The blogger for the blog Oil Wars posts an essay on the recent university demonstrations in Venezuela:
The anti-Chavez protesters shot one of the young workers in the back three times killing him instantly. That is right, the supposedly peacefull anti-Chavez protesters, you know the ones the international press tell us go around with their hands peacefully held up in the air, had guns and were willing to use them to shoot people. Here you can see some of the video of the young man’s relatives and co-workers discussing this outrageous and murderous event.
Of course, those not in Venezuela can be forgiven if they haven’t heard about these events – they barely rate an article in the international press.
So the international press largely ignores it. The opposition controlled press in Venezuela slanders the man saying he was a criminal trying to rob the protesters.
Originally linked by Renegade Eye.
I had no idea that Venezuela had that much oil. I tried to dig around to find out what these protests are about but I didn’t have much luck.
Thank you for posting the article on my blog.
Chavez announced some constitutional changes, that are up to be voted on. His opposition are trying to create a situation to sabotage voting.
The constitutional changes Chavez is proposing are deeply undemocratic, and destructive of freedom. Even the local alt-weekly papers here (like the SF Bay Guardian) are denouncing the changes. President-for-life is a disgraceful title for a head of government, and yet that’s what Chavez is aiming for.
Why does it have to be an Either / or? Can’t there be thugs on both sides? It certainly seems like there are.
I 2nd Joe.
Who are the real thugs? Why, that’s simple. The people who engage in thuggery. Now, what side of this issue does so with regularity and what side of it has only occasional examples thereof? Sounds like trying to compare widespread terrorism to a few out of control prison guards. Me, I figure it’s more likely to be the side trying to move Venezuela from democracy to dictatorship.
As an aside; it seems that I’ve seen a few diferent countries that supposedly have democratic rule of law only to find that their constitution can be changed by a simple vote of the legislature. Makes me thankful for Federalism and a republican form of government (note the small “r” there).
There’s bad people on both sides of most issues. However, as a general rule, you want to avoid bad people having despotic control — so better the thugs who want limited government than the ones who want authoritarian presidents-for-life who habitually interfere with the freedom of the press.