Savvy politics from Hugo Chavez?

Venezuela sends oil for poor Americans

Quite interesting.

Actually, scratch "interesting." Say ingenious. Brilliant. How can you criticise someone who's providing oil for heating to those who really, truly need it, including hospitals, welfare/homeless shelters and the poor? Especially when the administration of the country the oil is being sent to has been seen to do nothing for people following hurricanes and wars?

He's called Bush a "madman," says what he's doing is bringing "justice" for the Americans routinely neglected by their government and is working along more socialist lines with his oil programs (including low-interest loans to poor countries who buy it or accepting payments in goods), not only in Venezuela but with the countries that Venezuela trades with.

Chavez leads a democratic socialist government and refused to get in with the Free Trade of the Americas thing, which was really seeming to have the potential to turn South American nations into areas of cheap labour for the American markets (as if the Americans don't pay people in the lower income ranges poorly enough!). He's worked to bridge the extreme gap that had formed between the rich and poor in the country (something people with a lot of money don't like happening for some reason).

He questions things like neoliberalism, American imperialism and globalisation.

His popularity with the people of Venezuela apparently rates at over 70 per cent. But then there are issues with the nation's economy, job stability and other such things. Poverty is still a problem there. He was involved in a revolution attempt in the early 90s that wasn't successful and saw him land in jail. Relations with America haven't been happy since he said that they were "fighting terror with terror" following the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. But really it's a valid point! Death by terrorists and death by "friendly fire"/"collateral damage" is still death and equally senseless.

I'm not sure what I think of Chavez, really, although he does seem to have the interests of the average person at heart. From what I understand, it was the high-income earners in Venezuela who Chavez has irritated by the way he introduced a more fair tax system that got them to actually *pay* tax, or more of it. He's working hard on combatting illiteracy, disease, poverty and other social problems facing Venezuelans - not an easy task in any country, really.

Whatever the case is, I don't think that anyone should have the right to say that someone who's been elected by their countrymen should be removed from power (like Pat Robertson who called for his assassination earlier this year).

And if he can make a monkey of Bush, which isn't hard to do as Bush does that perfectly well himself, it might be good for the American people. At least they might start thinking about their own social issues and perhaps work towards a system that supports the average person more than it currently does.