Farewell Chavez!

 
On March, 5, 2013, Hugo Chavez, the revolutionary leader of Venezuela, died of cancer. 

The dramatic outpouring of support and admiration for the late Venezuelan leader has solidified his status as a maverick among world leaders. 

 His achievements for the betterment of the Venezuelan people have been significant and he has led them out of the dark morass of neo-colonial western subservience.

But those evil forces who plotted against him in the capitals of western countries, and their miserable henchmen in Venezuela, never gave Chavez a moment's peace. 

They demonized him, plotted against him, ridiculed him, and may have in the end killed him. The vitriol coming out of the filth-ridden inbred mouths of US congressmen has been nauseating, as Chavez was called a dictator, autocrat, a communist, a Stalin. He was accused of ruining the economy, of being corrupt and undemocratic.

 But who are these people who hate Hugo Chavez so much, and why do they hate him?
It is worth taking a look at them.

1. The US government- It treated Venezuela as it has treated the rest of Latin America, as its strategic and economic "backyard." Venezuela was forced to toe the Washington party line. Neo-liberal free market dogma and the privatization and 
exploitation of any valuable Venezuelan natural resources for cheap was priority #1. 

2. Oil Companies-The concessions given to US and other foreign-owned oil companies in Venezuela resulted in the majority of wealth from oil extraction and sales going overseas or to the corrupt pro-US oligarchs who ruled the country. The majority of the people saw no benefits from their own natural resource.

3. The Oligarchs-These wealthy and corrupt clowns were the US right-hand in Venezuela, faithfully adherents to free-market dogma and took US orders like the rest of the US lapdogs out there. They were greedy, corrupt and arrogant. They consigned their fellow citizens to non-existence. They cared nothing about the poor, the uneducated and did nothing to help them.

 Venezuela before the election of Chavez was mired in corruption, cronyism, poverty, illiteracy and huge disparities in the standard of living.

In a documentary I once saw about Hugo Chavez, a map of Caracas was shown from before the Chavez era with vast swathes of green expanse. It looked like those areas were just fields or forests or undeveloped land.
 
But in truth, those were barrio slums where the poor lived. Obviously the pro-US ruling elite did not even bother showing anyone these people even existed!

After Chavez came along, he put an end to this situation. He removed the Pro-US and pro-Wall St. oligarchs from power, took control of the oil, took over land which was unused and gave it to the people so they can do something with it, introduced food subsidies, literacy programs, built better housing, opened many schools and programs to uplift the young poor of Venezuela from the pit of despair into which US vulture capitalism consigned them to.

He created missions and gave money directly to communities so they can make their own decisions as to what's best for them. He encouraged direct participative democracy by the people. 

He also sold fuel discounted to the tune of 40% to poor neighborhoods in the US so that people could stay warm during the winter.

In return for fuel to Cuba, Cuban doctors flocked to Venezuela and setup remote clinics to serve people who were too far away from urban areas to get proper medical care.
Does this guy still seem as a dictator to you?

 The era of sucking-off of valuable resources by foreign corporations and their scummy oligarch cohorts came to an end.

That is where the campaign against Chavez started. He was called all sorts of vile names by US government representatives, US corporate bosses and their pathetic paid think tank shills.

To this day the wealthy Venezuelan oligarchs whine and cry about being victimized by Chavez. But these are all crocodile tears and bullshit whining because they lost their privileged control over Venezuela, which they treated as a cash cow for their personal aggrandizement.

There is no lack of democracy in Venezuela today. There is actually more of it now that before Chavez.

 In 2002, the US government together with their allies inside Venezuela tried to overthrow Hugo Chavez. The pro-US and pro-business media got in on the act and proclaimed that Chavez is gone and that most people want him gone. Pro-Chavez rallies were shown as anti-Chaves demonstrations. Police-provoked violence in the streets was blamed on those who supported Hugo Chavez.

 But the coup failed. The sheer numbers of Pro-Chavez protesters demanding the reinstatement of Chavez and some loyal army officers and soldiers rolled back the illegal coup attempt and after 48 hours Chavez was back in power.

 This event was a significant failure for the US and they have not forgotten this. After wards, Chavez was given the "Hitler" and "Stalin" treatment.

