The New York Times, a faithful propaganda arm of corporate cashsuckers, has jumped on the "let's slime Hugo Chavez" bandwagon. Transcribing White House talking points about the beloved President of Venezuela, they have smeared him mercilessly, ignoring the truth so offensive to their elite masters: America's version of cowboy capitalism, which feeds the already-wealthy and enslaves the poor, is economically and morally wrong. Hugo Chavez has a better way. He is using the oil wealth of his country to give his population 100% literacy...a claim that even America
cannot make.
For SHAME, New York Times! That is not journalism! It is pitiful stenography in the service of greedy power...and it is very nearly libelous. You should hang your sorry heads.
Come let me tell you all the TRUE story of this marvelous man...
Born in July of 1954, the son of schoolteachers, Hugo Chavez Friås, has led an utterly amazing life. He served in the Venezuelan army as a paratrooper and graduated from Military Academy with a degree in engineering in 1975. In the early 80's, he and several fellow officers founded a secret movement which they named after Simon Bolivar, the father of South American independence. In February 1992, he and his Bolivarian Revolution led an attempt to overthrow the dreadfully corrupt government of President Carlos Andres Perez. They failed. Colonel Chavez gave himself up and was imprisoned. The movement tried again nine months later--while their leader was behind bars--and failed once more. After two years he was pardoned...and immediately relaunched his party as the Movement of the Fifth Republic. Some people just won't take 'no' for an answer.
Running on a Populist platform, Hugo Chavez won a landslide victory in 1998 to become Venezuela's president, a position he has held onto tenaciously in spite of attempts by the American Central Intelligence Agency to kidnap him, recall him, overthrow him and lead the population in general strikes against him. At the end of this year, Venezuela will hold another presidential election and the 51 year-old Chavez, one of the most beloved leaders in his country's history, is facing it with easy, smiling confidence. (The Venezuelan Institute for Data Analysis polled the mood of the country and found that Hugo led his closest possible rival 82.7% to 8.9%. No wonder he's confident!)
Now, Hugo might be an excellent gentleman (in fact, he is) and he might be doing grand, glorious things for his long-downtrodden people (he's measurably raised their standard of living since his election), but why should any of this matter to YOU?
It's very simple: How much did you pay for gasoline the last time you filled your tank?
Based on a recent analysis by the US Department of Energy, Venezuela ranks NUMBER ONE IN THE WORLD in total oil reserves at today's prices and that's even ahead of Saudi Arabia if their 'extra-heavy' is added in with their 'light sweet' crude. THAT got your attention, didn't it? True fact. Our little Central American neighbor has a supply of estimated reserves somewhere around 350 billion barrels OR MORE while the Saudis--who are long-time business partners of the Bush Crime Family--have supplies estimated at 262 billion barrels. For some of the salient details, I would recommend you read loosecannon's fine post "VenezOILa," located here.. With gas prices going through the roof, this is more than merely important; it has become crucial.
Corrupt oligarchs have ruled Venezuela since 1958, some of whom trace their ancestry back to the Spanish conquistadors. They've utilized this oil wealth to enrich themselves and to backstop their political power. In April 0f 2002, their main business council, its sleazy labor federation and a handful of dissident military officers staged a coup against Chavez...a coup which died a-borning because there was no way for the rebels to separate him from his staunch popular support. (The uprising was--of course!--encouraged and financed by US government agencies like the National Endowment for democracy, USAID and the International Republican Institute. In short, the CIA.)
Hugo has now been elected twice with overwhelming majorities. There are excellent reasons for this. He offers the poor, who account for 80% of Venezuela's population, state-subsidized food markets, education and healthcare. His supporters proudly proclaim themselves "Chavistas."
Their leader is open-minded, progressive and fiercely independent. He reads Noam Chomsky and says he'd "like very much to shake hands" with the brilliant Professor from MIT one day. He is exceedingly shrewd, too; after poisonous Pat Robertson suggested that our government assassinate the Venezuelan leader,, Hugo turned right around and, in a stunning and superior political gambit, offered cheap heating oil to poor American communities in Chicago, Boston and New York. WAY TO GO! Made good on his promises, too....which only gave our blighted administration one more reason to hate him.
There are already plans afoot at the CIA to meddle in the upcoming December election in Venezuela. (There may even be an attempted assassination via air strike...) Hugo Chavez is a very real threat to United States control over Latin America because he offers a good example of what can happen in terms of liberating the poor and shaking off the shackles of predatory neoliberal economics. (I will talk more about THIS obscenity in forthcoming posts.) Already, other leaders in the region, like Evo Morales of Bolivia, are watching and learning that Chavez is a force that can stand foursquare against the impoverishment which is an inevitable by-product of runaway corporatism. The radical right doesn't hate the man so much as they hate his IDEOLOGY, which is even now threatening to bring the Western Hemisphere out from under the domination of a very real and utterly unaccountable facism that is the legacy of giant American corporations.
In his book "The Common Good," (1998, Odonian Press) Prof. Chomsky says this on page 19: "It is ridiculous to talk about freedom in a society dominated by huge corporations. What kind of freedom is there inside a corporation? They're [b]totalitarian institutions[/b]--you take orders from above and maybe give them to people below you. There's about as much freedom as under Stalinism..."
Originally posted at Conceptual Guerilla's Strategy & Tactics. Please stop by and say hello...