Venezuela’s descent into dictatorship shows democracy can be lost

Re:Venezuela’s descent into dictatorship shows democracy can... by balance_factor on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @02:19AM (#14954957)

When the military threw out the elected Chavez in 2002 and replaced him with the head of the business federation, who promptly dissolved the parliament, the New York Times applauded.

The 2009 coup of the elected Honduran government, by military officers trained in the US and financed by the US, followed by the murder of many candidates trying to run in the subsequent election, didn't elicit hand-wringing by the US administration. The flow of money and weapons to the Honduran military continued. Murder and political repression in Honduras skyrocketed. All you really heard in the US news was complaints about how Hondurans and Honduran children were now crossing the US borders.

It doesn't even rise to the level of farce that the Tribune/Tronc corporation's expression of America's military ambitions in its Monroe Doctrine backyard has some lofty motives or whatever nonsense they're putting out.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Venezuela’s descent into dictatorship shows democracy can... by tigershark on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @02:47AM (#14955116)

How is it relevant to this article? Here they are correctly pointing out that a dictator de facto is seizing even more power sending his country to a total economic disaster. There has been no coup d'état, just a rapid descent into dictatorship starting from Chavez and continuing with Maduro. Exactly in the same way it happened in Italy with Mussolini and in Germany with Hitler. Your comment seems completely out of place pointing out other completely unrelated political situations minimising the actions of a dictator that is killing hundred of people just because it doesn't fit your own political narrative.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Venezuela’s descent into dictatorship shows democracy can... by madez on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @03:09AM (#14955217)

Given the precedents, the title of the article is bad.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Venezuela’s descent into dictatorship shows democracy can... by geezerjay on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @03:25AM (#14955317)

> the title of the article is bad.

How, exactly, does a comment posted in the comments section means that Venezuela isn't being forced into a dictatorship?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Venezuela’s descent into dictatorship shows democracy can... by madez on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @08:26AM (#14957051)

The title claims than Venezuela's situation shows that democracy can be lost. That is akin to saying that a car crash shows that strong enough forces can bend metal. That would be a bad title, because we know that metal can be bend by strong enough forces.

Also, we know that democracy can be lost. There have been instances of rather lawful transitions, there are examples of even malicious foreign manipulation.

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Re:Venezuela’s descent into dictatorship shows democracy can... by ushegemony on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @02:50AM (#14955127)

bravo, less than an hour to invoke Godwins law.

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Re:Venezuela’s descent into dictatorship shows democracy can... by tigershark on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @02:51AM (#14955140)

We are discussing about dictatorships, it seems a quite fitting argument honestly.

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Re:Venezuela’s descent into dictatorship shows democracy can... by ionised on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @10:24AM (#14958014)

I suggest you read up on Godwin's law.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Venezuela’s descent into dictatorship shows democracy can... by mc32 on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @02:24AM (#14954978)

Sure and we should not have intervened in Panama... Or Chile two of the better economies in LatAm. You don't see Chileans running across the border to Argentina --oh, wait, it's the socialist Argentinians who streamed into Chile during the socialists' tenure.

[ Parent | on HN ]