The Socialist International asks for the liberation of the political prisoners in Venezuela

[ChangoLoa]

and demands the end of the criminalization of political activities and the respect for human rights in the country.

The text defines Venezuela as a "democradura" (half democracy, half dictatorship)

In spanish, Ultimas Noticias
http://www.ultimasnoticias.com.ve/capriles/cadena-global/detalle.aspx?idart=2975484&idcat=56658&tipo=2

Internacional Socialista pidió libertad de presos políticos en Venezuela

El informe de la Comisión de la Internacional Socialista para América Latina y el Caribe que visitó nuestro país, en meses pasados, y que hizo un análisis general luego de las entrevistas sostenidas con los diversos sectores venezolanos, constituyó una acusación rotunda contra el gobierno de Chávez, al que define como "democradura".

El documento fue leído durante la reunión realizada en Buenos Aires los días 9 y 10 de abril, a la que asistieron por Venezuela Henry Ramos, Ricardo Gutiérrez, Timoteo Zambrano y Felipe Mujica; quienes denunciaron los atropellos que existen en el país contra la disidencia. Asimismo, relataron lo sucedido contra el dirigente político Oswaldo Alvarez Paz.

El Comité de la Internacional Socialista para América Latina y el Caribe aprobó una resolución en la que solicita, al Gobierno del presidente Hugo Chávez, "la libertad de los presos políticos, el regreso libre de los asilados y el cese a la criminalización de la acción política".

(Texto de la resolución)

Considerando:

Que los partidos venezolanos, AD, MAS, Podemos y UNT de manera reiterada han planteado antes las instancias de la IS, las permanentes violaciones a la constitución, la persecución y exilio de dirigentes políticos, la criminalización de la acción política y la violación permanente de los derechos humanos y políticos de los ciudadanos venezolanos.

1) Exigir el respeto de los derechos humanos. Pedir la libertad de los presos políticos y el regreso libre de los asilados y el cese a la criminalización de la acción política.

2) Insistir en el dialogo constructivo entre las partes en conflicto, en este sentido encomienda a Martín Torrijos, Presidente del Comité de la IS para América Latina y a Luis Ayala, Secretario General de la organización para que adelanten en Venezuela las gestiones necesarias para este fin.

[protocol rv]

1. They're being anti Venezuela, I think

You know how it is, I have a knee jerk reaction to criticism of our government, as a good Venezuelan who is loyal to the red shirts should. I also want to point out Mongolia had a very repressive government led by Gengis Khan, the Spanish had the Inquisition, and the US had military personnel marching from Atlanta to the sea burning citizen's houses. So these problems happen.

[naaman fletcher]

2. Finally, some real socialists, people who stick to their principles.

As opposed to a group of hero worshippers who put their head in the sand about things like this.

[protocol rv]

3. I wonder if you'll get a reaction from the honorable opponents

I really like to research their posts, and then write rebuttals if called for. To tell you the truth, Judy convinced me things in Honduras aren't that good. But some of them are unrelenting partisans. I'm sad because their failure to understand humanity is our failure. Like Nicholson said to the Martians, why can't we all learn to get along?

[subsuelo]

4. "their failure to understand humanity is our failure"

when you post garbage like that, who can possibly take *you* seriously?

[protocol rv]

5. Don't

One of the greatest failures of communism is its false premises about human nature. However, if you can't understand that, there's little we can do about it. Don't even bother.

[naaman fletcher]

6. Yes,

they have convinced me on Honduras as well, but they treat Chavez and Castro like they are Jesus, and are unwilling to recognize the slightest flaw, which brings into doubt everything else they say.

[subsuelo]

7. Chavez represents a very important movement

If you focus on just him (which is exactly what the msm wants btw), criticizing others for perceived treatment like he's Jesus... well, I can see where you miss the bigger picture.

[naaman fletcher]

8. I'm not sure what you mean..

The big picture is freeing Latin American people from A: The feudal type of system that the large property owners would like, and B: The U.S./IMF development model.

For a while, in part due to the cold war, Latin America was faced with the choice between Fascist and Communist assholes. There were some
"left-ish" bright spots such as Omar Torrijos, who was of course assassinated. Jaime Roldos of Ecuador was another, and he was most likely assassinated, too.

So the cold war ends, and where are we now?

