Chavez Dead
Last edited Wed Mar 6, 2013, 12:07 AM - Edit history (1)
Source: Bloomberg
Headline flashed across my Bloomberg terminal.
Super-Duper Late Update:
Hugo Chavez, the self-declared socialist who transformed Venezuelan politics by channeling record oil revenue to the poor, nationalizing corporations and vilifying foes as U.S. imperialist puppets, has died. He was 58.
He died today at 4:25 p.m. at a military hospital in Caracas, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said on state television. On Dec. 10, 2012, Chavez arrived in Cuba to undergo his fourth cancer operation in 18 months the following day, two months after winning re-election in a campaign in which he told voters he was totally free of the disease. It was the last time he would be seen in public.
We received the most difficult and tragic information that we can transmit to our people, a sobbing Maduro said while flanked by Cabinet officials and Jorge Arreaza, Chavezs son-in-law. Comandante Chavez, we will assume your legacy, your project, your challenges. Wherever you are, comandante, on behalf of this people that you protected and loved we thank you.
A former paratrooper who spent two years in jail after leading a failed 1992 coup, Chavez revolutionized and polarized Venezuelan politics. Taking inspiration from ex-Cuban President Fidel Castro, he built homes and medical clinics for the poor, nationalized more than 1,000 companies or their assets and built an anti-American alliance stretching from Iran to Nicaragua. He won re-election three times in 12 years.
--SNIP--
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-05/hugo-chavez-venezuela-s-anti-u-s-socialist-leader-dies-at-58.html
OKNancy
(41,832 posts)you were first to report so I need you to post more or I will lock yours and leave the other thread open.. thanks
JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)May he rest in peace. Viva Venezuela.
Let's look back. And forward.
He is a heroic, world-historical figure. For many reasons, but most memorably because in 2002, the Venezuelan people and his government broke the pattern of nearly 180 years of bloody US interventions and nearly 60 years of CIA coup-making in Latin America, making a giant step -- along with the Argentinean debt default in the same period -- in liberating a continent from the grip of foreign imperialism, and from its homegrown oligarchs.
That's big history for you: Do the right thing.
A moment of silence.
Now watch this:
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (2002) - Chavez: Inside the Coup
One of the most important documentaries of the last 15 years. And probably the most thrilling.
Weekend Edition December 14-16, 2012
An Update on the Social Determinants of Health in Venezuela
The Achievements of Hugo Chavez
by CARLES MUNTANER, JOAN BENACH, MARIA PAEZ VICTOR
While Venezuelas president Hugo Chávez is fighting for his life in Cuba, the liberal press of both sides of the Atlantic (e.g., El Pais) has not stopped trashing his government. The significance of his victory (12 points ahead of his contender) has yet to be analysed properly, with evidence. It is remarkable that Chávez would win, sick with cancer, outgunned by the local and international media (think of Syrizas Greece election) and, rarely acknowledged, an electoral map extremely biased towards the middle and upper classes, with geographical barriers and difficult access to Ids for members of the working classes.
One of the main factors for the popularity of the Chávez Government and its landslide victory in this re-election results of October 2012, is the reduction of poverty, made possible because the government took back control of the national petroleum company PDVSA, and has used the abundant oil revenues, not for benefit of a small class of renters as previous governments had done, but to build needed infrastructure and invest in the social services that Venezuelans so sorely needed. During the last ten years, the government has increased social spending by 60.6%, a total of $772 billion (1).
SNIP
With regard to these social determinants of health indicators, Venezuela is now the country in the region with the lowest inequality level (measured by the Gini Coefficient) having reduced inequality by 54%, poverty by 44%. Poverty has been reduced from 70.8% (1996) to 21% (2010). And extreme poverty reduced from 40% (1996) to a very low level of 7.3% (2010). About 20 million people have benefited from anti-poverty programs, called Misiones (Up to now, 2.1 million elderly people have received old-age pensions that is 66% of the population while only 387,000 received pensions before the current government.
