Well, the wee downgrade is just that from mid 2009 onwards Venezuelans who do not have a biometric passport will need a visa to enter the UK. Most Venezuelans are getting now a biometric passport, if they can (pay for) it. I have the impression there is more to come, though, and if the Venezuelan government keeps doing the things it does (giving passports to guerrillas and sending lots of normal Venezuelans abroad in search for more security) the UK and perhaps the Schengen area will demand a visa to every Venezuelan. Por ahora no.
The real downgrade is a moral one: Venezuela's government goes on praising the Mullah - revolutionary - regime of Iran. You can read that from their own words in the propaganda TV channel Venezolana de Televisión.
Venezuelans officials simply get excited by the word "revolutionary", whatever that might mean. And the Iran regime is "revolutionary" and uses the same scapegoats Chavez uses. The Venezuelan officials don't mind socialists, communists and many other people who do not think like the Mullah regime are routinely persecuted, imprisoned and tortured in Iran. They don't mind women's rights are trampled with the feet.
I want YOU to do something. Take part in an action by Amnesty International for Iran today. Here and here you can see concrete letters you can copy and send/email to the Iranian government. As a long-time Amnesty supporter I know those letters can help. You can also send the letter to your closest Venezuelan ambassador like THIS ONE so that they take a moment and think what they are celebrating about.
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