Anyone have an opinion on Hugo Chavez?

[HvyMtlClickWitch]

Being as i don't live there (and don't even speak spanish to boot), i don't know what to think of the whole situation. On one hand, i applaud Chavez for things like his television program which makes him accessible to the public and for educating the poor on Venezuela's politics.

On the other hand, i feel it is unwise to incite the lower classes to anger as he has done.

I would like to know what everyone else thinks about Chavez.

[Stratovarious]

I'm chilean so I don't want to disscus about him

I got my personal opinion and is totally wicked

[HvyMtlClickWitch]

Jesus Christ. You'd better post it. You and M.Diego were the two people i was really hoping to hear from.

Post, mortal!!!

[gon]

I was born in Venezuela, my father is from that country and also my sister, so I am really concernet about the situation in Venezuela, although I am spanish and I live in Spain....

Chavez? difficult answer man! he is really populist, he got the power after passing several years in jail as he tried to have the government through the army ( sorry, I don´lt know how to say this in english) and sometimes he acts like a madman ( he has breakfast every saturday with Castro in La Habana and he gives free oil to Cuba...)
On the other side he took some good decissions for the poor people in Venezuela, country as you know, is really rich because it has many natural resources, not only oil by the way, but all the richness belongs to the 15% of the population! I´m not comunist at all, but the high class in Venezuela is one of the worst in the whole world. The systems is really corrupted ( political and financial terms) and lots of things in that way. But now the country is divided. He can´t dismissed between his "fans" and the people who is not happy with him. I mean, he thinks he is the LEADER, and if you attack him, his government, you are blaming Venezuela, which is not exact...

At last, this is only a really subjetive opinion.... What I can say is that when we left Venezuela in 1979 it was the promised land for many millions of europeans and now... now is really sad to see how many changes happened in 25 years.... none of them good.

[Equinox]

I was born in Venezuela, my father is from that country and also my sister, so I am really concernet about the situation in Venezuela, although I am spanish and I live in Spain....

Chavez? difficult answer man! he is really populist, he got the power after passing several years in jail as he tried to have the government through the army ( sorry, I don´lt know how to say this in english) and sometimes he acts like a madman ( he has breakfast every saturday with Castro in La Habana and he gives free oil to Cuba...)
On the other side he took some good decissions for the poor people in Venezuela, country as you know, is really rich because it has many natural resources, not only oil by the way, but all the richness belongs to the 15% of the population! I´m not comunist at all, but the high class in Venezuela is one of the worst in the whole world. The systems is really corrupted ( political and financial terms) and lots of things in that way. But now the country is divided. He can´t dismissed between his "fans" and the people who is not happy with him. I mean, he thinks he is the LEADER, and if you attack him, his government, you are blaming Venezuela, which is not exact...

At last, this is only a really subjetive opinion.... What I can say is that when we left Venezuela in 1979 it was the promised land for many millions of europeans and now... now is really sad to see how many changes happened in 25 years.... none of them good.

Well, im kinda know something 'bout this "topic" but its so hard to explain.......

Gon, what's that that he breakfast with Castro every, first of all i've never hear that before, since this moth is the first time he left the country in a long time! how do i know?

In D.R. the goverment make a park in honor of Simon Bolivar, and it was complete like...........2 years ago, and this moth was the first time that he could fly to D.R. and Damn i can't recall the word....inagurate it? (if its not ok, u right me) And after that he fly to couple of country like Cuba.....

"bout him specifically: i have to said it, i like him a lot, why? 'cuz even if his goverment is corrupted he has done a pretty good job, and i have to said it, i like Tyrants and dictaros, because after the death of D.R. only dictador (R. L. Trujillo) there have been a big disaster! and the only way it can be fixed is with some hard hand!

[Equinox]

I was born in Venezuela, my father is from that country and also my sister, so I am really concernet about the situation in Venezuela, although I am spanish and I live in Spain....

