Venezuela

First published: 19 May 2006

On 19 May The Times ran an article by Aleksander Boyd attacking the Mayor of London’s invitation to president Chávez of Venezuela to visit City Hall in London: ‘Guess who’s coming to dinner with Red Ken?’ This was part of The Times’ campaign against Chávez visting. Boyd writes on the website www.vcrisis.com. Readers may therefore be very interested to know the views of Boyd as these will aid them in judging the content of The Times’ campaign and who they chose to write on the issue.

In his editor’s note on his website, Boyd stated: ‘Yesterday I had a conversation with someone about Venezuela and its problems. Given the peculiar characteristics of our crisis, my interlocutor asked “what’s the solution then?” And I replied: “when elected politicians treat one as an animal, how on earth can be expected that one behaves like a gentleman? The solution in my view is clear and simple: violence.’