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Posts Tagged ‘Hugo Chavez’

Venezuelan Synagogue Attack an Inside Job and a Sign of Wider Attacks on Latin Am. Left

7:23 am By Maegan La Mala · Latin America| Religion| Venezuela| israel · 5 Comments

6 Sep 2009

I’m often attacked and accused of being anti-Semitic, usually by one person, because I write about Palestine and draw connections among various occupied territories including Puerto Rico. Even when I wrote about the attack on a synagogue in Venezuela early this year, I was accused of not covering the story, or at least not in a way that some agreed with. Turns out that there was more to the story than met the eye. From NACLA:

In the early morning hours of January 31, vandals broke into Tiferet Israel, a Sephardic synagogue in Caracas. They strewed sacred scrolls on the floor and scribbled “Death to the Jews” and other anti-Semitic epithets on the walls, before making off with computer equipment and historical artifacts. Understandably, the incident frightened and upset many in the Venezuelan Jewish community. Right away, U.S. news outlets, including The New York Times and The Miami Herald, linked the incident to Venezuela’s increasingly strained relations with Israel, after the two countries suspended diplomatic relations two weeks earlier over Israel’s bombing of Gaza, then still under way.

A Herald editorial went so far as to describe an “official policy of anti-Semitism” in Venezuela and implied that Chávez’s foreign policy had unleashed a wave of anti-Semitic violence in the country, culminating in the assault on the synagogue.1 Some international NGOs were no more nuanced. Just hours after the break-in, the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was already implicitly comparing the Chávez government to the Nazis, calling the synagogue attack “a modern-day Kristallnacht.”2

But the Caracas police investigation bore out a different story. Authorities quickly realized that the synagogue’s security fence had been cut from the inside, prompting detectives to investigate the break-in as an inside job. Within the week it became clear that the attack had in fact been a robbery disguised as anti-Semitic vandalism, carried out by the synagogue’s privately contracted security team. Eleven men were arrested for their role in the plot, and their statements to the police indicated that the graffiti and desecration were intended to throw off investigators.3

Is Ecuador’s Correa Following in Hugo Chavez’s Footsteps?

7:56 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Ecuador| Media| Venezuela · 3 Comments

5 Aug 2009

_44477660_correa2march_ap According to the U.S. media, nearly every Latin American leader (unless in power because of a coup) wants to be Hugo Chavez. Just after Venezuela announced that it would be taking over 34 radio stations because they failed to “comply with regulations” , President Rafael Correa announced that Ecuador would nationalize “many” radio and television stations because “their concessions were granted illegitimately. “.

How many is many is still unknown but Correa is expected to release a list of the targeted stations next week.

Via / The Latin Americanist and WSJ

Venezuelans Lose More Media Outlets as Chavez Takes Over Radio Stations

4:29 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia| Latin America| Media| Venezuela| society · 3 Comments

3 Aug 2009

“Freedom of expression must be limited.”

That’s what Venezuela’s Attorney General Luisa Ortega said late last week when defending tough new legislation which would restrict what can be said on radio and television in Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela. No sooner had this statement been made did Venezuela announce the closing of some 34 radio stations:

More than a dozen of 34 radio stations ordered shut by the Venezuelan government went off the air on Saturday, part of President Hugo Chavez’s drive to extend his socialist revolution to the media.

The association of radio broadcasters said 13 stations had stopped transmitting, following an announcement Friday night by government broadcasting watchdog Conatel that 34 radio outlets would be closed because they failed to comply with regulations.

While I was shocked at the Chavez-ordered takeover of RCTV in 2007, I am not shocked by this massive squashing of freedom of speech and freedom of the press in these radio station closings. I’m just disgusted.

And so are lots of others. Protests have spontaneously broken out around Venezuela but I fear there is nothing to do now. How do you fight against this ideology?

We haven’t closed any radio stations, we’ve applied the law,” Chavez said on state television. “We’ve recovered a bunch of stations that were outside the law, that now belong to the people and not the bourgeoisie.”

Translation: “We’re closing down a bunch of stations that have criticized me because we can.”

A sad, sad time for Venezuela and I think it’s only going to get worse. One ray of light: activists are using Twitter to get the word out to the rest of the world on what’s going on in Venezuela. For updates, check out hashtag #FreeMediaVe on Twitter.com.

Via / Reuters

Hugo Chavez vs. Colombia : Round 1 million and 3

8:51 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Colombia| Politics| Venezuela · 1 Comment

29 Jul 2009

200972902854900150_5 President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela announced on Venezuelan TV that Venezuela is withdrawing its ambassador from neighboring Colombia, freezing relations including halting trade deals with Colombia.

The announcement came a day after the Colombia government said weapons bought by Venezuela from Sweden in the 1980s had ended up with Colombian guerrillas.

Mr Chavez denied this and accused Colombia of acting “irresponsibly”.

What’s the U.S. got to do with it? According to Chavez (and many others), plenty.
Read more…

Caracas Mayor Ends his Hunger Strike

10:09 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism| Latin America| Politics| Venezuela · Comments Off

9 Jul 2009

Yesterday we told you about how Caracas’ mayor, Antonio Ledezma, was holding out on the 6th day of a hunger strike in protest of the government of Hugo Chávez. Later in the day, Ledezma — very frail after having not eaten or drank anything in nearly a week — agreed to end his protest after the Secretary General of the Organization of American States said he would be willing to hear the allegations being made against Chávez.

Video showed crowds of people surrounding the mayor, who had a Venezuelan flag draped on his chest, as he was moved on a stretcher to an ambulance.

The secretary general of the OAS, Jose Miguel Insulza, called the mayor on Wednesday urging him to end the hunger strike, the Globovision network reported.

