Chavez's Clowning at Summit Hits a Chord in Latin America

[G_j]

Chavez's Clowning at Summit Hits a Chord in Latin America

News Analysis, Marcelo Ballvé,
Pacific News Service, Jan 14, 2004

http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=22c67b61ddae724647c7d2dab848a9f1

Editor's Note: Latin American bad boy Hugo Chavez hammed it up at the recently concluded Summit of the Americas in Monterrey, Mexico, comparing the barren surface of Mars to what poor countries look like after the IMF gets done with them. But like a court jester, the writer says, the leftist leader can bring up uncomfortable truths.

Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's voluble president, acted the class clown at the recently concluded Summit of the Americas in Monterrey, Mexico, and many in Latin America lapped up his antics at the expense of the United States and its allies.

The leftist leader trashed protocol, ridiculed the event as a mere photo-op and "a waste of time," and cracked jokes as often as possible, most notably a barbed comment aimed at U.S. National
Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.
Chávez's quips got lengthy coverage in Latin American newspapers. It was obligatory for correspondents at the summit, even those working for fairly conservative major media like Mexico City's Reforma and Brazil's O Globo, to include a sidebar on the Venezuelan's antics.
...more..

[SeveneightyWhoa]

1. I may not know enough about him, but..

..I really like this Chavez fellow!

[brainshrub]

3. I do to, but he's a dead-man-walking

and he knows it.

He hams it up b/c he knows that he's a marked man...so he has nothing to lose by yukking it up a bit.

[Minstrel Boy]

2. The real clown of the summit was Bush.

Chavez was its prince.

[leesa]

4. I am so glad that Latin Americans are getting their self-pride

back and taking a stand against American Imperialism. We have made them suffer for so long so we could strip them of their resources.

[tom_paine]

12. Surpising, given that we helped murder so many Latin Americans

You'd think, based on the sheer numbers of the murders, 300,000 in Guatemala, 150,000 in Nicvaragua, etc. etc. that there wouldn;t even be any decent people left, just all Bushevik thugs.

It is something of a testimonial to the humn spirit. It gives me hope. If these Latin American countries can survive what the Busheviks have been doing to them for 150 years, then mayber we CAN save the Old American Republic.

[BurtWorm]

5. That's a great article! Thanks for posting it.

I wonder if a Democrat in the WH would treat Latin America with any more respect. This jerk's attitude is repulsive. I would hope a Democrat would be more nuanced in understanding and response. But I'm sad to say, I have my doubts.

[G_j]

6. a good background and a feel

of the summit for a short aricle.

Chavez is not the type of leader to be high on the PNAC boy's 'friends' list.
Of course we can't forget that oil.

[Guaranteed]

7. I'm really starting to LIKE this guy!

Is there something wrong with me?

I don't THINK there's anything wrong with me. Maybe the guy's just intelligent, well-read and charming? Do those kinds of leaders still exist?

[AP]

8. I LOVE this guy.

[rman]

9. Venezuela using Fairness Doctrine, since US don't need it no more

-

[G_j]

10. kick

[xchrom]

11. ya gotta love him

he puts things in perspective -- he knows what the u.s. has been up to in his country -- and here he has to come to this summit and sit around the president of our country who ineffectually tried to get chavez removed from office.
the absurdity of it all.

[DUreader]

13. What must it be like to have a popular, elected leader?

will we ever know?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

14. Chavez may be a marked man but

he's got the people on his side in record amounts. He is the champion of the disenfranchised and he's getting the poor to read! Watch out. They failed with their coup. If they try to assasinate him he will be another Che. They'll try other means.

YOU GO HUGO!

[RandomKoolzip]

16. If E. Howard Hunt were alive today, Chavez would be long dead.

Do a google search...this is the CIA agent who orchestrated the coup in the Dominican Republic in 1954, with the aid of the mafia. Trujillo in 1954= Hugo Chavez in 2004. Now that we are now OWNED by the mafia, I have no idea why Chavez as lasted as long as he has. Maybe it's because he speaks out?


Chavez is beloved, as he should be. He's a good man. Too bad he'll be dead within a year.

[redqueen]

15. Great move

Using humor is a wonderful way to get your point across.

Thanks for posting this! :)