Hugo Chavez: South America’s Own ‘Qaddafi’ – El Tiempo, Colombia

How dangerous is Venezuela President Hugo Chavez? Some people consider him the greatest danger to the Western Hemisphere, while others see him as nothing more than an amusing baffoon with a wad of oil cash.

According to columnist Juan Carlos Martinez of Colombia’s El Tiempo newspaper, Chavez is as dangerous as Libyan dictator Mohamar Qaddafi was before he mended his ways.

Martinez writes that the recent indictment against Chavez by Spain’s high court, which alleges that the Venezuelan leader has harbored and aided Basque and Colombian terrorists [ETA and FARC], should be taken as a warning by all countries in the Americas.

Just like the the Bedouin Qaddafi who sits atop the oil Libya produces, the dirty, heavy Venezuelan crude allows despotic, arrogant, foul-mouthed Chavez to do whatever he likes in his neighboring country [Colombia].

As noted in a past blog entry, if the United States would stop importing about 15 percent of Venezuelan oil, Chávez Frías would run out of foreign currency with which to sponsor far-away terrorist movements in disregard for the will of the Venezuelan people.

It’s not certain that Russia, the world largest oil producer, and China – countries very far from Venezuela – will want to replace the United States market and create diplomatic and economic friction among Moscow, Beijing and Barack Obama.

The way things are going, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is on the well-traveled path of the overthrown ex-president of Panama and U.S. prisoner, Manuel Antonio Noriega, who will almost certainly live out the remaining days of his life in a French prison.

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13 Responses to “Hugo Chavez: South America’s Own ‘Qaddafi’ – El Tiempo, Colombia”

1. dduck12 says:

   March 9, 2010 at 7:39 pm

   It's a crying shame that this “dictator” and declarer that the USA set off the Haiti disaster, is ruining a beautiful country like Venezuela. With its natural resources and natural beauty it should be prosperous and a popular tourist destination.
2. DLS says:

   March 9, 2010 at 7:48 pm

   Natural resources? Leftist strongmen could harm more people misusing them than fostering terrorism.

   http://www.international.ucla.edu/economichistory/summ...
3. DLS says:

   March 9, 2010 at 7:51 pm

   Actually, here's a good experiment, going far beyond getting rid of the likes of Baby Huey.

   (Add Central America and the Levant if desired)

   Let's clean up the USA, then use it as a model for a modern South America. Europe gets to come to grips with itself as best it can, and use itself as the model for a modern Africa. May the best experimental results win.
4. DLS says:

   March 9, 2010 at 7:57 pm

   It's not just Chavez. A brief intro to a neglected place…

   http://www.moisesnaim.com/books_articles/…/LostConti...

   Enjoy.
5. JSpencer says:

   March 9, 2010 at 8:02 pm

   Of course this “dictator” was elected… and consequently worked to do away with term limits. Cute strategy eh? Too bad his brand of socialism isn't having better results, but socialism (as we've discovered) is a word that means different things to different people, and to Chavez it was probably mostly a strategy to get elected. If it wasn't for the oil, he be just another (insert noun of choice here).
6. Don Quijote says:

   March 9, 2010 at 9:25 pm

   JSpencer,
   There has been far better and more economic growth since Chavez came to power than there was in the twenty years before…