SNIP
The changes in Venezuela are not abstract. The government of President Chávez has significantly improved the living conditions of Venezuelans and engaged them in dynamic political participation to achieve it [xiv]. This new model of socialist development has had a phenomenal impact all over Latin America, including Colombia of late, and the progressive left of centre governments that are now the majority in the region see in Venezuela the catalyst that that has brought more democracy, national sovereignty and economic and social progress to the region.[xv] . No amount of neoliberal rhetoric can dispute these facts. Dozens of opinionated experts can go on forever on whether the Bolivarian Revolution is or is not socialist, whether it is revolutionary or reformist (it is likely to be both ), yet at the end of the day these substantial achievements remain. This is what infuriates its opponents the most both inside Venezuela and most notable, from neocolonialist countries. The objective and empiricist The Economist will not publicize this data, preferring to predict once again the imminent collapse of the Venezuelan economy and El Pais, in Spain, would rather have one of the architects of the Caracazo (the slaughter of 3000 people in Caracas protesting the austerity measures of 1989), the minister of finance of the former government Moises Naim, go on with his anti-Chávez obsession. But none of them can dispute that the UN Human Development Index situates Venezuela in place #61 out of 176 countries having increased 7 places in 10 years.
And that is one more reason why Chavezs Bolivarian Revolution will survive Venezuelas Socialist leader.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/12/14/the-achievements-of-hugo-chavez/print
I'm not idolizing him, trust me. This is truly one case where we might say without hesitation: "The perfect is the enemy of the good."
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)Saving it for personal use. Plan to reread it later tonight, when it's easier to concentrate.
Appreciate your timely post.
JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)Catherina
(35,568 posts)Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)Thank you.
another_liberal
(8,821 posts)He was great man in the eyes of his people. Let's hope the good he did will live on.
Little Star
(17,055 posts)fuel you provided to help Joe Kennedy provide heat for poor people here in the US.
RILib
(862 posts)Matilda
(6,384 posts)I do hope Maduro has the fortitude to stand up to the vested interests and not cave in as so many leftie Latin American leaders have done. I don't know much about him, so can only wait and see.
I think when I go home tonight, I'll dig out my copy of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised and watch it again.
R.I.P. Hugo Chavez - may the good you did live on.
Response to JackRiddler (Reply #14)
devilgrrl This message was self-deleted by its author.
Delphinus
(11,831 posts)I am sad.
May he rest in peace - say what you will, he did much for the people of his country.
Alamuti Lotus
(3,093 posts)THANK YOU for putting this together, it is a nice change from the hoard of drooling vultures I was expecting.
rdking647
(5,113 posts)Bacchus4.0
(6,837 posts)and what that means for Venezuelans.
Mutatis Mutandis
(90 posts)Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
RIP Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías
Sic semper evello mortem Tyrannis
bitchkitty
(7,349 posts)Mutatis Mutandis
(90 posts)bitchkitty
(7,349 posts)rdking647
(5,113 posts)you are free to leave. no one forces you to live in the west
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)Skittles
(153,169 posts)America Love it or Leave it - no room for improvement there, huh?
rdking647
(5,113 posts)calling for the american "empire" to fall is no a matter of love it ot leave it. its as bad as the crap the far right says
antigone382
(3,682 posts)One is called "King Leopold's Ghost." Another is called "Life and Debt." Another is called "Maquilopolis." Read any of a number of good documentaries on the murder of Salvador Allende. Then tell us that American empire--or more generally, the Industrialized "global North," as most development researchers now refer to it--does not exist, and should not fall.
This is not asking for the destruction of America or the global North itself. It is calling for justice and a future for the global South.
antigone382
(3,682 posts)And those are the "legitimate" means by which we maintain control. Ask Patrice Lumumba or Salvador Allende about the other tools in the industrialized world's Colonization-By-Another-Name box. If you can't see the ways in which the global South is systematically dominated for the economic well-being of the global North (with the U.S. being one of the biggest beneficiaries), I really don't know what to tell you.
bbinacan
(7,047 posts)Lucky Luciano
(11,257 posts)I was at work and saw the flash across my Bloomberg terminal and posted since it was a major story - I only access DU from my iPhone, so I could not post a link...Got home at 8pm...and just put my baby boy to sleep (finally)...so my update is now in
Feel free to lock if there is a next time.
Bosonic
(3,746 posts)Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has died - @AP, @NBCNews
https://twitter.com/BreakingNews/status/309060466192285696
Deep13
(39,154 posts)1983law
(213 posts)Not going to miss him.
brooklynite
(94,598 posts)Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has died, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said Tuesday. He was 58.
