Mayor Ken Livingstone in "Chavez legacy" rebuttal to The Times (London)

Mayor Ken Livingstone in "Chavez legacy" rebuttal to The Times (London)


A TREACHEROUS ACTIVITY FOR WHICH A BUNCH OF THOSE NAZI LIARS EARLIER WERE HANGED AT NUREMBERG.

PUNISHMENT DESERVE ALL OF THEM, INCLUDING THE CRIMINAL COLLABORATORS WITH DOUBLE NATIONALITIES.

APPARENTLY THEY NEVER LEARN, UNTIL THEY FEEL THE ROPE...


Mayor Ken Livingstone in "Chavez legacy" rebuttal to The Times (London)

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: THE TIMES MAY 19, 2006 -- CHAVEZ LEGACY

Sir, Your coverage of President Chavez’ visit to London (reports and Thunderer, May 16) misrepresents the record of the President’s administration in Venezuela.

Far from Chavez’ opponents being repressed, as you suggest, they control the vast majority of the media, including 95% of the country’s 180 newspapers, and five out of five private TV stations, which pump out anti-Chavez propaganda around the clock.

You claim Chavez has contributed to a steep recession when in reality, since the defeat of the strike by oil industry managers early in 2003, Venezuela has enjoyed the most rapid economic growth in the region. GDP grew 9.3% last year and is projected to be 7% for 2006.

You claim poverty has increased when in reality it has decreased, with massive increases in spending on education and health care, in particular. UNESCO certifies that under Chavez illiteracy has been eliminated in Venezuela for the first time.

Seventeen million Venezuelans have been given access to free healthcare for the first time in their lives. A quarter of a million people are having their sight restored, shantytown dwellers are being given title to their homes and millions are being given the opportunity to continue their education in adulthood.

That is why, despite an overwhelmingly hostile media, Chavez stands at more than 70% in opinion polls and his supporters have won ten elections over the past seven years, all judged free and fair by international observers.

That is also why more than a million people took to the streets to defeat the attempt by the opposition to remove him through an anti-democratic military coup widely thought to have been orchestrated from Washington.

Hugo Chavez is one of the most popular leaders in his own country, and in the world today, because the combination of democracy and social justice, which he represents, is something to which the majority of people on this planet aspire.

Ken Livingstone

Mayor of London