En la Vanguardia publican

hoy un artículo sobre la Venezuela de Chávez; el amigo de ZP:

En los seis años de revolución bolivariana, el ingreso per cápita ha caído en un 35% en términos reales. Aunque el presidente Hugo Chávez destaca los avances logrados por su revolución, en Venezuela aumenta la pobreza. Según estudios del Centro de Documentación y Análisis de los Trabajadores, el 88,9% de la población se encuentra en estado de pobreza, y dentro de ese grupo el 57,1%, en situación de pobreza crítica; esto es, que no tienen posibilidad de adquirir alimentos básicos. De acuerdo con un informe del investigador Luis Pedro España, de la Universidad Metropolitana, la pobreza en las zonas rurales del país "puede llegar al 90% de la población".

En el Washington Post, Jackson Diehl escribe una columna picante respondiendo a unas declaraciones del ministro de comunicación e información; Andrés Izarra, en las que acusaba a algunos medios norteamericanos de colaborar en una campaña para difamar a Chávez, dirigida por Bush. El columnista no se corta y lanza unas cuantas verdades:

Ten days ago Chavez handed Izarra a still-bigger stick: a new penal code that criminalizes virtually any expression to which the government objects -- not only in public but also in private.

Start with Article 147: "Anyone who offends with his words or in writing or in any other way disrespects the President of the Republic or whomever is fulfilling his duties will be punished with prison of 6 to 30 months if the offense is serious and half of that if it is light." That sanction, the code implies, applies to those who "disrespect" the president or his functionaries in private; "the term will be increased by a third if the offense is made publicly."

There's more: Article 444 says that comments that "expose another person to contempt or public hatred" can bring a prison sentence of one to three years; Article 297a says that someone who "causes public panic or anxiety" with inaccurate reports can receive five years. Prosecutors are authorized to track down allegedly criminal inaccuracies not only in newspapers and electronic media, but also in e-mail and telephone communications.

The new code reserves the toughest sanctions for journalists or others who receive foreign funding, such as the election monitoring group Sumate, which has been funded in part by the National Endowment for Democracy. Venezuelans or foreigners living in the country can be punished with a 10- to 15-year sentence for receiving foreign support that "can prejudice the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela . . . or destabilize the social order," whatever that means. Persons accused of conspiring against the government with a foreign country can get 20 to 30 years in prison. The new code specifies that anyone charged with these crimes will not be entitled to legal due process. In other words, should Izarra determine that my Caracas-based colleagues continue to collude with the State Department against Venezuela, they could be summarily jailed.

Chavez and his propaganda apparatus don't feel compelled to live by their own rules. The president has directed crude epithets at President Bush and even more vulgar sexual innuendo at Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. His government has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund Americans in the United States who write articles and letters glorifying Chavez and attacking the Bush administration. Izarra himself could be charged under his own slander law for his false claims about American journalists. Lucky for him his adversaries here are a democratic government, and a columnist who merely thinks he's ridiculous.