Chavez announced he had cancer in 2011. He spent more than two months in treatment in Cuba recently, returning to Venezuela two weeks ago. Officials have not said what type of cancer he had.
Chavez has been Venezuelas president since 1998. His countrys economy has been highly dependent on oil sales to the U.S., but he was an avowed critic of American capitalism.
On Tuesday, Venezuela accused the domestic and foreign enemies of Venezuela of attacking Chavez and expelled 2 U.S. Embassy officials who it said was seeking military support for a plot against the government.
OKNancy
(41,832 posts)NBC News @NBCNews
MORE ON CHAVEZ: Venezuelan VP Maduro asks nation for calm in wake of death; Chavez was being treated for cancer
Details
6 mins NBC News @NBCNews
BREAKING: Hugo Chavez, socialist firebrand who led Venezuela since 1999, is dead at 58, NBC confirms
thelordofhell
(4,569 posts)RILib
(862 posts)A good man.
JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)For many reasons, but most memorably because in 2002, his government broke the pattern of nearly 180 years of US interventions and nearly 60 years of CIA coup-making in Latin America, making a giant step (along with the Argentinean default in the same period) in liberating a continent from the grip of foreign imperialism.
dbackjon
(6,578 posts)Glad he is dead. He was a thug and scum.
Adenoid_Hynkel
(14,093 posts)please back up your wild assertions, or do you just regurgitate any baseless nonsense you hear in the rightwing media?
bitchkitty
(7,349 posts)Coyotl
(15,262 posts)Even monkeys fling dung, but not at corpses.
dbackjon
(6,578 posts)Shutting down oppostion newspapers? Having his goons murder and intimidate?
No, Venezuela is not a democracy. Anyone that believes that needs to open their eyes to reality.
Adenoid_Hynkel
(14,093 posts)examples, please?
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)after all the institutions of democracy were briefly discarded by the failed coup.
People were murdered by the coup. Overthrowing democracy, that's intimidation. Sorry about your confusions on these facts.
frylock
(34,825 posts)a "murderous dictator" would've held publicly televised executions shortly after the failed CIA staged coup.
reorg
(3,317 posts)to change the law. That's how it works in a democracy, you know.
EOTE
(13,409 posts)Or do you just like flinging absolute bullshit when you hate for no reason? Again, who did he murder? Are you going to make such a ridiculous, bullshit claim without a shred of evidence to back it up? Are you like Fox News in human form?
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)It's compared Chavez to Stalin, of all people, in other threads.
Disgusting.
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)You never know where Mr. Danger might be trolling
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)And Chavez was RIGHT about Dubya, so why would anybody here ever denounce him for that one?
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)And there sure was plenty of that.
Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)Evidence please?
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)A flame is a flame!
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)Coyotl
(15,262 posts)Even when he had people trying to kill him, Hugo kept his cool and reason triumphed. That's greatness.
dbackjon
(6,578 posts)frylock
(34,825 posts)and you've failed in spectacular fashion.
dbackjon
(6,578 posts)By me, and others.
The Chavistas always have one response "liar" Every source is dismissed in their alternate reality. Nothing can convince them of the evil that Saint Hugo cause, so why bother.
But a simple Google search will provide you with many examples.
frylock
(34,825 posts)just like i'm sure you cut and pasted them from your right-wing sources in past. what's holding you up?
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)chickens got nothing
And look at how little traction that got:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2464523
EOTE
(13,409 posts)And nobody here buys what you're shoveling. You've been asked dozens of times to provide examples of the bullshit you're throwing and you haven't even come close. I would say you're a shit stirrer, but I've known some good shit stirrers, you aren't fit to shine their boots.
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)This reply deserves the honor of allowing Hugo to tell the poster what his problem is, instead of above: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=416014
Hugo was no less adamant, but a bit more polite.
EOTE
(13,409 posts)Especially when dealing with thugs. I've found there have been many times when I've bit my tongue and I've ended up regretting it greatly. I have to call an ass an ass.
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)You two only have slight difference, Spanish vs. English fluency
Mutatis Mutandis
(90 posts)dbackjon
(6,578 posts)Everything to do with reality.
