
The Game Changed in Venezuela Last Night and the Media Is Asleep At the Switch - swohns
http://caracaschronicles.com/2014/02/20/the-game-changed/
======
firstOrder
> scan the press and find...Nothing.

Ah the old, "there's a conspiracy to suppress what my side thinks in the
news".

Ten months ago, Maduro was elected president by the majority of the country.

Some of the opposition tried to create this spectacle ten months in. The whole
point of staging a big spectacle blocking highways etc., with some rioting, is
to get world headlines. This has been happening in Venezuela for over 16
years. If the country was really anti-Maduro, it wouldn't have voted for him
ten months ago.

Also, it's not even like the opposition is united at all. It's completely
factionalized, which is probably why it is out of power. It also reeks of that
lazy, upper class, kind of slow and dumb Castillian Spanish aristocratic sense
you sometimes find in Latin America. Like that man in the documentary "The
Revolution will not be televised" who said "Watch your servants! They may be
Chavistas!" Watch your servants, they may be Chavistas might as well be the
slogan of the opposition. It's not something with much popular appeal, either
in Venezuela, or even out.

~~~
scott_karana
I'm not addressing your post, or the situation in Venezuela at all, but:

> If the country was really anti-Maduro, it wouldn't have voted for him ten
> months ago

Elections can be rigged. Votes can be bought. There always need to be more
datapoints than _just_ that.

~~~
GFK_of_xmaspast
I can't fund much about the 2013 election, but Jimmy Carter had this to say
about 2012: """ "As a matter of fact, of the 92 elections that we've
monitored, I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the
world," Mr. Carter said, noting the center's extensive work monitoring
elections around the globe. """

~~~
wismer
Check out the media coverage table on pg 34.

"Comparing average coverage by private and state media outlets in Figures 1
and 2, we find imbalance in the tone of coverage among both but find it more
pronounced among state media. On the one hand, in state-owned television, 95
percent of reporting was positive about Hugo Chávez, while in private outlets
this number reached 48 percent." (pg34)

"...NGOs monitoring the campaign, such as Transparencia Venezuela and Grupo La
Colina, have indicated broad use of government resources to support the Chávez
campaign, such as vehicles to transport campaign workers and supporters to
marches and also on voting day." (pg43)

"In the Venezuelan context, safeguards to prevent the abuses of ventajismo or
to make violations of the law costly not just financially but politically, in
terms of imposing sanctions against the perpetrating campaign, are crucially
missing." (pg43)

[http://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/news/peace_public...](http://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/news/peace_publications/election_reports/venezuela-2012-election-
study-mission-final-rpt.pdf)

------
hornytoad
"International Media Is Asleep At the Switch", only this guy somehow manages
to see the truth. Yeah, right.

Interesting so many people on hn seem to be jumping on this.

So I went back to his oldest blog entries to see what his general stance is
and if his judgements merit consideration or are slanted, which can be better
be judged with years of hindsight, judge for yourself:

"To my mind Chávez’ hold on reality is so tenuous that he really does think
that six million people poured onto the streets on April 13th to demand his
return. And with a narcissist leader who’s that cut-off from reality,
political miscalculation is the order of the day."

He was hugely popular then, and stayed that way until his death, if polls,
which actually have received praise from international observers, are an
indication. Chavez not only had the absolute majority behind him, they
actually supported him.

Just compare Venezuela's voter turnout with that in your own country.
Wikipedia says about Venezuela's 2012 election:

"The elections showed a historically high turnout, above 80% of the
electorate, in a country where voting is not mandatory"

------
ChuckMcM
The challenges here are threefold:

1) Trying to get reliable information out of a country.

2) Trying to figure out if it will drive "page views" or "viewership" or
anything that pays the bills at the "media" center.

3) Creating a credible narrative around 'justice' in the face of massive
injustice.

That is why "global warming, you may die tomorrow" is a more important story
than "far away government is repressing its own civilians."

FWIW: The Economist has covered Venezuela
([http://www.economist.com/search/gcs?ss=venezuela#masthead&gs...](http://www.economist.com/search/gcs?ss=venezuela#masthead&gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=venezuela&gsc.page=1))
but even it doesn't provide breaking news coverage.

------
rblatz
"Let me put this clearly. Y’all need to step it up. The time to discard what
you thought you knew about the way things work in Venezuela is now."

Done. But I didn't really know how things worked there before either.

~~~
andrewcooke
i posted this in another thread, but just as it slipped off front page.

[http://feministing.com/2014/02/20/toward-a-nuanced-
feminist-...](http://feministing.com/2014/02/20/toward-a-nuanced-feminist-
discussion-on-venezuela/)

it's a good description of what's happening (i know this is HN, and anything
with "feminist" causes a shitstorm, but really it's just a very careful first
person account that tries to explain all sides, so please skip the title).

but that was written before whatever happened today/last night.

~~~
growupkids
Another brutal communist dictatorship. Why is it that some people think this
one will somehow be different? It's always always always the same.

------
hudibras
The AP has a story out now:

[http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2014/02/20/world/americas/ap...](http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2014/02/20/world/americas/ap-
lt-venezuela-protests.html?ref=americas)

EDIT: I googled to find the AP story, but I just now stumbled onto another
article during my normal aimless coffee-break web surfing. So I think the
story is picking up steam.

[http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2...](http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2014/02/nicolas_maduro_s_venezuela_erupts_in_violence_the_venezuelan_president_appears.html)

------
unclebucknasty
Just had an interesting thought when reading this article.

What if tomorrow, something similar happened in the U.S.? That is, what if
government "forces" swept into a major city or cities and began arresting
people on suspicion of terrorism, then sweeping them off to unknown locations?
Simultaneously, what if drone strikes were called in on other "suspects"?

What in our current laws (or interpretation thereof) would prevent this or
protect those who were targeted? The question may sound rhetorical or like
hyperbole, but I mean this seriously: is a FISA court the only thing standing
between us and such a potential reality?

------
ChuckFrank
Increasingly, I predict that we'll see more and more of these unreported
incidents worldwide, especially as corporate media becomes more and more
consolidated. Thankfully there are alternative news outlets that are available
if you dig. Accurate or not.

[http://www.alternet.org/world/washington-tries-regime-
change...](http://www.alternet.org/world/washington-tries-regime-change-
venezuela)

The lesson that this reinforces is that we can not rely on the media for the
news. If ever we could.

