The true victims of censorship in Venezuela speak up

/ September 16, 2013

MaduroThe guy must have banged up his head pretty bad, because this is just out of hand.

El presidente de la República, Nicolás Maduro, denunció este domingo la censura de los medios de comunicación de la burguesía venezolana a la gestión de su gobierno, pero advirtió que el comandante Hugo Chávez formó a un pueblo con valores para enfrentar cualquier batalla que se le presente.

Is he so far gone that a estas alturas del partido he still feels victimized by a media he controls virtually whole? Or is he just openly trolling us now?

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45 thoughts on “The true victims of censorship in Venezuela speak up”

  2. This is the prelude to taking the fight to El Nacional and El Universal. Now that the Hegemony over the airwaves is set, next up is print media, where as has been noted here in this blog, already the some smaller papers have closed for lack of, well, paper.

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    • What a load of bullshit. Out of the otal of all the radio, TV and print media in the country what percentage does the opposition control? When you answer that question you will not write such mindless garbage. Honestly. Pathetic is the only word that comes to mind to describe your comment.

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      • Arturo,

        What would a “percentage” means? How do you measure that?
        The average Venezuelan has never read El Nacional or El Universal. Millions never buy a newspaper or if they do, it’s to see the lottery and baseball. Over half the population does not have Internet and those who have it have the slowest Internet in the Western Hemisphere.
        Radio stations where you can hear critical stuff about the regime and the Cuban G2 are a few and mostly located in the Panamericana area.
        What are you talking about, Arturo?

        Tell me: what are you doing for a living? Are you afraid of losing your privileges once Chavismo crumbles down?

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        • Kepler – mind your own dam business. You can have no idea about radio stations in Venezuela as you have not lived here for many years.

          You simply do not know how the media is split between the government and the opposition – that’s the bottom line on this.

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    • Pathetic seems to describe you and yours more often than not, Arturo.

      Pathetic journalism that points to media that depends mostly on government spending in advertising in order to survive.

      Pathetic scenes of long lines to buy what in many other countries would take 15 minutes.

      Pathetic candidates from the “artistic” world, imposed by finger upon a populace by the “champion of representative democracy”

      Pathetic is, unfortunately, the word that comes to mind to describe our country, thanks to useful idiots like you, Artuerto

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      • I suggest you go and live in Miami if you think it is so bad here, Iguana. After the US is still the “Greatest Nation on Earth”.

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  4. Or maybe he is trying to justify the Daily Truther Show, that obligatory propaganda programme that all stations must now carry? Indeed, what with the censorshio by the bourgeoisie and all, they may have to make that an All Day Extravaganza.

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  5. Oh dear, times never change…

    And I think it’s more accurate, with all due respect to the speech impaired, to call this a case of the dumb leading the dumb.

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  6. Note how the cameramen (as with the fights in Congress) are trained to point the cameras upwards whenever anything remotely interestingn takes place!

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  7. Lets assumme that the still free media does indeed ‘censor’ the govts (propaganda laden) news , (doesnt highlight it as favourably as the govt would like) why should it matter to Maduro and Co if they have so many media outlets under their direct or indirect control that they do not lack for means of spreading their messages to all and sundry.

    There is no logic to it unless……what we see here is another confirmation that this is a tyranical regime for in these regimes the public can only know either diatribes ( against the regime enemies) or panegirical celebrations ( of the regimes achievements ) with nothing in between !!

    The irony of the govt complaining of the independent medias ‘censorship of govt news while doing everything possible to stiffle opposition voices is ripped off a page of Goebble’s propaganda principles . ” to confuse the public always accuse your enemies of that of which you are guilty”.

    Funny how those self proclaimed anti fascist enthusiastically practice fascist principles themselves !! . .

    This speech appears to underscore Franciscos idea that because the govt foresees that its lies and misinformation will no longer be believable by a people thats now constatly reminded of the govts failures and mismanagement in its everyday life so that it must seek to haver ALL media to carry a message supporting those lies while silencing any critical voices . The communicational hegemony policy !!.

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    • I mean: Maduro would need to explain what he means by “censorship”. Censorship is when you are intervening somewhere (media or else) to prevent something from being published there. If a newspaper decides NOT to publish anything, that is its agenda, policy, whatever, but that is NOT censorship.

