Hugo Chavez Era Coming To An End?
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Manuel Rosales, who is running against Hugo Chavez, is gaining ground in the Venezuela elections. Hugo is leading in the polls, but we all know that could mean nothing. Just remember that exit polls showed Kerry would win over Bush. Again, on Saturday there was another massive gathering of hundreds of thousands Rosales supporters in Caracas.
This is interesting because Rosales is running on the idea of backing away from Cuba and Bush-Hate. While Chavez hates Bush and shares a "Best Friends Forever" necklace charm with Fidel Castro.
Any comments on the thought of Chavez's Venezuela coming to an end? I think it would be a good thing. I think Bush sucks, but I also think Chavez sucks too.
This is interesting because Rosales is running on the idea of backing away from Cuba and Bush-Hate. While Chavez hates Bush and shares a "Best Friends Forever" necklace charm with Fidel Castro.
Any comments on the thought of Chavez's Venezuela coming to an end? I think it would be a good thing. I think Bush sucks, but I also think Chavez sucks too.
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Good point about his Harlem photo-op. His country back home has the highest per-capita murder rate in the world. With almost all murders going uninvestigated and unsolved.
funny how most in latin america would say the total opposite.
lmao, i hope that was sarcastic
Most in South America? Please provide some evidence.
Hugo Chavez: Charming provocateur
Thursday, 20 October 2005
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez talking to BBC's Robin Lustig
I'd been warned in advance: President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela likes giving very long answers when he faces interviewers.
One colleague helpfully told me that he'd been present on one occasion when the president had spent a full hour on one answer.
So please, Mr President, I said as we sat down in his hotel suite, could you try to keep your answers as short as possible? He was a lamb: every answer concise, lucid and to the point.
To the poor of Venezuela, who make up the vast majority of the population, President Chavez is a hero.
He first won election in 1998 and has since spent countless millions of dollars on developing social welfare programmes to bring clinics and schools to where before there were none.
But to his political opponents, and to the Bush administration in Washington, he is a dangerous demagogue, who allies himself with such American hate-regimes as those of Cuba and Iran.
Put him in front of the BBC television cameras, however, and he is charm personified.
Of course, he says, he would love to be on better terms with the US - and he pays glowing tribute to the people of that country - but with George Bush in the White House, there's no chance of that.
He refuses to be drawn into criticising the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, even though he has just paid warm tribute to President Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who compared Bush and Blair to Hitler and Mussolini, forming an alliance to invade innocent countries.
Hugo Chavez smiles a lot - or at least he does when he's talking to this interviewer.
He's keen to explain the principles underlying his "Bolivarian revolution", named after the great Latin American hero of the 19th century, Simon Bolivar.
And he insists that no-one - no, not even George Bush - has any reason to fear him.
His enemies are imperialism and capitalism. But how, I ask, can he ignore the tide of globalisation? I am a socialist, he says, and I follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, who was the first socialist, just as Judas was the first capitalist.
Perhaps because we're recording the interview in Paris, while he's on an official visit to France, President Chavez often quotes the 19th century French writer Victor Hugo and his hugely influential novel about poverty and oppression Les Miserables (now a musical of the same name).
So if I were a wealthy Venezuelan capitalist, should I fear Hugo Chavez?
Of course not, he says. No one has anything to fear. He fights against poverty and injustice. The rich can look after themselves.
And now, if we'll excuse him, he must go to pay his respects to President Chirac.
As far as Hugo taking care of the poor, Rosales is just as much into redistribution of wealth as much as Hugo is. He just thinks that it can be done without giving the United States a middle finger and giving kisses to Fidel. Also, Hugo has admited that he doesnt hire anyone who opposes him in his government run oil company. So, sure, Hugo gives hand-outs and jobs to the poor, but only the poor that vote for him. Thats part of the reason why the mass protests are happening.
When your country has the #1 per capita murder rate in the entire world, charming a BBC reporter and meeting Chirac dont mean jack.
That comment is ridiculous. Do you think that Tahitians believe that America is the greatest country in the world? Do you believe that Indians believe America is the greatest country in the world? Answer = No.
Personally, I believe that America has some things which I would call 'great', although these are largely to do with the natural landscape of America. I also think America has produced 'some' of the greatest writers, and musicians in the world.
Do I think America is the greatest country in the world? No. I don't believe any country in the world is worthy of that label.
