ALBA, an Economic Alternative for Latin America
The sixth conference of the Latin American alternative trade alliance known as ALBA-which stands for the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas and means “Dawn” in Spanish-was held in Caracas on January 25-26. The brainchild of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, ALBA was founded by Cuba and Venezuela in 2004 as a fair trade alternative to US-backed free trade policies and is made possible thanks to Venezuela’s oil money.
When Evo Morales was elected in Bolivia and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, they too joined ALBA, which Chavez has nicknamed the Club of “Chicos Malos”, or bad boys, because of its opposition to U.S. domination. At this weekend’s meeting, the Caribbean island of Dominica also joined, and representatives attended from Ecuador, Honduras, Uruguay, Haiti and several other Caribbean nations.
Chavez opened the session talking about the need for a trade system that addresses people’s needs, not corporate profits. His railed against the “dictatorship of global capitalism”, and encouraged Latin American countries to withdraw their international reserves from United States banks, warning of a looming US economic crisis. “Why does that money have to be in the north?”, he asked. “We should start to bring our reserves back home.”
His thoughts were echoed by Daniel Ortega, who blamed the capitalist system for the environmental crisis. “The capitalist model of development is simply unsustainable,” Ortega declared. “If your economy is controlled by speculative capital that only cares about profits, you can’t solve the huge problems affecting humanity. Once we renounce the free trade model, we can begin to address the massive problems of unemployment, poverty and global warming.”
Bolivia’s Evo Morales, who is facing fierce opposition in part because of his efforts to nationalize natural gas and oil, insisted that key public resources such as land, water and energy should not be for private profit but for the common good. He also insisted that Latin America should not look to the United States for solutions, since U.S. aid always comes with strings designed to increase its hegemony.
“In 1990s, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund imposed their disastrous policies, and then the U.S. tried to impose the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas-which should really be called the Free Profits Agreement of the Americas because it is meant to increase the profits of US corporations,” said Morales. “But people of the hemisphere rejected that agreement, so now the U.S. is trying-country-by-country-to get bilateral trade agreements. They are always trying to divide us, but we salute the great resistance to empire that we see throughout the hemisphere.”
The leaders noted that it was no coincidence that just at the time of the ALBA summit, Condoleezza Rice was visiting neighboring Colombia to promote a U.S.-Colombia Free Trade pact. Chavez, who recently called Colombia’s President Urribe a “sad peon of the empire”, laughed at U.S. accusations that he, Chavez, was facilitating the flow of Colombian cocaine through Venezuela.
The talk of drug-smuggling turned into comic relief, however, when Chavez launched into a discourse on the benefits of the coca leaf, which, he insisted, was very different from cocaine. U.S. officials have long tried to eradicate coca cultivation, which has been grown and chewed by Andean Indians for centuries.
“Speaking of drugs,” Chavez turned to Bolivian President Evo Morales, who is himself a former coca farmer and is a strong defender of the coca leaf, “where are the coca leaves you used to bring me?”
A Bolivian Indian sitting behind Morales got up and offered up his personal stash of coca leaves. Delighted, Chavez took a leaf and put it in his mouth. “The sacred leaf of the Inca, the Aymara Indians,” he declared. “Thank you, brother.” Emphasizing the great qualities of coca, Chavez said that he had become used to chewing the leaves every morning and invited the other heads of states to try some.
The laughter reached new heights when Chavez welcomed Prime Minister Ralph Gonzalez of St. Vincent and Grenadines to the Club of the Bad Boys and asked, in broken English, “Do you want some coca?” Imagining the headlines back home, the Prime Minister politely declined. “I’m a good Catholic boy who only occasionally associates with bad boys,” he joked.
The meeting turned serious, however, when it came time to sign economic agreements. Nicaragua, for example, pledged to help supply milk, corn, beans and beef to Venezuela, while Venezuela will sell Nicaragua oil under preferential terms to Nicaragua. Cuba has an agreement to send doctors to Venezuela in exchange for oil discounts.
The most significant moment of the summit was the announcement of the creation of a regional development bank intended to strengthen their alliance and promote independence from U.S.-backed lenders like the World Bank. The ALBA Bank will be started with $1 billion to $1.5 billion of capital. Venezuela, with its plentiful oil earnings, will be the leading financier. The funds will go toward joint efforts from farming projects to energy ventures, such as hydroelectric energy using Dominica’s abundant rivers and Nicaraguan technology.
