[NYTr] Letters to the Edtor Confront Press Distortions on Venezuela

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

excerpted from VIO Venezuela Daily News Roundup - August 20, 2007

[Venezuela's constitutional reform proposals are addressed in
letters to the editor over the weekend in the Dallas Morning News and
the Hartford Courant.  In the New York Times, Professor Steve Ellner
writes that greater state control in Venezuela is not an authoritarian
trend, but rather indicates that new economic regulations are in place,
including nationalizing strategic sectors and monitoring workers'
cooperatives. -VIO]


New York Times - August 19, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/opinion/lweb20venez.html

Venezuela's New Phase

To the Editor:

"Chávez Expected to Propose Removing His Term Limits" (news article,
Aug. 15) quotes me as saying, "We are entering a new stage implying
more intensive state control of society."  This implies a government
crackdown on democratic liberties and a step in the direction of
authoritarian rule.

In fact, my point was that under this new stage the Chávez government
is exercising greater control by nationalizing several strategic
sectors, like telephone and electricity companies, and reducing
participation of private capital in the oil industry.

In addition, the state is monitoring more closely the program of worker
cooperatives to avoid misuse of funds by recipients.

Steve Ellner
Barcelona, Venezuela
The writer is a political scientist at Oriente University.

                              ***

Hartford Courant - August 20, 2007
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/letters/hc-lets0820.artaug20,0,7768040.story

Chavez Is Not a Dictator

The Aug. 17 editorial "Hugo Chavez For Life?" demonstrates a lack of
understanding of Venezuelan issues.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is not a dictator, as The Courant
implies - he has won three elections that were deemed free and fair by
all international observers, including the Carter Center. The Courant
seems to suggest that Venezuelans are unfit to choose a proper
democratic leader, and yet Chavez has consistently had higher approval
ratings than President Bush.

I have lived in Venezuela, and it is not "an autocratic system with
minimal rights of free expression." Individuals hold any political
viewpoint they choose, and anti-Chavez perspectives are omnipresent in
the media. However, pro-government voices are sometimes censored - the
head of the state oil company was just fined by the National Electoral
Council for encouraging workers to vote for Chavez. The checks and
balances of the democratic process remain firmly in place in Venezuela,
and tolerance and transparency prevail.

The Courant misrepresents the new constitutional changes. No provisions
would allow President Chavez to, as The Courant claims, "expropriate
private property by decree." Nor will presidential powers go unchecked.

Megan Morrissey
Media Analyst
Venezuela Information Office
Washington, D.C.

                            ***

Dallas Morning News - August 19, 2007
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/letters/stories/DN-3p_freeforall_0819edi.ART.State.Edition1.41ede6e.html

Venezuela no terrorist friend

Re: "Friends of Our Enemies? We can't ignore Iran's 
Latin America overtures," Aug. 12 Editorials.

I must correct your statement that "Hezbollah now openly operates in
Caracas," the capital of Venezuela.

Your statement implies that the government of Venezuela would tolerate
-- even support -- terrorism, when in fact nothing could be further from
the truth. Under President Hugo Chávez, the government has upped its
commitment to fighting terrorism by policing the border with Colombia.
It has offered assistance in mediating a long conflict between
guerrillas and paramilitaries, even handing over well-known actors to
Colombia.

Venezuela also has requested extradition of known terrorist Luis Posada
Carriles from the U.S. for two years so he might be tried for crimes,
including a deadly airplane bombing in 1973.

However much your editorial team might dislike the leaders of the
countries in question, it is unfair -- and incorrect -- to say Venezuela
harbors terrorists.

Olivia Goumbri, Executive Director, 
Venezuela Information Office, Washington