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Criticism of Chávez Is Stifled by Arrests
NY Times ^ | 4/3/10 | SIMON ROMERO

Posted on 04/03/2010 2:13:27 PM PDT by Borges

LOS TEQUES, Venezuela — When Judge María Lourdes Afiuni issued a ruling in December that irked President Hugo Chávez, he did little to contain his outrage. The president, contending on national television that she would have been put before a firing squad in earlier times, sent his secret intelligence police to arrest her.

Then the agents took her to the overcrowded women’s prison in this city of slums near Caracas. They put her in a cell near more than 20 inmates whom Judge Afiuni had sentenced on charges like murder and drug smuggling.

“I’ve received threats from inmates telling me they will burn me alive because they see me as a symbol of the system that put them in prison,” said Judge Afiuni, 46, in her prison cell. “I’m in this hell because I had the temerity to do my job as a judge in a way that didn’t please Chávez.”

Since Judge Afiuni’s imprisonment, a dizzying sequence of other high-profile arrests has taken place, pointing to Mr. Chávez’s recent use of his security and intelligence apparatus to quash challenges to his grip on the country’s political institutions. The arrests come at a time of spreading public ire over an economy hobbled by electricity shortages and soaring inflation.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 04/03/2010 2:13:28 PM PDT by Borges
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To: Borges

Did Chavez start by telling his critics to “tone it down”?


2 posted on 04/03/2010 2:14:23 PM PDT by highlander_UW (Happiness doesn't come from owning something; it comes from being a part of something)
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To: Borges
Jimma Carter must be proud and Obama is taking notes.
3 posted on 04/03/2010 2:20:23 PM PDT by Truth29
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To: Borges

Coming soon to a Tea Party rally near you.


4 posted on 04/03/2010 2:24:19 PM PDT by newheart (History is an outbreak of madness--Ellul)
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To: Borges

.
Sean Penn


5 posted on 04/03/2010 2:25:41 PM PDT by Touch Not the Cat (Where is the light? Wonder if it's weeping somewhere...)
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To: Borges
One man with a rifle could change the future of all Venezuelans for the better.
6 posted on 04/03/2010 2:26:46 PM PDT by Hoosier-Daddy ("It does no good to be a super power if you have to worry what the neighbors think." BuffaloJack)
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To: highlander_UW

Soon to come to a city near you.


7 posted on 04/03/2010 2:36:55 PM PDT by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll)
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To: Borges; All

An old article from a year ago, well worth taking a new look at today:

Chavez becomes ‘President Unstoppable’ after Venezuela votes to scrap term limits

16th February 2009

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1146286/Chavez-President-Unstoppable-Venezuela-votes-scrap-term-limits.html#ixzz0k4k8PUb6

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1146286/Chavez-President-Unstoppable-Venezuela-votes-scrap-term-limits.html


8 posted on 04/03/2010 2:37:53 PM PDT by Kimberly GG ("Path to Citizenship" Amnesty candidates will NOT get my vote!)
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To: Forward the Light Brigade
Soon to come to a city near you.

Well, the demand that critics tone it down has already come to a city near us...the Chavez level stuff is only a little way down the road.

9 posted on 04/03/2010 2:41:00 PM PDT by highlander_UW (Happiness doesn't come from owning something; it comes from being a part of something)
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To: Borges
Criticism of Chávez Is Stifled by Arrests

Obama porn.

10 posted on 04/03/2010 2:47:31 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: Borges

OK, I’m confused. Is the NYT complaining about one of their own (Chavez), or are they trying to tell him to tone it down a bit because it’s getting hard to defend him when he resorts to such blatant tactics?


11 posted on 04/03/2010 2:49:30 PM PDT by jeffc (I now live in National Socialist America)
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To: Borges

Judge Alito, think about this next time you move your lips when Dear Leader is speaking.


12 posted on 04/03/2010 2:59:00 PM PDT by Defiant (We are in a battle to the death between Karl and George. I will stand and fight for George.)
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To: Hoosier-Daddy
One man with a rifle could change the future of all Venezuelans for the better.

Venezuela?

13 posted on 04/03/2010 3:00:25 PM PDT by johniegrad
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To: newheart

GMTA

“The arrests come at a time of spreading public ire over an economy hobbled by electricity shortages and soaring inflation.”

Coming soon to a neighborhood by you.


14 posted on 04/03/2010 3:01:35 PM PDT by Canedawg (I'm not diggin' this tyranny thing.)
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To: Borges
Maybe it would be a good time to engage in a bit of political Aikido and congratulate Chavez for "silencing the voices of critical women judges in Venezuela" and bringing "manliness" to the ruling classes by dominating the media and other political institutions. Not to mention "riding rough shod over the masses who have no idea what is truly in their best interests".

Maybe I'm slipping over to the Dark Side(?) :O

15 posted on 04/03/2010 3:05:40 PM PDT by The Duke
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To: highlander_UW
"Did Chavez start by telling his critics to “tone it down"?"

Also in comparison to his North American counterpart, he's very restrained with throwing around charges of racism.

16 posted on 04/03/2010 3:06:04 PM PDT by Red Dog #1
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To: Borges
The president, contending on national television that she would have been put before a firing squad in earlier times, sent his secret intelligence police to arrest her.

You hear that Alito!

17 posted on 04/03/2010 3:42:20 PM PDT by Last Dakotan
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To: Touch Not the Cat

Yeah, that was my thought too. I wonder what Sean has to say about this? He will probably conveniently ignore it.


18 posted on 04/03/2010 4:06:13 PM PDT by rbg81 (DRAIN THE SWAMP!!)
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To: newheart

Obama probably has wet dreams about doing likewise to Rush and Glen Beck.


19 posted on 04/03/2010 4:07:15 PM PDT by rbg81 (DRAIN THE SWAMP!!)
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To: Borges

Obama is taking notes and getting ready before November comes. I have discovered that bananas do grow in the US in Florida and Hawaii. Obama is just making sure we have the republic to go with them.


20 posted on 04/03/2010 5:07:39 PM PDT by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat ( Islamia Delenda Est ))
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