Was Bolivar a democrat?

international | politics / elections | opinion/analysis Monday December 05, 2005 13:33 by %

We have come a long way with Chavez.
But no-one ever suggested we were going to go all the way with him.

Years ago, he went from military officer, to charismatic left wing popularist, to television master, to dauphin of Castro, to the "most left wing and popular champion of the poor" in the Americas. A man who could taunt with impunity the Americans under Bush, the Mexicans under Fox. A man who could send fuel and food aid to the poor of Boston, a man who chose not to side with the striking miners of Ecuador.

The model of "authoritarian" leader for the XXI century is pretty much the same no matter which "wing" they come from.

The same flaws which allow us to criticise Berlusconi, nominally a media empire mogul with "demo-christian coalition leadership skills" and blatenty far right popularist slogans, must allow us to see Chavez as the opposite.

Yesterday only 25% of the Venezuelan people voted in their elections.

President Hugo Chavez's political party, MVR, said on Sunday it had won 114 National Assembly seats out of 167 in congressional elections to give it more than two-thirds of the legislature.

call to Anarchist alternative social summit :-
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73059

No matter what way you look at it, if only 25% vote for the regime, the regime is not democratic.