> While I appreciate the realities of expropriating surplus value and
> funneling it back to the workers, I would also think it possible
> to be able to do this within a civil libertarian context. A worker should
> be able to say, "Chavez sucks" without being thrown in the slammer
> for an uttered thought crime. After all, if we don't know why otherworkers
> might say, "Chavez sucks", we wouldn't be able to solve the problem or
> clear the air which generated such a thought. If it is just, "Chavez sucks because
> my employer is unhappy or the religious authorties don't like seeing
> the women going to school (a la Afghanistan) then, we can ignore
> the comment. But, if it is something akin to, "Chavez sucks because
> he is siphoning money into a secret Swiss bank account....."well, that's
> another matter.
>
> Best,
> Mike B)
The law makes it a crime to criticize Chavez in a very public manner not in the workplace or in private conversations. A worker can say Chavez sucks all he wants to. There is absolutely no evidence that anyone is imprisoned in Venezeula for violating the countries desacato laws. There are daily criticisms in the press of Chavez as well as slanderous stories linking Chavez to the terrorists bombing in Madrid, claiming he has embezzeled milions of dollars, and other wildly fabricated stories placed in mainstream media outlets by reporters on the payroll of the Venezuelans who ran the US backed coup attempt.
Human Rights Watch and the US State Dept. both report there are no instances of anyone being jailed for criticizing Chavez. Really, this is an amazingly hollow criticism.
We all know there are only two bad options available to Chavez. Either allow US backed media to print lies in Venezuela with impunity or implement desacato laws and face criticism abroad for doing that. It is impossible for Chavez to "win" in the western media either way. Repeating those criticisms here is doing a disservice to the majority of people in Venezuela and can only serve to strengthen the hand of US backed oligarchs in Venezuela. It absolutely cannot serve any other purpose.
John Thornton