Can Someone Explain Hugo Chavez To Me? The Love, The Hate?

[fightindonkey]

All I keep hearing about this guy is hatred. I have no problem hating someone, if I know what I'm hating them for. Article after article I have read, talks about how horrible he is, and oppressive he is to Venezuelans, but they never say why. That is, up until a few days ago. It seems now, that people are against him for the following reasons:

Shut down only opposing television station in the country
Is trying to change presidential term limits
Is friends with Iran

Basically, all the articles imply that he has an alterer motive, and is heading towards a dictatorship.

This is basically all I've been able to gather, and while it's horrible to side with Iran, I can't help but think of all the other countries that not only do the same thing, but are truly oppressive to their own people, and they're our "allies". Think China, and Saudi Arabia!

So, what I'm asking is, what reasons have you read, or feel yourself for that matter, that are horrible about Chavez? Are any of the reasons given for hated, incorrect, in terms of accuracy about him?

I'm really trying to wrap my head around this one. It seems as if, if Hugo offered the world leaders something in return, and he was truly moving towards dictatorship, that they would all look the other way. Saddam Hussein anyone?

Also, what are the reasons people keep electing him? Is the country in bad shape?

[pretzel4gore]

1. we hate them for their freedoms...

the Venezuelans enjoy a liberal representative democracy (that disses the religious creeps by allowing toleration) and have the bad habit of pumping their cultural (corrupt) visions all over world via Venezuela TV and VNN etc, undermining the solid ground under capitalism! They want everyone to be poor and stupid...They have the world's largest army, with WMD's stacked up to hi heaven...they stink like rush limbah's underpanties, and they're ugly, and not very fucking nice! White women aint safe there(!) so it best we exterminate all of them...well Hugo Chavez anyway, hitler wannabbe!
Reality is biased towards them, and that aint fair....

[cali]

2. I see it as largely just another DU

proxy war.

[PDJane]

3. Chavez. Ah, Chavez.

Well, the biggest difficulties with Chavez are:

He has been popularly and democratically elected 10 times in eight years. US-backed coups have tried to overthrow him several times, and failed.

He has removed a good portion of South America from the aegis of the IMF and the World Bank. That cuts down on profits for the West and improves life for his own people; my good God, what a radical concept! He has provided food subsidies, cooperative subsidies, free medical care and education; Venezuela is now approaching 100% literacy.

He has taken the power away from the colonial elites, who used to control Venezuela's oil wealth, and who can no longer play political kingmakers. It's been a very bitter pill for them to swallow, and more so for the US-backed oil companies. One of the elites said, scathingly, "He gives them bread and bricks. Of course, they vote for him."

He has provided a constitution, a cooperative method of political change from the ground up, and given a good portion of empowerment to the average citizen.

He did refuse to renew the license of a station that was actively involved in the last American-backed coup. Frankly, that sounds like a fine idea to me. The media there, as here, is under the power of the elite, and is a combination of propaganda and banality. It is not representative of either the racial make-up of the general population, or the interests of the population. (I would also like to ask how long a single media outlet which backed a coup of the US government would stay in business, but that's a minor digression.)

On the other hand, he can be autocratic, he is convinced of his vision, and he is not willing to have an American "way of life," feeling, rightly so, that such a way of life is unsustainable. *shrug* A man with the standard failings, but a more than standard political vision. There are worse people in this world.

[izquierdista]

4. I am concerned about the term limits thing

I would rather see him grooming a cabinet with 10 capable successors than continue to run. He has been in office going on 9 years in January and I would like to see him go out on top (and alive) than have his standing and reputation among the people fall. He should volunteer to be kicked upstairs to the post of Venezuelan UN ambassador, president of BancoSur or some other post in which he can be an elder statesman and spread the Bolivarian revolution by force of his charisma alone. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[pretzel4gore]

7. same with Fidel, the problem is....

we here see daily the antics of the rightwingnut, the busheviki, the fuxnewscnn tapeworm- sometimes it looks totally hopeless (why does the majority supported Democrats kowtow to the punk bush? Could it be because bush threaten to nuke Dallas, or Salt lake, to blame the Chinese, so war can happem, so martial law will be demanded by the volk?) Imagine what the men around Chavez see, everyday? Being a fighter for good, for truth, justice for the people, makes one almost doomed in the real world we live in- after all, that's why Jesus died. The devil is just too powerful, and Prez Chavez should sell out pronto asap! It's obviously hopeless! We're screwed, bigtime! We all should sell out, maybe(?) The Alien is just unstoppable- it goes through walls!
go bush!

