I’m from Venezuela and I just wanted to poll what people thought of Chavez abroad. Im’ interested in what foreigners perceve is happeneing in my country. Please express your views and if you have any questions I would also be happy to awnser them. (for the record: I am, like the mayority of venezuelans, against that son of a …)
Well, no one really understands what the heck is going on in there. Chavez isn’t exactly coming off well, but we don’t understand internal Venezualan politics. Of course, Venezuela isn’t a very important part of everyday American thought, either. I hope he leaves officer for some of his actions, but we dont really know who would replace him, nor what else he’s actually doing or not doing.
“Of course, Venezuela isn’t a very important part of everyday American thought, either.”
Not at all insulting. Not at all.
What he means, Chavez, is that for the avg. Joe, the problems of Venezuela are remote - just as the problems of Andorra might seem remote to you. OTOH, among the policy makers and industrialists (esp. oil concerns), what is going on is VERY important.
The tendency is to portray Chavez as a Leftist and the opposition as Rightist, but whether these simplistic terms mean anything in your situation is up to you. I think the general attitude among those of us who are interested is that Chavez started off with promise, but has reverted back to the same old authoritarian tactics that have held despots in power for centuries - which is intolerable to American Leftists and Rightists alike.
Promise? The man led a military coup to take power, some promise. That he was later elected leads me to say to those who voted for him “you got what you voted for.” Sorry, but it’s true.
:o Forgot about the coup, remembered the elections.
:hangs head in shame:
i am from the uk. the newspaper i read is the guardian, which is generally considered to be left wing. the paper has generally refrained from taking a line on whether chavez is ‘good or bad’ so to speak, but has generally stuck to simply stating the facts.
what i have picked up so far is that; chavez has strong support amongst the poor/ little support in the ruling classes. he survived a coup attempt which had US support, after which people came out onto the streets to show solidarity with him. the oil producing companies and exporters are now putting the squeeze on him and his government by restricting the export of oil from venezuela.
my personal opinion is that i wish the US would leave S. American countries to run themselves if they really believe in democracy.
i have to add though that, if i asked any of my friends “what do you think of chavez?”. the answer would be “is that a type of french cheese?”.
I’m not too familiar with the situation, but I read an interesting article the other day that compared the current situation there with Ayn Rand’s novel, “Atlas Shrugged”, complete with a strike by the businessmen. Are they really “on strike”?
Sorry about that JohnT, I didn’t mean to reprimand or otherwise reprove.
Personally, I dislike Chavez. He is ignoring the demands of his people- 1/20th of the population gathers in the capital to protest him, and he doesn’t take notice? If the people love him so much as he claims, he would allow a referendum. So why is he so against the idea?
Now he’s using the military to confiscate private property, like at the Coca Cola bottling plant, in order for “redistribution” or some such tripe. This is what the Bolsheviks did. I’m not saying Chavez is anywhere near as ruthless as the Bolsheviks, but his autocratic rule against his people is deplorable.
I’m not sure what you mean by “US Support”- we’ve provided no funds or weaponry to his opponents, but we’ve also made it clear that we’re no fan of the guy either. He does have strong support amongst the poor (a co-worker, whose wife is from Caracas, told me that he gave amnesty to a large chunk of prisoners which bolstered his support. Any truth to that?) but as for “little support in the ruling classes”- well, he is the ruling class. From what I’ve heard he’s strongly disliked by the middle class there.
I’m also not a fan of his heaping praise on Carlos the Jackal.
i thought an election was a referendum. the way i see it, he should be left to rule the country as he sees fit until the next election (referendum) comes around. or maybe the oil producers should just keep adgitating untill the ‘right’ guy gets elected? it would’nt be the first time.
ps. i like these american forums. at least you lot are interested in politics. most people in the UK wouldn’t know politics if if stood on a piano, painted itself purple and sang “i’m a little teapot”.
What has Chavez done that you dislike the most?
