to become a jackbooted fascist, and start taking away gun-loving Venezuelans' guns, and kicking in doors and violating civil and human rights to "bust crime" and injecting prisoners with lethal "cocktails" to murder them, even those whose criminal cases fall apart, and packing privatized prisons with minor offenders, and brutalizing protestors whose only offense is to object to poverty and Corporate Rule, would that satisfy you? Chavez the Reaganite "law and order" bullshitter!

No, it wouldn't satisfy you! You would then descry those actions and call him (ahem) a "dictator"--although you probably wouldn't say that about Reagan or Bush, or the assholes running the state of Georgia, or those beating up protestors in numerous states here. In my opinion, what you REALLY don't like about Chavez is the vastly improved income distribution, the use of a country's resource, such as oil, for the benefit of the people who live there and the New Deal-like curtailment of the unfair power of the rich. And so I challenge you to deny this and to make a fair list of the reasons why Venezuelans have voted for this socialist government, time and again. Why, say, haven't Venezuelans voted them out because of the crime rate? What positive things has the Chavez government done that OUTWEIGH that and other rightwing "talking points"?

I'm asking you to look at the Chavez government in a fair and reasonable way--and not just sniping at it. What you are risking if you don't do this, is dismissal of your views as way too prejudiced, not to mention shallow and kneejerky. Give it a shot. Try to be fair.

[naaman fletcher]

6. It is a job well done,

I am simply consistent both in the US and in Central America in remarking that the 1% are treated as superior to the rest of us.

[Peace Patriot]

7. And that's ALL you have to say about the Chavez government,

that, in a baseball-crazy society, they rescued a successful baseball player, and 99% of Venezuelans are not successful baseball players? It's a criticism, maybe justified, maybe not. But all the rest of the time, you are on the side of the 1% and post only negative news about the Chavez government, which has done more than any government in Latin America, and likely more than any government in the world, to empower and benefit the 99%.

You pick on this one thing--and ignore all the rest. That, to me, is profound prejudice and it inclines me to dismiss you entirely as a reasonable and well-informed DU blogger. I see your name and I think: Here comes more rightwing/corporate distortion.

Did you know that the Chavez government has been responsible for building and equipping baseball fields for poor kids in communities all over Venezuela? It is a particular passion of Chavez's, because, as he has explained, when he was a kid they were too poor to afford baseball bats and balls and had to play baseball with sticks and rocks. Have you ever bothered to find this out? Chavez and his government have not just benefited one successful baseball player, by rescuing him from a kidnapping--they have thought of, and done something for, ALL the poor kids in Venezuela who love baseball.

They have also, by the way, provided funding for the Venezuelan children's orchestra--that astonishing institution, praised all over the world, as the savior of classical music, which is putting orchestral instruments into the hands of tens of thousands of poor and disadvantaged kids, and giving them the best possible classical music education. Children's orchestras and community orchestras have sprung up all over Venezuela, as a result--and the idea has caught fire in other countries (including this one) that street children, given the chance, can play Beethoven--can play it better than anybody!

What better use for the oil money, eh? Better than stuffing the pockets of Exxon Mobil execs, no?

You never acknowledge things like this--big transformations of the lives of Venezuelans due to the responsiveness of the Chavez government, and to its true representation of the interests of the 99%.

You just want to tear it down. Even when they do something that any reasonable person would see as positive--like rescue this baseball player--you see it as an opportunity to snipe. 'Hey, Chavez is an elitist,' you are saying, 'We ought to "Occupy Venezuela" because he saved a rich baseball player.' !!!

What a ludicrous comment!

I ask you again to acknowledge the vastly improved educational opportunities for Venezuela's poor majority, the vastly improved income distribution, and now I'm adding all the equipped baseball fields in communities all over Venezuela, and the tens of thousands of poor children who have been given classical musical instruments and are now playing in classical music orchestras in their schools and communities, in their new concert hall in Caracas and all over the world, to the highest praise.

