Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalWho Is Dying in Venezuela? A Revealing NYT Correction
Who Is Dying in Venezuela? A Revealing NYT Correction
By Peter Hart
Mar 26 2014
Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez has an op-ed in the New York Times today (3/26/14). Given that he is currently being held in a military prison, the piece is notable. But the most revealing part might be a correction that appears at the end:
Correction: March 26, 2014
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the more than 30 people killed in the political demonstrations in Venezuela since February 4 were protesters. That number includes security forces and civilians, not only protesters.
So the op-ed currently reads, "Over 30 people, including security forces and civilians, have died in the demonstrations." In the original, those deaths were all considered to be on the protesters' side: "More than 1,500 protesters have been detained, more than 30 have been killed." If you have been relying on US media to follow the Venezuela story, or relying on Venezuelan opposition sources, you'd probably have the mistaken idea that the violence was basically all happening on one side–which might explain how this error got into the Times.
Jake Johnston of the Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR) has been keeping track of the deaths attributed to the protests ("Venezuela: Who Are They and How Did They Die?"
, and a similar effort by Ewan Roberston can be found at Venezuelanalysis.com. The latter finds pro-government and anti-government deaths about equal (nine on both sides), with a dozen deaths of civilians with no apparent political affiliation–numbers that basically line up with Johnston's.
The presence of the protest barricades appears to be the most common cause of deaths: individuals shot while attempting to clear the opposition street blockades, automobile accidents caused by the presence of the barricades, and several incidents attributed to the opposition stringing razor wire across streets near the barricades. The most recent reported death was a pregnant woman who was shot while walking towards a barricade (AP, 3/24/14). She was not participating in the protest on either side.
More:
http://www.fair.org/blog/2014/03/26/who-is-dying-in-venezuela-a-revealing-nyt-correction/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=who-is-dying-in-venezuela-a-revealing-nyt-correction
Bolivia urges U.S. to respect democracy in Venezuela
Bolivia urges U.S. to respect democracy in Venezuela
Mar 21,2014
LA PAZ, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Bolivian President Evo Morales on Thursday urged the United States to respect Venezuela's democracy and its democratically-elected President Nicolas Maduro.
"The United States must respect the president of Venezuela, respect democracy and respect all the (political) stances that exist in Latin America and the Caribbean," Morales said at a meeting with a group of five U.S. legislators, who are on a visit to Bolivia.
He said he would like to convey the message through the congressmen to the U.S. government, which accuses the Venezuelan government of repressing political opposition.
On Wednesday, Morales denounced Washington for attempting to finance extreme right-wing groups in Venezuela to foment protest and destabilize Maduro's government.
More:
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=207994
The Basurero Is Burning: Life at the Gates of Hell in Guatemala City
The Basurero Is Burning: Life at the Gates of Hell in Guatemala City
By Benjamin Reeves Mar 25 2014
In early January 2014, a fire broke out beneath the festering mountain of garbage that is Guatemala City's dump. The fire department half-heartedly tried to extinguish the inferno with water and suffocate it with bulldozers full of dirt, but it refused to go out, fueled by the chemical waste and toxic refuse deep below the surface of the trash pile. Seen from an airplane approaching the impoverished nation's airport, the acrid smoke billowing from the ugly gash in the center of the city looked like an open volcanic fault or the gates to hell.
Although the blaze on the surface of the trash heap was eventually extinguished and there are no open flames today, those who work in the dump say there are fires continuously burning deep within the trash pile, and while the firefighters continue to attempt to extinguish them, according to observers and residents they don’t have the right equipment to completely extinguish the chemical-soaked piles. The fire technically only burned for two days in January, but I've been told it smoldered within the garbage pile for a month before then.
Some 7,000 people work from dawn to dusk, 365 days a year in the dump—whole families spend their lives collecting plastic, metal, and old magazines from out of the trash heap to sell to recyclers. Around 1,000 of these guajeros, as the trash-pickers are called, are children, according to residents.
One elderly guajero told me he has worked in the basurero (Spanish for dump—it’s also the name of the neighborhood where the guajeroslive) for 50 years, but in recent years there has been an influx of people coming here to join him. Many families have been driven to the basurero by poverty brought on by the global economic crisis coupled with mismanagement on the part of the Guatemalan government.