Chavez and the leaders of six other South American countries last month launched a similar venture, the Bank of the South, which is projected to have as much as $7 billion in startup capital and offer loans with fewer strings attached than those given by the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund.
A major question about the future of ALBA is whether more countries will join to give it more clout. Ecuador and Haiti, for example, would like to join but are facing strong internal opposition. Several small Caribbean nations attending the meeting mentioned how difficult it is to counter attacks by the conservative media. “The principles of ALBA-solidarity, non-interference, respect for independence, complementarity instead of competition, fair trade-they are like motherhood. You can’t be against them,” Prime Minister Ralph Gonzalez of St. Vincent and Grenadines reasoned. “But when you start to add names-Chavez, Castro, Ortega-people get scared. So we have to educate our people before we can become full members.”
Dominica, a nation that defied elite pressure by joining ALBA, was already facing the backlash. “While we are here talking about ways to improve the lives of our people, the conservative media is talking about economic ruin, communist influence, Iranian takeovers, an end to tourism,” tourism minister Ian Douglas told me. “We will weather the storm, but it’s not going to be easy.”
One way to get around such government pressure is to allow the participation in ALBA of social movements throughout the hemisphere. At last year’s summit, the ALBA Council of Social Movements was formed with representatives from farmers groups, women, environmentalists, unions and other civil groups. But there were unresolved questions over how to structure the Council, so this year, only the social movements in the four member countries were invited. The Council, however, proposed expanding membership.
“The best way to strengthen ALBA is to include social movements from throughout the hemisphere,” said Joel Suarez of Cuba’s Martin Luther King Center, one of the five movement reps from Cuba to attend the Summit. “Governments may be pressured not to join, but the social movements are anxious to be part of an alliance that promotes fair trade over free trade.” Indeed, the proposal is to even include social movements from the United States. Venezuela is already working with U.S. groups and local governments to provide discount heating oil to poor U.S. communities.
With ALBA countries, particularly Bolivia and Venezuela, facing strong internal opposition, improving the population’s economic well-being is critical. The future of progressive victories in Latin America rests on turning the rhetoric of fair trade and sustainable development into concrete gains. This year will be a critical test of whether Venezuela’s oil money can indeed be used to develop an alternative economic model.
Medea Benjamin (medea@globalexchange.org) , cofounder of Global Exchange (www.globalexchange.org) and CODEPINK: Women for Peace (www.codepinkalert.org), was an invited guest at the ALBA Summit. Global Exchange organized monthly people-to-people delegations to Venezuela and other ALBA countries.
Viva Chavez!…perhaps our best hope for an antidote to the poisonous economic pus flowing from the infected boil of free trade.
….by the way Medea….you rock! Keep up the good fight.
By the way Medea, war resisters need support. Maybe your next column could be about, gee, I don’t know, the Iraq War. That is what CODEPINK raises money on and gets press for. Did you forget the Iraq War?
That criminal organization which is the U.S. is always labeling the good people as crooks and they always associate with, and praise, the real criminals as if they are the respected people. For instance;
http://www.newsweek.com/id/54793
…the above link is an article in Newsweek which tells of Columbia’s president Uribe, before he was president, being a close associate of Pablo Escobar and of his being connected to the Medellin Cartel. Then, when he was endearing himself to his new friends, the U.S. corporate government, he extradited all of the competition in the cocaine trade and had his own “paramilitaries”, the “respectable” name for his own drug traffikers, operating in conjunction with his own army and the “advisors” that the U.S. keeps in his country.
For more information, here is a link in spanish from Venezuela;
http://www.abn.info.ve/go_news5.php?articulo=117801&lee=16
The brutality is has roots going way back.
On Benjamine’s site a new law being proposed in Brazil has chilling implications:
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/brazil/5338.html
In the US, the legal rationalization and roots of the genocide here:
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416517&na=2631
By the way, Medea, don’t let the phoney criticism from the government’s stooges put you off. It’s all the same war.
The future of civilization may well reside in the southern hemisphere.
I agree with Jaded Prole. The Bolivarian revolution, inspired by Castro, and birthed by Chavez is the only movement that gives me even a slight hope for humanity and life on the planet. Elsewhere throughout the world I only see focus on “growth” and greed and the destruction that follows these.
I wish I could help. Writing to politicians is as futile as voting as proven to be. For now, I do the little I know how by purchasing gas from Citgo and talking to any who will listen. Any who can suggest other means to help, let’s hear from you.
