Comments about ‘Venezuelan journalist flees threat’

The article mentions she is on a tourist visa. So she is illegally working in the U.S.? Why didn't she just drop her occupation in Venezuela and choose another occupation there?

@Kami - I think you missed the point of this article. She said everyone she knew had been robbed or beaten because the country has deteriorated so badly. She's not here because she doesn't feel like she can be a journalist in Venezuela anymore, she's here because she was tired of being in a country where she was afraid to go outside wearing shorts for fear of being attacked. Changing her job is not going to stop the political unrest that's been going on for several years in Venezuela.

@Shawnm, I think there needs to be more accurate reporting about Venezuela. The LDS church has a temple there for pete's sake. Its can't be that bad everywhere in Venezuela.

I am not sure that it was a good idea to "out her" in the paper. Is she going to be deported now that you reveled that she is working here illegally?
Why don't we let her stay and send one of our "home grown" deadbeats back to Venezuela in her place.

What? How could this have happened in Chavez' utopia? It must be George W. Bush's fault.

Life in a dictatorship. Under a government like that when they tell you to jump you jump. People who don't buy into the party line as do as they are told are cast out. Odds are if she had done as she was told she would be a popular reporter with many government ties today. Instead she chose to fight the system and suffered for it.

@Kami - True, but the church completed that temple in 1999, which is the same year that Hugo Chavez took over, and relations with the US have been strained since then. In fact, I don't believe the church sends missionaries from the US to Venezuela (though I'm not 100% that's the case any more.) Besides, the church tends to have more clout with some of these nations because of the humanitarian aid it offers, but that doesn't mean these countries are "safe." In fact, the church has service only missions in many countries that are considered "unfriendly" toward the US.

I think this article is actually giving the point of view that many people in the US don't see. We sometimes forget that this type of violence and unrest aren't limited to places like Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia, but they can also be found in a few of our neighboring countries to the south.

This is a great article. What the journalist says about how things are in Venezuela, the politics (corruption, drugs, guns,etc) the anger of Chavez followers, etc it's all true.