Cutting through the propaganda on Chavez funeral
Some U.S.-based reporters were dropped into Caracas for funeral coverage because most media organizations are too cheap to have full-time reporters and bureaus in the Venezuelan capital. Instead, they rely on local stringers, many of them anti-Chavez sons and daughters of Venezuela's wealthy elite, or on viper capitalist propaganda-issuing entities like the Associated Press. Reuters referred to funeral mourners such as actor Sean Penn as "idealists." The Hollywood-linked Huffington Post called the gathering an assemblage of "left-wing glitterati."
The AP, CNN, and others cherry-picked the attendees at the funeral, pointing to the attendance of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko without reporting that every major Western Hemisphere nation was represented by their head of state or government except for the United States and Canada. Of course, such a headline would point to the wide chasm between the "gringo" North America, including the United States, Canada, and the mafia-infested Bahamas, and the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The capitalist news media could not bring themselves to report that with only minor exceptions, every Latin American and Caribbean nation was represented by their presidents or prime ministers. Belize's Prime Minister Dean Barrow would have been in Caracas but his wife is undergoing medical treatment abroad and he is with her. He was represented by Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega. Barbados's recently re-elected Prime Minister Freundel Stuart's government was being sworn in at a formal ceremony in parliament so he could not attend the funeral. Instead, Stuart signed a condolence book at the Venezuelan embassy in Barbados. Paraguay's CIA- and Obama-administration-installed clique has been expelled from most Latin American organizations. Paraguay was represented by its ousted President and good friend of Chavez, Fernando Lugo.
The corporate media was untruthful in calling the funeral gathering a collection of anti-American leaders. Among those in attendance were such conservative Latin American presidents as Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, Sebastian Pinera of Chile, and Ricardo Martinelli of Panama.
The AP, among others, issued incomplete lists on the leaders attending Chavez's funeral. One glaring omission was that of Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla, whose name does not appear on either the AP and Miami Herald lists of attendees. The Herald bends to the wishes of Miami's large right-wing Cuban exile (gusano) community, its largely transplanted Jewish community from New York City, and recent arrivals from Latin America claiming persecution in progressive Latin American countries. In fact, many of the latter are billionaires who have hidden their wealth from Latin American tax collectors and are now claiming "political persecution" in order to maintain their residency status in the United States.
Other than President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, both bitter foes of Chavez, the only other Western Hemisphere government leader who failed to attend the funeral for Chavez for purely political reasons was Bahamian Prime Minister Perry Christie. Bahamian foreign policy is heavily-influenced by the Zionist circles in nearby Miami, as well as a growing number of Christian Zionists in the Bahamas. The Bahamas has also attracted a number of billionaire and millionaire tax cheats from progressive Latin American countries and right-wing political exiles, including some from Venezuela.
Belarus's Alexander Lukashenko paying respects. Front row, left to right: President Raul Castro of Cuba; Cilia Flores, wife of acting President Nicolas Maduro and Attorney General of Venezuela; Nicolas Maduro; Hugo Chavez's mother, Elena Frias; Chavez's daughters Maria Gabriela and Rosa Virginia Chavez. Second row, left to right: Prince Philip of Spain, President Rafel Correa of Ecuador; President Sebastian Pinera of Chile; and President Evo Morales of Bolivia. Third row, left to right: President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil; President Otto Perez Molina of Guatemala; ; President Mauricio Funes of El Salvador; President Laura Chinchilla of Costa Rica; and President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia. Fourth row, left to right: President of Peru Ollanta Humala; President Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico; President Ricardo Martinelli of Panama. Also in back, left side, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega with mustache; Uruguayan President Jose "Pepe" Mujica, in sun glasses without tie; and Surinamese President Desi Bouterse, in sun glasses with tie.
The Israel Lobby-influenced corporate media ran their stories on the funeral with the meme that it was a "strange collection" of anti-American leaders from around the world. Ahmadinejad was present and had the words of the Spanish-language Roman Catholic mass translated to him by his own personal interpreter. Ahmadinejad later said that Chavez would one day be "resurrected" alongside Jesus Christ and a as-yet-unknown "imam" who would appear to usher in world peace. Ahmadinejad's reference to Jesus Christ appeared to only incite the Israel Lobby-dominated media in the United States, Canada, Israel, and Europe.
The corporate media also lambasted acting President Nicolas Maduro, calling him a bus driver who became foreign minister and vice president. In what represents more lousy journalism, entities like Reuters failed to mention that Maduro was the head of the Caracas Metro workers' union and a congressman before becoming foreign minister under Chavez. Imagine if Reuters, in describing Vice President Joseph Biden upon his succeeding to the presidency, stated that Biden was a small-time Wilmington lawyer and New Castle County councilman before becoming Vice President. One does not require Journalism 101 to note that is just shoddy journalism at its core.
The U.S. and European Union-backed candidate for president, Henrique Capriles Radonski, who is of Jewish descent, has called Maduro a "boy," in keeping with the privileged upbringing of Venezuela's Jewish community and those with strong bloodlines to it.
While President Obama could not bring himself to send condolences to the family of Chavez and the people of Venezuela on the death of the Chavez -- expressing a desire for a "new start" in relations doesn't count and Obama should have apologized for his predecessor's failed attempt to oust Chavez in a coup -- the Prime Minister of tiny Sint Maarten, Sarah Wescott-Williams, was able to express her condolences and that of the people of Sint Maarten during a Council of Ministers meeting. It's pretty bad when half of a Caribbean island can muster up more respect for the late Venezuelan champion of the poor than the pampered President of the United States.
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/20130309
