Hugo Chavez Alienates a Formerly Friendly Chile -- Inside Story from Chile (Translation)

El Mercurio ( Santiago, Chile ) ^ | August 24, 2006 | Sergio Espinosa V. ( translated by self )

[Billthedrill]

Many thanks for the information. It is clear that Chavez's arrogant, bombastic style is not restricted to the man himself. Communist diplomats in the early Cold War days used to display similar histrionics until it became clear that it hurt more than it helped. So will this.

[marron]

South American leftists often gave their kids Russian first names; I've met several. In fact, I'm working with a Venezuelan "Vladimir" right now.

[StJacques]

"Isn't that a rather unusual first name for a Venezuelan?"

Though marron is correct that South Americans are well known for giving their children unusual first names, in this case the man was raised to be a leftist by his Slavic mother and labor union leader father.

I quote from  http://www.vcrisis.com/?content=letters/200511190917

". . . Vladimir is married to a photographer. He has several children. And siblings: Mario, Esperanza, Ernesto. He is the son of the late Cruz Villegas, an honest labor union leader of the left. His mother was of Slavic origin. By way of both his first name alludes to Lenin. . . ."

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[Stultis]

I'm betting that President Bachelet is far less upset with intrinsic perfidy of the Venezuelan "President for Life" and his ambassador, and more upset with them embarrassing her by so outrageously highlighting the foolishness of her appeasement. I don't know this is the case, but it would be a standard leftist/liberal attitude.

[marron]

Yes, its usually a dead giveaway, if a south american is named after Lenin or Stalin, his parents were usually leftists. I have met Mexicans, Venezuelans, and Ecuadorians named "Vladimir" especially, sometimes Vladimir Ilyich just to make sure you don't miss the point. In some cases they were not themselves leftists, it was their dad's thing.

One guy's entire family, brothers and sisters, had Russian first names, his dad was a proud communist, and he himself studied in the Ukraine on a Soviet scholarship and married a Ukrainian girl. He eventually lost interest himself in communist politics, but his dad never did.

My current work pal is a "Vlad" who is on the run from Chavez. His entire family is communist and pro-Chavez, and he is the black sheep in his family as a result. Good guy.

Then there is the Jackal, the Venezuelan terrorist, whose name is, guess, Ilich. His brother Lenin Ramirez serves as Venezuela's Energy Minister. Not hard to figure out their dad was a marxist (as are they).

[StJacques]

"I'm betting that President Bachelet is . . . more upset with [Venezuela] embarrassing her by so outrageously highlighting the foolishness of her appeasement."

I consider this to be an astute observation Stultis. I sat down and said to myself "now the Christian Democrats are getting a good look at just what Bachelet really represents."

It's always that way with the true left. They come across as so responsible and moderate when asking for your vote and/or support, but once they get in office the demons come walking out of the closet and everyone else gets the bejeezus scared out of them. This is Bachelet's "embarrassment." Everyone just got a look at who her friends are and the shock is so profound that it will not be easily dispelled.

[StJacques]

". . . Then there is the Jackal . . ."

I was wondering if anyone else remembered Ilyich Ramirez. I've been waiting to see Chavez try to get him released from jail in France. I think it would be just like the French to give him up for the right price. Chirac and his administration are prostitutes after all.

[chilepepper]

Chilean public opinion was in favor in Venezuela until fairly recently - it has now flipped, giving Bachelet the political cover she needs to vote against Venezuela, a "fellow socialist country" in only a great stretch of the definition.

There is extreme unease here at Chavez cozying up to Ahmadinejad - with Chavez' crude meddling in Chilean domestic politics (particularly after Chileans seeing his crude meddling in Bolivia, Peru and Mexico) and questioning events during the administration of the much revered Ricardo Lagos (who is Bachelet's political mentor and godfather), all bets on what was once a certain vote for Venezuela vote are now off.

Chavez has the Midas touch in reverse.

ironically, it is *still* possible Chile will vote for Venezuela - Bachelet is a *very* weak President.

[marron]

You have probably read Chavez' love letter to the Jackal, written in 1999...

Swimming in the depths of your letter of solidarity I could hear the pulse of our shared insight that everything has its due time: time to pile up stones or hurl them, to ignite revolution or to ignore it; to pursue dialectically a unity between our warring classes or to stir the conflict between them—a time when you can fight outright for principles and a time when you must choose the proper fight, lying in wait with a keen sense for the moment of truth, in the same way that Ariadne, invested with these same principles, lays the thread that leads her out of the labyrinth.

Our liberator Simon Bolivar, whose theories and example are fundamental to our doctrine of revolution, whispered briefly this question before he passed away: "How will I find the way out of this labyrinth?" We agree with Bolivar that Time delivers miracles only to those who maintain a righteous spirit, to those who understand the true meaning of things. There is no measure of distance or time that can undermine these thoughts of our Caracan hero.

