Chávez effort boosts voter rolls

[Rose Siding]

CARACAS - A campaign by President Hugo Chávez's government has boosted voter rolls by an astounding 1.5 million in recent months, mostly in poor areas likely to favor the leftist president in next month's recall vote.

Venezuela's voter rolls swelled from 12.5 million in April to about 14 million, an increase of some 12 percent, National Electoral Council member Sobella Mejias announced Tuesday.

While Chávez last week praised the voter drive as a victory for ''participatory democracy,'' opposition leaders and independent analysts say the surge of registrations raises concerns.
snip>
The number of new voters is even more striking because in Venezuela, a nation of 25 million people, registering to vote was usually a lengthy and frustrating process laden with bureaucracy.

Government officials said the high number of new voters registered was the result of a massive campaign, ''Mission Identity,'' conducted by teams of immigration agency employees dispatched to many of Venezuela's poor neighborhoods -- where Chávez draws most of his support.

The teams, which issued 2.3 million new national ID cards, were sent into the barrios under the rationale that it is poor Venezuelans who most often lack proper documentation.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/9237203.htm?ERIGHT...

[Cha]

1. Go Chavez!

Good Luck with that recall thing. Poor Sweethearts.

[AP]

2. "the surge of registrations raises concerns" ...for the fascists

"registering to vote was usually a lengthy and frustrating process laden with bureaucracy"

I bet that was the case.

[scarletwoman]

3. Oh no! Poor people voting! The HORROR!

Viva Chavez! Gotta love how he strategizes!

sw

[AP]

4. He definitely cares about staying in office so that he can make...

... a difference in people's lives.

He's really committed to democracy and creating a wealthy, just society.

It's quite remarkable.

[Judi Lynn]

5. They'll have to start charging a fee when they register

or maybe they'll insist the would-be voter take a special "test" to prove he knows enough to vote correctly.......

Remember 2000, when the right-wingers started guffawing about so many Democrats filling out their voting forms incorrectly. There's STILL more than enough racism/classism running over and through every even in which rightwingnuts/racists/trash participate.

[bemildred]

6. Yeah, next thing you know they'll be letting just anybody vote.

[Mokito]

7. Will Chavez be available to lend Kerry a helping hand?

[Pastiche423]

8. Uh, in case you haven't heard...

kerry does not support Chavez.

VIVA CHAVEZ!

[IndianaGreen]

9. Kerry took the side of the Venezuelan oligarchs

Kerry is against the poor people of Venezuela and he favors the elites.

Haven't you read Kerry's PNAC-sounding speech about Venezuela?

[rman]

10. if only the revolution would be televised

couldn't movie theaters be persuaded to show it?
It seems to me plenty of people are interested in seeing 'subversive' documentaries these days.

[Judi Lynn]

11. What a shame the Tampa-based Venezuelan "exiles" are pressuring him

I need to post this letter again from the right-wing loon (American married to a Venezuelan female, which surely reminds me of the fine gentleman who posted here as hard as he could, the lovely "Windansea") who runs the "Free Venezuela" organization there:

Published: Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Bylined to: Curtis Reed


Tampa-based Free Venezuela, Inc: Our goal is regime change in Venezuela

Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 17:39:42 GMT
From: Curtis Reed XXXXXXXXXXXXX
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Error: It was Venezuelans in TAMPA

In David Coleman's article "Venezuela's relations with USA to improve if Bush 2 loses election this fall" you stated that Senator Kerry's statement regarding the Chavez regime amounted to "Parroting anti-Venezuelan Miami Herald propaganda."

In fact, the Kerry position statement was the result of the effort of Venezuelan-Americans from the Tampa area who contacted his camp and conducted an education campaign to be sure that Kerry understood what a threat the Chavez regime represents to US interests, regional stability, and how it endangers democracy across the hemisphere.

We have been working constantly over several years to establish good contacts with our representatives, and it was through those contacts that we made direct contact with John Kerry and delivered to him the message you will find below.

We are now in the process of publishing more Op-Ed articles, organizing round table discussions about the Chavez regime, and speaking out on nationally syndicated radio shows. Let there be no confusion: the "Miami Mafia" had nothing to do with this. It was the result of hard work by US citizens and Venezuelan expatriate organizations like FREE VENEZUELA that we influenced Kerry, and we will continue to push US policy until we achieve our goal.

Our goal: regime change in Venezuela.

Finally, let your communist friends know that their propaganda machines are failing, and the tide has turned against the Chavez dictatorship. We have convinced Democrats and Republicans alike that Chavez and his criminal henchmen are the antithesis to Democratic principles.

Have a nice day.

Curtis Reed
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
(snip/)

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=16656
(Free registration the only way to read at this site)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Same writing style, same low-life attempts at intimidation, same attempt to paint everyone who doesn't support him as a "commie!"



Edited to remove e-mail addresses. Whoops.

[IndianaGreen]

12. Please remove the e-mail addresses from your fine post

I believe they are in violation of DU rules about privacy. Thanks.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

15. There is no difference in policy between R and D when it comes to

Central and South America.

[Judi Lynn]

13. Well, now, Hugo Chavez has Curtis Reed on his tail!

Curtis Reed is the President of "FreeVenezuela" in Tampa, Florida, where he lives with his Venezuelan wife, and apparently chews up the scenery.

I've located, and will share at no expense to you, a small view of his wonderful website, freevenezuela.us. He offers fascinating personal views of how it's going in Venezuela with Hugo Chavez as President. This paragraph really had me gripping my chair:

Creation of votes by importing “Citizens”
Journalists and concerned citizens, as well as some government officials, have noted with alarm that there appears to be a wave of Chinese, Cuban, and Colombian citizens brought into the country by the government and given citizenship (some reports state “temporary citizenship”), along with the right to vote. Eyewitnesses are reporting planeloads of Chinese and Cubans, for example, disembarking at the Maiquetía airport and being ushered through Customs by Government handlers. Government employees not aligned with Chávez have reported a flood of activity in the registry of new voters that apparently seems beyond the levels of registration of new voters one would normally expect. A recent report by El Universal demonstrated that they have proof of at least 700 Cubans receiving citizenship, and the suspicion is that many, many more have been brought in but have not yet been discovered. The veracity of these reports is uncertain. We at Free Venezuela believe, however, that it is worthy of further investigation and vigilance. If it is true that the government is attempting to fill the voter rolls illegally, the international community should apply as much pressure as possible to make it stop.
(snip/...)

http://www.freevenezuela.us /

How would you spot Cubans?








The guys around Cuban-American contribution grabber, Dan Burton?



Far be it from me to suggest "FreeVenezuela" people hiding in Florida, plotting against Hugo Chavez, aren't on the up and up.

Reed cites "El Universal" as the source of his information on the terrifying stealth citizen/voters from other countries. Here's a brief description of the anti-Chavez publication, "El Universal:"

El Universal
This site offers daily news from Caracas, Venezuela. El Universal and El Nacional are Venezuela's two major dailies. El Universal owner Andrés Mata was one of several media owners who met with interim president Pedro Carmona during the brief coup d'état in April 2002.
(snip)

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/venezuela/lin...

Andrés Mata
Andrés Mata, a younger,
less hideous looking Rupert Murdoch

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

16. You rock JudiLyn

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

14. I love it - the more Hugo awakens the lower class to democratic

participation - the more the elite complain and cry foul. It's so telling!