Hola gringos, noticias para usted de la revolución bolivariana:
Ian Douglas: “While we are here talking about ways to improve the lives of our people, the conservative media is talking about economic ruin, communist influence, Iranian takeovers, an end to tourism.”
Daniel Ortega: “If your economy is controlled by speculative capital that only cares about profits, you can’t solve the huge problems affecting humanity.”
Evo Morales: “U.S. aid always comes with strings designed to increase its hegemony.”
Hugo Chavez: “Speaking of drugs, where are the coca leaves you used to bring me?”
ALBA is a great mechanism to sustainable development and lasting peace in South America, Central America and the Caribbean.
All countries’ governments and groups within those countries need to sign on so that momuntum can make ALBA unstoppable.
ALBA is the only serious approach to relations among nations that is being carried out in the spirit of human cooperation and solidarity and not of the unfettered pursuit of profit. The ALBA political philosophie should become the main object of study by the true progressives in the USA and it should be explained and propagated to the working masses.
Viva Fidel, Hugo, Evo and Daniel !!!
Thank you Media for a good article. I tip my hat to ALBA and to my brothers Chavez, Ortega, Morales and Castro!
For those who want Medea to beat the anti-Iraqi war tom-tom, please remember that war (as practiced by our current adminstration) is nothing more than applied economics anyway. Also, it’s good to see Medea branch out because she is definately not a one-act pony and her own and Code Pink’s interests extend well beyond the current Iraqi war.
Not mentioned in the article but of equal importance is the beginning of Banco Del Sur (the Bank of the South)which functions as an alternative to the IMF and world bank even as ALBA functions as an alternative to NAFTA, GATT, and the WTO.
What is so cool about both of these institutions working in tandem is that they help Latin America resist Imperialism from El Norte and finance it principaly with funding from oil sales to the mad men and women in Washington who would rather wage war than mind their own business care for the needs of their own people.
Although an obscenity against humanity, that is one of the greatest benefits of the Iraqi war for this world since it ties up both the military and intel-espionage establiashment and give the peoples of Latin America some breathing room to reform thier shattered cultures and societies. The other great benefit of the Iraqi war is that it pretty much keeps another bush (spell Jeb) out of the White House. Cry your eyes out Poppy Bush, grind you7r predatory teeth Babs, as bob Dylan once sang:
Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin’.
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.
It appears this election Code Pink signs have been replaced with Ron Paul rEVOLution signs. What’s up Medea? Are you supporting Ron Paul? Have you united for global peace with the GOP libertarian candidate? Ron Paul has more campaign contributions than Nader’s last three elections combined. How humble and unselfish must one be to form a union against a UN resolution that has supported Bush 110%? Ron Paul would allow Chaves to be a dictator if he would like. Castro too. He would set them free. Trade with them. So are you supporting Ron Paul? Dennis Kucinch endorsed him. Will you openly? I would think Chaves and Castro would like Ron Paul. How great to close gitmo and give it to Castro, Eh? How great Chaves can sell drugs and oil globally? Remember: Vote Peace
This is the evidence that hope is alive. We need to be in solidarity with the people of Cuba, Venezuela, and other resistance movements against Yanquilandia and the World Bank and IMF.
james06 and jeanette dooney
we support no candidate as a group, we absoluetly have nada to do with Paul. if you made as many damn calls as we all did today to contribute to the positive outcome in the Senate just a bit ago, then dooney tell me WTF you know about what we do? Tell me now and I know you know jack about Medea or CP, we strive daily to end the illegal invasion of Iraq and to stop bush et al the provocateurs from starting a new illegal war by way of deception.
I am always amazed at those that do absolutely nothing about absolutely everything are the cruelest and most treachorous of all. They are the snakes that wrap themselves around your throat until they strangle you to death. this is not so simple to do to CP because we keep on doing what is humane and what the world deserves.
we will not allow others to perpetuate lies, hate speak, disinformation and any hatefilled distortion of our mission is. it is as simple as going to our home website and exploring everything we do.
it is certainly shameful dark days when we work relentlessly to end horror and murder that people like James06 and the dooney person spread discord in a blog, as mentioned in the cold about exactly this type of hateful, angry, miserable sad people with nary a positive thing to do.
shame on both of you, shame!
