I come to bury Chavez, not to praise him
Now, I am not going to paint Hugo as a saint or scum, because few humans, if any, are. I do believe that he deserves praise, as he proved that a state could stand up to the mega-corporate powers, and that the poor not only deserve help, but can do great things once they are treated as something else other than slaves.
Now, of course, it is easy to skim over the fact that he had power no American president did, or even should have. It is tempting to see scum carted off to jail, but we never want a president to have that power to use on us, and yes, I do not like that Obama has that power now. I did not like the fact he dipped into anti semitic remarks to beat opponents, nor the idea he flirted with president for life.
There is also the hard fact that this whole region of the world is better off for what he did. Latin America is the one continent putting up resistance to the mega corps, and when all is said and done, after the US, Europe and China have finally ground to a halt, Latin America may thrive. After all, in North America, both Ottawa and Washington are fighting to put the oil pipeline in, and we all know that they might wait patiently for 2016 even IF Obama refuses to cave.
The bottom line is, Hugo did some questionable things, but they do not outweigh the good, likewise, Hugo did good thing, but we cannot allow them to be used to allow some of the methods he used.
