Freedom of Speech is thriving in Venezuela

Oh yea... totally... 12th most corrupt nation in the world... Fraudulent elections, and altering the constitution to allow you to stay in power longer then your own authored constitution would allow it.

http://www.transparency.org/policy_rese ... 10/results

My global health teacher (a Venezuelan refugee) once kicked a girl out of class for trying to argue that Chavez was a good leader.

She would legit get in fits of rage and start going off in Spanish any time we were talking about Venezuela or Chavez.

Transparency International isn't an American non profit... 99% sure it was founded in the UK EDIT: Founded in Germany... And they maintain 90 field offices, only one of them in the states. So fail number one there. Here's an article about the widespread corruption from a Marxist news source
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/35949
Here's one from a western media outlet....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01803.html
And here's one about a little campaign Chavez initiated in 2009 called the "war against corruption"
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/4423

If you don't believe there is a horrible corruption problem in Venezuela, then I might as well be focusing my time on trying to prove to you that the world isn't flat...

The constitution he implemented (in 1999) raised the term limit from 5 to 6 years. He then held an election for himself to extend his reign. He then attempted to brutally suppress protests against him, and some of his senior ranking military leaders launched a coup. Why the CIA would try to replace Chavez with an even more autocratic institution (it's not like Carmona was going to privatize the oil industry or anything, which would be the only sensible reason) is beyond me. The Venezuelan people then called a referendum to remove him from power, which was defeated under shady circumstances. Apparently his 2006 election was declared open and free, so good for him, maybe he's getting better. However, the OAS has repeatedly shown a pattern of latent disregard for civil liberties, and a consolidation of power by the Chavez regime.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... eheadlines

Here's a book written by a prominent Venezuelan about how Chavez has destroyed the democratic process in Venezuela. It's very well written, quite academic in it's nature, and very telling about political life in the country.
http://books.google.com/books?id=2m9-gY ... &q&f=false

In social programs... Really? The US spends twice as much on Medicare as the entire Venezuelan GDP... Almost an identical amount on Social security. Really, I can stop there despite the plethora of other social services the Federal and state governments. Already, with just those two services you're looking at 42% of our budget, which beats out the 41% of the Venezuelan budget they spend on social welfare programs. The numbers I can pull from the Venezuelan budget are kind of old (once again, because there isn't any transparency) but even if they raised it, I could just keep picking out social services to add to the US %. As someone who is going to university based solely of federal grants and financial aid, I think it's safe to say you guys have little understanding of how much the US government does for it's citizens

The evidence of those claims are dubious at best. As I stated, the US didn't really stand anything to gain by the coup winning, so it doesn't make sense for them to have endorsed it.

And I do give Chavez credit for apparently regressing in his anti democratic ways in recent years, but the majority of his tenure it has been very difficult to express political opinions.

The 2000 elections were the close ones. They followed the rule of law and the procedures in place at the time. Apparently, they were pretty back asswards in Florida.

And it looks like I did overlook the back half of the coup attempt. I could say that the populace has been blinded by a sense of false consciousness into supporting him. He still is popular though, and I'm not advocating his removal from power, just pointing out things aren't as peachy as seems.