As we see in Honduras, the right is still up to its tricks although is not as bad as it used to be. For example, as much as he is scum, Uribe is in fact significantly better that right wing Latin American leaders of 20 years ago. I would like to see a liberal leftist win in Colombia, like the former Bogata mayor who has been talked about here quite a bit lately, but if not I hope that the right continues to moderate. Now of course people will jump all over me for this and list the crimes of the right, and they are true, I am just pointing out that under Uribe things are better than under the previous model of right wing leaders, and if we are stuck with right wing assholes in Colombia let's hope that they continue to moderate.

On the left we see some amazing things. Ortega has thrown off his old Soviet style and is doing well, but must importantly we see Lula in Brazil, a model for what a latin american leader should and could be.

Yet we still have the oppressive soviet style machine in Cuba. In Venezuela, Chavez started out on the right track, but like any leader with too much power has started to abuse it, consolidate power, and has let it go to his head, like walking around and randomly taking buildings for the government.

What we have on this board, it seems, is a group of people who are still attached to the old cold war era latin american conflict and embracing the Castros and Chavez when they should be shunned in favor of liberal and progressive leaders such Lula de Silva.

[Mika]

9. Lula w/his mentors.

It is the Cubaphobes who embrace Castro here. Castro did this/Castro did that is the repeated mantra. Anything that happens is Castro's doing - the good and the bad.

Keeping the blinkers on the uninformed crowd you want to BS to means that you must maintain focus on Fidel/Raul.

This works for those who know little, if anything, about Cuba. Those who do know Cuba know that it is nothing like the grim and darkest cold-war era soviet oppression the Cuba haters depict it as being (more like: fantasize it as being). Nor is the Cuban government this gawd awful entity that the people hate (aside from some relatives of a few jailed traitors).

It is the good and decent people of Cuba who built Cuba's sovereignty, their infrastructure, their social equality, their freedom. Not just the Castros. The Castros didn't build the schools that turned Cuba's literacy rate from among the lowest to the highest attainable. The Castros didn't build the Cuban universal university system. The Castros didn't continually build the hospitals and clinics even during the most austere of times. The Castros didn't teach Cuban surgeons how to use their scalpels. The Castros didn't train the hundreds of thousands of doctors and dentists and nurses and technicians from all over the world only to send them back to their homelands trained and ready to serve their own people. The Castros didn't create the Henry Reeve Brigade consisting of over 16,000 disaster emergency medical specialists.

I could go on, but you get the point. The Castros didn't do these things that make Cuba what it is. The Cuban people, together, did these things. And that means forming and controlling their complete government to do so. That is just what they did, and continue to do.

For you to mewl that some of us only praise Castro (or Chavez) like Jesus is simply dishonest. By making this complaint it is YOU who is saying that the Cuban people's revolution and the Castros are one and the same, and thereby all of the bad and good deeds and works of Cuba are solely Castro's and the Cubans in Cuba are to be ignored. You feign that Castro gets the praises like he's Jesus, when it is you who is ignoring the praises of the Cuban people.

You, and your cadre of ditto bots, ignore what the Cuban people have clearly demonstrated they want. Socialism. They make it happen every day. Despite their poverty, the Cuban people have always marshaled their resources very efficiently and effectively, and that is well documented by their social stats. They have done this with their gov't, by being it, not against it.

You don't know, and you couldn't care less about what the Cuban people have done. That is why Cuba haters focus and obsess on Castro.

---

[naaman fletcher]

10. As far as I can tell

Your post doesn't actually say anything.

[protocol rv]

13. Fletcher, don't be rude with Mika

Dr Mika is just trying to pump up his guys. What he meant to say, I think, is the Castro brothers taught Lula how to advocate overseas to get private industry a lot of business. Or something like that.

[protocol rv]

12. Sorry Mika, that's a reach

The Castro brothers aren't Lula's mentors, Lula is suckering them into giving Brazilian multinationals big contracts, and wants to see if Brazilian private industry can make further inroads into Cuba. Don't deceive yourself, buddy, if Lula is the Mercedes Benz of Latin America's Progressives, the Castros are its Ladas. :-)

[Meshuga]

16. The complaint has nothing to do with posters praising Castro and/or Chavez

It has to do with the fact that when anyone questions Castro and/or Chavez a lot of feathers get ruffled and rocks come in the direction of the critic. No one can question these two and they are called Cubaphobes as if they hated Cubans if they criticize Castro. Like I posted here more than once and I won't post it again not to be repetitive but there are pictures of Lula embracing Bush in a similar fashion he is there taking pictures with the Castros. In other words, these pictures are meaningless. They serve only to make the supporters happy.

