Bullish Chavez assumes Andean bloc leadership

[Judi Lynn]

Bullish Chavez assumes Andean bloc leadership
19/07/2005 - 07:09:55

Venezuela’s leftist leader Hugo Chavez has assumed leadership of the Andean bloc president’s council, telling his peers that Latin America was still bound by a ”colonial system” and proposing they pool their energy resources to achieve economic independence.

Chavez, who took the reins of the Andean Presidential Council from Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo for the upcoming year, said yesterday that his proposed ”Petroandina” oil and natural gas company – run by Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia – would help rid the region of poverty.

The council, comprised of the leaders of the five-nation bloc, said it would consider the proposal in a final document, which was to be signed by the participants late yesterday.
(snip)

“It is not with the neoliberal framework that will integrate us, but instead taking advantage of our energy reserves,” he said. “Almost all of our countries have large reserves, starting with Venezuela.”

Chavez contended that because his country is the world’s fifth largest oil exporter, “George W. Bush wants to get his hands on my nation.”
(snip/...)

http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=149875328&p=y49876x34

[knowbody0]

1. you go Hugo!

[wli]

2. congratulations, Mr. Chavez

Complete solidarity here.

[The Mafia Squirrel]

4. Viva Chavez!

Here's to the Latin American revolution!

[aquart]

3. Hope he's got a bulletproof vest.

This ain't what BushCo wants to hear.

[1932]

5. I wonder what Henry Kissinger thinks when he reads stories like this.

?

[The Mafia Squirrel]

6. Something along the lines of

"Goddammit, I thought years of systematic explotation and the occassional mass grave would've kept the original little brown people in their place. Don't they understand the meaning of the term 'feeder state'?"

[Peace Patriot]

7. Just think, if Hugo Chavez were President of the U.S., a portion of U.S.

oil profits, instead of turning billionaires into multi-billionaires, would be used to seed your small business, if you are poor and have no capital, so that you can be creative, productive and self-sustaining, and to place a small free community health clinic around the corner from you, and perhaps fund solar power infrastructure that lights and heats the whole neighborhood for almost no cost, or a library and adult education center where you can add to your knowledge and skills, or a community garden where fresh vegetables are grown, or a town hall with stage and sound system where citizens can gather to hear presentations on various subjects and discuss the issues of the day.

Imagine that you had a president who was actually elected, and devoted to the public good, and who represents YOU, and not just the rich elite and perpetual corporate owners of everything.

Imagine, if you are rich, that you had a president who actually asked something of you, who asked you to share a bit of the wealth to help "level the playing field" for the poor, who asked you to be kind and thoughtful and not so obsessed with your own material acquisitions, who asked you to think big and long term, and join with him in creating a just and prosperous and innovative society in which the energy and genius of the country is optimized, and in which happiness includes the health, happiness, well-being, joy and prosperity of everyone else.

Imagine that.

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But do not weep for our country, which has no such president, and seems to have few prospects for leadership that is wise and just and visionary. Or...yes, shed a tear or two, why not? We have reason to be sorrowful. Then get to work. If the Venezuelans can have honest elections, so can we. If the Venezuelans can shed centuries of injustice and oppression without firing a shot, and can look to a future in which the needs of society are balanced with the needs of business and trade and individual genius and ambition, we, too, can create something better, something more balanced and wholesome than corporate rule and war.

1. We must not let the Bush Cartel destroy Venezuelan democracy. 2. We can learn from it, and be inspired by it.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

8. The U.S. oligarchy has everything to lose

A Democratic Socialist system is shown to be a working economic model for prosperity? For Corporate America, it just can't be. In the past the U.S. used the CIA to overthrow left-wing governments to prevent this at the wish of corporations.

Chavez is showing the 3rd World how it should be done. The old pattern of indebtedness to the IMF and selling off national assets to rich companies for small change in the guise of "economic development" is a total failure.

It is going to drive the Republican Party nuts. A successful socialist economic system in South America would ultimately mean that some Americans will demand something similar at home - and this is considered dangerous by the Corporatist government.