The Janus-Headed Chavez
It's a real head-scratcher, coming to terms with the outrageous aspects of the man's behaviour, his colourful and often-miserable political alliances. And then there's the other side, the one that speaks to his humanitarian instincts, his dedication to aiding and assisting the poor of the world, never mind Venezuela. Which side reveals the real person behind the mask? The one whom a free world may have cause to revile, or the other which an underprivileged world may have cause to respect?Is the man a riddle, a conundrum, a confused moralizer, a credit to his country or yet another mountebank masquerading as a champion of the underdog? Hard to judge, isn't it? Based on news reports, on his mode of operation, his questionable alliances, his over-the-top rhetoric, his self-aggrandizing boasts. Could be that he is all that he appears to represent; the bad and the good both.
Here is this man newly re-elected for his second sitting as president of oil-rich Venezuela, promising to alter the country's legislative laws to enable him to continue running for re-election, despite current laws which prohibit him from offering himself up for a third election run. He feels himself to be so singular an answer to the needs of his country that he cannot, out of moral duty, refuse to continue to preside over Venezuela; to do otherwise would be to deny his destiny and his country's.
This is a different slant on democratic action, to be certain. But look here, he has company. None other than Vladimir Putin of whom, it is now said, the same intent may be revealed. Russia's laws too forbid a third run at the presidential office. However, Mr. Putin has revealed that he has been urged so strongly, so frequently, by supporters from all walks of life, that he will consider offering himself up again for re-election when the time is right.
These are democratically elected heads of state, although to be sure they also reign in a manner quite unlike that of most Western democracies, with a shade of dictatorship in the mix. It seems to work in some countries whose populations appear to be more than willing to hand over directly to their choices the kind of omnipotence generally conferred upon theisticly-governed or militarily-governed states.
To his huge credfit Hugo Chavez turns his attention to the plight of the eight million Venezuelans who live in grinding poverty; if Venezuelans are fortunate enough to own personal vehicles they need pay only 17cents a gallon for gasoline. Mr. Chavez's compassionate eye wanders abroad, and through Citgo the U.S. subsidiary of state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., a heating-oil program whereby winter fuel is provided a cut-rates to the poor in the United States has earned him a devoted following.
Furthermore, Mr. Chavez's PetroCaribe programme, providing oil to a dozen Caribbean nations, including Cuba, makes him a huge benefactor to the poor there as well. Mr. Chavez has, in addition, used some of Venezuela's vast oil revenues to pay for badly-needed infrastructure in countries such as Bolivia and Uruguay. Fully a third of Venezuelans continue to live in poverty, and gratefully accept their president's largesse at home, and supposedly abroad.
But the editor of the Tal Cual newspaper in Venezuela has stated "This country can afford to be generous. But if you give money for a hospital in Uruguay when the majority of Venezuelan hospitals are worth nothing, then people resent that." In wealthier east Caracas the opinion states "There is a lot of poverty in this country that needs to be solved first".
Despite which, many residents of a sprawling slum in Caracas appear to approve of selling cheap oil, even to the richest nation on earth. "He is not giving it to the government of the United States. He is giving it to poor people who need it, who live in poor neighbourhoods like this. If it is necessary, then I think it is good that some of these Americans have it."
Mr. Chavez obviously has won the hearts and minds and certainly the respect, trust and support of most Venezuelan barrio dwellers. The returns from the recent election go a long way to proving just that. He has his majority, his mandate to continue presiding over the country and disposing of its wealth as he sees fit. Which includes, among other matters international, providing a 40% discount on heating oil to hundreds of thousands of the poor across the United States.
It's an anomaly of some proportions that Mr. Chavez, a strident critic of the United States and in particular of its president whom he likens in persona to the devil, supports the critical needs of U.S. poor while American oil companies such as Chevon and Exxon which also have major operations in Venezuela, haven't seen fit to do so; their profits are to remain in the hands of the privileged. Providing a wonderful opportunity for Mr. Chavez to tweak Mr. Bush's nose.
There's something to be said for a president of a country who, while going to some lengths to try to solve the endemic poverty in his home country looks abroad for opportunities to spread his largesse in support of the poor in other countries. Whether this demonstrates a true regard for the underprivileged wherever they happen to be, or an astute political move to garner support abroad for his particular kind of governance and his obvious disdain bordering on hatred for George W. Bush is anyone's guess.
For a president of a nation Mr. Chavez seems to have little regard for diplomatic niceties. All the more puzzling, perhaps, when he publicly heaps scorn on the president of a country to which he owes the lion's share of his own country's considerable revenues. Each, of course, is equally dependent upon the other.
And for a man who claims his moral compass is pointing in the right direction he has made some truly questionable overtures and public friendships among the worst of which must surely be that which he has celebrated with Iran's lunatic president Ahmadinejad.
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, December 05, 2006
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