Posted on 03/11/2007 12:35:47 PM PDT by HarmlessLovableFuzzball
The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, on a tour of Latin America, has launched a stinging attack on the US. Visiting Bolivia, the firebrand leftist leader said that capitalism was "the road to hell". Mr Chavez underlined the billions of dollars of aid Venezuela is ploughing into Bolivia's economy at a time when the US is reducing its contributions.
US President George W Bush has avoided discussing his rival's regional trip during his own visit to Latin America.
Heaven and earth
"Those who want to go directly to hell, they can follow capitalism," Mr Chavez said in the town of Trinidad in Bolivia.
"And those of us who want to build heaven here on earth, we will follow socialism," he added.
Recent floods in the town left thousands of homeless and their livestock drowned.Venezuela's aid package of $15m (11.4m euros) outweighed the sum offered by the US tenfold.The country also sent in aid workers who attended their president's speech on the airport runway. During his visit, Mr Chavez also pledged more than $1bn (£0.5bn; 0.76bn euros) for oil projects and community radio stations in the country.
Mr Bush spent Saturday in Uruguay where he spoke of the US care for the "human condition" and its "quiet, effective diplomacy".
Rural retreat
He defended capitalism, saying one way to lift people out of poverty was to encourage investment.
"I would call our diplomacy quiet and effective...aimed at helping people, elevating the human condition, aimed at expressing the great compassion of the American people," he said.
Mr Bush (right) said Americans cared about the human condition. The US president has pointedly refused to directly respond to Mr Chavez's comments as they make parallel tours of the region.
Mr Bush's presence in Latin American states has been met with protests and marches, some of which have turned violent. About 20 people were arrested in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo on Friday after an estimated 6,000 people took to the streets.
On Saturday, Mr Bush avoided the crowds by meeting the president at his rural retreat some 125miles (200km) west of the capital. Mr Bush is heading to Colombia on Sunday where he will meet the region's most loyal ally, President Alvaro Uribe, followed by Guatemala and Mexico.
There are about 22,000 members of the security forces posted around Bogota in preparation for Mr Bush's arrival in the Colombian capital.
Mr Chavez, meanwhile, travels on to Nicaragua.
You are correct in your statement and let me add; the Venezuelan people are capitalist at heart. One has nowhere more to go than to the streets sourrounding the Parliment building and Casa Amarilla in El Centro (downtown Caracas) to see street vendors demonstrating capitalism at its most basic form. Unfortunately, Venezuela has a 70% plus poor population that lived under numerous corrupt right of center corporate like governments; corruption is nothing new to the Venezuelan people hence they tolerate it from Chavez's cronies. The difference is that Chavez has given the poor a percieved voice which they never had before. Until the Venezuelan right understands that government answers to all and not just the wealthy Chavez will continue to rule.
Fat head Ted is a lock. He's Massachusettes pet rock, no one cant get rid of it either!
I'm not sure what you mean by that. Do you mean majoritarianism, as in let's vote on whether farmer Juan takes his pig to the butcher and distributes the meat to everybody in the village?
I think people (not just in South America) tend to think that capitalism is not so much "you do something for me, i do something for you" but "I've got lots of allies vs. Will you be my buddy?" instead.
A "Biting" attack, eh? That sure gives Chavez a lot more credit than he is due.
The question is: Why don't we taech capitalism in our public schools?
Hmmmm!
Personal success is interrupted whenever the individual is stifled by anybody. Unless that person is about to slit their own throat. Only so much you can do about that.
And charisma, lies, and, of course, Foggy Bottom.
If capitalism is hell, Chavez should ask the people of Cuba about the socialist paradise they are living in.
ping
They're talking about you
For the want of a bullet millions will live in fear, terror and degedation.
Good grief. If the tragedies of the 20th century didn't persuade Mr. Chavez that the road to hell is paved with excessive government control over the economy and its people, then I don't know what to tell him.
Chavez needs to sell his oil more than we need to buy it.
"Of course you realize ..." <Bugs Bunny voice> "... this means War!" </ Bugs voice off>
"Communism only works in heaven, where they don't need it, and in hell, where they already have it."
I can't improve on that!
Recent Views of Chavezonomics
Associated Press: Holding on to the family nest egg has suddenly become much harder in Venezuela, where inflation and uncertainty reign as President Hugo Chavez says,nothing and no one can stop him from transforming the country into a socialist state.
LATimes; Inflation, food scarcity roil Venezuela Economists say the government is overreaching in controlling prices, fueling a black market.
Salon: A famous Venezuelan, Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo, referred to oil as the devil's excrement. For countries, easy wealth appears indeed to be the sure path to failure. Venezuela might be a clear example of that.
New York Times: President Hugo Chavez has threatened to jail grocery store owners and nationalize their businesses if they violate the country’s expanding price controls.
"And those of us who want to build heaven here on earth, we will follow socialism,"
Right, that's why Russia and China had to kill 30 and 20 million* of their own people to get the rest of their people to submit to socialism, because it was such a heaven on earth.
*Or was it 20 and 30 million respectively - it gets so confusing when those kinds of numbers are reached.
Definitely agree with you there. The one thing that keeps me optimistic when all the winds seem to be against free societies is that socialism is a miserable failure wherever it's tried long enough.
"Chavezonomics" will be relegated to the ash heap of history along with other flavors of massive forced wealth distribution. But when will the world learn?
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