[1932]

8. Excellent post.

And I'd like to add, if anyone cares to do the research so he or she can have a more informed opinion, I recommend watching the movie The Revolution Will Not be Televised, and reading the books Aleida Guevara and Richard Gott have written about Chavez and Venezuela.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: http://www.amazon.com/Chavez-Inside-k-Revolution-Televised/dp/B00005JMTD/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1196518871&sr=8-3

Gott: http://www.amazon.com/Hugo-Chavez-Bolivarian-Revolution-Venezuela/dp/1844675335/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196518955&sr=8-3

Guevara: http://www.amazon.com/Chavez-Venezuela-Latin-America-Interview/dp/8187496681/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196519025&sr=1-1

[fasttense]

5. Here on DU, some people have bought into the corporate media's hype.

Chavez is the nightmare of neocons "free trade" dreams. Dreams the neocons have implemented throughout the world, including the US. Neocons want absolute control over all trading and commercial activity of a country. They call it "free trade" but it really isn't free. It is controlled by the wealthy micro class who hold positions as CEOs, financiers and politicians in monopolies called corporations, and governments more aptly described as dictatorships. The major media outlets are also corporations and want to help out their budies in this micro class. So they lie about Chavez and people believe it.

Chavez advocates spending tax dollars on things like health care, social security, welfare, college education and other broad social programs. By doing this, Chavez cuts into the profits of corporations who must restrict their business practices to legal and moral commercial activities. See if a corporation can get control of something that citizens must have to live, there is no limit on what they can charge for that something. Take for example water. Everyone needs it, you can't live without it and it is freely available throughout the world. But if a corporation controls all the water in a country then the sky is the limit on what people will pay to get water and stay alive. It is just like health care in the US. Dying and suffering people will pay anything to stay alive.

Chavez wants to give the people of his country free water and free health care. The neocons think he is cutting into their market share and they will do anything possible to stop him. See if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach him to fish, you have just reduced your market share.

[seafan]

6. A belated DU welcome, fightindonkey.

See posts 15, 16, 17, 18 especially, for what the new constitutional referendum contains. Those few posts describe very well what you are questioning.


It has become very obvious that * likes and props up dictators. Most recent is Pakistan's Musharraf.

If Chavez was a true dictator, of the caliber of the * regime and its pals, Chavez would be a part of *'s Club. But he isn't.

We in this country are being aggressively propagandized to dislike Hugo Chavez because he empowers the Venezuelan people. But empowering the common people is the LAST THING *Co wants to happen. And if enough Americans see this empowerment of people happening to our south, we will start asking why it cannot happen for us as well. And this is what the * regime virulently fears, because it would end their rein of absolute power and control.

[fightindonkey]

9. I Still Question The Wanting No Term Limits Though

This still seems to be the big issue, and why on Earth would he propose this? I have said that other countries, even our own less than a hundred years ago, do not have term limits.

The television station deal is unacceptable. To say that you agree with that because it might be of an American coup, just does not fly. The Bush Administration says the same about all our television stations except Fux News. You can use that excuse with no proof whatsoever and do whatever you want then. That's dangerous. I do agree though that I haven't seen anything shocking happening unlike in other countries: China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, etc. I honestly could care less about Chavez and the spotlight on him, has made me question the motive. It is not our job to be policing the world, and it sounds like this is something some would wish us to do with Venezuela. If it were a real dictatorship, the vote that came down wouldn't have been accepted.

[Zorra]

10. He is trying to prevent the globalist/fascists from taking over Venezuela

like they took over the United States.

[rinsd]

11. Some think he is a saint, some think he is the devil. Most of us are in between (nt)