 But the man was not a coward. He went of the offensive, criticizing the US and the west and calling Bush the devil and standing up to the status quo. He called the US and Europeans thieves and imperialists and accused them of causing great damage to Latin America, which they did.

 But the vilification from the west never stopped. Chavez was called a dictator and a tyrant. 

 But let's take a look at some of the facts about this Venezuelan tyrant:

1. He was elected president three times in a row with overwhelming majorities (something Obama can only dream of!), in the most transparent election system in the world.

2. In 2004, he faced a recall election organized by the opposition. He faced it and won once again, fair and square

3. After the 2002 coup, there were no mass arrests of everyone who took part in it. The media oligarchs were left alone and only a handful of ringleaders (those who did not flee to Florida), were arrested and tried, as they would be for such acts in any country

4. He put major decisions to popular referendums. When he tried to gain more constitutional powers 3 years ago, he lost the referendum and accepted it

5. Huge throngs of people turned out for his funeral and to mourn him. Tyrants do not get such treatment
     
 All those things the US and their opposition henchmen in Venezuela accuse Chavez of, are actually what they themselves and the pro-US neo-liberal regimes of the past did. 

True, Venezuela still has problems with corruption and institutional inefficiencies, but these were problems which existed before Chavez came along, but the man did fix some of it, and today the situation is better.

 It is also strange that the US never whined about corruption in Venezuela when it served their economic and strategic interests, but it only became a problem for them after Chavez came along.

It is also strange that the US would call Chavez a dictator and tyrant while it supports true autocracies in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar and elsewhere. But these autocracies are business-friendly for the US, and that's what it's all about for Uncle SCam.
 
Chavez was a great leader. He ended Venezuela's subservience to the west, uplifted its people out of poverty, made them matter again, significantly reduced illiteracy and created a truly brighter future for Venezuelans. He was better than any of these fake reformers like Obama, of some pseudo-revolutionary shill like Lech Walesa, whose main aim was/is to submit to neo-liberal capitalist rape of their countries and people.

He also inspired other regional South American countries to throw off the US yoke and take an independent course in their economic, political and diplomatic affairs.
Chavez was a true uniter.

The US government, the multinational corporations and Wall St. did not like him simply because he refused to take their orders and refused to sell Venezuela cheap to the lowest bidder.

He also had the gall to actually pay off the IMF loans with which Venezuela was saddled with and controlled by the US. Today Venezuela's level of debt is one of the lowest in the world. As a result, the country and its institutions are not held hostage by foreign debtors, and can chart their own independent course forward.

The US does not give a damn about democracy or whether some foreign leader is a tyrant or not, as long as they faithfully submit to the neo-liberal capitalist system.

Chavez called the opposition pigs and rightly so. These traitors aligned themselves with forces which were destroying Venezuela. Those who jumped ship and fled to Florida may as well stay there!  Good riddance to them! They are dead weight.

Hugo Chavez also turned the tables on the US and the west. He made them look and feel like shit, just like they did to Venezuela for way too long. He was not afraid of them and knocked away their thieving hands off Venezuela's resources and turned them over to the people.
 
All those who revile Chavez and accuse him of being a dictator are immoral imps and the useful idiots of the US. They are at the very least ignorant fools who do not know the facts, but in this day and age this should no longer be an excuse!

As far as Chavez's death, there is talk of him having been poisoned. While this may sound like some paranoid conspiracy theory, let's look at some precedents:

1. Around the same time, Dilma Roussef, Lula Da Silva and Kristina Kirchner, all Latin American leaders who defied the US, were all diagnosed with cancer.

2. The US has assassinated or overthrown numerous democratically-elected Latin American leaders in the past and replaced them with compliant pro-US regimes which brutalized their people

 So clearly the possibility, as well as the intent is there for the US to kill any leader who does not show due obedience. This is not as far-fetched as people think.
Those leaders who defy the US must be extra careful. Those who have died mysteriously, like Arafat, must be re-examined thoroughly for foul play of any kind.

 Hugo Chavez is a giant. Lying sell-outs like Obama, or any other western or pro-western leader, are not even fit to lick Hugo's shoes! 

 He was the flashlight and the US and its cohorts are the roaches.

 May he rest in peace for a job well done, and may the Venezuelan Revolution continue!