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Judi Lynn

(160,530 posts)
Thu Jan 10, 2013, 03:13 PM Jan 2013

Supporters rally in show of support for Hugo Chavez

Supporters rally in show of support for Hugo Chavez
Associated Press | Updated: January 10, 2013 22:36 IST

Caracas, Venezuela: Thousands of cheerful supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rallied outside his presidential palace on Thursday in an alternative inauguration for a leader too ill to return home for the real thing.

Backers wearing T-shirts with the slogan "I am Chavez" waved flags while upbeat music from Chavez's last presidential campaign blared from speakers, proclaiming: "Chavez, heart of the people!"
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Vice President Nicolas Maduro, whom Chavez designated his chosen successor last month, said that even though it isn't an official swearing-in, Thursday's event still marks the start of a new term for the president following his re-election in October.

"A historic period of this second decade of the 21st century is starting, with our commander leading," Maduro said.

More:
http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/supporters-rally-in-show-of-support-for-hugo-chavez-315926

17 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Supporters rally in show of support for Hugo Chavez (Original Post) Judi Lynn Jan 2013 OP
Good for them. He is an historic figure in that part of the world and it's sad to see sabrina 1 Jan 2013 #1
I've been reading articles the last few days that state the Venezuelan polly7 Jan 2013 #2
It's really sad that people are celebrating the actual prostitution of my country Marksman_91 Jan 2013 #3
"These guys are really doing everything they can to perpetuate their stay in power."??? Peace Patriot Jan 2013 #4
So because I hate Chávez that automatically makes me a right-winger... Genius Marksman_91 Jan 2013 #5
your last paragraph says it all about most if not all of the chavistas here n/t Bacchus4.0 Jan 2013 #6
The overriding point naaman fletcher Jan 2013 #8
yes, but if they actually traveled there it would ruin their fantasy of a utopian society. Bacchus4.0 Jan 2013 #10
no, not at all naaman fletcher Jan 2013 #12
what real chavista could resist? get your tickets now!! n/t Bacchus4.0 Jan 2013 #13
We already have a DU'er who has posted here for years who lives there. Judi Lynn Jan 2013 #14
"Blackouts, inflation and crime, oh my!" Peace Patriot Jan 2013 #17
why no evidence naaman fletcher Jan 2013 #7
perhaps, but I recall after the surgery they were pretty grim Bacchus4.0 Jan 2013 #11
Exactly. And Castro allowed the rumors intentionally. joshcryer Jan 2013 #15
Chavez lived, Chavez lives and Chavez will live Judi Lynn Jan 2013 #9
Hugo Chavez Rally Coach Crash: Eleven Killed joshcryer Jan 2013 #16

sabrina 1

(62,325 posts)
1. Good for them. He is an historic figure in that part of the world and it's sad to see
Thu Jan 10, 2013, 03:21 PM
Jan 2013

the refusal of the far right to accept that the region has rejected THEIR harmful policies and have embraced Chavez's.

polly7

(20,582 posts)
2. I've been reading articles the last few days that state the Venezuelan
Thu Jan 10, 2013, 04:10 PM
Jan 2013

people are just devastated by all of this. They consider him family and 'miss him in their daily lives'.

He's brought them so far.

 

Marksman_91

(2,035 posts)
3. It's really sad that people are celebrating the actual prostitution of my country
Thu Jan 10, 2013, 04:44 PM
Jan 2013

Today Venezuela pretty much officially becomes a dictatorship. The Supreme Court basically doesn't give a damn about what the Constitution says. It establishes clearly that a professional medical board must examine how the president is doing, and rule if he is fit enough to keep on governing or not. The only official information we have about his health is what Maduro and the government has said, of whom none are medical experts, and the news are that he's not doing well anyway. I don't know about you guys, but that doesn't sound like the president's fit enough to keep on governing. For all we know, he could be dead already, and Maduro and Cabello are only telling lies about his state, which aren't good news about his health anyway. These guys are really doing everything they can to perpetuate their stay in power. It's why Chávez went to Cuba for treatment in the first place, nobody can really know if he's dead or not in there. Instead, if he had stayed in Venezuela, it'd be much easier for everyone to know what his REAL state is. If Chávez still really is giving orders and conscious, why don't they show any evidence for it? Maybe some video footage or a recording. But alas, they have not produced anything, hence why we cannot assume their word is true.

My only question is, what will they do when it is in fact confirmed that Chávez has died?

Peace Patriot

(24,010 posts)
4. "These guys are really doing everything they can to perpetuate their stay in power."???
Fri Jan 11, 2013, 02:23 AM
Jan 2013

They were elected, overwhelmingly, by a 10% margin--and the voters also elected 20 PSUV governorships out 23 governorships in the country, in the recent by-election. CLEARLY the Venezuelan people have chosen Chavez policies, Chavez's government and the PSUV to lead them.

