Venezuela News And ViewsVenezuela News And Views: How the revolution lies to the indigenous people of Venezuela
Venezuela News And Views
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
How the revolution lies to the indigenous people of Venezuela
The pen of Simon Romero today brings us through the New York Times yet another damning article on the mismanagement and arrogance of the Bolivarian pseudo-revolution. He neatly describes how the famous Yanomami of Amazonas state have been taken for a ride by chavismo who expelled the long established missionaries. Chavismo has proven unable to substitute them. The reasons are very simple: the military were put in charge and in Venezuela the military is lazy, corrupt and arrogant enough when trying to hide its shortcomings. Required reading.
My personal addition.
First, Mr Romero observes some of the same things that I observed myself when I was in Delta Amacuro a few months ago. Namely, the resentment of the natives in front of the "criollos" who get the biggest share of the spoils, when not all. Second, how good intentions are only too often useless when the ideological and bureaucratic machinery comes into action.
But I can also add something that either Mr. Romero did not know or did not dare to add to his article: the FARC influence. This was certainly in large part the reason why the missionaries started to be expelled as chavismo did not want them to be reliable witnesses of the FARC and Venezuelan Army dealings. Although this is basically public knowledge in Venezuela it is not reported nor investigated in detail because, well, it is dangerous to go down there and do research as you are as likely to be shot by FARC irregulars or by corrupt Venezuelan Army officers. In fact it is so bad that I did not even require to go there to be shown an example on how this operates.
Last year I started contact with an operator who does visits to remote areas of the Orinoco, Ventuari, Casiquiare and Caura rivers. He told me that he could still organize trips to visit such landmarks as Casiquiare or Autana but that it was risky not only because you never knew who you could meet but because it was very possible that you could get stranded for days if not weeks until you could come back. The reason? The army had taken over the gas distribution from the private distributors that ferried up river gas supplies. Now the army sold gasoline at any price it wanted, and giving priority to the FARC. That is right, if you had the bad luck to arrive at a relay station after the FARC did its "shopping" you could find yourself out of luck and in need to wait several days until a new supply arrived. Unless of course you were willing to paddle your way for days down stream. In other words, trips by that operator were now much more expensive as he needs to carry in advance or along his own supplies of gasoline, while of course becoming an even more desirable target for river pirates.
It is easy to imagine what other traffics take place under the cover of protecting the Yanomamis and Venezuela from US "spies".
The hypocrisy and cynicism of chavismo truly has no bounds....
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.
=====================================
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.
