I don't usually post on non-academic political matters, but this morning I am making an exception. This Wall Street Journal piece on the recent "election" in Venezuela is a must read. I'll post the opening few paragraphs to give to a taste of what follows:

CARACAS, Venezuela -- On Monday afternoon, dozens of people assembled in the Altamira Plaza, a public square in a residential neighborhood here that has come to symbolize nonviolent dissent in Venezuela. The crowd was there to question the accuracy of the results that announced a triumph for President Hugo Chavez in Sunday's recall referendum.

Within one hour of the gathering, just over 100 of Lt. Col. Chavez's supporters, many of them brandishing his trademark army parachutist beret, began moving down the main avenue towards the crowd in the square. Encouraged by their leader's victory, this bully-boy group had been marching through opposition neighborhoods all day. They were led by men on motorcycles with two-way radios. From afar they began to taunt the crowd in the square, chanting, "We own this country now," and ordering the people in the opposition crowd to return to their homes. All of this was transmitted live by the local news station. The Chavez group threw bottles and rocks at the crowd. Moments later a young woman in the square screamed for the crowd to get down as three of the men with walkie-talkies, wearing red T-shirts with the insignia of the government-funded "Bolivarian Circle," revealed their firearms. They began shooting indiscriminately into the multitude.

A 61-year-old grandmother was shot in the back as she ran for cover. The bullet ripped through her aorta, kidney and stomach. She later bled to death in the emergency room. An opposition congressman was shot in the shoulder and remains in critical care. Eight others suffered severe gunshot wounds. Hilda Mendoza Denham, a British subject visiting Caracas for her mother's 80th birthday, was shot at close range with hollow-point bullets from a high-caliber pistol. She now lies sedated in a hospital bed after a long and complicated operation. She is my mother.

I spoke with her minutes before the doctors cut open her wounds. She looked at me, frightened and traumatized, and sobbed: "I was sure they were going to kill me, they just kept shooting at me."

In a jarringly similar attack that took place three years ago, the killers were caught on tape and identified as government officials and employees. They were briefly detained -- only to be released and later praised by Col. Chavez in his weekly radio show. Their identities are no secret and they walk the streets as free men, despite having shot unarmed civilian demonstrators in cold blood.

I was not in the square on Monday. I was preparing a complaint for the National Electoral Council regarding the fact that I had been mysteriously erased from the voter rolls and was prevented from casting a vote on Sunday. In indescribable agony I watched the television as my mother and my elderly grandparents -- who were both trampled and bruised in the panic -- became casualties in Venezuela's ongoing political crisis.

Good luck, Thor. Your work in higher education is sorely missed--but it is clearly also sorely needed elsewhere.

This article is available at the WSJ non-subscrition site opinionjournal.com

http://opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110005494

Thanks, Walt. I've made the change in the link.

That was chilling. If you are in contact with Thor, please pass on my best wishes for a speedy return to health for his mother.

Jimmy Carter was there and he said everything was fine. Who should we believe?

Jimmy Carta is a man of hona. And best friends with Fidel Castro, who is best friends with Hugo Chavez.
Jimmy Carta is an objective observa.

It's frightening to watch a thug like Chavez take over an oil rich nation with a dictator's iron fist. That makes it all the more urgent to cut western reliance on petroleum. Most of the world's oil comes from thuggish dictatorships, and the profits too often go into terrorist and criminal activities.

Helen,

There is enough oil for everybody in Alaska. Maybe you can find out who is against using it.

I used to respect Jimmy Carter, but I see now that he is just another slime. It's sad to lose all your childhood heroes.

The Carter Center was not the only group to certify the election. The Organization of American States observers did as well.

I am not condoning the violence but it is important to remember that Chavez, although he was democratically elected, was immediately under seige. That he symbolized the hopes of a fair number of people (perhaps a majority?) that had been shot at, illegally tossed out of homes, beaten, disenfranchised, etc. etc.. There is a certain amount of revenge factor going on here. During the anti-Chavez oil strike which expanded into a general strike, folks who tried to show up for work or continue business as usual were shot at, shops burned etc. They desperately need a truth commission style inquiry there to start sorting things out. Unfortunately that doesn't look like it will happen any time soon. It is something of a vicious cycle. The more Chavez comes under attack, the more authoritarian he becomes.

Thank you David for justifying election violence in Latin America. I'm certain many budding dictators in that region will consider your words carefully.

One must be oh so selective in justifying violence. You mustn't back the wrong blood thirsty dictators, and you mustn't oppose the wrong ones, either.

Interesting to compare this with the other side:

http://webapp.utexas.edu/blogs/bleiter/archives/001842.html

Too bad he doesn't enable comments.

Interesting article. Another article is at:

http://webapp.utexas.edu/blogs/bleiter/archives/001842.html

I've got a friend who works in Caracas in a bank. He says Chavez is a monster. He's upset about the election fraud down there.
I'm a Kerry supporter but I wonder how Kerry will deal with Chavez. My friend says Chavez supports some of the terrorists in the border regions.

Fleming,
Explaining is not justifying. As a historian, pointing out that events have a history is part of my job. This stuff doesn't just spring up outta thin air you know.
-dls

I think it is a shame that Jimmy Carter continues to give an aura of self-respect to various brutal regimes like Chavez'. Jimmy Carter is a very good man. But his goodness is accompanied by a naivety and blindness to many of the unpleasant realities of the world. This made him a very bad President.

Now he continues to cause a great deal of harm, always with the best of intentions. In fact, he's responsible for a great deal of the pavement on the road to perdition these days.

Much of Latin America is a mess politically and socially. Most Americans' relative indifference to it doesn't help. Part of what makes much of it incomprehensible to most Americans is also something that most people don't consciously recognize: the U.S. is a country rules by laws rather than by individuals. Most of the rest of the world isn't. That's why the rest of the world was totally bumfuzzled (is that a real word?) when the U.S. didn't implode after Nixon's resignation. After all, many other countries HAVE imploded into civil war with just such an occurrence; yet, the U.S. survived - a bit tattered and bruised, but still a world power envied by many of the others. In spite of all the screaming and moaning and fighting from various factions, Americans in general honor the laws of this land.

So, to former President Jimmy Carter, I say: Please, sir, continue your good Christian works on a personal level. But stay out of international politics. Retire with grace and dignity, and stop allowing yourself to be used as a pawn by those who are more sophisticated, saavy, and immoral than you.

Claire, I think you have been taken in by Mr. Carter's public persona. If you knew him personally, I doubt you would continue to believe that he is being led by others to play the fool. No, indeed. Mr. Carter knows exactly what he is doing.

I posted a story over at Oh, THAT Liberal Media on how quickly the NY Times called for the Ch·vez opposition to "shut up" and realize they lost. Despite the allegations of fraud.

http://www.thatliberalmedia.com/archives/002576.html#002576

Now, based on what I've read, it appears -- appears -- that the vote was legit. But the Times *still* complains about our own 2000 election, despite all the legal and investigatory mechanisms we utilized, yet THREE DAYS after the Venezuela vote the Times opines that the Venez. opposition should can it. Right. A 3rd world country led by a violent and corrupt would-be dictator. NO chance of fraud, right?

Sheesh.