jeffry house's Open Salon Blog

Chavez Criticizes Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 11:10:17 -0400

On his October 11th national TV show "Hello President", Chavez denounced the Nobel Prize winner as a "dissident counterrevolutionary who...probably violated Chinese laws.

Debate in Venezuela is divided. Did Chavez make this statement (which isn't really in the core competency of the Venezuelan Presidency) because of his general sympathy for autocrats? Many say yes! After all, the Chinese "revolution" of which he speaks has pretty much created a capitalist society run by an unelected caste of party bureaucrats, so "counter-revolution" might be a good thing.

But others say the real reason is that Chavez is the money Chavez gets from China, $20 billion since April. This is a huge sum for Venezuela, something like $750.00 for every man,. woman and child in the country. And this is on top of another $12 billion dollar loan made by China earlier in the year.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-04-18/venezuela-gets-20-billion-loan-from-china-forms-oil-venture-chavez-says.html

Of course, it could be both his sympathy for autocracy AND his dependence on Chinese money which causes him to side with the Chinese state, and against the basic human rights norms set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Castro Claims "Misunderstanding" for Criticizing Cuban Model

Sat, 11 Sep 2010 17:09:05 -0400

Fidel Castro is now trying to weasel out of his unguarded criticisms of the Cuban model of state socialism--which he made to Atlantic Monthly reporter Jeffrey Goldberg.

Though he admits that the reporter quotes him accurately--"The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore--" he then claims that his words were "misinterpreted." What he meant to say was something diametrically opposite: "the capitalist system no longer serves either the Unites States or the rest of the world."

That is what he WISHES he said, because it would be politically convenient and conform to the official line of the Communist Party.

But that's not what he said. Or meant.

The initial interpretation by American specialists was that Fidel intended, when making the statement, to provide room for his brother Raul Castro to make some modest reforms in Cuban economic organization. Venezuelan critics now claim that a call from Hugo Chavez may have been behind Fidel Castro's disavowal of his own words. Chavez, in the midst of an election campaign precisely about the applicability of the "Cuban model" to Venezuela, could only feel undercut by the statement. Did he make a call, using Venezuelan support and assistance as his carrot and stick? We won't find out till after the Cuban state collapses, but the theory makes sense.

Fidel Castro Channels Gorbachev

Thu, 9 Sep 2010 12:09:35 -0400

A week ago, on August 30th, Fidel Castro told a reporter for the Atlantic Monthly, that "the Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore." This was in response to a question about whether he believed the Cuban model could still be useful elsewhere.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/world/americas/09briefs-Cuba.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=castro%20cuban%20model&st=cse

Castro's comments were pretty big news in Latin America, particularly on the political left, where support for Cuban Communism remains strong. For example, the Mexican left newspaper "La Jornada" has a full page article on it:

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/09/09/index.php?section=mundo&article=024n1mun. And it's all over the Brazilian papers, the Argentine, the Ecuadorean and the Chilean.

In Venezuela, the anti-Chavez opposition thinks it's a pretty relevant statement, since Castro has said he sees no difference between Chavez's policies and communism in Cuba.

The pro-Chavez left websites in Venezuela are also discussing Castro's comment: http://aporrea.org/actualidad/n165135.html---where they express the wish that Cuba release the official transcript of Castro's remarks.

Cuban papers haven't mentioned it to Cubans yetl. The official party daily, Granma, has not said anything, http://www.granma.cu/, nor has Prensa Latina http://www.prensa-latina.cu/, or Juventud Rebelde, the "youth" paper. http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/. This is so despite the fact that they are reporting OTHER statements by Fidel, made during the same time period, such as a speech to university graduates.

Twenty-five years ago, the Cuban Communist Party purged itself of those it considered "Gorbachevites", followers of the then-Soviet doctrine of perestroika (economic rebuilding) and "glasnost' (freer expression). Now it seems that Fidel Castro is having his Gorbachev moment.

