Political Quote: chavez

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Showing posts with label chavez. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chavez. Show all posts

Friday, December 29, 2006

Chavez to silence critics

3:11 AM 0

There are reports that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said he will not renew the licence for the country's second largest TV channel when it expires in March 2007.

The station, RCTV, supported a bungled coup in 2002 and a devastating general strike in 2003 both of which failed to remove Chavez who was returned for a second term last month with an even larger majority.

The press freedom campaign group, Reporters Without Borders, said the proposed move would be a grave violation of freedom of expression in Venezuela.

RCTV is one of the country's oldest channels and began broadcasting in 1953.


Will have to wait and see about this one! I am a Chavez fan and he has been nothing but democratic, open and honest so far. I am going to wait and see if this report is accurate and if Chavez does intend to start shutting down stations like this. If he does intend to shut it down he needs to show real evidence of what is alleged.
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Monday, December 18, 2006

Have you signed the Chagos Islanders petition yet?

12:09 PM 0
To:-

The Right Hon.Tony Blair MP
The Foreign Secretary, The Right Hon. Margaret Beckett MP


INHUMAN TREATMENT OF THE CHAGOS ISLANDERS (ILOIS)

We have become aware of the shocking treatment of the Chagos Islanders who were removed by the British Government to make way for a US airbase in Diego Garcia.

Their treatment is a shameful act of colonial bullying, racism, and inhuman and degrading treatment of people who are loyal British subjects. It is obvious that they have been living in conditions of neglect and suffering, severe hardship, high death rates, ill health, malnutrition and inadequate access to all public facilities which British citizens should have.

We are appalled that the British Government has broken all rules of international law in treating its own subjects so harshly. We are aware that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has been systematically broken year after year by the British Government in Chagos, and we fully endorse the recommendation of the UN Human Rights Subcommittee dated 6th December 2001, when the committee directed the United Kingdom to:-

“… make exercise of the Ilois’ right to return to their territory practicable. It should consider compensation for the denial of this right over an extended period. It should include the territory in its next periodic report”.

We are appalled that, instead of implementing this direction, the Government has chosen to continue the injustice, resorting to the use of Orders in Council to bypass the democratic process and overrule the High Court. We are even more appalled that the Government is using public funds to pursue a lengthy appeal against the High Court’s decision in May to quash these ridiculous orders.

We find it outrageous and offensive to these poor people that the Government is trying to hide behind a pathetic settlement payment in 1982, and feasibility studies which have been met with ridicule in the scientific community.

This outrageous appeal should be dropped immediately, and the committee’s damning judgment should be implemented immediately and in full. Anything less would be a shameful violation of all civilised norms of behaviour and will hasten the destruction of a peaceful rural community of islanders.



Sincerely,

Sign your name here! Click here to sign this petition and lend your voice to the campaign to let the Ilois people of Chagos go home.
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Monday, December 4, 2006

Viva Chavez! Chavez wins 6 more years as Venezuela's president

12:52 PM 0

Hugo Chavez has won his second term as President last night with a wide margin over the opposition candidate. Chavez won 61.3 percent of the vote compared to 38.4 percent for Manuel Rosales.

Rosales has admitted that there was no fraud and has accepted that the elections were fair although he insists the actual figures are much tighter than above.

The victory is a confirmation of Chavez's policies of targeting the needs of the poor with the huge profits from the country's oil industry. Until Chavez's election most of these profits went into tax breaks for the middle and upper classes in Venezuela.

When you consider that at the time of his election almost 60% of the country lived below the poverty line. Giving tax breaks to the wealthy at the obvious expense of the poor could not be justified. Chavez campaigned on these issues and on reform of land ownership.

Since his election Chavez has poured money into anti poverty measures and a literacy campaign. Poverty has been reduced by 20% and illiteracy has been eradicated.

Land reform is proving more difficult than he originally expected. In Venezuela less than 5% of the population owns 80% of the land. The most vocal opponents to this scheme to reform ownership are people like one of Britain's richest men, Lord Vestey, who says he'll fight the Venezuelan government to stop hundreds of peasant farmers taking over land on his cattle ranches in South America.

Doesn't this sound familiar to anyone? I think it should certainly ring some bells here in Ireland.

Hugo Chavez is the best chance for the poor of Venezuela. He is their best hope for a fair society, where they have an equal chance for food, education, health and home ownership.

Except for food these are the exact same issues that will be the priorities of the 2007 General Election here in Ireland.

We should not forget where we have come from. We should help and support the likes of Hugo Chavez, the democratically elected President of Venezuela.

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Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Why I would vote for Hugo Chavez

8:51 PM 0

Venezuela goes to the polls on December 3 for the 2006 Presidential Elections. Hugo Chavez, the incumbent, is a controversial figure at home and abroad. He is challenged by Manuel Rosales who represents a coalition of anti Chavez campaigners.


Chavez was elected in 1998 on a platform of creating a more equal society, ending poverty and illiteracy and reform of government, land ownership and the nation's oil industry. He was elected with the largest percentage victory in 40 years. In 1999 he brought in a new constitution and as part of this reform new elections were held in 2000.


He was re-elected with an increase in his vote. However in 2002 he was removed by a coup. but returned to power within a day. Watch video below.



Interestingly Rosales was a signatory to the Carmona Decree which was used as the official means of illegally removing the democratically elected Chavez following the coup which was in all likelihood sponsored by the US. Today, Rosales says his signing the Decree was a "mistake".


According to Venezuela’s National Institute of Statistics (INE), the proportion of the country’s 26 million people living on or below the poverty line dropped to 35% by the end of 2005, down from 47% in 2004.


Over the past two years, 1.5 million Venezuelans have learned how to read and write, thus eradicating illiteracy from the country. By comparison, during the 10-year period prior to Chavez’s election as Venezuela’s president in 1998, only only 73,000 Venezuelans learned to read and write.


For these last two reasons alone I would vote for the man. He might be too friendly with Castro for my liking and he might be a bit of a demagogue but I believe in his sincereity to better the lives or ordinary people and I believe he really is making a difference.


In the video below Chavez, during his trip to London recently, outlines some of his beliefs.


Vote Chavez!





Click here to read about the visit of the Labour Party and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to Venezuela.
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