Dear Guardian editors:
We, the undersigned, ask why the Guardian has ignored one of Venezuela’s most serious human rights problems — the assassination of hundreds of peasant activists since 2001 by gunmen hired by wealthy land owners.
On June 8, VenezuelaAnalysis.com reported a 10,000 person march on the National Assembly to demand justice for the victims (“Venezuelan Peasant Organisations March to Demand Justice for Murders”).
The Guardian‘s Caracas-based correspondent, Rory Carroll, reported none of this and has disregarded this grave human rights issue for years.
The Guardian has recently published articles about Chavez going bald (“Hugo Chávez Expects to Go Bald after Chemotherapy in Cuba”) and about his “conspiracy theories” surrounding the death of Simon Bolivar (“Hugo Chávez Claims Simon Bolívar Was Murdered Not Backed by Science”).
Peasants have clearly been targeted to defeat the Chavez government’s efforts to remedy the gross inequities in land distribution across Venezuela. The victims of this violence, and the truth, deserve better.
Sincerely,
Noam Chomsky, MIT
Roger Annis, CanadaHaitiAction.ca
Rachael Boothroyd, VenezuelAnalysis.com
Charles Callman, activist
David Cromwell, Media Lens
Mike Davis, Author
David Edwards, Media Lens
Joe Emersberger, Media Lens & HaitiAnalysis.com
Yves Engler, Author
Anthony Fenton, Journalist
Crystal Geyer, Activist
Eva Golinger, Correo del Orinoco & Author
Tamara Pearson, VenezuelAnalysis.com
David Peterson, Writer
Wadner Pierre, HaitiAnalysis.com
John Pilger, Filmmaker
Adrienne Pine, American University, Washington DC
Dr. Diana Raby, Senior Fellow in Latin American Studies, University of Liverpool
Dr. William I. Robinson, University of California Santa Barbara
Manuel Rozental, Colombian activist and physician
Jeb Sprague, University of California Santa Barbara
Greg Wilpert, VenezuelAnalysis.com
Michael D. Yates, Professor Emeritus, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown and Associate Editor of Monthly Review