It is known that when Obama was inaugurated, Lula invited Bush to go out on a fishing trip in Brazil and Bush thanked Lula and invited Lula to go visit him in Texas. It didn't happen but these guys mix. Does that make Lula anything like Bush? Hardly! He is just doing his job as a head of state.

[protocol rv]

17. I hate to see people hug Bush

I don't think people should hug Bush, he doesn't deserve much appreciation from anybody.

[EFerrari]

21. But tag teaming with Chavez as the good cop to his bad cop

is not meaningless, and it's a strategery that worked well for them and for the region. Lula embraced Bush and Chavez insulted him but they both were working the same street when they did it. It was sort of brilliant. Damn, I'm going to miss Lula. lol

[Meshuga]

22. I don't think Lula has some sort of scheme in a good cop to a bad cop role

I think Lula has Brazil in mind and he is being the good politician that he is on behalf of the Brazilian people playing both sides. He is very popular now since he gained the trust of those Brazilians who were scared of him and he did this by not deviating too much from the previous administration in the same way the next administration will follow the same path that Lula is taking. If Serra wins I hope he is smart enough to be friendly to all sides. I have the same hopes for Dilma.

[EFerrari]

23. They clearly did. I didn't even notice it until Honduras.

And that is not inconsistent with looking out for the best interests of Brazil. Brazil has everything to gain from minimizing US influence in the region.

[Meshuga]

27. It is called not being like the US

And doing what is right. What would be the inconsistency with looking out for the best interest of Brazil when it comes to Honduras?

[EFerrari]

36. "Not being like the US" iand "doing what is right"are probably

goals too ephemeral for most states. But minimizing the influence of the United States, which has so often been so destructive, may not be. On this, Chavez and Lula agree and a good example of their partnership was how they respectively handled the crisis in Honduras.

[Judi Lynn]

37. It's misdirection, isn't it? Dumb down history to an idiot's level, then claim

the Cuban people aren't remotely interested in their way of life after the revolution, and try to push a case for invading, butting in where you don't belong, grabbing control of someone else's government, and putting it back the way it was, removing everything which benefited the Cuban majority, which had to live, previously only on seasonal work which employed them only PART of each year, then go without the rest of the time, living in desperate poverty, being beaten down, abused by racists who employed every possible means of intimidation, and terrorism to keep everyone in his/her place, include the use of TORTURE and DEATH SQUADS.

Yeah, that was great. That's why the Cuban people couldn't take it any longer and staged a SECOND revolution to get these dirty pieces of trash off their necks, and out of their government, far away from being able to do them any more damage.

That's human, it's natural.

NO, we know they are NOT interested in getting that crap back, and losing the great improvement you have mentioned consistently, as anyone would who knows, anyone with a working brain.

We've seen a lot of slimy characters come and go, trying to beat down progressives, using every stupid stunt within grasp, but the truth WILL remain, and you and all people of character will be the living witnesses that good WILL overcome deviance, perversion, brutal, ugly greed. No doubt about that.

[subsuelo]

14. please give examples

of "the oppressive soviet style machine in Cuba"

[protocol rv]

18. Cuban style repression

I have to confess I'm not a Cuba expert. But when I participate in a blog I have two very useful tools: Search engines and my trusty calculator. So I want to point out I did the search shown below in the last few minutes, using google. My knowledge about what goes in Cuba is a little more direct, I talk quite a bit to Cubans who come to Venezuela and some of them are quite disappointed with what Castro did to their Revolution. Many of them weren't even born when Castro took over, they aren't really pro-capitalism and seem to be more what in the US would be called a progressive. They remind me more of Michael More and politicians like Jerry Brown.

So to give you some references, here's the result of my search:

I guess you could start reading a book by Armando Valladares called "Against all Hope". Here's the amazon.com comments by readers, the comments will give you praise as well as criticism of the book's contents.

http://www.amazon.com/Against-All-Hope-Armando-Valladares/product-reviews/0394534255/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

Here's the Human Rights Watch webpage about Cuba:

"Raúl Castro's government has locked up scores of people for exercising their fundamental freedoms and allowed scores more political prisoners arrested during Fidel Castro's rule to languish in detention. Rather than dismantle Cuba's repressive machinery, Raúl Castro has kept it firmly in place and fully active."

http://www.hrw.org/americas/cuba

Amnestry International's page about Cuba

http://thereport.amnesty.org/en/regions/americas/cuba

The Inteamerican Commission on Human Rights report on Cuba

http://fiu.edu/~fcf/IACHR.html

An essay by Vaclav Havel, ex-President of the Czech Republic and former dissident who spent time in jail fighting communism in Eastern Europe.

