This just showed up on Cooper's blog

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

I sent a slightly shortened version of the following to The Nation:

Dear Editors,

It is sad to see that The Nation would give space to someone who is 
known to have murdered one of El Salvador’s most celebrated poets (Roque 
Dalton) and was responsible for some of the FMLN’s darkest 
activities—the assassination of eleven Salvadoran mayors—who then failed 
at politics, only to turn to academia where he finally got recognition 
from the world’s elite for trashing left movements in Latin America.

Joaquin Villalobos’ commentary (The Nation, July 9, 2007) itself is a 
sad reflection on our times when he can claim that leaving a Venezuelans 
without RCTV’s programming of Baywatch, sleazy soap operas, and raunchy 
game shows is like leaving them without food.

He clearly does not know what he is talking about, as can also be seen 
by his absurd claim that Chavez is only popular because there is no 
decent opposition. Obviously he has never seen first hand the dedicated 
support Chavez enjoys and seen just how radicalized his supporters have 
become.

He then complains that Chavez did not make a real—that is, 
violent—revolution. True, but this is not the concept of revolution that 
is being used in Venezuela. Rather, it is being called a peaceful 
revolution because the country’s poor majority feels it has a real voice 
in the country’s governance for the first time in its history. This is 
not as fast as a violent revolution would be, but as the sociologist Max 
Weber once pointed out, charismatic leaders can often be just as 
catalytic for radical change. Much has been completely remade in 
Venezuela in the past few years due to Chavez’s leadership and much 
still remains to be done.

Villalobos limits what is happening in Venezuela to only its negative 
aspects: continued reliance on oil production, corruption, and new 
elites. While partly true, this sees only half of the picture, whose 
other half also includes the growth of real participatory democracy, of 
empowerment, and of greater social equality (incomes of the poorest have 
grown far faster than those of the rich, which have hardly grown at all).

Finally, when Villalobos says that Chavez will never get rid of 
elections, he implies that he would like to or need to do so. There is 
simply no evidence for such a claim whatsoever. Chavez has defended his 
policies in more elections in eight years (12, to be precise) than just 
about any other politician on earth.

Sincerely,
Gregory Wilpert
Editor of Venezuelanalysis.com and author of the forthcoming book, 
Changing Venezuela by Taking Power (September, Verso Books).