Coward's challenge
Step 1) Venezuela briefly detains foreign academics at the airport, warns them against criticizing the government while in the country for the CEDICE conference.
Step 2) Chavez challenges any academic at CEDICE to come on Alo Presidente to debate him live on television.
Step 3) Mario Vargas Llosa accepts the challenge on behalf of CEDICE as long as he receives equal time during debate.
Step 4) Chavez rejects debating Vargas Llosa, says he is not up to presidential level.
Essentially, Chavez issued a challenge and then chickened out when someone actually stepped up to accept it. In 10 years of government, for all the time he has spent on TV, Chavez has rarely if ever faced a dissenting view one on one. However, backing down the way he did this time has to be embarrassing.
Update: Step 5) Cancel show? Even though Chavez has planned a four day Alo Presidente marathon, he canceled Saturday's show amid the whole debate embarrassment.
Step 2) Chavez challenges any academic at CEDICE to come on Alo Presidente to debate him live on television.
Step 3) Mario Vargas Llosa accepts the challenge on behalf of CEDICE as long as he receives equal time during debate.
Step 4) Chavez rejects debating Vargas Llosa, says he is not up to presidential level.
Essentially, Chavez issued a challenge and then chickened out when someone actually stepped up to accept it. In 10 years of government, for all the time he has spent on TV, Chavez has rarely if ever faced a dissenting view one on one. However, backing down the way he did this time has to be embarrassing.
Update: Step 5) Cancel show? Even though Chavez has planned a four day Alo Presidente marathon, he canceled Saturday's show amid the whole debate embarrassment.
Labels: democracy, latinamerica, Venezuela |
