The Real News network's excellent report on the Chavez health crisis in Venezuela [View all]

[Peace Patriot]

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=9487

The Real News' Senior Editor Paul Jay interviews Alex Main, the Senior Associate for International Relations at CEPR. There is both vid of the interview and a transcript.

It's the kind of analysis we NEVER get from our corporate media. Analysis that reflects REALITY--the reality of the smashing victory that the chavistas just won in the governors' elections on top of Chavez getting re-elected, the reality of other Latin American leaders endorsing the process in Venezuela (the supreme court postponing the inauguration of Chavez**), details of the applicable laws, Chavez's VP Nicholas Maduro's chances of election if an election is called (virtual certainty), what the rightwing opposition is actually doing and saying, and--a very important point--that the new friendly contacts by the U.S. actually started way back in November, with Chavez, and NOT as an opportunistic ploy given Chavez's ill health.

The CIA and the MIC are, of course, not to be trusted and I REALLY DISAGREE with Alex Main's positive assessment of Chuck Hagel and wonder if he knows Hagel's election fraud history--he is one of the AUTHOR's of the demise of honest, transparent elections here in the U.S. (What wouldn't he do to get votes 'counted' in Venezuela using ES&S/Diebold's 'TRADE SECRET' code?!). But, still, one can HOPE for better relations between the U.S. and Venezuela, or, rather, for the U.S. to call off its war and chaos dogs. And I think that Main/CEPR is in a better position to know the scuttlebutt in DC than I am--way more.

In any case, here is a NEW source for real world news/opinion about Latin America (and other subjects). I'm looking forward to checking with The Real News now, when we get disinformation and propaganda from the corporate media and need to find out what's really happening. While we should always question all news sources, I am sick unto death of the garbage we've been getting on the Latin America Left from the Corporate Media--a poison that has seriously infected the BBC and even the Guardian. We have such a dearth of reliable or at least counter-balancing news sources. You can count them on one hand--on less than one hand--and most of those are partisan and/or rather obscure or only occasionally cover LatAm events. It's such a boon to find a NEWS SERVICE that is not egregiously biased against the Left!

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** (from the interview--my emphasis) MAIN: That's right. So that's Marco Aurélio, adviser to President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil. He was just recently in Cuba and had long meetings. It's not clear whether he met with President Chávez or not. He certainly met with (Vice) President Maduro. And he returned from that trip with some strong statements to the press, in which he said indeed he believed that it was constitutional for the inauguration to be postponed, and even offered that it might be postponed for as long as 180 days, according to the Constitution.