"This spring marks the third anniversary of the wave of repression in which Fidel Castro’s regime arrested and handed down long sentences to 75 leading Cuban dissidents. Soon afterward, many friends and I formed the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba."

http://havanajournal.com/politics/entry/the-discreet-terror-of-fidel-castro-vaclav-havel/

Here's a website written by Lech Walesa, the union leader who formed the Solidarity workers' union, a key contributor to the fall of communism in Poland. The quote is from a letter he wrote to Guillermo Fariñas:

"Yesterday evening (March 11) in a phone conversation with Guillermo Fariñas, the Cuban dissident on hunger strike, President Lech Walesa declared his help and asked for suspending the protest. “I perfectly understand your situation and the situation Cuba is in. I declare my help and support in building a free Cuba. But I would like to ask you to rethink your decision. A free Cuba needs leaders such as you” - said Lech Walesa."

http://www.solidarnizkuba.pl/en/index

United Nations report on the human rights situation in Cuba

The situation of human rights in Cuba continues to be characterized by severe restrictions of the rights to freedom of expression and association, the right to form and join trade unions and the right to strike, and strong official control over the individual activities of citizens, including the need for a permit from the Ministry of the Interior for citizens to be able to travel freely abroad, strong repression by the security forces which the maintenance of such control involves, and a system of administration of justice in criminal matters which to a large extent is in the service of
the prevailing political regime.

http://www.un.org/documents/ga/docs/50/plenary/a50-663.htm

Article in the BBC about a blind lawyer being sentenced to four years in jail by the Cuban government:

"Elizardo Sanchez, head of opposition group the Cuban Human Rights Commission, said he had received information of the trial from relatives of the dissidents. He said: "Prosecutors asked for six years and Gonzalez Leiva received four, and the others got lesser terms that we have not yet determined." Before the trial, the New York-based Human Rights Watch group said the situation was a "travesty".

"The trial of a blind lawyer, along with nine other dissidents, continues the repressive trend that was so glaringly evident last year in Cuba," it said in a statement.

In February, a United Nations envoy published a scathing report on Cuba's treatment of political dissidents in prison. French judge Christine Chanet, who was appointed to look into alleged human rights abuses, said reports that dissidents were being held in "trying" conditions were "particularly alarming". Havana had denied Ms Chanet permission to visit and said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights should be concentrating on alleged abuses at Guantanamo Bay, the US military detention centre in Cuba."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/americas/3664527.stm

I hope this satisfies your request.

[subsuelo]

20. thanks for the human rights reports

"soviet style" is a phrase used to describe some of Obama's plans, too.

It's just not exactly accurate, or honest imo

[protocol rv]

24. I like Obama, I don''t like Castro

Please do recall I am not an American. Therefore I do find it difficult when Americans measure what's good or what's bad using America as a yardstick. In other words, what you do, or what happens in the USA, isn't necessarily something we wish to copy. I realize this site is mostly Americans discussing subjects, and it tends to be fairly bland. But I did want to introduce some ideas about the way other people think. And we who are seeing the effects of the failed revolution in Venezuela are not too happy. Why has it failed? Because it is headed in the wrong direction. The same way the Cuban revolution failed, when it headed in the wrong direction.

President Obama makes some mistakes...at least they seem mistakes from my vantage point, but he deserves respect and support. I am willing to let time pass to see if he does break with the past. And in my case, the most pressing concern I have for you guys to fix is your policy in the Middle East. Israel is a criminal state, and it doesn't deserve US support. As long as you help them, and allow the terrible crime which is taking place in Palestine, then I can not really support much about the US.

As for the crazies who attack President Obama, do try to forgive them, because they are mostly an ignorant lot. I've learned that whenever one feels it can't possibly get worse, it does, and yet we endure. I think President Obama understands this point very well. So it's better to ignore the thugs being paraded on Fox News. Watch it so you know what they are like, and so you can hone your skills at countering their arguments, but don't hate them, and don't ever think about violence, nor insults. And always listen, learn from them, then arm yourself with the truth. I try to do that.

[subsuelo]

25. and what do you see as "wrong" with the direction in Venezuela?

