ddoubleez

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If recent trends continue and America IF America is in pursuit of the last oil reserves on the planet after the US launches it's invasion on Iran our next logical location will be much closer to home....

The presumed country is one of the newest and and most broad spectrum democracy EVER....

1)This country's president Is the most popular in it's country's history

2)This country's president answers letters from it's people on TV every week.

3)This country's president was elected by the largest voter per capida in it's history.

4)This country was only the second Latin American country and the forth country in total in this hemisphere to completely wipe-out illiteracy, under this president. All education is free through graduate level programs, this level of education can cost 250,000 in the US.

5)This country has one of the best health care systems in the world and it is classified as a third world country... Health care is free.

6) 60% of all media is public paid for by an independent government fund. Special media schools are not only free, but students earn a wage while attending to encourage public preticipation.

7) Though considered a third world country, social spending rivals many developed countries.

8) Well-fair programs are mostly comprised of local clubs or meetings where people are paid to attend meetings where local projects are proposed, planned, and executed by local citizens. Funding and engineers are provided by the government which only monitors purchases.

9) This was the first president reinstated by his people, after a coup in the history of Latin America.

10) This country has the constitution plastered on every wall...........
This country has only now understood the meaning of freedom under Hugo Chavez....

One request watch all of what you can of either of these documentaries before posting.... Commercial media will make you a fool if you don't... This one is a goood introduction of the two and is easier to watch.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised:

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1086664930

This is a documentary by a group of people that went to Venezuela to interview and actually got caught up in the American lead coup in 2002... They were traped with the presedent during the kidnaping and surrender. This movie is as emotional as the second, but won many more awards:
Poor video quality, but I can upload a closer to DVD version on request...

No D/L needed:

This one has an uncomfortable beginning, but shortly into the film it gets to the unpolitical meat and potatoes and becomes more watchable.... A VERY GOOD MOVIE....

http://video.google.com/videoplay?d...302323300507208

Thanks for D/Ling... And enjoy emapthy.....

michaelfarker

Hugo Chavez is a truly interesting leader. The points you list do make Venezuelan Democracy sound like a beautiful society in many ways. In particular, Mission Robinson, Mission Sucre and Mission Ribas seem to be effectively improving the education level of the majority of Venezuelans. He is even spending money to combat discrimination against the oppressed native minority. While there seems to be a bit of "pressure" from both sides on the voting system, all signs point to the majority of Venezuelans honestly supporting Chavez as President in two elections and two recall referendums.

I will avoid the "US is going to kick your Iran supporting butt" approach. I hope to express my reservations about Hugo Chavez from a pro-Venezuela perspective.

Violent opposition haunts Mr. Chavez. His failed coup d'etat in 1992 showed a willingness to rely on military revolution. I am even more troubled by the fact that the attack he personally lead is the part that failed miserably. In addition, the repeated military coup attempts against his government since his election as president have illustrated the strong and violent hatred of some Venezuelans. Of even greater concern is the composition of this violent opposition: unions, business owners, government employees, former government officials, and parts of the Venezuelan military. Though it is nice that Mr. Chavez is spending significant amounts on medical care, it is troubling that Venezuela's doctors went on strike in 2005 to oppose how this money was being spent.

I would prefer more capitalism in Venezuelan economics. In particular, I believe a job working for a private company and/or owning your own business does more than anything else to raise your standard of living. It also helps the nation keep inflation low and growth high. Mr. Chavez needs to work to get the unions and other employee advocate groups back on his side. I can embrace and support the government owning the oil industry and using it to pay for social security, medical care and universal education. There also aught to be ways to reduce taxes and support small business loans. As Hugo Chavez has often said, the world's oil reserves may soon dry up. How will Venezuela support its economy then?

Venezuela's relations are strained or severed with the US, neighboring Columbia, Peru, Mexico, and Israel. Venezuela is buying arms from and seeking military agreements with Iran and China. In fact Mr. Chavez is trying to lead in the development of a military organization to oppose NATO. How many democracies would be joining it?

Finally, does Hugo Chavez embrace the supremacy of the constitution, government checks and balances, freedom of religion, and freedom of the press? Did Mr. Chavez fire thousands of public employees who signed the petition to have a vote on whether to recall him from the presidency? Will Hugo Chavez stick to his expressed desire to amend the constitution to let him run for a third term? Is it good for Venezuela for Hugo Chavez to appoint the judiciary and strongly influence who gets to be in congress? Is it ok for Mr. Chavez to call Israel the new "Hitler" perpetrating a "new holocaust" and call the Venezuelan Catholic church a "tumor"? (96% of Venezuelans describe themselves as Roman Catholic.) Why was Venezuela's 2nd largest station "RCTV" shut down and replaced with a state-sponsored channel after the 2006 elections? What of the 2005 law which allows Chavez to jail any reporter who criticizes the government? It would be extremely difficult for anyone outside of Venezuela to answer these questions.

Please forgive me if this is too long-winded. I have not been inspired to think this hard about politics in a while. Thank you ddoubleez for making a fascinating post about this important figure.

I found the following sites interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_chavez
https://www.cia.gov/library/publica...ok/geos/ve.html
http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/sea...e&q=Hugo+Chavez
http://search.cnn.com/search.jsp?query=Hugo%20Chavez

ddoubleez

First, I am honored your first post was in response to my thread, and welcome to webrats.... I don't find your post long-winded, I think it would be better defined as comprehensive!

I would like to take one point at a time, to keep down the confusion.... I will post more every couple of days...


Hugo strongly endorses his constitution.... He prints it and posts it everywhere and it was his first project in office....

The 'force' behind the petition (if we are speaking of the same one), were multi-national corporations that were trying to keep their place on the 3 trillion dollars of hydro-carbons under Venezuela..... Hugo has been putting pressure on the 'upper class' to redistribute the wealth. Before his presidency, 60% of the population did not even have birth certificates while .25% of the population held the wealth and therefore 'owned' the resources of the country....

The ties with Iran and china are simply a ploy to defend himself from the US who was behind the resistance to the attempted coup in the early nineties to get Hugo into office. This coup came into action because 'the people' had never been represented in an election..... The coup attempt in 2002, was backed by the US and failed.... When a government, such as the US, tries to overthrow you, you find yourself allies with ANYONE you can find(the CIA calls this blow-back).

RCTV is a private broadcasting TV station, that induced chaos and backed the attempted coup of 2002, Chavez gave them 5 years to come into compliance and they did not...... I would expect any TV station, that misrepresented the news and caused a gunfight between (now exiled military leaders) and citizens to receive a similar treatment.......
The media is free there, but laws have been enacted to prevent a repeat of 2002 and the three previous media frenzies that have ended the lives of over 1000 citizens........
I strongly suggest watching, the revolution will not be televised.... It goes over, in detail, some of the issues you have with the actions in 2002 and will also lend some understanding to Hugo's reactions and allies.......

Israel is illegally occupying and starving Palestinians... We get a horribly one sided version of the relationship there, for obvious reasons...... What they do to their neighbors and the illegal weapons they use could start a long list that no one would take the time to get through.......

And lastly, you do understand that many of the points you have made, are criticisms of our current administration........

ddoubleez

Hugo Chávez - 1992 Fallido Golpe de Estado / Coup attempt