      And if we talk about censorship: why should VTV only publicize what Maduro is “accomplishing”? Why shouldn’t it give the floor to Capriles? VTV is a public media outlet.

      Of course, we know all this is just a farce…a farce by a very mediocre man with a lot of power, a puppet of the Cubans, the Venezuelan military, the Boliburguesía, the Russian war industrialists…

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    • billl bass,

      Devil’s advocacy could point out that it’s up to the government to decide to whom it gives money and licenses, so it can expect, in return, that receivers of this “kindness” be thankful by spotlighting the good and avoiding the bad.

      —

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      • Afraid Ex Torres that if your going to become the devils advocate , you first have to get a lawyers license otherwise you are in the “unlawful excercise of the legal profession” still to answer your comment , in a Rule of Law country permits and licenses are not dependent on the Rulers whimsy or in its pecuniary or partisan interests . Its based on the principle that all permits should be granted that dont harm the public interests or which maximize the public benefit understood as the lawful enjoyment by any Venezuelan of the right to exercise the trade or economic activity of their choice, as provided by the Constitution . Its not a quid pro quo transaction .!!.

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        • Afraid, bill bass, my comment does not fall under “unlawful excercise of the legal profession” because in making it I did not “become” devils advocate, it merely states what devil’s advocacy “could” point out.

          Still, though your Rule of Law country reply is one with which I would agree, I would again point out the possible chavista side, which I heard chavez explain, that there was no law that forced the government to give licenses or permits to those that try to take it down, which was the given, in his mind. As I understood him, his argument is worse than quid pro quo, it’s more like quid pro whim.

          —

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          • My reference to the lawyers license was by way of being a joke , obviously Im not a good joke teller so you missed it , sorry for my clumsiness !!, Regarding Chavez argument for refusing a permit to someone who favours your removal from Power , The Rule of Law does not discriminate between people who want you in power and people who dont but rather on whether the party applying for the permit commited any unlawful acts in pursuit of its position , if it did then its license is revoked once the tribunals sentence its guilt , absent such sentence then its conduct is lawful and there are no grounds for denying it the continuation of its license !! Moreover if you followed Chavez s position then because he attempted to violently overthrow the govt and was found guilty of it , under his own lights he should have been denied the right to participate in politics.
            His notion of justice is lopsided , if a decision favours me then its fair , if it doesnt favour my political interests then its an unforgivable crime . The mans moral sense was primitive to barbaric !! .

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  8. the chavists love to feel victims, that way they can justify all their crazy actions and succesive failures, for them it doesn’t count that they have controls of all the powers

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  9. Off topic but still of interest to Venezuela.Venezuelan Women Are Dying From Buttock Injections

    Astrid de la Rosa was left bedridden for two years after her liquid silicone buttock injections migrated into her spine, paralyzing the supporting muscles.

    “We are trying to educate Venezuelan girls about the dangers of these procedures before they are 12 years old,” she said. “We have to get to them early, as parents tend to offer these injections as 15th birthday presents”.

    In Venezuela, 17 women have died in the past 12 months as a result of liquid silicone buttock injections. The procedure, which according to Jesus Pereira, the president of the Veneuzelan Plastic Surgeons Association, an estimated 30 percent of Venezuelan women aged 18 to 50 have undergone, attempts to achieve a figure thought to be more attractive to Venezuelan men.
    “When you live in a country where a beautiful woman has greater career prospects than someone with a strong work ethic, you are forced into the mindset that there is nothing more important than beauty.”

    While the death toll resulting from these injections has risen since they became widely available in 2008, it has done little to curb the trend of Venezuelans seeking a quick-fix solution to what they perceive as physical inadequacies. Despite being illegal in Venezuela (sale of silicone carries a two-year prison sentence) the country’s Association of Cosmetic Surgeons estimates that 2,000 women every month are receiving injections of this biopolymer, either at home or illegally at unlicensed businesses.

    “The injections take just 20 minutes, but they can never fully be taken out,” says Jesús Pereira, the president of the Venezuelan Plastic Surgeons Association. “100 percent of cases become complicated. It could take four days or it could take 20 years, but eventually the patient will become irreversibly sick.”

    Because the practice is banned, women seeking the procedure must find a fitness or beauty-related business that offers the injections in secret (most commonly a beauty salon or gym).

