Wikipedia:Peer review/Venezuela/archive1

Venezuela‎

Looking forward to comments regarding prose, organization, flow, length, comprehensiveness, neutrality, etc. Saravask 02:55, 12 March 2007 (UTC) Self-nomination. No peer review.Saravask 02:16, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

• Strongly Opposed. Until major POV issues in the Politics section are resolved:

1) How do you explain that "A New Era (UNT) together with its allied parties Project Venezuela, Justice First, and others." are "center-right"? where are the reliable references to their ideologies? How do you explain, for example, that they are allies with Movement for Socialism (Venezuela), Red Flag Party and Radical_Cause?

2) Is the word "watchdog" the best way to describe Súmate?.

3)"Historically, Venezuelan politics was dominated by the center-right Christian democratic COPEI and the center-left Social democratic Democratic Action (AD) parties". Do you mean after the fall of Marcos Pérez Jiménez? or for ever and ever?

4)"Because voting is not compulsory". Voting is compulsory in Venezuela, although no punishment is enforced and, by the way, in this regard I'm still wating for an answer to my arguments at the Talk:compulsory voting

5) "As is common elsewhere in Latin America, the National Assembly has twice voted to grant Chávez the ability rule by decree in several broadly defined areas, once in 2000 and again in 2007". Now this is just grotesque! "common elsewhere in Latin America"? where is this coming from? facts? references? or is this article trying to justify a president ruling under an enabling act? (by the way, enabling act is another article clearly aimed at trying to justify the enabling act of the current President, since it does not explain that Lusinchi's act was under an economic crisis and restricted to economic issues, Ramón José Velásquez was to rule for a brief period of one year after the destitution of Carlos Andrés Pérez and Pérez's occurred after the Caracazo, hence those enabling acts have nothing to do with the current act which was dictated under no extraordinary circumstances) (Caracas1830 00:34, 12 March 2007 (UTC))

• Erm, how did you find your way here? I'm afraid you're jumping the gun a bit. This FAC is not even open yet (and was not meant to open for another week or so); the page was completely orphaned according to "What links here". At any rate, feel free to comment further, as the article still requires major overhauling. Saravask 02:55, 12 March 2007 (UTC)
• See changes. Saravask 04:04, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

From SandyGeorgia - unbalanced whitewash

This article looks to be heading for another POV tag; too limited input from too few editors, and that's not likely to change. Items that will need to be addressed include those mentioned by Caracas1830, and:

• ... national politics in 1958. Since that year, Venezuela has generally enjoyed an unbroken tradition of stable liberal democracy. (That may be a semi-true statement in a technical sense, but it does a gross injustice to factual reality of the Venezuelan political situation. Cite please?)
  • A CIA citation was added to support the wording "Since that year, Venezuela has generally enjoyed an unbroken tradition of stable liberal democracy." I don't find that wording from the CIA. What I do find is a more realistic summary, lacking from this article:
    • Democratically elected governments have held sway since 1959. Hugo CHAVEZ, president since 1999, has promoted a controversial policy of "democratic socialism," which purports to alleviate social ills while at the same time attacking globalization and undermining regional stability. Current concerns include: a weakening of democratic institutions, political polarization, a politicized military, drug-related violence along the Colombian border, increasing internal drug consumption, overdependence on the petroleum industry with its price fluctuations, and irresponsible mining operations that are endangering the rain forest and indigenous peoples.
• This sentence needs fixing: According to another theory, the fact that, in Spanish, the suffix -zuela usually resulted in a diminutive term (e.g., mujerzuela, cazuela); thus, the term's original sense would have been that of a "little Venice".[2]
• The lead is not a compelling or adequate summary of Venezuela. The lead also contains a strange selection of items to mention; Guayana dispute is mentioned, but nothing of political upheaval of the last ten years?
• Christopher Columbus, upon seeing its eastern coast in 1498, referred to Venezuela as "Tierra de Gracia" ("Land of Grace"), which has become the country’s nickname. (Never heard Venezuela called that in my life. Also, that is mentioned in the lead, with no reference, yet never discussed in the text—the lead should be a summary of the text.)
• Murder of Tamanaco is mentioned *before* colonization; seems out of order. "Put to death" is a nice euphemism.
• Biased sources, similar to what we saw on Chavez? Please attempt to aim for more neutral sources (Health and Neoliberalism: Venezuela and Cuba).
• Collapse in oil prices resulted in coup attempts? That's a simplification and a whitewash, not surprisingly from a leftist source.
• This statement is opinion, biased, one-sided, and has no citation. (Venezuela continues to enact a program of wide-ranging socialist reforms while placing more emphasis on the nation's future as a part of a more integrated Latin America.) You could alternately say that Chavez continues to consolidate power, undermine democracy, and so on ... one-sided reporting.
• Complete failure to mention significant historical and political events resulting in complete upheaval in Venezuela; article dives straight into current politics and government as if nothing ever happened. Unbalanced, biased by omission. No indications whatsoever of the consolidation of power, president for life, or how Chavez achieved that. Whitewash of history.
• The president can ask the legislature to reconsider portions of laws he finds objectionable, but a simple parliamentary majority can override these objections. Yes, but, don't you think we should tell the whole story? I notice that these items are completely uncited, and summary (daughter) articles are also uncited. This verison of Venezuelan politics is according to whom? Several sections here need an uncited tag.
• Main article Government of Venezuela is a redirect; what became of Government of Venezuela, which should certainly be distinct from Politics of Venezuela.
• Political parties, politics does not adequately cover the divisions or unions that exist and the controversies. Whitewash.
• NGO organization is redundant.
• Saying that voting is not compulsory only tells part of the story and is misleading; the full story should be told, include how voter rolls are kept.
• Foreign relations, again, POV by omission—no mention whatsoever of Chavez pursuit of relations with enemies of Israel and the USA, or how radically he has changed Venezuela's foreign relations. No mention of Iran, first visit to Iraq, Libya, Russia, etc? Oh, so much left out; too much to mention.
• Armed forces, no mention of activity or plans in Bolivia? Glossing over of militarization of society?
• For a country article, this is dramatically undersized, at 24KB of readable prose, and the daughter articles do not make up for what is missing in comprehensiveness. See Turkey, Germany, or Canada for example—each have 40KB or more of readable prose. Only a very favorable (to Chavez) story has been told; pls fill in the rest of the blanks. There is plenty of room to tell the whole story.
• Subdivisions leaves out entirely consolidation of power.
• Please tell me, where is the mention of crime (highest murder rate of any world capital), where is corruption, and where is human rights? Where is the mention of Chavez's role in all of these societal declines? Where is the economic turmoil and decline? None of this is mentioned, a complete whitewash. How about Chavez' destruction of the oil economy? How about the decline in medical care? (Oh, we believe that Cuban care is superior to what Venezuela had before Cuban "doctors" were brought in?) How about the decline in education, plans for indoctrination, and universities with no standards? Scanty mention of education and health care, and certainly no mention of indoctrination in the schools. No mention of Bolivarian circles? A very scanty picture of a very ugly situation.
• The article is very scantily cited.
• Sorry, the article is unbalanced and has a very very long way to go towards being comprehensive.

And now, stand by for the usual rejoinders from the usual parties ... SandyGeorgia (Talk) 03:26, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Enano275

Lead:

• In the opening sentence "coast" should be replaced with a more comprehensive word, "region" or "area" maybe. Considering that Venezuela spans from the jungle to the coast, going through the llanos, coast may confuse readers into thinking Venezuela is geographically just about beaches.
• As noted already, 'referred to Venezuela as "Tierra de Gracia" ("Land of Grace"), which has become the country’s nickname', needs a citation.
• You should probably insert some history in the lead, talk briefly about the move from a colony to a nation, and also that Venezuela is officially under a participative democracy.
• Overall the lead does not summarize the article.

History:

• Mention the year in which Colón arrived to Venezuela.
• Contradiction: you first say that caudillos dominated the first half of the 20th century, you later say that their demise occurred in 1935, so which one is it?
• I think you should mention Pérez Jiménez.
• This section needs more comprehensiveness. What exactly happened between Colón's arrival and the independence movement? How come we ended in dictatorship less than a century after independence? What was the mestizaje? What about the oil nationalization?

Government:

• This section should be expanded overall.
• Mention governors and mayors.
• Introduce major constitutions, and other government milestones.

