Yesterday, Hugo Chavez passed away. Although he was usually presented as a villain in the United States, for the poor of Venezuela he was a friend in high places.
The facts speak for themselves: the percentage of households in poverty fell from 55% in 1995 to 26.4% in 2009. When Chávez was sworn into office unemployment was 15%, in June 2009 it was 7.8%. Compare that to current unemployment figures in Europe. In that period Chávez won 56% of the vote in 1998, 60% in 2000, survived a coup d’état in 2002, got over 7m votes in 2006 and secured 54.4% of the vote last October. Oscar Guardiola-Rivera
For Conservatives, Chavez was an easy target. He could be cast as evil because he hoped to wean poor countries in South America from exploitation by the United States. For neo-liberals, he was an even worst nightmare, someone who actually did what they preach- supporting labor and actually protecting the people from corporate predators.
Chavez was not perfect by any means, but he will be an abiding if enigmatic figure in history- a Marxist who modeled populist democracy.
Hugo Chavez was certainly sincere and passionate about social justice, but I don’t think he took the best road to reach his goal. On the long run, socialism has always been detrimental to the people it was supposed to serve. Besides that, I dont understand why Chavez hated America so much. By the way, I noticed that countries whose leaders hate the US are most of the times countries where atrocities are commited on a daily basis…
Shanna,
Thanks for writing. There is a book called “Disaster Capitalism” by Naomi Klein which will give you much information on why many people in South America hate the US. Our govenment has allowed corporations to totally take over the economy some nations. One reason Chavez hated the US is that we attempted to over throw him early on. I agree that Chavez is a mixed bag, but sometimes when other nations hate us, it’s because our government and our businesses are doing things over there that we don’t know about. We just hear more about the attrocities that are committed by our enemies than we do about those committed by our friend.
Again, thanks for writing. Feel free to express your opinion any time. I like a lively debate.
Jim