Thursday, April 18, 2013

Chavez's Legacy: Venezuela Split

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/venezuelans-are-polarized-in-post-election-crisis/2013/04/18/195db388-a799-11e2-9e1c-bb0fb0c2edd9_story_1.html#

El "Comandante" Hugo Chavez ruled Venezuela like an old-fashioned caudillo with the support of Cuba and Iran and the entire clown alley of "anti-imperialists."  Although lacking in the brutality of the Dominican Republic's Trujillo, he rivaled Mussolini's buffonery; and he pandered to the poor (made that way, admittedly by the excesses of Venezuela's upper one per cent) with free appliances and scholarships and turned his country into an economic basket case where crime is rampant; there is 25 cent per gallon gasoline but there are frequent power shortages. Chavez, the socialist, didn't learn the adage of Vladimir Illyich Ulyanov (aka Lenin) that "Communism is Soviet Power plus Electrification of the Entire Country."  By badgering the free press and rigging elections Chavez and now Maduro might be achieving "Soviet Power" but the only thing that is being "electrified" is division between the haves and have nots.

Why is this important to Charlotte? Because Venezuela is one of our larger trading partners; is culturally significant; and Chavez could be imitated by other "anti-imperialist" fake democrats in the Hemisphere.  One thing about democracy that isn't tempered by such institutions as the US Electoral College:  It can be one person, one vote, one time. 

Disclaimer: I studied at the Inter-American Defense College in Washington the year el Comandante got elected and some Venezuelan heroes and patriots were my classmates and dear friends (including one who became Chavez's Chief of Naval Operations)  - Mark Carolla

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