I will complete the rest of the peer review tomorrow.--enano ^(Talk) 04:09, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Continuing...

Government

• Add public powers and how these changed with the 1999 constitution.
• Talk about all the ministries.
• How are governors and mayors elected?

Politics:

• You think the last paragraph summarizes well the current status of the politics in Venezuela? Needs expanding.

Foreign relations:

• Separate military from here. They are not the same, and specially in Venezuela, the military has a lot to do with the domestic policy as well.

Subdivisions:

• The regions have changed a lot throughout the history of Venezuela. When was the current layout decreed?
• Explain how the capital of Venezuela is composed. (By the Libertador municipality of the Capital District and by the Sucre, El Hatillo, Baruta and Chacao Municipalities of Miranda).
• I don't see the Capital District categorized in any of the lists. You could put it with the Federal Dependencies and replace "Dependencies" with "Other administrative divisions." Maybe add The Esequibo there as well. Your choice.

Geography:

• No beaches?

Flora and fauna:

• According the the Guinness World Records the biggest spider was found in Venezuela. I think this would be interesting to readers.

Economy:

• This section is very weak overall.
• "The country's main petroleum deposits are located around and beneath Lake Maracaibo and the Gulf of Venezuela." True, but it's worth mentioning that there also deposits in Barinas, Apure, the Orinoco, Anzóategui, Monagas and half of Guárico.
• The 2nd paragraph has several interesting facts—all worthless if there are not citations.
• What's the minimum salary?
• Talk about the control de cambio and the parallel market of currency, and how events like the government acquisition of CANTV and the Electricity of Caracas have affected the black market and other aspects of the economy.
• The government has announced the biggest economic reform in decades: they want to eliminate three zeros to the currency. This should be mentioned.

Demographics:

• "Diseases ranging from typhoid, yellow fever, cholera, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis D are present in the country." Dengue fever should be added to this list.
• No more recent HIV data?

Culture:

• As I mentioned in the to-do list several month ago, there are too many names in this section.
• Sports should be in a separate section.
• Add media here.
• Cinema?

Misc:

• Take a look at es:Venezuela. I haven't read it carefully but a quick glance tells me that it's much more detailed than the English version. Specially the history section is very weak in the English article. The economy section is also mediocre in comparison toe Spanish article.
• Sections completely missing: Education, Infrastructure (transportation, urban development)
• POV issues:
  • "Venezuela continues to enact a program of wide-ranging socialist reforms while placing more emphasis on the nation's future as a part of a more integrated Latin America." What's this supposed to mean? If you are going to mention social programs, you may as well talk about the international community accusations toward human rights violations in Venezuela.
  • Mention the intentions of the present administration to reform the municipal organization.
  • The current layout of parties (MVR vs UNT) is too subjective to be worth mentioning.
  • The control de cambio should be mentioned, and how the Venezuelan Bolívar has been fixed to the US$ since 2003.
  • Explain how this 4-year-old government control of the currency has affected international investment.
  • No recent inflation?
  • "Venezuela is also highly dependent on its agricultural sector." Highly dependent is what really bugs me in this sentence. It's true that you later mention that coffee and cacao production has decreased, but I think it would be more accurate to mention that agriculture has decreased as farmers move to urban Venezuela, making the economy more dependent on oil, and less dependent in agriculture. Explain how this affects poverty.

It still needs a lot work.--enano ^(Talk) 16:42, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

• Adding to Enano's Culture list, it's hard to avoid mention of Miss Venezuela when discussing culture—comparative number of Universe/World crowns relative to other countries. Also, couldn't help but mention the failure to include Alma llanera with national symbols, and no mention of typical holidays and regional celebrations. No mention of world waterskiing championships or other Olympic champs warranted in Sports? And no mention anywhere of the Tupuy discovery a few years back? Is world-class fishing worth mention? Isn't the Guri dam still one of the largest in the world? No mention of Angels Falls and its place in the record books, or the teleferico (is it still the longest)? The article is massively lacking in comprehensiveness, in addition to POV, and needs a lot more Venezuelan input. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 16:50, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

Angel Falls is mentioned in Geography, but I agree 100% with the rest.--enano ^(Talk) 19:56, 19 March 2007 (UTC)