Let's get one thing clear, two wrongs don't make a right

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, May 29, 2003 By: Jorge Marin

Date: Thu, 29 May 2003 17:14:49 -0400 From: Jorge Marin Jorge.Marin@pollak.com To: Editor@VHeadline.com Subject: Objective Comment

Dear Editor: I enjoy most of the letters and editorials on your website, but when I read <a href=www.vheadline.com>Luis Zuleta's rumblings, well my stomach turned. If he is trying to present himself as an objective commentator he failed badly ... using the same excuses the opposition keeps using to justify the events of April 11, 2002 only highlights his bias.

Let's get one thing clear, two wrongs don't make a right.

The fact that Chavez was involved in a coup, back in 1992 is irrelevant to what happened last year. If the argument is that because he was involved in the fail coup he, somehow, is open to the same medicine or he is an illegitimate President ... well the majority of people elected him, so he has been legitimized. He also paid for his involvement in the 1992 attempted coup with prison time.

• The 1992 coup attempt was wrong, and the people involved were punished for it, the same should occur with the people that were involved in the 2002 coup.

There are no missing funds in the Chavez administration. If there were, the opposition would have dragged that out to the negotiating table, or to the Supreme Court ... just like they do whenever Chavez sneezes. The funds Luis Zuleta refers to were located ... were they used for other means than the intended use? Yes ... but, as I recall, these funds were used to cover a shortage in payroll funds ... they were not used for any personal gain, as Luis Zuleta insinuates.

Luis Zuleta also ascertains that just because Chavez allowed himself to be put in jail, it means that he didn't really meant to fight to the death. I guess he should have gotten himself killed, along with a lot of other people, just so that other people could say, "well I guess he meant it."

Luis Zuleta fails to mention that it was Chavez who called for the coupsters to surrender in order to avoid bloodshed in 1992. Chavez agreed to be escorted out of Miraflores in 2002, but he had a better than 50% chance of getting himself killed ... yet he realized that resisting would have cause not just his blood but his guards' and a lot of other people in the streets. He did the right thing, and the fact that he is back in power, proves he did the right thing.

Luis Zuleta also mentions that Chavez violated the law by wearing his uniform ... give me a break! What about the, so call, officers that were calling for rebellion in Altamira for months, I guess those officers are heroes to Luis Zuleta.

If Mr. Zuleta is so concerned with obeying the law, he should be very careful when he promotes that the best thing that could happen to Chavez is to be "taken out." Fomenting the overthrow of a foreign government or the assassination of a foreign leader is a violation of USA law.

Jorge Marin Jorge.Marin@pollak.com

Venezuelan, living abroad on 4/11/02 and respecting the laws of my home country.