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That Chávez Thing Is Over
MSNBC (Newsweek) ^ | 5/29/2006 issue | Ruchir Sharma

Posted on 05/22/2006 6:27:49 PM PDT by wjersey

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez is the new rock star of world politics. His impassioned rants against globalization, with animated poses to match, make front-page headlines almost daily. The commentariat—particularly in Europe—seems to buy Chávez's line that Latin Americans are so disenchanted by their short tryst with liberalism that they now prefer a strongman to spread the benefits of a commodity boom. The recent moves by a Chávez soulmate, Evo Morales, to renationalize the energy resources of Bolivia reinforce a growing perception that Latin America is lurching to the radical left.

But it's not. While Chávez does seem to rekindle a certain romantic Western nostalgia for Latin American guerrilla movements, the underlying trends point in the opposite direction. Voters in Latin America, far from crying out for a radically new economic model inspired by Caracas, are in fact rallying powerfully behind leaders and parties who promote more-orthodox economic policies. As candidates espousing Chávez-style populism have plummeted in the polls in Mexico and Peru, their camps have tried to distance themselves from the Venezuelan leader. Elsewhere, incumbent presidents like Alvaro Uribe in Colombia and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil have won plaudits as economic managers, and look likely to be reelected.

This is good news for Latin America. It shows that political societies have evolved to the point where most people realize that, in a globalized world, they have to stick to a reformist path.

(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: chavez; hugoping; oilwhore; somebodynoticeme; venezuela
'That Chávez Thing Is Over' - let's hope so!
1 posted on 05/22/2006 6:27:51 PM PDT by wjersey
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To: wjersey

How many more threads are we going to have on this moron?

Ignore the loser!


2 posted on 05/22/2006 6:29:30 PM PDT by soccer_maniac (Do some good while browsing FR --> Join our Folding@Home Team# 36120: keyword: folding@home)
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To: wjersey
The "Chavez thing" was always a creation of left-leaning international media and it will persist as long as they do. The real damage Chavez is doing to Venezuela's economy by aping Castro is quickly becoming apparent to anyone unswayed by his personality cult.

Well and good. But the problem is actually getting rid of him. The thing about South American strong-men was that they knew how to hang onto power, and Chavez is putting his own Cuban-style policing structure in place to preserve his. Castro has ruined Cuba and still has his. We're not at the beginning of the end, to cite Churchill, but perhaps we are at the end of the beginning.

3 posted on 05/22/2006 6:37:56 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: wjersey

What may do him in is his insistance on sending out cheap oil to the world's 'poor' while his own people remain poor and his infrastructure deteriorates.


4 posted on 05/22/2006 6:38:32 PM PDT by keithtoo ("Drilling in ANWaR is OK with us" - Alaskan Caribou Benevolent Association.)
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To: proud_yank

Hugo is at it again! ping.


5 posted on 05/22/2006 6:43:17 PM PDT by pcottraux (It's pronounced "P. Coe-troe.")
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To: soccer_maniac
Ignore the loser!

History teaches that it's unwise to ignore deluded, megalomaniac dictators.

6 posted on 05/22/2006 6:51:44 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand (the Twin Towers were dedicated to "world peace." Islam destroyed them. Meditate.)
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To: wjersey

Good article. The MSM would have us believe that Communism was on the march in South America.


7 posted on 05/22/2006 6:59:11 PM PDT by denydenydeny ("Osama... made the mistake of confusing media conventional wisdom with reality" (Mark Steyn))
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To: Billthedrill

And even if it's over, it's hard to get excited about it because it just seems that the world can never quite give up on marxism. Always gotta give it just one more chance.


8 posted on 05/22/2006 7:04:39 PM PDT by wizardoz
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To: wjersey
Article: This is good news for Latin America. It shows that political societies have evolved to the point where most people realize that, in a globalized world, they have to stick to a reformist path.

This has nothing to do with globalization or other moronic buzz words. It's got to do with not repeating the policies that have failed in the past. "Globalized" should really read "post-Soviet".
9 posted on 05/22/2006 7:13:08 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
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To: wjersey

That Chávez Thing Is Over





Not if Jimmy Carter has any say in it.


10 posted on 05/22/2006 7:13:33 PM PDT by Brilliant
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To: wjersey

I will believe the little dictator is over when he (and his cronies) are ousted. Else while it will be a puppet dictatorship with the same philosophies.

I have got to wonder if the people down there care any more or if they're eyes are open.


11 posted on 05/22/2006 7:41:53 PM PDT by BoBToMatoE
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To: wjersey

Let's take his money away and see what big macho man he is then.


12 posted on 05/22/2006 7:59:34 PM PDT by freekitty
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To: wjersey
[ 'That Chávez Thing Is Over' ]

That will happen when his people put those AK-47's(he just bought from the russians) to good use.. And they WILL..

13 posted on 05/22/2006 8:02:47 PM PDT by hosepipe (CAUTION: This propaganda is laced with hyperbole..)
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To: wjersey

I sure hope this disturbing lefty trend down there is petering out. Let's hope for some sanity in Peru and Mexico!


14 posted on 05/22/2006 8:24:02 PM PDT by Unam Sanctam
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To: pcottraux; Hill of Tara; Victoria Delsoul; Army Air Corps; Thunder90; monkeywrench; cll; penowa; ...
LOL, I don't think he ever stops!



PING – Hugo is at it again!

Please FReepmail me if you would like on/off the Hugo/Venezuela Ping list.

HugoPing Archive

15 posted on 05/23/2006 11:31:06 AM PDT by proud_yank (A liberal's 'generosity' is limited to the funds available in someone else's account.)
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