[Marxism] EDITORIAL: Chavez as imperialist - Wash. Post raises rhetoric on Chavez June 3, 2006

[Ralph Johansen <mdriscoll@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

*http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/02/AR2006060201520_pf.html*
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*A Latin Backlash
Hugo Chavez has managed to replace George W. Bush as the imperialist
specter.
*

*Saturday, June 3, 2006; Washington Post Editorial A16
*

FOR YEARS Hugo Chavez's steady dismantlement of Venezuela's democracy
and his embrace of dictators and terrorists around the world -- from
Fidel Castro to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- prompted next to no reaction from
Latin America's democratic governments. The silence was shameful, partly
because Venezuela's former leaders fought for human rights in countries
such as Chile, Peru and Argentina during the 1980s and '90s, but also
because the quiet was in part purchased by Mr. Chavez, who lavished
subsidized oil and lucrative trade deals on governments around the region.

Now at last, Mr. Chavez is the object of a growing backlash from leaders
around Latin America -- from Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Mexico and
Nicaragua, among other countries. In part, the politicians are
responding to foolish overreaching by Mr. Chavez, who has been busy
trying to turn Bolivia into a satellite state while suggesting he has
similar plans for much of the rest of the continent. Latin Americans
don't like imperialism, whether it comes from Washington or Caracas. And
even leftist leaders, like those who rule in Brazil and elsewhere in
South America, find it hard to imagine themselves prospering in a
Venezuela-led economic bloc that includes Cuba but shuns the United States.

The other reason Latins have found their anti-Chavez tongues is
delightfully pragmatic: It's a proven vote-getter. Elections are taking
place or are on the way in a host of Central and South American
countries -- and politicians in most of them are finding that linking
their opponents to Venezuela's demagogue works wonders. The biggest
beneficiary may be Peru's Alan Garcia, who is the front-runner in
Sunday's presidential election runoff. Mr. Garcia is himself a leftist
populist who two decades ago presided over one of the most disastrously
incompetent governments in Peruvian history. But his opponent, a former
military coup-plotter named Ollanta Humala, has been endorsed by Mr.
Chavez, and Mr. Garcia has focused his campaign on that point, saying
only he can prevent Peru from becoming "a colony of Venezuela." It's a
logical strategy: Mr. Chavez's approval rating in Peru is 17 percent.

In Mexico, commentators concluded several months ago that the poll lead
of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in July's presidential election
could not be overcome. But that was before Mr. Lopez Obrador's
right-wing challenger, Felipe Calderon, began running television
advertisements connecting Mr. Chavez to his opponent; the polls now show
that Mr. Calderon has taken the lead. In neighboring Nicaragua,
Sandinista leader and presidential candidate Daniel Ortega is also
suffering from Mr. Chavez's poisoned kiss.

The Bush administration, which has haplessly allowed Mr. Chavez to
exploit the U.S. president as a political foil for years, has hit on
just the right response as it has watched Peruvians and Mexicans turn
the tables on the Venezuelan: It has kept quiet. The sight of Latin
Americans rising up in defense of democratic values, and against the
attempt of a would-be regional hegemonist to subvert them, is inspiring
-- and it requires nothing from Washington save discreet applause.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

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