Bolivarian Government Defends Venezuelan Basketball Hero against Racist Attacks
Bolivarian Government Defends Venezuelan Basketball Hero against Racist Attacks
By Arlene Eisen
Caracas, 15th May 2014 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – To basketball fans, Carl Herrera is a hero, the pride of Venezuela. In 1992, he became the first Venezuelan to join an NBA team in the U.S. In 1994 and 1995, he led the Houston Rockets to national championships. Today he is the coach for one of the leading professional basketball teams in Venezuela.
Nevertheless, his celebrity has not protected him from racist attacks. Last week, vandals who Diodado Cabello, President of the National Assembly, labeled “neo-fascists” scrawled racist death threats on three walls of the stadium where Herrera’s team was scheduled to play.
In one of the threats at the Dome of Barquisimento, Lara state, they wrote, “We will kill you, monkey”. Last year, in Maricaibo, a group of fans from the opposing team displayed placards with similar racist messages and drawings of bunches of bananas.
Cabello praised the popular privately-owned daily Ultimas Noticias for first publicizing these incidents and thereby puncturing a small hole in the prevailing myth that racism doesn’t exist in Venezuela.
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http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10686
