Chavez Redux By Donnel Jones, Janurary 15, 2004	Home   Search   Forum   Terms

Watching Hugo Chavez in action is like going to the zoo. You don't know what this creature is going to be up to next. Yet, he is also predictable. His pronouncements evoke the kind of shameful fascination one has when gathering around the aftermath of an automobile accident. Hugo strikes again. Actually, it's same-old same-old from my blog of yesterday.

The great dictator speaks about the Axis of Good:

Clearly, an axis can be seen ... -- and it's not an axis of evil as some people say -- .. that passes from Caracas, through Brasilia and reaches Buenos Aires. . . .

Chavez is unhappy that Cuba is excluded from the summits because the U.S. doesn't like the fact that the nation is a dictatorship. As he says, I think it would be good if we consulted all the countries of Latin America about whether it's right that Cuba should be excluded. Yes or no?

Uh, no. That would not be good. And what could be achieved from a backwater regime incapable of reform and growth? To put it bluntly, it is objectively unfair to exclude Castro, a head of state, from the summits, but his charisma and following throughout Latin America would easily lend him credibility at the summits. He would be an obstructionist and that is precisely why Chavez wants him there. The U.S. doesn't want Castro trying to stymie the economic development of the Americas. Why allow him to keep Latin America from the goods of development he withholds from his own people? Castro has nothing to offer. Unfair? Yes, but also necessary. Imperialist? I don't care what you call it.

There is hope for Mexico and central America. For Chavez to seek to isolate the U.S. is not only outdated Cold War politics, it will be very bad for Latin America. Let's hope this "axis" doesn't get off the ground. Are Lula da Silva and Leon Kirchner level headed? Silva seems savvy. Kirchner has the IMF wrapped around his finger. Let's hope they're sane as well as smart.

The U.S. economy is too powerful to ignore. Free trade with the U.S. would benefit Latin America. And free markets mean greater freedom for citizens, more freedom to exchange and entertain ideas since a free market doesn't stop at the level of commodities. Free trade would mean less government control of the economy.

What problem does Chavez and his ally Castro have with this? The word free. Instead, they are exercised by such Marxist claptrap as this:

Yes, we are de-stabilizers ... Fidel and Chavez ... against death, against injustice, against hunger, sickness and inequality

All the ills Chavez speaks of are rampant in Cuba and Venezuela, not the United States. Car wreck indeed.