Panopticon
Panopticon
Post rating:
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/venezuela-pres-miami-lobby-leads-us-policy/2014/03/14/0770213a-abd8-11e3-b8ca-197ef3568958_story.html
“Obama can’t let himself be taken by the Miami lobby,” Maduro said. “I call on the United States to take it easy, lady."
“Obama can’t let himself be taken by the Miami lobby,” Maduro said. “I call on the United States to take it easy, lady."
getfiscal
getfiscal
Mike Nelson here.
Post rating:
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I'm sorry, despite repeated attempts to explain why this canard is neither true nor relevant, it seems we still have some people insistent on recycling Chavez's talking points from 2006.
The reality in Venezuela is that "observers" are carefully hand-picked based on who is most sympathetic to the regime and shown what they want to see. The one time the EU was allowed to monitor a Venezuelan election, they said it was riddled with
irregularities and needed a recount; Maduro accused them of being "imperialists" and told them to fuck out of the country.
Inviting Jimmy Carter to sit in a hotel ballroom in Caracas and certify an election he doesn't see doesn't change the facts:
*Signing a ballot petition for a non-PSUV candidate gets your name put on a public list after which you are denounced, your home opened to looting and the police instructed not to intervene, and your boss "asked" by the government to fire you.
*Voters with a history of signing anti-government petitions are re-assigned to precincts 200 miles from where they live. Voters who vote PSUV are tracked and "escorted" to the polls in police or military vehicles, opposition voters have to make a day's round trip on their own to try to vote.
*Voters must swipe their fingerprints to turn in a ballot.
*The secret ballot is inconsistent at best, with multiple reports of collectivos (the regime-sponsored motorcycle gangs, what would be called their paramilitary death squad under a right wing regime) "observing" individuals as they vote. There is no independent or opposition election monitoring; the party controls the entire process.
Now, even if we are to suppose that those ballots which are cast under these conditions are accurately counted, is that in fact a fair election? Should anyone who says it is be trusted? Much like the "literacy program," the "democracy" in Venezuela is in the realm of "a lie repeated often enough becomes truth" -- an article of faith for people who WANT to believe and are willing to listen to the first thing that confirms their biases without digging at all into the underlying facts.
I am of the opinion that an election under the above circumstances which produced a 51% victory for Maduro was, in all likelihood, the result of a country where in actuality 55-60% wanted Capriles, if not more. The notion that once an election is held, no one is allowed to dissent from the government for a further five years, is itself self-evidently absurd; when the premise that the election was meaningful is probably not true, it becomes more so.
The reality in Venezuela is that "observers" are carefully hand-picked based on who is most sympathetic to the regime and shown what they want to see. The one time the EU was allowed to monitor a Venezuelan election, they said it was riddled with
irregularities and needed a recount; Maduro accused them of being "imperialists" and told them to fuck out of the country.
Inviting Jimmy Carter to sit in a hotel ballroom in Caracas and certify an election he doesn't see doesn't change the facts:
*Signing a ballot petition for a non-PSUV candidate gets your name put on a public list after which you are denounced, your home opened to looting and the police instructed not to intervene, and your boss "asked" by the government to fire you.
*Voters with a history of signing anti-government petitions are re-assigned to precincts 200 miles from where they live. Voters who vote PSUV are tracked and "escorted" to the polls in police or military vehicles, opposition voters have to make a day's round trip on their own to try to vote.
*Voters must swipe their fingerprints to turn in a ballot.
*The secret ballot is inconsistent at best, with multiple reports of collectivos (the regime-sponsored motorcycle gangs, what would be called their paramilitary death squad under a right wing regime) "observing" individuals as they vote. There is no independent or opposition election monitoring; the party controls the entire process.
Now, even if we are to suppose that those ballots which are cast under these conditions are accurately counted, is that in fact a fair election? Should anyone who says it is be trusted? Much like the "literacy program," the "democracy" in Venezuela is in the realm of "a lie repeated often enough becomes truth" -- an article of faith for people who WANT to believe and are willing to listen to the first thing that confirms their biases without digging at all into the underlying facts.
I am of the opinion that an election under the above circumstances which produced a 51% victory for Maduro was, in all likelihood, the result of a country where in actuality 55-60% wanted Capriles, if not more. The notion that once an election is held, no one is allowed to dissent from the government for a further five years, is itself self-evidently absurd; when the premise that the election was meaningful is probably not true, it becomes more so.
postposting
postposting
Post rating:
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a serious complaint i heard from a venezuelan right winger was that chavez altered the flag when he took power. by adding a star to represent the indigenous people of the country
Themselves
Themselves
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Whats the right opinion to have on Venezuela I don't know what to think, but I smell reactionaries and probably late-capitalist structural influence on the social-democratic party?
gyrofry
gyrofry
Kurdt
Post rating:
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he was a trot, but he was our trot
toy
toy
Zinovievist-Trotskyist gang
Post rating:
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This is good:
http://nacla.org/news/2014/3/11/venezuelas-polarizations-and-maduro’s-next-steps
http://nacla.org/news/2014/3/11/venezuelas-polarizations-and-maduro’s-next-steps
MindMaster
MindMaster
Post rating:
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"governance" is the international relations studies' euphemism for imperialism