Five Lies of the Venezuelan Opposition Print E-mail
By Hands Off Venezuela - www.handsoffvenezuela.org   
Wednesday, 26 May 2004

LIE ONE

• CHAVEZ DOES NOT WANT TO CALL A RECALL REFERENDUM •

In fact the recall referendum is an instrument introduced by the new Bolivarian constitution. In order to trigger it a certain number of signatures must be collected. In this particular case (the recall of the President of the Republic) 2.4 million signatures are necessary. In December 2003 the opposition said it had collected 3.6 million signatures. In February the National Electoral Council declared that 800,000 of these signatures were invalid. Moreover, 700,000 were declared as unclear and needed to go through a verification process. This demonstrates how massive the fraud was. This decision was ratified by the Carter Center and observers of the Organization of American States (which certainly can not be considered as two revolutionary organizations). If the opposition manages to reconfirm 50 percent of the doubtful signatures, it would have enough to be able to call for the referendum. The Government declared it was prepared to follow the decision of the National Electoral Council.

LIE TWO

• CHAVES USES REPRESSION AGAINST THE OPPOSITION •

In Venezuela there have been hundreds of peaceful opposition demonstrations and never has there been political repression of any kind (the opposite of what used to happen during the 40 years of rule of the parties now in opposition). In February 2004 the opposition refused to recognize the decision of the National Electoral Council, called for civil and military disobedience and for the building of barricades in the streets of Caracas. It confronted the National Guard with Molotov cocktails and rifles. The National Guard responded in a moderate way and cleared out the barricades from the streets. After these disturbances organized by the "democratic opposition" there have been other peaceful demonstrations of the opposition, although poorly attended.

LIE THREE

• CHAVES USES REPRESSION AGAINST THE MEDIA •

In the last five years the private media (which is 90 percent dominated by the opposition) has launched a systematic campaign of insults towards the democratically-elected President, as well as deliberate lies and open calls for a military coup and for the overthrow of the democratic government by violent means. However there has been no censorship of the press whatsoever (unlike what used to happen during the 40 years of rule of the parties which now form the opposition). Only two TV channels have been closed during these five years: Channel 8 (which is the state-owned broadcaster), closed by the opposition during the military coup of April 2002; and CatiaTV, a local community TV station from a neighborhood in Caracas, which was closed by a local government controlled by the "democratic" opposition.

LIE FOUR

• IN VENEZUELA THERE IS A DICTATORSHIP •

In Venezuela all democratic rights are respected. The only people who tried to install a dictatorship in Venezuela were those from the "democratic" opposition who organized the military coup of April 2002, suspended the Constitution, the National Assembly (the Parliament) and all democratic rights. None of those responsible for the coup are today in jail. The majority of them walk free in the streets of Caracas while preparing new conspiracies to overthrow the government. The others are in a very comfortable exile in Miami from where they move the threads of the conspiracy.

LIE FIVE

• CHAVEZ SUPPORTS TERRORISM •

The opposition has never presented any proof for its ridiculous accusations (as for example the supposed existence of an Al-Qaeda training camp in Isla Margarita). Last Saturday 56 Colombian paramilitaries were arrested. They were training in order to organize terrorist actions against the democratically-elected government on a plot of land of a well-known opposition leader in El Hatillo.

In Venezuela there is a revolutionary process which has been overwhelmingly supported by the population in seven successive elections during the last 5 years. The "democratic" opposition represents the interests of an oligarchy which for decades has controlled the natural resources of the country and does not want to renounce its privileges. This is why we support the Venezuelan revolution.
 
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