For some reason, the Venezuelan Embassy in the United States sent me an email assuring me that despite the death of Hugo Chavez, “A special deployment of the Bolivarian National Police is expected to guarantee peace and respect for all Venezuelan people.”
I wonder how I came to be on their mailing list.
Back when he was thinking of running for president, I met with ex-Governor Mark Warner of Virginia in the lobby of a Philadelphia hotel. We talked about why Hugo Chavez was seen as such an enemy of the United States, and he agreed that it was really just “an energy issue.”
Chavez had a loud mouth and knew how to talk some serious smack, but he was never a threat to anyone in this country who doesn’t make a living in the upper echelons of the oil industry. Just don’t try to convince the wingnuts of that.
I’m probably going to be sickened in equal measure by how the far right and far left respond to his death. Kind of like it was with Gaddafi.
Heh. I’m still wondering who put me on crazy Pat Toomey’s email list.
On the plus side Chavez gave a ton of the oil money his country generated back to the hoards of people there in poverty, which is why he kept winning elections. He also stood up to GWB when most of the rest of the world’s leaders were content to whisper to each other how incredibly stupid he and his regime were.
On the minus side, giving money isn’t the same as making permanent change. Venezuelan infrastructure and their regard for the environment both suffered greatly during his reign. And he picked allies badly – Castro? A dictator is a dictator is a dictator (I mean Castro) … even if his poor folks do have better health care than ours.
In the end he did and said a lot but didn’t leave much of a lasting legacy. Sad.
His biggest lasting legacy on US politics is that he caused a lot of Venezuelan wingnuts to migrate to Florida, adding to the Republican Hispanic presence there. I actually know quite a few of them. Quite amazing … many can talk in detail about how Chavez stole the elections with the Sequoia electronic voting machines but at the same time deny that the same firm did anything to US elections. Personally I have no idea, but the contrast is interesting.
How crazy is it that Chavez is dead and Castro is still alive? Say what you want about El Jefe, but you have to give him some credit for hanging on over all those years.
I’m probably going to be sickened in equal measure by how the far right and far left respond to his death. Kind of like it was with Gaddafi.
You’re a real hoot!!
All the usual suspects. The same coalition that supported the Bush wars.
He also stood for the brown majority (along with such more dignified figures as old Lula and Evo Morales) against the criollo white aristocracy that always runs everything in South America. Whether the community organization survives or not I couldn’t guess.
He was a very colorful guy, and, intentional or not, always knew how to get to the rightwingawacks. I am, equally, absolutely sure he spent 0 time planning on getting under the rightwingawack skin.
hard to believe that this guy was once our president.
What a very thoughtful and compassionate statement by President Carter. Yes, he is and was a good guy. Not a particularly good president, but he is and has been the greatest ex-President in US history.
Completely consistent with the guy that was our President and very nicely illuminated in “Argo:”
Alas, Americans preferred a swaggering, senile old coot that brought America back to increasing US bullying around the world and quadupled the National Debt after running on deficit reduction in 1980 and all the little ordinary “conservatives” never said a word about it.
It really is a shame that he couldn’t come here for cancer treatment, considering all the right-wing strongmen that have been welcomed.
Is US medical care for cancer unique and superior? Not likely according to this recent study.
Unique? No. Superior? Yes. I’m aware that Cuba has much better public health statistics than the USA, as do most countries. But that has to do with access to care, not the quality of the care. This Left-Right argument has been going on for ages. The Right says, “The USA has the best health care system in the world.” The Left says,”No! The USA is far behind in public health statistics in countries like Uganda.” Both are correct. The USA has the best health care system (medical technology) in the world. The USA also has almost the worst health care system (delivery) in the world. IF you have the money, which a head of state has, you can access the most advanced techniques in the world here, not in Cuba.
I also wonder if Cuba has a drug problem like the US? Can Cubans afford cocaine and heroin?
Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear and began with two assumptions that I didn’t articulate. First, Chavez had a very strong will to live. Second, that he could seek medical care almost anywhere in the world — excluding the US. (And for all we know, maybe he did.) Therefore, the question wasn’t US v. Cuba cancer treatment but US v. advanced medical treatment facilities anywhere for those with no financial constraints.
Even Steve Jobs didn’t limit himself to the US:
Bloomberg reported that Chavez was briefly treated at Sirio-Libanes, Sao Paulo,”the best-equipped cancer unit in Latin America.” Same place Dilma Rousseff, Jose Alencar and Paraguay President Fernando Lugo were treated. Standard cancer treatment protocols are global and US facilities and doctors have no advantage over their counterparts in other countries, although volume, particularly for surgical procedures, is a valid consideration. The US doesn’t even have a monopoly in the area of research and experimental treatments.
As the form of Chavez’ cancer and the stage when it was diagnosed has never been publicly disclosed, speculating that he would have fared better in the US than Cuba is but a guess. At least he didn’t enrich one of Romney’s BFF, Richard Stephenson at CTCA.
He received offers from both Argentina and Spain for treatment but supposedly turned them down.
In any case it is moot now that he it was announced that he died from a heart attack, not a cancer.
Looks as if others are smelling a bit of a fraud with CTCA. A bit spooky that I made my comment without having seen this report.
I never trusted those ads. It was too rosy and I wondered how they afforded all those ads.
I’ll always remember him sniffing the air at the UN and saying that he could smell the devil’s sulfur right after Bush was speaking.
