[NYTr] Much Ado about Chavez Saying Buttinsky Foreigners Not Welcome
 
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:23:28 -0500 (CDT)


Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
VIO Venezuela Daily News Roundup - Jul 24, 2007

[President Chavez continues to receive criticism for a statement he
made Sunday that foreigners who publicly denigrate his administration
are not welcome in Venezuela.  However, the comment, which was in
reference to recent undiplomatic words by a Mexican politician, has
been taken largely out of context.  The Guardian picks up the story,
and adds that those critical will be "escorted to the airport" and
deported, a fact which was never indicated by President Chavez and does
not seem likely.  The head of Washington's Council on Hemispheric
Affairs interpreted the remarks, saying "Venezuela is not moving
towards an authoritarian regime. It's just that when he speaks Chavez
doesn't have a pause button. These sort of remarks cause enormous
misapprehension and misunderstanding but don't really represent his
convictions."  Venezuela has a large foreign-born population, is an
important tourist destination, and frequently the host of international
events. -VIO]

The Guardian - July 24, 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/venezuela/story/0,,2133334,00.html

Criticise me and you're out, ChC!vez warns foreigners

By Rory Carroll

President Hugo ChC!vez has announced that foreigners who visit Venezuela
and criticise his government will be escorted to the airport and
expelled.

In a televised address the Venezuelan leader ordered cabinet ministers
to monitor statements by visitors and deport them if they "denigrated"
his leadership.

"How long are we going to allow a person - from any country in the
world - to come to our own house to say there's a dictatorship here,
that the president is a tyrant, and nobody does anything about it?" he
said. "No foreigner, whoever he may be, can come here and attack us.
Whoever comes, we must remove him from the country. Here is your bag,
sir, go."

The threat, made during a six-hour broadcast on Sunday, is one of the
strongest warnings to foreign critics since Mr ChC!vez was elected eight
years ago. It came on the eve of the publication of a draft
constitution that will propose abolishing presidential term limits,
allowing the socialist leader to stand again when his current term ends
in 2012.

He has recently signalled an acceleration of his self-described
revolution by ordering the armed services to reflect socialist values
and telling education officials to purge the "perversity of capitalism"
from school textbooks.

Opinions about the politician, an outspoken opponent of US foreign
policy and a key ally of Cuba, are sharply divided at home and abroad.
Supporters say he is a democrat who has won three landslides, poured
his country's oil wealth into social programmes for the poor and
restored dignity to Latin America by standing up to Washington. Opinion
polls put his approval ratings well above 60%.

Critics say he is wasting billions on unsustainable populist schemes
and eroding democracy by bringing the courts, parliament, the armed
services and the state media under his direct control. In May the
government refused to renew the terrestrial broadcast licence of RCTV,
an opposition-aligned TV station, provoking accusations of censorship.

Sunday's attack will further polarise the president's reputation. He
did not name any critics but the immediate target was believed to be
Manuel Espino, the head of Mexico's conservative ruling party, who on a
recent visit to Caracas questioned the president's democratic
credentials.

Mr ChC!vez said he personally did not mind criticism but that in some
cases it affronted "national dignity". Hours after his speech the
information ministry issued a press release quoting the remarks. It was
headlined: "Foreigners who come to Venezuela to denigrate it must be
deported."

Some analysts played down the warning. "I still subscribe to the view
that what appears to be wrong with ChC!vez is more bark than bite," said
Larry Birns, of the Washington-based thinktank, the Council on
Hemispheric Affairs.

"Venezuela is not moving towards an authoritarian regime. It's just
that when he speaks ChC!vez doesn't have a pause button. These sort of
remarks cause enormous misapprehension and misunderstanding but don't
really represent his convictions."

One western diplomat said Sunday's speech did not signal a crackdown on
dissent but did reflect a worrying drift. "One shouldn't overreact, it
doesn't change much right now, but it is part of a general trend
towards intolerance of criticism."

Foreign journalists and NGOs operate freely in Venezuela and about 80%
of the domestic media is in private hands. Mr ChC!vez's supporters say
he has behaved with remarkable restraint given that much of the private
media openly backed a coup which briefly ousted him in 2002.

But the climate is changing. The only critical TV channels, RCTV and
Globovision, are confined to cable, leaving most viewers to choose
between private channels that soft-pedal journalism or state channels
that provide fawning coverage of the president.
       
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