[News] Venezuela - Student Protests, Corporate Media Inaccuracies Abound
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Thu Nov 15 12:29:15 EST 2007
newsandaction at veninfo.org
VIO News & Action- November 15, 2007
Dear colleagues,
Considering the recent barrage of inaccurate news
about Venezuela's constitutional reforms and the
student protests that have accompanied them we
felt it necessary to clear things up. We hope
the below analysis will be useful in explaining
the current political climate in Venezuela to friends or to the press.
STUDENT PROTESTS IN VENEZUELA
Recent news articles have reported on a series of
opposition student protests in Venezuela in
response to constitutional reforms slated to be
voted on in a national referendum December
2. Most of the news coverage has included
misleading claims about the students'
demonstrations and the government's response to
them. Primarily the media has failed to report on
the cooperation between the government and the
students and the various accommodations that have been made for them.
[]
The largest protests, with an estimated
attendance of 6,000 university students (of the
200,000 student in Caracas alone), have enjoyed
the full protection of Venezuela's police forces.
These protections comply with Article 68 of the
1999 Constitution, which protects the rights of
all Venezuelans to peaceably assemble. And unlike
during past governments, when student
demonstrations were regularly repressed by police
forces, students, including leaders linked to
opposition political parties like Primero
Justicia and Bandera Roja, have recently been
granted high-level meeting with government
officials and institutions to discuss their concerns:
Earlier this month on November 1 a group of
students met with the directors of the National
Electoral Council and presented a petition to
delay the national referendum to the directors of
Venezuela's electoral authority, the National Electoral Council (CNE).
On November 7 a group of 10 student
representatives met with officials from the
National Tribunal of Justice, and presented a
petition calling for the delay of a national
referendum scheduled for December 2.
On November 12 Venezuela's Minister of Interior
and Justice, Pedro Carreño, met 20 university
presidents and restated the government's respect
of university autonomy and the right of students to peaceably assemble.
BIASED MEDIA COVERAGE CONTINUES
Much of the media coverage given to the student
protests has been distorted and
one-sided. Recently it has even begun to
replicate the way in which the media drummed up
support for the coup d'etat against President
Chavez in 2002. During that time false news
claims circulated that Chavez supporters had shot
and attacked innocent civilians during a
protest. Later, these allegations were proven false.
Strikingly similar today, is the way in which the
media is trying to link violent acts during
recent protests to the government and its
supporters. A
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=fV299PVxehxye%2F%2BiSneH1oQQXcPPhEHe>Washington
Post editorial published today and a New York
Times article over the weekend serve as cases in
point. In it the Post takes university officials'
opinions as fact and identifies masked gunmen as
"government-sponsored paramilitary
groups". Also, read the
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=2hPH1aIVP0K53nSaMbSDBYQQXcPPhEHe>New
York Times article .
In reality the following events occurred on
November 7 as students returned to the campus of
the Central University of Venezuela. Following a
march to the headquarters of the National
Tribunal of Justice, a group of opposition
students stormed the School of Social Work -
whose students had been known to have earlier
advocated in favor of the constitutional reforms
- and set the school building on fire. Police
forces were alerted, but, in keeping with
Venezuela's "Law of Universities", could not
enter the campus for lack of approval by the
University president. For this reason, campus
employees responded and tried to prevent violent
attacks against the Social Work students. This is
when masked individuals equipped with guns
appeared on motorcycles. Shortly after,
opposition student leaders claimed on live
television that they were being attacked by
people aligned with the government (the masked
motorcycle group). No evidence was ever offered
to back up these claims and recent videos from
bystanders and local media outlets have shown the
violent acts perpetuated by opposition students on the School of Social Work.
International press agencies, except Reuters,
later recognized that no evidence existed to link
the individuals on the motorcycles to the government.
Another incident turned violent by members of the
student opposition occurred after a meeting with
the directors of the National Electoral Council
on November 1. A group of student demonstrators
attempted to chain themselves to the building
while another charged through a police line. Six
police officers were injured and one student
demonstrator was found with possession of 20
liters of gasoline. After the incident, the
president of the National Electoral Council,
Tibisay Lucena stated: "We were surprised at our
good faith effort when, at the conclusion of this
meeting, a group of them tried, aggressively, to
chain themselves to the stairs of the
headquarters of National Electoral Council, thus
violating the cordial and peaceful spirit that
was present during the meeting. These acts
constitute a meaningless and unjustifiable aggression to
what has been a democratic practice of the electoral council."
Meanwhile, yesterday students and university
presidents from all over the nation, including
those from the Central University of Venezuela,
filed a document with the Supreme Court in
support of the constitutional reform
process. Read the
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=1u7FQ5KfvodUwasQAD%2FbDpDahGlvaC9S>Venezuelan
news story .
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
SEND A LETTER TO THE WASHINGTON POST or THE NEW
YORK TIMES and make your voice heard!
Send your letter of no more than 200 words to: letters at washpost.com
Be sure to include your name, telephone number, and address.
or
Send your letter of no more than 150 words to: letters at nytimes.com
Be sure to include your name, telephone number, and address.
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org
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