Today there was a large anti-Chavez protest by students in Caracas, Venezuela. The students were protesting against the upcoming legislation that will give Chavez ability to remain President for life, takes control of the banks, and allows the government to detain citizens without any charges. Yep, Venezuela is sounding more and more like the old Soviet Union.

The cause of the violence is in dispute, many students claim that it was pro Chavez groups that started throwing objects at the protesters, and Reuters reported witnesses as saying that pro Chavez supporters went through the crowd firing guns. I am not surprised to hear that the violence was not necessarily started by the police but by pro Chavez supporters. After all that is the time proven method of Socialist all over the world. The Nazis in Germany, the Fascist in Italy, the Maoist in Nepal, all of them use mob violence to intimidate their opponents. And the government has culpable deniability by saying, "It wasn't us, it was concerned citizens!" Yeah, what a load of manure that is. If anything the pro Chavez group was probably paid, or promised special favors to go out and threaten the students. Not unlike the paid progressive activist in the U.S.

And what do the good liberals of the U.S. and Europe do? Those concerned caring people who proclaim that they stand for freedom of speech, individual freedom, and human rights. They run around telling us how wonderful Hugo Chavez is and what a great job he is doing for his country. Forget the fact that Chavez is trashing all of those ideals that I have mentioned.

The truth is that the progressives are concerned about one thing and that is their Marxist agenda. They support brutal dictators around the world because of their talk of wealth distribution. Of course just like the pigs of Animal Farm, the leaders of the revolution get an extra share of the spoils because their job is so important. They need to be taken care of so they can continue leading their people down the road to a Marxist, Orwellian society. It is sad to sit here and watch Venezuela turn into a Dictatorship. Democracy is a fragile institution and once it is gone, it is very difficult to get back.

BBC - Venezuela protest turn violent

UK MSN - At least 2 shot in Venezuela after anti-Chavez march

- Thomas Paine 2

Technorati Tags: communism, free speech, government, government corruption, Hugo Chavez, politics, socialism, Venezuela