   The Chávez Administration at 10 Years: The Economy and Social Indicators
   

   The current economic expansion began when the government got control over the national oil company in the first quarter of 2003. Since then, real (inflationadjusted) GDP has nearly doubled, growing by 94.7 percent in 5.25 years, or 13.5 percent annually.
   Most of this growth has been in the nonoil sector of the economy, and the private sector has grown faster than the public sector.
   During the current economic expansion, the poverty rate has been cut by more than half, from 54 percent of households in the first half of 2003 to 26 percent at the end of 2008. Extreme poverty has fallen even more, by 72 percent. These poverty rates measure only cash income, and does take into account increased access to health care or education.
   Over the entire decade, the percentage of households in poverty has been reduced by 39 percent, and extreme poverty by more than half.
   Inequality, as measured by the Gini index, has also fallen substantially. The index has fallen to 41 in 2008, from 48.1 in 2003 and 47 in 1999. This represents a large reduction in inequality.
   Real (inflationadjusted) social spending per person more than tripled from 1998-2006.
   From 1998-2006, infant mortality has fallen by more than onethird. The number of primary care physicians in the public sector increased 12fold from 1999-2007, providing health care to millions of Venezuelans who previously did not have access.
   There have been substantial gains in education, especially higher education, where gross enrollment rates more than doubled from 1999/2000 to 2007/2008.
   The labor market also improved substantially over the last decade, with unemployment dropping from 11.3 percent to 7.8 percent. During the current expansion it has fallen by more than half. Other labor market indicators also show substantial gains.
   Over the past decade, the number of social security beneficiaries has more than doubled.
   Over the decade, the government's total public debt has fallen from 30.7 to 14.3 percent of GDP. The foreign public debt has fallen even more, from 25.6 to 9.8 percent of GDP.

   And yes, he has been able to do all of this because he has oil… But the people who ran the country before had access to the same oil, and they ran the country down the toilet…
   Venezuela Economy
   

   The economy contracted. The number of people living in poverty rose from 36% in 1984 to 66% in 1995.[11]

   So let's stop demonizing the “Baby Huey” as DLS calls him because he is actually what he got elected to do, which is serve the interest of the Venezuelan People not those of the US.
7. JSpencer says:

   March 9, 2010 at 9:33 pm

   Well, I'm not interested in demonizing anyone, but it isn't always easy getting the facts. This link appears to dispute the information provided in your link…

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Ch%C3%A1vez#E…

   …so I don't know quite what to think. Does anyone else have good information on how well Chavez has carried out his campaign promises?
8. Don Quijote says:

   March 9, 2010 at 9:53 pm

   You'll need to edit that link…
9. DLS says:

   March 10, 2010 at 9:54 am

   “Does anyone else have good information on how well Chavez has carried out his campaign promises to the people who elected him?”

   It's a mixed message (less mixed than if you included his many adversaries or non-fans in the country). More to the point, much will hinge on how oil prices go. He's basically an authoritarian thug in the good old traditional Latin American sense (the proto-fascist model, with a bit more family- or tribe-centered underpinning, in the case of any modern developing Arab nations), who has wanted to be the next Castro, who has oil. The key to much enabling him is that oil wealth and how much he can spend, how freely.
10. joecool1938 says:

    March 11, 2010 at 9:36 am

    “Advocate socialism while communism being your sole agenda” Lenin 1917. Your facts are very similar to Moscow's disinformation program during the cold war. Venezuela is becoming a worst cesspool than Cuba. It is a total disaster with no improvement in sight. I wonder why 1.3 million Venezuelans left your idea of utopia?
11. rollandmiller says:

    March 11, 2010 at 2:07 pm

    Hugo Chavez is a bright light in South America, and not a dictator.

    He has shown more freedom than the USA.

    He has greatly improved the life of the majority of people in Venezuela with considerable improvements in education, and health care.

    He has shown that good leaders like himself can get elected to power by good policies.

    The American press in particular have gone to great lengths to demonize him, rather than praise him for the improvements in Venezuela
12. dduck12 says:

    March 11, 2010 at 3:22 pm

    rather than praise him for the improvements in Venezuela”

    And, HE said the US was responsible for the Haiti earthquake. Please.
13. rollandmiller says:

    March 11, 2010 at 5:44 pm

    I am tired of reading of opposition to term limits.
    In the British Commonwealth, and many other countries, all leaders can be elected to ongoing terms as long as they get the vote.
    There is nothing wrong with this.
    He is not a dictator if he continuingly gets elected.
    Chavez has done more for the people of Venezuela since he has been in office than all the leaders before him.
    IT is time the people of South America threw away the old style of so called Democracies, when they are really dictators that do nothing for the people but enrich themselves and the rich that already have enough.
    Chavez has gone a long way to end this.