Latin America
Related: About this forumViolent Protests in Venezuela Fit a Pattern
By Dan Beeton
Source: Center for Economic & Policy Research
February 20, 2014
Following Maduros electoral victory in April last year (with much of the opposition crying fraud despite there being no reasonable doubts about the validity of the results), the opposition looked to the December municipal elections as a referendum on Maduros government, vowing to defeat governing party PSUV and allied candidates. The outcome, which left the pro-Maduro parties with a 10 point margin of victory, was a stunning defeat for the opposition, and this time they did not even bother claiming the elections were rigged. According to the oppositions own pre-election analysis, support for Maduro had apparently grown over the months preceding the election. As we have pointed out, this may be due in part to the large reduction in poverty in 2012 and other economic and social gains that preceded the more recent economic problems.
Defeated at the polls, the anti-democratic faction of the opposition prepared for a new attempt at destabilizing the elected government, and promoted relatively small, but often violent student protests in early February. They then called for a massive protest on February 12, Venezuelas Youth Day in the center of Caracas. The demonstrations have been accompanied by a social media campaign that has spread misinformation in an attempt to depict the Maduro administration as a violent dictatorship instead of a popular elected government. Images of police violence from other countries and past protests some several years old have been presented on social media as having occurred in recent days in Venezuela. A YouTube video that has been watched by almost 2 million viewers presents a one-sided portrayal of the situation and falsely states that the Venezuelan government controls all radio and television in the country, among other distortions. Similar disinformation occurred in April 2002 and in other past incidents in Venezuela, most notably when manipulated video footage was used to provide political justification for the coup detat.
While some in Washington foreign policy circles may attempt to portray the leaders of this new wave of protests as persecuted pro-democracy heroes, they in fact have histories of supporting anti-democratic and unconstitutional efforts to oust the government. Both Leopoldo López and Maria Corina Machado supported the 2002 coup; in Lópezs case he participated in it by supervising the arrest of then-Minister of Justice and the Interior Ramón Rodríguez Chacín, when López was mayor of Chacao. Police dragged Rodríguez Chacín out of the building where he had sought refuge into an angry mob, who physically attacked him. Corina Machado notably was present when the coup government of Pedro Carmona was sworn in, and signed the infamous Carmona decree dissolving the congress, the constitution and the Supreme Court. The Christian Science Monitor reported yesterday:
Full article: http://zcomm.org/znetarticle/violent-protests-in-venezuela-fit-a-pattern/
fasttense
(17,301 posts)DU seems to be getting hit by the corporate propaganda ministers and most of what I've seen here is how poor poor Lopez just can't catch a break.
The truth is he is a Harvard educated pampered member of the 1% and is well funded by our tax dollars (Obama has a line item on his budget to fund Venezuela opposition parties). US plutocrats are also funding Lopez.
I hope Venezuela doesn't turn into another Pinochet Chile.
polly7
(20,582 posts)Venezuela will be ok! The people who've worked so hard to bring about the changes that have let so many see hope for the first time, aren't going to be put down or out by a bunch of right-winger freaks. Chavez made sure to include them in decision-making from the beginning. Those pampered elite bent on turning back time have a much larger fight on their hands than just Maduro.
Judi Lynn
(160,555 posts)That was a comment heard as far back as the 2002 coup, and people were re-committing to their purpose, indicating that were they to lose their great President, another would rise in his place, as the majority of Venzuelans will support it, time after time, after time, from now on, now that they have lived through the filthy hell they have without conscientious leaders.
Flatulo
(5,005 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,555 posts)wayne_fontes
(25 posts)Where in the budget is this line item? I've never heard of it before. Can you provide a link?
fasttense
(17,301 posts)Here is another reference to Obama funding of opposition groups.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/02/20/obama-pushes-for-regime-change-in-venezuela/
Judi Lynn
(160,555 posts)They always they can confound and disrupt with their "quick" maneuvers.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)oligarchs, and their DC buddies. Interesting how 'concerned' Washington is about the treatment of protesters everywhere else, considering what they did to Occupy Wall St. right here. How they ignored appeals from the UN to protect OWS protesters from the brutal assaults and illegal arrests of the so-called 'civilian' police. We are still waiting for something, a word of condemnation perhaps, of what was done to OWS right here in their own country. They have zero credibility.