Hugo Chavez - His Battle With Imperialism

It’s been a long time since Washington has had its knickers in a twist the way they do over Hugo Chavez. It was much to President Bush’s dismay when he arrived in Mar Del Plata, Argentina for the Summit of the Americas to find angry demonstrators tearing the town apart. Prior to the summit Chavez drew tens of thousands [so the mainstream media reports but it was most likely hundreds of thousands] to the soccer stadium for a rally that clearly illustrated his support throughout Latin America.

Chavez, of African and Indian ancestry rose to the presidency in Venezuela in a landslide election in 1998. Since then his mission to return land to the landless masses has been met with international disdain in much the same way Robert Mugabe has in Zimbabwe. The fact is prior to Chavez being elected to the presidency, 77% of the farmland in Venezuela was owned by the wealthiest 5% of the population referred to as “hacendados”. Who are the haciendados? They are the pure blood white descendants of Spanish Conquistadors who have been the overlords of the 88% African/Indian population of Venezuela for hundreds of years and they are not happy.

Since the Chavez election the haciendados have tried everything from well-financed demonstrations, a recall referendum, and cozying up to the Bush administration to finance and stage an unsuccessful coup d’etat. One of the organizations in opposition to Chavez, “Sumate” has been associated with both the Bush administration and the preacher that called for the assassination of Chavez, Pat Roberson. Its director Maria Corina Machado is pictured here in a White House photo op with President Bush. Sumate, which is funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, was involved in electoral fraud in February 2003. The majority of signatures collected by Sumate during the recall referendum to remove Chavez were actually photocopies [sounds like they've been getting tips from the Rebuplicans on how to cheat in an election]. In addition, Machado and her fellow directors of Sumate have been indicted and are awaiting trial for receiving funds from a foreign government to oust President Chavez and have recently been indicted for the murder of a Venezuelan state prosecutor.

Clearly in Venezuela, as in every other country in the Americas, race and poverty have a well-defined relationship. It is the whiteness of Venezuela’s opposition that illustrates this. The Opposition has been known to make racial slurs against Chavez, with regard to his African and Indian ancestry on the regular. Journalist Greg Palast who traveled to Venezuela in 2004 described one of the these opposition demonstrations as “One of the oddest demonstration I've ever seen: frosted blondes in high heels clutching designer bags, screeching, ‘Chavez - dic-ta-dor!’. One plantation owner griped about the "socialismo" of Chavez, then jumped into his Jaguar convertible”.

In addition to Chavez’s land reforms his oil reforms have upset the balance of power among the oil elite. Chavez up and decided on his own that he would set his own prices in a market that gave the friends of Dick Chaney and the Saudis the ultimate decision making power to do so. In addition Chavez wants to change the percentage of oil revenue the country receives from Phillips Conoco from 16% to 30% in order to fund the many social programs Chevez has put into place.

Chavez’s battle with imperialism has developed out of his refusal to be a puppet of the west and his courage and fortitude was evidenced this weekend in Argentina when he referred to GW as “Mr. Danger” and told him to “Go to Hell”. In addition, Chavez has formed a well-publicized relationship with Fidel Castro and there is talk of the two countries forming an alliance some time in the near future and even further talk by Jamaican PM, Patterson, of forming a union of Caribbean states, which would include Venezuela and Cuba. This has no doubt put Chavez on the Imperialist Hit List and he knows it. Still Chavez is not budging from his position. In fact in a recent visit to the states, Chavez went to Congressman Jose Serrano’s poverty stricken New York neighborhood and promised to cut out middle men in the oil business and sell oil to the poor at a 30% discount over the winter months.

The weeks and months ahead promise to be very interesting as far as Chavez is concerned. It seems that the Bush Administration is doing more to encourage the unity of the less powerful states in the Americas than Che Guevara ever did. If GW keeps it up all of the Caribbean, Central and South America will be a socialist state—Viva Bush!