Obama points finger at Chavez

[skitty]

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's government reacted with fury on Friday to U.S. President Barack Obama's criticism of ailing Hugo Chavez's "authoritarian" government at a time of national anxiety over his battle to recover from cancer surgery.
In an interview with U.S. network Univision, Obama declined to speculate on the 58-year-old socialist president's health in Cuba, where he is in a delicate state after his fourth operation since mid-2011 for cancer in his pelvic region.
But he did say U.S. policy was aimed at ensuring "freedom" in Venezuela. "The most important thing is to remember that the future of Venezuela should be in the hands of the Venezuelan people. We've seen from Chavez in the past authoritarian policies, suppression of dissent," Obama said.

[Paul Pott]

Obligatory rhetoric for the camera. Challenge him about it and he couldn't name a single example.

[skitty]

And, of course, there's no suppression of dissent in the USA:laugh:!

[GoddessCleoLover]

And, of course, there's no suppression of dissent in the USA:laugh:!


None at all. WalMart positively welcomes those who want Union representation and Revolutionary Leftists have their own cable news channel and look out for pigs on the wing.:rolleyes:

[Paul Pott]

It's pretty dumbfounding that a country where the opposition has a huge street presence, dominates media, and is very well organized so that it mobilizes mass rallies against the government is still deemed "authoritarian" by the lords of capital in Washington. The only reason it isn't in power is that the other side is even stronger on all of those things, and offers something concrete to the people. Let's hear about democracy in their client state next door!

[GoddessCleoLover]

It's pretty dumbfounding that a country where the opposition has a huge street presence, dominates media, and is very well organized so that it mobilizes mass rallies against the government is still deemed "authoritarian" by the lords of capital in Washington. The only reason it isn't in power is that the other side is even stronger on all of those things, and offers something concrete to the people. Let's hear about democracy in their client state next door!

Colombia?

[prolcon]

I notice Chavez doesn't catch as much flack around RevLeft as does Castro, although maybe I can agree it's easy to see why.

[TheOther]

Obama is american what can you expect from an american? Americans suffer from being heartless, this is the land of hypocricy and heartlessness. I mean how the hell can this piece of human trash called Obama begin to talk about the political situation of Venezuela to a person who is on the edge between a life-threatening disease, and on the edge of life and death. That's like the ultra-right wing supporters of Bush and the Republican Party who wrote messages in support of The war against Iraq like these ones: "Let's bomb Iraq to stone ages".

Obama's behavior is related to the real roots and causes of the mass murders that have been on the rise in the last decades in USA


.



CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's government reacted with fury on Friday to U.S. President Barack Obama's criticism of ailing Hugo Chavez's "authoritarian" government at a time of national anxiety over his battle to recover from cancer surgery.
In an interview with U.S. network Univision, Obama declined to speculate on the 58-year-old socialist president's health in Cuba, where he is in a delicate state after his fourth operation since mid-2011 for cancer in his pelvic region.
But he did say U.S. policy was aimed at ensuring "freedom" in Venezuela. "The most important thing is to remember that the future of Venezuela should be in the hands of the Venezuelan people. We've seen from Chavez in the past authoritarian policies, suppression of dissent," Obama said.

[TheOther]

coz many people in this forum are too mechanical, and too pefectionist, like most trotskists. According to many leftists of this forum, if the workers themselves of USA do not overthrow the US capitalist imperialist dictatorial government of The White House, either thru elections, thru a coup de etat or thru an impeachment (Without the helping hand of a strong powerful populist charismatic leader like Ralph Nader or Kucinich), then it is better for The Democratic Party and The Republican Party to continue being the sole rulers of USA. I guess for them it's either Democrat Party and Republican Party or a a dictatorship of the workers in The White House. They don't like reformist-capitalists like The Green Party, Nader, Kucinich, or any other anti-war reformists

.


I notice Chavez doesn't catch as much flack around RevLeft as does Castro, although maybe I can agree it's easy to see why.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Ah, Chavez. The world's only dictator who just can't help but keep getting elected time and again in internationally recognised, bourgeois-style free and fair elections, with either strong majorities or landslides.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

On another note, I wish him well in his fight against cancer again.

