World News – If you thought that Costa Rica’s political landscape was something of a disaster zone then think again – you could be Venezuelan. Hugo Chavez became one of many “Elected Dictators” this week when he was voted in by the Venezuelan People (actually he was not) and will stay in office now for another 6 years. Poor Venezuelans.
Who is Hugo Chavez? Why is Hugo Chavez a dictator? Let’s look at the facts:
Chavez since he came to power has jailed his political opponents on trumped up charges. This includes his most recent challenger Henrique Capriles who he accused of being the ring leader on an assault on the Cuban embassy some years ago.
Chavez has closed the anti-Chavez television stations and made all newspapers join his revolution or go bust. In other words media is all pro-Chavez inside Venezuela. He has even tried to block out parts of the Internet but he’s not work outed how to do that quite just yet.
The largest single opposition voting bloc of Venezuelans is in Miami (that’s where they all flee to when Chavez accuses them of something or they get too successful). He closed the Miami embassy so they could not vote.
Chavez installed electronic vote counters that even Jimmy Carter’s electoral team did not believe. With an alleged 81% turnout (unheard of in Venezuela – where were the jungle natives going to vote to get to this crazy turnout figure?) Chavez could win by 10% easily.
Chavez funded his campaign with state cash. The Opposition had to rely on what they had and the Internet. Outside funds were hard to get hold of because bringing foreign currency into Venezuela is hard when you have no way to cash it (unless you are Chavez that is).
Finally, state workers and the military were told they’d lose their jobs if they voted for anyone apart from Chavez.
Chavez stole the election. So if you think we’ve got it bad here with a bunch of crazies running the country, always remember things could be far worse. We could be living in Venezuela.
1 comment
“even” Jimmy Carter’s electoral team?