Posted on 12/18/2004 6:22:34 AM PST by Kitten Festival
In 1992, Lt. Col. Hugo Chavez learned the hard way that a military coup was the wrong way to seize power when his attempt to rule Venezuela fizzled, landing him in jail. Seven years later, Chavez "converted" to democracy, and his fortune changed. He won the presidency.
Since then, Chavez and his cronies have been busy converting Venezuela's nascent democracy into a dictatorship. While paying lip service to democratic values, they have gradually been stripping Venezuelans of their basic rights and freedoms. The protests of other governments and of human rights organizations, meanwhile, have fallen on deaf ears.
Before winning an August referendum on his rule, Chavez promised to mend his authoritarian ways. If anything, his triumph seems to have emboldened him. Exercising his control over the National Assembly, Chavez is systematically clamping down on democratic freedoms.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Okay bob.
I am a communist blah blah blah
Someone disagrees with you so lets call them names.
Congratulations you are in kindergarten again.
You don't get stability from clowns like Chavez, anymore than we stability from Ortega.
You get insurrections in neighboring countries, and a huge mess to deal with.
But I do agree that we won't be invading. A functional CIA should be able to do the trick (thank goodness we have Porter), just as it did in Chile.
They have already tried that and failed.
Nothing wil be ahppening until after the next US election and even then it will depend on how chavez acts and who is in the whitehouse.
No - I didn't call you a communist. I don't know what you are, and I don't care. You're the one with the deception, trying to distance yourself from Clinton to add credibility to your arguments.
I'm just saying that you cannot have it both ways, and it's our turn now. We have the power and we will protect America.
I am british I have nothing to do with clinton.
I simply do not agree with this view of venezuela.
**The only people complaining are the ones with the must to lose, the very people that have been screwing the poor of venezuela for decades.**
I suspect the support of the poor is great and short term some quality of life has improved. On the other hand, the Communists and Fascists and Islamics all pandered to the poor at the beginnings but the long run effects in negative for the country.
The main difference between the Revolutions and political changes in England and America vrs the Revolutions in France, Russia and other places like Peron in Argentina is that fear of the Mob (or the Poor) caused the USA and England to put checks and balances in the use of power and that more respectible and stable middle classes vrs the mob ran the show.
If our Founding Fathers had given everyone the vote in 1776 we would no longer be a Republic but a dictatorship. By restricting the vote to male property owners at the time the country did more to promote economic growth and freedom than if we had concentrated on providing the needs of the "poor".
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