Hugo Chavez is dead

[jpyaks3]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...-riddance.html

To paint the 2002 coup attempt as a revolution is absurd. It tells all you need to know about that article.

[visionary]

To paint the 2002 coup attempt as a revolution is absurd. It tells all you need to know about that article.

I don't know much about Venezuelan coups, but it seems Chavez took part in one or two as well.
In any case, there is a lot of interesting stuff in that article that can't really be disputed.

[jpyaks3]

Former US Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger on Fox News" posted:
[Chávez’s appeal] only works so long as the population of Venezuela sees some ability for a better standard of living. If at some point the economy really gets bad, Chávez’s popularity within the country will certainly decrease and it’s the one weapon we have against him to begin with and which we should be using, namely the economic tools of trying to make the economy even worse so that his appeal in the country and the region goes down [...] Anything we can do to make their economy more difficult for them at this moment is a good thing, but let’s do it in ways that do not get us into direct conflict with Venezuela if we can get away with it.

And we wonder why Chavez didn't like American foreign policy. Disgusting.

[twa]

sounds like a great leader
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...e_typical.html

The Ghost of Hugo Chávez
How his economically disastrous, politically effective ideology will haunt the country he ruined.


What has Chávez bequeathed his fellow Venezuelans? The hard facts are unmistakable: The oil-rich South American country is in shambles. It has one of the world’s highest rates of inflation, largest fiscal deficits, and fastest growing debts. Despite a boom in oil prices, the country’s infrastructure is in disrepair—power outages and rolling blackouts are common—and it is more dependent on crude exports than when Chávez arrived. Venezuela is the only member of OPEC that suffers from shortages of staples such as flour, milk, and sugar. Crime and violence skyrocketed during Chávez’s years. On an average weekend, more people are killed in Caracas than in Baghdad and Kabul combined. (In 2009, there were 19,133 murders in Venezuela, more than four times the number of a decade earlier.) When the grisly statistics failed to improve, the Venezuelan government simply stopped publishing the figures.

[visionary]

Some of the reactions to his death:

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2...n-america?lite

World leaders pay tribute to Hugo Chavez as wave of grief washes over Latin America

[Predicto]

I think a lot of people want to hold him to a much higher standard than they are willing to hold their own country to. See foreign policy and support of dictators for a blatant example.

Some of it is simple human nature. Chavez went out of his way to call the US the great Satan, the source of all evil in the world. Americans naturally resented it.

[Switchgear]

I saw this in the CNN comments, it seemed a fitting tribute

Pancho49 • a day ago −
Rest in peace, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías. As a Venezuelan, I didn't agree with most of your policies and politics, but I do not rejoice in your death and I do respect the pain of your family and supporters.

In 1998, when you campaigned for the presidency -and promised to end corruption- despite my disappointment with the traditional parties, I did not support you because you had led a coup against president Carlos Andres Pérez. I didn't like Pérez, but he was elected by our people and attempting to overthrow him was proof that you did not respect the will of Venezuelans.

I didn't oppose 100% of what you did. I was grateful, for example, that you placed the issue of poverty on the table and you put the spotlight on millions of Venezuelans that until then had been excluded. I knew that the Cuban doctors in the slums were unprepared and unequipped, but I understood that they meant the world to the mother that knocks on their door at 3am. I was also happy of the way most Venezuelans started to care about politics again (some because they supported you; others because they opposed you). The anti-politic feeling we saw in the 90's was precisely what got you elected. And I also kept in mind that a majority of Venezuelans did support you, so you certainly had a right to be in office.

These are my 10 reasons why I will not miss you:

1. Your authoritarian manner (which reflected a flaw probably most Venezuelans have), and your inability to engage in an honest dialogue with anyone that opposed you. Even from your death bed, you had a Supreme Court justice fired because she didn't agree with your politics.

