Ok so I was talking about Chavez on a different forum and it was a pretty interesting discussion, so I thought I'd get a hippie/American opinion on him. He's a democratic socialist and an anti-imperialist, which going by the "Che" threads seem to be beliefs alot of you share. For those that don't know, he is the President of Venezueala. Here is the wikipedia link about him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Ch%C3%A1vez And here is an extremely good multi international award winning documentary made by two Irish journalists called "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" about Venezueala and Chavez in general but focusing on an attempted coup in 2002, which was suspected of being backed and possibly organised by the USA/CIA. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5832390545689805144 (I'm not sure if that link is working ok, but just google "The revolution will not be televised" and it will be in the first five responses.) Or alternatively use this link http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13119.htm So what do you all think about the man, and about the above documentary?
I don´t have a complete opinion of chavez..I think is different thing together, dictator and liberator, mass leader and great dealer (not drug meant), fake and determined. Plus the group of interest, group of power are differntly looking at him.at times supporting him and time pointing at him (see also european-western left wing). I should know more about to get a clear idea, but in any case i believe Hugo Chavez is quite feared!
Well he's certainly not a dictator. He's a representative democrat elected under internationally observed and approved elections. Even the opposition have eventually had to concede that. If people want to attack Chavez, they should attack him for his policies, not for the manner in which he was elected. Personally, I'm a socialist. I think Chavez has done a lot of positive things for the poor of Venezuela. He is moving that country towards a form of democratic socialism. Of course Conservatives will take issue with that, and that is their right. But to say he is not a democrat flies in the face of facts. Chavez may be friends with Castro, but he is no Castro. For a lot of in-depth information check out: www.venezuelaanalysis.com
I pretty much agree with Peace-Phoenix. Also, when I was in the US, I was very confused by the way Chavez was viewed and how people thought on him, when you live in the other end of the spectrum (I live in DR) you understand so much better what he's doing and the way he is doing it.
Chavez was granted power to rule by decree for 18 months with a new enabling act in 2007, that's pretty god damn dictator like. Chavez's enabling act of 2007, Hitler's enabling act of 1933, hmm.....
Damn I'm sick of that bastard, since I am from Venezuela I hear of him everyday... And Well let me tell you guys a little but about what's really going on here because everything you watch in the news it's not like that you have to life here to undestand. First of all he says he has helped the poor but han't done a damn thing for them in the almost 9 years of leader ship he has he's always tlaking about how he's gonna do this and is gonan do that and he hasn't done anything! he says hes gonna give them nice homes he gave them homes with terrible pipe problem no light no water. That just doesn't make sence they are people since his fist year as our president still wating for their houses like the janitors of our bulding and have they ever heard about their new home again? the answer is no..... He also opend up a supermarket called "Mercal" for them and guess what there's no eggs no milk no flour.... Our cleaning lady is one of those people that goes there because she has no money to buy at a regular supermarket and she says it's just terrible she can barly buy anything.... The only thing this man has done since he's been our leader is built hate in this contry he's divided everyone with their red shirts he's torn familys apart because of politic, and it's simply wrong. He also closed our bigest TV station of 52 years called "Radio Caracas Television" also called "R.C.T.V." and the only resson he closed them is because they showed what was really happening in this contry and not what he tried to make eveyone belive it's going on here and he's after "Globovision" now too because they are helping "R.C.T.V". And I hate to say it but if this keeps going on I'll just have to leave, because finding a good job that actually pays well since he's been president is harder than looking for a niddele in a hay stack and since I lived in U.S.A I know there's more to life than being scared of buying something nice because you will go out and get muged or killed just because you have a nice watch or celphone and this is all his fault this contry has never hit as low as it has now.
I really wanted to like Chavez for awhile. And then I got a Venezuelan penpal to help with my English. His family was part of the burgeoning middle class before Chavez came to power. Probably lower middle class by our standards, but middle class. Chavez came into power and their formerly nice working class suburb turned into all out gang warfare on the streets and his family can't even afford food despite that his mother is in middle management and he also works at her company. He sees people routinely shot in front of his apartment complex because they have a bicycle someone wants or nice shoes. There is not enough funding from the government to protect the people in Caracas, and probably other places as well.
