What did you know of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who died Feb. 5? What is your estimation of his time in power?
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“Under Chavez, poverty fell to 31.6 percent at the end of 2011 from about 50 percent when he first took office, according to the national statistics institute. Extreme poverty declined to 8.5 percent from about 20 percent over the same period. Venezuela has the lowest level of inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the United Nations.”
Bloomberg.com (surprise!)Latin America’s new leftist leaders, including Chávez, made agreements that threaten the US dominance in the region. That’s the ONLY reason why the corporate-owned mainstream US media and the corporate-controlled US government have such a negative view regarding Chavez.
When a foreign leader chooses the interest of the poor over those of the elite, this choice is called a “polarizing” choice by the US, whose general policy is to choose the elite over the poor, even within the US (and increasingly over the middle class).
On the other hand, the US does not have a negative view regarding Honduras, a right-wing regime that is killing its own citizens and that is an obsequious ally of the US.
Dictators are never a problem as long as they favor US imperialist ambitions in the region and the US-backed corporate rape of their resources and environment to the detriment of their own people and national interests, as in many Latin American nations in the past, of which some democratically elected left-wing leaders were assassinated by the CIA to be replaced by a CIA financed and supported psychopathic dictator, a puppet to US interests.
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I meant to write (better grammar?):
Dictators are never a problem to the US as long as they favor US imperialist ambitions in the region and the US-backed corporate rape of their resources and environment to the detriment of their own people and national interests, as in the cases of some Latin American nations in the past, the democratically elected left-wing leaders of which were assassinated by the CIA to be replaced by a CIA financed and supported psychopathic dictator, a puppet to US interests.
The point here is not to demonize the US by the way, but to shed some light as to why the US demonized some leaders such as Chavez.
Chavez regime was a lot less repressive than communist China…but communist China opened its door to American interests, and this is all that has ever mattered to the US government, not freedom, not democracy, but trade and other commercial interests.
Venezuela’s Orinoco oil belt has the largest volume of oil on the planet. So expect on stampede on Venezuela, now that Chavez is gone.
Bottom line, all that matters to western interests is the nation’s resources, not the nation’s poor, which was Chavez’ concern. Same with the rest of the third world…
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wiki reports the numbers at :Under Chavez, Venezuelans’ quality of life improved according to a UN Index[2] and the poverty rate fell from 48.6 percent in 2002 to 29.5 percent in 2011, according to the UN Economic Commission for Latin America.[2]
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