2. Your disrespect for the rule of law and your contribution to a climate of impunity in Venezuela. In 1999, you re-wrote the Constitution to fit your needs, and yet you violated it almost on a daily basis. With this example, it is no surprise that crime exploded in Venezuela. In 14 years, our homicide rate more than tripled from 22/100K to 74/100K. While judges were busy trying to prove their political allegiance to you, only 11% of homicides led to a conviction.

3. Your empty promises and the way you manipulated many Venezuelans to think you were really working for them. In 14 years you built less public housing than any president before you did in their 5 year periods. Hospitals today have no resources, and if you go there in an emergency you must bring with you everything from medicines to surgical gloves and masks. The truth is that you were better at blowing your own trumpet than at getting things done.

4. The astounding level of corruption of your government. There was corruption before you got elected, but normally a government's scandals weren't made public until they handed power to the opposing party. Now we've heard about millions and millions of dollars vanishing in front of everybody's eyes, and your only reaction was to attack the media that revealed the corruption. The only politicians accused of corruption have been from parties that oppose you, and mostly on trumped up charges. For example, Leopoldo Lopez was never condemned by the courts but you still prevented him for running for office. His crime? Using money from the wrong budget allocation to pay for the salaries of teachers and firemen -because your government withheld the appropriate funds.

5. The opportunities you missed. When you took office, the price of oil was $9.30, and in 2008 it reached $126.33. There was so much good you could have done with that money! And yet you decided to throw it away on corruption and buying elections and weapons. If you had used these resources well, 10.7% of Venezuelans would not be in extreme poverty.

6. Your attacks on private property and entrepreneurship. You nationalized hundreds of private companies, and pushed hundreds more towards bankruptcy. Not because you were a communist or a socialist, but simply because you wanted no one left with any power to oppose you. If everyone was a public employee, you could force them to attend your political rallies, and the opposition would not get any funding.

7. Your hypocrisy on freedom and human rights. You shut down more than 30 radio and television stations for being critical of your government, you denied access to foreign currency for newspapers to buy printing paper (regular citizens can't access foreign currency unless you authorize it), you imprisoned people without trial for years, you imprisoned people for crimes of opinion, you fired tens of thousands of public employees for signing a petition for a recall referendum and you denied them access to public services and even ID cards and passports.

8. Your hypocrisy on the issue of Venezuela's sovereignty. You kicked out the Americans but then you pulled down your pants for the Cubans, Russians, Chinese and Iranians. We have Cuban officers giving orders in the Venezuelan army. Chinese oil companies work with a higher margin of profit than any Western companies did. And you made it clear that your alliances would be with governments that massacre their own people.

9. Your hypocrisy on the issue of violence. You said this was a peaceful revolution but you allowed illegal armed groups like Tupamaros, La Piedrita and FBLN to operate. You gave them weapons. You had the Russians set up a Kalashnikov plant in Venezuela. You were critical of American wars but yet you gave weapons to the Colombian guerrilla, whose only agenda is murder and drug-dealing.

10. Your hypocrisy on democracy. Your favorite insult for the opposition parties in Venezuela was "coupists", but you forgot you organized a coup in 1992, and the military that was loyal to you suggested they would support a coup in your favor if the opposition ever won the presidential elections. There was no democracy in your political party: you chose each of the candidates for the National Assembly and for city and state governments. When the opposition won the referendum that would have allowed you to change the Constitution in 2007, you disavowed the results and you figured out a way to change the articles and allow yourself to be reelected as many times as you wanted. You manipulated the elections in 2010 to make sure the opposition didn't get more than a third of seats in Parliament even though they got 51% of the popular vote. Your democracy was made of paper, you made sure there were no meaningful checks and balances and all institutions were your puppets.

So no, Hugo I will not miss you. Rest in peace now, while we try to rebuild the mess of a country that you left us.

[jly0784]

anyone who supports or commends that piece of crap are as bad as him

[Predicto]

anyone who supports or commends that piece of crap are as bad as him

A lot of very poor people in Venezuela supported Chavez, and given their country's history, I can understand why they did so.

