# President Chavez Praises Carlos "the Jackal" **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 22, 2009, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476 "2009-11-22T00:09:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kitemaker\_chuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a88e4f/32.png) [@kitemaker\_chuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitemaker_chuck)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476/1 "2009-11-22T00:09:41Z")
I saw in a New York Times report (along with about four or five others) all in Yahoo News, that President Hugo Chavez was heaping praise on Carlos “the Jackal” for being a great revolutionary fighter, and that he’s just misunderstood by other nations. Have any other Dopers seen this, and could President Chavez have been mis-quoted? ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476/2 "2009-11-22T00:37:30Z")
Lots of sources: [http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGLS\_enUS341US352&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=Chavez+Praises+Carlos+"the+Jackal"](http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS341US352&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=Chavez+Praises+Carlos+%22the+Jackal%22) ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476/3 "2009-11-22T03:59:48Z")
I’m wondering why you’d be surprised? This is the guy who has wonderful things to say about the leaders of Iran, Russia, and Cuba. He’s a totalitarian-wannabe thug. I simply cannot fathom the liking some people seem to have for this clown. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476/4 "2009-11-22T04:15:17Z")
> [@kitemaker\_chuck](#): > > could President Chavez have been mis-quoted? Coulda but prolly wasna, because he’s kind of a dick. ---
**Author:** ![Notassmartasithought](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c0e974/32.png) [@Notassmartasithought](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Notassmartasithought)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476/5 "2009-11-22T06:34:53Z")
He (Carlos) was a Venezuelan, and if you remember his notoriousness in the day, he was thought to be a mastermind of terror, responsible for many terrorist events. Turns out we only have evidence of his guilt in some bungled bombings and the 1975 attack on OPEC in which three people died. He got the name Jackal _after_ Fredric Forsythe’s novel \*Day of the Jackal \*was published, not before. Less there than meets the reputation, but apparently not for Hugo. ---
**Author:** ![Notassmartasithought](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c0e974/32.png) [@Notassmartasithought](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Notassmartasithought)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476/6 "2009-11-22T06:37:37Z")
Actually, given that Venezuela is a member of OPEC, Chavez’ ignorance but political smarts are equally on display. He’s got a constituency in Venezuela that loves this stuff, mostly because it pisses off the rest of us so much. ---
**Author:** ![kitemaker\_chuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a88e4f/32.png) [@kitemaker\_chuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitemaker_chuck)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476/7 "2009-11-23T00:26:39Z")
Today I saw an AP report that’s saying Hugo Chavez has been praising Idi Amin as a “great patriot”, and that he has doubts about the stories of Amin’s brutality. Who’s next for Hugo Chavez’s praise, Stalin? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476/8 "2009-11-23T01:43:23Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > This is the guy who has wonderful things to say about the leaders of Iran, Russia, and Cuba. Of course he does; he needs their friendship. He has negotiated profitable alliances with Iran, Russia and Cuba. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476/9 "2009-11-23T06:34:57Z")
> [@Notassmartasithought](#): > > Actually, given that Venezuela is a member of OPEC, Chavez’ ignorance but political smarts are equally on display. He’s got a constituency in Venezuela that loves this stuff, mostly because it pisses off the rest of us so much. And not just in Venezuela. He’s a troll and in constant need of attention. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476/10 "2009-11-23T14:03:32Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > I simply cannot fathom the liking some people seem to have for this clown. “Some people”? Examples, please. There’s a difference between ‘liking’ Chavez, and failing to understand why the right wing lavishes so much attention on the guy. One would think he was as bad as Pinochet or D’Aubuisson or someone like that. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476/11 "2009-11-23T19:30:23Z")
He is playing to his audience. We have cultivated a lot of animosity throughout South America ,and he has voters who hate the damage capitalism has done to them. What do you expect a S.Amer. politician to say, America cares about the citizens of South America? That would not play well. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476/12 "2009-11-23T19:31:19Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > There’s a difference between ‘liking’ Chavez, and failing to understand why the right wing lavishes so much attention on the guy. One would think he was as bad as Pinochet or D’Aubuisson or someone like that. Because he’s well into the process of taking a modern, developed, democratic country and not-that-slowly turning into another third-world run by power-mad tyrants grabbing all the wealth he can. It’s slower than in Zimbabwe, but largely the same process. Venezuela commands a bit mroe attention in some ways because it is closer to the United States (in more ways than one). ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476/13 "2009-11-23T19:35:54Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > He is playing to his audience. We have cultivated a lot of animosity throughout South America ,and he has voters who hate the damage capitalism has done to them. What do you expect a S.Amer. politician to say, America cares about the citizens of South America? That would not play well. Well, I certainly didn’t expect him to praise _Idi Amin_. I can’t see how that could help him out with _anybody_. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476/14 "2009-11-23T19:46:08Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > Because he’s well into the process of taking a modern, developed, democratic country and not-that-slowly turning into another third-world run by power-mad tyrants grabbing all the wealth he can. It’s slower than in Zimbabwe, but largely the same process. Venezuela commands a bit mroe attention in some ways because it is closer to the United States (in more ways than one). Twenty years ago, our support of power-mad tyrants was everyday stuff, and conservatives were all for it. We’d seemed to move away from that in the interregnum between the Cold War and the GWOT, but there seem to once again be a number of far worse tyrants around the globe than Chavez that receive almost no attention from the right. And if he’s taking Venezuela down the same road as Zimbabwe, only slower, time’s on everyone’s side. Mugabe’s been running Venezuela since 1980. