The day starts with yet another lousy NYT article from Juan Forero

Tuesday 2, March 2004

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Note added later: I made a mistake in part of this post but this one has been duly corrected in a subsequent post.
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The New York Times ineffable Juan Forero has yet another article that again indirectly supports Chavez. Well, the indirectly is a figure of speech. I will write the main criticism below and give you now the letter to the editor address for those of us that would like to share their indignation: letters@nytimes.com Let's hear it for the power of bloggging!

Venezuelans' Plan to Recall Chavez Faces a Setback
By JUAN FORERO
Published: March 2, 2004

CARACAS, Venezuela, March 1 — A campaign by opposition groups for a recall referendum to try to oust President Hugo Chávez appeared on the brink of collapse on Monday.

True

Opposition leaders, expecting election officials to disqualify enough of the 3.4 million signatures they have collected for a recall to keep the measure off the ballot, accused Mr. Chavez of influencing the process.

True, except that these accusations of Chavez meddling date from months and months ago. Mr. Forero would like us to believe that the opposition are spoiled brats are just now accusing Chavez of intromission! And of course forgetting to mention all the constant fiery speeches and threats agaisnt the council were they to give Chavez an adverse decision. It has been a constant of Mr. Forero (and Vice president Rangel among others) to constantly downplay the declarations of Chavez.

Protesters battled national guard troops across the country in antigovernment demonstrations that began Friday and have gained momentum.

On Monday, young men threw bottles at government troops and burned tires to block streets, and at least in one Caracas district, broke into a shop and destroyed property. The country's privately owned television stations, which have sided with the opposition against the left-leaning president, beamed pictures of chaos throughout the day.

National guard troops have fought back with tear gas and armored vehicles. Two people have died since Friday and several dozen have been hurt, several of them critically.

Interestingly ther is no real comment about the unusual violence of the National Guard, just crowd control as usual!!!!!!!! And what about the political prisoners?

"Why are the people in the street?" asked Henry Ramos, leader of the Democratic Action Party and an opponent of Mr. Chávez. "Because they see that the government is trying to steal their democratic rights."

BIG MISTAKE! Ramos is a main leader of Causa R! A party that rose as a strong opposition to Democratic Action, from its left! This is just nothing more that echoing Chavez line that all the opposition is the same! Unacceptable for someone that pretends to inform on Venezuela!!!!!!!!!

Government officials accused the opposition, including municipal officials in Caracas, of fomenting violence and inflating the troubles to destabilize the country.

"There are politicians with government duties who appear to be functioning as leaders of urban guerrillas because they are going against the peace and security," Gen. Jorge Luis Garcia Carneiro, the defense minister, told the government's Venpres news agency.

The opposition has tried to dislodge Mr. Chavez, a populist who won office in 1998, through a short-lived coup in 2002 and four big national strikes. Nothing has worked, and since last year the broad-based opposition movement has worked for a referendum.

But on Monday, the probability of a vote seemed slim as the five-member National Electoral Council disputed with the Carter Center, which is based in Atlanta, over whether the American group would continue its role as a mediator here.

Note the maliciousness! As if the 5 members were picking a fight with the Carter Center!!!!!!!!!! When there is a bitter division and reports of the Carter Center unamasking irregular maoevers within the council pro Chavez factions! Unbelievable!

The president of the council, Francisco Carrasquero, held a news conference to announce that the Carter Center was leaving the country. Jennifer McCoy, the center's representative, said she planned to stay.

"I want to make it clear that the Carter Center mission remains in Venezuela," she told reporters.

Even so, the opposition has had little luck in trying to prod the council into altering a preliminary decision that hundreds of thousands of signatures were flawed. The official announcement, which has been delayed for two days, is to be made Tuesday, an electoral official announced late on Monday.

More "omissions"! The delays are now over one month!!!!!!!!! Pretending that a country goes up in flammes over a two days delay is tendencious and patronizing, just in the tone by the way of a recent NYT editorial that I reviewed a few days ago! The official announcement was due on January 19!

Under the constitutional provision for a recall vote, 2.4 million valid signatures are required to place it on the ballot. The opposition collected 3.4 million signatures. (Venezuela's population is 25 million.)

Well, at least a good point here!

But election officials were expected to invalidate 400,000 signatures and to require additional verification of a million others. That would bring the number of validated signatures below the required total.

The council has said a million signatures could go through a five-day "repair period," starting on March 18, in which citizens could confirm that they had signed at one of the 1,000 sites nationwide. But diplomats monitoring the process and opposition leaders said the process is so challenging technically that it could end any chance of a referendum.

True again. But Forero does not mention the illegal retroactive rules that have suddenly out of nowhere allowed the CNE to backtrack in what had previously been approved. This is a MAJOR omission from Forero, a crucial observation necessary to explain what is going on in Venezuela.

Some opposition leaders expressed disappointment with the Organization of American States, which had brokered a deal between the government and its opponents that the opposition leaders thought would lead to a recall vote. "They told us that this was the quickest path," said Antonio Ledezma, an opposition leader.

Mr. Chavez, in a fiery speech on Sunday, said his government would recognize the signatures and would permit a referendum if enough signatures were "repaired." But opponents continued to assert that the new measure was nothing more than a delaying tactic aimed at ensuring that Mr. Chavez remained in power.

True.

Under the country's electoral guidelines, if the recall takes place after Aug. 20, Mr. Chavez's vice president could finish out his term. Opponents fear that if that happens, Mr. Chavez would rule from behind the scenes while campaigning to win the next presidential elections, in 2006.

And people would go for that? Maybe that is why they are in the streets Mr. Forero. Get a clue!!!!

The Bush administration, which has clashed repeatedly with Mr. Chavez, has expressed support for a recall vote. Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said, "The focus should remain on the efforts by the Venezuelan people to exercise their constitutional and democratic rights" in "a transparent and internationally monitored presidential recall referendum."

Meanwhile the recent attacks and insults against the US are omitted.