Changes

: '''Step four''': Last week, four protesters were kidnapped while returning from an anti-Chavez rally. They were blindfolded, tortured, and shot execution-style. Some of the victims were witnesses to a previous pro-Chavez political killing, and they had planned to testify against the shooter. Consider the message sent to the opposition when the mutilated bodies of their friends start showing up in the city streets. After all, elections don't mean much if your opponents are afraid to leave their houses and walk to the polls.  

: '''Step four''': Last week, four protesters were kidnapped while returning from an anti-Chavez rally. They were blindfolded, tortured, and shot execution-style. Some of the victims were witnesses to a previous pro-Chavez political killing, and they had planned to testify against the shooter. Consider the message sent to the opposition when the mutilated bodies of their friends start showing up in the city streets. After all, elections don't mean much if your opponents are afraid to leave their houses and walk to the polls.  

: '''Step five''': A few days ago, Chavez delivered a speech denouncing Spain, Colombia, and the US for interfering in Venezuela. This morning in Caracas, the diplomatic missions of Spain and Colombia were bombed. Credit was claimed by a splinter pro-Chavez group--but this was not a bunch of kids cooking up homemade bombs in their basement. The bombs were powerful plastic explosives, the kind of weapons that are difficult to obtain without government complicity.<ref>http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/world/americas/2514-dictatorship-by-the-numbers-in-venezuela.html {{dead link}}</ref>

: '''Step five''': A few days ago, Chavez delivered a speech denouncing Spain, Colombia, and the US for interfering in Venezuela. This morning in Caracas, the diplomatic missions of Spain and Colombia were bombed. Credit was claimed by a splinter pro-Chavez group--but this was not a bunch of kids cooking up homemade bombs in their basement. The bombs were powerful plastic explosives, the kind of weapons that are difficult to obtain without government complicity.<ref>Robert W Tracinski, [https://www.capitalismmagazine.com/2003/02/dictatorship-by-the-numbers-in-venezuela/ Dictatorship by the Numbers in Venezuela], Capitalism Mag.,  Feb 26, 2003.</ref>

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$4 billion was spent paying paramilitary groups to attack unarmed protestors and other dissidents during and after the elections.<ref>http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/world/americas/2968-venezuela-a-new-junket-for-a-dictator-s-best-friend-jimmy-carter.html</ref>

$4 billion was spent paying paramilitary groups to attack unarmed protestors and other dissidents during and after the elections.<ref>Stephen Johnson, [https://www.capitalismmagazine.com/?s=Junket Venezuela: A New Junket for a Dictator’s best Friend – Jimmy Carter], Capitalism Mag.,  July 28, 2003.</ref>

The [[European Union]] condemned the conditions placed on election monitors as unacceptable and declined to attend.  The Carter Center was shut out for three days.  Experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University have identified signs of fraud based on statistical analysis.<ref>http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/world/americas/3924-the-carter-stamp-of-approval-on-the-venueuzlan-election-less-than-worthless.html</ref>

 

The [[European Union]] condemned the conditions placed on election monitors as unacceptable and declined to attend.  The Carter Center was shut out for three days.  Experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University have identified signs of fraud based on statistical analysis.<ref> The Carter Stamp of Approval On the Venueuzlan Election - Less Than Worthless. Capitalism Mag. [http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/world/americas/3924-the-carter-stamp-of-approval-on-the-venueuzlan-election-less-than-worthless.html]</ref>

==See also==

==See also==