Sizing Up Hugo Chavez

"With Caracas hosting the annual World Social Forum and Washington pondering the pronounced regional tilt to the left, it may be time for a clear-eyed look at the most radical protagonist of that leftward tilt, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez. There is no easy characterization of Chávez, but it is clear that he has become one of Latin America’s most astute, self-confident and, for now, influential political leaders, intent on changing the Hemispheric balance of power, significantly improving the lot of the region’s poor majority, and happily—at times with a twinkle in his eye —engendering hopes and fears from South America to Washington and beyond."

This is a brief look into what's going on in his country. It points out a few problems, but nothing that isn't also present here in the U.S.

This should start you off on getting more aquainted with some of the changes taking place there, after which, fire up your search engine to find more details. I feel it important to look a little closer at what's going on south of our border, as the changes there will affect us up north. If the "regional tilt to the left" continues, and is allowed to build in strength, you will hear more and more grumblings from our government, who will be looking for excuses to intervene on behalf of all the corporate interests that are seeing their profits fall.

We need to watch closely, and look for facts, and not become dependant on the Washington rhetoric that will tell us there's evil afoot. The only real issue will be in the regions' attempt to become their own masters, which they should be allowed to do. We as Americans need to stop allowing our government to subvert the development of other nations, simply because they choose not to be told what to do, by us.

If you look up the histories of all our southern neighbors, you find a history of U.S. meddling on behalf of some corporation. They've used human rights, or American citizens in danger, or the spread of communism, or anything else to mask the fact that whatever revolution that took place down there, was caused by an economic stranglehold we've had on them. Whenever profits have been endangered, we've gone down to set them straight. In the past whenever anyone in our "backyard" tried socialist policies that were bad for big business, their only recourse was to seek military alliance with the Soviets for protection.

Well, there's no more Soviet Union, and China, though still very much communist, has been considered "good for business" by our government, so the Cold War threats of yesterday won't work. Even if they mistreat their own people, that shouldn't be used as an intervention excuse, even while we attempt to punish Saddam for that reason, since like we did in Iraq, we've gleefully supported brutal dictatorships throughout the world, as long as they've allowed our corporations to pollute their environment, and exploit their resources and labor. So that's no excuse. We ourself are currently accused of human rights violations, so we have no moral ground to stand on.

We are left with one course of action; inaction. Lets leave them the hell alone, and let them develop in their own way, for better or worse. If they want to rebel against corporate abuse, our government should stop being "corporate hitmen".