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476/15 "2009-11-24T03:27:14Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > “Some people”? Examples, please. Oliver Stone Sean Penn Danny Glover Kevin Spacey Jimmy Carter Cindy Sheehan Ramsay Clark’s International Action Center International ANSWER The Working Family And there are a whole lot of people on the left who will not come right out and say they like or support Chavez, but who seem to reflexively run to his defense every time he is criticized. You know, like **gonzomax** a couple of messages up from this one. > [@](#): > > There’s a difference between ‘liking’ Chavez, and failing to understand why the right wing lavishes so much attention on the guy. One would think he was as bad as Pinochet or D’Aubuisson or someone like that. Chavez is far more dangerous than your garden variety corrupt Latin American dictator, because he’s an ideologue. Pinochet was happy to stay home, oppress his people, and rake in the money. Chavez is actively trying to destabilize the entire region, is attempting to be a conduit for Russian weaponry into the region, and is willing to support every despotic thug on the planet so long as it serves his personal ego and helps him grow in stature and power. He looks and acts like a thuggish clown, but he’s a dangerous man. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476/16 "2009-11-24T04:01:54Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Chavez is far more dangerous than your garden variety corrupt Latin American dictator, because he’s an ideologue. Pinochet was happy to stay home, oppress his people, and rake in the money. Chavez is actively trying to destabilize the entire region, is attempting to be a conduit for Russian weaponry into the region, and is willing to support every despotic thug on the planet so long as it serves his personal ego and helps him grow in stature and power. He looks and acts like a thuggish clown, but he’s a dangerous man. 😕 “Destabilize” what? There is nothing “dangerous” about the [Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivarian_Alternative_for_the_Americas) WTF are you talking about?! ---
**Author:** ![Danimal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Danimal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danimal)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476/17 "2009-11-24T04:25:16Z")
Would not [breaking off diplomatic relations with Colombia](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/5928736/Hugo-Chavez-to-freeze-relations-with-Colombia.html), [sending troops to the border and threatening war](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8349745.stm) be considered somewhat destabilizing? Brinksmanship, I suppose, but pushing things to the brink does tend to make them less stable. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476/18 "2009-11-24T17:52:27Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Oliver Stone > Sean Penn > Danny Glover > Kevin Spacey > Jimmy Carter > Cindy Sheehan > Ramsay Clark’s International Action Center > International ANSWER > The Working Family With the exception of Jimmy Carter (and I’d like a cite), a bunch of people/organizations that even the lefty blogosphere ignores as irrelevant. Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey, and Danny Glover are _movie actors_. Gimme a break. > [@](#): > > And there are a whole lot of people on the left who will not come right out and say they like or support Chavez, but who seem to reflexively run to his defense every time he is criticized. You know, like **gonzomax** a couple of messages up from this one. Tends to be because the criticisms are way overblown, like the following: > [@](#): > > Chavez is far more dangerous than your garden variety corrupt Latin American dictator, because he’s an ideologue. Pinochet was happy to stay home, oppress his people, and rake in the money. Chavez is actively trying to destabilize the entire region, is attempting to be a conduit for Russian weaponry into the region, and is willing to support every despotic thug on the planet so long as it serves his personal ego and helps him grow in stature and power. He looks and acts like a thuggish clown, but he’s a dangerous man. I mean, there’s a serious bunch of armwaving for you. He’s an ideologue - big whoop: so are you. He’s actively trying to destabilize the entire region - that’s gonna be a bit tough. Haven’t seen much evidence of success. Dunno about the Russian weaponry, but I assume no nukes are involved, so yawn. He’s willing to support every despotic thug on the planet, and the effect of this is…yawn. But he’s a dangerous man. Whatever. Methinks the right’s main problem with him isn’t that he’s a left-wing **dictator** , but that he’s a **left-wing** dictator. If he were a right-wing dictator, they wouldn’t even notice him. ---
**Author:** ![Danimal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Danimal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danimal)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476/19 "2009-11-24T18:21:10Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Methinks the right’s main problem with him isn’t that he’s a left-wing **dictator** , but that he’s a **left-wing** dictator. If he were a right-wing dictator, they wouldn’t even notice him. I agree that Chavez’s left-wingness makes him especially distasteful to conservatives. But I disagree that the American right wouldn’t notice him if he were a right-wing dictator. The American right doesn’t particularly care for any anti-American dictator, be he left-wing or right. Saddam Hussein and Manuel Noriega were right-wing dictators; the American right was largely fine with them so long as they were pro-American, then got rather displeased with them when they turned against American interests. And American liberals have often tolerated pro-American righty dictators too. When Anastasio Somoza, right-wing dictator, was running Nicaragua, Franklin Roosevelt said that he was a a son of a bitch, but at least he was our son of a bitch. Lyndon Johnson willingly propped up Thieu in Vietnam, for another example. So it’s not just the American right that will accomodate right wing dictators, so long as they’re pro-American. (Have there been any pro-American left-wing dictators? I can’t think of any.) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476/20 "2009-11-24T18:24:55Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Methinks the right’s main problem with him isn’t that he’s a left-wing **dictator** , but that he’s a **left-wing** dictator. If he were a right-wing dictator, they wouldn’t even notice him. Actually, he is not even a dictator. **Yet.** Give him a few more years . . . [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-chavez-praises-carlos-the-jackal/518476.md?page=2)