Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

March 23, 2016 By Fausta

Bury the Cold War all you want

but the facts are, and will continue to be, much worse.

Read my post, Bury the Cold War all you want.

Related:
#Cuba Sorry, Obama: Photo-Ops Won’t Free Cuba – by Alejandro Chafuen

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Filed Under: Argentina, Barack Obama, Communism, Cuba, Raul Baduel, Raul Castro Tagged With: Da Tech Guy Blog, Fausta' blog

June 26, 2010 By Fausta

South of the Border’s lying lovefest

I’ve posted that South of the Border tanked in Caracas, and will tank here. Well, if you read this review, you can understand why,
To Chavez, With Love
Oliver Stone’s mash note to the dictators of Latin America.

While the film’s major focus is on Mr. Chávez, it also covers Bolivia’s Evo Morales, Brazil’s Lula da Silva, Argentina’s Cristina Kirchner, Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, and Fidel Castro’s younger brother, Raul. By Mr. Stone’s lights, all of these heads of state should be celebrated for daring to take on our country, the imperialist giant. “It is the big story that hasn’t been told,” Mr. Stone said. “These leaders are being trashed as dictators because our leaders don’t like them.”
…
The film depicts the ups and downs of Mr. Chávez’s rise to power, including his failed 1992 coup. It recounts how he was saved from death by armed forces loyal to him, and was brought back to power in large part by Gen. Raul Baduel. The general is shown discussing the role he played in Mr. Chávez’s restoration.

A small detail Mr. Stone conveniently leaves out is that in 2009, Gen. Baduel, who Mr. Chávez had appointed as defense minister, was stripped of power, indicted for corruption, and imprisoned because he had opposed Mr. Chávez’s attempts to institute constitutional changes that would transform Venezuela into a formal dictatorship.

What Mr. Stone and his writers have presented is a standard far-left narrative that is part of a long line of propaganda films, a modern American version of the old agitprop. There are no dissenting voices in this film. Nor is there any mention of the fact that Mr. Chávez has closed down television and radio stations that disagree with him and arrested dissenting political figures.

Another sin of omission: Mr. Stone makes no mention of Chile, which in the 1970s embraced economic liberalization and successfully reduced poverty much more than Mr. Chávez has managed to do in his own country. As writer Tariq Ali argued after the film ended, even under the recent socialist government Chile did not make the kind of structural Marxist changes that he and Mr. Stone believe is necessary for real change. Thus moderate leftist countries south of our border simply don’t count as “progressive.” Perhaps that’s why the filmmakers only praise those regimes that use their elected office to quickly institute an end to all limitations on their power.

Those interested in the truth about Latin America should save their money when “South of the Border” opens this weekend, and rent Ofra Bikel’s “The Hugo Chavez Show” from Netflix, or watch it for free on the PBS Frontline website instead.

Speaking of which, here’s FrontLine’s The Hugo Chavez Show, and the first part in YouTube,

While we’re watching movies, Syria’s Assad is on a state visit to Venezuela.

UPDATE
Alek Boyd:

The bit in the [New York Times] article that caught my attention though, was this:

Instead Mr. Stone relies heavily on the account of Gregory Wilpert, who witnessed some of the exchange of gunfire and is described as an American academic. But Mr. Wilpert is also the husband of Mr. Chávez’s consul-general in New York, Carol Delgado, and a longtime editor and president of the board of a Web site, Venezuelanalysis.com, set up with donations from the Venezuelan government, affiliations that Mr. Stone does not disclose.

For years I have been following the activities of Gregory Wilpert, arguing that he was nothing more than a paid propagandist, for I was convinced that, unless some benefit was derived, no one with a right mind would risk reputation defending Chavez so passionately, as Wilpert has done. Then I found out that the site he edits was registered and set up by Chavez’s Consul in San Francisco, and it was further revealed to me that Wilpert was married to a chavista: Chavez’s Consul in New York. I got to admit, some fanatics, Wilpert included, did write to me to say that my expose of Wilpert’s connections meant nothing. I guess now that it has been printed in the New York Times I can feel vindicated.

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Filed Under: Bashar Assad, Raul Baduel, Syria, Venezuela Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Oliver Stone, Soth of the Border

June 15, 2010 By Fausta

Chavez at the BBC’s HARDtalk: Never answer what they ask you VIDEO

I was reading a transcript of the interview Hugo Chavez gave to Stephen Sackur of the BBC in advance of Caracas premier of the Oliver Stone propaganda film South of the Border.

The one thing you can discern from Chavez’s answers is that he doesn’t answer what he’s been asked. For instance, when Sackur asks about the Venezuelan economy, Chavez carries on about Europe.

SS: I want to begin by asking you about the Venezuelan economy. You have a serious problem with inflation, you have a currency that’s been devalued and your country is still in recession, is it fair to say that socialism, right now, is not working?

HC: I think you have more problems in England and in Spain and in the whole of Europe, it’s disastrous, the US has more problems than we have here. We’ve had an economic growth rate over the last six years of 7.8% GDP just to give you an example.

