Chavez rockets to No. 1 on Twitter in Venezuela

[Judi Lynn]

Chavez rockets to No. 1 on Twitter in Venezuela
1:45 p.m. Saturday, May 8, 2010
By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER
The Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez is tops on Twitter in Venezuela less than 2 weeks after launching his account, surpassing Internet-savvy foes who dominate the social networking site and use it to oppose him.

Chavez's account, "chavezcandanga," had racked up more than 237,000 followers as of Saturday morning - besting the 234,000 who receive tweets from Globovision, the only TV channel that remains critical of the socialist leader.

In recent televised appearances, Chavez has trumpeted the meteoric rise of his Twitter popularity while downplaying the critical, often disparaging messages he receives.

"Some criticize me, others insult me. I don't care," he said. "It's a form of contact with the world."

More:
http://www.ajc.com/business/chavez-rockets-to-no-522896.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Reuters: Chavez hires hundreds to help him reply on Twitter

Chavez hires hundreds to help him reply on Twitter
Charlie Devereux
CARACAS
Sat May 8, 2010 4:54pm BST

(Reuters) - Venezuela's Hugo Chavez may have recently discovered the joys of "tweeting," but now he is finding that Twitter can also have drawbacks for presidents.

The Latin American country's loquacious leftist leader launched himself onto the micro-blogging site last week to counter opponents who have increasingly been using it to pour scorn on his government.

His account, @chavezcandanga, drew nearly a quarter of a million followers -- many of them presumably curious whether the former paratrooper famed for his hours-long speeches could adapt to Twitter's 140-character limit.

But now he has been overwhelmed with responses and has hired 200 people to help him respond to the more than 50,000 messages he says he has received in just nine days.

"This is more work for me because I can't stop replying," he said during a lengthy televised speech late on Friday. "So I've taken a decision, such is the avalanche of messages."

More:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6471IJ20100508?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews&rpc=401

[Peace Patriot]

2. In the ONLY Associated Pukes article that I ever read which showed any sympathy for

or objectivity about Chavez--one of the most popular presidents in Latin American history--and which was printed by only one small local newspaper here--Chavez laments being a prisoner of the security that is necessary to protect him from rightwing nutballs and CIA assassination squads (he didn't put it quite that way). He opines about loss of his private life and of free contact with the people who elected him. His statement above--"It's a form of contact with the world"--reminds me of that other article.

In following Chavez closely over the years, I have gained an impression of him as a people-lover, hungry for contact with others and full of ideas about everything--bubbling up from his widespread reading and his life experiences--that he wants to communicate. His position as president--especially one with a CIA bull's eye target on his back--confines this outgoing, voluble man to speeches, TV broadcasts, interview set-ups and the like, when what he really wants to do is mix it up with people in open-ended debate--such as he experienced in his youth, with his group of officers in the paratrooper corps, who would read books and spend all evening talking and arguing about them.

This IMPRESSION--and I acknowledge that it is just an impression, picked up from little details here and little details there--is quite strong and is the main non-factual reason why I have never believed the corpo-fascist bullshit about "Chavez the dictator." Another is his very nice, open, bright smile. He has none of the ambiance of a "dictator." The facts overwhelmingly support this view. But I'm not talking now about hard facts. And if the corpo-fascist so-called journalists can write their impressionistic screeds on Chavez based on rumor, I can do the same based on intuition. Chavez is not a "dictator"--on face of the facts (where he gets his power, who supports him, how he was elected, what he has done, who his friends and allies are among Latin America's leaders, what they have said, etc.)--but he also does not have the profile--the characteristics--of a "dictator." He is too open-minded and open-faced.

His glee at having a Twitter account adds to this impression--that he likes people and ideas, and does not like feeling isolated by the exigencies of being a targeted president. He likes interchange--even with people hostile to him. He has confidence in his ideas and policies. He feels okay about subjecting them and himself to the scrutiny of the whole world. He welcomes it. He likes it. Name any actual "dictator" you can think of and ask yourself if they would feel such joy at having gained wide open "contact with the world." Uncensored. Unscripted. No holds barred. With ANYBODY. Dictators are closed in, close-minded, secretive. They FORBID wide open "contact with the world." They fear exposure of their crimes and their madness or egocentricity. They only speak to people who agree with them and they are not happy. They live in fear. Chavez is not a person who lives in fear. That is my strong impression of him. He has transcended the fear that he must, from time to time, feel, given U.S. actions against him including a U.S. supported coup attempt, given the traitors in his own country who participated in that coup attempt, and given the relentless, unreasonable and often vitriolic hostility against him in the corpo-fascist press.

It's kind of hilarious thinking of Chavez trying to cram his volumes of thinking and pent-up volubility into the confines of Twitter, with its tight word limit. We'll see how he does. He is notorious for speaking too long--which in a leader, I think, is better than speaking too short, i.e., in "sound bites." The people of Venezuela certainly know what Chavez's policies are, in detail--they don't have to guess. But can he be pithy? Can he be as articulate in short bursts, in active exchanges with ANYBODY? Will this be the outlet he has apparently been longing for, of personal contact with anybody and everybody? And in that word-limited forum, will he able to counter some of the bullshit that the corpo-fascist press and the CIA spread around about him? Stay tuned.

[protocol rv]

3. Time for a Reality Check, Patriot

I've already posted to several links which report on Chavez' popularity ratings. They are going down steadily. The reasons, as I have also explained, are the intense crime wave, the high inflation rate, and the poor economy. I don't know if you speak Spanish, but it's indeed hilarious to think Chavez would ever contain his verbose, inflated, and coarse speechmaking to 140 words a pop.

And this, my friend, is coming at you directly from the trenches, no corpo fascist press, no CIA involved here. We are the ones who take the body blows everyday, who live in Venezuela and see the country being destroyed. To us, this isn't theory, it's practice.