Mutatis Mutandis
(90 posts)serious repair
bbinacan
(7,047 posts)Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)Besides the typical right-wing slander rumors that have been floated as deliberate propaganda over the years.
"Chavez is a looney toon! I read it in a headline in the U.S. mainstream media who got it from an Iranian news source who rephrased if from a rumor coming from Florida right-wingers who floated it on right-wing websites after getting from a websit from the Venezualen opposition! It's true!"
JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)NeoConsSuck
(2,544 posts)When Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield and the rest of your NeoCon heros pass on.
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)Count down for FuksNotNews and the TeaPukers to begin their crazy vomit and spew thing.
Viva_La_Revolution
(28,791 posts)1983law
(213 posts)Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)CARACAS | Tue Mar 5, 2013 9:57pm GMT
(Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has died after a two-year battle with cancer...
/... http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/03/05/uk-venezuela-chavez-idUKBRE92405620130305
- & all over my Spanish TV news/debate programmes...
mikeysnot
(4,757 posts)to do the bidding of the multi-national corpratacracy.
Hayabusa
(2,135 posts)heard it while in my room a while ago. Guest host gleefully announced it while "Celebration" was playing. Stay classy, conservatives. Stay classy.
Warpy
(111,277 posts)Cancer is a stinker, period.
The headline is also on CNN and MSNBC so it seems an official announcement has been made.
It will be interesting to see whether he's a dead hero or a dead villain, something Venezuelans will have to decide.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)Chavez fought for a better Venezuela, with socialism and social justice--and anti-imperialism. I hope the Bolivarian revolution survives him and improves upon his legacy.
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)Coyotl
(15,262 posts)the Bolivarians' successes during recent decades. It is a new, democratic political landscape today, out of the ashes of an era of the politics of right-wing terror. The last of the corrupt, right-wing autocratic states is falling finally. In a landslide history will remember, Hugo won over the whole continent politically, not just his own elections. His voice will not go silent, not today, not tomorrow.
TBF
(32,067 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Sympathies to his family.
AAO
(3,300 posts)jzodda
(2,124 posts)I have had very mixed feelings about this man. He did some good and did some bad imo. I suppose that could be said for many. He did lower the price of gas for the Citgo stations in the Bronx. I remember that and was thankful for it as well.
So for those who did like this man and for his supporters in Venezuela- I am sorry for your loss.
agree
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)A man has died, a flawed man but one who did as much good for his people as he could. The people of Venezuela want the revolution's gains to survive, and will fight for them.
It's been sickening to watch the cyber-vultures circling here for weeks now, dreaming of this day. Those who wanted Chavez dead or out of power are no different than those who always insisted on calling Salvador Allende the "Marxist president" of Chile and who kept pushing for HIS overthrow and death.
My heart is in Venezuela now. May the people win.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts).
hack89
(39,171 posts)no one should be exempt. There is nothing special or extraordinarily about Chavez - just another South American strong man. Another one will be along shortly to take his place and life will go on.
Nihil
(13,508 posts)... was that, unlike most of the other "leaders" of SA countries over the decades,
he wasn't picked by the USA.
That fact alone explains why every Chavez thread attracts the same old right-wing
trolls every time.
R.I.P. President Chavez - you did your best and that's all any good man can do.
polly7
(20,582 posts)He fought so hard. My heart goes out to his family and all the people of Venezuela who loved him, and whose lives he changed so much.
RIP Mr. Chavez.
caseymoz
(5,763 posts)When his supporters are beginning to accuse his enemies of poisoning him, I thought, that means he' dead, right?
I'm sad.
Rhiannon12866
(205,506 posts)harun
(11,348 posts)reorg
(3,317 posts)Tommy_Carcetti
(43,182 posts)In my opinion, he was neither a messiah (as some of his supporters make him) nor a devil (as his enemies paint him).
He did some good things for his country and his people, maintained a very populist persona, and far as I know, managed to be fairly democratically elected at all times.
However, I did have some issues with him on his crackdowns on free speech and free press.
But essentially, he was a latin american Huey Long, no more and no less. I always found it laughable when his detractors placed him in the same catagory as some of the worst dictators in recent memory. That was hyperbole, to say the least.
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)It's impossible to be "universally beloved" without also essentially being useless and irrelevant.
