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monopolies about Chavez can be found in it--except for the explicit and endemic "he is increasingly authoritarian, according to his critics" (never named)--but they imply that by other means...
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(...info on the pollster)
Although Evans/McDonough is linked to the government, its surveys have credibility in Venezuela because it has been transparent about its methodology and it precisely predicted the outcome of a 2004 recall referendum that Chavez won.
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(...friend of Castro--no mention of Lula da Silva, Evo Morales, Rafael Correa and his many other allies...) (...increasingly authoritarian, implied...) (...a threat to big business...)
"Chavez, a close ally of Cuban President Fidel Castro, has vowed to use re-election to scrap presidential term limits and create a single-party that he expects to lead in power for decades. He also aims to take further state control of the country's top industry -- oil.
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(...he has BOUGHT the love of the poor...with clinics and schools! heaven save us!)
"Most polls before the election showed a double-digit lead for Chavez, who is popular among the majority poor because of his free spending of the OPEC country's oil bonanza on clinics and schools.
"Evans/McDonough published last month two opinion surveys showing a lead for Chavez of around 20 points." Continued...
(snip)
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(...Reuters subtitle, their caps:) "CHAVEZ EXPOSED" (...what it "exposes": Venezuelans hate crime and blame it on Chavez; Venezuelans fear Castro-style communism...) (..and this is why he has a 20 point lead? Reuter is really reaching in this paragraph...)
"Rosales, 53 and a father-of-ten, draws his main support from the middle- and upper-classes and is particularly liked in Zulia, the country's most populous state.
"While he lacks Chavez's charisma, he ran a disciplined campaign that exposed some weaknesses for the incumbent, such as Venezuelans' anger at rampant crime and their fears he wants to drive the country towards Cuba-style communism.
"Chavez, in power since 1999, has accused Rosales of planning to cry fraud if he loses and try to create a political crisis to topple him. Rosales denies the charge and says he will accept the result if the election is fair.
(...as for the latter, we'll see...the Bushites have poured OUR tax money into Rosales campaign, against Venezuelan law, and there is good reason to believe they plan to instigate riots...)
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(...and more BUYING of the poor...and implications of authoritariaism...)
"Buoyed by an oil windfall that he lavished on the poor majority, Chavez campaigned confidently, vowing not only to win a new six-year term but to crush the opposition so that it could never gain power.
(...Chavez is not anti-American, he is anti-Bush--but they always called him "anti-U.S."--and they love repeating the "devil remark," in this instance, described as in front of "the world's top dignataries"...) (...and I'll give Reuters a point for "folksy"...)
"The folksy Chavez called President George W. Bush the devil in a speech to the world' top dignitaries at the U.N. General Assembly in September."
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Analysis: If we had a leader here, whom we could all rally round, and whose policies we all approved of and trusted, as being in the interests of all Americans, would we not want this person in office for a long time, and would we not want him or her to "crush the Bushites so that they could never gain power" again? And might we not even consider amending the Constitution on presidential term limits to keep that person in power, especially if we felt any threat of another Bush gaining the White House?
Just sayin. The Venezuelans view their rich oil elite opposition much as we view the nuts and wingers who support Bush and who have gained power way out of proportion to their numbers, by means of stolen elections. Venezuela's rich oil elite perpetrated a violent military coup against Chavez's elected government and shut down the National Assembly. Is it any wonder that Chavez wants to "crush" them--notably, by peaceful, legal, elective means? They further have done everything they can to DESTABILIZE the country--from a crippling oil professionals' strike, to a wasteful and absurd recall election--all of this supported or directly funded by the Bush Junta, with OUR tax dollars! So is it any wonder, in addition, that Chavez calls Bush "the devil"? The Bushites have been trying to topple Venezuela's ELECTED government, by any means necessary, for 6 years!
Just wanted to put some of these slanders in perspective. This Reuters article could have been written by Bush's State Department! It goes way over the line of reasonable, objective journalism against Chavez. And the writers of it cannot seem to fathom that schools and medical clinics for the poor might be GOOD POLICY! Nor do they credit democracy itself--that what democracy is all about is people influencing their government to help THEM. Is this only okay if corporations and the rich do it--but if it's the poor, it's somehow illegitimate? OF COURSE they've voting for him because he helps THEM! Is that not why we vote?
And if the rich oil elite in Venezuela had any sense--and wanted to become a REAL opposition--they, too, would be for schools and medical clinics for the poor! It is GOOD POLICY. It ADVANCES society, and culture, and, yes, BUSINESS, to have an educated population of healthy people. Having a vast population of dirt poor people living in shantytowns benefits NO ONE--as well as being inhumane and rotting a country's soul.
I've come to expect such stupidity from the rich, here and in some other countries. But I didn't expect to find Reuters start writing like AP and our corporate news monopolies. Chavez--and the poor getting a break, for once--seems to fry some peoples' brain cells, especially if they work for corporations that are salivating to reoccupy Latin America.
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