Tag Archives: Libya

Feb
21
2012
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ICYMI: Chavez faces an Uprising at the Ballot Box

Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez faces an uprising at the ballot box
The Washington Post
By Jackson Diehl
February 19, 2011

On Feb. 12, Henrique Capriles Radonski, a 39-year-old Venezuelan state governor, won a primary election to become the opposition’s candidate against Hugo Chavez in October’s presidential election. He won 1.8 million of an astonishing 3 million votes – double the turnout predicted by most analysts.

The next day, Capriles, a devout Catholic, was greeted by a commentary on the government-run Web site of Venezuelan National Radio titled “The Enemy Is Zionism.” Capriles, it explained, is the descendant of Jews. (In fact, his grandmother was a Holocaust survivor who emigrated from Poland to Venezuela.)

“In order to understand the interests embodied” by Capriles, the commentary declared, “it’s important to know what is Zionism, the Israeli ideology that he sneakily represents. . . . It is, without doubt, an ideology of terror, of the most putrefied sentiments of humanity; its supposedly patriotic impetus is based in greed.” And so on.

“Zionism,” it concludes, “is owner of the majority of the financial institutions of the planet, controls almost 80 percent of the world economy and virtually all of the communications industry, in addition to maintaining decision-making positions within the U.S. Department of State and European powers.”

Thus began the latest – and what will surely be the ugliest – political campaign by Chavez, a ruler who has served as a friend in need to Moammar Gaddafi, Bashar al-Assad and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – and who now is facing his own homegrown democratic uprising. But Venezuela’s spring differs from those of Libya, Syria or Iran: Instead of pouring into the streets, Venezuelans – fed up with the chaos and violence of Chavez’s 13 years in power – are marching to the polls and trying to restore the country’s crippled and compromised institutions.

The opposition Capriles now heads has learned lessons that might benefit some of the revolutionaries of the Middle East. It tried and failed to oust Chavez with mass demonstrations and strikes; it foolishly boycotted elections it believed would be unfair; it indulged in endless internal quarrels. The result was the entrenchment of a strongman who has thoroughly wrecked what was once Latin America’s richest country and who now presides over the highest inflation and murder rates in the Western Hemisphere, shortages of basic goods and power, and a drug-trafficking industry whose kingpins include the defense minister.

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Oct
28
2011
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In Case You Missed It… Articles Roundup Week of 10/28/11

In this week’s roundup…The Venezuelan doctor who predicted that President Hugo Chávez has “less than two years to live” is forced to flee the country; a hostage standoff at Venezuela’s top prison ends without fatalities; Chávez refuses to recognize Libya’s new government in a sign of solidarity with his long time ally, Moammar Gadhafi; and two new reports label Venezuela one of the “14 most violent countries in the world” and Latin America’s weakest link.

 

Doctor Who Warned of Chavez Death Says He Had to Flee Venezuela, Bloomberg Businessweek

A Venezuelan doctor who claimed that President Hugo Chavez has less than two years to live because of cancer said he was forced to flee the country.

Inmates free employees held inside Venezuelan prison, ending hostage standoff, The Associated Press via The Washington Post

Venezuela’s top prison official said Tuesday that inmates who had seized more than 50 guards and other prison workers in the Tocuyito lockup have released the final 12 hostages, ending a tense standoff in which prisoners were demanding transfers. Penitentiary Minister Iris Varela said the hostages were released after authorities vowed to transfer hundreds of prisoners to another facility. “Nobody is any longer in a hostage situation,” said Varela, speaking on state television.

Former baseball executive takes key behind-the-scenes role against Chavez in Venezuela, The Washington Post via The Associated Press

A former baseball executive is plotting strategy for Venezuela’s political opposition, and he’s on a winning streak. Ramon Guillermo Aveledo helped the opposition make major gains in congressional elections last year, and then convinced a diverse array of parties to agree to compete in a presidential primary for the first time next February. The bearded 61-year-old is now setting his sights on channeling the opposition’s momentum into a broad-based challenge against President Hugo Chavez next year.

Venezuela’s Chavez says he won’t recognize new government in Libya, The Washington Post via The Associated Press

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday that he won’t recognize Libya’s new government and predicted more war in the country. The Venezuelan leader condemned the killing of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi, whom he had considered a friend. He defended Gadhafi throughout the conflict and strongly criticized NATO’s military involvement in the country.

Venezuela among the 14 most violent countries in the world, El Universal

Six out of the 14 countries featuring very high levels of armed violence in the world are in Latin America, according to the second edition of the report “Global Burden of Armed Violence” released Thursday by the secretariat of The Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development, a diplomatic initiative launched in 2008. “One quarter of all violent deaths occurred in just 14 countries,” the report on armed violence and development said.

Morgan Stanley sees Venezuela as LatAm’s weakest link, El Universal

In its latest report, Morgan Stanley claims that Latin America is more prepared than ever to deal with the worsening global crisis, but it labels Venezuela as the region’s most vulnerable country.

 
Mar
15
2011
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Qadhafi’s Cheerleader in Latin America

As Libya continues to make headlines this week and more governments around the world condemn the actions of the Libyan leader, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez breaks out of the mold once again by vociferously voicing his allegiance to Qadhafi. In defending his Libyan friend, Chávez suggests that the United States is prepared to invade Libya.“What do they want? Libya’s oil,” Chávez has said.

But in fairness to Chávez, he is not the only Latin American leader to express allegiance to Qadhafi. He joins Cuba’s Raúl Castro and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega in going all out in defense of Qadhafi. This shouldn’t surprise anyone. For years, Chávez and Qadhafi have enjoyed a venerable partnership “based on shared military backgrounds, left-wing economic ideas, antagonistic relations with the United States, and membership for both their nations of the OPEC oil producer group.” Chávez has visited Qadhafi in Tripoli several times and, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, he “recently signed a $1 billion economic agreement that included handing over Hato Piñero, a world-class nature preserve he recently expropriated, to a Libyan agricultural commune.”

Taking his praise of Qadhafi to a new level, Chávez has said that Qadhafi is to the Libyan people what Simón Bolívar is to Venezuelans. During Qadhafi’s visit to Caracas in 2009, Chávez amplified that gesture by gifting the Libyan leader a replica of the historic sword that belonged to Simón Bolívar.

It has been rumored that Qadhafi may seek refuge in Venezuela but, according to The Jerusalem Post, Qadhafi’s own sons are urging him to seek asylum in Nicaragua. For now, it is evident that the Libyan leader has no plans to step down or flee his country.