Venezuela is facing presidential elections on October. The race between Hugo Chavez and Henrique Capriles is close in the polls; who will win is still uncertain. These days, the biggest concern for the people of Venezuela is that if Capriles wins, will the losing current president Chavez step down peacefully from a position he has enjoyed for more than a decade, or will he resist and unleash a civil war?

President Chavez has accused Capriles of trying to provoke violence by campaigning in places where he knows Chavez has a lot of support. The accusations came after a march which Henrique Capriles did in La Vega, a poor district of Caracas, in which Capriles sympathizers got into a fight with Chavez supporters. The police intervened and Capriles was not allowed to finish the march.

In a military ceremony, President Chavez referred to Capriles recent actions and told the soldiers: “They are going to try to destabilize the country. I’ve been saying it and everybody should be alert.” Declarations like this are creating a very hostile environment while the country is just a few months away from the elections. Chavez insists that the incident which occurred in La Vega is evidence of Capriles destabilization plans, and the president added that Capriles plans should be neutralized.

Henrique Capriles has denied the accusations and stated: “I’m not walking Venezuela’s streets to fight with anybody.” So far the campaign has been peaceful, but there is a risk that it could turn violent in the final rounds. The opposition candidate knows that in order to win, he would need the support of the poor and the working-class so places such as La Vega are necessary campaign grounds for him.

Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington, expressed his fear that most of the country is exposed to, as he stated: “a risk that minor clashes between supporters of both camps could escalate and threaten social peace. The distrust is profound, and arms are plentiful.”

The elections are schedules for October 7 and Capriles campaign has been very intense. He has visited most of the country in his attempt to win over the population and Chavez out of the presidency, a position he has held since 1999. On the other hand because of his cancer treatment recovery, president Chavez  has barely begun campaigning, but still, he has stated that he is sure he will defeat Capriles. He recently made a political rally in the Venezuelan state of Zulia where he claims he congregated hundreds of thousands of people, and said that Capriles efforts would be in vain.

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Following the Venezuelan independence day last Wednesday, US presidential nominee Mitt Romney issued a statement saying that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez “failed to honor the spirit of freedom with which Venezuela was established. Hugo Chávez is promoting ideas in Venezuela and other Latin American countries that run counter to freedom, prevent prosperity and expand tyranny.”

The statement is typical US discourse opposing Chavez, who has long been a hate figure in US media. The populist ideas Chavez is promoting have long been a concern for the US. This was illustrated by a similar statement by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, then reacting to Salvardo Allende’s election in Chile in 1970.

Chile was then on the verge of becoming an independent socialist state rather than a Soviet satellite, a development which, according to Kissinger, “would be far more dangerous… because its ‘model’ effect can be insidious… our main concern is the prospect that [Allende] can consolidate himself and the picture projected to the world will be his success.”

Washington’s greatest fear, far greater than communism or the rise of totalitarianism, is, and always has been, successful independent nationalism. That has currently become a reality across Latin America following the last ten year’s remarkable development known as the “pink tide.” This movement is characterized by the election of leftist governments (with notable examples such as Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Rafael Correa in Ecuador and Evo Morales in Bolivia, among others), increased government control over natural resources with new social reforms favoring the poor and former marginalized indigenous populations, and a region-wide opposition to Washington influence stretching from Venezuela to Argentina.

Venezuela has been on the forefront of this socialist movement, initiated by the 1999 election of Hugo Chavez.

Hugo Chavez was elected President following two decades of economic turmoil in Venezuela. Chavez, coming from poor conditions himself, immediately set out to introduce reforms specifically targeting the poor majority – a former invisible group in a Venezuela dominated by a small and wealthy elite with close ties to the US.

Today, Venezuela has free health care and free education, as well as some of the highest literacy rates in the region. In 2002, the disgruntled upper class, rendered powerless under the Chavez government, staged a coup with the help of Washington. The US had been channeling millions of dollars to the coup makers through US Aid and the National Endowment for democracy. Chavez was replaced by Pedro Carmona, a businessman who suspended all members of the Supreme Court, the National Assembly and the National Electoral board and assumed dictatorial powers.

The IMF was not late to jump aboard; during a press briefing the day after the coup, Thomas C. Dawson, Director of the External Relations Department in the IMF, immediately pledged allegiance to the Carmona government, saying that “we stand ready to assist the new administration in whatever manner they find.”

