Political Climate of Mexico

...

Nonetheless, I wasn’t fazed by the media’s allegations against Chavez. I’ve always known the United States government as a very dishonest, power-hungry and devious government that tries to assert its authority on as many countries as it can just because it wants autonomous control of the world’s resources.

On March 5, 2012, a short film titled ‘Kony 2012’ was released by Invisible Children – a ‘non-governmental’ organization to create awareness for the arrest of Joseph Kony – a Ugandan child-kidnapper who forced children to fight in his rebel army. Those who lived in Africa at that time were fully aware that Joseph Kony had been inactive for over 10 years and was in hiding. There were rumors that he was already dead. This was probably a scheme by the organization to make money from ignorant Americans. However, the United States sent troops to Uganda to arrest Kony and not much was heard on the matter again. Was the United States only interested in Uganda’s copper and cobalt? Did people stop to think on whether or not Kony 2012 was just a charade to make money for the organization?

The media’s criticism on Chavez and his reinstatement after the 2002 coup did not really have a great impact me because I was only seven years old then. But I remember my father always talking about how the United States was trying to claw its way into Venezuela’s administration in order to control its oil. The negativity of Western media on Chavez only made my family support Chavez’s administration even more. Venezuela is the 4th largest oil producer in the world and plays a major role in the world’s supply of petroleum products. In the documentary video ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’, the then CIA Director – George Tenet said “I would say that Mr. Chavez (and the State Department may say this) probably doesn’t have the interest of the U.S at heart”. The allegation of not having the interest of the United States of America at heart was as a result of Chavez’s decision to redistribute the wealth of the nation to the masses and this meant reducing the influence of some certain pawns the U.S had placed to monitor the oil corporation in Venezuela. These pawns included Pedro Carmona and Carlos Ortega.

MASS MEDIA’S ONE-SIDED DEPICTION OF CHAVEZ

As said above, the media was very prejudiced and unfair to Hugo Chavez. Western news sources portrayed Chavez as the devil’s incarnate – laying several allegations on him ranging from being an ally to terrorists (Al Qaeda), to being a dictator, to him being against the United States of America. A White House Press Secretary – Ari Fleischer was quoted saying “President Chavez has had a rule that has been controversial and was not met with widespread popular support within Venezuela or among his neighbors and certainly in the United States with President Bush”. So because Chavez’s rule was not supported by the U.S, does this most certainly entail that it was not supported by the majority of Venezuelans also? Chavez had the masses votes and they were about 80% of the entire Venezuelan population. Furthermore, the state TV – Channel 8, was not a mandatory channel to watch. There was freedom of the press in Venezuela, Chavez occasionally appeared on TV and publicly had one-on-one interactions with the people. Venezuelans voted Chavez into power and were very informed about the laws in their constitution. Chavez had popular support in Venezuela so Fleischer’s uninformed claim is full of lies and bias. Chavez’s assessment as depicted by not only Western news sources but also by Western people was unfair.

MANIPULATION OF THE COVERAGE AND FOOTAGE OF THE 2002 COUP

From the documentary ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’, there is substantial evidence that the media coverage and footage of the 2002 Venezuelan coup was manipulated by the private television stations in Venezuela. These stations manipulated the live broadcasts chaotic scenes, showing only scenes of Chavez’s supporters shooting at a particular area and blaming them for shooting at the “innocent” Chavez opposition. What they failed to show was how the area being shot at was empty and how the Chavez supporters were only trying to shoot the hidden snipers that were firing shots at them. The head of news production for a private Venezuelan TV station – Andres Izarra quit his job because felt that the principles of the private TV station contradicted his ethical beliefs. He granted an interview where he said that private reporters were given orders to manipulate the demonstration images and were also told not to broadcast Chavez’s supporters. Furthermore, after Chavez’s supporters had taken over the presidential palace from Carmona’s rule, Carmona granted an interview where he blatantly lied that his administration was not overthrown by Chavez’s supporters and that everything was under control. The Venezuelan opposition party had also taken control of the state TV so all the news being fed to Venezuelans at that time was one-sided from the opposition’s camp and this was the only video footage available to the American media also.

CHAVEZ: UNDERNEATH IT ALL

In my opinion, I would say that President Hugo Chavez was a social democrat bent on enacting social, political, and economic reforms that better served the majority of Venezuelans because he made efforts to reform the state’s Oil Corporation which had been run like a private business during the era of the old traditional leaders. These elite leaders enriched themselves with the country’s funds and drastically increased the gap between the rich and poor. Chavez pressed for the eradication of this corrupt practice and he was hated for it. 80% of the Venezuelan population live under the minimum wage and this is a very shameful statistic for a country that is the 4th largest oil exporter. Chavez was not a dictator and never exhibited dictatorial traits. Instead, he pressed for democracy and urged the people to read the new Venezuelan constitution of 1999 that was passed by referendum. This was not what a typical dictator who was accused of being a threat to democracy would have done. When the opposition planned a coup against him and threatened to bomb the presidential palace if he did not resign, he considered all his government officials and voluntarily turned himself in. I sure as hell would not have done that. If I was going down, I would have taken as many people with me as possible.

ROLE OF MASS MEDIA IN POLITICS

Ideally, the role of media in politics is meant to be the communication and spread of unbiased and unprejudiced events. In the political sense of