Why should the people have to weight 8 months before deciding on a president who has less than 30% of the support of the general populace? It’s just not practical.
Whoops. Wait*
I’ve got to agree with Bandit, above. I consider myself to be fairly well read on current events, but the whole thing in Venezuela is pretty hard to follow. On top of that, many South American countries seem to have a pretty bad record when it comes to keeping stable governments (maybe the US is part of the problem, maybe not), so I think a lot of us say: “Here they go again…”
We tend to pay a bit more attention to what’s going on in Mexico, since we share such a larger border with that country, but even then it’s pretty superficial.
Nanu: I’ll be a lot of people on this board would be VERY interested in hearing your take on the whole situation.
I’ve read that Chavez is pretty much an unreconstructed Marxist in the Fidel Casto mold. If that is the case, then it’s just a matter of time before wholesale jailings and killings start.
Stability in a Marxist government always comes at the point of a gun.
Not checking all sides again eh Sam? 
Having kept an eye on this I have to say:
FOR
But this requires an explanation:
This is more a vote in favor of the democratic principle, Chavez is not a very capable leader, in the matter of the oil, he had a reason to break the control of a bloated bureaucracy but it made a mess of the way to doing it. It has been said that he is a demagogue populist because he has promised but not done anything for the poor; yet, the virulent nature of the reaction the well to do opposition has launched towards him, makes me realize that Chavez was/is doing steps to help them, (whereas he was hones about that, it is beside the point when the opposition is destroying any show of progress) and stepping on the toes of the ones that never bothered before with any social justice whatsoever.
When you have oil there is no excuse at all for the population not having a higher standard of living. Just look at the Scandinavian nations that use oil revenue for social programs, and you will see how far away Venezuelans are on this.
In the opposition, many do not have any whish to do anything for the poor once Chavez is out of the picture. The key to defeat him in the next elections requires the opposition to make a sincere effort to find a leader that will also be willing to hear the plight of the poor, even if it hurts the interests of the well to do in the opposition.
As for sources I have to report that the mainstream press in Venezuela is still in the pockets of the former powers. They hated Chavez even before his popular election. This is why I do take with a monumental grain of salt all critical reports on Chavez that come from there. And in the USA beware of the press that has Cuban-American ownership: they too have an ax to grind against Chavez. The Guardian reported Cuban-Americans had a hand in the latest coup attempt (IMHO I know enough history to remember that Cuban-Americans have been used by past republican administrations to have a plausible denial to say the US was not involved if things go wrong, maybe the current administration was not involved in the coup, but sure as hell did not do ANYTHING against them in this case)
AFAIKR there was a scandal with American funds that were supposed to go for democratic development that were used instead to fund some opposition organizations, which turned to be in favor of the coup attempt. (If you missed that scandal is because the current US government and “liberal press” think it is not important).
The sources I recommend to check are the ones that do give a chance to other points of view to be heard, and in English no less!
Vhedline.com:
http://www.vheadline.com/main.asp
That is a good place in English to check for news and opinions that are even against Chavez! But on the whole, the opposition looks worse.
Narconews.com has fallen a little in my records because they are losing their objectivity regarding Chavez; however, they still show how the media is dropping the ball in Venezuela and other nations. (Check how the NY Times was getting information from a reporter that was actually working for the opposition cause.)
http://www.narconews.com/
Voice of America news is good also:
http://www.voanews.com/category_browse.cfm?catOID=45C9C78A-88AD-11D4-A57200A0CC5EE46C&title=Americas
And the BBC Americas:
Flash: Carter’s proposal to end the crisis is accepted by Chavez, but the opposition is missing the boat again.
The National Endowment for Democracy thing?
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/04/25/1019441285250.html
But he is still the democratically elected leader who has yet to complete his term and my understanding is that the Venezuelan constitution does not allow for early elections like the ones being called for. The fact that he still has very strong support among many sectors of the population makes this, IMO, not a situations deserving of outside interference.
However, if it’s Linda Chavez, I’m totally against.