Chavez Dies.

[Blue]

Out of respect for President Chavez I won't further derail this thread.

[brainpanhandler]

I did not mean “have fun” sarcastically

Ok. You can understand why it might have been taken that way though, I would think.

Yes, but that was not the intention.

I mean at a minimum I think you meant, "I'm outa here". No?

No

I take you at your word.

What do you make though of the Chavez administrations decision not to renew RCTV's license in 2007? Chavez' totalitarian silencing of opposition media is almost entirely myth, but there is that instance which while righteous in my opinion nonetheless at least appeared pretty heavy handed.

God how I'd love to shut Faux news down and broadcast Outfoxed on a loop on that bandwidth.

[82_28]

It is weird that he (they) had that documentary ready to go almost directly after the coup attempt. I saw it in the theater back in the day and I remember leaving with my blood boiling. I'm still agnostic as to purpose though.

[82_28]

BPH, Faux News is actually pretty awesome. But you gotta come from the standpoint that most readers and posters here do. It's actually quite enjoyable to watch idiots and evil geniuses do what they do when you're not their intended audience whatsoever. It's like The 700 Club or Jack Van Impe -- love watching that shit too when I happen to be at a place and time when I can. Any kind of televangelist I can watch too. Doesn't burn me up as in "can you believe what this fucker is saying", just "I can't believe people actually believe this shit". To me "the news" is their very existence.

[JackRiddler]

What do you make though of the Chavez administrations decision not to renew RCTV's license in 2007? Chavez' totalitarian silencing of opposition media is almost entirely myth, but there is that instance which while righteous in my opinion nonetheless at least appeared pretty heavy handed.

What I think is that if Venezuela was like most other countries, the RCTV executives would have been lined up against a wall and shot in 2002. They participated in a failed military coup to overthrow the government. What would have happened to NBC, if they had taken part in a failed coup against Bush?

Incredibly, RCTV were allowed to continue broadcasting for five years, until their license ran out under the law. To this day, the majority of Venezuelan major broadcast and major news media remains in the hands of the oligarchs. It is a complete myth - one made up by the oligarch media, in fact - that private media in Venezuela are under limits.

For my part, I am thrilled by the precedent that private broadcast licenses on the public airwaves need not be eternal. I would gladly allow FOXNEWS's license to lapse without renewal.

Venezuela has also invested heavily in creating a flourishing community broadcast ecology.

[MacCruiskeen]

The rhetorical baseball bat, elegantly deployed in yesterday's Guardian:

Conspiracy theorists who wonder about aliens at Roswell and Nasa faking the moon landings have a new issue to ponder: did the CIA murder Hugo Chávez?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/ma ... ancer-plot

^^That's the very first line of the article, and not for no reason. You could say it frames the debate. And of course such framing is a choice.

CIA acknowledges Castro plot went to the top
Dulles personally approved 1960 operation to assassinate Cuban leader

By M. Alex Johnson Reporter
msnbc.com
updated 6/26/2007 6:35:27 PM ET

Buried deep in the hundreds of historical documents the CIA declassified Tuesday is a memo that reveals for the first time that the Kennedy administration’s CIA director, Allen Dulles, personally approved a plot to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro.

The documents are among almost 700 pages of papers that reveal new details about the CIA’s plots to assassinate foreign leaders. In addition to Castro, proposed targets included Patrice Lumumba, the democratically elected president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rafael Trujillo, the Dominican dictator.

[...]

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/19444072/ns/p ... TpfyGei4it

[FourthBase]

The rhetorical baseball bat, elegantly deployed in yesterday's Guardian:

Conspiracy theorists who wonder about aliens at Roswell and Nasa faking the moon landings have a new issue to ponder: did the CIA murder Hugo Chávez?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/ma ... ancer-plot

^^That's the very first line of the article, and not for no reason. You could say it frames the debate.

Ugh.

Sometimes I just don't know what to do. I only have two hands. One for the epic facepalm, one to hold my gut as I laugh, one to wipe the trace of a tear for this fucked up world, one to punch through a plaster wall, one to type these posts out on a tablet, one to shake a fist at the corrupt journalist, one to pick my nose, one to massage my aching head...I'd probably need 20+ hands.

[MacCruiskeen]

Greg Palast, The Assassination of Hugo Chavez, 24 min 9 sec:

[JackRiddler]

Gah, ya gotta be kidding me, they're going to embalm him and put him on eternal display. Not by his wish, either.

