[image: Hands Off Venezuela]*Hands Off Venezuela* @HOVcampaign<https://twitter.com/HOVcampaign> 3h <https://twitter.com/HOVcampaign/status/339413849339994112>
Hands Off Venezuela Newsletter May 2013 - share and RT widely - PDF available http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/hov_newsletter_may_2013.htm <http://t.co/m49soljg6X> pic.twitter.com/cjuHjP81zZ <http://t.co/cjuHjP81zZ> [Venezuela Media Watch] Rats and opposition newspapers<http://www.marxist.com/rats-and-opposition-newspapers.htm> Written by Hands Off VenezuelaTuesday, 28 May 2013 [image: Print]<http://www.marxist.com/rats-and-opposition-newspapers/print.htm>[image: E-mail]<http://www.marxist.com/component/option,com_mailto/link,6e980e547a8685eb2b61f4b2cc33b580eaba7ca3/tmpl,component/> - - - The world's media is again repeating the mantra about alleged "attacks on freedom of expression" in Venezuela. The truth however is that opposition media dominates the airwaves and newspaper stands. One particularly vicious example is TalCual. It stops at nothing to slander and vilify the Bolivarian government. This time, they called in a Paraguayan rat to help. Literally. On its May 22 edition, the newspaper published a column with the headline Senda rata (which can be loosely translated as What a rat). It showed a picture of fairly sized rat looking at a piece of cheese in the food counter of a PDVAL shop (identified by the logo in the work uniform of the person working behind the counter). PDVAL is a state-run chain of subsidised price supermarkets which was created in an attempt to deal with the problems of inflation and scarcity. The article, which pretends to be ironic, says that this is proof that under socialism, rats eat better (see the article on its website<http://www.talcualdigital.com/nota/visor.aspx?id=86644> ) [image: talcualrata]<http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/images/stories/media/talcualrata.jpg> There is one small problem. Neither the rat not the cheese are Venezuelan. In fact, the picture first appeared in the Paraguayan newspaper ABC in September 2012<http://www.abc.com.py/edicion-impresa/economia/super-donde-aparecio-una-rata-podria-ser-clausurado-449309.html> denouncing bad hygiene in Supermercados Guaraní. In original picture the worker behind the counter clearly wears the logo of a famous Paraguayan chicken brand Pechugón. Someone used picture editing software to remove it and replace it for the PDVAL logo. Then TalCual decided to publish it without any further checks. As the saying says why let the facts get in the way of a good anti-Bolivarian story. [image: rataABC] This is of course not the first time that TalCual has used picture manipulation or libelous and slanderous front pages to attack the Bolivarian revolution and its leaders. On April 18 it published a front page picture of president Maduro with a Hitler moustache and the headline The home-grown face of fascism. [image: talcualfascismo] On two previous occasions it had published frontpages comparing Hugo Chávez to Hitler. [image: talcualsaludofascista] [image: HeilHugo] On September 26th, 2003, published a front page picture showing Hugo Chavez holding a 9 mm handgun at a public rally with a headline saying "At gun point". The small problem was that what Chavez was really holding at that public rally was ... a rose, and the picture was in fact a photo-montage. [image: Chavezpistola] [image: Chavezclavel] The director of this rag which passes as a newspaper is Teodoro Petkoff, a former leftist who then became the minister responsible for privatisations in the Caldera government in the 1990s. On April 2002, he published a front page headline screaming Chao Hugo and an editorial in support of the coup which briefly removed Chávez from power. [image: talcualchaohugo] Clearly, the problem in Venezuela is not one of attacks on the freedom of expression, but the fact that the oligarchy uses their ownership of most of the media to lie and slander the Bolivarian revolution and to agitate against the democratic will of the people. Source: [Media Watch] Rats and opposition newspapers<http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/talcual_rat.htm> ------------------------------ U.S. military attaché, embassy official injured in Venezuelan nightclub shooting *CARACAS, VENEZUELA* Two officials from the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela were injured in a shooting at a nightclub in Caracas early Tuesday, Venezuelan police and the State Department said. Police spokesman Douglas Rico told television channel Globovision that one of them was shot in the leg and abdomen and the other was shot in the abdomen. Apparently it was a fight originating in a nightspot where these people were attacked and shots were fired at them and they suffered gunshot wounds, Rico said. A police official identified one of the victims as military attaché Roberto Ezequiel Rosas. She said he was shot in the right leg during an argument outside a night club in the Chacao district of Caracas and was taken to a local hospital. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to release the information publicly. She had no information on suspects. In Washington, State Department spokesman William Ostick confirmed that two members of the U.S. Embassy in Caracas were injured during an incident early this morning. Medical staff inform us that their injuries do not appear to be life-threatening, Ostick said. Embassy security and health unit personnel are at the hospital and have been in touch with the two individuals and their families. Patrick Ventrell, another State Department spokesman, told reporters that the incident happened in some sort of social spot or somewhere outside of the embassy grounds. I am not sure if it was a restaurant, or a nightclub, or what the actual establishment was, but that is why we are in touch with embassy personnel, he said. The night clubs Twitter account features photos of nude or scantily clad women pole-dancing, posing inside cages or reclining on beds. The text under one photo invites visitors to come and watch the clubs sexy show. The club is located in the basement of a shopping center in Chacao, an upper-middle-class neighborhood east of the city center. An AP reporter who went to scene Tuesday saw no obvious signs of a shooting, though plain-clothes officers were investigating the area outside the club. A sign saying gun-free zone and with a pistol crossed out was posted next to the entrance. Crime is a serious problem for Venezuela, which has one of the worlds highest murder rates. Venezuelas government expelled two U.S. military attachés in March for allegedly talking to members of the countrys armed forces. Washington responded by ejecting two Venezuelan diplomats. *Associated Press writer Luis Alonso Lugo in Washington contributed to this report.* [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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