[piet11111]

Doesn't Chavez hold the record of winning the most elections in a row ?

[Hexen]

Irresponsible children also have a habit of pointing fingers at others screaming "S/he did it!, S/he did it!" which is rather identical practice here...

[GiantMonkeyMan]

For Obama and the US national bourgeoisie, 'authoritarian' governments are governments that don't enact policies that favour US business and 'freedom' is the ability for those businesses to ensure co-operation from local governments as they exploit resources and people. Chavez is no socialist, just a member of the Venezuelan bourgeoisie with Dickensian morals. He could never abolish the very relationship that leads to exploitation and poverty in the first place.

[Delenda Carthago]

Maybe that will teach Chavez a lesson that imperialism is not a matter whether Obama is a "nice guy" or not.

[Psy]

For Obama and the US national bourgeoisie, 'authoritarian' governments are governments that don't enact policies that favour US business and 'freedom' is the ability for those businesses to ensure co-operation from local governments as they exploit resources and people. Chavez is no socialist, just a member of the Venezuelan bourgeoisie with Dickensian morals. He could never abolish the very relationship that leads to exploitation and poverty in the first place.
More like Chavez doesn't is not upholding bourgeoisie-democracy where the bourgeoisie are free to rape weak nations like Venezuela and leave the nation the bill for being screwed like the USA and EU did to Yugoslavia.

[cynicles]

I wonder if Obama just loves the sound of his own voice.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

It's pretty dumbfounding that a country where the opposition has a huge street presence, dominates media, and is very well organized so that it mobilizes mass rallies against the government is still deemed "authoritarian" by the lords of capital in Washington. The only reason it isn't in power is that the other side is even stronger on all of those things, and offers something concrete to the people. Let's hear about democracy in their client state next door!

My only problem with Chavez is that he does nothing about those terrorists that carry out massacres against the people on a regular basis. This "opposition" is not worth a grain of salt! Nothing but a bunch of bloody murderers.

[GerrardWinstanley]

Talk about desperate. Nothing to do with the fact Chavez has accomplished, in a country with limited capital and resources, an unprecedented reduction of poverty, social inequality, low national debt, a sweeping electoral mandate and strong economic growth... everything Obama has proven himself a miserable failure at?

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

Talk about desperate. Nothing to do with the fact Chavez has accomplished, in a country with limited capital and resources, an unprecedented reduction of poverty, social inequality, low national debt, a sweeping electoral mandate and strong economic growth... everything Obama has proven himself a miserable failure at?

Venezuela limited resources? Don't they have a shit-load of oil?

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

Venezuela limited resources? Don't they have a shit-load of oil?

Yes but that is pretty much their only natural resource. Most of their soil is not very arable and they don't have financial wealth or capital. Sudan is in a comparable position and look at how well they're doing.

Edit: Fixed for factual accuracy.

[GerrardWinstanley]

Venezuela limited resources? Don't they have a shit-load of oil?I should probably have said limited capital and financial resources. I know it's a resource-rich country for raw materials.

[Althusser]

Venezuela limited resources? Don't they have a shit-load of oil?

If the Chavez administration dared to nationalize oil and disenfranchise Venezuela's elite, Hugo would be bagged and dragged to a warehouse like they did in '02, but this time they'd be successful. They'd rather have another '73 Chile than have Venezuela's oil benefit the people in the barrios rather than themselves to decorate their homes in Miami and mansions in Venezuela.

[blake 3:17]

If the Chavez administration dared to nationalize oil and disenfranchise Venezuela's elite, Hugo would be bagged and dragged to a warehouse like they did in '02, but this time they'd be successful. They'd rather have another '73 Chile than have Venezuela's oil benefit the people in the barrios rather than themselves to decorate their homes in Miami and mansions in Venezuela.

I haven't followed the revolution in Venezuela of late, but I have been very impressed with how Chavez was carrying out nationalization and expropriation. He was very clearly clearly negotiating with the multinationals and open for business, but not on the MNCs terms.

Aside from basic egalitarian measures (literacy, education, health care, access to food), one of the basic goals of the Chavista movement has been to increase actual employment. Official unemployment is about a 1/3 what it was when Chavez came to power. Inflation is still high, but went from 50% per annum to 100% in 1996.

