Whatever you do, don't mention that most people will apparently be having just the opposite reaction in Venezuela. But many the right wingers will certainly be celebrating, as they are in the US and elsewhere.
Someone isn't affecting your life, therefore you don't care about them?
This doesn't strike me as an example I should follow.
Another person dies, was he a puppet to US?
Meanwhile we shed our tears for this man, 50,000 ppl died around the world by starvation or ill health, today.
The question is why weren't you so critical of other military coups in South and Central America, as well as the rest of the world?Quick informal poll:
How many people here know Chávez lead a military coup attempt in the 1990's to overthrow a democratic government?
I'm guessing none of his fans.
I wasn't referring to his most vocal supporters. i was referring to the average Venezuelan who likely considers such statements by the Chavez haters in the same sort of light.Of course they are. The Chavistas are some of the most vocal and loudest groups I've ever encountered. Also the most stupid on average but that's a personal opinion.
I wasn't referring to his most vocal supporters. i was referring to the average Venezuelan who likely considers such statements by the Chavez haters in the same sort of light.
Because I wasn't born when they happened?The question is why weren't you so critical of other military coups in South and Central America?
Hugo Chávez, the bully who lead a failed military coup in the 1990's, elected president under a Law and Order platform, to later mutate into a classic populist of the "Latin American idiot" kind, was one of the most harmful politicians of recent Latin American history.
His strategy to perpetuate himself in power followed some of the major lessons taught by Castro: an exception regime can perpetuate itself if it succeeds in exiling the intellectuals, the entrepreneurs and the non-conformists fro m the country. When he understood that the main obstacle to his project of rule for decades was the middle class and the entrepreneurs, he took all efforts to destroy them in their country. To frighten the Jews, he sent his militias to storm with machine guns into a Jewish school in Caracas. To frighten the entrepreneurs, he threatened them with expropriation and did expropriate. To frighten civil servants, he published lists of opposition voters and demanded oaths of loyalty to the revolution. To frighten the middle class in general, he shrugged off the sky rocketing murder and criminality rates of his country. To control the main focuses of power, he dismissed the destruction of the productive capacity of the state-owned oil company PDVSA, which he packed with cronies. To make it clear that democracy and individual freedoms were values he hated, he never measured efforts to aid the Cuban dictatorship with Venezuelan taxpayer money, and many other blood-thirsty dictators got at least diplomatic support, from Assad to Mugabe.
In the economic sphere, he was a monumental failure. Despite the great increase in oil prices, which tremendously helped him (he was elected partly because of the crisis his country was through due to the low oil prices of the 1990's) he didn't manage to expand production nor save any part of the gains. The Venezuelan economy under all his time couldn't escape high inflation, nor did it grow fast. From 1998 to 2012, the Venezuelan economy grew at an average rate of 3% per year, while Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia all grew between 4.1 and 5.8% per year.
For all those achievements, may he rest in peace
No, less than half voted against him. I doubt it is much more than a fringe group of the far-right who actually hated him, much like in the US and other countries.There is no such thing as "average Venezuelan". Roughly half of Venezuela hates Chávez. Roughly half loves him. What is the average? Indifference?
You were certainly alive during the Honduras one, which you seemed to have been quite in favor. And you didn't seem to criticize either Chile or even the Brazilian coups all that much, if at all, in the past. I also seriously doubt you find anything wrong with the 1953 Iranian coup as well. "I'm guessing" it has far more to do with whether or not it is a leftist or rightist coup.
Chavez also only had 10% of the support of the military during the first coup attempt and apparently not much more during the second attempt, so it is somewhat disingenuous to try to characterize it as a "military coup".
Pérez was also forced out of office soon afterwards for embezzling 250 million bolivars, and the coup plotters were pardoned.
No, less than half voted against him. I doubt it is much more than a fringe group of the far-right who actually hated him, much like in the US and other countries.
you're a far-left extremist
Don't project your own hypocrisy to me. I have made it clear on several posts that I do not endorse dictatorships even when they follow economic policies I mostly approve, like Pinochet (the Brazilian military regime, especially after 1968, followed economic policies that I detest, so I have absolutely no reason to like them on any grounds).
That he was pardoned only speaks of the magnanimity of the Venezuelan democracy he tried to destroy. Isn't it funny that same regime he tried to destroy through violence not only pardoned him but allowed him to be elected President?
Sorry about that.Come now, don't try and pin him on us.
That was a bit of a generalization from my part, but broadly speaking, yeah.The wording I remember was, right wing dictatorships are to be preferred to left-wing dictatorships because they kill less people.
With the advantage of foresight, yeah. At the time it probably seemed like the right move. Vindictiveness is always bad and does not work well in a democracy; OTOH failure to properly defend a democracy may lead to its erosion and eventual overthrow. It's a tricky issue.Do you not regard this as a fantastic failure on their part for having done so?
A great hero of the Latin American common man is finally at peace after a long struggle with cancer. This will be a major blow to the Latin American anti-imperialist movement, I do not know enough about Maduro to know if he can rise to the occasion for Venezuela, much less to try and fill the shoes of Chavez.
right wing dictatorships are to be preferred to left-wing dictatorships because they kill less people.
I wasn't referring to his most vocal supporters. i was referring to the average Venezuelan who likely considers such statements by the Chavez haters in the same sort of light.
Are you also going to as vehemently hate the next president who will also likely be a leftist instead of a rightist?
No, less than half voted against him. I doubt it is much more than a fringe group of the far-right who actually hated him, much like in the US and other countries.
No, less than half voted against him. I doubt it is much more than a fringe group of the far-right who actually hated him, much like in the US and other countries.