Hugo Chávez

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President Chávez and President Bush compare their favourite books

Hugo Chávez is the democratically elected "dictator" of Venezuela.

1 Political positions
2 Personal views
3 Worrisome observations
4 Cheap oil for the poor
5 Convoluted violence
6 Conservatives and Chávez
7 References and notes

[edit] Political positions

He is a fierce opponent of Neoliberalism and Imperialism. As a result he is very critical of the policies of the United States, particularly the policies of George W. Bush. According to the US government and media he is becoming increasingly autocratic. Examples include failure to renew the license of a private television station that Chávez alleged was calling for his violent overthrow, and eliminating term limits - which was done through a popular referendum that eventually failed. His other crimes include having a vote on the new constitution and nationalizing the profits of the state oil company PDVSA.

[edit] Personal views

Chávez claims to be a devout Christian, has called Jesus the world's first socialist and he is a huge fan of Noam Chomsky.

[edit] Worrisome observations

In spite of his Chomsky fanboyism, he also did push through the legislature the ability to make laws on his own, which is kind of the essence of being a dictator. The legislature does have to ratify any changes he makes, however. (Many consider this to be a moot point, however, since the entire government structure has been staffed with Chávez supporters. All of Chávez's supporters have been democratically elected as well.) Chávez also attempted to remove term limits and sought the ability to override democratically elected provincial governors, but when the referendum failed, he graciously accepted it as the will of the people.

Meanwhile, with inflation at over 20% ^[1] and food shortages growing ^[2] ^[3]his popularity may be past its peak.

[edit] Cheap oil for the poor

Chávez executed a humanitarian propaganda coup in the winter of 2006-2007 by performing an end-run around the State Department and negotiating and arrangement for low cost heating oil to be delivered to needy households in Massachusetts directly with a former Massachusetts Congresscritter.

[edit] Convoluted violence

Unfortunately, anti-Chávez students were recently fired upon by masked gunmen. Many have suggested that Chávez is trying to suppress those who would vote against referenda to give him more power; on the other hand, the referenda had been expected to pass easily.^[4] The gunmen were identified by university officials as members of a paramilitary group loyal to Chávez. ^[5].

Although it sounds unlikely, it is possible that right-wingers were responsible for the attack in order to discredit Chávez. If true this would be not only Conservative deceit but also Conservative terrorism. The conservative television stations have called for violent overthrow of Chavez, and Chávez was overthrown in a coup in 2002, so this theory does not remain outside the realm of possibility. If it is true that Chavez was involved in violence against the opposition, it would come as a huge disappointment and betrayal to the millions of people throughout the world who support him.

More recently, Chávez has given a great deal of support to a terrorist organization in neighboring Columbia, known as FARC. The Columbian government has accused Chávez of giving financial aid, but even if that is untrue, he has given ideological support by calling on others to recognize FARC as a legitimate military.

[edit] Conservatives and Chávez

For those living in an alternative reality, Conservapedia has an "article" about Hugo Chavez

Chávez has become something of a liberal boogeyman to many conservatives. This ignores that fact that, other than oil, Chávez has no weapons to wield against the United States. His military is a joke and other states are starting to turn against him. However, many conservatives still treat him as an imminent danger to the United States^[6] and he probably has Weapons of Mass Destruction.^[7]

This fact may be why the Bush Administration is not clamoring for war against Venezuela, unlike say, Iran or Syria. (Clamoring for war does not necessarily mean actually going to war.) Also, the reason(s) for war in Iraq simply don't exist in Venezuela. This begs the question, if Venezuela is antagonistic, has a weak military, but has oil, was the War in Iraq entirely about oil? Reasonable minds can differ on this question.