Reply #130: BS, you obviously know nothing about Chavez.

[vaberella]

He is far from a Dictator, to even be pushing the envelope on dictator. I find it ludicrous to even equate him as such. He was Democratically elected and is a strong promoter that people should be elected to Presidency.

Chavez has done some questionable things but most of his is a logical reasoning. As for America as a scapegoat. For a progressive I'm a appaled you say such a thing. Chile-US, Nicaragua-US, Venezuela-US. Brazil-US, Haiti-US, Peru-US, and basically many other nations all in the SA and Caribbean have had bad relationships with the US. The US's foreign policy has been disastrous...hello need I even waste the time to mention School of the Americas?! Huh?! That school has been the foundation of so many genocidal maniacs in the SA and Caribbean it's disgusting and they're being taught on our turf.

Do the reading, get caught up...http://www.soaw.org/

His anger towards the US is not even in dislike of the US but capitalist manipulation of his country and his countries resources which have US backing. His entire goal is to make SA and Carib totally independent of Western powers, the way Africa is not. For example DeBeers the jeweler has kids mining in dangerous diamond pits to their deaths, but they make the profit when Paris Hilton tells daddy she wants a new set of 10 million dollar earrings. Where does that 10 million go? You can sure as well bet it doesn't go to those miners. So who's being violated of the resources. The workers are devalued of their lives or health, or both on low wages and DeBeers is living like kings on their profit.

That's what was being done in Venezuela to the oil until he made it state owned and the people started benefitting from the oil they were digging. Not the minimal elite. His battle is for the poor and working class, the uneducated in his country not the elite and that needs to be recognized, if not respected. There is a lot of crap on this and that about him but obviously people are not doing the reading, or just reading the stuff by MSM and watching the stuff by MSM. There's more to it than that...hence the reason if I want to know on Chavez I've moved to the BBC.

Here watch this film on him called The Revolution Will Not Be Televised---it's completely true and filmed on point and the Irish (from Ireland) filmers didn't even know something like that was going to happen. They were thrust in the middle of a coup, when they only came to film the Venezuelan government workings--not a coup.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5832390545689805144