Chavez did win the first election fair and square. All the elections since then have been rigged. He did not win any election after the first one.
The only reason he won the first elections is the people became disgusted with the corruption in government and the voted for Chavez. Today they are disgusted with Chavez and also very afraid of him.
As Stalin said, "it is not important who they vote for, what is important is who counts the votes."
I lived in Venezuela for a few years. It is a lovely nation with good people. I fear our nation will be on the same path if Obama wins the next election.
In the early days of his administration he held a series of elections and plebiscites to legitimize his new constitution. Those are the ones I was referring to.
You are right; the elections since then were rigged, starting and most egregiously with the one Jimmy Carter blessed without ever actually inspecting the results.
I was in Caracas during his initial coup attempt back in the early nineties and consequently have followed the crazy little weasel’s career with great interest ever since.
Venezuela was a socialist country before Chavez with all the ills of a centralized economy, and after his coup attempt later politicians tried to capitalize on his popularity by trying to be more Chavez than Chavez. In so doing they drove the economy into the dirt. This allowed him to claim that “neo-liberal” capitalism had destroyed the country, when in fact it was politicians trying to mimic his populism. Once he took power, he ramped it up to the next level and of course it only got even worse.
In the years before Chavez I can’t tell you how many Venezuelans told me the only hope for Venezuela was a return to military rule. Their mental image of the golden good old days was the fifties under the generals. Which is one of the reasons they went weak in the knees when a military man stood up and told them what they wanted to hear.
As you say, beautiful country. I don’t know if Venezuelans yet have figured out what happened to them. Too many think that what is wrong with Chavez is that he didn’t fulfill his promises, when in fact the promises themselves guaranteed a dictatorship. When a guy runs for president promising to throw out the constitution, fire the supreme court, and fire the congress, and people vote for him anyway, they are complicit in the disaster that ensues.
Parallels with the Obama zombies is worth noting.
Well stated! I would hope that Venezuela would find themselves with a government like they have in Colombia. Not quite the same circumstances but both countries have experienced their violence with Colombia managing to pull out of their woes and right the ship.