User:Jrtayloriv/Workshop/Venezuela notes

Just a collection of references for myself and others to refer to when researching Venezuela-related topics. Not intended to be comprehensive ...

(I just created this, and it is very much a work in progress -- I'll add much more as time goes on) -- Jrtayloriv (talk) 23:42, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

General

 * Books
 * -- (isbn-ify me)
 * Golinger
 * -- (isbn-ify me)
 * Golinger
 * Golinger
 * Golinger


 * Journal articles


 * Web
 * Venezuela Analysis -- easily the best resource on news and political/economic analysis of contemporary Venezuela. Required reading in several universities' Latin American Studies and International Affairs programs. Many of the articles are written by respected Venezuela experts such as Mark Weisbrot, Eva Golinger, or Gregory Wilpert. (Add more detailed rationale given in RSN for va ... do same for each of below)
 * CEPR Venezuela, Center for Economic and Policy Research
 * COHA Venezuela, Council on Hemispheric Affairs
 * Rebelion, Venezuela section -- in Spanish


 * Video
 * The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Foreign policy

 * Relations w/ China, Iran, Cuba, etc.
 * WSF in Caracas
 * Hugo Chávez and the Politics of Race, Nikolas Kozloff, Counterpunch, October 14, 2005 -- look more into oil to Bronx, and attempted Katrina aid

ALBA / SUCRE / Integration

 * Alternatives to Corporate Globalization: Venezuela's ALBA, Global Exchange
 * Alternatives to Corporate Globalization: Venezuela's ALBA, Global Exchange
 * Alternatives to Corporate Globalization: Venezuela's ALBA, Global Exchange

U.S. involvement
Discuss U.S. funding of anti-Chavez groups via NED, et. al. ... discuss U.S. motives (share of oil from Vene, threat of a good example)
 * Books


 * Journals


 * Web

Economics

 * How Not to Attack An Economist (and An Economy): Getting the Numbers Right, Mark Weisbrot, CEPR, 2008 (format citation please)
 * The Venezuelan Economy in the Chávez Years, Center for Economic and Policy Research, 2007, Mark Weisbrot and Luis Sandoval
 * Update: The Venezuelan Economy in the Chávez Years, Mark Weisbrot and Luis Sandoval, CEPR, 2008.
 * Instituto Nacional de Estadística (National Institute of Statistics) -- wide collection of statistics from the Venezuelan government
 * -- move to politics section
 * -- move to politics section
 * -- move to politics section


 * Find more from Toussaint ...

Poverty
Here are some detailed economic analyses of poverty in Venezuela, which also rebut the most common mass media lies:
 * -- covers common mass media distortions and fabrications. Especially notable is rebuttal of the common myth "poverty decreased because they changed their measuring stick, it actually increased, etc..." (absolutely untrue, even U.S. controlled institutions like the OAS were, in order to maintain some semblance of credibility, to admit that poverty has decreased -- see "Poverty Rates in Venezuela" above for accurate, detailed, scholarly report on Venezuelan poverty statistics)
 * -- covers common mass media distortions and fabrications. Especially notable is rebuttal of the common myth "poverty decreased because they changed their measuring stick, it actually increased, etc..." (absolutely untrue, even U.S. controlled institutions like the OAS were, in order to maintain some semblance of credibility, to admit that poverty has decreased -- see "Poverty Rates in Venezuela" above for accurate, detailed, scholarly report on Venezuelan poverty statistics)

Oil

 * -- useful for it's brief coverage of history of oil in Venezuela
 * -- Interview w/ Ali Rodriguez, head of PdVSA
 * -- useful for it's brief coverage of history of oil in Venezuela
 * -- Interview w/ Ali Rodriguez, head of PdVSA
 * -- Interview w/ Ali Rodriguez, head of PdVSA

Political / Democratic freedoms

 * The Repeatedly Elected Autocrat, Extra!

Military

 * reserves as defense against foreign invasion -- preparing for guerrilla war against occupiers
 * chavez military spending, compare to Colombia and U.S. ... also talk about types of equipment he is purchasing ...
 * role of military in Plan Bolivar, etc. due to corrupt old-guard politicians preventing social reform ...
 * Chavez relation to military due to history in military

1992 coup attempt

 * reality of Perez administration, level of popular support, etc.

