Venezuela News And ViewsVenezuela News And Views: The story gets told: anti-Semitism and press restrictions
Venezuela News And Views
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
The story gets told: anti-Semitism and press restrictions
This deliberately weird title comes from one observation that I am making: the foreign excursions of Chavez visiting all sorts of dictators before visiting democratic countries might not be benefiting Chavez as much as he hopes for. In particular it is forcing some countries to have a deeper look at what is going on inside Venezuela. In this Chavez is not helped at all by his big mouth and poor choice of symbols.
The main thing that has surfaced lately is the perception of a growing anti-Semitism within Venezuela. This blogger has reported on that long ago and got quite a lot of flack for it. But I am being vindicated as the days pass. No the question is not how anti Semitic Chavez is but how much is he willing to act on it.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told The Associated Press. "We have a problem with the leadership in Caracas that hugs the Iranian president who calls for the annihilation of Israel."
Haaretz observes that the Jewish community of Venezuela is starting to react more strongly on the latent anti Semitism within chavismo:
The Confederation of Israelite Associations of Venezuela, or CAIV in Spanish, denounced "anti-Semitic statements" in government-backed media and the "arbitrary bias of representatives of the government ... toward one of the sides of the conflict."
Haaretz duly notes the “efforts to banalize the Holocaust” in Chavez speech, and notes that a few months ago the CAIV leadership tried to excuse another anti Semitic utterance of Chavez even as a majority of the Jewish population in Venezuela seems to have been against the directive of the CAIV bureau (something Haaretz might want o inquire within?). That CAIV announcement appeared in El Universal last Friday but it is not on line. Thus I had to take the picture on the right (click to enlarge). I have circled in red the most pertinent parts. In this text the Jewish Confederation of Venezuela does the following: deplores the situation in the Middle East showing concern for the suffering of ALL the people (even though they endores Israel as would be expected, but at least they show concern for all victims which is not the case of many a Venezuelan authority); complains bitterly about the partiality shown by the Venezuelan government be it at the national level or local level; complains about anti Semitic comments from the state media under the cover of "anti sionism". That is it, the CAIV has officially accused the Venezuelan government of anti semitism. We are waiting for a reply, not coming so far.
Coincidentally today Phil Gunson published a piece on the status of the freedom of expression in Venezuela. If at the start he replays the usual complaints of chavistas that the media is in the hands of the opposition he ends the article explaining how this has completely changed, that it is now Chavez who has the big advantage, with less checks from the opposition than he had when the media was supposedly 95% in the hands of the opposition. In fact two sentences are worth quoting:
The Consejo Nacional Electoral (national electoral authority / CNE), has decided to place no special restrictions either on the Sunday programme [Alo Presidente]or the cadenas during the 2006 election campaign, giving the president a massive propaganda advantage.
Thus we have a president running for election that will not need to pay for a huge, even tremendous media blitz while the opposition will have to pay dearly a very limited advertisement slot. But more worrying is this other piece:
But a recent judicial order, banning certain types of press coverage of a sensitive political case, is just one sign that such guarantees are by no means watertight.
With many other areas of national life already subject to strict government control, journalists in Venezuela – local and foreign – are, understandably, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Indeed, more and more self censorship is observed and this blogger cannot help but notice that many topics are now lightly covered by the press, if covered at all; while follow up of embarrassing situations for the government is sorely missing in some cases. Coming back to the start of this post, what I find personally an outrage is that Chavez gets progressively more and more of his anti Semitism out in the open (amen to his followers expressing this more and more) while there seems to be a reluctance of the press to follow up on that. So far the only strong article I have seen outside of this blog is from Milagros Socorro (while Ms. Socorro and myself deplore the bombings of Lebanon and remind people that Venezuela is a multi ethnic country, including many Arab/Muslims among our immigrants and that we cannot take sides; this was even picked up by Big Pharaoh blog who might not know enough about Venezuela to spell the name correctly, but did get the message nevertheless, loud an clear). Fortunately overseas the word spreads as one can read form the Monday Op.Ed in the Washington Post by Jackson Diehl. At least we can be sure that the Washington Post is clear on Chavez anti semitism, that his words are now closely followed, in particular in Teheran.
