What Is At Stake In Venezuela
Hugo Chavez Likes It When The House Wins
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Featured Stories | Foreign Affairs — Comments (8) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Whatever the degree of oppression and intimidation, the Chavez government cannot quite succeed in completely intimidating the Venezuelan people:
Read on . . .
Hundreds of thousands of people on Saturday marched in Caracas to support opposition presidential candidate Manuel Rosales, whose populist campaign has focused on reducing crime and redistributing oil wealth.
Rosales, governor of the oil-rich Zulia state, trails leftist President Hugo Chavez by around 20 percentage points in most private polls ahead of the December 3 election.
Chavez is a close ally of Cuba and fiercely opposes the Bush administration even though Venezuela provides around 12 percent of U.S. oil imports.
Opposition sympathizers donning Venezuela's signature red, yellow and blue patriotic colors joined the march, which spanned some 12 miles across most of the capital city.
"Rosales is our last hope to prevent this country from becoming another Cuba," said 53-year-old engineer Antonio Romero, who marched with his family carrying Venezuelan flags.
Of course, merely because such intimidation has failed thus far does not mean that the Chavez government won't continue to try to stack the deck in its favor:
A video released this week showed the nation's top energy official saying the government should not employ oil workers opposed to Chavez -- statements Chavez himself later backed despite intense criticism.
Of course he would back them. Having propagated disastrous economic and social policies, having allowed crime to be rampant and having clamped down on freedom of expression, Hugo Chavez is left with little choice but to engage in ruthless and despicable tactics of intimidation and fear-mongering in order to hang on to power. In time, such tactics will turn on him as they do with most tyrants, but in the interim, innocent Venezuelans are made to suffer.
Perhaps something should be done to decrease such suffering. Perhaps the attention of the international community should be focused on the manifold abuses in Venezuela. And perhaps those who style themselves as defenders of freedom should take a look at what is happening in Venezuela and evince some outrage. If they feel it, that is.
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What Is At Stake In Venezuela 8 Comments (0 topical, 8 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
that we are actively undermining the Chaves government. If not, then it's time to rid ourselves of the CIA, NSA, and other non-functioning semi-illiterate government agencies.
Formally known as deagle
Re this RedHot post - Heh. I aced it. (Didn't study either.)
Retire Lindsey Graham. Support Thomas Ravenel for Senate 2008
13 out of 13. :)
Could we make that sucker into a poll test. You have to make 80% or better for your provisional ballot to be counted?
I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful 100 percent.
but maybe as a posting test for RedState --- you have to score at least 80% to post here. Actually since we're trying to filter out the leftwing moonbats a 10% score will do :-)
John
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Democratic civilization is the first in history to blame itself because another power is trying to destroy it.
... Jean-François Revel
But then given the drivel the Democrats spread as "facts", I shouldn't be surprised if at least 50% of the people in this country miss the questions.
I'd like to see some demographic info and breakouts of which groups of people gave which answer.
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Socialism doesn't work. It looks nice on paper, but it's been tried and it's failed miserably every time (usually accompanied by widespread death and suffering).
Proud member of the V.R.W.C.
Our education system has been encouraging magical thinking in people.
Ask yourself the following
1. What percentage of the people understand conservation of energy ?
2. What percentage of people could tell you how electrical current is generated and delivered to their appliances. If you want bonus points ask if they understand the difference between current and voltage.
3. How many people understand how oil is produced and turned into gasoline.
If people don't know the facts anything that seems right can fill the void. This is why construction of powerplants and refinerys can get blocked by environmentalists.
The way I see it, Latin American politics are so messed up by now that the only thing that could possible set them on the right course is if there were a major war to break out over there. In that case, I'd want to see all the caudillos get themselves killed and whomever is the victor turn out to be a decent human being who genuinely recognizes the need for serious reforms over there and not just give lip service to the platitudes about reducing poverty and respecting human rights (of which the likes of Chavez and Ortega and, before them, Castro will always claim but never deliver). The worst thing about the Latinos is that I don't see anything much in common with us other than a Christian faith; fine democratic ideals do not have a deep root in their culture and most of them seem to prefer the machismo of a dictator and the sort of Old European chauvinism that echoes in the political "correctness" of our own Left. One hopes that this is not the case.
If the Venezuelans can overcome this Castro-wannabe and his thugs and finally put themselves on a better path, more power to them. If not, we have a bigger mess coming right behind those bloodsuckng monsters running the Islamic terror cults and the rest of the headless mob who support them.
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"Straight Talk Express"? My bum feet! -- Me, on Senator McCain and other "moderates"
We can cut off diplomatic ties to Venezuela and urge our allies to do the same, but we are limited in what we can effectively do. Unfortunately, we need Venezuela's oil and a sizable disruption will harm our economy. I think that our best hope, and worse fear, is for Chavez's false populism to run its course and have the good people of Venezuela kick him out. Chavez's economic policies will cause the Venezuelan economy to shrivel and the people will begin to suffer. I don't think anyone doubts that.
That doesn't mean we should be silent. On the contrary. We should offer the opposition all the support we can, short of military intervention.