Rider3
(919 posts)I agree with you. He was also one of the only ones who helped get heating oil to the needy in the Northeast via Joe Kennedy.
shaayecanaan
(6,068 posts)if that free press spent most of its energies trying to stage a coup against a democratically elected government?
Personally, I had no problems with Chavez revoking the TV licences of stations that had supported the coup against him. They threw their lot in with an anti-democratic, CIA-sponsored putsch and they lost.
RIP a flawed man, who nevertheless was re-elected time and time again because his people knew that he was vastly preferable to the alternative.
timdog44
(1,388 posts)He was man who thought of his people and did much good.
I grieve. I can hear the capitalists cheering already.
struggle4progress
(118,295 posts)By FABIOLA SANCHEZ and FRANK BAJAK, Associated Press | March 5, 2013 | Updated: March 5, 2013 4:24pm
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) Venezuela's vice president announced that President Hugo Chavez died on Tuesday ...
Vice President Nicolas Maduro said that Chavez died "after battling a tough illness for nearly two years."
The death apparently sets up a presidential election to replace Chavez, whose illness prevented him from taking the oath of office for the term to which he was re-elected last year ...
http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Venezuela-announces-death-of-President-Chavez-4330140.php
dbackjon
(6,578 posts)A dictator is a dictator - left or right, no difference
Pathetic that some on here praise the murderous thug.
Adenoid_Hynkel
(14,093 posts)do provide evidence, lad
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)Did you miss that lesson in Political Science 101? It was day one. Or did you just forget to take note?
pam4water
(2,916 posts)exporters.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)I am really biting my tongue with the numbskulled ignorance and hatred you display.
Puglover
(16,380 posts)It's plain to see and cringe worthy.
frylock
(34,825 posts)still waiting for you to provide examples of his murderous dictatorship. i'm certain you haven't got back because it's such an enormous task.
Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)Now.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)If Chavez was a dictator, so was FDR, then again many rightwing nutjobs from that era made exactly that claim about Roosevelt.
liberaltrucker
(9,129 posts)Adenoid_Hynkel
(14,093 posts)Who did this guy think he was anyway, going around and criticizing our Chosen by God leader George Dubya Boosh for trying to overthrow him with a coup?
JeffHead
(1,186 posts)I guess he wasn't all bad.
flamingdem
(39,313 posts)And helped many americans in the process with low cost heating oil
Que viva hugo bueana suerte maduro
flamingdem
(39,313 posts)And helped many americans in the process with low cost heating oil
Que viva hugo bueana suerte maduro
truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)Whatever his faults, he worked to make his people's lives better. Would that our leaders did the same.
unreadierLizard
(475 posts)that Venezuela gets the freedom of expression, the press, and the media back that he took.
For all the good he may have done, it doesn't take away he did it by trampling on the people's right to dissent.
Bacchus4.0
(6,837 posts)I am not real confident of his successor, Maduro. Further social upheaval is my fear, even worse than the out of control violence occuring now.
Jazzgirl
(3,744 posts)The media that complained about him pushed bullshit propaganda and also anti government rhetoric that was against the law. They were part of the oligarchs, at least the ones that got called out. Read some facts.
Edited to correct spelling
totodeinhere
(13,058 posts)Laws that regulate what is legal to say and what is not are the beginnings of a police state. He shut down media outlets. They probably where telling lies about him but the concept of free speech should allow us to tell lies as long as it's not libel. Because if we make telling lies illegal who is going to be the arbiter of truth? The Chavez government? Nobody should put that much faith in any government.
Jazzgirl
(3,744 posts)Which is against the law.
totodeinhere
(13,058 posts)for saying much less than that.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)our governments did the Occupiers?
Did the Venezuelans have to pass through Homeland Security checks on their way in and out of the country?
Did their press push the people to support a foreign war based on lies?
What does it mean to have the right to dissent taken away?
I think that Chavez will be judged by what happens in Venezuela once he is gone. If the people of Venezuela enjoy increasing democratic institutions including elections, he will be viewed as successful -- a leader who moved his country toward democracy.
If he is followed by a left-wing dictatorship, he will be hated.
If he is followed by a right-wing dictatorship, he will be remembered with love, admiration and appreciation for the short period in which the Venezuelan people saw an improvement in their society with regard to education, a movement toward democracy however imperfect and a beloved leader.
