Bolivarian revolution. It's a good de-programmer if you're head is filled with memes like "Chavez...authoritarian," "Chavez...increasingly dictatorial," "Chavez...gun-toting, cigar chomping, leftist guerrilla," (Chavez, in your mind, smudged, smeared, fuzzied, transformed into Fidel), "Chavez, strongman, former military officer--juntas, banana republics, stolen elections, presidents-for life" (smeared the other way toward Pinochet), "Chavez, the leftist president of Venezuela" (but we never hear "Bush, the rightwing president of the United States" do we?"--accurate though it is; "leftist" = extremist, Stalinist, repressive, kills fascists and little old lady librarians and takes their property), etc.
When our corporate news monopolies get on something like this--using the same phrases over and over, and playing to stereotypes that our corporate media have themselves created, it can be difficult to fight off the brainwashing, which gets beneath the surface of your conscious mind. The only remedy is information, and a desire to know the truth. Also, in the case of our corporate news monopolies, they have betrayed us so often--deceived and lied to us--at the cost of so many lives, you'd think people would learn. But I know it's hard. You have to stay conscious all the time when exposed to the corporate "newsstream," pay close attention, analyze their use of words and editorial tricks, read between the lines, and learn to recognize the signs of corporate "meme"-planting and disinformation. One editorial trick I've noticed is the frequent repetition of "Chavez, ally of Fidel Castro" almost never pertinent to the context--they just throw it in. This stuff is coming straight from Bush's State Department (Disinformation Department). Figure this: Condoleeza Rice is whispering these lies in your ear while lifting your wallet out of your backpocket.
Here's a good article on this Corporate/State Department campaign to make you hate Hugo Chavez and never, never get the idea that a country's oil resources should be used to benefit the poor: "The Op-Ed Assassination of Hugo Chavez," by Justin Delacour.
http://venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1876So--if we want to know the truth--we really have to seek it out. www.venezuelanalysis.com is pro-Chavez, but well-written, by a wide range of authors, and occasionally includes reasonable criticism (not rightwing/corporate garbage).
A couple of things I've learned from that site, and other research:
Chavez's opposition is very like our Freepers--a tiny lunatic minority that has no respect for the truth or reasonable discourse. They whine and complain and turn truth on its head. Rush Limbaugh. Michael Reagan. That's the level of comment and behavior. They are also well-off, privileged, used to having everything their way--and seem to be a stupid bunch of spoiled brats, with no interest in the common welfare of their country or good government. Highly dangerous, though. They expect money to buy them in, and, if not money, violence. I WISH that Chavez had a decent opposition. Every president needs one. But it's not his fault that he doesn't. He has repressed NO ONE! (The corporate news monopolies in Venezuela criticize Chavez 24/7, and even openly backed the violent military coup, and there has been NO effort to silence them. Chavez's response was to back the idea of national public radio/TV, like our PBS used to be.)
His reforms are genuine, and his is the first government of Venezuela EVER to benefit the vast poor population, and provide them with government services--schools, adult literacy classes, medical clinics.
Chavez's government is far more than Chavez himself. He's a colorful figure and loves the spotlight--but he also encourages discussion, reads widely, and LISTENS to people. And he is backed by highly competent and highly motivated supporters and colleagues, within his government, and also a lot of intelligent, committed, and separately elected members of the National Assembly. The Bolivarian revolution is a grass roots movement. It has great and genuine popular support.
Anyone can get a big head and become a tyrant, and I have scoured news sources for any evidence that this is the case with Chavez. And I have found none. None! No evidence in support of it whatsoever. Chavez, the dictator, is ENTIRELY an invention of our corporate news monopolies (and Venezuela's).
Another strong feeling I get: The Bolivarian revolution cannot be decapitated. The passion for democracy, and the devotion to their new Constitution, are widespread in Venezuela, and will survive Chavez's assassination (if that's what the Bushites or the Corporate Democrats intend). The 2002 coup attempt is a good example. Tens of thousands of Venezuelans poured into the streets of Caracas, after Chavez was kidnapped, and demanded the return of their elected president and reconvening of the National Assembly (which the plotters had dissolved). These are people with the strength of their own convictions. Chavez owes his power to THEM, not the other way around. They are not likely to be fooled by a tyrant. In fact, it is something of a racist corporate "meme" that they could be. (A lot of Chavez's support is brown, indigenous or black.)