    The injections cost, on average, just $8.

    The average Venezuelan woman spends 20 percent of her annual salary on beauty products, while 4,000 people go under the knife every month in the name of self-improvement. Indeed, most banks in Venezuela offer long-term loan packages specifically tailored towards plastic surgery procedures.

    More at the link.

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  10. 1. If the economic numbers were good news, they wouldn’t be hidden!

    2. If the government control of free press/speech is over-the-top onerous, it’s more likely due to desperate circumstances rather than part of a “grand plan” of totalitarian oppression.

    3. It is hard for a revolution to give up its power to its political adversaries. The more likely rout is for the revolution to deny its failures and transform itself into a cult that lives in an alternate universe and tries to survive somehow. If that happens, I for one am not going to risk my life to try and save them. The most likely outcome, they will become irrelevant over time.

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  11. What are the Venezuelans drinking? Not Cacique,apparently!
    I haven’t been there in 20’years. Is there still Ron Cacique?

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    • Cacique es mi ron favrita. Muy suave.
      I cannot find Cacique in stores around DC anymore.

      Was Cacique expropriated or what?

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  12. Ho hum……….how desperate can you people get? Maduro is absolutely right wwhen he says that government programs and achievements are not reported by the private media. Why deny it when you ALL rpt ALL know that the private media continues to mislead and manipulate. Only the bad news about inflation and engineered shortages are reported at the momento and the odd power cut.

    If any of you cared to listen Con todos los hierros at just after 10pm each week day on RNV Informativo, you will get a good idea of how people perceive the problems of the country as well as highlighting the good things that are happening.

    One thing CC nor the private media will be able to hiode qnd manipulate will be the 260 alcaldías plus we, the chvistas, will win on 8 D.

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    • Arturo,
      Chavistas robar no ganar los elecionnes.

      Chavistas also have to lie about good news. For example, Chavista good news is another sabotage.

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    • Yes, why does the media report on the worst crime rate in the continent? On the pervasive corruption? The shortages of staple food and household products? The never improving power outages? The guerrillas who control the border areas? Etc etc etc. They just need to focus on the glorious achievements of the revolution!

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    • Why does the US media spend so much time talking about the odd shooting, or disaster or war in Syria and ignore the millions of people getting healthcare thanks to the affordable care act??

      It just is not fair! The news media should spend equal time devoted to good things going on.

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      • I hear you, ND. Why there’s a perfect example of what media should be, on an island not far away. Granma gives me the jolt I need to start every new day, sitting on my ass, doing bugger all. I pity those people who, through illiteracy — still, or for other reasons, can’t read about the glories of the revolution. Sniff.

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  14. Censorship – here is a good example. Yesterday the government supplied 35 million school text books and started to give out 4 million Camaima computers to the schools.

    Now this was not reported anywhere is the private media. This is censorship by simple omission.

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    • “started to give out ”
      There’s your clue-in phrase, Arturo.

      How come the new 6th grade text books omit the facts from 2002, completely avoiding Lucas Rincon’s pronouncement? What other manipulations are there? Was it a balanced commission that oversaw the data, prior to printing these text books?

      As for the — and do learn to spell, Arturo — CANAIMA computer roll-outs, when we see serious and full deployment of the promises, rather than the initial (small) offering for appeasement and publicity, is the day that more of the opposition will believe the government.

      As for your claim, that the private media did not report on these issues, evidently you don’t follow twitter to know that there has been mention, can’t recall where.

      Perhaps you should aim for more balance in your readings. That might also benefit your keyboarding. Not that it matters in Cuba.

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    • Yeah, right: oil barrel at 110 dollars and each child will – theoretically, it is just announced but won’t happen – get 3 text books. Sure.
      How don’t I believe this?

      A school teacher earns in Venezuela on average much less than THE MINIMUM WAGE.
      Most school teachers are there from contract to contract, no security, threatened and forced to do political propaganda

      But yeah, nice announcement that children will one day get 3 text books each.

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    • In normal countries providing school books is not a newsworthy event. I suppose in Revolutionary Venezuela, providing school textbooks is an extra-ordinary and totally unexpected event, so I will grant you do have a point.

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  15. Can’t understand why decent people waste their time arguing with this Arturo character, just another fucking Cuban shill.

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