So, I think that if he was able to establish enough democratic structure, enough democratic institutions for his people to move toward real democracy, then he will have succeeded. If he did not do that, the Venezuelan people will suffer. That is my opinion. I think it is too soon to judge his legacy.
frylock
(34,825 posts)Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)In discussing Venezuela, all of those things you listed are just code for "no fair...the RICH didn't get to steal the election".
unreadierLizard
(475 posts)Because I disagreed with aspects of Chavez's rule does not mean that I am "pro-rich", whatever that means.
As I said. He did do a lot of good things, especially in his quest to help the poor. But he also did do some not so great things at the same time.
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)Chavez, unlike so many a leader in South America, did not become corrupted by power, elitism, or foreign interests. He will live on eternally in the history of South American liberation from post-colonial imperialism and corporatism as a great leader who inspired a continent-wide shift in political life from the era of murdering leftists to the age of progressive democracies independent of foreign control.
Catherina
(35,568 posts)craigmatic
(4,510 posts)Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)I have been to OWS Minneapolis protests. I have seen first hand what the PTB things of our right to dissent.
Hell Hath No Fury
(16,327 posts)Against all odds, he attempted to make a more fair, more equal Venzuela. The US did just about everything in its power to stop the socialsit revolution in Latin America, including attempting to to overthrough Chavez, a democratically elected official. This is a dangerous time for that country -- I can already feel the US/multinational greed monsters positively itching to regain their control of the Venezualean oil fields. I hope the people remain string against imperialism, and remain true to the revolution.
magic59
(429 posts)He did more for the poor in this country then any dem or repub
Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Arctic Dave
(13,812 posts)RIP
A fighter for the people.
Botany
(70,516 posts)"The devil cam here yesterday, the devil came here. And it still smells of sulphur."
PuffedMica
(1,061 posts)Did I ever tell you how much I hate Dick Cheney?
...
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)Only the rich in Caracas and Miami would benefit if the PSUV were forced out of power and replaced by "Mitt" Capriles.
A man has died...but a revolution lives...and the people of Venezuela will defend it to the last.
another_liberal
(8,821 posts)Presidente Hugo Chavez was a champion of the poor and powerless, as well as an implacable enemy to exploiters and imperialists. He will be greatly missed.
htuttle
(23,738 posts)1KansasDem
(251 posts)who would sell their right to protest, freedom of speech, and right to assemble for a few barrels of heating oil.
Comrade_McKenzie
(2,526 posts)1KansasDem
(251 posts)Comrade_McKenzie
(2,526 posts)frylock
(34,825 posts)except we didn't get that barrel of heating oil. does the OWS crackdown ring any bells for you?
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)Comrade_McKenzie
(2,526 posts)DainBramaged
(39,191 posts)remember, he privatized everything, maybe that era is over.
1KansasDem
(251 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)1KansasDem
(251 posts)"privatized everything"
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)1KansasDem
(251 posts)DainBramaged
(39,191 posts)DainBramaged
(39,191 posts)Reasonable people understood my meaning, for folks like him, I refuse to correct it since he is adamant about being a grammar nazi
Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)The emails, WikiLeaks goes on to explain, show Stratfors web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods.
The filtered emails cover a wide range of issues on the energy sector, especially oil; political change and the state of right-wing forces inside Venezuela; and the state of the country's armed forces. They also refer to Venezuelas relations with Cuba, China, Russia and Iran, and provide bleak projections for the economy and the financial sector.
The Serbian-based and US-supported Center for Applied Non-Violent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) is yet another such 'global intelligence' front of what, in practice, are organizations specializing in engineering social turmoil even civil war as countries like Serbia, Libya, Afghanistan and Syria have painfully learned.
The leaked emails from CANVAS had them explaining their recommended strategy for toppling governments, as in one revealing message to Stratfor:
When somebody asks us for help, as in Vene (sic!) case, we usually ask them the question and how would you do it?. That means that the first thing is to create a situational analysis (the word doc I sent you) and after that comes Mission Statement (still left to be done) and then Operational Concept, which is the plan for campaign... For this case we have three campaigns: Unification of opposition, campaign for [September 2010 parliamentary elections] and parallel with that a 'get out and vote' campaign.
Very straightforward!