Chavez? difficult answer man! he is really populist, he got the power after passing several years in jail as he tried to have the government through the army ( sorry, I don´lt know how to say this in english) and sometimes he acts like a madman ( he has breakfast every saturday with Castro in La Habana and he gives free oil to Cuba...)
On the other side he took some good decissions for the poor people in Venezuela, country as you know, is really rich because it has many natural resources, not only oil by the way, but all the richness belongs to the 15% of the population! I´m not comunist at all, but the high class in Venezuela is one of the worst in the whole world. The systems is really corrupted ( political and financial terms) and lots of things in that way. But now the country is divided. He can´t dismissed between his "fans" and the people who is not happy with him. I mean, he thinks he is the LEADER, and if you attack him, his government, you are blaming Venezuela, which is not exact...

At last, this is only a really subjetive opinion.... What I can say is that when we left Venezuela in 1979 it was the promised land for many millions of europeans and now... now is really sad to see how many changes happened in 25 years.... none of them good.

Well, im kinda know something 'bout this "topic" but its so hard to explain.......

Gon, what's that that he breakfast with Castro every, first of all i've never hear that before, since this moth is the first time he left the country in a long time! how do i know?

In D.R. the goverment make a park in honor of Simon Bolivar, and it was complete like...........2 years ago, and this moth was the first time that he could fly to D.R. and Damn i can't recall the word....inagurate it? (if its not ok, u right me) And after that he fly to couple of country like Cuba.....

"bout him specifically: i have to said it, i like him a lot, why? 'cuz even if his goverment is corrupted he has done a pretty good job, and i have to said it, i like Tyrants and dictaros, because after the death of D.R. only dictador (R. L. Trujillo) there have been a big disaster! and the only way it can be fixed is with some hard hand!

(im not pretty sure if i make myself clear..........)

[gon]

As it is a hard subject. I didn´t say any opinion about him before, so I will not do it now, he has good and bad things, that´s all. But, what we can´t denie, is that the country is absolutely divided. No more to say on my side. I still have relatives there and they had problems because, you know, they have a spanish relative ( me). the government thought (¡!) that they wanted to leave the country ( certain thing) and they put many obstacles to avoid their departure to Canarias Islands ( Spain) where is a major colony of citizens of Venezuela.... I don´t want to continue at the moment man.Later.

[MAJINDIEGO]

Jesus Christ. You'd better post it. You and M.Diego were the two people i was really hoping to hear from.

Post, mortal!!!

don´t have a formed opinion about him...sorry!

But i can say that, whenever you see a populist in the government, something behind your back really fishy is going on, that´s for sure.
At least he putted in his constitution that all important decisions would be made by the people´s choice ("pebliscito")...
i don´t know...i´m an outsider, so, besides being populist, i can´t say much about him.

[Stratovarious]

mm ok ...well

about the situation in my country....this man thinks he can exceed the soberany of any country cause his thoughts are differents, he's some popullist guy and have super personality beyond of their politics beliefs and beacuse of that He try to force my country to do something we won't... he put his nouse where he shouldn't.....everything is about bilateral relationships....between Bolivia and Chile not Venezuela and he insist to be envolve in that issue

he make me sick....sorry but I don't want to waste words in him
there's nothing personal to venezuela just he sucks

[MAJINDIEGO]

really? i didn´t know that...
But in which area specificaly does he interfere in your country?
I didn´t even know he had the power to do that...besides oil, i see no other force behind him...(okay, unless that´s exactly what we are talking about! )

[HvyMtlClickWitch]

really? i didn´t know that...
But in which area specificaly does he interfere in your country?

Yeah, i'm wondering that too. Obviously you have some strong views on the guy. There must be something going on down there. Please, tell us!

The whole reason i started this topic is because i wanted to hear what was going on from people who were there/had been there/knew firsthand.

The media lies, no matter whether it's left-wing or right-wing, and i don't feel comfortable about forming opinions based on what i read in the papers/zines/internet.

[gon]

Ok: I have to say that I DON´T LIKE HIM!

The problem is that I alson don´t like the other political parties. Do you know what I mean? the alternatives are the same shit with different points of view....puajjjj!!!