I’ll always remember that as well. As toxic as Bu$h was, Chavez’ comment might have been hyperbole, but amazingly accurate hyperbole. 🙂
Well, he had a much better olfactory function than a majority of American idiots.
I always kind of liked him. His manner was so very affable and reasonable. Even if one expected him to be something of a hypocrite (and I think it would be hard to do that job without some hypocrisy at least), he seemed to advocate reasonable dialogue.
Another thing he did was to demand to be treated with respect. And when he did, it was a big loss to the big global bullies in who run the imperialist capital regime of international finance. And he called it all out for what it was. Of course they hated him. He was right about a lot of stuff.
I did not think of him as a person interested in reasonable dialogue. And his successor just accused our government of killing Chavez…with cancer.
Yes, he always struck me as bit of a demagogue, the Venezuelan Huey Long.
Interesting analogy. Wonder how it really stacks up.
Boo:
Have you ever read: The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent? If not, you should. That might give you a better idea why Chavez and other leftist leaders in Central/South America say and do the things they do. And yes, that was the book Chavez gave President Obama back in ’09. I wonder if PBO ever read it. Probably not I’d guess.
BTW, Boo, you can find the book at the local library. Or should be able to, anyway.
I really like the idea that BooMan is sneering at the notion that the CIA gave Chavez cancer not because that is a bug-fucking stupid idea, but because he just doesn’t understand the history of American/Latin American relations.
See, BooMan, once you learn (for the very first time, no doubt) that the US used to sponsor coups in the region, why, the idea that the CIA can give people cancer won’t look bug-fucking stupid at all.
It’s obvious that you haven’t read up on the ways the CIA tried, or wanted to try, to kill Castro.
I have. I don’t recall coming across any reason to believe that you can give someone cancer.
Did we give him cancer? Doubtful. Did we(meaning the CIA) try to kill him more than once? Very likely.
Yes, because I should have no expectation that longtime readers like Calvin are familiar with my base of knowledge.
Therefore, I must demonstrate all my knowledge with every post so that he is assured that I know the history of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America and doesn’t have to offer me a reading list.
For what it’s worth, I am firmly in the camp of the majority of Americans who don’t care any more about Venezuela than I do about Djibouti, and feel equally threatened by both of them.
Hitler built the Autobahn, Martin Luther King cheated on his wife, and Thomas Jefferson fucked his slaves.
Hugo Chavez wasn’t Hitler, but he wasn’t MLK or Jefferson, either.
If I see anyone treating him either way, I think that they are an idiot.
The only problem with the statement is that they probably don’t have the tech to do it. Otherwise it’s about as credible as the denial, given this country’s history.
Reasonable compared to what? Our own politicians? His predecessors (who were certainly reasonable as long as the American dollars kept flowing into their personal accounts?
My facebook feed is full of back and forth about the guy. “Polarizing political figure” is more of an understated description for Chavez than Obama.
I think he was our enemy, but I can’t blame him for putting Venezuelan interests above American interests. I mean really, he was Venezuelan.
Many’s the time Chavez put a smile on my face with his Bush administration nose-tweaking. I’ll miss his presence.
Greg Gandin at the Nation
Good obituary on his legacy, imo.
but I’d say it’s more about the threat he posed to the monied interests who consider themselves “this country”, and the fear his blueprint for their sidelining and the subsequent benefits of that to the people represented.
He was never a threat to this country, beyond that to be found in his model of putting the people first, the monied interests second, if not further down the line. He had a completely different pov in regards to the role of government, which didn’t involve nor entertain many if any concerns about what the “haves” wanted.
just imagine if ideas like this — focusing on the “little people” — http://crooksandliars.com/mike-lux/mission-government took hold here, no?
Much as rightwingnuts here hate and fear policies that lean left and benefit the little guy, and not from a fear of their failure, but rather their success, Chavez was hated and feared by them because of his successes.
Given all that, I’d say he was percieved as a threat by many outside the oil industry. His ideas and ways could be contagious to their detriment.
There are a lot of Mainers who have been helped by the low cost fuel program. He cut 25% off the cost of oil in 2009 to help the program last longer and cover more people.
He was a bombastic asshole, who won’t be missed.
As to, “Chavez had a loud mouth and knew how to talk some serious smack, but he was never a threat to anyone in this country who doesn’t make a living in the upper echelons of the oil industry. Just don’t try to convince the wingnuts of that” his regime still provides prime wingnut fodder.
Consider THIS:
“Venezuela’s Chavez was infected with cancer by `imperialist’ enemies, VP Maduro alleges.” http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/03/05/hugo_chavezs_condition_worsens_with_new_and_severe_resp
iratory_infection.html
I mean, seriously, how does one respond to something like this?
By mocking it in the strongest terms.
Is that any different than blaming Cuba(or the Mob .. or what ever group) for the Kennedy assassination?
Yes.
It is very possible for the mob to kill people.
It is bug-fucking stupid to believe that the CIA gives people cancer.
Somehow his bombast wasn’t as repulsive as the home-grown kind. He was equally a great political showman, a well-intentioned reformer, and an autocrat. I’m sorry to see him go.
I always wonder why it is that the so-called American left always loves to tut-tut at the autocracy of lefty foreign leaders while forgetting what came before them, and where the USA now stands on the brink of full-fledged, irreversible plutocracy. Chavez took a country deep in absolute dictatorship and corruption and made it better. I wish we had more Chavezes here to try and fix our own corrupt and broken system.