2002 coup attempt

 * The Venezuelan Coup Revisited: Silencing the Evidence, Gregory Wilpert, NACLA Report on the Americas
 * Three Days that Shook the Media, Al Giordano, Narco News -- Excellent paper on 2002 coup attempt. Unfortunately, even though it's far more accurate than most corporate coverage, it will likely struggle in WP:RSN -- but it is a treasure trove of sources that are WP:RS, and will point you to many things you've probably never heard about, but will easily be able to find WP:RS for once you know to look for them.
 * -- discusses U.S. media response to 2002 coup attempt

Human rights

 * Smoke and Mirrors: An Analysis of Human Rights Watch's Report on Venezuela, Gregory Wilpert
 * Taking Human Rights Watch to Task (Council on Hemispheric Affairs) -- open letter from over 110 academics, which discusses the blatant intellectual dishonesty of the author of the HRW "Decade" report (link).
 * Scholars Respond to HRW’s Kenneth Roth’s Riposte on Venezuelan Human Rights -- back-and-forth that took place as result of above letter
 * Senate Testimony on Human rights in Venezuela, Mark Weisbrot
 * The Repeatedly Elected Autocrat, Extra!
 * The Repeatedly Elected Autocrat, Extra!

Press freedom

 * Censorship or Democratization?: RCTV and Freedom of Speech in Venezuela, Wilpert
 * What is the Venezuelan News Media Actually Like?, 2008
 * The Myth of the Muzzled Media, Extra!

Constitution

 * Wilpert, "Changing"

Sources which discuss inaccurate media coverage
Given their long record of blatant disregard for the truth on this topic, we should be extremely skeptical about claims made in the corporate press, especially when they don't provide any solid evidence or sources to back their claims. We should give preference to scholarly sources, or at least those non-scholarly sources which provide verifiable factual evidence to back their claims.

Here are some reliable sources that discuss why we should be very careful about blindly accepting information that is not backed by factual evidence, just because something that meets WP:RS claims that it is true:
 * -- open letter from over 110 academics, which discusses the blatant intellectual dishonesty of the author of the HRW "Decade" report (link).
 * -- back-and-forth that took place as result of above letter
 * Senate Testimony on Human rights in Venezuela, Mark Weisbrot
 * Who is America to judge?, Mark Weisbrot -- on U.S. State Dept. human rights report
 * The Repeatedly Elected Autocrat, Extra!
 * Poverty Rates in Venezuela: Getting the Numbers Right, Weisbrot, Sandoval, Rosnick (CEPR, 2006)
 * Black Swans, Conspiracy Theories, and the Quixotic Search for Fraud: A Look at Hausmann and Rigobon's Analysis of Venezuela's Referendum Vote -- Mark Weisbrot, David Rosnick, and Todd Tucker (CEPR, September 2004)
 * A Decade of Propaganda? The BBC’s Reporting of Venezuela
 * The Op-Ed Assassination of Hugo Chávez: Commentary on Venezuela parrots U.S. propaganda themes, Extra!
 * The Myth of the Muzzled Media, Extra!
 * Corrupt Data: Taking on the claim that Chávez is on the take, Gregory Wilpert, Extra!
 * Imperial Projection: Fearing Chávez’s carrot, ignoring Bush’s stick, Extra!
 * -- discusses U.S. media response to 2002 coup attempt
 * -- brief, but covers a few more Foreign Affairs articles that presented misinformation, especially the latter
 * Fighting Corruption or Persecuting Political Opponents in Venezuela? A Response to the New York Times, Suggett
 * The anti-Venezuela election campaign -- Not a WP:RS for WP:BLP, but is fine for non-BLP articles, and will provide you with a bunch of things to google for, and you can use his sources, which are mostly WP:RS
 * Imperial Projection: Fearing Chávez’s carrot, ignoring Bush’s stick, Extra!
 * -- discusses U.S. media response to 2002 coup attempt
 * -- brief, but covers a few more Foreign Affairs articles that presented misinformation, especially the latter
 * Fighting Corruption or Persecuting Political Opponents in Venezuela? A Response to the New York Times, Suggett
 * The anti-Venezuela election campaign -- Not a WP:RS for WP:BLP, but is fine for non-BLP articles, and will provide you with a bunch of things to google for, and you can use his sources, which are mostly WP:RS
 * -- brief, but covers a few more Foreign Affairs articles that presented misinformation, especially the latter
 * Fighting Corruption or Persecuting Political Opponents in Venezuela? A Response to the New York Times, Suggett
 * The anti-Venezuela election campaign -- Not a WP:RS for WP:BLP, but is fine for non-BLP articles, and will provide you with a bunch of things to google for, and you can use his sources, which are mostly WP:RS
 * The anti-Venezuela election campaign -- Not a WP:RS for WP:BLP, but is fine for non-BLP articles, and will provide you with a bunch of things to google for, and you can use his sources, which are mostly WP:RS

