Venezuela: Politics, Propaganda and Polarization
by Rick Rockwell
Those who frame policy in the U.S. would like us to believe President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is the next Fidel Castro. They’d be wrong about that.
Meanwhile, Chavez and his government would like us to believe he is the next Salvador Allende: an earnest leftist who is strengthening democracy. They’d be wrong about that too.
What’s intriguing about discussing modern Venezuela is how often folks get it wrong. With so much politics, propaganda and polarization attached to this topic, few would admit that the voices from either side of the spectrum are often both wrong. And given that framework, both sides are likely to label this commentary as wrong too. So be it.
The latest controversies connected to Chavez concern his nationalizations and his plans to disconnect RCTV, Venezuela’s oldest television network.
Those suspecting a motive in this essay may expect an immediate alliance between the cause of RCTV and a writer who focuses on free expression. And they’d be wrong about that too.
Some have written at length about the connections between the Venezuelan networks (including RCTV) and the failed coup to oust Chavez in 2002.
However, consider this hypothetical: if a network and its anchors in the U.S. plotted a coup and failed, how long do you think they’d be on the air after that failure?
Not long.
By contrast, RCTV remained on the air even after it broadcast lies and manipulative video during the coup attempt and even though its top personnel were in league with the plotters.
Clearly, RCTV and others in the media in Venezuela crossed the line from reporting about news to trying to create their own news and along with it a different political reality. Many in the media in Venezuela sought to change the political atmosphere by other means besides the democratic methods of discussing those changes and moving civil society and the masses to take the next political steps.
Despite that history, groups such as Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists have condemned the warnings by Chavez that he intends to keep RCTV from renewing its license to broadcast. Granted, from an ideal point of view, voices should not be snuffed out in a democratic system. However, when those voices have aligned themselves with traitors and plan to go on using the property of the state (as the airwaves are in most countries, including the U.S.) as if nothing had happened, the cause of free expression cannot write a blank check to excuse their actions.
But the Chavez government should frame the issue that way by reminding critics that the media in Venezuela represent the ultra-elite who befriended corrupt governments and who have worked to keep the aristocracy in power, rather than opening up the system to a true democracy. Most Venezuelans live on two dollars a day. The Venezuelan media oligarchs, though, spend as much time in Miami as Caracas, and from the start they have been against the populism of Chavez. Chavez gets the credit for opening up Venezuela’s system to better representation of all classes except the elite.
However, when Bernardo Alvarez Herrera, Venezuela’s ambassador to the U.S., came to American University this week, he defensively dismissed questions about the closure of RCTV, flicking them aside like bothersome gnats. The closure is “an expiration of a concession,” Alvarez said, and nothing more. He noted the country will still have three independent television networks and at least a dozen newspapers; many of those outlets side with the opposition.
“The future of Venezuela is not what you see on TV,” Alvarez said, and he noted with pride that Chavez “has defeated the media coup.”
Of course, Alvarez skips over how members of the military have bullied reporters, how pro-Chavez gangs have attacked networks and newspapers (without the president calling for calm) and how the president has used his powers to commandeer the private airwaves at a whim whenever he wants to give a speech.
Chavez and his government need to work at how they discuss and project their power if they want to be regarded like Allende and his Chilean vanguard, as heroes to the left. Otherwise they’ll end up like Castro and his brother, authoritarians masquerading as populists.
(Photo of Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez from VTV, Venezuela's state television network; the photo is in the public domain. For an anti-Chavez cartoon, click here. To see a cartoon that recalls Chavez' famous U.N. speech, click here.)
politics
Venezuela
media
corporate media
Hugo Chavez
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2 comments:
I see you have forgot the coup Chavez gave in 1992, focusing only on the one that happened on 2002. Second. Of course, theres many mistakes on the way media has managed things during this period of modern Venezuela as you call it, but thats not enough excuse to close a channel. When Chávez came to power, only one channel belong to the goverment and the rest to private organizations. Now, only one channel has a version from the opposition and that clearly haves consecuences for the democracy, no matter the behaviour of RCTV during this period. By saying Oligarch, you are just taking the speech of the president without thinking about their implications. Of course, theres a reality of social inequality in Venezuela, and many rich people who doesn't care about the country. That's true. But there's also many people who works now for the goverment, makes tons of money (ever heard of the word corruption? still not over in Venezuela), and don't care about the low classes either. But no one ever speaks about this new "oligarchs". Many things are wrong about the foreing interpretation on Venezuela, what i sugest is not to follow the opposition speech that considers Chávez a second Fidel; or the goverment speech that takes the oligarchs as the enemy without reflecting enough about it. And dont speak about a coup without remembering that the first one who made a coup against the democracy in 48 years, and with many death, probably more than in 2002, was, Mr Chávez. I also invite you to read my blog, Im obviously from the opposition, I read your version, so read mine and we´ll see. Sorry about the grammar mistakes.
Please don’t be worried about grammar. Some of us know how difficult it can be to write in a second language. Your sentiments shine right through.
You are entirely correct that I did not mention the 1992 coup. That is a story on to itself, as you note. Of course, that coup attempt is one of the major reasons that analysts still frame Chavez as an authoritarian.
That coup is also very revealing about media behavior. Many agree that President Andres Perez beat back the coup by escaping to the Venevision studios and working to counter the coup from there on television. And many also agree that when Chavez went on television to admit the coup had failed when he spoke of the Bolivarian Revolution and used the phrase “por ahora” to say the time was obviously not right, he also catapaulted himself into the ranks of heroes for many in the population.
So television is very important in Venezuela.
Perhaps television has shifted since the last time I was in Venezuela and perhaps other experts are wrong, but the country has: Venevision, RCTV, Globovision, and Televen. All are in private hands and all broadcast opposition viewpoints. By my count, that’s four networks.
Also, because you raised the issue of corruption, wasn’t Venevision accused of helping the aristocracy and Pres. Andres Perez with how they covered up corruption? And this was prior to Chavez coming to power.
Grupo Cisneros (which owns Venevision) and Grupo Phelps-Granier (which owns RCTV) actually have their headquarters in Miami. Both are major international broadcasting concerns. Grupo Cisneros is one of the leading broadcasting firms not just in Latin America, but in the world. Considering how intricately they are entwined into the political economy of Venezuela, perhaps President Chavez is very wise to use the word oligarch when referencing them. If the term fits, use it.
I invite everyone to check out your blog. Here’s the direct link.
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