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Posted on
01/04/2007 11:59 AM EST
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Ni el diablo puede parar a Chávez
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Robert Miranda
It was only a few years ago that Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez survived an attempted coup, which was supported by the United States government of George W. Bush. The coup failed after the people of Venezuela took to the streets demanding his return to power.
This week, the people’s leader was re-elected as President of Venezuela; a landslide re-election has given Chávez a mandate to broaden his socialist revolution, which has clearly influenced Latin American politics.
Chávez was elected in 1998 and again in 2000 with 58% of the vote. Chávez won 61 per cent of the vote this past election, while Rosales, the governor of an oil-producing province who managed to unite the fractured opposition, won 38 per cent.
Chávez becomes the fourth leftist to win an election in Latin América in the past five weeks. Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, who calls himself an ally of the Venezuelan, won a run-off last week after promising sweeping political reforms and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua also have won recent presidential elections.
Chávez is clearly the man the majority of the people in this poverty-stricken nation support. Chávez has won a loyal following among Venezuela’s poor through multibillion-dollar social programs that include subsidized food, free university education and cash benefits for single mothers.
Imagine that, a country helping its poor by buying resources to support the poor. Using its national wealth to provide food and free university education to its people all paid for from the nation’s natural riches.
Chávez’s popularity and his influence in Latin América rise from the disillusionment of Latin America’s experiment with free-market policies.
Privatization programs and the transfer of government functions to the private sector have fueled patronage and “crony capitalism.” Those on the inside have benefited over the years from these policies while the rest of Latin América stayed poor.
Chávez has opened doors to the poor and has begun a full-scale effort to distribute wealth and land among Venezuelans more equitably. His ideas mean that oil produced by his nation would be the bedrock of his socialist revolution.
Working in consort with Chávez is China.
General Bantz John Craddock, commander of the Miami-based Southern Command, told the House Armed Services Committee in 2006 that China’s military is stepping up its involvement, “offering resources to cash-strapped militaries and security forces with no strings attached.” He added: ‘China’s increasing influence in the region is an emerging dynamic that can’t be ignored. China needs to protect its access to food, energy, raw materials, and export markets. This has forced a change in its military strategy, to promote a power-projection military, capable of securing lanes and protecting its growing economic interests abroad’.
This partnership continues to grow; not even the devil can stop what is taking place in Venezuela and Latin América.
Tira p’lante Hugo Chávez.
Robert Miranda is a national award winning columnist, Latino community activist and Publisher of the Milwaukee Spanish Journal.
© 2006 HispanicVista.com, Inc.
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