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CounterPunch
January
11, 2003
Spinners of
Venezuelan Fairy Tales
An Open Letter to All Things Considered
By BRAD CARLTON
I was disappointed to learn, upon hearing Gerry
Hadden's most recent dispatch from Venezuela, that NPR is not
immune to the widespread journalistic trend of selectively
parrotting spin and innuendo, so that news reports become repositories
of suggestion rather than facts.
Venezuela in particular has suffered
mightily from such irresponsible reporting, as I learned firsthand
in Caracas last summer while interviewing high-level U.S. embassy
personnel, Venezuelan government ministers, opposition leaders,
Bolivarian Circle members, proud escualidos, and legions of
civilians from all walks of life.
Hadden provides almost no context, few
facts, and little rebuttal to offset the charges his sources
level against the Venezuelan government. He presents the opposition's
argument that "Chavez's attempt to wrest control of the
police force [Policia Metropolitana, or PM] from an opposition
mayor this month goes to the heart of why they distrust the
president... [and] shows that Chavez is a dictator-in-the-making."
Yet Hadden is silent about the PM's use of force against civilian
protests in recent weeks, killing four and wounding dozens,
that prompted the takeover. Nor does he find the more than 40
people killed by the PM during civil disturbances following
Chavez's brief ouster worth mentioning.
As for the characterization of Chavez
as a dictator, Hadden should have called on one of Chavez's
ministers or supporters to respond to such serious libel, or
he might have pointed out that there are no political prisoners
in Venezuela, but instead he lets the "dictator" comment
stand unchallenged. This is insulting to the billions of people
who have lived, died, and "disappeared" under true
dictatorships, where people are stripped of due process, freedom
of association, and electoral power, and where dissent--which
flourishes in Venezuela--is illegal.
Hadden even underscores the opposition's
allegations with his own pejorative interjections that "left-leaning"
Chavez "forged close ties with Cuba's Fidel Castro."
Listeners are left with the impression that Chavez is a Castro-styled
communist, which is flat wrong. His government's relations
with Cuba do not make him a communist any more than France's
relations with Iraq make it a totalitarian regime.
Particularly deceptive is Hadden's allusion
to a Chavez law "that allows for the expropriation of private
property in some circumstances," without mentioning what
those circumstances are. The Land Reform law provides for expropriation
with compensation of idle farmlands, as well as arable lands
exceeding 12,350 acres in areas of poor soil (350 acres in areas
of rich soil), to be redistributed to landless workers. It is
also important to note (though Hadden doesn't) that in the 1960's
big landowners and ranchers expanded their fences to expropriate
most of the state-owned marshlands the government intended for
redistribution. Current stats on land concentration are appalling:
One percent of farms account for 46% of farmland, one percent
of the population owns 60% of arable lands, and 40% of all Venezuelan
farmlands lie fallow. As a result, Venezuela is agronomically
undiversified and chronically dependent on oil and imports,
while the urban population has exploded, causing crime, unemployment,
and pollution rates to soar. Even the middle-class Chavez foes
I spoke to said the need for land reform is a no-brainer. Does
this make them Castro-communists? The mere suggestion is ludicrous.
Hadden would likely respond that he didn't
have enough airtime to discuss the law's particulars. Fine,
but why not couple the word "expropriation" with "idle
farmland"--both concise and precise--instead of the buzzwords
"private property," unless he specifically intends
to associate Chavez with communistic distribution of wealth?
To reinforce that insinuation, Hadden
must have looked long and hard to find a pro-government supporter
spewing classical Marxist rhetoric and referring to allies as
"comrades." This is not at all representative; I spoke
to dozens of Chavez supporters, and none of them defined their
politics in these terms (references to the oligarquia notwithstanding).
In fact, the real story is that el proceso, the movement that
swept Chavez to power, is the embryonic manifestation of a new
political philosophy in which economic and institutional power
is dominated by neither the state nor big business interests,
but instead is decentralized and directly influenced through
public, participatory processes. Like it or not, el proceso
is gaining strength and captivating the imaginations of people
all across Latin America, especially in Venezuela, Brazil,
Argentina, Ecuador, and Bolivia. To define the terms of the
Venezuelan debate in traditional free market vs. leftist-Marxist
terms, as Hadden does, is as reductive as it is disingenuous.
Hadden is correct to point out that Chavez
"led an unsuccessful coup ten years ago," but, again,
the lack of context is outrageous. That particular coup was
in direct response to the Perez administration's bloody crackdown
on a civic uprising. At least a thousand civilians were killed.
Like the killings mentioned above, we do not have to guess
who the parties responsible are (as in the still maddeningly
unsolved case of April 11); it is a matter of historical record.
So, given that Hadden goes out of his way to vaguely characterize
Chavez's supporters' street protests as "violent,"
why does he consistently fail to mention the civilian deaths
suffered at the hands of Chavez's political foes? This is the
journalistic equivalent of a "disappearance."
I hope for the sake of Mr. Hadden's conscience
that he is as ashamed of his report as I am of NPR for broadcasting
it.
Brad Carlton
wrote the "Letter from Venezuela" series for The Baltimore
Chronicle, where this letter originally appeared. He can be
reached at: bradcarlton@mail.com
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