Hurricane Hugo

Why does Washington fear the Venezuelan President so much? Why is Washington working so hard, actually bribing and threatening nations, to get other countries to vote with them to put Guatemala on the UN Security Council instead of Venezuela. It isn't as if the Venezuelans would have veto power like the world's rulers deserve. In fact they would have very little power since the world has decided that the US, Russia, England, China and France are the only important countries of the world and has granted them veto power. What’s even more wonderous are the attacks against Hugo Chavez by Democrats like Chuck Rangel and Nancy Pelosi. Is it the man we fear or his message? This is the real question.
As we speak the US is bullying countries into voting with them to put Guatemala on the Security Council. John, I can't get confirmed to the UN, Bolton is telling Venezuela to back down and give up on their attempt to get a seat on the Security Council. Never you mind that Guatemala, the lesser of two evils in our Empire's eyes, is systematically slaughtering street kids. Also forget that like most of the Third World, Guatemala's elites are enriching themselves at the expense of the poor in their nation. As usual, these are all good things in Washington's eyes.
The easily elected leader of Venezuela is a dictator our sheepish media tell us. He is a "thug" according to Nancy Pelosi. Christ, Nancy Pelosi wouldn't ever call our President a thug even though the description fits him much better. Both Bush and Chavez came to power around the same time and guess who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Not Hugo. Yet it is Hugo who is the thug. Even though our President has just been given the power, by Congress, to indefinitely hold prisoners without the right to a trial yet it is Hugo who is becoming Authoritarian.
There are two main reasons our Empire is fearful of Hugo. Today I will only address one of the two. The main reason that Washington, both parties, fears the Venezuelan President is because he offers a different view of the world. One that is not supposed to be voiced and when it is, in our country, we can count on the obiedient media to refer to those suggestions as crackpot or utopian. National healthcare is some pie in the sky idea that isn't feasible unless of course you are one of those uncompetitive utopian nations like Canada, England, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Austria, or Switzerland. When was the last time you bought something from Sweden(Erickson phones) or Finland(Nokia). Better yet, we are told how much better our for-profit healthcare system is. Still where is the political movement in any European country to institute for-profit American style healthcare? It doesn't exist because the concept is so widely popular that only a fool would advocate some change.
Just imagine if Venezuela had been on the Security Council during the lead up to our invasion and occupation of Iraq. They would have had the lap dog, Mexico's, seat. If my memory serves me right the Mexicans didn't support our illegal and immoral invasion but they weren't vocal critics and did nothing to stave off the tragedy. Had the Venezuelans been on the Council we would have seen the them using the forum to show how illegal and unnecessary this war was. They may have even sponsored envoys which would have really pissed of our Empire.
If anyone had the chance to see Hugo Chavez's over the top performance at the UN last month, they can understand why the US is scared of their message, "Another world is possible." My main disappointment about the speech was Chavez's reference to Bush being the devil. I had really hoped that Chavez would have turned out to be an atheist but oh well. I can overlook it though, since he follows Christ's teachings teachings far closer than our holier than thou born again fake. Still it was a little disappointing to see him use such infantile, Bush-esque, rhetoric.
I agree that his rhetoric was over the top and may have done himself more damage than good but why, one must ask, does he have such strong feelings. It could be that the CIA attempted to overthrow him in April 2002. The CIA involvement was obvious, to anyone who knows even a basic history of Latin America, because the only country in the Western Hemisphere that didn't condemn the coup was the US. While the rest of the Americas were calling for the Democratic will of the Venezuelans to be respected the Bush Administration called for the opposite but with the same terminology. The outrageous level of rhetoric that goes unchallenged by our media should be frightening to any and all American whom are not members of the ruling elite. It doesn't matter what the facts are because the media create the true facts. Remember how Saddam was responsible for 9/11.
Again this shows how weak our country really is. Greedy oligarchs who are terrified of ideas entering the lexicon of the world hold up our whole society. They do not want to be removed from their undeserving position of world rulers. They understand that their hold is flimsy once exposed to light so they send out faithful Democrats to use harsher words for a populist than that of a man who is responsible for the deaths of 655,000 people. Who the fuck are the real thugs? Us!