I feel that my spirit's own strength will always rise to the magnitude of the dangers that threaten it. My doctor has told me that my spirit must nourish itself on danger to preserve my sanity, in the manner that God intended, with this stormy revolution to guide me in my great destiny.

With profound faith in our cause and our mission, now and forever!

http://www.harpers.org/1999-10-MyStruggle.html

http://www.analitica.com/bitblioteca/hchavez/carta_chacal.asp

Its a bit creepy, really. My understanding is that he tried early in his presidency to get Carlos released, and failing that, directed the embassy in Paris to do whatever it could to help Carlos. Then, of course, he went on to hire Carlos' brother as a cabinet member.

You'll notice that the Harper's translation is abridged; if anything the original is nerdier than the Harper's version.

[StJacques]

Thank you for the link marron. I'm here during a commercial for my Saints game and I'll get to it later.

[kanawa]

Ping

[Founding Father]

>>I was hoping to hear more news from the Venezuelan people, do you know how they reacted, generally?<<

From The Devil's Excrement:
http://blogs.salon.com/0001330/


Funny how Chavez' stunt at the United Nations led so much traffic to my blog. You see, if you combine the words Chavez and Devil in any decent search engine, guess who is right at the top with many entries? Thus, I had a Devilanche of visitors as people tried to read more about what Chavez was saying about the leader of the country that buys the most oil from Venezela in the world. Fortunately I had made a post of the subject from work, which I rarely do, so that those arriving here could actually read about what happened.

As usual, and as expected, we got our share of PSF's and superficial Chavez admirers, who came to tell us what a great guy he is for daring to tell it like it is.As if disliking Bush is enough of a reason for liking our autocratic President. Well, I will tell them what it is like here: While Chavez was talking about peace and the rights of people, he continues to neglect his own country where, since Chavez took over in 1998, 90,000 people have died on homicides as murders have tripled in these eight years Chavez has been President. To put it in perspective this is more deaths under the "caring Chavez" than in the armed conflict in Colombia (73,000), The Persian Gulf War (63500), the Chchen war (50,000) or the war in Afghanistan (33,000).And those who die come from the lowest social strata, the "pueblo" that Chavze claims to care so much for. Meanwhile, 44 Venezulans die daily in homicides as Venzuela has 40 violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants per year, an achievement that can be blamed completely on the Chavez Government which has tripled the numbers in eight years by ignoring the problem as well as its total incapacity to attack it.Venezuela now has the dubious honor of being the number one country in the world in deaths by firearms according to UNESCO.

Meanwhile, the country's judicial system, the cornerstone of Chavez accomplishments in the first three years in office can claim the following:

--90,000 monthly crime complaints are filed and processed.
--There are 98 cops per 100,000 people, less than one third of what is needed.
--Prosecutors handle 3,000 cases monthly each
--Judges decide on 1.6 complaints per hour
--93% of homicides go unpunished.
--Deaths by confrontation with police have increased by a factor of 5.
--Kidnappings have doubled in eight years.
--Over half the judges are temporary.

Thus, our "caring", "daring" President spends his time abroad insulting others and accusing them of the same crimes he is responsible for in Venezuela: His total neglect for his people as he travels and has become an absentee President, who in the end cares only about his personal project and not the "peace", "rights" or welfare of his Venezuelans citizens. Hopefully, he will spend sometime here in the next few months and leave his US$ 83 million Airbus parked, stop buying more weapons, planes and helicopters and worry about and work for his own people. But I doubt it.

The rest is simply a charade. But that is all we have seen for the last eight years. Ask what Vargas state is, what happened there in 2000 and what conditions are like today. Ask what inflation has been in the last eight months or in the last eight years. Ask what corruption is like at the highest levels of power. Ask how many corrupt politicians have been prosecuted. Ask what the fascist Chavez/Maisanta/Tascon list is. Ask who pays Chavez' campaign. Ask what the gag law is. Ask if the same person is the Minister of Information and spokesman for Chavez political party. Ask how many people have died in opposition rallies in the last eight years. Ask how many political prisoners there are. Ask who the El Llaguno shooters are and why they are free. Ask if Chavez' relatives owned so much land before he became President. Ask what has happened to the thousands of hectares of expropriated land. Ask how many military are part of the civilian Government. Ask how many fascist dictators Chavez has visited and embraced in the last eight years. Ask what happened to the 2.4 billionUS dollars missing from the FIEM fund. There are hundreds of questions like this you can ask and the answers are all absolutely terrifying and horrifying.

Just don't believe the charade.

[proud_yank]

Thanks!



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[jazusamo]

Thanks for posting this and for your very informative assessment. It's good to see that all South American nations are not going along with his ridiculous actions.

[JCEccles]

You are amazing. Your translations and commentary bring a richness to FR that is unrivalled in the blogosphere.

[JCEccles]

This fat mental case's moment in the sun is quickly coming to an end. His military will probably overthrow him some time in the near future.

May his festering, maggot ridden, corpulent corpse be strung up by the ankles on a hoist, like Mussolini.

(Am I being too graphic here?)