Used and abused

There’s a documentary you should watch, if you have the bandwidth. It’s titled, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. It’s about an attempt to overthrow Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. The parallels to Edsa Dos and Edsa Tres are striking -and the differences, even more so.

Chavez, a former army officer, wins the presidency in an election as a populist. He announces that the state-owned oil company, dominated by the wealthy mestizos, will be under new management. The head of the confederation of business owners and a leader of a labor union associated with the wealthy go to Washington to complain; the Bush administration views Chavez as a dangerous pro-Castro radical. Chavez can rely only on the state-owned TV station while the rest of the TV media is in private hands.

The opposition calls for people power; media rallies to the call; senior military officers ask Chavez to step down. Rallies against the government and counter-rallies take place. Both sides confront each other at the gates of the presidential palace. Shots are fired -not by the army, vainly trying to serve as a buffer between the two sides- and people die. There are snipers. But from which camp? The private media deliberately distorts reality and says the firing was done by Chavez supporters. Things escalate.

Tanks surround the palace. Military officers arrive to demand Chavez’s resignation. He refuses. They threaten to bomb the palace. He decides to place himself under the custody of the rebels -but refuses to resign. He is taken away. The rest of the documentary details the startling return to power of Chavez 48 hours later.

You can download the documentary on Mininova (BitTorrent required) or watch it online on ObscuredTV.com.

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Manuel L. Quezon III.

17 thoughts on “Used and abused

  1. The bittorrent has many seeds so it should not be too long to download. You just need to get a divx player(software, most cd-roms and dvd-roms should have the software to play it) from the Net. You need DSL connection or something faster to make this work. This happened a few months after Estrada’s ouster.

  2. The infor on the documentary mae me read about it further.

    The distributor Power studios seems to have underestimated online downloading,because according to the Venezuelan advocacy group,the distributor was strict,but they distributed copies just the same.

    DVDs signed by Hugo Chaves himself are available in Venezuela.
    (joke)in Amazon.pero bat ka pa gagastos just go to your nearest changge,di na kailangan pumuntang Quiapo ngayon.

  3. anything is dangerous depending on how you use it.

    Unless you have another definition for populism,where it is usually ordinary people’s struggle against the elite,you have nothing to fear.

    according to a lot of people,people powers here were organized by the elite,and if you believe Emil Jurado,election winners are determined by the funding of the elite.

    So if the aim of populism is to topple the elite,then it is far from happening here.Or is it?

  4. Chavez was recently given an award by Iranian government. He is really shoving it to George Bush’s face.

  5. Antonio, in what way and to whom is populism dangerous, and what steps can you suggest to avoid these dangers?

  6. Chacez sent aid to New Orleans even before Bush. Unforrtunately for the victims of Hurrican Katrina, the US refused the genrators etc. that Chavez sent.

    Chavez was also selling cheap heating oil to the poor areas of the US northeast.

    Why does he do this? Because he recognizes that the term third world is not limited to states. It refers to the quality of llfe, – the living conditions of the poor – anywhere in the planet.

  7. This documentary was screened last July 26 at the UP Film Center.

    If you want a DVD copy of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, email the Circulo Bolivariano de Filipinas (Philippines-Bolivarian Venezuela Friendship Association) at [email protected].

  8. Chavez-no way; did you know he sends goons to movie theatres and and malls to search for men of military age to shelve into his army?

    surprised no mention of the Chinese butchering of 50,000 pet dogs last week. they took them from owners walking them, or broke into their homes and killed the dogs in the middle of the night. maybe a new Maoist crackdown coming in China?

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