Chavez; the Left’s darling
Aside from the fact that Jimmy Carter certified his recall election in 2003, the Left has been in love with Hugo Chavez, former brother paratrooper and current Venezuelan President. On every discussion forum where I’ve participated in the last six years, The resident Leftists have gone out of their way to defend this populist-cum-Leftist-cum-communist applauding the way he “bravely” stands up to the US (when was the last time the US attempted to assasinate a foreign leader who wasn’t a threat to our national security?), the way he “bravely” seizes foreign assets and nationalizes them (like his mentor Fidel Castro did in Cuba-bankrupting a previously profitable economy).
Hugo (pronounced oo-go in Spanish) has offered oil to the US poor through his now-nationalized oil company (Citgo) while his own people live in abject poverty – hundreds of thousands in lean-to huts on the edge of high-rise projects in urban areas.
Well, now Hugo has threatened to shut down non-state media outlets in Venezuela and yesterday, on the eve of his election, shutdown US-based Telemundo’s election coverage. Doesn’t sound very liberal (in classical sense of the word) does it? Telemundo, though based in the US is far from US friendly (I watch their nightly news at least three time every week just to keep my language skills current), in fact I’d call them pro-Chavez given the coverage I’ve seen there.
So what’s Chavez worried about. Nothing, really. He’s just demonstrating that he has a firm grasp of the people’s throats in Venezuela. He’s using the US as his boogeyman to scare people into believing that he’s the only thing that stands between them and US occupation – in the Noriega mold.
The real danger in Chavez’ personnae is that he’s funding loyal Leftists and communists in neighboring countries with his oil profits. So the supposed “populist”, is funneling money that could go to help his own people into a buffer zone of South and Central American fiefdoms withholden to Chavez. In our own backyard.
 This threatens the security of the entire region. We are still dependent on the Panama canal to move our goods to market and keep our Navy supplied to some extent. They just voted to widen the Canal this last year which will increase our traffic there. We still depend on Latin American oil (the chance that we’ll develop our own resources in the next five years is pretty grim given the current make-up of Congress).
And now he’s claimed victory in yesterday’s election – and in typical style has claimed it was a blow to President Bush, a point reiterated unsurprisingly by Iran. I wonder if he’s planning to get the chair at the DNC next year.
Category: Foreign Policy, Hugo Chavez, Jimmy Carter, Politics