Castro was the prime author of the "Cuban model" over a fifty year period, and certainly its most famous exponent, world-wide. If he has decided it doesn't work, shouldn't people in Cuba be allowed to find out?

Chavez' Buffoonery Continues with Exhumations

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:07:46 -0400

Venezuelan national television recently showed--in prime time--the macabre ritual of the digging up of the sarcophagus of Simon Bolivar, and the unwrapping and presentation of his skeleton to the public.

President Chavez says he believes that Bolivar didn't die of natural causes; there was, he suspects, a plot! While few if any historians believe this, Venezuelan tv recently ran an hour long discussion with a fellow who claims his family poisoned Bolivar at the behest of the Yankees!

During the unveiling of the skeleton, a minute of which can be seen here,

http://www.eluniversal.com/2010/07/16/pol_ava_haran-un-nuevo-pante_16A4198851.shtml

patriotic music was played, and President Chavez, present but unseen, provided a Tweet-commentary to his readers. Here's what he had to say:

" "Viva Bolivar It's not a skeleton. It's the Great Bolivar, who has returned!"

"What impressive moments we have lived tonight!! We have seen the remains of the Great Bolivar!"

"Our father who is in the earth, the water and the air ... You awake every hundred years when the people awaken, I confess that we have cried, we have sworn allegiance."

"How much I have wanted you to arrive and to order as with Lazarus: Arise Simon! Now is not the time to die! "

“That glorious skeleton has to be Bolivar, because his flame can be felt. My God,” Chavez said in another tweet. “Bolivar lives… We are his flame!”

The latter comment may have been necessary because there it is unknown whether the skeleton in Bolivar's tomb really is Bolivar. Remains were placed in a national monument in 1842, long after his death in 1830. As the body was unwrapped last week, a Venezuelan flag from the 1930's is evident. Whoever is in the casket has been repeatedly exhumed.

Venezuelans commonly believe that Chavez has been influenced by the "palo" cult, which uses human bones in its rites. Even if that is untrue, televised ceremonies like the latest exhumation of Bolivar and presentation of his bones would attract palo believers.

Opponents of Chavez said he shouldn't be wasting his time on old bones when the economy is the worst in Latin America and the murder rate the highest. "Chavez! Pay attention to the living!" is their slogan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/world/americas/11venez.html

UPDATE, AUGUST 30:

And now, August 30th, it is the turn of Bolivar's sisters, both of whom are being dug up to cross-reference DNA, to establish whether "Bolivar" is really BOLIVAR!

A similar, more up-close take on Chavez's buffonery by Christopher Hitchens appears here: http://www.slate.com/id/2262520/pagenum/all/#p2

Here's a part of a conversation involving Chavez, Sean Penn, and Hitchens:

" I was again impressed by the way that Chávez rejected this proffered lucid-interval lifeline. All of this so-called evidence, too, was a mere product of imperialist television. After all, "there is film of the Americans landing on the moon," he scoffed. "Does that mean the moon shot really happened? In the film, the Yanqui flag is flying straight out. So, is there wind on the moon?" As Chávez beamed with triumph at this logic, an awkwardness descended on my comrades, and on the conversation."

Criminal Tweeters?

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:07:17 -0400

Venezuela has begun the prosecution of people for tweeting.

A relatively new technology, tweeting was used recently by Iranians who opposed the election fraud which occurred in that country; without tweeting, international information about the protests would have been lacking.

The two tweeters now facing charges allegedly speculated that a local bank was fiscally unsound, and that it would be wise to withdraw money from the bank.

They are charged with distributing false information. The Chavez government arrogates to itself the right to determine what is true and what is false; consequently there has been a substantial increase in prosecutions of dissidents on "false information" charges.

If convicted, the two twitterers face a minimum of NINE years in jail for expressing their opinions. Fifteen other persons are "under investigation" for tweeting.

The case has already done much damage to Venezuela's democracy-on-life-support, since others who tweet fear to risk the open expression of their opinions about their society.