[protocol rv]

26. Several factors

government corruption, poor governance and management, inflation, bad economy, climbing crime rate, excessive spending on armaments, foreigners imported to do jobs Venezuelans can do, lack of respect for the popular will as reflected in elections, gradual muzzling of the press and arbitrary arrests to silence critics, lack of respect for private property, among others.

[protocol rv]

11. Sorry, I live within the bigger picture

I happen to live in Venezuela. Sometimes I'm bored and I watch the PSUV political acts on TV, including Chavez speeches. This isn't hard to do, he seems to be on TV all the time. So you see, if you want a primary source, please ask me, and I may know something about it. If I don't, I'll call a friend ans ask. And if we don't know, then I'll tell you I don't know.

Now, since you're such a Chavez supporter, I have bad news for you:

There's definite proof the Venezuelan economy was down last year. And there's some proof it's doing really bad this year as well. The main problem is inflation, but we are also suffering from rising unemployment, problems with the health system, a serious lack of electricity and water, and the government is going into debt, debt considered high risk by foreign bond purchasers, which means we're paying very high interest rates.

The recent polls show the President and his party are not supported by the majority any more.

Any questions?

[subsuelo]

15. and I have family and friends in Honduras

and I hear a range of views from all of them. Some of them don't have a clue what's going on - even in Honduras - and are just as indoctrinated by Fox News as the next Tea-Bagger here in the U.S. (funny how the ones without satellite television and/or have limited access to Western media seem to me to have a *much* better understanding of what's happening than those who do consume western news and media!)

Point is - I think that your living there is irrelevant to making observations on Venezuela, as if just being there physically is supposed to make one better informed.

That being said, I think there is something to actually being there... one can give more details on something that's happened in the area. I just don't think that it has any effect on broader opinion about what's going on.

Also, whatever happens to Chavez isn't going to be "good news" or "bad news" to me personally.. my concern in Venezuela and Latin America generally is the welfare of the people, not whether or not "my guy" in the red-shirt "wins" or "loses" or something like that. If that's what you suspect about Chavez supporters around here, I think you may well be revealing more about yourself. Just speculation, of course.

[protocol rv]

19. Well, you are partially right

As I like to say, anecdotal evidence doesn't cut it very well. That being said, I am here. I guess I can say I can go mano a mano with you or any other foreigner when it comes to every day experience.

But, wait, there is more. I also happen to be well informed. Now, you can go ahead and impugn my points because you happen to dislike what I say. That's ok, it's perfectly understandable. My friend the Dutchliberal and I had a discussion about this a few weeks ago, and he said it's called "cognitive dissonance". I've been reading quite a bit about it and so should you.

Now I would like to ask, what type of information would convince you that things aren't going well in Venezuela? Would economic statistics do it? Or do you want to see the crime rate (it's going up). Poll results showing the government is not so popular anymore? What exactly are your measures?

[Mika]

29. "anecdotal evidence doesn't cut it very well" LOL

The HRW, AI, UN, RsF, etc links you posted upthread are nuttin but anecdotal and hearsay from US Freedom House/IRI/Mellon Scaiffe funded Cubanet's "independent journalists". Those "reports" are not assembled by human rights professional observers in country, but by US paid lackeys with a vested interest in hyperbole, exaggerations, and flat out lies. Their interest has made them very wealthy. Yet their anecdotes and hearsay forms the foundation of your criticisms against Cuba.

"anecdotal evidence doesn't cut it very well" :rofl:

---

[protocol rv]

30. A single anecdote doesn't count

But many anecdotes make up a body of evidence. Your atempts at discrediting every human rights NGO and the UN are pathetic. Do you realize your credibility is very low when you impugn every source which happens to contradict what you say?

[ChangoLoa]

28. I think it's a pure illusion to think that you have access to the same information being outside or

inside Venezuela. It's not necessary to mention other people. You and yourself would be relatively better informed about Venezuela if you were living in the country. Clearly. Being out of the country doesn't allow you to counter-balance by personal experience the pro-Chavez propaganda vs. anti-Chavez propaganda situation of the information flows concerning our country nowadays. Being in the US, you just receive and choose which one to believe according to your own predispositions. I certainly don't trust for a second Globovision or late RCTV, but I sure know VTV and the VIC/VIO/venezuelanalysis abroad are nothing more than the regime's propaganda tools and hence not better at all. Both describe a convenient reality that doesn't exist.

