Troops Fire Upon Protesters in Venezuela(AP)

[White_Male_Canada]

FABIOLA SANCHEZ (Mon, May/28/2007)


CARACAS, Venezuela - National Guard troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets Monday into a crowd of protesters angry over a decision by President Hugo Chavez that forced a critical television station off the air.

University students blocked one lane of a major highway hours after Radio Caracas Television ceased broadcasting at midnight and was replaced with a new state-funded channel. Chavez had refused to renew RCTV's broadcast license, accusing it of "subversive" activities and of backing a 2002 coup against him.

Two students were injured by rubber bullets and a third was hit with a tear gas canister, said Ana Teresa Yepez, an administrator at Caracas' Metropolitan University. She said about 20 protesters were treated for inhaling tear gas.

The new public channel, TVES, launched its transmissions with artists singing pro-Chavez music, then carried an exercise program and a talk show, interspersed with government ads proclaiming, "Now Venezuela belongs to everyone."

Crowds of students demonstrated across Caracas, saying they fear for the future of free speech.

"I plan to keep protesting because we're Venezuelans and it's our right," said Valentina Ramos, 17, a Metropolitan University student who was hit in the head with a tear gas canister and received stitches.

She said the protest was peaceful, but National Guard troops said they acted after students hurled rocks and sticks. Police said 11 officers were injured in separate protests on Sunday that were broken up with water cannon and tear gas.

Thousands of government supporters reveled in the streets as they watched the midnight changeover on large TV screens, seeing RCTV's signal go black and then be replaced by a TVES logo. Others launched fireworks and danced in the streets.

Inside the studios of RCTV , the sole opposition-aligned TV station with nationwide reach , disheartened actors and comedians wept and embraced in the final minutes on the air.

They bowed their heads in prayer, and presenter Nelson Bustamante declared: "Long live Venezuela! We will return soon."

The socialist president says he is democratizing the airwaves by turning the network's signal over to public use.

Germany, which holds the European Union presidency, officially declared its concern that Venezuela let RCTV's license expire "without holding an open competition for the successor license." It said the EU expects that Venezuela will uphold freedom of speech and "support pluralism."

Leading politicians from Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Chile and the Organization of American States also either criticized the closure Monday or made statements reaffirming that freedom of expression is an inherent right in democracies.

Founded in 1953, RCTV regularly topped viewer ratings with its talk shows, sports, soap operas and comedy programs. But Chavez accused the network of helping to incite a failed coup in 2002, violating broadcast laws and "poisoning" Venezuelans with programming that promoted capitalism. RCTV's managers deny wrongdoing.

The government promises TVES will be more diverse, buying 70 percent of its content from independent Venezuelan producers.

"We've come here to start a new television with the true face of the people, the face that was hidden, the face that they didn't allow us to show," said Roman Chalbaud, a pro-Chavez filmmaker appointed by the government to TVES' board of directors.

TVES received US$4 million (euro3 million) in startup funds from the government, but officials say it also may seek commercial advertising.

Most Venezuelan news media are in private hands, including many newspapers and radio stations that remain critical of Chavez. But the only major surviving opposition-sided TV channel is Globovision, which is not seen in all parts of the country.
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/ne...7-1354017.html

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[guyone]

Democracy in action! The bolshies are planning the same stuff here.

[White_Male_Canada]

Democracy in action! The bolshies are planning the same stuff here.

Chavez`s fellow travellers are ready and willing. Not only with the "fairness doctrine" but the radical socialist/ neo-marxist/marxist/stalinists at KOS are chomping at the bit:

"It is therefore, as I say, extraordinary to see the mainstream media in the U.S. and Britain insinuating that this move by Chavez somehow represents an attack on democracy and freedom. In fact, the move - totally constitutional - may well result in a media that is more pluralistic, not less...

"[Fear of a successful socialist Venezuela] is the true explanation for the hysterical anti-Chavez propaganda. It has nothing to do with concern for human rights in Venezuela, or a fear that Venezuelan freedom of speech is under threat. That is totally irrelevant to the corporate media, as evidenced on countless other occasions. The problem for the U.S. establishment (and hence the establishment media) is that Chavez represents an alternative to U.S.-imposed neo-liberalism and a direct challenge to U.S. domination.

