San Cristobal on Tuesday night
Dear International Editor:
Listen and understand. The game changed in Venezuela last night. What had been a slow-motion unravelling that had stretched out over many years went kinetic all of a sudden.
What we have this morning is no longer the Venezuela story you thought you understood.
Throughout last night, panicked people told their stories of state-sponsored paramilitaries on motorcycles roaming middle class neighborhoods, shooting at people and storming into apartment buildings, shooting at anyone who seemed like he might be protesting. People continue to be arrested merely for protesting, and a long established local Human Rights NGO makes an urgent plea for an investigation into widespread reports of torture of detainees. There are now dozens of serious human right abuses: National Guardsmen shooting tear gas canisters directly into residential buildings. We have videos of soldiers shooting civilians on the street. And that’s just…
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Tallbloke's Talkshop 
No sign of anything on the BBC News website.
They lead with Ukraine (yes those nasti Russkis who oppose the EU loving majority.
Then they follow with the predictable “wettest winter evah” squeals.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
Still massaging the message I expect. Same with Central African Republic. While muslims killing christians – BBC silence. As soon as christians fight back, special features with on site reporters.
Well, of course it’s of no interest here – Putin isn’t involved, and there’s no nice EU trying to stomp out the flames they themselves kindled …
/sarc
I don’t know whether the game has changed all that much in Venezuela – riots and demonstrations have been going on there for years – but press coverage of events in Latin America in general is certainly skimpy. Here in Mexico, for instance, upwards of 100,000 people have been killed since the government declared war on the drug cartels seven years ago – a death toll rivaling the Syrian civil war – but the outside world never gets to hear about it. I guess it just doesn’t sell newspapers.
What is actually true? I suggest caution.
BBC have reported a bust up between the Venezuela government and CNN whom it accuses of stirring things up.
CNN write
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/20/world/americas/venezuela-protests/
http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/international/2014/02/19/newday-penhaul-cameras-taken-in-venezuela-protest.cnn-ap.html
There is a certain amount on the newswires yet nothing dramatic.
The friction in Venezuela is nowhere near “kinetic”. If you want to see “kinetic”, look at Ukraine (especially if these sniper rumours are confirmed)
In order to get the whole picture, you must look toward a number of news sources. There is no one-stop shop in this business. For Venezuela, Reuters has been giving some coverage, whereas France 24 is the place to go for CAR and the rest of Africa.
Toto: Sure, just flagging up a situation overshadowed by events in Kiev.
KWB: thanks, and welcome.
Actually FOX BUSINESS NEWS has had a short bit from time to time on the events in Venezuela. Looks to be fairly civilized for violent demonstrations! This seems to mostly be between factions of the Chavezistas
Now the events in the Ukraine are between the western “Ukrainians” and the eastern “Russians”,. This is the stuff of real civil war. Putin really wants to “solve” this problem. This kind of thing can cause real war. As usual, the EU could have solved this early on and decided not to be involved. Their need for Russian GAS is too important to risk. This could bite them in the rear. Then they will cry out for Uncle Sam to save them. pg
The Venezuela situation now is nothing new and is repeated all over the world.
The middle class and upper class do not like socialism but the poor peasant and working class do.
In elections sometimes the socialists win.
Same as in Chile all those years ago.
Toffs care little about democracy and will stamp their feet and will riot and even shoot if the election goes against them.
Some thing similar is happening in Thailand at the moment.
By the way uk channel 4 news had Lovelock of gaia fame on tonight.
He is pro fracking and nuclear.
He thinks windmills and solar are a waste of money.
Better to spend money on adaptation to what the climate brings.
He thinks a hotter climate might even be better!
Bryan: Oh dear, that’s Lovelock off Greenpeas xmas card list then. Lol. 🙂
Caracas https://twitter.com/gabycastellanos/status/437269532114452480
So they call for Cuban reinforcements https://twitter.com/ezralevant/status/437235231897423872