I live in Iran my country suffers of dictator like him. Ahmadinejad the faked president of Iran has meet him many times and it's making me feel they are exactly the same and both are dictators. remember Iran and venezuela are oil exporting countris but both are poor. If he is a democrate why should he cloze a TV?
That is in keeping with the Venezuelan constitution and presidents have used it a number of times over the past century....
I think he's great and has done way more for his people than the shits who preceded him. I fully support him in his effort to bring socialism to Venezuela, Latin America, and the rest of the world. Human rights violations? Such as? You wanna talk about human rights & welfare & democracy, you can see "the revolution will not be televised." You can see it on Google or youtube. Basically it was a documentary on Chavez that was being done when the coup of April 2002 occurred. It shows the "democratic" and "benign" opposition in all its glory.
Venezuela head warns on schools Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has threatened the country's private schools with closure unless they adopt the government's socialist ideology. Mr Chavez warned all schools they must introduce a new curriculum this year that he said would help develop values of cooperation and solidarity http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7000079.stm
he sounds to me like someone i MIGHT be interested in learning more about. from honest and unbiased sources. if there were any. =^^= .../\...
People should alway be wary and cynical of ALL politicians. Having said that being lucky enough to live in teh UK where we have a democratic capiltalistic society which also has RELATIVELY fantastic socialist systems in place such as free education (used to be till end of university and is still heavily subsidised) free healthcare and public libraries I think everyone in the world should have access to those three simple things. When countries have corruption and interference from external parties (usually the CIA in south america) then it takes someone to really piss of teh USA to try and take back some control or God forbid resources for the country. Things are usually made worse when the USA then decides to brand people as terrorists and deny any of their own corrupt involvement in the country. All of which is known worldwide and is heavily documented and files released by the very government that denies the claims. I dont know enough cold hard unbiased facts about Chavez and he could be corrupt and evil. However i do know of the spin that lead his coup and also the fact he was returned to power by SEEMINGLY masses of actual venezualans. HE may prove to be a sh*t leader and eat all the money he generates as well as murdering any opposition that comes his way. but we'll have to see surely? I woudl NEVER ever support anyone who backed the closure of any free speech BUT understand that "free speech" is many times funded by either big business with hidden (albeit not very well) agendas or indeed by governments etc. (anyone watch Fox News? I don't I live in the UK no thank God we have real news over here) There should be some publically funded news sources in every country. Like the BBC. (ANd yes I know the BBC can also be biased and get it wring but its not answerable to the government or advertisers which is a great thing to have in place)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7040800.stm Concert ban for 'Chavez critic' A popular Spanish singer has been banned from performing in a Caracas stadium over remarks he made about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. A government minister accused Alejandro Sanz of criticising Mr Chavez three years ago while touring Venezuela. The musician has been banned from staging a concert at a state-run stadium but the government says he can perform at any privately owned venue. Some 15,000 fans hoped to see Sanz at the gig in the capital on 1 November. Expulsion The pop singer may have sold 21 million albums and won more than a dozen Latin Grammys, but the Venezuelan higher education minister, Luis Acuna, is not among his admirers. He accused the musician of railing against Mr Chavez and his Bolivarian revolution. Mr Acuna asked how the Venezuelan people would respond to such an artist using the state-controlled stadium. The comments which sparked the controversy were made by the singer during his last tour of Venezuela in 2004, when he said he did not like Mr Chavez. He also said that he did not like a number of other presidents elsewhere. And he made reference to a controversial recall referendum against Mr Chavez which was brought by the opposition to try to remove him from power. So far, Sanz has made no comment on the government's decision. It comes a few months after Mr Chavez warned foreigners they faced expulsion if they came to Venezuela to criticise him or his political agenda. Glad to see Chavez upholding freedom of speech
