Let me start this by saying I did vote for Bush in the last election, but if he could be re-elected he would not get my vote. I think both parties are morally and ethically bankrupt and I am now an Independent. Just so I won’t be dismissed as a Bush apologist because I am not. I am tired though of Liberals selling out our Nation because of their hate for Bush.

Anyone who believes that Hugo Chavez is a good man who cares about the poor and needy is truly blinded. Just a simple Google search will produce page after page of results showing just how much of a thug and a despot Chavez is. It is sad that the Neo-Liberals in our countries hate Bush so badly they are willing to support this man.

Here are some excerpts from Human Rights Watch concerning Venezuela:

July 8, 2005
Yesterday, a court in Caracas ordered that María Corina Machado and Alejandro Plaz be tried on treason charges brought by a public prosecutor because their nongovernmental organization, Súmate, accepted foreign funds for a program that encouraged citizen participation in a referendum on President Hugo Chavez’s presidency in 2004. Two other Súmate leaders, Luis Enrique Palacios and Ricardo Estévez, will also be tried on charges of complicity with this alleged crime.

“The court has given the government a green light to persecute its opponents,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Prosecuting people for treason when they engage in legitimate electoral activities is utterly absurd.”

April 5, 2005
Carlos Ayala Corao, a distinguished Venezuelan jurist and human rights expert, was summoned to appear this morning before a Caracas public prosecutor. The prosecutor was to notify Ayala of the opening of a criminal investigation against him, apparently for alleged involvement in the failed April 2002 coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Ayala, who is currently president of the nongovernmental Andean Commission of Jurists, is a former president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

During the aborted coup attempt, Ayala intervened to protect the rights of a pro-Chávez congressman who had been detained illegally and was being held incommunicado by the security services. The congressman, Tarek William Saab, subsequently thanked Ayala on television for his timely action. A special committee of the National Assembly that investigated the events of April 2002 also noted that Ayala waited for five hours outside police headquarters while he was seeking Tarek William Saab’s release.

March 24, 2005
“By broadening laws that punish disrespect for government authorities, the Venezuelan government has flouted international human rights principles that protect free expression,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “While countries across Latin America are moving to repeal such laws, Venezuela has enacted further restrictions on the press that will shield officials from public scrutiny.”

The amendments extend the scope of existing provisions that make it a criminal offense to insult or show disrespect for the president and other government authorities. Venezuela’s measures run counter to a continent-wide trend to repeal such “disrespect” (or “desacato”) laws. In recent years, Argentina, Costa Rica, Paraguay, and Peru have already repealed such laws, and other countries like Chile and Panama are currently considering legislation that would do so.

Anyone convicted of offending these authorities could go to prison for up to 20 months. Anyone who gravely offends the president, on the other hand, can incur a penalty of up to 40 months in prison.

Exerpts from a letter sent to Hugo Chavez April 9, 2004
I am writing to express Human Rights Watch’s deep concern about credible reports we have received that National Guard and police officers beat and tortured people who were detained during the recent protests in Caracas and other Venezuelan cities. Such cases were not unusual or exceptional. The abuses allegedly committed were widespread and appeared to enjoy official approval at some level of command in the forces responsible for them.

There are MANY case cited in the letter this one was particularly ugly:

Carlos Eduardo Izcaray Pinto, solo cellist of the Venezuela Symphony orchestra, was arrested during the night of March 2 near Altamira Plaza, where he had been watching anti-government protests close to his home. Izcaray told Human Rights Watch that the National Guard had come under a barrage of stones and fireworks and had charged the demonstrators, who ran in all directions. He decided to walk home but was intercepted by a National Guardsman riding a motorbike, who stopped him for questioning. Ignoring his protests that he was only a bystander, the guardsman beat him repeatedly around the head, insulted him, and forced him onto the back of the motorbike. He was later put into a truck in which there were five or six other detainees. He told Human Rights Watch:

The guardsmen in the truck continued to hit me on the neck and body with their nightsticks, helmets, and even traffic cones. One hit me on the elbow with a stick so hard that my arm and hand went numb. Another emptied a teargas bomb and smeared the contents on my hair and face, then set light to my hair, burning my neck. One guy put a pistol in my mouth and made me repeat a phrase after him, “I am going home to my husband.” I suppose it was meant to humiliate me.

After a while they moved us into a second truck. Inside, they made us inhale tear gas after closing the canvas sides of the truck and putting on their gas masks. They threw one of the big [teargas] bombs inside, closed all the doors and if any one pushed on the canvas sides to escape they got beaten. My lungs were burning and I really thought I was going to die. Eventually I managed to get out the side of the vehicle and they didn’t try to stop me.

We were taken to the 51st Detachment of the National Guard at El Paraíso in Western Caracas. They made us all kneel in a corner looking at the ground and they hit anyone who moved with their helmets or sticks. Then they gave me electric shocks on the neck and arms from some equipment I couldn’t see because it was above my head.

Amnesty International also issued statements about human rights violations in Venezuela including one that also verifies the case mentioned above. Read the report HERE.

A very good article from the Business and Media Institute about Chevez and how the media has portrayed him prior to his UN speech. Read the article HERE.

Here is a very liberal publication and website called Mother Jones is standing by the United States and even the article writer admits they may have been wrong in their assessment of Chevez. This is a writer I respect. Check it OUT.

Steve Lendman is self describes “progressive” businessman who thinks Chavez is the greatest thing since slice bread. It is sad that an intelligent, educated person would approve of such a man as Chavez. He seems to love Chomsky, I wonder what Chomsky says about leaders who oppress Freedom of Speech and Press? Read his blogHERE

Here is a guy who writes for the dissedentvoice.com who is so blinded by his hate of Bush he has neglected to look into the truth. Check out this guys nonsense HERE.

Here is a group of American politicians who hate Bush so badly they not only want to elect a Congress to impeach him, they have transcripts of Chavez’s UN speech. They titled the article Hugo Chavez - Rise Up Against The Empire. IMPEACH PAC

The one thing I find interesting is that almost all of the proponets for Chavez quote what he has said during interviews and almost none that I could find actually verify the facts he is saying. Just because a persons says he is good does not mean he is. Start verifying facts instead of publishing every quote as truth.