For example, if you worked in a state university in Caracas, you would be able to tell if there are violent chavista militias, if they attack without provocation and how bad they attack, if the non-chavista students are violent or manipulated, if the police shoots the rubber bullets before demonstrators move or after, when provoked, if those students are fascists and infiltrated by the CIA, as described by the chavista media, or plural, or progressive, as described in the anti-chavista media... Etc.... Etc... Etc

All you get in the US is TV and press reports which are usually foreign and most of the times totally biased toward one side or the other. An ignorant audience (not referring to you personally) needs constant categorization. But actually, our internal dialectic has very, very little to do with the US... and, believe it or not, I really don't think our current political division is between the "right-wing" and the "left-wing".

Cordialmente.

[protocol rv]

31. Very well written

I know quite a few Venezuelan doctors, and the ones who work in public hospitals have either quit already or are planning to do so. They can't take the stress of the crime rate INSIDE the hospitals and the hospital parking lot, the low pay, the problems with lack of medicine and equipment, and so on. I know they gave doctors a raise not too long ago, but the government isn't paying employees in some hospitals, or they are not paid everything they are due. I don't think a person living outside can grasp this. But some of them live in my apartment building, and it's impossible to not hear the constant complaints. And we have Cuban doctors in the modulo not too far, who also complain once they get to know you.

In the city where I live, we have nice apartment buildings mixed with what you call shanty towns, although the poor houses aren't really that bad, they do have an incredibly high crime rate. In my case they are just a few blocks away, which means we also have very high crime rates even though the area here isn't bad - we even have a swimming pool. But this place is like Normandy in WW II. We had a young man shot in the head at the bakery, one was shot in the neck while selling lottery tickets on the sidewalk outside, a woman was robbed a few weeks ago at one of those cell phone tables, the little store across the street has been robbed a few times, and we have had two kidnappings in the building - just express, thank god. It seems to get worse all the time. Every time the automatic garage opener for the building breaks down we have a panic to get it repaired, and have to make sure a guard stands by to make sure they don't get inside the parking garage, which could be lethal. Hell, sometimes I feel like we're in a city crawling with those monsters from the movie Aliens. And this is a feeling you don't get reading Eva Golinger, do you?

[Meshuga]

32. Their logic goes like this,

"if you are a Venezuelan and you are not a Chavista then you must be a sucker-to-propaganda-Fox-News-watching-Venezuelan-teabeggar." It is a ridiculous analysis that is simplistic and lazy. Or an attempt to disregard in order to block other facts that can hurt a safe world view.

[protocol rv]

33. head in the sand

I believe this is called "put head in sand like ostrich"

[subsuelo]

34. No, this is ridiculous

How about reading what I actually wrote, instead of projecting your own simplistic and lazy interpretations?

[protocol rv]

38. Quote from Subsuelo - to make sure the debate is refocused

"Point is - I think that your living there is irrelevant to making observations on Venezuela, as if just being there physically is supposed to make one better informed."

If living in Venezuela is irrelevant to making observations on Venezuela, then what do you propose, that people living outside Venezuela are better informed about our daily lives and what we know and experience? I don't know about the other readers, but I was floored when I read your comment. Could you clarify what do you mean?

[subsuelo]

39. really?

are you that incapable of comprehending the multiple posts I've written explaining my view on this?

[subsuelo]

35. well, I didn't say I have the same access to information

In fact, if you go back and read what I wrote, you'll find the following sentence:

"I think there is something to actually being there... one can give more details on something that's happened in the area. I just don't think that it has any effect on broader opinion about what's going on."


All I'm saying is that being there physically can often be irrelevant to the weight of opinion given. Even though I have family and friends in Honduras, some of them really do not have any clue what's going on around them. Even in the midst of a military coup and nightly curfews, they remained tragically uninformed. That is rather sad, but it is true nonetheless.

The same thing happens here in the U.S., of course. Does residing in the U.S. mean one has a more accurate opinion of Barack Obama over someone outside the U.S.? Of course not. Do I need to mention the ignorant AM-radio listening tea-baggers as a prime example?

This shouldn't be so difficult to comprehend. The point is to demonstrate how simply being there doesn't necessarily carry extra weight for me when taking into account anyone's comment or opinion. I'm also not charging others with spending their time listening to right-wing sources. I'm just giving my own experiences about people I know in Latin America, to show why I think that being somewhere physically doesn't necessarily mean all that much.