Bunch o stats here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Venezuela#Social_development

[Geiseric]

And people call trotskyists refomists, while supporting a full on bourgeois dictator! Mind blowing. Isn't venezuela still having a problem with poverty, while private businesses profit off wage labor? Or did I miss something?

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

And people call trotskyists refomists, while supporting a full on bourgeois dictator! Mind blowing. Isn't venezuela still having a problem with poverty, while private businesses profit off wage labor? Or did I miss something?

A) Name a Trotskyist party that doesn't support Hugo that has more than 500 people in it

B) If you think Chavez is a dictator then you need to familiarize yourself with the Venezuelan political system

C) Yea it isn't perfect. But they started their first 6 year plan recently so it's going in the right direction.

If you want to learn more about the Bolivarian Revolution, please see here:
http://venezuelanalysis.com/

For your concerns on the state of the economy. Please read this
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/7513

[Paul Pott]

Venezuela is an energy powerhouse with oil reserves potentially larger than even Saudi Arabia's. Also Venezuela is not isolated. Because of its influence and wealth from oil, it's a regional leader in South America, through various regional organizations and alternatives to the OAS, and pretty much the closest ally of the continent's most likely future hegemon, Brazil. In Honduras in 2009, and in Paraguay this year, an excuse for removing the legitimate president was their supposed attempt to subvert the constitution by installing a pro-Venezuelan dictatorship. This has also been used to demonize leftists and "Bolivarians" in Colombia. When Chavez came to power, rightists claimed Venezuela became a Cuban puppet, but now it's the other way around, if anything, because Cuba is dependent on Venezuelan oil subsidy.

By the way, the opposition just got steamrolled so hard that many states that have been anti-Chavista strongholds since the 90s will now have PSUV governors, like Tachira.

[Lord Daedra]

Venezuela is an energy powerhouse with oil reserves potentially larger than even Saudi Arabia's. Also Venezuela is not isolated. Because of its influence and wealth from oil, it's a regional leader in South America, through various regional organizations and alternatives to the OAS, and pretty much the closest ally of the continent's most likely future hegemon, Brazil. In Honduras in 2009, and in Paraguay this year, an excuse for removing the legitimate president was their supposed attempt to subvert the constitution by installing a pro-Venezuelan dictatorship. This has also been used to demonize leftists and "Bolivarians" in Colombia. When Chavez came to power, rightists claimed Venezuela became a Cuban puppet, but now it's the other way around, if anything, because Cuba is dependent on Venezuelan oil subsidy.

By the way, the opposition just got steamrolled so hard that many states that have been anti-Chavista strongholds since the 90s will now have PSUV governors, like Tachira.

1. It tends to fluctuate

2. I'm pretty sure the opposition held in certain places and gained in certain places and gained some new seats so i don't think Venezuela will be a 1 party state soon.

3. Chavez only won the election by a couple percent.

[Paul Pott]

1. It tends to fluctuate

What does? Venezuela's influence? The coup in Paraguay this year led to Venezuela being admitted to Mercosur, which only Paraguay blocked before.


2. I'm pretty sure the opposition held in certain places and gained in certain places and gained some new seats so i don't think Venezuela will be a 1 party state soon.In 2008, the PSUV won 17 of the 22 states being contested. In 2012, they won 20 of the 23 states contested, with 56% or so of the popular vote. The opposition lost Zulia, Tachira, Carabobo, Monagas, and Nueva Esparta, kept 3 states, and gained nothing. In addition, Miranda, where Capriles was reelected governor by 4% of the vote, he now has to deal with a PSUV dominated legislature.

Turning Venezuela into a 1 party state isn't part of the Chavista platform. They're the only party taken seriously by about 55 - 60% of the population, including those who don't vote. The opposition, MUD, is a coalition of pseudo-leftists, liberals, and rightists who reek of the 80's and 90's.


3. Chavez only won the election by a couple percent.

In October, Chavez won by 11%. It wasn't as big of a landslide as in the past, but Chavez easily won. He won against the most well organized campaign the opposition has ever mounted, against the most attractive candidate they've ever run, in one of the highest turnouts in Venezuelan history.