case studies

 * "food rotting warehouse" -- Should cover this, in comparison to media coverage of rotting food in U.S. or India ... show how extremely disproportionate coverage was

Empty Revolution
Francisco Rodríguez wrote an economic analysis titled "An Empty Revolution" in the journal Foreign Affairs (run by ye old corporate mouthpiece, the Council on Foreign Relations). The report was full of factual inaccuracies, statistical manipulations, information taken out of context, and numerous other forms of poor scholarship and intellectual dishonesty. It's worth giving some extra attention here, though, because it's one of the few "scholarly" works (as opposed to polemical journalistic pieces in the NY Times and Economist) that has been published attempting to claim that things have not improved for the poor in Venezuela under Chavez.

Economist Mark Weisbrot published a detailed rebuttal of this. Rodríguez responded to Weisbrot's rebuttal, misquoting and misrepresenting Weisbrot's position, presenting further inaccurate facts and manipulated statistics, and ignoring the most significant of Weisbrot's criticisms. Weisbrot pointed this out in his response to this attempted "rebuttal". It's a long discussion, but well worth reading to understand some of the techniques used by the corporate "prestige" press to mislead people about the economic situation in Venezuela.
 * Rodríguez, Francisco. "An Empty Revolution: The Unfulfilled Promises of Hugo Chávez". Foreign Affairs (March/April 2008)
 * -- discusses the numerous inaccuracies and misleading statements in a Foreign Affairs article titled "An Empty Revolution: The Unfulfilled Promises of Hugo Chávez" (March/April 2008)
 * Rodríguez, Francisco How Not to Defend the Revolution: Mark Weisbrot and the Misinterpretation of Venezuelan Evidence. Wesleyan University (25 March 2008)
 * How Not to Attack An Economist (and An Economy): Getting the Numbers Right, Mark Weisbrot, (CEPR, 2008)



 Source (up to 2008) : International Monetary Fund: Data and Statistics Source (2009 - 2010) : CIA World Factbook 

First, there are numerous factual inaccuracies, such as saying that inflation is increasing (a view which even the IMF doesn't try to push), or that food is harder to get, which is an interesting thing to say considering the stats on malnutrition (way down) and caloric intake (way up). Maybe he means that it's harder for his friends to buy caviar?

Another problem with Rodriguez' work is that in order to be able to push the view that poverty hasn't improved, he is forced to reframe the issues in an abnormal way (just like Pearson, in her Washington Post article, came up with a new way of talking about decreasing inflation so as to make it look like inflation is "skyrocketing"). The normal way of analyzing anti-poverty programs is to look at whether poverty indicators have improved -- things like literacy, malnutrition, infant mortality, disposable income, available services, etc. But Rodriguez says that although these have all improved, we shouldn't pay attention to that in the case of Venezuela, and we shouldn't look at how much more is being spent on social programs and poverty reduction. What we should do instead, for Venezuela, is to look at how much the government "prioritizes" poverty reduction. He conveniently defines this new economic metric as the percentage of government funds spent on poverty (which he claims, inaccurately, have remained stable), rather than the absolute amount being spent (which even he admits has increased significantly).

Misc

 * As far as the 30,000 tons of rotting food in the warehouse story -- compare with this: (48,000,000 tons wasted each year in the U.S.)

Find more reliable sources for:
The following contain valid data, as far as I've been able to verify so far. Find WP:RS that verify info for these, and add to lists above:
 * 
 * 

explore me
Note to self: Take time to dig through these, and find Venezuela-related WP:RS or leads for further research ...


 * Transafrica Forum
 * United Students Against Sweatshops
 * Nicaragua Network
 * Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
 * Center for International Policy
 * ALAI -- search for venezuela
 * 
 * Foreign Policy in Focus
 * Washington Office on Latin America
 * 
 * El red de Consejos Comunales