I saw in an online news report from AP concerning President Hugo Chavez and the upcoming election this Sunday, specifically the upcoming election for governor of the state of Barinas.
The reports are saying that should the opposition candidate (Julio Reyes) defeat his opponent (President Chavez’s older brother), then President Chavez will send tanks into Barinas if his candidate should lose the election.
I guess President Chavez is also said to be threatening similar action in the case of Manuel Rosales running against Chavez’s candidate for the office of mayor of Maricaibo.
Would he actually do something like this if his candidates lost the election “fair and square”, and if so, wouldn’t this hurt his image and credibility with his supporters at home and in other countries? It seems a bit “heavy handed” if he actually chooses to respond this way to a free and fair election should his candidates lose.
He’s probably hoping that he doesn’t have to, that the mere threat will be enough to ensure that his guys win. If they do, he can then claim that he never threatened intervention at all (there’s probably enough cutouts in the story to allow that), and get the best of both worlds.
A good chunk of the leftist political parties in South America get the vapors when hearing Chavez talk. But sending in tanks to change a democratically held election would (Og I hope so!) be a clear wake up call. If anything it would be very good grounds to invoke the Democracy clause of MERCOSUR, declare Venezuela as non-compliant with the treaty clauses and force Chavez to accept electoral results or be kicked out of the bloc.
Of course said leftist political parties have been exceptionally flexible regarding that clause so far as applied to Chavez.
I could argue that one round or square. How many countries has Chavez invaded? How many people have died as a result? How many people has Chavez had tortured? How many people has he kidnapped from other countries? Have his secret agencies illegally obtained financial information about individuals in other countries? Illegally tapped phone calls?
Chavez is a clown with little power to do much harm. Bush is a criminal who has done much more damage than Chavez could ever do.
But I would rather Chavez be president of Venezuela than of the USA. By that measure you are right.
How many countries has Chavez had the capability to invade?
I don’t know how many Venezuelans he has tortured.
But Chavez is a tyrant who is reshaping the country so that his power cannot be challenged. He has more ability to do that than Bush ever did. Just because Venezuela is relatively weak doesn’t mean Chavez wouldn’t expand his power base further if he could.
I’d rather him not be President of anywhere, just like I’d rather Bush not be. It just drives me nuts that people would rather support ideology. “Oh socialist President of Venezuela is de facto good because he mouths leftist platitudes.”, like people like Brainglutton who give a tinpot dictator a pass just because he uses the right code words.
It is a stupid line but I can play. OK. How many chances has GW Bush had to molest children? Just sayin’.
We do not know how many Venezuelans the Pope has tortured. We do not know how many Venezuelans Mother Theresa tortured in the last ten years of her life. We do not know how many Venezuelans Mr. Rogers tortured. It looks like in all cases the number is most probably zero. But we DO know Bush has ordered the use of torture and that has been used in fact. Substantial difference. From zero to a number greater than zero.
I do not like Chavez and I wish he was not there but he has been elected and maintained by a greater margin than Bush and he has suffered an American backed coup. In this story America are the bad guys. No doubt about it.
There we agree.
I do not know what you mean by “ideology” but I defend democracy and so I have to defend Chavez and condemn the American backed coup against him.