<nettime> Personal stake in Venezuela

[Ricardo Bello <aracal@well.com>]

Yes, I have a personal stake on Venezuela, I live here, my four children
live here, my grandson live here, my parents, friends and love. Yes, I
have a very personal stake in this. And everybody in this country is more
poor now, except Chavistas, especially the military. Chavez is a populist,
has a tremendous sucess addresing the poor of this country, but he doesn't
kno how to aliviate their misery, except telling them that it's true, that
they suffer from poverty.

I have personally confronted at several times the right in this country,
at the cost of my own safety and yes, what began as a national movement
against Chavez was seized and kidnapped by the right. I rather have Chavez
for the moment than the authocrat who grab government that Friday. But I
do not agree with them, and I do not agree with Chavez either. It's wrong
to see Chavez opposition as orchestrated and financed exclusively by the
strongest business lobby in Venezuela or by the CIA. And it's also wrong
to see Chavez government directed by Castro or Cuban Communist Party
officials. The truths lies somewhere in between. Another analysis of media
coverage, not by an scholar, just another eye-witness perspective, my own:

On Friday 12th when the CIA or government's snipers were killing the
opposition, Chavez gave a national address impeding live news broadcast.
But soon, CNN began telling the truth and the outrage (on the killing and
the President's information policy) was so great that the generals had to
grab Chavez, sent him prisoners to a Navy Base and install a new
government.

On Saturday 13th Chavez's followers, demanding the return of their
President began to loot, destroy and burn several cities, creating such
havoc that the same general had to bring Chavez back and put back in
power. That day, all TV stations, sympathetic or belonging to the new
government, made the same Chavez's error. Instead of news, Telletubbies
were broadcast. The TV stations were severely attacked in protest.
Venezuelans knew that the new government had fallen when soldiers loyal to
Chavez attacked and controlled two TV stations and began transmiting real
information on the day events. Media and information policy was a decisive
issue in the fall and return of Coronel Chavez.



#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net