These are among the reasons why Venezuelans vote for Chavez and his government. News of these and other achievements of the Chavez government has been ENTIRELY ABSENT from our press.

During the last elections in Venezuela, all that the Corporate Press talked about--the ONLY thing they reported--was three rightwing/USAID-tutored "talking points": blackouts, inflation and crime. They said NOTHING about equitable income (THE best in Latin America), nor about the Chavez government's solutions to the drought-aggravated hydroelectric power crisis nor about the creation of the national police academy--and of course absolutely nothing about improved educational opportunities and health care availability. They were trying to Kissingerize Venezuela--induce social mayhem, as Kissinger promoted in Chile in the 1970s--and, in addition, in my opinion, they were trying to HIDE the improvements in Venezuela from US, so that we wouldn't get any socialist ideas here.

You seem to just echo these rightwing/Corporate "talking points." That's what you post. That's what your comments say. It is unfair and distorted, and I'm asking you to correct this.

I have acknowledged that Venezuela has problems that the Chavez government has not solved (duh!), and, unless you will acknowledge the reasons for the popularity of this government--in a country with a provably clean and transparent election system--then I and others will be justified in dismissing you as unreasonable and unthinking.

[ChangoLoa]

8. You should start by restraining yourself from insulting other posters

A 2 years lasting drought (do you seriously expect anyone to believe that? The electric crisis is still on).
Colombian paramilitary kidnapping a Venezuelan baseball player in order to destabilize Chavez.
Trying to convince me - a Venezuelan working for the State as a teacher - that Venezuelans have universal free healthcare when there isn't even bandages and medicine in public hospitals. People have to bring those items most of the time, here in Caracas.
Telling everyone here that Venezuela is one of the best functioning democracies in the world when there's a black list of 4 million people who can't be hired in the public administration because they went against Chavez in the referendum. Tens of thousands were fired because they democratically expressed themselves against your hero in an official electoral act organized by the State. You even approved the Lista Tascon! Pure hypocrisy.

You're simply a fanatic. Not even Venezuelan, not ever been to the country, not even able to read the local press - chavista or non chavista.

If you were a constructive leftist and not a worshiper, you would at least try to express some constructive criticism. You should really try it. Instead of "asking people to correct". Que agallas tienes!

[Judi Lynn]

10. Go tell it to Latinobarometro:

More fun facts from the 2006 Latinobarometro survey

· No matter what Condoleezza Rice says, Venezuelans are far more likely than most other nationalities in the region to say that their country is "totally democratic." On a scale of one to ten, Venezuelans rate their country a solid seven. US allies in the region fare far worse by their own electorate: Colombians give their country a 5.9, and Salvadorans rate a pitiful 4.8 on the democracy meter.

· Venezuelans tie for first place when asked whether democracy is the best form of government. Along with Uruguayans, a full 89% of the country support democracy. Only 60% of Salvadorans, and 54% of Paraguayans share their enthusiasm.

· Support for democracy has dramatically increased during the Chavez administration. Back in ’96 and ’97 only thirty-five percent (!) of Venezuelans were satisfied with their democracy. Today, that number is in the high-fifties
—the second highest in Latin America (yes, Uruguay again).

* Note, the assosiated charts are mine. If you want to look at the raw numbers, here's the Latinobarometro report.

http://www.borev.net/2006/12/more_fun_facts_from_the_latino.html

If you want to waste your time taking a shot at Borev, just refer, instead to the poll results themselves we DU'ers have all seen for ourselves many times.

[ChangoLoa]

11. Did you actually take a poll from 2006

I know you're debate-blind, Judi, but still... supporting Lista Tascon for a progressive, you should be ashamed. Loosing your job because of your political opinion... defend it all you want, you know you're wrong and arbitrary. I won't argue here with you.


BTW....wasn't the last latinobarometro saying that Chavez was the least liked leader in LA?
After Castro maybe?

So you really really trust that survey, right?

