A couple of days ago, The Wall Street Journal, in an op-ed piece, called Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ‘a threat to world peace’. Just what is about Chavez that scares the hell out of the rich, powerful and imperialistic? I have a few ideas.

First, he has used Venezuela’s considerable oil wealth (largely increased by the meteoric rise in the price of crude over the last 2-3 years) in part to better the conditions of Venezuela’s legions of landless poor. He has instituted badly needed social programs so that the country’s tiny, rich white elite aren’t the only ones with access to a decent education and health care. Chavez has also shown great solidarity with some of his Latin American neighbors such as Ecuador, Argentina and Bolivia, helping to set Latin America on a path of independence from international banking and multinationals.

But he has committed other great sins: he has worked together with (gasp!) Fidel Castro to bring highly-trained Cuban doctors to Venezuela. He has opened dialogues with countries like Iran and North Korea. He calls a spade a spade (he has referred to Bush as� a “donkey” and an “assassin”, among other hard-to-translate Spanish insults). His worst crime, though, has been to show that a government geared towards the needs of people-–all people– is better than one run for the benefit of business elites. He is setting agood example for the rest of Latin America, and the right-wingers in Washington cannot let that be. The fact that leftist Evo Morales got elected President in Bolivia signals to the elites that “the rot” is spreading already.

� Back in ‘02, the Bush administration tried to help overthow Chavez and failed. The U.S. government has repeatedly attempted–and sometimes succeeded–in blocking foreign arms sales to Venezuela. The country has been� added to the State Deptartment’s list of nations that “don’t cooperate” in fighting “terrorism”. � Pat Robertson openly wished for Chavez’s assassination. Mr. Chavez is hardly an angel, of course. He has a flair for often ridiculous drama and it is obvious that he has a large ego. Sometimes he says and does some rather strange things.� But I’m willing to forgive that; I prefer to look at the bigger picture.

� The Wall Street Journal is correct in saying Chavez threatens world peace, because to the business elites� The Journal represents, “world peace” means the control of the world’s resources by a tiny minority of the super-rich, the undermining of genuine democracy, the hegemony of multinational corporations and banks over� national economies and the flow of capital from the rich to the poor.

� If that is peace, I’ll take war.�

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-Bill

� The Florida Soapbox

� http://flasoapbox.podomatic.com

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