More:
http://www.vice.com/read/the-basurero-is-burning-life-at-the-gates-of-hell-in-guatemala-city
Venezuela: Who You Gonna Believe, the New York Times or Your Lying Eyes?
Venezuela: Who You Gonna Believe, the New York Times or Your Lying Eyes?
Written by Mark Weisbrot
Saturday, 15 March 2014 19:25
Today’s report from the New York Times trashes the government for “combative tactics” and “cracking down” on protesters, but if you watch the accompanying video, all you see are protesters attacking police, and the police – without venturing forward, defending themselves with water cannon and tear gas.
One can criticize the decision of the government to block the march from going to hostile territory, but given the continuous presence of violent elements among the protestors, and that Venezuela is a country with a very high homicide rate and many armed civilians, it could have been the prudent thing to do. The government also believes, with some justification, that these protests seek to provoke violence in order to de-legitimize the government. Their stated goal is to overthrow the democratically elected government, and given that the vast majority of the country is against the protests, this really is their only chance of getting anywhere. And the government also knows that the media (both national private and international) will generally blame them for any violence.
In the United States, and especially here in Washington DC, you have to get a permit for marches like this, and they are often denied or re-routed; and if you try to defy this the police will generally beat you and throw you in jail. And these are actually peaceful protests here.
More:
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/venezuela-who-you-gonna-believe-the-new-york-times-or-your-lying-eyes
US Proxy Terror War on Venezuela
US Proxy Terror War on Venezuela
by James Petras / March 25th, 2014
Protest, dissent and the destructive terror of war are obviously very distinct forms of expressing opposition and bringing about change. The Obama-Kerry regime support the opposition in Venezuela as a ‘protest movement’ composed of ‘peaceful democratic opponents’ expressing their discontent with economic conditions, while they denounce the democratically-elected Maduro Administration as an ‘authoritarian regime’ violently repressing legitimate dissent. Washington disingenuously claims to have played no part in the actions of the Venezuelan opposition and that its pronouncements are merely directed at promoting democratic freedoms.
The overwhelming evidence show that the Venezuelan opposition has engaged in prolonged and extensive violence, including terrorist acts, assassinations, arson, and destruction of public property. Most recently this includes the murder of military officers and civilian supporters of the government. Widely circulated photographs, even in Washington-controlled media outlets, show opposition activists throwing Molotov cocktails at police and counter-demonstrators and building barricades for bloody street confrontations.
The Obama-Kerry Administration denies any involvement in the ongoing violence while unconditionally defending the opposition gangs of thugs. At the same time it demonizes every legitimate government action to defend its citizens, uphold the Constitution and enforce internationally recognized norms of law and order. The Obama-Kerry regime’s political intervention and its escalating rhetoric is designed to incite the opposition to further violent activity in order to destabilize the country for ‘regime change’.
US Secretary of State John Kerry’s vitriolic rhetoric is timed to counter the recent ebb of opposition activity, assuring the opposition that Washington supports its campaign of ‘warfare in the streets’. President Obama’s propaganda, the regime’s economic sanctions and the channeling of financial and military resources to the violent opposition groups is designed to reinvigorate the campaign of terror and sabotage against the Venezuelan government. The Kerry-Obama sanctions and their war of words provide external support for violent terrorists operating inside Venezuela.
More:
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/03/us-proxy-terror-war-on-venezuela/
'Collapse' of Modern Civilization a Real Possibility: Study
Published on Saturday, March 15, 2014 by Common Dreams
'Collapse' of Modern Civilization a Real Possibility: Study
'Ecological strain' and 'economic stratification' could bring global downfall, researchers warn
- Sarah Lazare, staff writer
"Ecological strain" and "economic stratification" could lead to the global fall of modern civilization within decades, researchers warn in a disturbing new study (PDF) sponsored by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
History shows that "complex, advanced civilizations" from the Roman to Han empires are capable of collapse, note the authors, who hail from the Universities of Maryland and Minnesota.