All the while, official US spokesmen backed a phony story about Chavez supporters shooting innocent civilians. However, the poor masses were not going to accept being marginalized once again, and thus emerged with great numbers from the Barrios demanding Chavez reinstatement. As they approached the presidential palace, the army turned against the coup makers and reinstated Chavez, a mere 48 hours after his ousting.

Philip Agee, a former CIA agent operating in Latin America, explains why the US would back a coup overthrowing an elected government and replace it with a dictator: “In the CIA, we didn’t give a hoot about democracy. It was fine if a government was elected and would co-operate with us, but if it didn’t, then democracy didn’t mean a thing to us, and I don’t think it means a thing today.”

Venezuela is home to the largest oil reserves in the world outside of the Middle East, and is thus a country of vital strategic importance to the US. Detrimental to US designs, Chavez is forming close ties with China instead of Washington. Chavez is also cooperating closely with Cuba, Argentina and other South American nations under the premise of achieving a Latin American “grand unity,” in which Washington is not included.

The US often condemns Venezuela and its current form of democracy, while paradoxically praising and supporting the neighboring government of Colombia, a country with one of the worst human rights record in history. According to virtually unreported Latinobarometro polls, Venezuela is annually the highest ranking in all of South America when it comes to trust in democracy, assessment of the current and future economic situations, equality, justice, and education standards.

Venezuela has got its far share of problems, such as mounting inflation and continuous corruption, but compared to the pre-Chavez Venezuela, where the majority of the population were completely marginalized, the democratic development is nothing far from remarkable.

As Latin America is steadily slipping out of US control, Washington is waking up to a new multipolar world in which its powers are no longer taken for granted. The continent has seen a remarkable reversal of detrimental financial and social policies during the last ten years. The region, which contemptuously has been known as Americas “back yard,” is moving towards a future in which a bewildered Washington no longer has a place.

No wonder Mitt Romney is disgruntled.

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“If I’m fortunate enough to become the next president, it is my expectation that Fidel Castro will finally be taken off this planet,” Mitt Romney told to a group of Cuban exiled and political leaders in Miami on January. With this short sentence he showed the world that he is not willing to conceive of Cuba as a friend, as long as Raul and Fidel Castro are still alive.

It seems that Mitt Romney dreams of a free Cuba and is willing to make his dream come true. He also wants to be everything Obama isn’t, so in the Cuba issue he would follow the same plan. If Obama, at the beginning of his presidency, adopted an appeasement strategy, Romney in his campaign assured he would harden the sanctions against Cuba if he is elected president. His plans are clear: the embargo would come to an end when Cuba is free, and free means with the Castro’s out of sight. It is clear that he wants the Cuban community’s support for presidential election.

But in these hard economic times, this strategy may not attract as many Cuban voters as he expects. Cubans are decisive in a crucial state like Florida. Most politicians try to gain their support by criticizing Castro, because most of their ancestors escaped the island when the Castro regime started in 1959. But in this period of crisis, most Cuban voters just think about the economy as their priority. Maybe in a time of prosperity, the priority of the Cuban voters will be the position of the presidential candidate over their country, but not in these hard times.

But Mitt Romney has bigger plans than the Cuban community support. He wants the entire Latin community support; he reassured citizens that he is interested in Latin American issues and clearly expressed the route that he will follow, referring to the relations with the different Latin American governments, if he is elected president. Romney believes that Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela and declared enemy of the United States,  and Fidel  Castro are serious threats for the United States.

That leaves the country members of ALBA (The Bolivian Alliance for the People of Our America), an alliance proposed by Chavez as an alternative to the FTA (Free Trade Area of the Americas, proposed by the United States) without hope of having good relations with the United States in the nearby future.

But Romney may not be the biggest threat toward Chavez. His real enemy is his sickness.Although president Chavez real health condition is a mystery; the fact is, he hasn’t been present in Venezuela during the last months, and it is very difficult to run a country and win an election just by Twitter. Chavez’s health will be a crucial issue during the next months because it will condition the relationship between the United States and Latin America. Also, if Venezuela falls, it is almost certain that Cuba would fall, because Venezuela is the country’s stronger economic supporter.

The future of the United States and Latin America is a mystery. We still have many questions without an answer, like if Romney would be elected president or if Chavez’ health would make him able to compete in the October elections against Henrique Capriles. All these answers are crucial and would determine the future of the continent.

