Chavez's bureaucratic latifundium

Authors:
Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri
www.morochos.net

To justify attacks on the independent press in Venezuela, Chavista leaders talk about combating "media latifundium", a rhetorical device that seeks to represent the fact that one person controls the mass media.

And beyond the discussion of whether the allegory is etymologically well founded or not, the truth is that it is easy to understand what it means, fulfilling its propaganda goal. However, it would be also interesting to use the same symbolism with another large extension of resources belonging to one person in Venezuela, for example, why not apply it to political power?

In Chavez's country, virtually all public institutions and offices of the Venezuelan State are controlled by one "owner". Even in the armed forces, officers greet by saying the slogan of the PSUV, Chavez's party, as if the institutions that previously belonged to Venezuela had been privatized for the exclusive use of the Chavista monopoly.

So, according to the concept invoked by the enemies of press freedom, the political reality of Venezuela would also be like a latifundium, but bureaucratic. Unfortunately, it seems that it has no opponents in the high chavismo.

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