Chavez In Venezuela

The UnitedStatesOfAmerica doesn't like the democracy of Hugo Chavez Venezuela. So it's trying to shut him down. It's tried real hard twice now:

First Attempt:

What neither Bush nor the papers told you is that Chavez's real crime was to pass two laws through Venezuela's national assembly. The first ordered big plantation owners to turn over untilled land to the landless. The second nearly doubled, from roughly 16% to 30%, royalties paid for extracting Venezuela's oil. Venezuela was once the largest exporter of oil to the USA, bigger than Saudi Arabia. This explains Chavez's unpopularity - at least within that key constituency, the American petroleum industry. --http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4396083,00.html

Second Attempt:

[...] three key facts are regularly omitted from the story. First, the oil company strike was called by its wealthy managers, not its workers. Second, Chávez was democratically-elected. Third, the coup plotters were backed by the Bush Administration. "We were sending informal, subtle signals that we don't like this guy," said a U.S. Defense Department official --http://story.news.yahoo.com/

Being a Venezuelan myself, and living in this (now) hell we call home, I feel compeled to comment.

The last December (2002) "oil strike" was not a oil strike. It was a major, generalized civil strike. The truth is that the day the stike begun (December 2, 2002), only 10% of the workers, most of them from the administrative branch, decided to join. By December 10, 2002 the industry was operating nearly at full potential. The only faction that was critical to the bussiness and joined the strike was the Merchant Navy, who stopped all the tankers. Even then, they said "If you want the ship to move, just bring a qualified crew and we'll give the ship to them". By December 12, 2002, the goverment sent the army and their "unoficial army" to take over the major oil refineries, sending the workers to "vacations". In thruth they took over the control of all the major petrochemical complex. That's the story that is not being said... It was the goverment who shutted down the oil industry, not the workers. The ports where not working because instead of looking for able people they put unprepared people (some accidents happened), and some petrochemical complex are pretty damage from both sabotage (yes, some worked sabotaged the systems) and incompetence (yes, there are a lot of incompetent people working there).

In another note, is true that Chavez was democratically elected, but the voting system is so imperfect that even as he had the majority of votes, those are a minority of the population. Right now there are more people against him (4 millions and up supporting the "Opposition") that the people that elected him back in 1999 (rougly 3.5 millions), with the rest not taking sides, that is, they are against the Goverment but not with the "Opposition" (3.5 millions or so)

All that said, I really get angered when someone try to attack the USA goverment using countries like Venezuela and Cuba. Before speaking they should come here (or to Cuba) and live with the common folk for at least six month, using money from a monthly wager from a local company. Then they'll see the reality. H**l, I live here, and I have witnessed the downfall of my lifestyle. I even had to move because the crime rate on my neighborhood raised 45% in one year!

Well.... I think I feel better now. Sorry for the rant As a last note, I used to like my country a lot. I still do (it used to be one of the best countries to live), and I want to stay here as long as I can (as long as I feel this is a place where my childrens can grow, when they come) --RafaelAlvarez

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