I will remind folks in Venezuela the words associated with Pastor Niemoller, most appropriate words now that folks have forgotten, conveniently, about those fired at PDVSA in 2003; or those that are on the Tascon list; or those who dared to oppose Chavez strongly and that all applaud to only leave them rot in jail after trumped trials; or those who have preferred the roads of exile as they could not safely exert their journalism. All now close their eyes, ears and mouths as they are trying to get some of the money Chavez throws around, but the Piper gets paid someday.
First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.
Written from the Venezuelan provinces, this blog started as private letters to my friends overseas, letters narrating the difficult days of the 2002/2003 strike in Venezuela. These letters became this mix of news, comments, pictures of the Venezuelan situation. Unknowingly, I have written the diary of Venezuela slow descent into authoritarianism, the slow erosion of our liberties, the takeover of the country by a military caste, the surrendering of our soul to our inner demons.
Click logo above to go directly to the English language blog. Click here to go to the Spanish language mirror.
Estamos en Venezuela, nunca se sabe. In spite of its Spanish title, an irregular blog about a French student observing Venezuela. Interesting pictures.
General info and discontinued blogs but with good archives
Venezuela Crisis has a visual and textual record "hors pair" of the recent electoral campaign in Venezuela, the first blogger to have covered live a Venezuelan campaign. Seems to be on a resting phase for a few weeks.
Digital papers with Venezuela and LatAm in mind (in Spanish)
There are two major digital papers with forums and all, for a permanent clash between factions. Noticiero Digital is the oldest one and Noticias 24 is giving it a run for tis money.
And a new comer:Venezuela es noticia.
Ciudadania Activa has a large selection of articles on Venezuelan politics and civil rights issues.
Relevant info to expose some of the regime's propaganda and human rights violations
The lies of April
The famous "infamous" video "The revolution will not be televised" has been duly analyzed and shown to be in large measure a crass manipulation. Counter-video in Spanish here, and summary of main points here.
There is a documentary that follows the April 2002 events from the perspective on what Chavez did that April 11, "La Cadena". It is about the forced broadcast made by Chavez to hide the massacre of the pacific march on Miraflores.
The infamous apartheid like system of the Tascon and Maisanta lists
The compilation of various documents from Miguel.
The video "La Lista" and my reviews in English and Spanish by invitation at Hispalibertas.
The El Nacional review of Perez Oramas.
The original video itself can be seen here.
Diverse Human Rights pages
Of course, from Amnesty International to the Human Rights Watch page, without forgetting local organizations such as prestigious COFAVIC, the Venezuelan government comes only too often lacking in its Human Rights record.
OTHER FOLKS WITH VENEZUELA MORE OR LESS IN THEIR MIND (Please send links that should be added here)
And of course to be fair there must be links to pro-Chavez sites. I do pride myself of having been the first opposition blog to have listed pro Chavez links; a situation that has now changed. However extremely rare is the pro Chavez page or blog that links to any of the sites listed above. The readers might draw their own conclusion
Aporrea (Beat up, bruise! as in the imperative mode of the verb; the only interesting one if you can read Spanish. Predicts the future)
And of course the full time propaganda agencies, ALL at tax payer expenses, the National Radio coverage, RNV, and the rather deficient official news agency, ABN (both in Spanish).
Without forgetting the "official" newsletter in English.
Some blogs, more or less sycophantic.
Yosmary, campaigning for Mario Silva, quite something.
Less sycophantic, even critical on occasion Terreno baldio.
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Map of Venezuela to help you locate the different locales mentioned through the blog (click here for a more detailed map)
For the memories. The picture below dates from the epic days of the December 2002/January 2003 "El Paro", when the opposition was strong and decided, and when Chavez was low in polls.
Then came the "misiones" and the worst populist episode of our history. Through pacific protests and strikes we tried to preserve democracy.
History proved us right even if we lost that battle.
Marching toward Hotel Melia, 01/31/03, 5 PM.
Small yellow square under the Pepsi ball is the big stage.
A special thanks to JoAnne Schmitz for the suggestions and help in setting this blog up.
