Hugo Chavez has died

Carlos Orange

G Power wrote: »

yes but if you truly knew the lengths he had to go to just to keep control of the country from outside forces you would probably have done the same in his position. Can you imagine what it's like to democratically elected and to have george fcuking bush try to remove you from your country and try put a yanky friend in power instead??

I'm sure we can all agree it is awful to see foreigners support coup leaders.

Rented Mule

Praetorian Saighdiuir wrote: »

Don't be so stupid, the poor man is dead.

Poor?

He amassed an incredible fortune as dictator of Venezuela.

Dyr

Rented Mule wrote: »

Poor?

He amassed an incredible fortune as dictator of Venezuela.

That rarest of dictators, the democratically elected dictator.

G Power

psinno wrote: »

I'm sure we can all agree it is awful to see foreigners support coup leaders.

yes but this type of intimidation would quite possibly only be a tiny fraction of what he would have had to fight off on a regular basis.

20Cent

Rented Mule wrote: »

Poor?

He amassed an incredible fortune as dictator of Venezuela.

Any link regarding his personal fortune?
I see a figure of 2billion being used but its all attributed to one site called the CRIMINAL JUSTICE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATES, looking at the website is seems to be a jumped up blog run by one person http://www.cjiausa.org/ . The figure is repeated all over the place though as gospel. Most things written about Chavez have to be taken with a very large pinch of salt.
Such as the constant reference to him being a dictator after having more elections and referendums than most countries.

MadYaker

I don't think he was all bad. Which is just as well because there was and still is a massive personality cult around him and we've all seen where that can lead, Mao Zedong, Kim Jong Il etc. If he wanted to he could have created a very dark country indeed.

nacho libre

I was talking to a couple of girls from from Venezuela about him last night.
One of them, who lives in Dublin, didn't like him because of her ideology
The other, who was more pronounced about her dislike of him, seemed to be somewhat left- wing in her thinking, but was not a fan of Chavez because of what she maintained is a job for the boys culture(yes i realise that's not unique to Venezuela), where often times jobs were not given on merit.
She also claimed that she was intimidated for criticizing Chavez in newspaper articles,to the point where she felt she had no option but to leave the country for France. I suppose if i had been talking to a Venezuelan in cuba, they might view his leadership more positively. Whatever about the pros and cons of his leadership, the late Hugo would not have committed the basic schoolboy error I made last night- (

Seaneh

nacho libre wrote: »

I was talking to a couple of girls from from Venezuela about him last night.
One of them, who lives in Dublin, didn't like him because of her ideology
The other, who was more pronounced about her dislike of him, seemed to be somewhat left- wing in her thinking, but was not a fan of Chavez because of what she maintained is a job for the boys culture(yes i realise that's not unique to Venezuela), where often times jobs were not given on merit.
She also claimed that she was intimidated for criticizing Chavez in newspaper articles,to the point where she felt she had no option but to leave the country for France. I suppose if i had been talking to a Venezuelan in cuba, they might view his leadership more positively. Whatever about the pros and cons of his leadership, the late Hugo would not have committed the basic schoolboy error I made last night- (

I've give 2/1 odds those girls were both white "Spanish" Venezuelans.

hyperborean

Seaneh wrote: »

I've give 2/1 odds those girls were both white "Spanish" Venezuelans.

2-1 on more like it, he had just about dragged the indigenous population out of the mud in the last 10 years, the "spannish white" Venezuelans being the ones who put them there for over 200 years...of course they (non indigenous) wouldn't like his form of politics:mad:

nacho libre

Seaneh wrote: »

I've give 2/1 odds those girls were both white "Spanish" Venezuelans.

I was not giving much thought to their heritage, but at a guess i'd say you;re right. I was more focusing on how attractive the girl living in Paris is:) To be a bit more serious, she was critical of the old regime and commended chavez for helping the poor, which seems to deviate from the normal criticism of him by the right- wing exiled elite. While talking to her i was reminded of this thread, as i knew there would be posters to this forum who would have challenged her more than I did. I should have done so myself, but after her friend jokingly told her to breathe at one point while criticising Chavez, i thought better of it and steered the conversation to what brought her to london and we seemed to find common ground in our liking of the city.