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South America is facing the worst wave of press censorship since the authoritarian military dictatorships of the 1970′s. Several leaders of Latin American countries have introduced mechanisms to censor the freedom of speech and freedom of the press of their citizens.

Journalists working for media organizations are protected under article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states, “Freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media, regardless of frontiers.” This is a fundamental right that gives the ability to have opinions and write about them without having to worry about whether journalists will get into trouble for what they believe.

However, some countries are taking a step backward in regard to free speech, especially in Latin America. According to FORO Nacional Internacional, “Repression and open threats have come from national and sub-national governments and even from criminal organizations. Moreover, the persistence of such pressures often results in media self-censorship, as they abstain from disseminating political views that are critical of powerful government or private interests.”

Human Rights Watch published last year how Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez undermined journalistic freedom of speech. Chavez officially removed the licenses of 32 private radio stations and 2 television channels in 2009 for “technical and administrative reasons.”

Nicaragua is the best example of the reasons behind the desire to limit freedom of speech in many Latin American countries. President Daniel Ortega has forced all private media companies to join a guild that is associated with his Sandinista Party, but few media businesses are still resisting Ortega’s proposal. Ortega limits what type of information is received by his citizens.

Freedom of expression is fragile in Colombia because it is threatened by state and non-state factions, such as the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC) guerrilla group and the “Black Eagles,” a paramilitary band.

Catalina Botero, special rapporteur for freedom of expression at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), said to a newspaper in 2010 that “death threats, stigmatization, and spying on journalists by state agencies had led the country to a red alert status.”

Reporters Without Borders (RWB) cited that four journalists have been killed since the start of 2010 in Colombia in connection with their journalistic work. RWB mentioned that, in 2011, the Black Eagles made a campaign threatening the life of five journalists: Hollman Morris (Contravía), Daniel Coronell (Univisión), Marcos Perales (Portada), Claudia Julieta (Radio Nizkor), and Eduardo Márquez, the president of the Colombian Federation of Journalists (FECOLPER). These professionals media activities were spied on and hacked by Colombia’s leading intelligence agency and the Administrative Department of Security which involved the Colombian President Álvaro Uribe with this scandal.

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries to work as a journalist. Despite the fact that Mexican President Felipe Calderón promised a number of international press monitors in 2010 and a new program to guarantee safety conditions for journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) found that these measures did not work.

According to the CPJ, seven journalists and one media worker were killed in 2011. A total of 80 journalists have been murdered since 2000, and 14 have disappeared since 2003. Even social media as an alternative for journalists to shed light on democracy is threatened by Mexican cartels. For instance, social media journalist Macías Castro was killed last year for her anonymous story on the drug war through social media.

Cuba does not let any independent press operate outside the control of the state. The official media (one television channel, one radio station and two dailies are the official channels to serve propaganda for the regime with just a few Catholic magazines being tolerated. Many Cuban journalists have been forced to publish from Miami and Spain against the regimen.

In general, by monitoring the media, the South American governments have control over all aspects of their citizens’ lives. Governments are able to stop any reports that show the real facts of politicians and is even capable of getting the media to publish false election results to keep the status quo. Censorship is a tyranny mechanism whose practice limits the freedom of speech instead of promoting a real democracy in Latin America.

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Hugo Chavez is back to Caracas after his cancer operation in Cuba one day before Venezuela´s Independent´s Day. This surprising recovery is “a miracle”, according to some of his ministers.

After one month and two operations in Cuba… Hugo Chávez is back to Venezuela! The commandant- President has suffered an emergency operation in La Havana, Cuba, due to a pelvic abscess but he is just in time for the 200 anniversary of his country.

The Venezuelan President,  found out that he had to be intervened immediately and to have the operation due to a brain tumor, when he was visiting   Brazil. On June 10, the commandant has been hospitalized in La Havana to recover himself of both operations. Since then, there have been many rumors about the health of Hugo Chávez and therefore the stability of his Government.

Hugo Chavez is running for reelection as a president next year , and according to Luis Vicente León, a political analyst “ this was a completely predictable event”,  “he needed to immediately eliminate pessimism among his followers and avoid internal power struggles.” It has been twelve years since he won the power in the Bolivarian Revolution.

Superman or showman?

