While brave Venezuelans battle police in the streets, a group of Brits have endorsed the marxist dictator Chavez in his attempt to silence the opposition:
We believe that the decision of the Venezuelan government not to renew the broadcasting licence of RCTV when it expires on May 27 (Chávez silences critical TV station, May 23; Comment and Letters, May 25) is legitimate given that RCTV has used its access to the public airwaves to repeatedly call for the overthrow of the democratically elected government of President Hugo Chávez. RCTV gave vital practical support to the overthrow of Venezuela's elected government in April 2002 in which at least 13 people were killed. In the 47 hours that the coup plotters held power, they overturned much of Venezuela's democratic constitution - closing down the elected national assembly, the supreme court and other state institutions.
Whether Chavez was democratically elected is debateable. What is certain is that now he is not governing democratically, but has the power to rule by decree. And why did Hugo wait until five years after the coup attempt to shut down RCTV?
And what about the coup attempt by Chavez to overthrow a democratically elected government in 1992? They don't bother to mention that.
The letter is signed by several famous British socialists and Marxists, including Tony Benn and Tariq Ali. Yet another example of the incompatibility of socialism with democracy and freedom.
2 comments:
Maddening! Thanks for commenting on my blog.
My pleasure, JM.
It always makes my blood boil when socialists like Benn who live in capitalist countries such as the USA or the UK want some poor country like Venezuela to adopt socialist policies. They should go there and live like the Venezuelans do and see how much they enjoy socialism.
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