D I S I N F O R M A T I O N W A R I N V E N E Z U E L A :
CHARALLAVE -- Monday, January 20, Carlos Abel Garcia's life was taken
by an assassin's bullet. His corpse still warm, Vheadline.com abused his death
to invent a BREAKING NEWS shocker that Chavez supporters had been attacked by Chavez opponents.
Editor Roy Carson, signing his name to the article for a change, used the killing of Carlos
to paint a picture of "wild" and "attacking" opposition demonstrators (his words).
Totally undeterred, big fat bully Carson, known from his Caracas-days as the Ugly Irishman,
found an easy way to deal with the uncomfortable truth: JUST DON'T MENTION THE FACTS THAT WON'T FIT.
So Carson, in a new low for journalism, simply eliminated the uncomfortable facts.
He did not name the victim, his political affiliation, his killer, the TV crew that filmed it all,
the independent amateur videos that later surfaced, or the ties of the killer to the Chavez MVR-organization.
Way to go, Roy.
Roy Carson rapes the memory of the dead
There was just one little problem ... (there usually is with the Vheadline Chavez-fanzine): Carlos
Abel Garcia was a member of the opposition. He was killed by a Chavez supporter. And the killer
was caught on film.
From the very first line, the headline itself, Roy Carson starts lying:
His "opposition attack on Chavistas" is not documented, and was no such thing.
Hospitals in Ocumare and Charallave received dozens of wounded demonstrators.
All of them came from the opposition march.
Not one (not one, Roy, not even a single one) came from the "Chavista" side.
- So, tell me again, Mr High and Mighty Purveyor of the Truth: Just who attacked who...?
But the lies continue.
In the face of all evidence, Carson incredibly claims that "opposition demonstrators went wild, attacking pro-government supporters
in Charallave".
To all: Roy Carson does not live here. He lives in England. So he did not see the live action on TV as I did, and the rest of Venezuela did.
He did not listen to live reports from radio call-in's. And he had no opportunity to go to Charallave either.
He then quotes Miranda state governor Enrique Mendoza saying the only true sentence in the paragraph: "Rioters had torched hijacked vehicles when a series of shots were heard."
Roy, if you could find Mendoza's quote on the Internet, why not quote him in full?
As AP did. And Reuters. And DPA.
I saw the interview on TV, and read the wires. He said, truthfully, that the rioters were CHAVEZ SUPPORTERS.
He also said that they included CHARALLAVE POLICE. And he gave lots of detail to back up his claim.
Roy Carson then quotes Fire chief Lt Col Guido Bolivar, saying that one man was dead and 12 wonded. This must have been early in the day. Carson must have been eager to get the story out, and capture the spin. Because later, many more were wounded.
But ... just out of curiosity ... did Roy Carson even talk to Guido Bolivar? I did. And so did the Globovision reporter. We both heard from him that there was no doubt where the shots came from. All of them, bar none, came from attacking Chavez groups. He also confirmed the presence of two Charallave police patrol cars protecting a green jeep from where shots were fired at the opposition, causing most of the gunshot wounds in the victims.
After a mere single paragraph, we are waiting for the article to flesh out the detail. After all, these are very strong claims to make. Journalism 101 tells you that you then back them up ... or you are out of journalism (which Roy of course was what happened to Roy Carson ages ago. Hearing his ex-colleagues tell it, he stopped being a journalist in Sweden. Nuff said.)
So do we get the facts?
No. Unable to face facts, Roy Carson instead turns to an old trick in the propagandeer handbook:
He changes the subject.
This allows him to mouth off true facts that few are disputing. In this case, about Jimmy Carter's
presence in Venezuela and some other mostly true details. It just has no bearing or connection to the rest of the
article. So what does it do there? Easy: It's in there so that the reader will say "yes, one part
of the article is true, so the rest must be true too".
The structure of the piece is just too transparent. Read the speeches of Hitler's proganda chief,
Josef Goebbels: They follow THE EXACT SAME PATTERN.
A lie, mixed with an unrelated truth, will be accepted as truth. Goebbels.
Roy, Goebbels would've been proud of you today.
Let's look at what really happened -
-
After being urged by strongman Hugo Chavez to "defend the Bolivarian revolution" in Venezuela, his followers fired at pro-democracy marchers Monday, killing one and wounding dozens of others.
The killing came one day after Hugo Chavez in a televised message in ALO PRESIDENTE repeatedly urged his followers to "defend the Bolivarian revolution".
- Carlos Abel Garcia, 28 years old (not 29), was shot and killed while participating in a protest march promoting free and democratic elections in Charallave, outside the Venezuelan capital Caracas.
- This planned march had a permission.
The much smaller counter-march, made up of violent Chavez supporters and government employees, had no permission.
- Carlos Abel Garcia was a grassroots activist of the legal opposition group Primero Justicia ("Justice First").
Note to Vheadline's factcheckers (if they exist): You can verify this information with Carlos Ahualde, party coordinator of Primera Justicia Ocumare. - The man who killed Carlos Abel Garcia Arrieche was caught on camera.
He is a Chavez supporter and an employee of the pro-Chavez Charallave municipial police.
- The man who then defaced the memory of Carlos Abel Garcia Arrieche was caught in print.