In an earlier conversation, Insulza told Ledezma he was willing to meet with a delegation of Venezuelan mayors and governors to hear their allegations against Chavez

I hate to be skeptical, but I don’t really believe much is going to come out of the OAS Secretary listening to complaints. Like it or not, Chávez has set it up so where he will stay in power no matter what neighbors and allies might think. Habrá Chávez para rato.

Via / CNN

Caracas Mayor Stops Eating in Protest of Hugo Chavez

9:42 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism| Justice| Latin America| Politics| Venezuela · 1 Comment

8 Jul 2009

Here’s something that doesn’t happen every day: the Mayor of Caracas is on hunger strike, in an attempt to convince the Organization of American States to investigate corruption and “power grabbing” allegations lodged against the government of President Hugo Chávez. Mayor Antonio Ledezma is locked inside the OAS offices and is refusing to eat until his demands are met.

The secretary general of the OAS, Jose Miguel Insulza, responded to the mayor in a phone conversation Tuesday, Ledezma adviser Milos Alcalay said in a news conference. Insulza agreed to meet with a group of mayors and governors of Venezuela who have made similar allegations against the Chavez government, Alcalay said.

“Respectfully, but categorically, [Ledezma] described a series of instances … of increasing harassment in a systematic manner by the central power against the metropolitan mayor,” Alcalay said.

The video above shows that along with Antonio Ledezma, others are also striking outside of the OAS offices. His wife, the first lady of Caracas, also describes the motivation behind the Mayor’s decision: according to her, the Chávez government has made it virtually impossible for him to work.

Via / CNN

Hugo Chavez Says “Drink Your Juice, Support Iran”

22 Jun 2009

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez continues his quest to drive the population towards consumption of local goods and, like a good marketer, he’s telling his people to set down their Coca Cola and pick up a new grape juice product called Juvita. On Chavez’s weekly TV show this past weekend, the message rang like a late-night informercial: Juvita means eternal youth, Coke means evil. From Reuters TV transcripts:

“It is a soft drink that is healthy, nutritious, here it is, its called Juvita. To maintain eternal youth, Juvita. Drink Juvita. Be young eternally instead of drinking that soft drink that, I don’t know, coca, I don’t know, cola, I don’t know what. Drink Juvita. Let’s taste it to see, to stay young eternally. You fathers and the mothers, encourage all parents to drink Juvita.” CHAVEZ BEGINS TO DRINK FROM BOTTLE OF JUVITA SOFT DRINK, SAYING: “Let’s see. Ah, eternal youth. Drink Juvita. How tasty. Did you all try?”

Getting Latin Americans to put down Coca-Cola is a mission impossible. Kind of like getting people in América Latina to give up corn-based products. Not gonna happen. Read more…

Hugo Chavez Hearts Obama

3 Jun 2009

After all that hate, then some awkward moments, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez appears to be warming up to Barack Obama…if you consider calling Obama more leftist than he and Fidel Castro showing love (and I do). Reuters reports:

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday that he and Cuban ally Fidel Castro risk being more conservative than U.S. President Barack Obama as Washington prepares to take control of General Motors Corp.

During one of Chavez’s customary lectures on the “curse” of capitalism and the bonanzas of socialism, the Venezuelan leader made reference to GM’s bankruptcy filing, which is expected to give the U.S. government a 60 percent stake in the 100-year-old former symbol of American might.

“Hey, Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors. Comrade Obama! Fidel, careful or we are going to end up to his right,” Chavez joked on a live television broadcast.

Chavez’s message is not lost on Republicans, who were quick to jump on Obama’s bones for the move. Check out the RNC’s video attacking Obama after the jump. Read more…

Vargas Llosa Detained in Venezuela

28 May 2009

Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa didn’t have such a good time today at Caracas International Airport, Maiquetia, upon arriving to Venezuela from Colombia. Accompanied by his wife for a conference, Vargas Llosa says he was detained for an hour and a half by police who allegedly held him because a “as a foreigner he didn’t have the right to make political statements” in Venezuela. Spain’s Estrella Digital reports:

“They said that very politely and I responded that being in the land of (…) they shouldn’t try to hinder free thinking,” said Vargas Llosa, in the middle of a press mob that surrounded him upon leaving the airport. Álvaro Vargas Llosa, son of the writer, was also arrested for several hour by airport authorities on Monday, when he arrived in Venezuela to participate in the same conference, along with intellectuals from various countries.

Vargas Llosa’s statements to press can be seen in the video above (in Spanish). Estrella Digital also reports that conference organizers said that police would accompany he and his wife to their hotel “so he wouldn’t make statements to press” and that he had already been warned about making political statements.

What’s unclear to me is what political statement he could have made getting off of a plane? It seems like if you were going to do something messed up like detain someone for speaking their mind, you’d do it after they had already done so, not before. Apparently Bolivian ex-president Jorge Quiroga also got the same warning, but wasn’t detained. But actually is already making statements, particularly saying that Evo Morales is merely a pawn of Hugo Chavez.

Via / Estrella Digital

Does Venezuela Want to Ban the Internet?

6:56 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Internet| Venezuela · Comments Off

26 May 2009

chavez-conf-bests-04 So is access to the internet a right or a luxury? Decree No. 6649 coming out of Venezuela seems to side with it as luxury.

The decree seeks to eliminate “luxuries” or “superfluous expenses” among the public expenditure, among which includes the Internet.

This seems to go against an earlier decree No. 825 from 2000 that said that internet access and use were a priority.

A campaign, Internet Prioritaria, has launched in response to the latest decree, with a goal of keeping the internet as a government priority.

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