yeah he gave his oil money to foreign countries, while Venezuela is still a violent shithole, and caracas is the murder capital of the world and full of barrios.I agree that he was a horrible leader to his own people and I am no fan of his but at the same time he did many good things for Lesser developed countries (LDC).
He has helped MANY poor people and their country on a whole. From free oil to free medical care Venezuela has contributed a lot to the development of these Countries.
Yes, I know it is how the Communist like to win "hearts and minds" but tell that to all the poor people who are live today because of him. Just giving credit where credit is due.
Why is the Wizard of Oz song going through my head every time I hear or read this headline?
are you Incorruptible's alt account? you guys sound alike.
This tread is ANTI-DEMOCRACY tread and most of american posters prove it:
Democracy, as in "american way" is:
MY WAY OR MY WAY....
People in other countries can NOT choose their way of life, handling their recourses...etc....
It has to be "american way" - give us all your oil for free...etc.,..,etc...
US becoming more and more a Fasicst State....
It's coming...that ONE DAY...americans will learn same thing, what germans learned in 1945....
Believe me, it's impossible to rewrite a History....
Those, who do know Histoty - most likely, will agree, those agorrant and ignorant will find out same way Germany and germans did in 1945....
It launched no trade embargo like the one against Cuba. It spewed no vitriol to match Chávez's steady stream of invective. It kept buying Venezuelan oil. It pretty much left the people of Venezuela to live with their democratically elected choice.
Without an active U.S. foil, he could not exploit long-standing anti-American grievances.
Chavez was an epic troll who tried to blame the US for every problem in his country.. US never fully took the bait, else things would have likely been worse for Venezuela.
I dont have an alt account
It has to do with him silencing all those who opposed him.
I personally have no problem with the US sending representatives to his funeral...he was a head of state and that is what you do when a head of state dies.
I've never been too familiar with Chavez, but reading about him today I'm having a hard time understanding the hatred.
He seems to have made very positive changes to the Venezuelan constitution.
Although his political views were well to the left, and he embraced some questionable people, I'm not seeing how he was worse than the American-friendly alternative might be. These are leaders who take bribes etc. to allow exploitation of their resources by multinationals, probably most common in the developing world and never get much attention. I've seen these labeled "rentier" states as the governments are mostly funded by corporations bidding for rights to drill, mine, or build factories. As such they owe nothing to the people because the people are not the ones paying their bills.
He did many questionable things it seems in terms of abusing power, but most of what I read is pretty mild for a developing country. That isn't an excuse but I question why Chavez is supposed to be a particularly evil person.
If anyone can please point to what I'm missing I'd appreciate it. What I don't like most about him is that he took power in a coup, and I'd be curious to know how legitimate his subsequent elections would be.
How do you feel about his family now being worth $2 Billion ? It's not like a couple of million bucks, or even $20 million bucks or even $100 million It's $2 Billion fucking bucks!
How do you feel about his family now being worth $2 Billion ? It's not like a couple of million bucks, or even $20 million bucks or even $100 million It's $2 Billion fucking bucks!
The leader of Afganistan and his entire corrupt family.
As Farang said, it's pretty typical. Look at Fernand Marcos, who the USA spent billions of dollars propping up to (allegedly) stop the domino effect in Southeast Asia. The Shah of Iran. Mubarak of Eygpt, also propped up and benefited enormously from USA funds. The leader of Afganistan and his entire corrupt family. Essentially every leader of South Vietnam when we were pursing that boongoogle.
Chavez was a fairly innocuous despot (especially as regards South America's record). You righties get all bent out of shape not because of his alleged corruption but because the things he said.
PS - I'm assuming arguendo your $2 billion figure is correct, I doubt there is any real verfication of this.
I'm not seeing him do it to an extent further than 75% of countries in the world. He seemed to have had a fairly close election last time, so there must have been a healthy and vocal opposition.
He was not as bad as many leaders are, but he did shut down papers that did not support him.
He was not as bad as many leaders are, but he did shut down papers that did not support him.