[Judi Lynn]

12. There are many of us feeble, semi-literate buffoons who perceive broad public support

manifested in election wins as a fair indicator a leader is on the right track.

Thank you for your unfailing maturity and civilized tone. As always, let a smile be your umbrella.

[ChangoLoa]

13. ^.^

you think elections are the unique and ultimate expression of a leader being on the right track. That's all about it. Unless the leader is not on your exact political side. In that case, he must be cheating or intimidating poor farmers.

And you shouldn't let a smile be your umbrella.

[joshcryer]

14. Nice.

But you should know sources are only good when they support ones biases, if they don't, then the source either went south or isn't credible or maybe just part of the source isn't credible.

[Peace Patriot]

16. No, I don't have money to go flying around the western hemisphere,

nor can I even fly to visit my sick relatives in this country, nor do I get the benefit of CIA language school or any language school (I'm sadly lacking in languages, though I do have Google--gist of the article translations--and a number of English language alternative information sources, thank God), nor do I get USAID grants to go to seminars to learn the latest rightwing/Corporate "talking points" and get "training" in how to protest a social justice government. I have to figure things out for myself amidst the nauseous Corporate Press spin, and do what I can with my meager resources, to understand and to protest U.S. foreign policy when it is wrong, as it is in the case of Venezuela.

You claim to be a Venezuelan. I claim to be a U.S. 99%-er who sees BILLIONS of our tax dollars WASTED on rightwing groups and causes in Latin America, much of it concentrated on Venezuela as the pioneer of the leftist movement that has swept the region. I GET TO HAVE AN OPINION OF THIS. You would shut me up because I'm not Venezuelan or because I don't read Spanish very well. Yet your rightwing brethren and sistren in Venezuela gladly accept and avidly seek my tax dollars and those of other U.S. 99%-ers to bring down one of the few fair-minded governments in the world. Meanwhile, our schools and libraries and all public services are going bankrupt, and the rightwing/Corporate assholes here want to raid Social Security and Medicare to pay for their bankster bailouts and corporate resource wars and tax cuts for the rich--and, indeed, to pay for propaganda and dirty ops and even war against a country with one of the THE most equitable income distributions in the world! We have the worst income distribution. Venezuela has one of the best, possibly THE best. And the U.S. government is using MY tax dollars and those of others to bring down the government that accomplished this in Venezuela!

This is disgusting to me and, by God, I WILL say so.

As for "fanatic," my dear, countering Corporate Spin does not make me a fanatic. Seeking out the facts about Venezuela that the Corporate Press NEVER publishes does not make me a fanatic. Noticing the total, 100% negative portrayal of the Chavez government, by you, by other anti-Chavez posters here, by U.S. officialdom and by the Corporate Press--a government--Venezuela's--that has been elected and re-elected, by wide margins, in an election system that is far, FAR more transparent than our own, and that has provably, palpably improved the lives of most Venezuelans, does not make me a fanatic. It makes me a seeker of the truth and promoter of the truth.

So you show me WHERE in the Corporate Press there has been ANY mention of the recent report of the UN Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean rating Venezuela the BEST country in Latin America on income distribution. Show me a SINGLE article in the Corporate Press that acknowledges that huge accomplishment or any other. The U.S. government and the Corporate Press are AT WAR with Venezuela. They want to bring its government DOWN. They hate it! That is reason enough to look twice and thrice at Venezuela to find out WHY. I now know why the perpetrators of the Iraq War, the drone-bombers of civilians all over the world, the government with the most monstrous military budget in history, the torturers of prisoners, the looters of our public coffers, the purveyors of corporate-run 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines, the spyers and the liars, and their Corporate Echo Chamber, and their billionaire cronies, hate the Chavez government, and seek to bring it down, and even enlist Venezuelans to bring it down. And I want others to know what I know. This is not "fanaticism." It is BALANCE.