You mean Rosales is just as much into redistribution of wealth for the rich? Yep.
www.amnesty.org.uk
Hi Byrnzie, I'm actually very much from South America: born in Chile, raised in Venezuela, currently living in Argentina and yes, most of us can't wait to see the day Chavez is out of office. ¿Data? well a national poll conducted in Chile a couple of weeks ago shows that only 8% of the population thinks Chavez is a great leader, the rest of chileans think he is a clown, an embarrasment for Venezuela and Latin America and very un-democratic.
I really wish all of his "first world supporters" could read our newspapers to really get what he's all about, 'cause in the international media you only read the flamboyant speeches he makes and all his messianic promises, but the everyday actions which are the one that actually do make a goverment do not appear in the news. The systematic violations of venezuelans civil rights, the persecution of the opposition, how Chavez government continually tries to buy wills and votes...
I went to Venezuela last July and let me tell you what I saw was a very sad picture: infrastructure falling apart, slum dwells everywhere. Much worse than it was in 1997, which was my last visit until this year. Caracas is literally covered with gigantic pictures of Chavez and friends but God forbid the man builds a decent bridge or puts decent pavement on the streets. Socioeconomic data such as Gini Coefficient, Income Concentration, Poverty and Extreme Poverty Rates show a negative trend Chavez took office. I provide the link for Latin America's Satistical Yearkbook, carried out by the Economic Comission for Latin America and the Caribeean which is a UN agency.
http://www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/xml/1/26531/LCG2311B_1.pdf
Poor people's situation have not improved, they are even worse than they were before Chavez. Do I understand why people voted for him the first time? Of course I do, Do I understand that Venezuela needed a huge shift in politics, Of course I do. Was Chavez the answer? Definitely not!!! I really wish people stopped seeing him as the patron saint of the poor, 'cause he is just another egomaniac who can't get enough of himself, and we've had one too many of those savior wannabees in Latin America.
And really I have to resume my job, but I see no difference between him and Dubya...Chavez, like Bush, continually interferes with the political situation of other Latin American sovereign countries: funding political candidates of his flavor, funding and providing shelter for Colombian guerillas (FARC), dissolving cooperation treaties with Andean Countries, the list is endless. His motto is the same as Bush: you are either with us or against us...
Byrnzie, I don't expect you -or anybody already convinced about the "greatness" of Chavez- to believe me, but I really had to get this out of chest, 'cause here in Latin America we are tired of reading and seeing how the rest of the world thinks they do know what is better for us...
And trust me, if anything good has happened in the last 50 years in our region it is so not Chavez. The return to democracy in the late 80's was a great achievement; president Lagos and Bachelet from Chile are brilliant, former President Cardoso from Brasil was great, Lula's first election was another great accomplishment, MERCOSUR creation is a milestone for our region, but Chavez?? No way! Just one more stain in our very stained history.
And by the way, what do you know about Rosales? Did you know he is the only governor in Venezuela that was not appointed by Chavez, that he was actually elected by the people of the Zulia state? Have you taken the time to read his government program? Do you know that he wants to reform the Constitution so all the people from Venezuela receives every year a share of the oil-revenues the state gets? Just so everybody knows, Im' not a fan of Rosales, but he definitely seems to have more respect for Venezuela's Constitution and seems at least have a grasp of what the word Republic means
Peace from Argentina!
Caterina
I hope you're not serious about the Sandinista bit. Get your history right. The Sandinistas overthrew a dictator, Somoza, with MASSIVE support from the population. The contras did not have popular support, they were financed by the US, and they were a group of elitists who did not like "el pueblo" being in power.
If you are hoping for a popular uprising, it already happened, and it put Chavez in power.
Hmmm, Chavez won the 1998 presidential elections. He wasn't put in power by any popular uprising, unless you're consider the huge shift of the voting habits an uprising. Then it could be, 'cause it was the first time people didn't vote for AD or COPEI.
O.k. Thanks for your post. You say that most Chileans don't like Chavez? O.k. I didn't know that.
You say that 'Poor people's situation have not improved, they are even worse than they were before Chavez.'?
