It may be debatable whether Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that allows internet users to add content, is a shining example of participatory democracy or evil incarnate. But controversy over the bias of its contributors is an ongoing certainty. Such is the case concerning the page being compiled for Hugo Chavez.
Yet this person so incensed over these alleged distortions of facts is part of a movement that continues to enflame its withered position in Venezuelan politics by creating racist “cartoons” depicting Chavez and his supporters as monkeys. That he would decry “the very many sources directly funded or related to the Chavez regime” in light of the fact the opposition movement has its own well-heeled benefactors is just ludicrous. Oh, to have so much free time one could afford to devote endless hours to the deconstruction of Wikipedia pages.
Update: Chavez has been generating discussion on many blogs this week for making an allegedly Anti-Semitic remark on Christmas Eve, despite the “Venezuelan Jewish community leadership and several major American Jewish groups” saying it ain’t so. You can read a translation here. The following was posted by a commenter in this thread at Max Speaks, You Listen!, but Max continues to disagree with those who share the professor’s opinion.
The translation offered by Rick Heller of the Dec. 24, 2005 speech by Hugo Chávez is accurate. As is easily noted, the reference to the descendants of those that killed Jesus and Bolívar is to the wealthy and powerful who murederously defend their priviliges at the expense of the oppressed and those that try and defend them. Mr. Chávez’s reference is to the Roman Empire in the case of Jesus of Nazareth, a connection he has made more explicit several times, and in the second case to the Spanish empire and then the South American oligarchs that opposed Simón Bolívar. Mr. Hugo Chávez Frías is firm follower of Liberation Theology, the Vatican II-related political current that advocates a “preferential option for the poor.” For example, several days ago, during the Christmas season, I heard President Chávez finish (yet) another of his many televised appearances with several calls of “Viva Cristo, el rebelde!,” “Viva Cristo, el socialista!” This latest attempt to portray the most upfront and actively anti-racist President in Venezuela’s history as his opposite is slander all too typical of our (U.S.) right wing, and with an almost photocopy precedent. In the mid 1980s someone in the Reagan administration’s disinformation department decided to invent out of thin air the idea that the FSLN, the Sandinistas, were persecuting the Jewish community in Managua, Nicaragua. Needless to say, the charge was a complete and total lie from beginning to end: there were no more than a few dozen Jews in the nation, zero anything by the government towards them, and basically the whole fake affair led to the Managua newspapers somewhat desparately trying to find anyone of Jewish descent to talk to, seeing as how the one synagogue had fallen into disuse for many years. I lived in Nicaragua in the 1980s and this stupid little episode made the local right wing look (even more) ridiculous by association with such a transparent ploy. But the ploy was not designed for Nicaraguan audiences, it was concocted for the rest of the world, especially Jewish North Americans. It’s guilt by association with a baseless suggestion. Like the Swiftboat lies against Kerry, no matter how baseless this false accusation against the current Venezuelan President is now something that can be dredged back up by Bill O’Reilly et al. with a quick oblique mention to taint any discussion on reality here in Venezuela. I can assure readers that Venezuelans here, whatever their political leanings, know perfectly well that Mr. Chávez’s Liberation Theology-informed message of Jesus and enemies of that message refers to defenders of oppression and empire, just as the word “yanqui” in Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean refers only to the system of political domination eminating from the United States and has nothing prejudicial against individuals who happen to be norteamericanos, gringos, estadosunidenses, etc. Maybe the next false rumor will be if Bolivia’s President-elect Evo Morales uses the term “yanqui” somewhere sometime, and reactionary blogs broadcast that he’s called for the eradication of the New York Yankees. Sheesh.
T.M. Scruggs
Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Professor 2005-2006
Mérida, Venezuela
Sheesh, no doubt, but the Republicans certainly don’t have a monopoly on spreading false rumours.