Venezuelan Opposition Intellectuals Reject Chávez’s Invitation to Debate

[Better Believe It]

Venezuelan Opposition Intellectuals Reject Chávez’s Invitation to Debate
by Tamara Pearson – Venezuelanalysis.com
June 1st 2009,

Mérida, June 1st 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, while celebrating 10 years of his weekly TV show, ‘Hello President’, invited participants from a right wing conference taking place in Caracas, four times, to a live debate on the show. After initially accepting, the right wing intellectuals then proposed different conditions for the debate and finally refused to participate.

He proposed a debate about the crisis of capitalism and “any other issues” between pro-capitalist intellectuals and pro-socialist intellectuals, specifically between those invited by the Ministry of Culture to attend a conference on the crisis of capitalism, and those attending the “International Conference for Freedom and Democracy: The Latin American Challenge” organised by the Centre for the Dissemination of Economic Knowledge for Freedom (CEDICE).

On Friday morning, following Chavez’s proposal, three of the right wing intellectuals from the CEDICE conference, Mexican writer Enrique Krauze, Mario Vargas and Mexican intellectual Jorge Castaneda publicly announced that they were available to attend the debate. However they asked to debate the president.

That day at 5pm Chavez formally called for the debate for 11pm on Saturday in the presidential palace, to be broadcast live on Hello President. He said, “Even though I said I’d step aside and let debate, I accept, with those who want to accompany me…Without avoiding any topic, any topic is valid.”

At 6.40 pm the president of CEDICE, Rafael Alfonzo responded in a press conference saying they accepted the debate but they proposed, “that for greater efficiency and clarity that it be carried out between two people, the president Hugo Chavez Frias and the writer Mario Vargas Llosa.”

At 10 that night, Chavez repeated the invitation to debate on his show but emphasised again that it should be between intellectuals. “I’ll be sitting down and enjoying . Now, if they ask me to participate, I won’t have a problem with that even though I’m no intellectual,” he said.

On Saturday morning, Vargas publicly refused to debate the leftwing intellectuals. Chavez proposed Venezuelan writer Luis Britto Garcia for a one on one debate with Vargas as a compromise. From 11am the left wing intellectuals were waiting in the presidential palace to begin the debate, but none of the right wing intellectuals turned up.

Fernando Buen Abad, one of the left wing intellectuals, said that debate between those who support capitalism and those who support socialism was an “extraordinary opportunity” and said that “the invitation remains open for any place and any time.”

“It’s not something personal, nor is it about bullying as has tried to make out, it’s a problem that is important to humanity because humanity is living a profound and complex crisis, a costly product of the disaster of capitalism,” Buen Abad said.

Please read the complete article at:

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4488

So why are these right-wing intellectuals so afraid to debate left-wing intellectuals .... perhaps they are a bit lacking in intellect?

[AllieB]

1. You said the Magic Word: Chavez

it's like troll flypaper. :popcorn:

[AngryAmish]

3. Susan Boyle

[Better Believe It]

4. How about ...... Here's ......... Che!

Might this attact a few? :)



Run for your lives!

He's come for your children!

He'll rape your farm animals and steal your condiments and candy mints!

The anti-Christ has come back from the dead!

And his new name is Chavez!

Ha!

Can't fool us rightwing nuts.

[AllieB]

6. Lol.

Did you see the movie Che Parts 1 & 2? Very interesting and well-acted. Of course, 'liberal' Hollywood ignored it at the Oscars.

[tritsofme]

2. I can't imagine why these people don't care to be pawns

in Hugo's propaganda show.

I'm sure ol' Hugo would have gone far out of his way to make the forum as fair as possible.

[Better Believe It]

5. They are afraid to debate. Chicken shit right-wingnuts!

And they could have debated before millions of people on national TV.

Cowards!

[EFerrari]

10. Because they are chickenhawk cowards. If he won't be their pawn

they want nothing to do with it.

:)

[Dogtown]

7. Waiting for the spin

from the "He-Man Chavez-Haters Club".

[Dogtown]

8. K&R n/t

[DCKit]

9. Chavez is a humanist and, by his own admission, no great intellectual.

However, I'm pretty sure he could hold his own on matters of policy, the role of government and the human rights he's worked so hard to restore to Venezuela.

While it very well could have been a fair fight, it's a losing proposition for right wing intellectuals - assuming such a creature even exists. Personally, I'm picturing Ann Coulter in horn-rimmed glasses or Rush in a tweed jacket (is there enough tweed milled each year?) with a pipe.

[EFerrari]

11. In the interviews I've seen or read, it looks like Chavez has a good grasp

of history and philosophy. I was surprised because he doesn't make any claims about his education or erudition.