"He, like Castro’s Cuba, represents the "threat of a good example". The deepest fear of U.S. planners is that if states like Cuba are permitted to follow a path of independence unchallenged, other states might start getting similar ideas. Hence the decades long American campaign of economic warfare and terrorism against Cuba."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/27/20830/6973

[guyone]

The bolsheviks may try it but they'd get a civil war right here in the USA. Just like what happening now in Venesuela.

Bolshevism is dead. Most of the bolshies just don't know it yet.

[tsmandy]

Police Fire Rubber Bullets, Tear Gas Into Peaceful LA Immigration March
May 6th, 2007 · No Comments

JUAN GONZALEZ: The Los Angeles Police Department is coming under increasing criticism for violently crushing a largely peaceful immigrant right march on Tuesday. Police with riot guns fired 240 rounds, shot teargas and clubbed protesters and journalists gathered in MacArthur Park. At least ten people were injured, including several journalists.

Pedro Sevcec was broadcasting live for the Spanish-language television network Telemundo when police knocked over his monitors and lights and hit his staff with batons. Sevcec told the Los Angeles Times a police officer grabbed one of his cameras and threw it more than fifteen feet to the ground. He said police pointed a riot gun at his face, hit him with a baton and forced him out of the park.

Patricia Nazario of the public radio station KPCC was also injured. On Wednesday, Nazario described to listeners what happened to her.

PATRICIA NAZARIO: The cop jammed me in my ribs with his billy club, and so I turned around square, looking at him. I had my press pass on. I had my mic flag in my hand, my notepad and my pen. And I said, “Why did you hit me? I’m a reporter.” And he said, “Move!” And I said, “I am moving! Why did you hit me? I’m a reporter.” And he hit me again, harder that time, and I fell.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Others assaulted included four employees of KVEA-TV Channel 52 and a reporter for the public radio station KPCC hit by a police baton. Christina Gonzalez, a reporter for the FOX affiliate KTTV-TV Channel 11, suffered a bruised shoulder after she was shoved to the ground. Her camera operator suffered a broken wrist. The incident was caught on tape.

KTTV NEWS: Police in riot gear moved into MacArthur Park after some protesters started throwing rocks and plastic bottles at officers. But this time it was impossible for the news media to be impartial observers.

CHRISTINA GONZALEZ: I am helping her move!

LAPD OFFICER: Move her back away from the [inaudible], or you’re under arrest!

CHRISTINA GONZALEZ: You can’t do that! You cannot do that, and you know that!

LAPD OFFICER: This way! Go this way! Go this way!

KTTV NEWS: It didn’t stop with pushing and shoving. Police officers fired rubber bullets. Protesters say they had no warning that officers were moving in.

CHRISTINA GONZALEZ: We are talking about an order to disperse, which I never heard. Neither did people getting hit by rubber bullets. That man was standing next to a colleague’s network live shot, which caught this.

KTTV NEWS: A photographer was trying to capture all of the action when he was targeted by police. He’s knocked over, then kicked. The officer even grabs and throws his camera. As our crew tries to move to safety, the police officer hits cameraperson Patti Ballaz.

CHRISTINA GONZALEZ: Here is a perspective from our colleagues at Univision. You see us on the right side of the screen. Patti goes down. I am trying to protect her, but they don’t stop, even though I’m telling them we are trying to get to our truck a few feet away.

AMY GOODMAN: A report by FOX affiliate KTTV Channel 11. The LAPD says it gave orders to disperse, but several journalists and protesters have disputed the account. The order was made only in English, not even near the main crowd. LA Police Chief William Bratton admitted the actions taken by the police were inappropriate. He said, “I was disturbed at what I saw.” The LAPD has launched a pair of investigations. Several news groups say they’re considering legal action.

We go now to Los Angeles to two guests. Ernesto Arce is a correspondent for Pacifica Radio station KPFK in Los Angeles. He was shot with a police rubber bullet at the May Day protest. Also on the line, Gerardo Gomez, counselor and homeless rights activist who was shot twice at the protest.

Ernesto Arce, let’s begin with you. Where were you? What did you see?

