Chavez, world leader: update

The update is substantial enough that it is better as an additional post for the one below.

Press review Sunday morning

The ideas that I have exposed yesterday were taken again in el Universal and El Nacional today. Not that anyone copies the other guys, but simply, the latest developments have such obvious implications that you do not need to be particularly bright to figure out the implications. Blogging just allow you faster publication. since El Universal is the one free on line I will limit myself to its scanning. Two articles of note.

Roberto Giusti. He offers us a long analysis titled "the bitter fruits of disintegration". As its name implies it throws a hard look at how Chavez is wreaking havoc within the Latin America current structure and why. Both Mercosur and the Andean Community are in chaos as Chavez has maneuvered with a certain skill to avoid settling for the standard conditions that such groups require. As a consequence trade talks with the European Union are stalled, in particular for the Mercosur, and there is a general prediction that foreign investment in Latin America will drop. Which is exactly what Chavez wants to make his check book more relevant.

Two paragraphs bear translation:

The question that comes up is how will react the other members of the AC and Mercosur in front of the chavista strategy which will translate in an increase of unemployment, poverty and continental isolation. Will they keep allowing the consolidation of a policy of extreme polarization activated by the Venezuela aggressiveness courtesy to the bottomless barrels of the petrodollars? Are they really aware that the plan is not anymore to fight the US but to destabilize their respective National States?

And

From this situation we can expect two scenarios: that the countries affected by the chavista perturbation develop antibodies and, as it is already happening in Peru and Mexico, its electors reject [chavismo option] with votes to ratify democracy. Or that as a reaction come back military regimes that once again bring us to a past as abhorrent as the one represented by chavismo [allusion to the military nature of the Chavez regime].

Carlos Blanco. Pretty much a similar analysis. translating the end will be enough.

The key fact, that now they [Chavez administration] are trying to hide, is the direct and implacable rejection that Lula has done. He has put a stop to the Venezuelan President, which in fact diminishes him and puts him in place; even more, it takes him out of the modern Latin American Left which he had entered without credentials, helped by the senile trickery of Castro.

Chavez is not a problem only for those who live here. All the international mafia net that has been built up around this project is a player in the depredation of the rights and resources of the Venezuelan people; thus, this mere fact authorizes, and even more demands, that the democrats of the world place themselves along the Venezuelan dissidence. Chavez made international the fight for his political project; now the Venezuelan democrats have no option but to do the same.

The implications of Chavez recent actions are becoming clearer for all.

News from London

But if the Chavez critics are sharpening their knife as the fight has acquired a new dimension, chavistas keep pressing their options. Hands off Venezuela, a rather silly leftist group in the UK that has found favor with chavismo claims to have been the main organizer of the Vienna show. It is worthwhile reading their web article as an example of some of the delusions that run among these people who see Chavez as the great non-white hope against the US.

We can read a few amusing paragraphs. The first one illustrates the lack of guiding lights besides Chavez. The roster of dignitaries listed is pathetic when one knows the real value and “achievements” of these characters:

On the platform there were many prominent figures in the Bolivarian Movement. Nicolas Maduro, the President of the National Assembly, Juan Barreto, the mayor of Caracas, as well as the Minister of Planning, Jorge Giordani and Eva Gollinger, the author of The Chavez Code. Ruben Linares, one of the national co-ordinators of the UNT, was also present, as was the Cuban ambassador and a group of 20 Cubans from the embassy.

The description of the event and emotional reactions are worth noting:

When President Chavez approached the podium he was greeted with deafening applause and a sea of waving red flags and chanting, He spoke for about two hours, and his main theme was the need to fight against imperialism and capitalism that are destroying the planet and placing the human race in danger. He quoted the words of Rosa Luxemburg...
[snip some banalities where Chavez alludes to his stolen future as he benefits from an international role because of that stolen future...]
The President’s speech was received with wild applause and the cheering and chanting went on for a long time, as he took a red flag from one of the audience and waved it in the air. Then, quite spontaneously, the crowd started to sing the Internationale. It was an emotional end to an emotional occasion. It was past midnight and for hours later groups of people were still standing in the precinct, discussing the ideas of socialism and revolution in a way that has not been seen here for many years.

I bet they had not been discussed like that for years.... gives a new meaning to "back to the future" when Chavez resurrects dead ideas and manages to find people to believe they are new. He is good at that, we must admit. And we also get the list of those who footed the bill for that meeting, in a rather quaint paragraph:

There are many people we would like to thank for their help and assistance in organising this meeting. Unfortunately there are too many to name them all. We would like to thank comrade Harold from the Casa Militar, Veronica from the Venezuelan embassy in Vienna and Alejandro Fleming, the Venezuelan ambassador in Belgium and to the European Union. We would also like to thank comrade Fernando Bossi in Caracas for his invaluable assistance in arranging this activity.

Amusing. Do they realize waht they are writing? Do these people actually talk liek that among themselves? Does it not bother them to see folks from the military court of Chavez organizing and bankrolling such activities?

On a more, much more serious note, my colleague Gene wrote a much more interesting an informative post that this emotional rant of Hands Off. At Harry's Place they do have a whole bunch of questions for Chavez as he visits London. And we can read in the comment section a fast "damage control" operation from some of those that used to come here to do damage control.

I also got my third mini interview with the BBC radio 5. This time they did put me to argue, very briefly, with a London Chavez supporter whose name I did not get (I think from what he said he was into the reception people). I suppose that tomorrow the link will be put up. The argument of the guy against me? Chavez won X elections. Pretty much the last one remaining.

I am having a great time with all of this.