I assumed, reading the opener--"As the controversial mayor of Caracas was forced to call off a planned visit to London"--that the cancellation of his visit to London was BECAUSE he is "controversial" on the London end of things--that something he'd done or said made him too controversial for his hosts. Three paragraphs later, we learn that his office says it was because of catastrophic mudslides and the need to evacuate and find shelter for hundreds displaced people. In the next paragraph, we are told that Barreto is involved in a controversy in Caracas over his plan to expropriate the land of two private golf courses (which has some murky business in title deeds, possibly fraud--not mentioned in this article) for low cost housing. Also not mentioned in this article, some 500,000 thousand people in Caracas live in precarious housing. No effort is made (in the CNS article) to connect the dots between so many living in precarious housing, Barreto's efforts to get them housing, and the mudslides he now has to deal with, and the displacement of people, DUE TO precarious housing. (The golf courses could provide new housing for 25,000 people.)
The additional information comes from:
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2059The CNS article likes words such as "left-wing mayor" and "controversial." They use "left-wing" several times. "Left-wing" of what? The country is left-wing. It has a left-wing president and a large left-wing majority in the legislature. "Left-wing" is actually middle, or moderate, in Venezuela. (And they were all elected in heavily monitored elections--monitored by the OAS, the Carter Center and EU election monitoring groups.)
Barreto is not a "controversial mayor." He is a mayor who is involved in a controversy. There is a big difference. Barreto's views--that the rich shouldn't be taking up great swaths of the city of Caracas for golf and exclusive country clubs, while 500,000 people live in precarious housing (no doubt some of it in shanty-towns) that is sliding off the hills in heavy rains--are shared by many Venezuelans. And there is no controversy attaching to Barreto, personally--he's not corrupt or anything. His policy of appropriating these lands has engendered opposition from country club owners and their members. But his policy is no different than the policy say, of the City of Los Angeles, when it appropriated land for Dodger Stadium, and kicked out all the poor property owners.
Barreto is a member of Chavez's political party. And Chavez's V-P disagrees with Barreto's policy. Here is his statement (from the venezuelanalysis.com article):
"...Venezuelan Vice-President José Vicente Rangel announced that 'The National Government does not share the decision adopted by the Mayor of the Metropolitan District of Caracas… in which the forced acquisition is declared of the land… considering that the same could affect constitutional and legal norms of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.' // “'The National Government respects and must respect the current legal order and condemns whatever attempt aimed at suffocating, regardless of where it may come from, the structure of the rule of law. In this way, under no circumstances, will it accept that the right to property, in which it is conceived in the current Constitution, becomes vulnerable in any way.'"
A controversy, yes. A controversial mayor, no. Left-wing? Okay, maybe--in some respects. To the left of Chavez--whose government apparently doesn't want to ruffle too many feathers on the right, and further has an abiding commitment to Venezuela's new Constitution. But is Barreto to the left of the majority of the people in Caracas? My guess is no.
Articles like this never describe George Bush as "the rightwing president of the U.S.," or Jeb Bush as "the rightwing governor of Florida"--yet their brand of Republicanism could fairly be described as not just rightwing, but fascist. And they ALWAYS use "left-wing" to describe Chavez, and here to describe a mayor who is more than likely reflecting prevailing opinion in his city. Not left-wing opinion. Mainstream opinion. With Chavez to the RIGHT of it--into protecting rich landowners.
How about this? "The mainstream mayor of Caracas canceled his trip to London because of catastrophic mudslides in poor shantytowns in Caracas, displacing hundreds of people. Mayor Barreto has been working on various proposals to provide adequate housing for 500,000 people who live in precarious housing in his city, and has run into some controversy with local country club owners, and with the Chavez government, over the appropriation of golf course land for housing projects for the poor."
Don't you love it? A truly fair and balanced statement of the facts.
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