chavez-a man of significance?

Ever since Western explorers began their depredation of the americas ,those who should have spoken up in defence instead turned a blind eye to the rape and pillage and genocide carried out in the name of a christian god.Venezuelas Hugo Chavez is significant in that he marks the beginning of the end of imperialism and neoimperialism in the americas.He is villified by neocons in America.You may judge a man by his enemies.Chavez is providing an improved standard of health and education for his people.Those in Bush administration see him as a problem.Well he is.For them,but not for those who genuinely believe in the things neocons only pay lip service too like democracy and human rights.

 

Chavez won the oil lotto. Other than that, he's another populist clown that in the long run will be a disaster for Venezuela.

 

Venezuela's media war

Nowhere is the polarisation of Venezuelan society more apparent than in the frequent attacks on media workers, coupled with government threats to shut down independent TV and radio outlets....

LINK
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Let's hope Chavez isn't substituting one form of oppression for another.

 

Because other than him, Latin America has never elected a left-wing president.

 

They've elected lots of them.

 

Yeah, I was being sarcastic.

 

Er... me too. OK I wasn't, but still...

 

Latin America is taking a strong turn to the left and it seems that in the longrun nothing is gonna change that

 

i don't see how a man who plans to rewrite the executive policies in his favor, so that he may serve a virtually unlimited term, is a model president.

 

Not neccessarily.

We hear about how Latin America is "moving left",but some distinctions can be made. Not all of the "left" in Latin America are on the left like Fidel and Hugo. Both Chile and Brazil do have socialist leaders,but both have embraced free-market reforms.

Chile


Brazil

 

Because he's anti-Bush and knows how to use the right "revolutionary talk" to appeal to the pro-socialist/anti-imperialism crowd,even though he seems to have dictorial tendencies himself.

 

you can also embrace free market economy and still run a comunistic state (China)

 

market socialism, it is different

 

well that makes sense; and I'd favor that over stagnant neo-con ideology, but he's gotta delegate power to the people too, for venezuela to be a formidable democracy.

 

Well, I would hope nothing would.
Unfortunately, there have always also been
right-wing puppet states f'king things up,
and I don't see anything coming that is
going to change that.
~Which is too bad.

What we need is another Guevara
or Pancho Villa type figure.

 

I guess the question is which political system does capitalism work better under? I'd take a democratic system.

Some past problems related to China being communist:

By its own admission, bribery, extortion, smuggling and racketeering are endemic throughout every level of the Communist Party.

Dr Xu Cheng Gang, Lecturer in Economics at London University says that the root of the problem is the lack of separation between business and government brought about by efforts to open up the Chinese economy.

"In a completely centrally planned economy," he says, "when there was no market, corruption was less important because although they were powerful officials were not able to sell.

Now, he says, with China in the midst of economic upheaval, the government continues to allocate resources, placing officials at the centre of the market and enabling them to channel profits into their own pockets...

LINK

 

Well, we'd have to wait and see.
Where is there a democratic system in place?

 

not necessarily; both sides are normally moderate to either side of the political spectrum. It's just that this particular admin has taken it too far right, and the checks-and-balances will eventually move the status quo more towards the left, on a national level.

 

Are you saying Chavez is to the right?

And why would we want a moderate country when we can have a leftist one?

 

no, you said :
Originally Posted by Phrensied Rabbits
Well, I would hope nothing would.
Unfortunately, there have always also been
right-wing puppet states f'king things up,
and I don't see anything coming that is
going to change that.
~Which is too bad.

What we need is another Guevara
or Pancho Villa type figure."

because of how many people we have, and the diversity, our overall political tone is moderate, which is ok; otherwise, our country would probably be a mess. I, like you, would prefer it to be a little more left than what it is now.