In fact, as the BBC article points out,

Venezuela possesses the biggest reserves of oil outside the Middle East and supplies more than one-tenth of US oil imports, but still the economy has woefully underperformed against others in Latin America in the last two years.

Inflation has leapt to 30% and seems likely to rise further. The Venezuelan currency has been devalued and is still sinking amongst Caracas’s black market money changers.

Chavez got upset when asked about Raul Baduel, but Ollie Stone was there to quiet him down:

As the tension in the presidential palace rose, Oliver Stone who was seated in a corner listening intently to the exchanges – along with a host of presidential aides and one of the president’s daughters – gestured to the president with both hands.

The message was easy to read: Calm down.

Nice to have friends like Ollie, whose films you can bankroll, isn’t it?

When Chavez does get around to answering, his mantra is “blame American imperialism.”

As if we hadn’t heard that one yet in the past sixty years.

The text of key parts of the interview is below the fold:
(more…)

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Filed Under: BBC, Communism, Hugo Chavez, Raul Baduel, Venezuela Tagged With: Fausta's blog

May 9, 2010 By Fausta

Venezuela: Baduel Sentenced to Eight Years

My latest Real Clear World post is up: Venezuela: Baduel Sentenced to Eight Years

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Filed Under: Communism, Raul Baduel, Venezuela Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Real Clear World, Real Clear World Blog

May 9, 2010 By Fausta

Venezuela: Baduel Sentenced to Eight Years

My latest Real Clear World post is up: Venezuela: Baduel Sentenced to Eight Years

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Filed Under: Communism, Raul Baduel, Venezuela Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Real Clear World, Real Clear World Blog

May 8, 2010 By Fausta

Raul Baduel, the guy who sprung Chavez from jail, sentenced to jail

Hugo Chávez just sent to prison his former best buddy, Raul Baduel:
Critic of Chavez Gets 8-Year Prison Sentence

Raul Baduel was sentenced by a military court to seven years and 11 months behind bars for “stealing funds of the armed forces, abuse of authority and crimes against military honor,” according to a statement from state-run VTV television station.

As you may recall, Baduel was arrested in April last year. He was instrumental on defeating the 2007 referendum allowing Chávez to run indefinitely for office (the referendum was resubmitted last year and passed).

This is the guy who sprung Chávez from jail and restored him to power after the 2002 coup. He’ll have plenty of time to reconsider that decision.

Noticias 24 has more (in Spanish).

To those of you familiar with Cuban history, does this make Baduel the new Camilo Cienfuegos, or the new Huber Matos?

Prior posts on Baduel here.

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Filed Under: Communism, Fausta's blog, Hugo Chavez, Raul Baduel, Venezuela Tagged With: Fausta's blog

May 8, 2010 By Fausta

Raul Baduel, the guy who sprung Chavez from jail, sentenced to jail

Hugo Chávez just sent to prison his former best buddy, Raul Baduel:
Critic of Chavez Gets 8-Year Prison Sentence

Raul Baduel was sentenced by a military court to seven years and 11 months behind bars for “stealing funds of the armed forces, abuse of authority and crimes against military honor,” according to a statement from state-run VTV television station.

As you may recall, Baduel was arrested in April last year. He was instrumental on defeating the 2007 referendum allowing Chávez to run indefinitely for office (the referendum was resubmitted last year and passed).

This is the guy who sprung Chávez from jail and restored him to power after the 2002 coup. He’ll have plenty of time to reconsider that decision.

Noticias 24 has more (in Spanish).

To those of you familiar with Cuban history, does this make Baduel the new Camilo Cienfuegos, or the new Huber Matos?

Prior posts on Baduel here.

20174
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Filed Under: Communism, Fausta's blog, Hugo Chavez, Raul Baduel, Venezuela Tagged With: Fausta's blog

April 6, 2009 By Fausta

Baduel’s arrest: Today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern

In today’s 15 Minutes on Latin America podcast,
General Raul Baduel, former defense minister and longtime Chavez ally, issues from prison a plea for Venezuelans “to save democracy.” He was arrested by Hugo Chavez’s orders on Thursday on charges of corruption.

The statement was made in a video (in Spanish) made by his son, who used his cell phone:

Related reading:
Noticias 24, in Spanish, CNN emite una grabacion del General Baduel del viernes en Fuerte Tiuna
NYT Venezuela: Arrest of Former Minister, a Chávez Critic
Bloomberg, Venezuela Ex-Defense Minister to Be Held in Prison, Lawyer Says
Miami Herald, Foe of Hugo Chávez arrested in Venezuela
An opponent of Venezuela’s leader was arrested, an action described as another in a string of dissident persecutions.

El Universal, Military Attorney General talks about “enough grounds” against Baduel
LA Herald Tribune, Venezuela General Who Rescued Chavez — Then Turned Against Him — Held in Military Jail

Prior posts on Baduel here

Chat’s open by 10:45, and all podcasts are archived for your listening convenience. See you there!

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Filed Under: Hugo Chavez, Raul Baduel, Venezuela

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