The Captain Of A Sinking Ship?

[Matilda]

The foreign media are reporting that Hugo Chavez is unpopular and the Venezuelan economy is tanking but on the ground, things look a little different, reports Rodrigo Acuna from Caracas

Since the Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez announced in late June he had a cancerous tumour, media around the world have gone into a frenzy of speculation over his health and upped their attacks on his government. And since Chavez has a tendency to confuse support for a state’s right to sovereignty in the face of foreign aggression with open support for its regime (such as Iran, Libya and Syria), it is easy for some journalists to distort the reality of events here in Venezuela.

(snip)

When asked to comment on the disparity between the government’s policies and lack of accurate coverage of Venezuela by foreign journalists, Fernando Travieso — oil expert at the Bolivarian University of Venezuela — was rather blunt. "I think the ones that are in chaos, and it saddens me … are in the north of London with the protests that have occurred due to right-wing measures that have been implemented."

From Travieso’s perspective, journalists in the UK and the US are missing the point. They have plenty of problems to be analysing in their own countries such as the "growing accelerated rates of poverty in the United States". With oil prices continuing to remain around the $US100 mark, and with Venezuela now acknowledged to have the largest crude oil reserves in the world, the government of Hugo Chavez looks set to maintain the economic power to fund its domestic and international policies, in spite of what other political observers may have you believe.

http://newmatilda.com/2011/10/10/captain-sinking-ship


It's refreshing to read something that isn't either being spun by the MSM or over-adulatory. Just an idealistic man doing his best for his country, as he sees it. Making some mistakes (his support for Gaddafi and Assad is very difficult to comprehend), but far from the evil dictator of popular fiction.

[Demeter]

1. It's not that hard to understand Chavez' support for Gaddafi and Assad

He objects to imperialism in any form.

His own nation is under constant attack from the US, including the unfavorable press coverage, some of which is wholly made up lies, and the US funded coup that the people in the street defeated. The IMF keeps trying to get its nose in, to foment yet another epic failure and takeover by multinational corporations, and then there's the attempt to smear Venezuela with drug-running charges.

Chavez has no reason to truckle to Big Oil, and they aren't happy about that.

[bahrbearian]

2. +1 Perfect!

[Matilda]

3. My problem with Chavez' support for Gaddafi and Assad

is that he is supporting two dictators who have not been democratically elected and who have no respect for the civil rights of their people. The people clearly wish for a change so they can make their own decisions, and I don't see how that equates with socialism, which should always reflect the will of the people.

Apart from that glitch on the radar, I think Chavez is cut from a different cloth and is genuinely trying to better the lives of the Venezuelan people. There should be more like him; he's a rare bird indeed.

[bhikkhu]

4. Imperialism is fine if you keep it within your own borders, apparently

I've always admired Chavez, but I think that recent history in many countries has reinforced the idea that without term limits, even the best of intentions swerve dangerously right.

I'll admire him or not in the future depending on how his own succession goes; if he leaves Venezuela sound and whole, with a competent government, a good selection of well-trained and well-intentioned potential successors, and a strong sense in the people of how a democracy works , he will have done well.

If he leaves a gutted and failing government full of cronies, with no one in the wings even close to competent to take over, and if he has to be thrown out by a fed up populace long after his time has passed, then he will have failed - whatever good things he once intended.