That is what they are doing. Their are doing their jobs as the elected government of the country. They are not "perpetuating themselves in power." They ARE the legitimate power.

You rightwingers really need to get over yourselves and stop dancing on Chavez'a grave. Your policies and behavior have been rejected by the Venezuelan people time and again. You have no legitimacy whatever in speaking for the country or the majority of its people. They have spoken. And it is you who are trying to seize power once again with no majority support.

 

Marksman_91

(2,035 posts)
5. So because I hate Chávez that automatically makes me a right-winger... Genius
Fri Jan 11, 2013, 01:39 PM
Jan 2013

Don't be so presumptuous from the get-go. If anything, I consider myself a center-leftist. I only wish a country like the US would embrace the social-democratic ideas that many European countries enjoy, which are NOT the ideas that Venezuela's government has implemented.

You should really come down here in Caracas and see just how wonderful things have gotten ever since Chávez took power. I'm sure those 20,000 murder victims of last year alone are more than happy about their situation. Or the people who have gotten kidnapped (I personally know many, and from their own doorstep), or the the people who go through blackouts throughout many parts around the country every so often, or the workers who died in the Amuay incident. Yeah, I'm sure things are just dandy with those guys.

You don't know the reality of the country like I do, ok? So stop thinking you know more about the situation in my country, because you don't.

 

naaman fletcher

(7,362 posts)
8. The overriding point
Fri Jan 11, 2013, 02:10 PM
Jan 2013

about the two most vocal Chavistas here is that they have no actual physical presence in Latin America. One I am not sure has ever even left Kansas.

Bacchus4.0

(6,837 posts)
10. yes, but if they actually traveled there it would ruin their fantasy of a utopian society.
Fri Jan 11, 2013, 05:49 PM
Jan 2013

Kind of sad. Adoring something that doesn't exist.

Judi Lynn

(160,530 posts)
14. We already have a DU'er who has posted here for years who lives there.
Fri Jan 11, 2013, 08:01 PM
Jan 2013

That poster knows very well both the US and Venezuela, and how both work politically. We've never suffered for information from that one, or the one who kept us nailed to our seats for days on end during your groups dirty, dishonest coup, and related news blackout to support the coup in 2002.

That DU'er had more people watching for the next postings than anyone I've ever seen here. We were very tuned in since that time.

The ones who are here for other reasons stand out like sore thumbs.

Peace Patriot

(24,010 posts)
17. "Blackouts, inflation and crime, oh my!"
Sat Jan 12, 2013, 03:54 AM
Jan 2013

The three rightwing "talking points" promulgated by the corporate press and no doubt originally written by the USAID in their "tutoring" sessions of Venezuela's rightwing opposition.

Really, you are so transparent. You have nothing original to say, and, exactly like the corporate press, you completely ignore all the reasons that the majority in Venezuela have voted for the Chavez government, time and again, by big margins, and just threw most of the rightwing governors out as well.

Most Venezuelans obviously don't credit your "talking points" and consider other things more important, when weighed in the balance. In fact, they KNOW that the Chavez government solves problems, because they have solved so many thus far--including tackling endemic poverty and cutting it in half, providing health care and education through college to all, providing health care to all, accumulating cash reserves that saw them through the Bushwhack Crash with NO CUTS TO SOCIAL PROGRAMS, renegotiating the oil contracts to make them much fairer to Venezuela, presiding over sizzling economic growth during the 2003-to 2008 period (10%!)--even while your cohorts were trying to crash the economy with an oil bosses' lockout--and climbing back into 5% economic growth now, while the U.S. and European governments stagger around like drunks and can only think of "austerity" for the poor as a solution, while the rich get richer!

These are just some of the reasons why the Chavez government was re-elected in 2012. Your big three "talking points" failed to convince them again. You lost the election. Then you lost the by-elections. So why are you peddling these "talking points" HERE? Go back to Venezuela and peddle them there, and so how far you get.

You say you are a "center-leftist." I don't believe you--not with you listing the three rightwing "talking points" as your argument against the ELECTED government of Venezuela--and not with you ignoring all the reasons that Venezuelans voted for this government. Your viewpoint is as distorted as the corporate press. It is corporate propaganda. And it is as unreal and "Mad Tea Party-ish" as Venezuela's rightwing opposition, which failed to convince Venezuelans that they were "center-leftist"--the "Big Lie" of the Capriles campaign--and that they could, or even intended to, solve problems.