He was a jerk in innumerable ways, but it's not as simple "pure evil" as we Americans like to believe.

[visionary]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americ...=MasterAccount

Chavez body to be put on permanent display

Hugo Chavez's embalmed body will be permanently displayed in a glass casket at a military museum after a state funeral, Venezuela's acting president has said.

Nicolas Maduro made the announcement said on Thursday during a television interview with state-owned VTV outside of the military academy where the late president's body is lying in state.

He said Chavez would first lie in state for at least another seven days at the military academy where he was brought on Wednesday.

Huge crowds are still waiting to pay their respects to Chavez after his death this week, as world leaders began to arrive for Chavez's state funeral, set to take place on Friday.

Chavez's body will be embalmed and brought to the Museum of the Revolution, which is still under construction and is close to the presidential palace from which he ruled for 14 years.

Maduro said the move - reminiscent of the treatment of Communist leaders Lenin, Stalin and Mao after their deaths - would help keep Chavez's self-declared socialist revolution alive.

"It has been decided that the body of the comandante will be embalmed so that it remains eternally on view for the people at the museum," Maduro told VTV.

Elias Jaua, foreign minister, said 54 countries were sending delegations, including 22 heads of state.

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/BBCiPannell

More than thirty Heads of State reported to be attending Hugo Chavez funeral inc President Raul Castro of Cuba.
8:23 a.m

Queue of mourners stretching half a mile or more to attend the funeral of Hugo Chavez.
8:42 a.m

"The ground is no place for champions" Rev Jessie Jackson at funeral of Chavez
12:57 p.m

Front row at the funeral of Hugo Chavez looks like a who's who of America's least favourite leaders; Castro, Ahmadinejad & Lukashenko
1:07 p.m

[Predicto]

Good thinking Jesse Jackson. Get a nice photo op with Ahmadinjedad and Castro. That will do wonders for your credibility in the US.

[thebluefood]

Good thinking Jesse Jackson. Get a nice photo op with Ahmadinjedad and Castro. That will do wonders for your credibility in the US.

Seriously. I know that Chavez did some good for Venezuela, but let's not forget his track record on human rights is far from pure and he's a polarizing figure in his own country and around the world for a reason.

Come to think of it, apart from their mutual hatred of everything having to do with us, why were Ahmadinjedad and Chavez all buddy-buddy? Ahmadinjedad isn't exactly what I would call a lefty like Chavez.

[visionary]

http://blogs.aljazeera.com/topic/hug...aks-al-jazeera

Jesse Jackson, who attended Chavez funeral, speaks to Al Jazeera

Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., US civil rights leader, attended the funeral of Hugo Chavez, the anti-American Venezuelan leader who died earlier this week.

Jackson, who ran for president twice in the 1980s, gave a prayer, urging God to "heal the breach between the US and Venezuela".

Despite testy ties with Venezuela, the US was represented by its charge d'affaires and two politicians from President Barack Obama's Democratic Party.

Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman spoke to Jackson in Caracas.

https://twitter.com/BreakingNews

Venezuela's acting president Maduro names Hugo Chavez's son-in-law, Jorge Arreaza, as vice president - @AP http://bit.ly/13KLSxX
8:52 p.m

---------- Post added March-8th-2013 at 09:50 PM ----------

http://blogs.aljazeera.com/topic/hug...ed-immediately

Venezuela's Maduro wants election called 'immediately'

Venezuela's acting President Nicolas Maduro urged the national electoral council on Friday to "immediately" call an election to succeed late leader Hugo Chavez.

After he was sworn in at the National Assembly, Maduro said he officially asked council president Tibisay Lucena to "immediately convene presidential elections".

https://twitter.com/ReutersVzla

Venezuela's new acting President, Nicolas Maduro, has called for a snap election. Officials are expected to name the date on Saturday
9:36 p.m

[mikered30]

That was nice of Jackson and Penn to hang out at his funeral...