Venezuela’s Opposition: Manufacturing Fear in Exchange for Votes

[Judi Lynn]

Venezuela’s Opposition: Manufacturing Fear in Exchange for Votes
Written by Lainie Cassel
Wednesday, 01 September 2010 11:19

Venezuela, more deadly than Iraq” read a headline in the New York Times on Aug. 23 – a headline of such shock value that it can only mean one thing: it’s election time in Venezuela. Inside Venezuela, similar headlines are printed almost daily in corporate media with the upcoming September 26 national assembly elections. Coincidentally, the Venezuelan corporate media and their allies among the Western press continually draw on the same crime statistics “leaked” from unidentified government sources or compiled by rightwing NGO’s. The point of the articles is not to illuminate the real crime problem in Venezuela, but rather to persuade potential voters during the election campaign. Corporate media in Venezuela, which is owned by wealthy elites largely opposed to President Hugo Chavez, has continually used fear as a way to create an atmosphere of insecurity in an attempt to generate votes during elections.

International coverage was sparked most recently by the publication in the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional of a graphic and highly disturbing photo of corpses piled haphazardly in a morgue in the epicenter of Venezuela’s violence – the capital city of Caracas. While the photo was printed in the lead-up to this year’s election campaign, it was quickly discovered that it was taken no later than December of last year. Yet El Nacional’s owner, Miguel Henrique Otero, waited for a more political opportune moment. As he pointed out himself on CNN, they decided to hold off printing the photo until this month because “Venezuela is in campaign-mode.”1

Using the media as a political tool is not a new strategy of the opposition. When the government decided not to renew the license of RCTV - a television station involved in inciting protest and misreporting events during the 2002 coup that briefly overthrew democratically-elected President Hugo Chavez 2 - media reports claimed freedom of speech was threatened in Venezuela. Similar cries of censorship were printed in US media after the Venezuelan government tried to pass legislation that barred newspapers from printing graphic photos like the one published by El Nacional.

What the reports do not mention is that the press, a majority of which still remains in the hands of Venezuela’s right-wing opposition, is used as a tool to advance the narrow political interests of the country's oligarchy. The photo printed in El Nacional, which was too graphic to be shown in US media, is just one example of how the opposition has abused the freedom of press for their own political gain.

More:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/2670-venezuelas-opposition-manufacturing-fear-in-exchange-for-votes-

[EFerrari]

1. Any guesses as to why the propaganda has ramped up these last two weeks?

Something is happening.

[Bacchus39]

2. propagana?? its the actions of the Chavez administration and his lackeys

prior to the New Year when more opposition members will be in Congress that could block some actions, say rule by decree for example. what's your guess??

[EFerrari]

3. Hugo Chavez stole my boyfriend!

[Bacchus39]

4. I thought he was your boyfriend n/t

s

[EFerrari]

5. :-)

[bemildred]

6. I think it just comes up every so often in the rotation.

We have so many enemies these days you just can't focus on all of them at once.