Posted by Mr_Foulscumm on 2013-03-06 01:54:10

So crazy old dictator dies eh? Yeah... sad day it's not.

Posted by PainState on 2013-03-06 02:59:12

According to the latest reports in his last hour of life he was still claiming "W" gave him cancer and killed him.

Posted by Arktoris on 2013-03-06 04:03:21

My favorite dictator is the guy from Iran. Maybe we should start a dictator trading cards brand.

Posted by Jeffro on 2013-03-06 04:56:28

OOOoooh!... Dictator trading cards!!! I'll trade you three Moammar Gadhafi's for a Pol Pot, Arktoris!

Posted by vaclav on 2013-03-06 09:36:44

Gringos poisoned him with some radioactive supstance 100% Viva la Chavez!

Posted by vaclav on 2013-03-06 09:47:08

My favorite dictator is Saudi Arabia king. Funny, you Americans never mention him...

Posted by member1234 on 2013-03-06 09:53:45

Have a few friends from Venezuela, they are celebrating something fierce hoping Capriles will get a fair shot now.... but with the military in the streets their family back home are more than a tad worried, tense to say the least. Some people going a bit crazy over it.

Was *as* bad as some would have you believe, the poor adore him and he did improve life for them despite tanking the economy etc.

Will see how it goes, politics isn't my thing but hopefully it's a boost for the country if it doesn't implode into civil war. (Capriles didn't challenge the election results knowing that would happen apparently)

Posted by NoCoolNickLeft on 2013-03-06 10:09:41

Tito was the greatest, none above!! I like the trading card option:)

Posted by vaclav on 2013-03-06 10:36:09

Tito rulez!

Posted by CroixFer on 2013-03-06 11:08:04

I have been in Venezuela several times in the last few years in biz trip. The country was not safe but, believe it or not, it was much better place for the very poor over the years. Not for the very rich but yes for the very poor.

And in the pools Chavez achieved victory with "clean" elections. I do not mean it was 100% clean (I cannot know that) but for sure I can tell you a large % of the population literally adored him and voted him once and again.

An, in the end, he did something different for the people. Venezuela was ruled by a politician class over the years and the very poor were always left apart. Chavez did something for the forgotten and I am pretty sure he will not be forgotten soon by them. I hope the old regime learnt from the experience and never forget the people again when they rule th country again.

Posted by soranos on 2013-03-06 12:16:54

I liked the guy as well.
Good entry, Araznaroth.
He was certainly not a flawless politician and especially his proximity to dictators Ahmadinejad, Hussein, or Gadafi (than again that one was treated like a legitimate head of state by several Western countries as well). I also think he was going a little overboard with his claim that Americans poisoned him so that he would catch cancer
.
That being said, he was no dictator. He survived 4 elections, a plebiscite and a coup d’etat. It is just the usual Western reflex to label everybody a dictator, who does not cater to their interest. Chavez biggest achievement was probably that he established that Venezuela’s destiny was shaped again (for the most part) in Caracas and not in Washington. That might sound like triviality but in Latin America it is not.
It also needs to be stated that while Chavez had his fair share of problems with the political elite in Washington and other Western countries, the countries was very protective and liberal towards minorities which includes the large groups of US-citizens and Europeans in the country. That is almost never mentioned in the political commentary. Chavez tried to implement policies that benefit the poor in his country without repressing other parts.
He nationalized the oil-industry so that the people as a whole could benefit from it and the profits would not all leave the country or end up in the pockets of a few oligarchs.

All that being said, the country was in danger of overstretching its resources in part due to Chavez’ policy of supporting other Latin American countries through super-cheap oil exports. In the last few years the unemployment and inflation stayed high and despite the availability of enough fertile grounds the country was not able to feed itself.

We will never know, if Chavez would have been able to turn the economy around, but he seemed like a guy who had his heart on the right spot. He was able to reduce the poverty significantly and there was little doubt that his focus was always on the poor and the indios. Despite being a charismatic man, it is often forgotten what a well-read man he was in everything economical, political, historical. Maybe it would have been an ever greater calling for him had he end up as a lector on a great university as it is, he was a great political theorist of our time.
As it is, I wish his family and his country the best.

Posted by C3I2 on 2013-03-06 15:16:00

Probably for the very rich as well; i.e. those that made money on the new system, by for example being allowed to import certain goods and so on.

Anyway, you can always wear a red shirt while playing, and also talk a lot for two hours straight at the same time :-9

Posted by PainState on 2013-03-06 15:32:56

Chavez was the master of the straw man argument. That is his legacy. He won 4 elections running against a straw man in the United States.

Posted by brain01 on 2013-03-06 16:04:00

he was a great man.
hasta siempre chavez

Posted by Synn on 2013-03-07 01:00:17

As a yank, I liked him.

He was a populist President who won several elections. His job wasn't to make Americans happy, but to serve Venezuela.

There are lines that Chavez knew not to cross. Respect for that.

__Synn