They try to make Chavez into a monster. They are the monsters--the looters and liars and warmongers who control our government and the disreputable corporate press that does their "Big Lie" work for them. Chavez is neither a saint nor a monster, nor is his government all good or all bad. It has been visionary and it has led the region in a remarkable and historic turn toward social justice and south-south cooperation. They deserve credit for this. They are not perfect. They seek equity and fairness; they have not achieved utopia. So what? A government that TRIES to be equitable and fair--that holds those out as goals, and achieves some of their goals in this Bushwhacked world--deserves credit. They get none--NONE!--from you, the U.S. power players or the Corporate slime rags. That is UN-balanced--extremely unbalanced. I seek to correct it, in my small way. That is NOT "fanaticism."

And, interestingly, most Venezuelans agree--and have voted for the Chavez government, time and again--much like FDR got voted in, time and again, because most people recognize a "New Deal" when they see one. Are you saying that most Venezuelans are "fanatics"? They see the good and the bad at close range and have continually endorsed the Chavez government, despite this relentless and ugly campaign against Chavez in the Corporate Press and the filthiest of machinations by the U.S. power elite. Where is the "fanaticism" in voting for the best candidate and the best government?

Indeed, that was one of my first questions about Venezuela, long ago, when the Chavez government was suffering a U.S.-backed coup d'etat. Do the people support the government and do they have honest, transparent elections? And also--after I did my own researches and satisfied myself on both of those questions: WHY do they support the Chavez government, and why have they done so, time and again? Are its goals the goals of the people who elected them? Is it more representative than previous governments? Do they have good ideas and programs? What are its successes (why people view them favorably)? What are the levels of voter turnout and public participation? Etc. Etc.

It is very important to me--it is PIVOTAL--that the people approve of the government and vote in an honest, transparent system (unlike our own) that the rich and the corporate cannot manipulate. And when a government such as Chavez's punches Exxon Mobil in the nose, on behalf of the people of Venezuela, I can only cheer. I wish WE had such a government! I see what is happening with these monster corporations that run OUR government, and I admire any government, and any people, who stand up to them and insist upon fairness and justice--especially in Latin America, which has been so monstrously looted and abused by our 1%.

I've paid attention to details in Venezuela (such as the voting system) and to the Big Picture: what the Chavez government means to the region and to U.S. Corporate/War profiteer policy makers. In both of these contexts--the local and the regional--the Chavez government comes out mostly positive, in my view. I've also noticed the strong alliances that Chavez has forged--with allies and friends like Lula da Silva and Evo Morales and Nestor and Cristina Kirchner. I see what they've been trying to do--create region-wide, collective economic and political strength, to throw off the U.S. and other "first world" exploiters. And I hugely approve of this. I approve of Latin American independence! I DISAPPROVE of U.S. military presence in Latin America, the corrupt, murderous, failed U.S. "war on drugs," and U.S. "free trade for the rich." And, by God, I have a right to say so--because they are bleeding me and the majority in this country to pay for these atrocious policies.

The Chavez government, and the people who elected it, are part of the movement toward independence--indeed, were the pioneers in this movement. Venezuelans' peaceful resistance to the U.S. coup d'etat attempt in 2002 was perhaps the founding moment of this historic change for the better. And they may stumble and fall, over this issue or that issue, or this program or that program, but they--the Chavez government and the people of Venezuela--have been courageously trying to establish a different and better social model than the one that dominates the world now: the rich get richer and the poor majority can jump off a cliff!

It's no surprise that they fail on occasion or haven't solved every problem. What is "fanatical" is relentlessly asserting that it's "all bad." And why should I stress Chavez government failures when you are so good at it--you and the CIA and their Corporate Media lackeys. You have the whole stage, as it were. You have the Wall Street Urinal and the New York Slimes and the Miami Hairball and all the rest relentlessly campaigning against and demonizing Chavez (and utterly ignoring the people who support him and his government). THAT is "fanatical"--indeed, it is hysterical (the hysteria and panic of the rich few) if not downright insane. Woe to the society that lets this happen--the frenzied, shark-like profiteering of the rich and their panic at even the mention of fairness. Quite insane things happen in this circumstance, such as Mayor Bloomberg in New York throwing 5,000 books in the "Occupy Wall Street"'s library into New York landfills! That is the kind of "fanaticism" that sees only bad in the Chavez government.

