A Chávez mudslinger denounces FOXNews “lies”

By Gustavo Coronel
June 15, 2007

Hugo Chavez spends millions of dollars per year selling his image in the U.S. and other countries around the world. Helped by money that does not belong to him, he has been able to recruit some notorious people for his cause, including Danny Glover, to whom he recently gave $20 million to produce a film; Joe Kennedy, who has become the main distributor of subsidized Venezuelan oil to the “poor” of the United States; Jesse Jackson, who has visited Venezuela to sing Chavez’s praises; attorney Ramsey Clark, one of the former legal counselors of Sadam Hussein; Ignacio Ramonet, Director of French Le Monde Diplomatique; U.S. university professors and think tank analysts who hate Bush and former sport luminaries, now sad remnants of their former selves, such as soccer player Diego Maradona. Chavez also has hired “guns” that do the daily, dirty work for him. One of them is a Ms. Eva Golinger, a Venezuelan-American who claims to be a lawyer and has been on Chavez’s payroll for some time now, first in New York, now in Caracas. Her job includes ratting on Venezuelans who come to the U.S. invited by U.S. organizations, as she recently did in the case of a group of Venezuelan journalists that she accused of becoming U.S. spies, after they spent 10 days as guests of the U.S. She has also written a book about Chavez and the Venezuelan “revolution,” apparently edited and printed in Cuba, a book that is reported to have sold about 100,000 copies in Venezuela (an editorial record for our country) … almost all copies bought by the Chavez government (MinCI and PDVSA).

Ms. Golinger’s new assignment is to throw mud at FoxNews and its Caracas correspondent Adam Housley, calling the agency and the journalist “liars.” In a long story about FoxNews and Housley published by a semi-clandestine Chavez publication called La Hojilla (The Razor), Golinger lists a series of allegations that, she claims, have been falsely made by FoxNews “during the last two weeks.” They are, and I quote, followed by my comments (translations from the Spanish are mine):

• “Chavez is a brutal dictator.” This is no lie. Chavez is a dictator and that is a fact. Brutal is optional but dictator is not. Even those who did not think so before think so now, after the (brutal?) manner he has closed down RCTV, one of the two remaining independent television stations in the country. Now there is only one left: Globovision.

• “All those who oppose Chavez are in prison or under threat.” This is not what FoxNews could have claimed. No one can claim that all in the opposition have been put in prison. There is not enough space in Venezuelan rotten prisons to hold millions of people. However, to claim that all of Venezuelans in the opposition are under constant threats of the Chavez regime is absolutely true.

• “The police and the armed forces repressed students and peaceful demonstrators by direct orders from Chavez.” If FoxNews said this, it certainly was not exaggerating. The graphic documents abound in media such as YouTube.com for all who would like to see them.

• “Chavez has taken private property away from all Venezuelans.” Again, Ms. Golinger lies. FoxNews could not have claimed that all private property has been taken away in Venezuela. Chavez is not that efficient. However, there is no doubt that this is his stated intention. He has already started in a frantic process of industry takeovers by the State and of productive land interventions that are given over to squatters without any financial or technical backing.

• “Thousands of protesters against Chavez went on the streets.” This is a completely accurate assertion. If Ms. Golinger denies this she is a shameless liar. Again the graphic record is there, for all to see.

• “All those who follow Chavez are paid by him.” Again, the operative word in this statement is all. I am sure that FoxNews could not have claimed this, since there is not enough money in Chavez’s pockets to pay everybody who supports him. But there is no doubt that Chavez pays for dozens of mercenaries to sing his praises and the regime pays thousands of Venezuelans to attend government meetings. The popularity of Chavez has a lot to do with his policy of handouts to the poor. The poor are getting free food and free medical attention and this makes them feel better, even if they are not being empowered to become producers and to break away from the paternalistic “revolution.”

• “Chavez supports terrorists.” If FoxNews said this they would not be too far off the mark. The Colombian narcoterrorists openly support him. Hezbollah openly supports him. He has aligned his regime with Iran, Syria, Belarus, Russia, China, Zimbabwe and North Korea. In Venezuela we have a saying: “Tell me who you hang out with and I will tell you who you are.” I think in the U.S. it goes: walk like a duck, has feathers like a duck, etc.

• “There was no coup d’état in Venezuela in April 2002. He resigned after ordering violent repression against the people.” Well, this is exactly what happened, as witnessed by millions of Venezuelans, myself included. The Armed Forces asked him to resign and General Lucas Rincon told all Venezuelans in the early morning of April 12, 2002 that they had requested Chavez’s resignation, that he had resigned and was no longer president. By the way, General Rincon is today Chavez’s Ambassador to Portugal. Would Chavez reward a traitor and a liar? Rincon is said to have an ace up his sleeve regarding Chavez (Chavez’s resignation letter). Otherwise, how can his political survival and promotion to top General of the Army be explained?

• “Blacks hate whites, whites hate blacks, and all hate Indians and Indians hate all because of Chavez.” This is truly grotesque phrasing by Golinger. The fact is that Chavez, helped by mercenaries like Marta Harnecker and defunct Norberto Ceresole and political allies like Robert Mugabe, and helped along by organizations such as TransAfrica Forum and some of its leaders, such as Glover and Belafonte, have been injecting a racial component that never existed before into Venezuelan politics. Chavez now claims that Bolivar was a zambo, like him, which is a lie, because Bolivar was a white aristocrat. He claims that Venezuelan whites and rich are the enemies of the people. He is a racist in the worst sense of the word. If FoxNews said this they would be right.”

• “Venezuela is near bankruptcy and of another coup d’état.” If FoxNews said Venezuela was near bankruptcy they would be largely correct. Chavez has worked an anti-miracle, converting money into trash. As for another coup d’état, no one knows. The last one was engineered by Chavez in 1992 and failed, due to his cowardice, but not before 200 innocent Venezuelans had been killed. Their blood is in his hands.

Ms. Golinger is a mudslinger of the Chavez regime. U.S. public opinion should be aware of this. FoNews reports the news but public opinion is free to believe or not what they say and to calibrate their assertions against the versions of other news agencies. But in Venezuela freedom of expression is being brutally smothered by Chavez and his mudslinger.

© 2007 Gustavo Coronel