the table in his office... ‘He has to be killed’… It is hard to imagine an opposition of this type in the United States -- they would probably be labeled as terrorists here"

The economist charged the Venezuelan media with abandoning the norms of modern journalism, and of becoming organs of a movement to de-legitimize the government. "Two months ago one of Venezuela's most influential newspapers actually used a doctored version of a New York Times article to allege that the Chavez government was implicated in the Madrid terrorist bombing."

Unlike Castro

Weisbrot criticized efforts to portray the Chavez government as anti-democratic. He pointed out that although Chavez has friendly relations with Fidel Castro, "clearly Venezuela is nothing like Cuba." He reminded that the Brazilian government of Lula da Silva, andhis party have deeper and longer-standing relations with Castro and Cuba, but it is not a reason for major controversy. "The Bush Administration and Brazil have agreed to disagree on this issue, and that seems to be the end of this dispute," he added.

"Anyone who calls the Venezuelan government 'authoritarian' is in need of a dictionary, or perhaps needs to see the place. I was there during the oil strike in December 2002 and witnessed the government's response to the destruction of its economy by less than one percent of the labor force; the management and some of the workers in the oil industry. They were not striking for better wages or benefits, but to overthrow the government. Even in the United States, a strike of this nature