I know from my previous diaries that there are mixed views of Hugo Chavez, but you gotta love the guy for what he
said yesterday in his weekly talk on national radio.
"If they kill me, there will be a really guilty party on this planet whose name is the president of the United States, George Bush," Chavez said on his weekly radio programme, Hello, Mr. President.
"If, by the hand of the devil, those perverse plans succeed... forget about Venezuelan oil, Mr Bush," he said.
Chavez said he was convinced that Washington was "sketching out the assassination plans" before his Bolivarian Revolution advances in Venezuela and Latin America.
Whatever you think about the Bolivarian revolution, it would be wrong to snuff a guy elected by 80 percent of his people who is pursuing very popular policies.
Les Blough, of Axis of Logic, will be writing a series about his experiences in Venezuela under Chavez. The first piece appeared this weekend here.
President Chavez not only understands this history of US terrorism in Latin America. He has also experienced the brunt of US-sponsored terrorism himself -- in his own country, since becoming elected as Venezuela's president. The handful of wealthy opposition members in Venezuela lost control of their plutocracy when Chavez was elected by 80% of the people in 1998. Since then, they and their US partners have been unrelenting in their attempts to subvert Venezuelan democracy and the rule of law. But their movement is dying on the vine as the Chavez administration continues to successfully build Venezuelan society and infrastructure. In their US-funded coup attempt in 2002, they failed miserably when the people brought their president back from US imprisonment in the Caribbean.
Last year, the opposition's attempt to bring down Chavez by a referendum was once again, soundly defeated by the people. The US-backed opposition has publicly called for his assassination from their Miami havens and at least 2 attempts to assassinate him have failed. Last year, they bombed the car of Danilo Anderson and killed him. Anderson was one of the chief prosecutors in the Chavez government who was prosecuting the criminals who attempted the 2002 coup.
Interesting angle in the article is discussion of Senator Richard Lugar's proposed legislation in favor of gun control in Latin America (it would be unconstitutional in the good ole USA!). Apparently the lessons of Iraq have led Bushco to want to limit public access to conventional weaponry so that insurgents are not as well armed when we come to steal their oil next time.
For those of you who spewed venom on Saturday about Chavez, let me make it clear that I don't believe the sun shines out his ass. I just think that (so far) he's better than any US-backed administration which would ask for less than 1 percent of oil revenues while taking kickbacks to Miami bank accounts.
Previous diaries:
Plan B - Take Back Venezuela!
Black Ops In Venezuela? Very Deeply Troubling