[tptacek]

Maduro was Chavez's chosen successor. Elections in Venezuela aren't "democratic" by any normal definition of the term: the government controls all media outlets and suppresses campaign ads from opposition parties, nationalizes huge chunks of the economy and turns employees working in those areas into public sector employees who are required to vote for the incumbent, further buys hundreds of thousands of votes with giveaways, and withholds police protection from areas that support opponents in what has become one of the most violent countries in the western hemisphere.

Maduro is a strongman out of central casting.

Not for nothing, but the notion that the opposition is calling for violence has been reported as Maduro propaganda:

A campaign started the day after the election to accuse members of the opposition of inciting violence. The word went out that nine people had been killed by opposition members on election day, and several voting stations set on fire. (There had in fact been angry confrontations between supporters of both sides, but the government has yet to provide evidence of politically-related arson or homicides in addition to the average of nine people who are murdered every day in Caracas.)

In any event, the new epithet for Capriles and his followers is “murderers,” a serious charge and a political mistake, considering that they represent half of the electorate.

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2013/may/08/chavismo-af...

[pessimizer]

>the government controls all media outlets and suppresses campaign ads from opposition parties, nationalizes huge chunks of the economy and turns employees working in those areas into public sector employees who are required to vote for the incumbent, further buys hundreds of thousands of votes with giveaways

Citation needed. These are the same criticisms that Romney had about Obama, and for the majority of Chavez's presidency, the Venezuelan (and American) media was entirely and hysterically anti-Chavez.

>Not for nothing, but the notion that the opposition is calling for violence has been reported as Maduro propaganda:

I'm not referring to that criticism (why is all criticism propaganda when someone that one doesn't like is delivering it?) but just the fact that these are traditional upper-middle-class "law and order" protests.

If they win, the white terror will begin.

[tptacek]

This comment is embarrassing. Venezuela nationalized the country's largest television station. The media wasn't fervently pro-Chavez; it was pro-Chavez by government mandate.

[hansjorg]

Really? Which television station was that?

[tptacek]

RCTV.

[hansjorg]

That's simply not true. You are propagating falsehoods.

[glurgh]

https://en.rsf.org/venezuela.html

http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2013/venezu...

Suggesting some sort of similarity between press freedom in the US and Venezuela seems pretty absurd.