Time to rerun Jeff Cohen's column debunking rightwing Chavez myths

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Published on Thursday, July 6, 2006 by CommonDreams.org
Go to Venezuela, You Idiot!
by Jeff Cohen

I don't usually take the advice of rightwingers. But I did this time. After receiving inflamed email messages from dozens of angry rightists that I should get the hell out of the USA and go to Venezuela, I accepted their challenge and flew to Caracas.

"Would you like me to start a fund to ship your ass down there, Comrade Cohen?"

What had provoked the often-abusive emailers was my 2005 Internet column urging U.S. residents to buy their gasoline at Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil company. I called for a Citgo BUY-cott, to protest Bush's interventionist foreign policy while supporting innovative anti-poverty programs in Venezuela. (Last winter, Citgo started a program that provided discounted home-heating oil to low-income families in the U.S.)

"Hey moron, if you hate America so much and love Venezuela, why don't you go there?"

I'm glad I listened to the conservative chorus. In late June, I headed to Venezuela with a fact-finding delegation sponsored by the respected U.S. human rights group, Witness for Peace. The grueling trip covered much ground and all sides of Venezuela's social/political landscape. It is a complex country, headed by sometimes volatile President Hugo Chavez, a leftist and harsh Bush critic who was first elected in 1998.

more:
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0706-32.htm

[eleny]

1. Peter Werbe is talking about his own trip to Caracas in January

He's on AAR right now in Malloy's old slot.

[Generic Other]

2. How come everyone keeps telling me Chavez is evil?

:shrug:

[Nikki Stone 1]

3. kick

:kick:

[Spider Jerusalem]

4. Chavez is no saint.

He's not the dictator some say he is, but he's not the beau ideal of a democratic populist, either. Under his leadership, there have been many decidedly undemocratic restrictions on press freedom to criticise the actions of the government, there's been questionable packing of the judiciary to ensure a heavily-weighted pro-Chavez majority...yes, he's accomplished good things, but he has many obvious and troubling flaws, too. The truth of Chavez is somewhere in between the vilification of his detractors and the hagiography of his admirers.