The Chavez government has already cut inflation by half; they also immediately addressed and solved the drought/hydro-electric power problem (that was causing blackouts) and they are working on the crime problem. This is what Venezuelans expect of them, and why they vote for them. They solve problems! And Venezuelan voters also, quite reasonably, concluded that the MUD (rightwing) coalition, far from solving any problems, was intent on de-constructing the "New Deal" that the Chavez government has implemented for them--ending poverty, sharing the wealth, economic growth, high employment, labor rights, social and civic equality, equal opportunity, fair taxation, access to media, public participation, clean elections and more.

The MUD coalition was full of vague promises with Capriles giving them a "center-left" glitz, but the MUD's real platform got revealed during the campaign, and it was nothing less than a return to "neo-liberalism"--to the old unfairness and brutality and to Wall Street's dictates.

They rejected your talking points. And they saw through the "center-left" glitz to the reality underneath. Smart, well-informed voters (unlike our own), voting in an honest, transparent election system (unlike our own). I don't see anything you've written that doesn't put in the MUD camp that was rejected by the voters.

Tell me how you love seeing everyone in the country getting health care, many for the first time in their lives, free of cost to the poor--and then acknowledge that that was an accomplishment of the Chavez government. Tell me that you support universal free education and a doubling of college enrollment--and then admit that the Chavez government has done that. Tell me it's better for Venezuela to get 50% of the oil revenues and use that money for social programs, than for Exxon Mobil and brethren to get 90% of the revenues and stuff their pockets with it, while Venezuelan children suffer poor nutrition and don't have a pair of shoes to go to school with. Tell me what you SUPPORT and then I will tell you whether or not I consider you a "center-leftist."

And don't tell me any more stale, failed, politically contrived, rightwing "talking points"! It's bullshit anyway. The MUD had no intention to solve any problems. Their intention was to UNDO the solutions to the problems that HAD BEEN solved, by the rich seizing control of the oil revenues once again and cornering the country's wealth, once again.

 

naaman fletcher

(7,362 posts)
7. why no evidence
Fri Jan 11, 2013, 02:08 PM
Jan 2013
If Chávez still really is giving orders and conscious, why don't they show any evidence for it?

Castro has mastered the rope-a-dope play. That is, disappearing for a few weeks, allowing gossip out that implies he's dead or close to it, and watching his opponents proclaim that he is really dead.

Then he comes back and makes them all look like fools. It's quite smart really.

I wouldn't be surprised if Chavez is doing the same thing.

Bacchus4.0

(6,837 posts)
11. perhaps, but I recall after the surgery they were pretty grim
Fri Jan 11, 2013, 05:50 PM
Jan 2013

so I imagine its not good news even if he is still alive.

joshcryer

(62,270 posts)
15. Exactly. And Castro allowed the rumors intentionally.
Fri Jan 11, 2013, 08:45 PM
Jan 2013

It's a play book right out of North Korea or the USSR. Mislead the people. Hell, a lot of the rumors are being leaked by the governments in order to create the false idea in the masses so that the masses are misled.

It's Orwellian to the core.

Judi Lynn

(160,530 posts)
9. Chavez lived, Chavez lives and Chavez will live
Fri Jan 11, 2013, 05:37 PM
Jan 2013

Chavez lived, Chavez lives and Chavez will live

Venezuela's president may be on his way out, but the government is working hard to ensure that his legacy lives on.

Girish Gupta January 11, 2013 15:42

CARACAS, Venezuela — "I'm Chavez. We're all Chavez. There's millions of us," said Gloria Torres, an ardent red-clad supporter of Venezuela's ailing socialist leader outside his presidential palace.

"Chavez is a Latin American sentiment that will never die," she said.

Since President Hugo Chavez announced that he was suffering from cancer in June 2011, Torres has led prayer vigils for the self-styled socialist’s health in her Caracas slum. Given events of the past month, however, she seems to have failed in her aims.

Chavez missed his inauguration Thursday, the first Venezuelan president to do so. This was thanks to his ongoing battle with cancer, specifically an operation on Dec. 11 which was followed by unexpected bleeding and a respiratory infection.

The ubiquitous television and radio personality has not been seen or heard from by his countrymen since then, fuelling fears that he will never again govern Venezuela.

More:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/venezuela/130111/president-hugo-chavez-cancer-legacy

joshcryer

(62,270 posts)
16. Hugo Chavez Rally Coach Crash: Eleven Killed
Fri Jan 11, 2013, 08:50 PM
Jan 2013
Hugo Chavez Rally Coach Crash: Eleven Killed
At least 11 people have been killed and more than 75 injured when two buses crashed into a lorry on their way to a rally in support of cancer-stricken Hugo Chavez.

Police said the fatal crash happened on a highway in the western Venezuelan state of Zulia in the early hours of Friday.

Yonder Polo, a relative of one of those hurt in the smash, told local media the buses were "heading to Caracas to supposedly support the Chavez rally".
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