Sachys: Thanks for the link man, but it doesnt clarify anything - none of the clips are really put into context and could be anything. I see the same shit on the streets of the UK, and I'm sure many also do in the US / rest of the world.
I'm not saying nothing is happening there (as you and I have talked at some length on these kind of issues), just that it was a damned bad link that says nothing. You give me the equal amount of footage with a single (and obvious) context and you have a news story - mainstream or underground. As well you know I have friends and clients here from Venezuela, and have an amount of understanding and preloaded sympathy to the country and its people, but you need to be fighting it with some decent stuff - this video is as twisted and open to interpretation as any propaganda, mainstream media, extremist view or internet crap out there.
Find that ONE video! :)
It really is, thanks for the feedback mate, I hope to find a better one!
The most important thing is for the world to know what's happening here, we (actually I, many people here think that's the best idea ever, but it's not) are not asking for military intervention or anything, we are just hoping that more countries become aware of our situation so this violence, the violation of human rights and freedom of speech don't go unpunished.
P1na: The situation's bad, yes. But that video is as slanted as you can get. Calling the current (or the recent) government a dictatorship is a particularly good example.
I'm not up to date on news as of late, but I remember a few years back when Chavez was winning elections when half the world didn't exactly sympathize with him and there were observers from everywhere looking at the results. If there were indeed irregularities there, it would have been frigging obvious. And with how the media reacts to any left-related scandal in South America, it would have been all over the news. If it wasn't, it probably was because they were pretty clean elections. And there were a couple attempted coups IIRC.
It kind of reminds me how some people say Cuba hasn't had freedom for 50 years. OK, let's say I agree the current regime is not freedom, are you implying Batista's dictatorship was? Or another funny one, how about the Spanish "el pais" newspaper (which, correct me if I'm wrong, but it has quite some interest on South America) going on and on about the evil Chavez attempting to change the constitution to "perpetuate in power". Funny thing is, what he actually wanted to do was to allow for reelection more than once, so a president could remain in power for as long as people kept voting for him.
Which is what happens in Spain. How long was Felipe Gonzalez in power, 16 years? But it was totally evil if Chavez did it, just because you know, Spain is awesome and leftist South Americans are not. Even funnier if you stop to realize that the presidential position in Venezuela is the "chief of state", while the Spanish president is just "chief of government" and the actual "chief of state" in Spain is the king, and guy handpicked by a dictator that nobody voted for.
It's clear the situation's not good, with half the country at the throats of the other half and the common people suffering for it. However don't expect me to take your word just on good faith. I do wish that Venezuela (and the rest of the world, for that matter) gets better, but going around pushin all the blame on the "others" who are so totally evil is not the way; me thinks. People need to sit down and talk reasonably to each other, understand each other and reach agreements. I don't think either side is trying that over there.
I'm not pushing the blame on all of them, just the goverment, I'm stating that the current goverment is destroying my country, dividing it by ideology (extremists, not the kind you can sit and talk with), applying incredibly wrong economic measures resulting in a total economical breakdown, cutting off any freedom of speech, excluding politically and on any other branch, something as simple as a job application to anybody who is on a "black list" they compilled from everybody who voted against them in the elections (my whole family unable to find a job in any public related organization, or any "private" enterprise controlled by the goverment, we are just banned for them, because we are against the "revolution") I have no hate for the poor people that supports Maduro, but I do hate the ones getting richer by manipulating these humble sector of my country, making them believe we are the enemy when the only thing we're fighting for is a prosper Venezuela, united as one.
Chavez won every election because he had the support of the majority (those in more need, the lower class), which I totally agree it was ignorated by previous goverments, Chavez's goverment started pretty well, he was determined to make this country a lot better, but short story, he failed, he lost the right way long ago, became more radical, started to spread the hate by stating we the "rich" people (essentially anybody who can afford with hard work like my family a decent quality of life, and of course those who were actually rich) hated them, looked at them like filth, that we despise them, and want them to be poor for ever.
Then he started to cut off any freedom of speech, closed a couple TV channels that oposed him, and blame any country (the US was always his first pick, and Maduro does it aswell) for anything happening down here, when it was his own fault, then the criminality started to increase, corruption within police made impossible to stop this outbreak of violence and criminality, which now kills hundreds of Venezuelans every year, the police do nothing to stop them, murders are not investigated unless you pay them for what they're supposed to do, or you're someone famous or simply because you're part of the elite figures within the current goverment.
We have more than a decade with a flawed exchange control that only helped to create a parallel market for USD or any other currency, they do not aprove the amount of money needed by the private enterprises to import raw materials to produce for the country, and it resulted in the actual scarcity of basic domestic items like toilet paper and what-not.
Simply, we fight against a failed and corrupt goverment, so in love with their ideology that they would (and are) destroy this fine piece of land, so rich, before somebody else that does not agree with their ideas rule this country, thus condemning us all.
They talk about compasion, love and understanding and then some minutes after they call us murders, fascist, criminals, traitors, US slaves and so on.
Believe me, they
don't want to sit and talk about it, they want us to renounce everything we believe in and become their puppets in their so called paradise.
The only way is to fight for a better country, or leave, which hundreds maybe thousands of Venezuelans do every year.
Thanks for dropping by and leaving your opinion, I'd like to take the chance to thank everybody for doing it aswell, all of us are bound to our own opinions.
EDIT: Did not complete my answer to the chimp. :)