On Monday early morning, Hugo Chavez appeared on the state television VTV in one of his tracksuit arriving at the airport of Maiquetia, near Caracas. There the vice-president Elías Jaua and his Elder brother, Adán Chávez, were waiting for him.
Video: President Chavez Returns to Venezuela

Then, it was Twitter´s turn: “Good morning, my dear Venezuela!”-  Mr. Chávez wrote on Monday 4th on his account @chavezcandanga to almost 1.7 million followers – “Thank you, my God! It is the start of the Return!”.

This return, described by some of his ministers as “a miracle”, has an important and symbolic meaning because just one day after, on Tuesday 5^th, it´s Venezuelan Independence Day, and it will be the second century anniversary of the country.

This 56 year-old-Superman reappearance seems to be a part of the publicity campaign of the “comandante”. Mr. Chávez is well known by his commanding- nationalism and socialist-inspired welfare projects and  most of all  by his showman style. Show must go on? What do you think about HugoChavez? And about his government?

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Hugo Chávez remains admitted in Cuba due to his medical issues caused during an official trip to La Habana.

The venezuelan president had an emergency operation, possibly, in the same hospital where, in 2006, Fidel Castro was also admitted during his worst health stage.

The history seems to repeat it self again. But now is due a pelvic abscess that affects to Chávez.

Doctors worldwide, started to wonder what “pelvic abscess” means. They leak a firm definition that refers to a pus accumulation in an organ underneath the abdomen, possibly the urethra, bladder or prostate.

God bless Twitter.

If you follow @chavezcandanga, you will see the Chávez’s official activity. Last friday he tweeted four new messages, the last one, related to his relatives visit.

It seems to be a hard moment for Hugo Chávez, but fortunately has a huge support: The Castro family, of course.
The Chávez – Castro union is an important mainstay for their International relations, strengthen by the petroleum power.

But now we all wonder, when will Hugo Chávez show up?
Be alert to Twitter. May be there is the answer.

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Almost a year ago, the controversial Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez encouraged the Bolivian President Evo Morales and Cuban political leader Fidel Castro to join him on Twitter. The unorthodox invitation came after Chavez himself had joined Twitter under the name @chavezcandaga. Curiously enough some might say, since only 30% of the Venezuelan people have internet access. His move also took some by surprise as he had previously described Twitter as a potential “tool of terror”. Nonetheless, in two days Chavez had gained more than 100.000 followers and the notoriously verbose leader, who once spoke for 8 hours on a television show, was so excited about the medium that he encouraged his fellow South and Central American leaders to join.

Interestingly enough, the former communist revolutionary took Chavez up on the offer and signed up under the username @reflexionfidel. The 84-year-old Castro stepped down as Cuban president in 2006 – first temporarily and then permanently – ceding power to his younger brother Raul Castro, age 79. Fidel remains the head of the Communist Party and often publishes opinion pieces, called ‘Reflections’, in Cuba’s state-run news media. His Twitter account is said to tweet excerpts from his frequent musing on world affairs.

While Castro has admitted to being a news junky who spends hours reading off of the internet, he does not send the tweets out personally, according to a story in the state-run Cubadebate web site. Instead, it is the members of the Cubadebate staff who select passages from the revolutionary’s writings and publishes them. The account has sent out more than 1.750 tweets with Castro’s thoughts, including his fears that the world is heading for nuclear Armageddon, and his warnings that NATO is planning to invade Libya.

“The U.S. and NATO can’t resist taking advantage of the conflict in Libya to promote military intervention,” read a tweet two weeks ago, quoting from an opinion piece Castro wrote a few days earlier, according to Associated Press. “In every U.S. war, like Vietnam, the most cynical justifications and measures prevailed,” read another posted the following day.

The followers of the former Cuban president has past 100.000 people which the government has said makes it the first official Cuban-themed Twitter account to break that threshold. Despite the impressive numbers, however, the government’s claim that Castro is the most followed Cuban Twitterer is far from undisputed. The Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez, known internationally for her critical portrayal of live in Cuba under the Communist rule, does also have an account and her followers have reached 109.000 but since Sanchez is considered a dissident, the government’s conclusion does not seem far fetched.

Neither of them has much competition in Cuba, where less than 2% of the Island’s population uses the internet – making it the lowest penetration rate in the Western Hemisphere. But by reaching the 100.000 people mark, Castro has entered the realm of several other global figures who reach out through Twitter. His friend Hugo Chavez has reached nearly 1.3 million followers, a year after promoting the medium, while the British Prime Minister David Cameron has nearly 1.8 million – and President Barack Obama close to 7 million.

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