More importantly, the propaganda preparation for a possible coup d'etat by the well-armed oligarchs and their well-armed mercenaries has begun:

The wild card in Venezuela: armed Chavistas
http://apnews.excite.com/article/201303 ... GFR83.html

By FABIOLA SANCHEZ and FRANK BAJAK

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Carlos Torres opens the wire-fence gate to a neighborhood controlled by the La Piedrita gang that even police don't enter without permission.

"Loyal to Comandante Chavez," reads a banner just inside the 23 of January redoubt in western Caracas. The poor neighborhood is home to a small army of pistol-toting young men who, like Torres, see themselves as guardians of President Hugo Chavez's "socialist revolution."

These die-hard Chavistas say there is no way they will let Venezuela's "oligarchy" and its alleged Washington patrons to return to power.

"That would cost us blood, sweat and tears, but they won't be back," he said.

Etc. etc., follow link.

I gotta like the picture that goes with that, however:


In this Sept. 16, 2010 file photo, a man walks past a mural of Jesus Christ holding a machine gun alongside the words in Spanish "La Piedrita Will Overcome" in the La Piedrita area of the 23 of January neighborhood in Caracas, Venezuela. On alert, and some apparently on edge, are hundreds of well-armed toughs spread through the hills of metropolitan Caracas who have been blamed for strong-armed intimidation of political opponents of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez and worse. As Venezuela ponders the next steps after Chavez's death Tuesday, the late leader's most uncompromising, and radical supporters make up a menacing unknown in a country brimming with guns and afflicted by the world's second-highest murder rate. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

Strong-armed! Gangs! Well-armed toughs!

Nothing like the distinguished self-defense committee of the rich neighborhood a couple of miles away, surely.

Well, Vz is one place where you can take the idea of armed defense against potential dictatorship half-seriously.

.

[conniption]

Why Major League Baseball Owners Will Cheer the Death of Hugo Chavez

[thurnundtaxis]

Venezuela to probe Chavez cancer "poisoning" accusation
By Andrew Cawthorne | Reuters – March 11 11:00 am

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela will set up a formal inquiry into suspicions that the late President Hugo Chavez's cancer was the result of poisoning by his enemies abroad, the government said.
The accusation has been derided by critics of the government, who view it as a typical Chavez-style conspiracy theory intended to feed fears of "imperialist" threats to Venezuela's socialist system and distract people from daily problems.
Still, acting President Nicolas Maduro vowed to push through a serious investigation into the claim, which was first raised by Chavez himself after he was diagnosed with the disease in 2011.
"We will seek the truth," Maduro told regional TV network Telesur late on Monday. "We have the intuition that our commander Chavez was poisoned by dark forces that wanted him out of the way."
Foreign scientists will be invited to join a government commission, the OPEC nation's acting leader said.
Maduro, 50, is Chavez's handpicked successor and is running as the government's candidate in a snap presidential election on April 14 that was triggered by his boss's death last week.
He is trying to keep voters' attention firmly focused on Chavez to benefit from the outpouring of grief among his millions of supporters. The opposition is centering its campaign on portraying Maduro, a former bus driver, as an incompetent who, they say, is morbidly exploiting Chavez's demise.

MOURNING

Running for the opposition's Democratic Unity coalition is a business-friendly state governor, Henrique Capriles, 40, who lost to Chavez in a presidential vote last year.
Tuesday was the last day of official mourning for Chavez, although ceremonies appear set to continue. His embalmed body was to be taken in procession to a military museum on Friday.
Millions have filed past Chavez's coffin to pay homage to a man who was adored by many of the poor for his humble roots and welfare policies, but was also hated by many people for his authoritarian style and bullying of opponents.
Though Maduro has spoken about combating crime and extending development programs in the slums, he has mostly used his frequent appearances on state TV to talk about Chavez.
The 58-year-old president was diagnosed with cancer in his pelvic region in June 2011 and underwent four surgeries before dying of what sources said was metastasis in the lungs.
Maduro said it was too early to specifically point a finger over Chavez's cancer, but noted that the United States had laboratories with experience in producing diseases.
"He had a cancer that broke all norms," Maduro told Telesur. "Everything seems to indicate that they affected his health using the most advanced techniques ... He had that intuition from the beginning."
Maduro has compared his suspicions over Chavez's death with allegations that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died in 2004 from poisoning by Israeli agents.
The case echoes Chavez's long campaign to convince the world that his idol and Venezuela's independence hero Simon Bolivar died of poisoning by his enemies in Colombia in 1830.

