More Venezuela articles

I linked to a few Venezuela articles in yesterday's Latin America roundup. Here's a few more from today and over the weekend.

Miami Herald: Poverty continues and public opinion is divided as to whether Chavez is helping the poor. Only 31% support his economic model.

BBC: Chavez is going to seize idle firms.

AP: More Chavez pushing 21st century socialism.

Washington Post: Jackson Diehl says the Bush administration has been successful in fighting against the political prosecutions of Maria Corina Machado of Venezuela and Ayman Nour of Egypt.

Economist (via VCrisis for those without a subscription): Opposition damned if it campaigns, damned if it boycotts.

Financial Times: Dead author found on Venezuelan electoral rolls.

CNN/Reuters: Venezuelan Cardinal calls Chavez a dictator. (Chavez's response was to call him a coup-mongering bandit).

And then from my roundup yesterday:

The Boston Globe covers the growing concern over Chavez's politicization of the military and his arming and training of left-wing civilian paramilitary groups. BBC reported on Venezuelan doctors marching against the growing presence of Cuban doctors. The Chicago Tribune discusses Telesur, the Venezuelan funded TV station that goes live on July 24th and will be about as fair and balanced as Fox News.

I don't want to say the media cover Venezuela and its power-happy too much, because each of these articles is important. However, I'd love to see this level of coverage for some other countries and issues in Latin America. Chavez is easy to cover because he says and does lots of outrageous things. He also provides the media with the "anti-Bush" and a "leader of the left" although both those are true only in the media's mind. I'd love to see the media challenge themselves a bit more to move outside of the meme's they have constructed.

Going back to the articles from today and yesterday, there is a surprisingly negative tone about all of them. Also, other than the Washington Post op-ed, there is surprisingly little criticism from US officials. Even looking at that Boston Globe article, there is not a single US official quoted in that story, leaving it all up to Latin American military analysts. The lesson here is that when Washington stays relatively quiet, the media turn against Chavez. It's a lesson we should remember.