Stratfors founder and chairman is one George Friedman, who is regularly interviewed in the Wall Street Journal, CNBC and CNN and is advisor to JPMorganChase, CitiGroup and Ernst & Young. Stratfors president & CEO is Shea Morenz, who for many years was a senior officer at Goldman Sachs. Not exactly corporations and megabanks bent on promoting the common good of the people of Venezuela, or of any other country in Latin America or elsewhere.
Clearly, there are no sharp lines separating these private intelligence publishers and analysts, think tanks like the Council on Foreign Relations, RAND Corporation, National Endowment for Democracy and major corporations, from public US-Government agencies like the CIA, NSA, USAID and the State Department.
In fact, throughout Latin America, lucid political observers will always keep an eye on what 'La Embajada' is up to. 'La Embajada' is Spanish for 'The Embassy' not just any embassy, of course, but the local Embassy of the United States.
No surprise then to learn that this batch of WikiLeaks documents reveals US-based firms working to overthrow Hugo Chavez by assisting and financing opposition candidates like Henrique Capriles Radonsky, who was Chavezs main opposition candidate, coming in second place in last years presidential elections.
Capriles Radonsky is strongly backed by US, European and Israeli interests, thanks to his notable alignment to those countries objectives in Venezuela and the region. Of Jewish background in a country with a very tiny Jewish community Radonsky promises to steer Venezuela away from the close ties forged by Chavez with Iran, Cuba, Russia, China and (until it was overrun and destroyed by NATO) also Libya.
Due to President Chavezs ailing health, this public-private US initiative is again hard at work promoting all opposition forces inside Venezuela, whilst they eagerly await good news (for them) about president Chavezs condition, hoping that he may have to relinquish the presidency he won late last year, which would mean new elections in a Venezuela without Chavez.
That would spell real tragedy for that country, as the US public-private initiative would again go into full 'lets-get-our-boy-into-the-Miraflores-presidential-palace-in-Caracas' Mode...
/... http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34176.htm
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)Pararescue
(131 posts)I don't care either way, has no bearing on my life whatsoever. I have my own problems and his passing doesn't impact it at all.
All I will say is may he Rest In Peace and let History be his Judge.
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)To leave Venezuela alone.
Pterodactyl
(1,687 posts)Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)We need to not be trying to intervene in the question of who leads Venezuela...agreed?
It's not our place, for example, to try to indicate who our "preferred" candidate is.
Pterodactyl
(1,687 posts)kimbutgar
(21,163 posts)You thumbed your nose at the oil companies, you improved the lives of millions of Venezuelans.
I once met a newlywed couple who were on their honeymoon in Mexico. They told me a lot about Chavez and how they were once poor but under Chavez were able to go to college and get good jobs. They told me the US hated him because he nationalized the oil and gave the money to help the poor. I went to Caracas in 1985 and it was so poor. I saw a picture of the same area I had been to and it was no longer slums but efficient apartments and the poverty was not like it was in 1985. Anybody who helps poor people lift themselves out of poverty is not at all a bad person vin my opinion. Our media here in the US told us to hate Chavez but I never could. He is no longer in pain. And I feel sorry for the people of Venezuela who lost their leader and saw the good in him.
santamargarita
(3,170 posts)BuddhaGirl
(3,608 posts)Seeing him supportive of Ahmadinejad and Iran was atrocious, imo.
iandhr
(6,852 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,321 posts)David Del Monaco, an Air Force attache for the U.S. Embassy, had been expelled Tuesday "for being implicated in conspiratorial plan, the information ministry said.
Some day, he told the press in a lengthy statement, there will be "scientific proof" that Chavez, fighting a battle with cancer, was somehow infected by outsiders. He also called Venezuela's political right-wing an "oligarchy" and an "enemy of the nation."
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2013/03/05/chavezs-condition-has-worsened-venezuelan-tv-says/
iandhr
(6,852 posts)Talk about crazy.
Bacchus4.0
(6,837 posts)announced his death.
Melinda
(5,465 posts)Just an aside that made me smile and feel my own mortality simultaneously.
Nacimos el mismo día en el mismo año, 28 de julio de 1954. El presidente Chávez tuvo un tremendo coraje y corazón y se preocupaba por los pobres y oprimidos del mundo. Su valor reside en la voluntad del pueblo venezolano. Dios lo tenga en su alma, señor Presidente, y gracias por el bien que has hecho.
