UB313 as a metaphor for Eurochavismo

Ibsen Martinez in his Monday column of El Nacional has it with the "eurochavistas" defined loosely as leftist "en mal d'idole" that have reached such a level of boredom that to entertain themselves they are willing to tolerate populism, militarism, and all sorts of other related abuse just to "give a chance to the experiment", an experiment that they visit as tourists, return ticket safely in pocket.

The original Spanish is here.

And as a reminder, Ibsen has always defined him somewhere between center left and left. Kind of a Liberal left, US center.

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Some choice passages.

First an introduction to “eurochavismo”.

What in another context would be named “eurochavismo”, this infantilism of a globophobic first World.

Then on to the motion of Labour backbenchers to support Chavez.

The style of the Labor resolution reminds us of these advertisements that our government transmits regularly in “cadena”, with obvious inclusions of slang from Granma in the trance of exalting the achievements of the “process”.

Of course, the attitude of this impressive contingent of the socialists backbenchers in the Commons, might or might not be part of the anti-US tsunami that is today sweeping the planet, but I feel compelled to point out that the labor communiqué mirrors the naïf idea of Chavez and Venezuela that leftists politicians of European parliaments have.

[snip]

The British parliamentarians are very careful to search the body for questions on human and political rights in Venezuela or the electoral fair play [sic] or the rule of law [sic, again] entrusted to a judicial system independent from the executive, a notion dear to the political civilization of the Anglo Americans.

They much prefer to herald improbable accomplishments in the fields of social justice and human development. And they can interject Blair, demonstrate sympathy and understanding for an “authoritarian statesman” motivated by philanthropy and concern for the poor, being certain that Chavez Hill never reside at 10, Downing street.

A little tour through Italy.

A digression becomes a must, to be just with the Italian left of today. The people from the Democratici de Sinistra, the largest group of the institutional and democratic left, does not swallow the Chavez bait: Italian XXth century has seen to much militaristic messianism to buy the Bolivarian ironmongery.

And to finish a rather bemused observation.

Does the reader recalls when the left a-bo-minated Latin-American populisms because they were corrupt reformist insufficiencies and, to add insult to injury, messianic, caudillo prone and philofascist?

Well, not anymore. In its lack of ideas, the “post modern” left, without nothing strong to offer besides changing the word “proletariat” by “subaltern”, or say “exclusion” where “poverty” would do, it has been seen in the trance to balkanize its sympathies for a swarm of just causes but often unhinged [untranslatable pun]

Oh, and Ub313 is a meteorite big enough to be a small planet and thus an utopia of sorts.