His name is Roy S. Carson. He is a Chavez apologist and the shameless editor of Vheadline.com
- Pro-Chavez mayor of Charallave, Marisela Mendoza, told VTV Venezolana de Television on Monday afternoon at approx 2 pm that she was happy about the killing of the opposition member and that " I hope they understand that Valles del Tuy is Bolivarian territory".
- Governor Enrique Mendoza, of Miranda state, told AP that government employees fired at the marchers.
" - Plainclothes police started blocking access roads to the march early Monday," said Mendoza, explaining that the police forces were municipal police under the command of the Chavez-loyalist mayors of Charallave and Urdaneta.
" - When the marchers continued despite the road blocks, the police started firing at them. They are clearly identifiable in photographs as Chavez party members working in law enforcement and using their department firearms against the marchers."
- TV cameras on Venevision (Channel 4) also showed a green jeep driving towards the pro-democracy marchers at great speed, then doing a U-turn while a Chavez supporter on its roof fired a handgun into the march. The jeep was filmed arriving in the company of two white Police pickup trucks, and later parked next to the patrol cars while the Chavez supporters reloaded their firearms on its roof.
- The gunfire managed to break up the pro-democracy march. Dozens of peaceful marchers fell in the bloodbath. Wild groups of Chavez supporters then celebrated on national TV as they burned Venezuelan flags, a symbol of the opposition movement, and set fire to a small stage which the marchers had earlier set up to give speeches from.
It is a good thing that Victoria never gave you any children, Roy.
They would NOT be proud of their father after this one...
The state channel knew that it couldn't defend the undefendable. So they simply did not cover the news. (Even in Venezuela, a politically motivated murder a news story, but the state channel apparently decided to not mention it, lest it let Chavez and his supporters be known as cold blooded killers).
This page is dedicated to the sacred Christian memory of Carlos Abel Garcia who
was murdered today.
He was the victim of a bullet while participating in "La Marcha por el SI", a march whose purpose was to promote a legal and democratic vote in a referendum scheduled for February 2, 2003.
Roy Carson, eager to lie, rushed into print with a "BREAKING NEWS" story that he blastered all over his Internet website. He hardly waited until the body of Carlos was cold before spinning a lie that Goebbels would have been proud of.
Roy Carson is a disgrace to the journalistic profession.
Roy Carson, showing his utmost lack of fear of God, is spitting on the memory of a young man who died today.
Roy Carson, you do not respect the truth, but at least respect the sacred soul of a fellow human being.
So do it out of fear of God.
Roy, where is your fear of God?
My name is Joseph O'Connor. I am 38 years old. I am not a journalist myself,
but a human rights activist in Latin America. I am not a member of
neither Chavez's side nor the opposition's, but I have two friends who are
grass roots activists with the opposition: One is a young left-leaning entrepeneur who does Internet loadbalancing, and the other is in the 'Bandera Roja' (Red Flag) movement, a political party which forms part of the coalition of 30+ parties and organizations who together make up the main political counterweight to the Chavez government.
I do not have the nerve to tell you that I am "independent", as Roy Carson
does, because it would be hard to stay on the sidelines in the current
crisis in Venezuela. So I merely urge you to seek out the truth yourself,
by using the head that God gave you, and judging all facts critically.
Try to get your news from news sources that are not biased, and avoid
those - like Vheadline.com - who have a vested interest in lying to you.
I'd love to hear your comments and your other experiences with Roy Carson's journalistic largesse. My email address is joc@akamachi.com
Here's the article from Vheadline.com:
29-year-old killed; 12 wounded in opposition attack on "Chavistas"
Breaking News
Opposition demonstrators went wild, attacking pro-government supporters in Charallave as police and fire fighters fought to control ugly confrontations. Opposition-loyalist Miranda State Governor Enrique Mendoza says the rioters had torched hijacked vehicles when a series of shots were heard ... a 29-year-old man was killed and 12 wounded in the gunfire, according to Fire chief Lt. Col. Guido Bolivar.
Today's violence highlighted the 50th day of a failing anti-government stoppage aimed at ousting President Higo Chavez Frias. It comes as Nobel Peace Prize winner, former US President Jimmy Carter met with President Chavez Frias in Caracas in the hope of kindling some hope for lackluster peace negotiations sponsored by the the Organization of American States (OAS).
Chavez Frias has warned that the democratically-elected government may be forced to walk out of the negotiations ... he has accused opposition leaders of using unconstitutional means ... "we are evaluating the possibility carefully that our representatives will leave the table ... we don't talk with terrorists.''
Chavez Frias says the opposition must await an August recall referendum, at the half-way point through his 6-year mandate ... the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) has still to hand down a ruling but the opposition says it doesn't care either way, they'll get Chavez out by whatever means possible, legal or illegal.
Former OPEC Secretary General, PDVSA president Ali Rodriguez Araque has today urged oil workers to cooperate in getting the oil industry up and running again after acts of sabotage by senior and middle-level management. Chavez had fired 1,500 superfluous white-collar workers and clearly has the support of the military which has seized crippled oil tankers and commandeered gas delivery tankers
DISCLAIMER:
ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
Posted: Monday, January 20, 2003 - 3:46:22 PM
By: Roy S. Carson