Hugo Chavez was a good man, a humanitarian, a man who loved the poor and wanted better for all people. I pray he was content at his end, and that the people of Venezuela continue his good works. Rest with angels, Mr. President.
Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)Saludos, abrazos, Melinda.
Melinda
(5,465 posts)Encantado de conocerte, GhostDog.
totodeinhere
(13,058 posts)[link:http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/06/world/americas/hugo-chavez-of-venezuela-dies.html?hp&_r=0|
If this account is true then that makes Obama no better than Bush doesn't it? But as I said I don't believe it. The man that I worked for and contributed to could not do something like that. And I fear the ascension to power of anyone like Maduro who would spread such slander about the Obama Administration.
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)U.S. foreign policy on Latin America has ALWAYS had an acquisitive, vicious mind of its own, regardless of who's in charge.
It doesn't take long to realize right-wingers have ALWAYS been in there pushing and shoving in our foreign affairs from the very first, regardless, to the detriment of the entire world.
Matilda
(6,384 posts)Collectively, the big corporations have wealth beyond that of many countries, and not just the poorest amongst us. No western government is brave enough to go against the interests of the military/industrial complex.
Hugo was brave enough; he was a rare man indeed.
dotymed
(5,610 posts)You were a visionary. I Respect you so much.
Alamuti Lotus
(3,093 posts)not without his flaws, but I would say that he is perhaps one of very few world leaders that I wouldn't have lined up against the wall.
If places like this are any indication, I fear that the worms and vultures will soon be descending on his memory with the familiar force of arms and foreign funding. I hope that times have changed enough, such that they will continue to fail in their counterrevolutionary attempts at insurrection.
a la izquierda
(11,795 posts)those of us who are experts in the region (and I am admittedly not a South American specialist, but a Mexico/Central America specialist) wait, nervously, for what is to come.
Latin America, like other parts of the world, has its polarizing political figures. By looking at things in black or white, Americans demonize what they do not understand about a political system that is different than our own.
Between this and developments in Mexico, my email is blowing up.
Mnemosyne
(21,363 posts)Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)In a 2006 speech to the UN General Assembly, he ( Chavez) called U.S. President George W. Bush the devil, saying the podium reeked of sulfur after the U.S. president's address.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/venezuela-president-hugo-chavez-dies-age-58-after-battle-with-cancer-1.507532
RIP Chavez, the anti-Imperialist.
Ohio Joe
(21,758 posts)SamKnause
(13,108 posts)Devastating news, totally devastating.
I tried to prepare myself for this outcome, but I kept hoping that he would recover.
RIP Hugo Chavez
Condolences to your family, friends and the millions around the world who loved and admired you.
I would have loved to had the pleasure of voting for you.
Douglas Carpenter
(20,226 posts)independence, self-determination and justice for the poor and all those for whom there is no room in today's new economy - not only in Venezuela but throughout all of Latin America and indeed for the whole world. Peace be upon him,
Zorro
(15,740 posts)Pterodactyl
(1,687 posts)Dash87
(3,220 posts)He might be the most misquoted person in history, though
littlemissmartypants
(22,692 posts)tavalon
(27,985 posts)May they find one of similar measure.
UnrepentantLiberal
(11,700 posts)Food for thought.
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)Chavez hated the US and seemed pretty paranoid that we were trying to overthrow his government. 20+ years of being president is too long for one person to hold power. If he'd lived there was a good chance he would continued to be president indefinitely. I hope the country can figure out peacefully who will be the best person to succeed him is.
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)The governments of most Latin American countries refused to recognize it too. Hence, the coup manufactured by the CIA fell apart. good morning
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)who made their decision based on what they believed he could do for their country, just the way it happened in the U.S. until F.D.R. died in office during his own fourth term, and the Republicans rushed to change our laws to make certain an effective, and beloved Democrat could never hold office that long again, REGARDLESS of what the Founding Fathers initially created in our constitution.
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)If someone did that in this country there is no way people would stand for it.
I also think comparing Chavez to FDR is quite a stretch.
As I said, I'm not happy nor sad, I hope the people will figure out peacefully who is the most capable of leading their country.
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)I love weed
(50 posts)Good luck to Venezuelans.