[Allison]

I'm not really bothered with the politics of this man but if he's giving free oil in exchange for breakfast then that motherfucker in washington better get his redneck inbred rump down to McDonald's and hook that brother up so we can get free oil too and then they won't have to fuck with the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge.

[HvyMtlClickWitch]

I'm not really bothered with the politics of this man but if he's giving free oil in exchange for breakfast then that motherfucker in washington better get his redneck inbred rump down to McDonald's and hook that brother up so we can get free oil too and then they won't have to fuck with the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge.

That's the funniest thing i've heard all week.

And also true.

But moreso, funny.

[Stratovarious]

really? i didn´t know that...
But in which area specificaly does he interfere in your country?
I didn´t even know he had the power to do that...besides oil, i see no other force behind him...(okay, unless that´s exactly what we are talking about! )

ok
for many years Bolivia and Chile have problems with limits
and specificaly with sea limits
Bolivia doesn't have sea if you check it out a map you will know about that
so Chile has to get some deal with that problems we have a lot of sea if you watch the map

but we can`t give them in an easy fact an exit to the ocean cause Bolivia has been always talkin that we stole them a great peace of land so i f we give them in an easy way the exit to the ocean we' get some risk to face so I don't know, I think this is an issue that Bolivia has to resolve with Chile

so where's chavez in this issue¿¿¿?¿?¿

[gon]

really? i didn´t know that...
But in which area specificaly does he interfere in your country?
I didn´t even know he had the power to do that...besides oil, i see no other force behind him...(okay, unless that´s exactly what we are talking about! )

ok
for many years Bolivia and Chile have problems with limits
and specificaly with sea limits
Bolivia doesn't have sea if you check it out a map you will know about that
so Chile has to get some deal with that problems we have a lot of sea if you watch the map

but we can`t give them in an easy fact an exit to the ocean cause Bolivia has been always talkin that we stole them a great peace of land so i f we give them in an easy way the exit to the ocean we' get some risk to face so I don't know, I think this is an issue that Bolivia has to resolve with Chile

so where's chavez in this issue¿¿¿?¿?¿

He´s now in Spain, by the way.... supporting the " Zapatero´s revolution", jojojo..... ironic....

[NordicStorm]

I don't know enough about the current situation to have a firm opinion one way or the other of Chavez, but I think it stands to reason to assume that in a country where some 80% of the population lives in poverty and small minority controls most of the wealth...shit will happen. Indeed, I don't find to particularly outlandish to claim that if it weren't for US involvement via the CIA and backing goobers like Pinochet and whatnot, the whole continent would probably have fallen to Communism already.


As for the US/western civilization and oil...with that budget deficit they've been racking up recently, one would think at least a fragment of that went into research about...oh, I don't, alternative energy sources?

[MAJINDIEGO]

Indeed, I don't find to particularly outlandish to claim that if it weren't for US involvement via the CIA and backing goobers like Pinochet and whatnot, the whole continent would probably have fallen to Communism already.

I´m not sure if Communism would be better than those Military Dictatorship that went along all Latin America and killed hundreds of people for no other reason than politics, raised drastically our Depts with the International Monetary Fund, and carved the huge difference between our poverty and wealthy, specially between the amount of poor people and the minority of rich ones.
(okay, Communism would do that also, but the thing is, Brazil weren´t threated with Communism...the President that lost power over the Military had nothing to do with it...sorry for off-topic)

[HvyMtlClickWitch]

I´m not sure if Communism would be better than those Military Dictatorship that went along all Latin America and killed hundreds of people............

Thanks for saying that so i didn't have to. I almost did, but i was too much of a pansy.

[gon]

hard subject this, guys.... who knows?

[NordicStorm]

Nor did I say Communism would be any better, I'm just stating what I find to be the likely turn of events if the US hadn't intervened.
Nor have I said what we got instead of a Communist South America would be particularly desirable.
Both Batista and Castro are dummies as far as I'm concerned, it's not like I have a favourite dictator.