I've been reading this article about Venezuela in the April 2006 edition of National Geographic - hardly a partisan publication - and read the following:
'...Ramirez [is] experiencing moral conflict. She had been brought up in the fold of a progressive Catholic Church, which has had an ongoing, and effective, educational mission in La vega for many years, and she has been involved in community work since adolescence, tutoring children from the poorest homes in the barrio who have such trouble behaving that they cannot stay in school. the words "community" and "solidarity" have been deeply meaningful to her since long before Chavez came on the scene, making his enormous presence felt in la Vega with his Bolivarian Revolution and his own solidarity programs and his big budgets and his community projects (known also as missiones), seemingly for every need: medical missiones staffed round the clock with Cuban doctors, sports missiones for the kids, supermarket missiones for all the poor, where they can buy food at cost.
As if she were still struggling with the issue, she said that she could not approve of the Chavistas radicalized view of society, in which the rich are evil, the poor are sainted, and those who disagree with the president are enemies. Nor was she sure that Hugo Chavez could be called a Democrat. For these reasons, many of her friends in La Vega were less than wild about him. "But i'm a Chavista", she said at last, and it was easy to see why. She had practiced folkloric dance and had longed for a formal education, and now here she was coordinating a missin cultura, which encouraged young people in La vega to form community folk dance and music groups. Thanks to another mission, she was working toward a college equivalency degree and receiving a monthly stipend in addition to the training. More important than that - much more important - she said, "Con Chavez tengo mi lugar - with Chavez I have a place where I belong. Before, we, the poor, were nothing. Now we are recognized."
...The President of Venezuela has many enemies - partly, at least, because he so clearly relishes the fight. In late 2002 the anti-Chavista workers and managers of Petrieos de Venezuela joined forces to stage a two month strike, crippling the Venezuelan economy. The President sought to take control of the company by firing nearly half it's workforce, but there is no way to tell whether those who got to keep their jobs are any more loyal to him now than they were before the strike. The middle classes appear to be almost unanimous in their hatred of him. Doctors have marched in the street against him, demanding better wages. An unknown number of military personnel - including several army officers i interviewed - dislike Chavez and his leftist politics intensely, if not openly (many others joined forces to lead the coup against him in 2002 and have since been discharged). For the moment, however, the aggregate numbers of his enemies don't add up to an opposition, and they have lost every battle so far....
..Oil money and heavy public spending help explain what is happening in Venezuela, of course, but in the end only Chavez can account for Chavez. The sheer force of his personality, the astonishing and overwhelming strangth of his self-satisfaction, his utter lack of inhibitions, his inflamed nationalism, his obsessive need to cast himself as a hero of the people, forever vanquishing the "demonios" that conspire against him and against the Venezuelan nation, are a hypnotic and unique combination.
Every time Hugo Chavez throws his weight around on the world scene, the admiration of poor people everywhere will likely increase. Venezuela's leader may be unpredictable and unreliable, but he is an essential lesson that lesser, or more cautious, politicians ignore at their risk: The world has many times more poor people like Ramirez, so desperate for a future, than rich people...so anxious to conserve the past'.
Well, at least that is what the latest available socioeconomic data says. Poverty and in particular Extreme Poverty have increased between 1998 (since Chavez took office) and 2004. If such trend has been reversed during 2005 and 2006 is yet to be seen, still no data released by Venezuela's official statistic institute. If you ask me the sole fact that in Venezuela there's still people living in poverty is a huge failure for Chavez, with all the money his goverment has collected from oil, there's no rational explanation for Venezuela's current poverty rates.
I really hate to quote myself ('cause I'm so far from being Alan Touraine or Joseph Stiglitz), but I'm also kind of lazy
http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=209013
I also read the NatGeo report you quote, but I believe that these people interviewed belong to the few lucky ones who are actually collecting the benefits of the Bolivarian revolution...
Thanks for your response
Peace!!!
Caterina
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I don't hate anyone.
I'm more of a hate...stylist.
Please name one politician in the world who behaves differently when attempting to remain in power. If the majority of Americans were leftist Satanists do you honestly think Georgy boy would be catering to the Christian right?
Georgy boy caters to the Christian right, because he is part of that scene. He was a "born-again" well before he entered politics.
I would hazard a guess and say that if Georgy Boy was a leftist Satan worshipper he'd still be courting the Christian right in order to get into power. Once in power he can then do as he likes, and pursue his evil machinations - like increasing violence in the world, robbing the poor for the benefit of the rich, and destroying the environment. Hey! Wait a minute...... :eek: