A Single Golpista Race and the Honduran Top Five

Watching the documentary “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” (2003) about the short-lived coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in 2002, I arrived at the conclusion that Che Guevara’s detection of a single mestizo race stretching from Mexico to the Straits of Magellan must be fine-tuned to account for the existence of what appears to be a single golpista race spanning the same territory.

This race is concerned that, if not carefully monitored, the entire continent will turn into Cuba and citizens with multiple houses will be relieved of their extraneous properties by the government. A scarily amusing scene from “The Revolution” features a pre-coup meeting of well-dressed Venezuelans, who are being warned by an expert in such matters to beware of the potential political affiliations of their domestic servants.

As for pre-coup footage of Chávez supporters in Caracas shooting in self-defense after being targeted by gunfire during a golpista-orchestrated confrontation with opposition marchers, the opposition media—which reigns in Venezuela despite regular hysteria about the supposed lack of freedom of expression under Chávez—manipulates the scene such that the chavistas are shown to be firing not at an empty street but rather at one filled with peaceful demonstrators.

The Venezuelan coup was promptly reversed, of course. The more recent coup against Honduran President Mel Zelaya was not, despite the coup regime’s blatant manipulation of the media. Following are merely the first five pitiful examples that come to mind:

1. Fatal shooting on Jul. 5, 2009, of anti-coup Honduran teenager Isis Obed Murillo at the Tegucigalpa airport during Zelaya’s failed attempt at repatriation. Honduran newspaper La Prensa saw fit to distract from the fatal aspect by Photoshopping the blood out of the relevant image.
2. Zelaya’s successful repatriation on Sept. 21, 2009, and accommodation at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. Channel 10 CEO Rodrigo Wong Arévalo endeavored to discredit the event by reporting that, among Zelaya’s companions sleeping on the embassy floor, there were men hugging other men.
3. Zelaya’s four-month internment in aforementioned embassy, during which time Honduran soldiers and police subjected the premises to tear gas, midnight light shows, and irritating music. Honduran paper La Tribuna argued that platforms used to conduct light shows were in fact “observation towers” used to monitor the movements of an invented “elite Venezuelan team” providing security to Zelaya.
4. Presidential elections on Nov. 29, 2009. Two weeks prior to the event, the golpista media—in an attempt to silence anyone concerned that the current threat to freedom and democracy consisted of illegitimate elections conducted by a coup regime—reported that an explosive device had been launched from a hostile aircraft in the vicinity of a warehouse where election materials were being stored. No evidence of the explosion ever turned up, and it was eventually conceded that the aircraft in question had been a TACA Airlines flight arriving as scheduled from Guatemala.
5. Evo Morales. In order to underscore the imminent disaster that would have resulted from permitting Zelaya to carry out a non-binding public opinion survey on the issue of constitutional change, La Tribuna sounded the alarm that the Bolivian leader had been declared president for the next 50 years. Perusal of the article in question revealed that a citizen of Bolivia who was lacking any sort of authority in such matters had merely expressed his desire for a 50-year term for Morales.