in this article.
For instance, Alfredo Rangel (in Cambio, a business magazine) writes: "Peace in Colombia will advance his (Chavez's ) ideas, and that would threaten our institutional stability and our conservative political culture."
And Álvaro Forero Tascón, says, in El Espectador: "...it is preferable that the war continues than Chávez be involved in Colombia’s affairs."
It is not at all surprising that Colombia's rich elite would feel threatened by loss of their special privileges, power and wealth, that a more equitable system, such as Venezuela's, would bring, but that they would PREFER WAR with leftist guerillas over fairness, democracy and peace, and say so openly, is very telling. They are as odious and as crude as Bushites. Indeed, their horrid war and their fascist ideas and insularity, while millions of their countrymen are so poor and powerless, and without hope, seems like a microcosm of our own big "banana republic."
The heartening news in this article is that the millions of Colombian immigrant workers in Venezuela are impressed with what they're seeing--fair labor conditions, worker coops, help for small businesses and for the poor, universal health care, free education through university--and are bringing Bolivarian political ideas back to Colombia, and getting organized to gain political power.
The rich elites don't realize what a gift the Bolivarian revolution is giving them--a way out of violent repression, and a peaceful, democratic means of achieving prosperity and independence for the whole society. South America could be an economic and cultural powerhouse, if it banded together, and employed the talents of all of its citizens. The Bolivarians are neither confiscatory nor violent. They just want fairness! And societies that seek fairness are the ones that succeed, for everybody. We were once the model for this, but we no longer are. Will this be the South American Century? It could be--and may well be, even if the rich elites, who have been so greedy and repressive, and have caused so much suffering, don't smarten up. They may just go the way of the dinosaurs, in their little pockets of greed and hatred, in Colombia and a few other places. But if they were, instead, to recognize the potential of Bolivarianism for creating a truly progressive and prosperous society, and start cooperating with this amazing movement, instead of plotting against it, they could avoid the great mistake that the original anti-Bolivarians made, of selling their countries, their resources, their people, their independence and their pride to the giant in the north and its malevolent corporate predators.
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Full quote from the article:
"Now Chávez is invited he won’t leave. It has been difficult for Chávez to have influence in Colombia because it is a conservative country, but he has been patiently waiting and his interference was just a matter of time, but it is preferable that the war continues than Chávez be involved in Colombia’s affairs."
"Don’t forget that Chávez is an extremely active politician with aspirations to unite the Americas," writes Alfredo Rangel in the business magazine Cambio. "Peace in Colombia will advance his ideas, and that would threaten our institutional stability and our conservative political culture."
Álvaro Forero Tascón, in El Espectador, is more explicit:
"Now Chávez is invited he won’t leave. It has been difficult for Chávez to have influence in Colombia because it is a conservative country, but he has been patiently waiting and his interference was just a matter of time, but it is preferable that the war continues than Chávez be involved in Colombia’s affairs."
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/904/1
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