Alba is the hope of the americas including the north
It is rather telling that the U.S. is against anyone using such a mild stimulant like the coca leaf, that is, unless they are a U.S. company, such as Coca-Cola which, as the preface of it’s name implys, is dependant on the coca leaf. That U.S. company is one of the world’s principle users of the coca leaf as they still make it the stimulating ingredient in it’s bottled drinks in most Latin American countries. As informed people know, the U.S. is only against drugs when they are not selling them themselves and when such action supplements their imperialistic policies of the domination and terrorizing of populations with the intent of keeping them weak and subservient.
Lately, the U.S. has taken to slandering Venezuela as a drug running country, when the UN has stated that Venezuela is one of the best countries at inhibiting the trafficking of illegal drugs.
http://www.prensalatina.com.mx/article.asp?ID={2282929B-83AE-4AE5-884A-0223BE0A1054})#uage=ES
Of course, as the reference in my first post in this thread showed, the U.S. is the true associate of the drug cartels and the U.S. always only goes after the competition or those drug traffickers who try to break from the fold, such as they did with Noriega from Panama. It is no coincidence that the cocaine drug baron Uribe is the U.S.’s best friend in Latin America. All of the U.S.’s latest efforts at maligning Venezuela are because the U.S. fears any change that gives populations control over their own destiny. That kind of change for the good sets a bad example, from the evil U.S. empire’s perspective, and that vile U.S. scum are realizing now that there is no future for their evil government, and so they are getting strident. However, without a doubt, the forces arrayed against the U.S. will never desist until the U.S.A., as a nation and as a corporate government, is completely destroyed and/or dismantled.
That link I referenced in the previous post didn’t work;
http://www.plenglish.com/
Go to this one and read “Venezuela Denies being Main Drugs Route”.
Although I think the world bank and imf are treacherous organizations, something still erks me about Chavez. He’s tried to take the reigns of government forever and lost by a much wider margin than the Venezulan media led on. 51-49? More like 65-35, he just put those numbers out to save face. He’s looking for unlimited power and I’m immediately skeptical of those looking for unlimited power.
He’s giving some of the money back to the people while oil prices are high but at some point in this century a sustainable energy revolution will come. What happens when the money dries up? We’ll find out soon enough, won’t we?
Just because some socialist throws out a couple bones, don’t act like dogs and pant at his side. Socialist, capitalist, fascist, fuedalist, the bottom line is absolute power corrupts absolutely.
But I do think he did the right thing by getting rid of the world bank and imf. Those cartels are designed to loot countries of their wealth. F’em.
“Just because some socialist throws out a couple bones, don’t act like dogs and pant at his side. Socialist, capitalist, fascist, feudalist, the bottom line is absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
cpotts18, Chavez is just the tip of the iceberg. Indigenous culture runs deep and is more suited to a socialist government because of it’s emphasis on cooperation, respect, and reciprocity. The increased sustainability of Indigenous values in today’s world makes sense. Imperialism and Colonialism are unsustainable beliefs in the 21st Century. America is rotting from within and needs to keep it’s nose at home.
cpotts said: He’s tried to take the reigns of government forever and lost by a much wider margin than the Venezulan media led on.
Interesting. The only reason we have term limits on the Prez is because the Repubs were afraid the Dems would find another Roosevelt. Turned out they shot themselves in the foot as both Eisenhower and Raygun would have been re-elected every year if they had wanted to run that often…
And of course, our illustrious Congress is re-elected year after year - thieving and debauchery doesn’t seem to cost a well-entrenched incumbent much support!
Too bad our pols don’t copy Chavez and educate the populace, provide health care, and affordable heating, and food to the working class. It would piss off the ‘Capitalistic Bastards’ but that may be the whole point anyway!
Talk about some mixed emotions! Wow. My wife and I spent five years looking for a place outside the US. Long story short, we settled on Dominica, and bought a home there last July. We wanted a place “someplace else.” We hope to spend at least half years there as soon as I can afford to leave my “day job.” I am deeply concerned about the US, and even if a Dem is elected, see none of them offering any reversal to the Empire, and its more and more evident decline, that the US has become.
Dominica sells an image of the “Nature Island” and it very much is. One reason we bought there is we can very nearly live off our land. We just fell in love with Dominica when we hit the ground. And we found a house that just seemed to have been waiting for us.
At the same time Dominica is going full bore building an oil refinery funded by Chavez’s Petro Caribe.
All the associated problems that come with it, and it appears to be being built without any sort of public referendum. It appears that just by action, Prime Minister Skerritt, who seems to be very good in so many ways, has moved this forward. The refinery is 180 degrees out with the idea of Dominica being a “nature island”. Lots of people are very upset, but nothing seems able to be done.
