generalspeaking

Bolivar! Viva Chavez!

Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez is an emotional man, a man of convictions, a man of sturdy determination, a man of the people, for the people. Ask the poor of Venezuela and they will affirm this. Ask the middle-class and they will sneer. The country has vast fossil fuel resources and its president has a munificent attitude toward his neighbours, helpfully disbursing funding and socialist support for them.

All, that is, other than Colombia. Unlike Bolivia, Colombia does not have a man of the people at the helm. And Colombia is a disgrace in the neighbourhood, cleaving as it does to the principles of capitalism. Which is precisely why Hugo Chavez feels justified in supporting the Colombian FARC guerrilla movement, although strenuously denying it. Under Mr. Chavez the news media has become state-controlled (the fascist side of fundamental communism).

Under Mr. Chavez's direction a group of Colombian reporters were detained, accused of spying before finally being deported to Colombia. They were following a story on the activities of an ELN guerrilla commander in Venezuela. Colombia is prepared to take evidence proving official Venezuelan support of Marxist guerrillas to an upcoming meeting of the Organization of American States.

Luis Alfonso Hoyos, Colombia's ambassador to the OAS can show, through photos, videos and intelligence gained from rebel deserters that Hugo Chavez is actively encouraging the guerrillas "which affects Colombia's national security", at the OAS. Guerrilla commanders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia have refuge and protection in Venezuela. Most un-neighbourly.

But then, Hugh Chavez's loathing for the capitalist running dogs is well known and practised. He allies himself proudly with Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with Turkey's Erdogan, with Syria's al Bashir. This is the company he prefers, those who think like him, whose values reflect his, and whose belligerent stance in world affairs sets them aside. And like them, he is more than a trifle peculiar, as in delusional.

While Ahmadinejad sees flashing light descending from heaven indicating the imminent arrival of the Hidden Imam, and al Bashir imagines himself the entitled de facto ruler of Lebanon, Chavez sees himself as Bolivar incarnate, for he too feels the "fire" emanating from the bomb of Simon Bolivar, the great hero of Venezuelan independence.

The exhumation at the National Mausoleum in Caracas must have seen Chavez writhing in ecstasy at the revealed light of his national hero. Who was said to have died of consumption in Colombia. But not according to Mr. Chavez, for an autopsy is underway to determine that founding father Bolivar was poisoned with arsenic by Colombian forces.

Forces of the devil. The proof is in the findings of an American scientist from John Hopkins University who feels it likely that Bolivar did indeed die from arsenic poisoning, likely through contaminated water sources, and not through some dastardly conspiracy. But Chavez is conspiracy-prone, like his friends, and seeks justification for his own attempts to destroy Colombia's government.

The world and its raving lunatics, from Robert Mugabe, to North Korea's Dear Leader, and the Burmese leaders seeking nuclear weaponry, along to Ahmadinejad and the Ayatollahs, Syria's president, and Turkey's current Islamist party led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his connections with the IHH terror group, and Pakistan's ISI and the Taliban.

All give us pause to gulp and reflect. Help!

Labels: Heroes and Villains, Human Fallibility, Human Relations, Human Rights

posted by Pieface @ Sunday, July 18, 2010