Based on this premise, the researchers employ "a new cross-disciplinary 'Human And Nature DYnamical' (HANDY) model, led by applied mathematician Safa Motesharri of the US National Science Foundation-supported National Environmental Synthesis Center, in association with a team of natural and social scientists," explains Nafeez Ahmed writing for The Guardian.
"By investigating the human-nature dynamics of these past cases of collapse, the project identifies the most salient interrelated factors which explain civilizational decline, and which may help determine the risk of collapse today: namely, Population, Climate, Water, Agriculture, and Energy," writes Ahmed.
More:
https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/03/15-1
Venezuelan students send the world a message -- don't buy their lies! (VIDEO) (subtitled)
Venezuelan students send the world a message -- don't buy their lies! (VIDEO)
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Venezuelan students who support the Bolivarian Revolution speak out against recent oppositional violence, and urge the nation's youth to think for themselves in the midst of the media-backed polarisation. They also explain the gains of the revolution for students and youth that are at stake. (Thanks to Venezuela Analysis which posted this video)
https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/56140
Peru: New 'kill' law targets protesters
Peru: New 'kill' law targets protesters
Monday, March 24, 2014
By David T. Rowlands
With Newmont-Buenaventura set to resume building operations at the controversial Conga mine site this year, the Peruvian government has passed a new law granting legal immunity to security personnel who injure or kill protesters.
The promulgation of Law 30151, which was officially gazetted on January 14 after being signed by President Ollanta Humala, indicates the state and its transnational corporate backers are planning an expanded campaign of repression against Peruvian communities resisting their neoliberal development model.
Since late 2011, protests in and around Cajamarca in Peru's northern highlands forced the Humala administration to suspend US-based Newmont’s building of Conga, a US$4.8 billion extension of the existing Yanacocha gold and copper mine.
Other partners include Buenaventura, a Peru-based metals company, and the World Bank. The bank has backed the project with relatively small but symbolically important funding.
At stake is the future of a chain of highland lakes, which will be converted into toxic tailings ponds if the project goes ahead. This would radically degrade the regional environment, making agriculture unsustainable.
More:
https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/56134
Venezuela’s conflict spills into Toronto with threats against priest
Venezuela’s conflict spills into Toronto with threats against priest
A popular Toronto priest has received threats since he held a service commemorating the anniversary of Hugo Chavez’s death.
By: Nicholas Keung Immigration reporter, Published on Fri Mar 21 2014
As Venezuela’s political crisis deepens, bitter divisions in the South American nation have spilled into Toronto, with a popular local priest receiving threats.
Father Hernan Astudillo of the Parish of San Lorenzo and Radio Voces Latinas, a radio station he founded in 2003, says he received threats by fax, email and phone last week after the church commemorated the anniversary of the death of controversial Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. That followed a silent protest by a man who attended a Sunday mass for Chavez on March 9 at the church near Dufferin St. and Lawrence Ave.
Toronto police are investigating the complaint, but no one has been charged.
“It’s okay to disagree and have heated debates, but you can’t intimidate and silence others with death threats,” said Pablo Vivanco, a member of the church, whose family came from Chile.
“Our members come from Latin America and have suffered too much violence and political destabilization. This is not something we expected in Canada.”
More:
http://www.thestar.com/news/immigration/2014/03/21/venezuelas_conflict_spills_into_toronto_with_threats_against_priest.html
Venezuela: National Assembly Expels Opposition Deputy
Venezuela: National Assembly Expels Opposition Deputy
CARACAS, March 25 (BERNAMA-NNN-XINHUA) -- Venezuela's National Assembly has stripped a prominent opposition member of her seat, after she accepted Panama's invitation to discuss her country's political crisis at a meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS).
Maria Machado was dismissed for violating the Venezuelan Constitution by serving as a Panamanian envoy, National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello told reporters at a press conference.
Cabello was citing Articles 191 and 149 which state that "no representative can accept a public post without first resigning as a deputy," and "no public officer can accept jobs, honors or rewards from a foreign government without the prior authorization of the National Assembly."
After she accepted Panama's invitation to take its ambassador's seat at the OAS, Machado was in Washington DC, Friday to detail the opposition accusations of Venezuelan government repression against violent protests.
More:
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v7/wn/newsworld.php?id=1024624
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