Reply #37: He's giving the imperialists a taste of their own medicine, Robcon.

[Peace Patriot]

Latin Americans have always been at the butt end of U.S., EU, World Bank and global corporate predator threats, kneecappings, bullying and punishment--not to mention outright war, murder, assassination, torture, coups, and imposed rightwing dictatorships--if the people dare to go their own way. Bush recently sent Oliver North, for godssakes, to Nicaragua, to threaten them with cutoff of aid, if they VOTED FOR Daniel Ortega.

Chavez is turning the tables. He threatened to cut off Venezuelan oil to the U.S. if Bush/Cheney invade Iran. He's now warning Spain to stop playing games with the U.S. and World Bank financiers. And it's not about Hugo. It's about the PEOPLE HE REPRESENTS. He is speaking for THEM--for the excluded and oppressed and brutalized and impoverished MAJORITY. And the ruling elites in these countries, who have time and again colluded with the oppressors, selling their countries' sovereignty down the toilet, should be glad that the "threat" is peaceful and democratic, and that it is implemented in economic terms--social justice, fairness, use of a country's resources to defend itself and to bootstrap the poor--because the other alternative--continued oppression to the point of violent revolution--is ugly and rarely has a good outcome. Indeed, the ruling elites in Venezuela and other South American countries--a region that is swiftly going left--should be kissing the poor, dirty, unshod feet of the people whom they have oppressed, for their desire for PEACEFUL change, for FAIRNESS, in the context of liberal democracy. Fair play is all they want. The oppression has been hardly less brutal than that of the Tsar and the Bourbons in France and the emperors and warlords of China. And those revolutions were convulsive, and massively brutal and bloody.

In any case--whatever you think of it--the Bolivarians are, one by one, REMOVING the powers of the U.S., global corporate predators and first world financiers to threaten them. The World Bank. "Free trade." The failed but neverending "war on drugs." U.S. military bases. Dependence of local militaries on U.S. largess. Foreign and global corporate predator ownership of resources, infrastructure and land. U.S. "aid" that dumps U.S. agricultural products on local markets. Global corporate predator "job creation" so long as you don't have unions. All of these weapons of the super-rich are being removed, disempowered, legally challenged, and replaced with local or regional powers and initiatives.

And in so far as Hugo Chavez is an innovative leader and spokesperson for this historic movement--and he is that--it is NOT about Hugo Chavez, except in the minds and "talking points" of the global corporate predator press. It's about Evo Morales in Bolivia, and Rafael Correa in Ecuador, and Nester Kirchner in Argentina, and Lula da Silva in Brazil--as well as about Chavez--and it is, above all, about the millions and millions of people who support them, who put them in office, and whose policies they are DEMANDING of their leaders, and are achieving through democratic means.

And, really, the Bolivarians have the right idea. We need to challenge OUR Corporate Overlords, and OUR usurious and predatory banks, and OUR fascist ruling class. Demonizing Chavez has NOT wholly prevented these ideas for leaking into the northern realms, and THAT, truly, is Hugo Chavez's "sin." He is using his political power--given to him by the people of Venezuela, and protected by them, against coups and other plots--and Venezuela's oil wealth, to plant seeds HERE, that there is an alternative way to look at OUR OWN oppression--that it is not forever, that we, too, might declare our independence from our Corporate Rulers.

Demonizing Chavez is a very big error in understanding what is really happening throughout South America. We MUST understand why this politician is so popular, and how deep this revolution is. It is common sense--a practical matter of business and politics, and gaging our own future in THIS country--to truly understand these events. Harping on Chavez's personality, and his unpolished manner, is such a side-show! It's so off point. And I'm quite sure that it is a deliberate strategy of distraction by our corporate press and by the Bush State Department (and psyops and black ops departments). Chavez's pugnaciousness is part of his own personality, but it is ALSO the "south" speaking to the "north." This is an amazing, huge, earth-shaking historical development. It's NOT about Hugo Chavez. It's about the people of South America at long last REBELLING against the U.S., and throwing the U.S. and its devious powers, methods and institutions OUT OF THE REGION--PEACEFULLY.

Posts like yours narrow this enormous event down to your dislike of one politician, with your sour presumption that he speaks for one, himself. That is just factually so inaccurate as to be mind-boggling. How does that help us--that you think he's an egotist? He has a 70% approval rating, and enjoys friendship and support from leaders throughout the region. Your opinion tells us something about you, but nothing about him, or the revolution that he is ONE of the leaders of.

It's far more important to know, for instance, that Paraguay--with a center/right government--has joined the Bank of the South. And Brazil (the biggest economy on the continent)! THEY see great value in local regional banking, and have endorsed and join this banking project, which was Venezuela's idea. THEY would like to have more control of their countries' financial structure--to stop the bleeding to first world countries, and to initiate long overdue region-friendly development. This is NOT "abuse of power." This is SPREADING power around!

Also, it shows little understanding of diplomacy to ignore the insult to the people of Venezuela that the king of Spain inflicted. It has deep historical and racial meaning, and it has economic and political undercurrents in the present situation. The king of Spain is a monarch, elected by no one (by Franco, is the truth of the matter--a party of one). This is not to say he isn't a relatively benign monarch. He is. But he also represents the moneyed class of Spain and Europe. Hugo Chavez is an elected president--elected, overwhelmingly, time and again, by his people, in the face of continual overt and covert interference by the U.S., including a coup attempt that the previous Spanish government supported. One of the things that Venezuelans are attempting to accomplish, by electing and re-electing Chavez, is securing their SOVEREIGNTY--after centuries of domination by Spain, and more than a century of U.S. meddling and domination.

So, when Hugo Chavez tells Spanish banks to go to hell, he is speaking for many. And when the king of Spain tells him to "shut up," he is speaking for the rich. And when Hugo Chavez calls Bush "the devil" at the UN (to much applause), he is speaking for many. And when corporate news monopolies, Bushites and collusive Democrats call Chavez a "dictator," they are speaking for the rich. He is a "dictator" because he is helping to remove their powers over his country, and other countries. He is a "dictator" to Exxon-Mobile. But he is NOT a "dictator" to his people. There is no evidence of it. And there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary. They want him to be strong. They want him to resist both economic and political coups. They want him to speak for THEM. And he obliges. That's his job. That's what they elected him for--to assert their sovereignty, their strength, and their peaceful, democratic, pugnacious, unexpected, historic rebellion against oppressive powers.

And the king of Spain wants him to "shut up." Whoa! Can you just imagine how that was felt in the barrios of Caracas? It's not about the insult to Hugo Chavez as an individual. It's about the insult to THEM.