~~~
BugBrother
Well, any US conspiracies seems like a waste of money, since the Venezuelan
government seems to do the impossible -- running an oil country into the
ground.

(But lots of people will be certain that all of that comes from _more_
conspiracies from the US. :-) )

~~~
slurry
> since the Venezuelan government seems to do the impossible -- running an oil
> country into the ground.

Most oil countries are badly run; and whatever you think of Hugo Chavez and
his party, Venezuela was already at least halfway into the ground before they
came along, tbqfh.

~~~
BugBrother
Are there really other oil countries that have a hard time to even get credit?

And then there are the large social problems? A command economy that kills
local business might be common, but the size must be worse in Venezuela? Etc.

To close the opposition media and using the TV is quite standard in places
like that. But as much as in Venezuela?

(Libya and possibly Iraq has problems from violence and Iran has sanctions.
They are a bit special cases.)

------
fiatjaf
The good question for me is:

what would YOU do if this was happening in your city? What choices does the
unorganized and disarmed people have against a massive State with an army and
policemen?

~~~
crpatino
Take pictures of the policemen while they are murdering/raping/ransacking. Be
very careful that their faces show up as clearly as possible.

Then print 100's of copies and drop them at _their_ children's school, at
_their_ neighbors' mailboxes, at the church they attend and the gym where they
train.

Let them explain how a regular day at daddy's office looks like to the people
they actually care about.

------
amjaeger
What are the press companies outside of the USA saying? Are they just as
disinterested?

~~~
marcosdumay
In Brazil there was some notice, deep on the international sections of the
written papers. I don't know about television.

~~~
oscargrouch
Brazil television is covering.. saying the opposition is in prison (for a
bunch of fabricated crimes) and that there are shooting at people.. like the
girl that was a beauty queen and was shot as a example.. in cable TV GloboNews
there was a special today.. all about the protests.. with journalists from
Brazil, there in Caracas.. didnt see it..

------
SocratesV
[http://lab.org.uk/venezuela-–-student-
protests](http://lab.org.uk/venezuela-–-student-protests)

[http://lab.org.uk/venezuela-violent-demonstrations-and-
the-m...](http://lab.org.uk/venezuela-violent-demonstrations-and-the-media)

Not claiming these are unbiased sources, because they aren't (especially the
second link). But even so, they can provide a good balance regarding what most
western media (NY Times, CNN, Guardian, etc) reports (and omits from those
reports).

Some more and again, don't claim they are unbiased, but it's good to balance
the coverage and these say a lot that isn't said in other places):

"What’s going on in Venezuela?" \--
[http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10381](http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10381)

"Venezuelan Government Reiterates Calls For Dialogue With Opposition" \-
[http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10379](http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10379)

[http://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/1xt9pf/venezuela_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/1xt9pf/venezuela_rightwing_provokes_violence_in_timeworn/cfeevit)

And regarding the general situation (not current events necessarily:

"Despite Shortages, Venezuelans Are Eating Better Statistics Say" \-
[http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/7632](http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/7632)

"The Pros and Cons of Venezuela's Currency Controls" \-
[http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10317](http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10317)

"Could smuggling be to blame for Venezuela's food shortages?" \-
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-
america-23885377](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-23885377)
(small examples: [http://pastebin.com/BFHKHdCG](http://pastebin.com/BFHKHdCG)
)

Regarding crime, read about the Policia Nacional Bolivariana, who controls the
local polices, who is the Governor of the State of Miranda and which force
controls most boroughs (Municipios) in Caracas and that in general, they
refuse the that the Policia Nacional Bolivariana to act and prefer instead to
keep their mostly corrupt police force (understand that they see it as another
way for the Government to have more control, but the truth is the PNB reduces
crime, you can read more here, but also other places -
[http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/Latin-America-
Monito...](http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/Latin-America-
Monitor/2013/0215/How-does-Venezuela-s-police-reform-measure-up))

Also, note that before Chavez, most foreign oil companies were paying 1-17%
royalties, after 20-30%
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_policy_of_Venezuela#Deve...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_policy_of_Venezuela#Development_of_energy_policies))
and that most of the oil profits go into housing, social, education, security
and infrastructure (power plants - fixed and movable -, roads, ports,
railways).

Just another thing, believe that according to Article 72 of the Venezuelan
Constitution, after the middle of the Presidential mandate, if 20% of the
voters sign a petition, recall elections are scheduled. This has happened in
2004.

Not claiming there aren't any problems, there certainly are. Not claiming I'm
a fan of the style the Government adopt, I'm not. However we've all seen in
the past what happens to democratically elected Governments when they don't
play ball with US companies, and Latin America knows this more than anyone
(but also Iran back in the first independence days, before the Shah...).

My thoughts to the innocents that are caught in the crossfire and have their
peaceful demonstrations hijacked by extremists. Hopefully Venezuela can
overcome all current issues, become a better country and not go back to the
almost oligarchic past of poverty (which none of the wealthy opposition ever
tried to change) but not become a dictatorship. In summary, a place where
people of all political quadrants can live and let others live.

