Dear Owen,
I hear you have finally broken your silence on Venezuela. With that in mind, here are a few questions which you have not answered:
1) In 2008, Human Rights Watch was expelled from the country by force. Why didn’t you feel the need to mention this in any article you wrote?
2) Who paid for that ‘Election Observer’ trip you went on in 2012?
3) Did it ever cross your mind from 2012 onwards that Hugo Chavez referring to Kim Jong-il as a ‘comrade’ he mourned might be a warning sign?
4) Did Chavez’s hero-worship of Fidel Castro and claims that he wanted to turn Venezuela into ‘Venecuba’ ever cause you concerns?
5) Did Chavez’s suppression of independent trade unions, social democratic parties and NGOs ever prick your conscience as a leftist?
6) Did Chavez’s hours-long rambling speeches, which TV stations were forced to broadcast, ever strike you as disturbing or suggest he was mad?
7) Did the fleeing of tens of thousands of Venezuelan citizens to neighbouring countries strike you as odd or unsettling at all?
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