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<DIV class="facebook like last"><FONT size=5>In Defense of
Venezuela</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV class=times><SPAN class=posted>Posted: <TIME
datetime="2014-02-20T13:53:43-05:00">02/20/2014 1:53 pm EST </TIME></SPAN><SPAN
class=updated>Updated: <TIME datetime="2014-02-21T09:59:01-05:00">02/21/2014
9:59 am EST </TIME></SPAN></DIV><A class=print-article
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<P>The U.S. media, echoing the sentiments of the U.S. government, is openly
encouraging violent regime change in Venezuela. An emblematic story from
yesterday was aired in what is considered a "liberal" media source, National
Public Radio (NPR). In short, <A
href="http://www.npr.org/2014/02/19/279405643/in-venezuela-anti-government-demonstrations-build"
target=_hplink>this piece</A> featured claims of Venezuela at the precipice of
"economic collapse," and spoke in glowing terms of the opposition's hopes for a
"coup" to overthrow President Maduro. This type of reporting is not only
irresponsible, but it is deeply misinformed.</P>
<P>While the U.S. government and media have been portraying Venezuela as a
basket case ever since Hugo Chavez took office in 1999, this is far from the
truth. Indeed, if we look at the UN's Human Development Index, which measures
several key indicators of the health of a country's citizenry (e.g., life
expectancy, income, education, equality), we see that Venezuela has actually
experienced a steady growth in such human development indicators since Chavez
took office with a total Human Rights Index score of .662 in 2000, and rising to
.748 in 2012. See, Table 2 at p. 149 of the <A
href="http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/14/hdr2013_en_complete.pdf"
target=_hplink>UN Report</A>. Significantly, Venezuela had a huge relative
increase in this index during that time, jumping nine (9) rankings in the HDI
chart from 80 to number 71 in the world. </P>
<P>If we compare this to Venezuela's neighbor, and chief U.S. ally in this
hemisphere, Colombia, that country has been stuck at position 91 in the world
during that time same time period. Moreover, in terms of human rights, there is
no comparison between these two countries with Colombia, one the largest
recipients of U.S. military support in the world, having the dubious distinction
of leading the world in <A
href="http://www.justiceforcolombia.org/news/article/806/colombia-authorities-admit-to-50000-disappeared"
target=_hplink>forced disappearances at 50,000</A> and<A
href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22341119" target=_hplink>
internally displaced peoples at over 5 million</A>. </P>
<P>Moreover, it is the very poor and those of darker skin tone who have
benefited most from the improvements since the election of Hugo Chavez, and it
is they - by the way, the vast majority of the Venezuelan population -- who
support Chavez and his successor the most. Of course, the U.S. government and
its compliant media openly side with the white, wealthy elite - such as Kenyon
and Harvard trained right wing leader Leopoldo Lopez -- against Venezuela's poor
in their current cheer leading for the opposition. Again, the NPR story is
notable in this regard.</P>
<P>Without irony, the media fulminates about Venezuela's alleged lack of
democracy (again, ignoring Colombia's death squad violence against its own
population) to justify its open support of Venezuela's elite opposition.
However, as <A href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10369"
target=_hplink>Chilean writer Pedro Santander recently put it</A> so well: </P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>Regarding the supposed "democratic deficit of the Venezuelan
regime", the facts speak for themselves. Since 1998 there have been four
national plebiscites, four presidential elections, and eleven parliamentary,
regional, and municipal elections. Venezuela is the Latin American country
with the highest number of elections and it also has an automatic electoral
system (much more modern than Chile's one), described by Jimmy Carter, who has
observed 92 elections in all continents, as "the best system in the world".
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<P>As Santander further explains, the current violent demonstrations by the
opposition come on the heels of national municipal elections in which the
Chavistas won 242 mayoralties out of 317. Again, the reporting of such media
outlets as NPR is stunning in that, while acknowledging these recent election
results and the fact that the opposition has no electoral path to governing for
two years, it nonetheless purports to be supporting democratic values by
applauding the opposition's efforts to obtain governance through violent,
non-electoral means. However, this position is not surprising given the fact
that U.S. was quick to recognize (<A
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/apr/21/usa.venezuela"
target=_hplink>and indeed, helped to instigate</A>) the right wing coup
government which seized power in 2002, and which immediately abolished the
Venezuelan legislature and Supreme Court. Again, the U.S. government, never
really caring about democracy in Latin America, was nonplussed by such
anti-democratic maneuvers by its right-wing friends. </P>
<P>What's more, the media's current claims of "economic collapse" in Venezuela
are also quite exaggerated. Indeed, as <A
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/02/17/venezuela-under-attack-again/"
target=_hplink>Venezuelan-born sociologist María Páez Victor explains</A>, "The
Venezuelan economy is doing very well. Its oil exports last year amounted to $94
billons while the imports only reached $59.3 billons - a historically low
record. The national reserves are at $22 billons and the economy has a surplus
(not a deficit) of 2.9% of GDP. The country has no significantly onerous
national or foreign debts." But again, we do not hear such voices in our
allegedly free press.</P>
<P>And, while the U.S. government and media are trying to blame the Venezuelan
government for the current violence in that country, the well-respected Council
on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) <A
href="http://www.coha.org/venezuelan-government-shows-restraint-and-resolve-in-the-face-of-anti-chavista-mayhem/"
target=_hplink>concludes</A> the very opposite -- that indeed the Venezuelan
government has exercised great restraint in the face of the violent acts of the
opposition. </P>
<P>As <A href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/video/8695" target=_hplink>Noam
Chomsky opined</A>, Hugo Chavez led "the historic liberation of Latin America"
from the over 500 years of subjugation it had suffered since the time of the
Conquistadors. The U.S., for centuries viewing Latin America as its own "back
yard" which it presumes to have the right to dominate, opposes that process of
liberation, and would like to reverse it. It is getting quite willing help from
the U.S. media which has lost any sense of independence from its
government.</P></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>