Forget Castro: meet the new king of Latin America

[cal04]

Hugo Chávez is using Venezuela's oil riches to influence his friends and irritate the neighbours

IT SHOULD be no surprise that Hugo Chávez prefers to dine with Ken Livingstone rather than Tony Blair on his trip to London: the Venezuelan President plays a similar role in global politics to that once played by his host in Britain. Mr Livingstone has revelled in tweaking the tail of powerful prime ministers in their own backyard while spending vast sums of money to promote his own agenda. Señor Chávez has similarly set himself up as irritant-in-chief to George Bush.

Both have an unfortunate predilection for comparing their enemies to Nazis. If the London Mayor accuses a reporter of behaving like an SS Death Camp guard, Señor Chávez says “Hitler would be like a suckling baby next to George W. Bush” while branding Mr Blair the “main ally of Hitler”. In the meantime he has praised Robert Mugabe as a “freedom-fighter”, hails Fidel Castro as his mentor and defends Saddam Hussein. He is seeking to build military alliances with Iran and North Korea — founding members of Mr Bush’s “axis of evil”.

But the Venezuelan leader can no longer be easily dismissed as Latin America’s equivalent to the “loony Left”. Señor Chávez’s use of his country’s enormous oil wealth has made him a growing threat to the traditional US hegemony in Latin America. He talks of fulfilling the South American revolutionary dream of Simón Bolivar by creating a united power bloc, a genuine counter-point to what he terms Mr Bush’s imperialism.

(snip)
Dr Rice has admitted that the US may have been “shooting itself in the foot” by alienating potential allies such as President Lula of Brazil and President Bachelet in Chile. They are not aggressive anti-American populists like Señor Chávez, but the US has not always bothered to notice the difference. Mr Shifter said: “The US is guilty of neglect — we have just blown it. The US has not looked after its allies. It is perceived as being only worried about Afghanistan and Iraq.” This month, Señor Chávez made Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people. It said that his growing power in Latin America and beyond is “what happens when the US disses an entire continent”.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2174786,00.html

[genieroze]

1. We hate them for their freedoms?

Sorry I couldn't resist.

[peacetalksforall]

2. This is an amazing admission. I am shocked.

"Dr Rice has admitted that the US may have been “shooting itself in the foot” by alienating potential allies such as President Lula of Brazil and President Bachelet in Chile. "

This means they have a conscience. This means they (or she) are only pompous, arrogant only 99.9% of the time.

[leveymg]

3. Only the stupid Rightist Brits still have a king. Latin America has

Bolivar, and his inheritors. Very anti-King, just ask Ferdinand VII and Napolean's Brother: http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761569365_3/Simon_Bolivar.html

In 1808 Napoleon ousted and imprisoned King Ferdinand VII of Spain. Colonial leaders in Caracas formed a junta—a governing council—to rule Venezuela in the name of the deposed king. However, for all practical purposes, the junta functioned as an independent government. Its members refused to recognize the authority of Napoleon’s colonial administrators or of a regent council that royalists in Spain created to govern Ferdinand’s empire.

The junta granted Bolívar the rank of lieutenant colonel in the militia and sent him to Britain in an unsuccessful attempt to win British support for the junta. In Britain, Bolívar met with Francisco de Miranda, a Venezuelan who was the most widely known advocate of independence for Spain’s American colonies. Bolívar invited Miranda back to Venezuela. They arrived at the end of 1810. Miranda quickly became the leading figure of the independence movement.

On July 5, 1811, Venezuela became the first of Spain’s American colonies to declare its independence. Despite calls from Miranda and Bolívar for the creation of a strong central government, the Republic’s new constitution adopted a federalist approach, granting considerable autonomy to local governments within the nation. It also divided executive authority among three men. Venezuela's First Republic lasted only one year. In March 1812 royalists—Venezuelan supporters of King Ferdinand—began a revolt in the west. The junta gave Bolívar command of the strategic coastal town of Puerto Cabello, which he lost in early July. Revolutionary forces surrendered to the royalists later in the month.

[pretzel4gore]

4. It's 'President Chavez' you greasy ass whores (time magazine)

monkey sukking time mag says 'Senor' Chavez as if they're using some kinda nazipooh code....and what the hell do these punks have to say about anything anyway? 100 years of exploitation and promoting vicious fascist regimes thoughout South America never disturbed their shit-for-brains before, but President Chavez's moves to use his nation's wealth for the people (and not for grunting pigs in the US) causes them to fill their tubas and pontificate earnestly and expect people to take them seriously!
btw "dr' rice as in doctor 'quack quack?

[Peace Patriot]

5. Hear, hear! Times/UK treatment of Chavez is a hoot. Faux News on the

other side of the pond. Good for a laugh. They must have quite a lot of money in South American gas and oil.

But the peaceful, democratic, leftist revolution that is sweeping Latin America is deep and unstoppable. Ask Michele Batchelet, first woman president of Chile and a socialist, who was tortured by US-backed dictator Pinochet and lost family members to that terrible regime. Ask Argentina, whom Venezuela just bailed out of IMF/World Bank debt. Ask Evo Morales, the first indigenous Indian president of Bolivia. Ten thousand Andes Indians came down out of the mountains to invest him in office, in a special religious ceremony prior to his official inauguration. He campaigned with a wreath of coca leaves around his neck--sacred plant of the Andes. Ask Venezuelan peasants who now have schools, medical clinics and small business loans. Ask Venezuela farmers who now have a policy of "feed Venezuela first" rather than "get dumped on by giant US ag." Ask Brazilian workers who now have a former steel worker as president of the country--the government that led the third world revolt at the WTO meeting in Cancun a couple of years ago.

All based on TRANSPARENT elections. US voters, take note!

Try as they might to demonize Huge Chavez--repeatedly elected with large votes in highly monitored elections--and to create a "straw man" whom they can light on fire, and try as they might to "divide and conquer," it's not going to work this time.

The people of Latin America have awakened. They have recovered from all the combined evil that the US and Europe could inflict on them. They are not angry, on the whole--a rather amazing fact, considering what they have suffered. But they ARE determined upon democracy and self-sufficiency, and upon regional cooperation and their own foreign and trade policies. And they have only to look at John "death squad" Negroponte in charge of US 'black ops' to know what Condi Rice is up to. They've had their fill of that.

As Evo Morales has said, "The time of the people has come."

[pretzel4gore]

6. the South Americans must have their own news(?)

maybe because the rightwing, pro fascist news has been a fixture in SA, for so long, maybe no one pays it any att'n anymore except the fatso gopig types(?)...at any rate, it seems that the NA media (including the publicly funded CBC here in canada!) are swiftboating President Chavez (the CBC running a series of 'news' reports saying Venezuela's oil indusstry, once so 'efficient' is now falling apart, because of 'politics' etc)
Even here at DU there are people who criticise Chavez because he's not nice and friendly, and breathes our air etc....the gopigs always win, by default, it seems, cuz "the best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity" -WB Yeats