OPPOSITION'S UPHILL FIGHT

Though keeping a low profile out of respect for Chavez's supporters, opponents are furious at what they see as the use of his death by government officials to bolster their chances of staying in power.
Launching his candidacy on Monday, Maduro's speech began with a recording of Chavez singing the national anthem. Hearing his booming voice again, many supporters wept.
As well as the wave of sympathy over Chavez, the opposition faces a well-financed state apparatus, institutions packed with government supporters, and problems within its own rank-and-file, still demoralized over October's presidential election defeat and a mauling at gubernatorial polls in December.
Capriles, an energetic lawyer and career politician, has tried to kick-start his campaign with accusations that Maduro and other senior officials lied about the details of Chavez's illness, hiding the gravity of his condition from Venezuelans.
That has brought him a torrent of abuse in return, with the words "Nazi" and "fascist" being used by senior government officials - despite Capriles' Jewish roots.
At stake in the election is not only the future of Chavez's leftist "revolution," but the continuation of Venezuelan oil subsidies and other aid crucial to the economies of left-wing allies around Latin America, from Cuba to Bolivia.
Venezuela boasts the world's largest oil reserves.
Polls from before Chavez's death gave Maduro a lead over Capriles of more than 10 percentage points.
Though there are hopes for a post-Chavez rapprochement between Venezuela and the United States, a diplomatic spat worsened on Monday when Washington expelled two Venezuelan diplomats in a tit-for-tat retaliation.
http://news.yahoo.com/venezuela-probe-c ... 34250.html

[JackRiddler]

How are they going to examine the body now that it's been embalmed?

[thurnundtaxis]

^^^^
Good point!

[JackRiddler]

NYT, March 6, on Venezuela playing against the Mets prior to WBC:

SNIP

Chávez’s death produced an awkward moment for Major League Baseball. Before Venezuela played the Miami Marlins in Jupiter, Fla., on Tuesday, representatives of the Venezuelan team asked for their country’s flag to be lowered and a moment of silence for Chávez to be observed before the game. Both requests were denied.

Major League Baseball, which runs the W.B.C., takes its cue in such matters from the State Department. Chávez was no friend of the United States, and relations with Venezuela were further strained this week when two American military attachés were ordered to leave the country after they were accused of sowing disorder.

Baseball officials want to leave politics out of the ballparks, but they offered to help the Venezuelans with anything they wanted away from the field.

United States and Venezuelan flags were flying at full staff at Tradition Field on Wednesday.

The Mets appeared flummoxed by being thrust on an international stage. But Johan Santana, a Venezuelan, broke the ice. Santana wanted to pitch for his national team, but nearing 34 and recovering from injuries, he was asked by the Mets — for the second straight tournament — to focus instead on getting ready for the season.

After finishing his workout in left field on Wednesday, Santana visited the Venezuelan team, which was stretching along the first baseline. He hugged and joked with Miguel Cabrera, Rodriguez and several of the team’s other stars.

As Santana passed by, Sojo jokingly yelled in his direction, “You were supposed to pitch for me today; what happened?”

Santana, who is from the town of Tovar Merida, met Chávez in 2004 after he won the first of his two Cy Young Awards. He was honored at the presidential palace in Caracas and addressed the national assembly.

He is not the only link between the Mets and Chávez. On an official visit to the United States in 1999, shortly after he was elected president, Chávez threw out the first pitch at Shea Stadium and met with Edgardo Alfonzo, the Mets’ Venezuelan-born second baseman. The game was better remembered for the behavior of Manager Bobby Valentine, who was ejected and returned to the bench wearing a fake mustache.

In August 2010, Chávez phoned Rodriguez, then the Mets’ closer, who had been arraigned on charges that he assaulted the grandfather of his children after blowing a save at Citi Field. Chávez told Rodriguez that Venezuela was proud of him but also said, “Calm your impulses.”

Santana and Rodriguez are two of the many Venezuelans to play for the Mets. The first was Elio Chacon, who played in the team’s inaugural season in 1962.

More than two dozen of his countrymen have followed, including Alfonzo, who helped the Mets reach the World Series in 2000. The Mets were so impressed with his play that they sent scouts to scour the country looking for other stars. They also expanded their relationship with Magallanes, the team Alfonzo played for in Venezuela.

More recently, Dave Hudgens, the Mets’ hitting coach, managed in the Venezuelan Winter League, winning a championship in 2010. Hudgens understands the passion for baseball in Venezuela and the need for the team to play well, a topic that Rodriguez addressed on Wednesday.

SNIP

[JackRiddler]

Apparently the idea of embalming and displaying has been dropped.

(I wonder if it's been exaggerated in the first place?)