March 04, 2004

• Some might suggest that the US has been paying a little too much attention... I've no brief for Chavez, who seems like he may well be following that time honoured route; popular hero sweeps to power in place of corrupt regime --> finds fixing things difficult, presidential palace comfortable --> becomes new corrupt regime. However, I'm deeply suspicious of his opponents - for example, ProVeO, the (London-based) organisation behind your final link, have a distinct air of 'well, we liked the old corrupt regime' about them. Their manifesto isn't available in English, despite what they claim, but the (poor quality) web translation of it looks a bit, well, dodgy; certainly hyper-neoliberal free marketeering in tone, and the bits about "banning the use of the word Bolivar" seems considerably more than that. Can anybody with the speaking of the Spanish provide asistance? Whatever, it's certainly true that Chavez pissed off a lot of powerful people when he came to power - including the US, who suddenly found that this vital oil supplier was no longer quite so compliant. Frankly, it'd be surprising if they weren't complicit in the coups d'etat. I can't see Chavez being replaced by anybody other than a representative of the old regime, keen to return things to the way they were before.
• The ultra-elite certainly does not have clean hands here, but nobody does. Chavez first tried to come to power in a military coup, which isn't very reassuring. Some of the opposition would certainly prefer a return to the old days, but some of that nostalgia is really for a time when the Bolivar was wildly overvalued and the country was flooded with petrodollars and life was easier for just about everyone. And the "oligarchy" that Chavez keeps referring to is not a large group of people- many of the people demonstrating against him are from the rapidly shrinking middle and working classes. About the ProVeO manifesto and the usage of terms referring to Simon Bolivar: Bolivar is revered by Venezuelans as the ultimate national hero, and it most certainly offends the super-elite that the name and aura of one of their own has been appropriated by someone like Chavez. Imagine a left-leaning populist in the US calling for a "Jeffersonian" revolution... (okay, imagining a left-leaning populist in the US is hard enough.)
• "Pendejo", as I heard it used in NYCity around Puerto Ricans and Cubans, is more accurately translated as "cocksucker". I don't know much about Chavez, but anybody who thinks Mugabe is doing a good job is batshit crazy.
• Indeed, as I said, I've no fondness for Chavez, and his background in failed coups certainly casts a grim light on his current behaviour. Any political leader who regularly dresses up in military uniforms is a worry. I got the Bolivar reference (The Liberators is fairly near the top of my 'must read' list, having had a great time with the the same author's account of Cochrane, a forgotten hero and something of a liberator himself) - and while personally I'd prefer a revolutionary ideology called O'Higginsism, on the grounds that it sounds funny, I don't think I'm terribly keen on anybody who intends to ban the name of their opponents' movement once they get into power. That's what bad people do, in my experience. Other references in the ProVeO manifesto - "8. To reconstruct PDVSA, returning in its functions to all the personal tecnico/executive one. Immediate dismissal of spokespersons of the government and alien persons to the industry. 9. To revive and to modernize the economia in base to the absolute liberty, eliminating the interventionism of the state and the obsolete laws of work.", as my bad translation engine has it - sound like simple declarations of "back to the old school". In addition, their article about Venezualan history and the context of the modern problems is a pretty weasel-worded piece, full of misdirection, non-sequiturs and slanted opinion. To be sure, there is a broad base for the movement against Chavez, but I see nothing to suggest that its leaders are anybody other than the same figures from the oil industry (ousted or embittered) who were likely behind the coup of 2002 and the strikes of 2002/2003, and who have had a large hand in creating the economic and social turmoil that make Chavez so vulnerable. To take a reference from the article I linked, it seems to be a choice between Castro or Pinochet. And that's not fun, either way.
• I'm not defending the old regime in any way; there certainly was a great deal of injustice. Using incendiary rhetoric that makes the people who actually have something to lose very nervous is guaranteed to create trouble. I think it is interesting that Chavez spoke so warmly of Mugabe, as there are some parallels between the two countries. Why cut off your nose to spite your face? Oh, and the literal translation of pendejo is "pubic hair." As it's used in Venezuela, (and it's used a lot) "cocksucker" is too strong- it's more like a more colorful version of "bonehead." Did I mention I lived in Venezuela? Probably should have.
• If the literal translation of pendejo is "pubic hair," doesn't that make it kind of a sickly appropriate term to apply to a head of state named "Bush?" sorry...
• Chavez on Bush: "The devil came here yesterday... It still smells of sulphur today." Hehehe... I'm imagining a tag-team wrasslin' match with Chavez, Ahmadinejad and Jong-Il in one corner vs. Chimpy, Condi and Rummy in the other... flying metal chairs to boot. Blair would be the water boy.
• Chavez formally requests special powers for 18-month period And on the hit list: Radio Caracas Televisión National TV network accused of supporting a coup attempt against Chavez CANTV Venezuela's largest telephone company which is controlled by Verizon La Electricidad de Caracas Owned by US company AES Not to mention oil...
• Long live Socialism
• He has 72 hours, from this moment, the Yankee ambassador in Caracas, to leave Venezuela... OK, two years later - - and I have to shuffle the teams a bit... Jong-Il is out, since he's probably dead already. In his place, we'll put Putin. The Russian bombers on Venezuelan soil make the match more fair I think. Chavez and Ahmadinejad have both proved to be prize fighters. Team USA, sadly, has gone nowhere. Chimpy will replace Blair as the water boy for now. Condi and Rummy are both sidelined. We need to put Cheny back in action, along with Palin and, oh, a tough one here - - let's say we put Hillary in for a spell to mix things up!