One other thing: Chavez and Venezuela are not alone in undergoing a peaceful, democratic, leftist (majorityist) revolution. It's happening all over Latin America. As Evo Morales--the first indigenous president of Bolivia--has said: "The time of the people has come." It is more than a movement; it is a tidal wave.
The Bushites, now that they have destroyed Iraq, are turning their attention to destroying democracy in South America, especially in the Andes region (rich in oil, gas, minerals, clean water and other resources). There are numerous signs of this--fattening military fascists with our tax dollars ($600 million in military aid to Columbia this year alone). Building a state-of-the-art military air base (our tax dollars) in Paraguay. The Bush Cartel purchasing a 200,000 acre enclave also in Paraguay. Their re-starting U.S. training of death squads and torturers among fascist military elements. Use of the phony, murderous U.S. "war on drugs" to kill peasants and leftists. Our tax dollars poured into Chavez's opposition in Venezuela (in violation of Venezuelan law), and into rightwing/corporatist/fascist oppositions in other countries (Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia). There is also evidence of strongarming and blackmail, as well as bribery by means of loans and "free trade" (free piracy) deals. All this is very worrisome. Bolivia may be their first target. "Plan Columbia" moving through Paraguay to destabilize Bolivia. (Morales has been vocal in opposition to the U.S. "war on drugs." And Bolivians are very uppity. When Bechtel Corp. privatized the water in one Bolivian city, then jacked up the prices to the poorest of the poor--even charging poor peasants for collecting rainwater!--the Bolivians rose up and threw Bechtel out of their country--and elected Morales.)
There are many, many developments to counter these fascist/corporatist forces. What is happening in South America--the rebirth of leftist (majorityist) democracy--is no fly-by-night event. It is deep. And it is very successful--resulting in the re-birth of South American economies, after decades of ravaging by U.S. and other global corporate interests, and horrible histories of U.S.-instigated violence and oppression. Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Venezuela and Bolivia are all on the mend. Ecuador will soon join them. And Peru, in the next election cycle. That is virtually the entire continent. And these countries and their leftist governments are engaged in all sorts of regional, economic/political cooperation, all of it focused on South American self-determination, regional strength and democracy. They are thinking long term. They are combining elements of capitalism and socialism. The Bush Junta is a dinosaur in all of this. The Democrats may be smarter at enforcing Corporate Rule (a la Clinton). But the truth of the matter seems to be that the Bush Junta has "lost" Latin America, and it cannot be "recovered" by force. This may, indeed, be why the Corporate Rulers let the Democrats win Congress. The global corporate predators that Clinton unleashed no longer have free reign in these countries. Latin Americans have wised up. Can the Democrats "save" Latin America for the global corporate profiteers? Stay tuned.
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(Note: Simon Bolivar is the great South American revolutionary hero, who led the war for independence from Spain, and freed the slaves. He dreamt of a "United States of South America," but died too young to realize it. The continent was carved up along colonial lines by the rich landowners and other powerful elites and financial interests, and the pattern has been that these rich elites live very well, while exploiting and oppressing the vast poor population and selling off their countries' natural resources to global corporate predators. The Bolivarian Revolution--of which Chavez is the most well-known spokesman--seeks to reverse this trend, including its most recent manifestation, "global free trade" and World Bank/IMF policy, which both aim at buying off the rich elites, and weakening local governments as the protectors of natural resources and labor. Bolivarianism = self-determination, and self-sufficiency, for individual countries and the region as a whole. It is not at all anti-business, or anti-trade. It is pro-FAIR business and FAIR trade, with everyone benefiting.)
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... but if you pull up Hugo Chavaz on Wikipedia, you can click on the link by his name to the "Fifth Republic Movement"
