Scenes from the class struggle at the NYT: Part 1: The Caracas Country Club

In today's NYT, a champion of the proletariat: Caracas Mayor Lays Claim to Golf Links to House Poor

No place in this country symbolizes the resilience of Venezuela's moneyed elite more than the Caracas Country Club, a bastion of tropical luxury from the 1920's, conceived in part for foreign oilmen and designed by American landscape architects who invoked the feeling of a vast coffee plantation.

Now read what A. M. Mora y Leon of Publius Pundit, who has actually been to the place, reported last Wednesday: CONFISCATION ON THE GREEN

But there is one important exception - it's in the municipality of Chacao, and it's called the Country Club. I was there - and it's not quite as elite as you might think. The Country Club is a private recreation club where any resident in the area can buy a membership and where even without a membership, everyone visits and socializes. It's safe there, nobody gets mugged, and it's like a privately financed neighborhood community center. It has an inexpensive restaurant, some tennis courts, and a little golf course. It's not a real big establishment, and it's no more luxurious than a nice San Diego mall in some place like Encinitas.

Venezuela News and Views knows well the mayor of Caracas, who the NYT hails as champion of the proles:

Eventually Chavez named him Mayor of Caracas for his work at stirring the shit. That 2004 election was without a contender for reasons not of this post, but Barreto then barely got 15% of the potential vote of the city if you consider the ~75% abstention. However Barreto committed the original sin of people of his nature, he thought that the election was actually meaningful, that Caracas saw in him its legitimate mayor, that he reached office for other reasons than Chavez naming him candidate. He could not have been more wrong. A few days after his election he was foolish enough to attend a concert where the crowds booed him so strongly that it created a minor commotion. That was the last time he was seen at a cultural event. Since then, as in your B series movie, Barreto has been plotting his revenge against the kings of the prom and those who cheer them. No matter what other political considerations one might think of, this personal flaw of Barreto is the main drive in his actions.

Feathers blog:

We will see what will happen with this story that to me is another red cloth trown from the chavismo to the venezuelan opinion to divert the topic to the real important one: the elections.

And the NYT bought it, whole cloth and all. Just as it accepted the charismatic-leader-helping-the-poor-offering-free-health-care-education-adult-literacy-and-job-training-initiatives-that-help-millions-of-Venezuelans^tm ad last year.

(technorati tags Caracas, Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, golf)