There Is Much to Do: An Interview with Hugo Chavez (The Nation)

[struggle4progress]

By Greg Grandin
September 27, 2009

... Greg Grandin: I'd like first to ask you about the Honduran crisis. Manuel Zelaya - the president overthrown in a coup on June 28 -- is currently in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, having returned to the country in secret. What happens next? What can be done to force those who carried out the coup to negotiate?


Hugo Chavez: It's not for me to decide what the next step is. Zelaya has called for dialogue. That was the first thing he did as soon as he entered the Brazilian embassy. The coup-plotters have responded with repression, death and terror. I believe that the brutal nature of this coup will lead to its failure.

GG: But how do you explain the intransigence of Roberto Micheletti, the president installed by the coup? There is about a month to go before the scheduled November 29 presidential elections, and whether Zelaya is returned to office or not, we know that one of two candidates from either the National or Liberal parties - both conservatives -- is going to win. So why wouldn't the de facto government want a negotiated solution, allowing a symbolic return of Zelaya to the presidency for a short period in order to legitimate the outcome of the election?

HC: Noam Chomsky has a book, which I read for the first time when I was in Spain, called Fear of Democracy. There is your answer. Fear of democracy. In Honduras, they had a sham democracy. It was run by elites, what was called a liberal democracy but in reality was a false democracy. Honduras has been governed by a small group that for a long time has been supported by the United States, which used Honduras as a military base against other countries of Central America, against Cuba, turning the country into a colony. Manuel Zelaya came from the ranks of the Liberal Party, he entered the government as an intelligent young man, breathing in the new winds blowing from South America, the winds of change, I would say even winds of revolution. It is different from the revolution of the 1970s. This one is carried out not with rifles but by a peaceful people, it is a democratic revolution. Montesquieu said that men needed to be able to ride the wave of events. And that's what Zelaya did. With his cowboy hat he climbed up and rode the wave. And as soon as he broached the question of convening a constitutional assembly to consult with the people about refounding the republic, the political class that has governed all this time, the Honduran bourgeoisie, became frightened. That is the fear of democracy ...

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091012/grandin

[EFerrari]

1. One of the best interviews. Thank you.

[Peace Patriot]

2. A politician who refs Noam Chomsky & Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu,

adroitly explains their ideas and puts them into context in a political crisis, all in one paragraph, is a formidable leader, not to mention a rarety. You have to wonder about the "degrade Hugo brigade" and their epithets--"buffoon," "clown," "scumbag," "tinpot dictator," etc., etc. Maybe what we are seeing is a reaction (--and truly the Freepers are reactionaries--Montesquieu and his admirers such as Thomas Jefferson would have despised them--) in proportion to the intelligence and large-souled passion of the target. I'm reminded of Martin Luther King, Gandhi and FDR, all of whom were subjected to the most vile epithets and cartoon-like degradation by reactionary forces and "organized money."

[Braulio]

5. I believe that's called a straw man?

We could discuss Chavez' record on its own, rather than insult him.

[subsuelo]

3. Thanks (nt)

[roody]

4. Please repost in GD so we can send it to the Greatest.