http://news.yahoo.com/hugo-chavez-fiery-venezuelan-leader-dies-58-220210262.html
Edit: Should have included a spoiler alert.
Cancer is uncool. What else is there to say about it otherthan I think it is amazing how clueless people can be to actually believe that Chavez loved the poor and downtrodden.
I say rest in peace really only because he was a major pain in the neck for Washington. Other than that though he was another House of Cards politician.
Chavez was an old school political thug and an embaressing joke and constant nuisance for the more respectable latin american republics like Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Uruguay and Brazil, which have been making progress in escaping from anachronic ideologies that still linger in the region, best represented in the persona of Hugo Chavez.
Oh yeah, Chavez's family has about $2bill banked. So he obviously cared for the poor but managed to keep a little fee for stealing money from other folks.
This is an interesting article coming off of LewRockwell.com and from a conservative:
http://lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis331.html
Bogart: Oh yeah, Chavez's family has about $2bill banked. So he obviously cared for the poor but managed to keep a little fee for stealing money from other folks.
I know, damning evidence against him. What a bastard, liar, thief.
SM - a very curious article indeed. Praise for cutting the poverty rate in half over 10 years? Wow.
This thread is leaving me a little confused due to the seemingly sarcastic nature hanging in the air.
I don't value Margolis' commentary. It is seldom in depth.
I'm not actually familiar with the guy - I was just a little confused when I saw this on LR.com. I guess it has to do with the fact that Chavez is the new idol of the "youth sub-culture" looking to rebel against our "capitalist society" or whatever. It's become hip to view Chavez and guys like him as cool guys, and I'm sure conservatives want to play up to that.
Chavez represented the "new breed" of Latin American populists. While he blasted the US as the Great Satan at every turn, he kept on selling large quantities of crude oil to them. It was a symbiotic relationship with Uncle Sam: both sides blasted the other as the new Hitler and both sides kept on dealing with the other as nothing happened. For the US this meant cheap oil (shipping from Venezuela doesn't carry the costs and risks of shipping from Saudi Arabia) and for Chavez meant tons of dollars for his grandiose public works programs and his henchmen (who syphoned off something between 40 and 200 billions in oil money to off shore banking centers).
In short he was no better and no worse than many other "friends of democracy" except in his rhetorics. Had he abstained from verbally blasting the US at every turn his death would have been met with the same level of mourning as King Hussein's, the despicable Jordanian despot (remember him?).
The problem Venezuela faces now is without his charisma, the old tradition of coups and rebellions could become very real once again. Chavez himself survived a coup in 2002, mostly thanks to his popularity. His heir apparent, Vice President Maduro. has about as much charisma as a dirty sock. Since 2009 Venezuela has been locked in a "Cold War" with Colombia over the FARC issue: it's now more or less accepted Chavez armed and financed FARC insurgents and offered them sanctuary. US drones (ostensibly painted in Colombian colors but controlled by Creech AFB) have tracked FARC rebels deep inside Venezuela.
It's well possible Maduro will cut support to the FARC in a goodwill gesture towards Colombia and the US. It would be a smart move, considering FARC have committed the same errors as Sendero Luminoso and enjoy very little (if any) popular support. Also Venezuela, despite the Trotzkyte dialectics, has none of the US expertise in arranging "regime change".
Chavez may well have been the last of the "new breed" of Latin American populists, a bridge between old fashioned populists like Fidel Castro and the new, hard to catalog leaders like Evo Morales. One thing is for certain: as proven by countries such as Chile and Peru, populism is thankfully dying out in Latin America.
For that he sung them some nice songs:
Don't think he was that special for Latin America.