Washington Post Slams Venezuela for Electing 'Former Bus Driver'

[Judi Lynn]

Washington Post Slams Venezuela for Electing 'Former Bus Driver'
By Peter Hart
Sep 25 2014

It's no secret that the Washington Post editorial page was quite alarmed by Venezuela's shift to the left under former President Hugo Chavez. The Post–like the rest of elite US media (Extra!, 11/05)–was an unrelenting critic of Chavez's policies.

Some things haven't changed.

In a scathing editorial (9/20/14), the Post went after Chavez's successor Nicolas Maduro, calling him an "economically illiterate former bus driver" because he "rejected the advice of pragmatists" and will continue to pursue policies that are ruining what was "once Latin America’s richest country."

During the Chavez years, the most important economic story was the rapid gains by the country's poor (FAIR Blog, 12/13/12); what the Post remembers as the good old days were when prosperity was not so widely shared.

The Post's real point is that the United States should do something significant to oppose the human rights abuses under Maduro–most especially the crackdown on anti-government protests earlier this year. The Post cites a Human Rights Watch report to make its case, and the solution was as clear as the editorial headline: "Venezuela Doesn't Deserve a Seat on the UN Security Council."

More:
http://www.fair.org/blog/2014/09/25/washington-post-slams-venezuela-for-electing-former-bus-driver/

[dipsydoodle]

1. Obviously something aout

fuck off they don't quite grasp.

[noiretextatique]

2. rejected the advice of pragmatists

[jwirr]

3. The post is just upset that this guy may actually continue to help the poor. They deserve to be

ignored.

[Fred Sanders]

4. The amount of disinformation spewing from the mass media about nationalized oil rich

Venezuela is astounding.

[hack89]

10. You think their economy is going well?

How do you explain the massive shortages of food, medicine and consumer goods?

[Fred Sanders]

11. Why the hand wringing in America? Socialist Venezuela needs no advice from tyrannical America.

Capitalists are thirsty for the oil, they do not give a shit about anything else, and you are their lackey it seems.

Some know the history of imperialism in LatinAmerica, some do not, some choose to or are paid to ignore it.

I trust the Venezuelan press and the IMF more than anything spewing from fascist American media.

Toilet paper shortages is what seems to worry Americans most, nothing is more important to Americans than oil and being able to wipe your ass.

[Judi Lynn]

12. They worry so about what they claim are tp shortages in a leftist led country, yet ignore massacres

and extraordinary viciousness, grand scale terrorism right next door in Colombia, the U.S. "lily pad" country in S. America, which has been going on for decades.

Public executions by chain saws in small villages, designed to wreak such terror the people become paralyzed with fear, as testified in public court trials, one testimony on this from a paramilitary who was murdered after HIS testimony, and these things accomplished by paras who worked hand in hand with the Colombian U.S.-supported military, ( to the tune of billions of dollars since 2000), the quaint custom by the Colombian military, still ongoing, of murdering Colombian people and claiming they were rebels shot while fighting them, a practice called "false positives", and a constant program of assassination of any and all suspected leftists who attract their attention, as in teachers, clergy helping the poor, indigenous, African Colombians, union workers, and activists.

But wait a moment: it's more important we spend our valuable time trying to learn new information at D.U. rehashing the smears on Venezuelan toilet paper shortages, etc, etc.

Gotta keep those fascist priorities straight!

They have truly been fixated, unable to move, regarding that TP "news."

Meanwhile, Venezuelans can go to Colombia and buy a lot of things they need, only at higher prices, since there is a fiendish, anal, criminal custom of people taking huge quantities of Venezuelan food and gasoline to Colombia and selling it there on the black market.

That's a real problem their President is trying hard to eliminate, and they (fascist trolls) gibber about his methods of closing the roads to Colombia at night to prevent illegal trucks from absconding there with the goods.

[Fred Sanders]

13. Mention the fact that Venezuela's oil experts, all owned by the people, is still $100 billion

a year so the country can not ever go broke and then watch the fascists vitriol.

The precious oil belonging to the people they can not abide.

Ad hominem and strawman attacks are rampant, economic facts in the context of history, a history in which poverty has been slashed, will be ignored.

[hack89]

16. Both oil prices and VZ production are going down

Yes they can go broke if they spend more than they earn. A socialist government cannot repeal basic economic rules.

Are you aware that VZ oil is so thick they have to blend it with lighter oil TP be able to pump it to the ports for export? Their oil infrastructure is so degraded that they can't produce enough light oil and have to import it from the US.

[Marksman_91]

17. You really have no idea about what's going on in Venezuela, do you?

[Judi Lynn]

18. That predatory oligarchy still lives on in their "hearts" and "minds".

They see unregulated, unrestrained capitalism as the way of their fascist future.

They don't realize the rest of the world has been there and hates it.

Their only hope comes when they can get enough poor people in countries they have to join the military to have any money at all, and they can force them to turn their guns upon the impoverished, suffering dissident poor.

Ugly, ugly fascists.

[Bacchus4.0]

14. Venezuela has the second highest murder rate in world. Its not just an economic wreck there n/t

[hack89]

15. Food and medicine, not toilet paper

That is what the VZ government cannot provide their people.

Every week another major manufacturer announces they are shutting down due to the lack of dollars to restock parts.

I see you will be in denial up until the crash.

[Marksman_91]

5. He really didn't get elected for his merits

He was elected only because Huguito chose him as his successor. Even in the Chavista base there are WAY more qualified people that could've been a better president than Maduro. The point is, if you want someone to do a good job as president of an oil-rich country, you do not pick someone who doesn't have the education or experience to do such a thing. Most of the chavista leadership nowadays consists of old friends, family, and long-time associates of Chávez. It's a blatant nepotism, and it's the same reason why Maduro is president: if he didn't have Hugo's blessing, he would've just been forgotten by the Chavista base.

But hey, by all means, if you think nepotism is a better form of hiring someone for a job than through meritocracy, please continue praising the government which has caused the greatest economic crisis in an oil-rich country ever.

[Zorro]

6. Maduro must be getting nervous with both oil production and oil prices heading south

[noiretextatique]

7. nepotism is what gets many of our presidents elected

gw bush being a prime example. meritocracy, my ass! WHEN we have a meritocracy, THEN we can whine about other countries. personally, i'd prefer a working class person to the elites we routinely elect here because money rules our system.

[Zorro]

8. He's driving Venezuela over the cliff

Must have been a lousy bus driver, too.

[hack89]

9. He is economic illiterate judging from the state of the VZ economy. Nt

Last edited Sun Sep 28, 2014, 01:10 PM - Edit history (1)