ERNESTO ARCE: Good morning, Amy. I was at the southeast corner of the park, MacArthur Park, which I believe was at Seventh and Alvarado. I was trying to get a sense of what was happening. I noticed that there was a lot of commotion at that end of the park, and there was a lot of people were running and fleeing. So I wanted to see what it was that was happening, and I also wanted to get onto the Metrolink to get home. But, of course, I wasn’t able to do that, since there was a heavy police presence on Alvarado Street.

It was then that I noticed that, you know, police in — I guess it was two different kinds of cops. There was the regular cops, and then there was the SWAT team, who had come in, you know, very shielded attire. They also were holding what looked like rifles. They began to push people back from the very southeast corner of the park into the park. They were at first using batons. But I noticed that they began to shoot. You know, I wasn’t sure what type of — whether it was teargas or whether they were actual real bullets or rubber pellets. But many people were getting hit. It was at that time that people began to just, you know, flee towards the north of the park. There was a lot of commotion. There was a lot of confusion.

Hundreds of families were still there. Actually, at this end of the park, the main rally, which was attended by approximately 5,000 to 10,000 people, organized by the MIWON, Multiethnic [Immigrant] Workers coalition, was still going on at this time. It hadn’t been broken up, so there was still several hundred families even on the south side of this park. A lot of people were running, screaming. There were families. There were children. There’s a large transient population that lives at MacArthur Park, a lot of homeless individuals, handicapped individuals and, of course, streetcar vendors that, you know, sell different fares, whether ice cream or hot dogs, and they were unable to get out on time.

And the police were relentless. They were merciless. They would hit anyone in their path. They would shoot at anyone. Actually, a lot of people were shot on the back, including myself. And, yeah, it was just — it was total chaos and, again, another example of Los Angeles Police Department brutality.

[chefmike]

Bravo, Mandy.

[White_Male_Canada]

Police Fire Rubber Bullets, Tear Gas Into Peaceful LA Immigration March
May 6th, 2007 · No Comments

JUAN GONZALEZ: The Los Angeles Police Department is coming under increasing criticism for violently crushing a largely peaceful immigrant right march on Tuesday. Police with riot guns fired 240 rounds, shot teargas and clubbed protesters and journalists gathered in MacArthur Park. At least ten people were injured, including several journalists.

That was the LAPD. Chavez sent his troops into the street of Caracas. In fact I saw live footage of local police doing little to nothing about the rallies.

This is gonna be so easy dismantling a fellow traveller of Chavez the socialist jackboot stormtrooper.

[guyone]

Apples and oranges. The Venezuela totalitarian army were shooting at peaceful citizens who were fed up with their rights being trampled upon. In LA the peace officers were protecting citizens from a wild heard of rioting illegal aliens.

[chefmike]

You can bet 'Maggie's farm' that the CIA are working 24/7 to make Chavez the next Allende, another social democrat. The legacy of Nixon and Reagan's Latin American death squads lives on...

"I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.
No, I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.
Well, I wake in the morning,
Fold my hands and pray for rain.
I got a head full of ideas
That are drivin' me insane.
It's a shame the way she makes me scrub the floor.
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.

I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more.
No, I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more.
Well, he hands you a nickel,
He hands you a dime,
He asks you with a grin
If you're havin' a good time,
Then he fines you every time you slam the door.
I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more.

I ain't gonna work for Maggie's pa no more.
No, I ain't gonna work for Maggie's pa no more.
Well, he puts his cigar
Out in your face just for kicks.
His bedroom window
It is made out of bricks.
The National Guard stands around his door.
Ah, I ain't gonna work for Maggie's pa no more.

I ain't gonna work for Maggie's ma no more.
No, I ain't gonna work for Maggie's ma no more.
Well, she talks to all the servants
About man and God and law.
Everybody says
She's the brains behind pa.
She's sixty-eight, but she says she's twenty-four.
I ain't gonna work for Maggie's ma no more.

I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.
No, I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.
Well, I try my best
To be just like I am,
But everybody wants you
To be just like them.
They sing while you slave and I just get bored.
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more."

-Dylan

[guyone]

"The sixties are over. The bums lost."