RSS 2.0 FeedChavez’s Venezuela Begins To Show It’s True Colors
by Doug MataconisThe time is quickly approaching when the apologists for Hugo Chavez will no longer be able to deny that he’s a dictator.
And, it seems, the first signs are already there:
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Gunmen opened fire on students returning from a march Wednesday in which 80,000 people denounced President Hugo Chavez’s attempts to expand his power. At least eight people were injured, including one by gunfire, officials said.
Photographers for The Associated Press saw at least four gunmen — their faces covered by ski masks or T-shirts — firing handguns at the anti-Chavez crowd. Terrified students ran through the campus as ambulances arrived.
National Guard troops gathered outside the Central University of Venezuela, the nation’s largest and a center for opposition to Chavez’s government. Venezuelan law bars state security forces from entering the campus, but Luis Acuna, the minister of higher education, said they could be called in if the university requests them.
Antonio Rivero, director of Venezuela’s Civil Defense agency, told local Union Radio that at least eight people were injured, including one by gunfire, and that no one had been killed. Earlier, Rivero said he had been informed that one person had died in the violence.
The violence broke out after anti-Chavez demonstrators — led by university students — marched peacefully to the Supreme Court to protest constitutional changes that Venezuelans will consider in a December referendum.
The amendments would abolish presidential term limits, give the president control over the Central Bank and let him create new provinces governed by handpicked officials.
What say you now Sean Penn, Danny Glover, and Cindy Sheehan ?
There is a difference between being blind and refusing to see.
Too many of us warned that this would happen — those who were oblivious to the plain facts (and to history) are not innocent and should not be treated as such.
Comment by KipEsquire — November 8, 2007 @ 5:13 amYou forgot Kevin Spacey.
They won’t care…I’m sure they’re busy moving onto their next pet project. That’s the thing about liberal celebrities and their politics, once reality shows exactly how flawed and wrong they were they just find something else to gab about so everyone forgets. It’s why I don’t particularly care what celebrities think unless it’s directly connected to whatever film/play/consumer good they’re producing. Sean Penn’s obviously one of the biggest tools on the planet, and as soon as he stops making quality films like “Into The Wild” nobody’s going to care what he has to say about anything.
Maybe I’m wrong though…hell, Pete Seeger finally admitted that he was wrong for saying that Joseph Stalin was a good leader. Of course it took him about fifty years to come to that conclusion.
Comment by UCrawford — November 8, 2007 @ 8:23 amWhatever happened in their simplistic minds will be blamed on Bush and the USA! It’s all our fault…don’t you understand? Ah just more proof that the far left can be as goofy as the far right!
Comment by Harvey — November 8, 2007 @ 8:29 amUCrawford…
Yeah, a lot of people boycott their movies because of their politics. I may not agree with much of what Sean Penn or Tim Robbins thinks about politics, but they’re excellent actors and make good movies… Well, except for War of the Worlds, but you can’t win them all, right?
Comment by Brad Warbiany — November 8, 2007 @ 8:43 amHarvey,
Actually a lot of what happens is our fault because of our interventionist foreign policy. Of course the celebrities usually fail to understand the specifics of why we’re wrong…they often think it’s because we’re just practicing the wrong form of interventionism. They’re a lot more similar to Bush than they’d like to believe, which is why it’s so easy to have contempt for them.
Brad,
I won’t go so far as to say Sean Penn’s a good actor. IMO he hasn’t been good as an actor since he did “Bad Boys” and “Fast Times at Ridgmont High”. I thought “Mystic River” sucked all around (Kevin Bacon was the only good actor in that movie). On the other hand, Penn appears to be a very capable director…I loved “Into The Wild” (although not for the same reason that Penn loved it). Tim Robbins hasn’t done anything watchable since “Shawshank Redemption” (with the exception of a brief but hilarious cameo in “High Fidelity”). He basically just mails in his performances these days and annoys everybody with his shallow and poorly substantiated political opinions.
Comment by UCrawford — November 8, 2007 @ 9:26 amBut I agree with you that boycotting actors’ films just because of their political opinions is kind of silly. Whenever the movie’s got more to it than the actor’s opinion all you’re really doing is depriving yourself of the enjoyment of watching a good film…it’s not likely to change the actor’s opinion about anything, it just deprives you of an entertainment option. The only time you should boycott a movie is when it just flat-out sucks (”Mystic River”, “Dead Man Walking”, “Anti-Trust”).
Comment by UCrawford — November 8, 2007 @ 9:32 amIt’s great that some Venezuelans are trying these protests. But it saddens me that they are met with violence. I hope the people of Venezuela stop being manipulated by Chávez. What’s sad is they probably don’t have a choice. These protests might inspire more to join in. I recently came across a website about Estonia’s Singing Revolution (http://singingrevolution.com) and it was inspirational to see a story about thousands of people coming together to fight for their freedom from Russia.
Comment by Tanvir — November 8, 2007 @ 1:02 pmI saw several videos of the violence and it’s more than clear that it is the anti-Chavez beasts who are being the aggressors here. At one point chanting, “let’s lynch them” to a group of pro-Chavez students hiding inside a university building.
Comment by Johnny — November 10, 2007 @ 2:38 amThe anti-Chavez animals don’t want to even debate the issues with the pro-Chavez people. These animals are too young to remember life in Venezuela before Chavez and have been brainwashed, just like all you folks, by the American media.
The referendum will be voted on Dec. 2nd, you freaking like it, you freaking don’t, and the vast majority of Venezuelans are going to vote for them.
There ain’t no going back to the old Venezuela. The Venezuela before Chavez when the country made in oil revenues 30 times the amount of money the US spent in Europe with the Marshall Plan, and has absolutely nothing to show for it.
There ain’t no going back to that freaking “free market” economy of years past. It was so freaking “free” that a few years before Chavez was first elected president the directors of the second largest bank in Venezuela took all the bank money for themselves and fled the country. Leaving 1.5 million Venezuelans without a penny to their name.
You guys know nothing about Venezuela. You’re a bunch of sick bastards that have taking it upon yourselves to save the world from itself.
You’re all talking out of your asses and stinking up the air around the world because of it.
Chavez will be reelected for as long as he’s doing a good job and for as long as the economy keeps on growing and growing and growing as it is doing now.
Roosevelt did the same thing to help the US from its worst depression, and so is Chavez.
LONG LIVE CHAVEZ!!! Hijos de su puta madre!