Say what you want about The Guardian, but one of their bright spots has been Rory Carroll’s excellent reporting from Venezuela– which must put Hugo Chavez fanboy Seumas Milne’s teeth on edge.
Carroll was based in Caracas for The Guardian from 2006 to March this year, and he returned to cover the run-up to the presidential election on Sunday which will pit Chavez against Henrique Carpiles.
At Caracas Chronicles, Francisco Toro writes that Carroll’s latest piece is “a strong contender for the title of The One Article You Need to Email To Your Gringo Friends To Explain What’s Going On Here This Week™.”
Carroll acknowledges that Chavez “won free (if not always fair) elections, survived a US-backed coup, accepted electoral defeat (a 2007 referendum), spent oil revenues on health clinics, literacy courses and social programmes, slashed poverty, devolved power to communal councils, stood up to George Bush over Iraq, encouraged regional pride and assertiveness across Latin America and did it all with charisma and flair.”
But…
