Washington Post Slams Venezuela for Electing 'Former Bus Driver' [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Washington Post Slams Venezuela for Electing 'Former Bus Driver'
By Peter Hart
Sep 25 2014

It's no secret that the Washington Post editorial page was quite alarmed by Venezuela's shift to the left under former President Hugo Chavez. The Post–like the rest of elite US media (Extra!, 11/05)–was an unrelenting critic of Chavez's policies.

Some things haven't changed.

In a scathing editorial (9/20/14), the Post went after Chavez's successor Nicolas Maduro, calling him an "economically illiterate former bus driver" because he "rejected the advice of pragmatists" and will continue to pursue policies that are ruining what was "once Latin America’s richest country."

During the Chavez years, the most important economic story was the rapid gains by the country's poor (FAIR Blog, 12/13/12); what the Post remembers as the good old days were when prosperity was not so widely shared.

The Post's real point is that the United States should do something significant to oppose the human rights abuses under Maduro–most especially the crackdown on anti-government protests earlier this year. The Post cites a Human Rights Watch report to make its case, and the solution was as clear as the editorial headline: "Venezuela Doesn't Deserve a Seat on the UN Security Council."

More:
http://www.fair.org/blog/2014/09/25/washington-post-slams-venezuela-for-electing-former-bus-driver/