[ChangoLoa]

18. Venezuela the most equal country in the world???! Are you out of your mind?

And you tell me you read a lot about our country...
You have such fantasies!

You're constantly providing fake information to readers, Peace Patriot. I've posted lots of links here about the levels of poverty, school enrollment, alphabetization, the gini index on income and salary inequality, etc. that we have in Venezuela nowadays and their evolution during the recent decades. Those links sent you to sites such as the UNDP, the FAO, the Venezuelan Central Bank, the Ministry of Finance, etc. and referred about many of the things you're only guessing about. Yet you refused to go and have a look for yourself because, as you said, they came from me. It is quite laughable and absurd since the information was always official and most of the time published by the Venezuelan State itself!

You see, I work everyday on those fields, I'm a convinced leftist (even if I'm not a marxist anymore) and I've always militated for principles I consider to be crucial. I won't stop now because some pseudo-providential army-man claims to be the new Bolivar on the face of the earth. I completely acknowledge the progress that has been made under this government but I also criticize what I find to be negative.

Just think about this: what would be the interest to be in a "progressive" forum such as this one and only applaud leftist governments and condemn the right-wing? Useless attitude! We're not building any kind of influence on the general public opinion here. Within the marginality of DU, this LA forum is even more marginal. So what's the point? Are you really still amazed when you disagree with right-wing policies? In a leftist milieu, I prefer 10 times to be critical toward leftist governments because improvement emerges from criticism.

That's why worshipers are like cancers. They merely destroy alternatives and play the sad role of inquisitors.

And, last but not least, sorry to disappoint you Peace Patriot, but even if I'm a poor latino, I don't need your damned CIA to give me money or send me to a language school (as you're insinuating) if I want to learn a little English. Quite an ugly and racist accusation you made there, by the way.

[naaman fletcher]

9. huh?

"You pick on this one thing--and ignore all the rest."

No, the article was about this one thing so I commented on this one thing.

[Peace Patriot]

15. You SNIPED "on this one thing"--and NEVER acknowledge the achievements of

the Chavez government for the 99%.

That was my point--and you didn't answer it.

Indeed, you used the "Occupy" movement for social justice, here, to dis one of the few governments in the world that has social justice as its hallmark--"THE most equitable country in Latin America," according to the UN Economic Commission, with its citizens ranking it one of the highest in the world on their own welfare and prospects for the future.

Nasty little bit of Ayn Randian 'logic' there--the "Alice in Wonderland" 'logic' of the 99%. The Chavez government--which is SO social justice-minded that the U.S. Corporate State would do anything, including a war, to get rid of it--rescues a famous and successful baseball player from kidnapping, and EVEN THAT is occasion for negative spin.

Don't act all innocent about this. You meant to snipe. I then asked you to make a fair assessment of how the Chavez government helping this 1%-er (rich baseball player) stacks up against the Chavez government helping the 99%, because life for the 99% has clearly, demonstrably, never been better in Venezuela (70% reduction in extreme poverty, 50% reduction in poverty overall, high employment, good wages, increased college enrollment, high voter turnouts, greatly improved civic participation, oil profits used for education and health care, loans to small business and co-ops and more, and continued endorsement of the Chavez government in provably open and transparent elections.)

It is unreasonable to state only negative things about the Chavez government. But that is what we get from the Corporate Press and that is what we get from you. I asked you to try to be fair. You are avoiding my request.

[naaman fletcher]

17. On Chavez:

I think he was a good president for the first four or five years and did wonderous things for the 99%. I think it's the nature of all leaders that they are generally only good for a few years when they are fresh and new, and that there should be turnover. I think that since then, he has not been good for venezuela and that the successes that he has had all stem from his first few years.

[roody]

5. k --missed the chance to r