And even bringing hydro-power to Dominica is a mixed blessing at best. Dams and “Nature island” do not mix well. And not just the image, but the reality of maintaining the last tropical island rainforest in the world intact should be a goal worth pursuing. Dominica is a legacy for the future, for its own generations to come. Soufriere Bay is an underwater World heritage site. It’s at risk with a refinery a few miles up the coast. Spills are inevitable. Coral bleaching is already occurring, and the refinery will also raise localized water temperatures.
In spite of its image, Dominica chooses to support Japan’s demands for whaling for a “few pieces of silver.” How can a nature island, that thrives off of eco-toruists coming to see whales, dive, snorkel, kayak and hike also support whaling for the crumbs Japan drops on the table? Anyone who believes that a small nation can enter paternership with a larger nation is deluded. In the end, the big nations (and I sadly wonder if Venezuela is also in this league, at least compared to Dominica) make deals that benefit themselves.
This is the conundrum, and I see it as a matter of education: An oil refinery or dams go in so Dominica can be more “modern,” “create jobs,” “create revenue” maybe even lower local gas prices, hey we’re refining the stuff right here. That is the key disconnect. Quality of life has nothing to do with being like the USA. The very best thing Dominicans could do would be work to resolve their social and poverty issues in a non-Western way. I don’t know what that answer is, but it MUST exist (otherwise, to hell with it all!). (And Communism is no better at this.)
How can another path be found? Reduce the number of homeless beggars in downtown Roseau, improve educational access, maintain a sustainable and decent quality of life, but not get sucked into the life destroying “solutions” offered by things like “modern development,” whoever the holder of the carrot maybe?
And, what is the deal with Mr Chavez, like his predecessors, claiming that Aves Island off of Dominica as Venezuelan territory? Because if Aves Island is Venezuelan territory, then yikes, so, could be Dominica in such a view of how territorial boundaries are drawn around land masses.
Will Dominica be a partner with Venezuela, or is Chavez going to wind up just a smaller “Big Brother” than the US? (Please “say it ain’t so, Joe!”) I have been following Mr Chavez for quite some time, and on the whole I’m very positively impressed. I love his resistance to the modern US Empire. And then these tidbits come to surface that make me worry all over again. I want to travel to Venezuela, I’m very enthusastic about reports from others, but it seems all is not as straighforward as one might wish.
I really, really, want Dominica to be smart about its future, I really, really want Chavez to be a good guy, but wow, right now, I must wonder. I love our place in Dominica, still see it as better than what is going on here in the US, but the idea that Dominica could be a true safe haven, a place where I might even be able to bring my skills and talents to something life sustaining. But seeing some of the things Chavez is doing, and some of the choices Dominica is making, leaves me feeling pretty skeptical.
Daniel Jordan, PhD
International University for Graduate Studies
St Kitts & Nevis
PS: I posted photos of Dominica and our place for fun on a freebie web site:
http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?go=drdanj
Doom n Gloom I understand indigenous culture quite well. I also don’t think you’ve ever been too Caracass. Let’s just say not everyone reflects your perceptions of uptopian Venezualan indigenous culture. My point is that a dictator is a dictator, I’m skeptical of anyone who tries to take in absolute power.
xntrk writes “Interesting. The only reason we have term limits on the Prez is because the Repubs were afraid the Dems would find another Roosevelt. Turned out they shot themselves in the foot as both Eisenhower and Raygun would have been re-elected every year if they had wanted to run that often…”
well first of all, FDR was not the perfect president you all make him out to be. He gave you social security but stole all your gold and “reformed” your banks. He screwed us as much as the next one. But that’s another issue. Term limits are a good idea even if those who came up with it had bad intentions. It had good unintended consequences. I don’t want a goddamn king.
then xntrk wrties “Too bad our pols don’t copy Chavez and educate the populace, provide health care, and affordable heating, and food to the working class. It would piss off the ‘Capitalistic Bastards’ but that may be the whole point anyway!”
I got a reality check for ya, despite the conservatives’ efforts over the last 25 years, our educational system is actually better than Venezuala. And the health care is not top notch or convinent.
I think Chavez has done alot of good for his country and his neighbors by paying off their IMF debts. But I don’t trust anyone who actively seeks absolute power. Please forgive me for being skeptical.
Cpotts - Seeking electoral approval to eliminate term limits does not in any rational mode of thinking equate to “actively seeking absolute power.” Also this statement, “He’s tried to take the reigns of government forever and lost by a much wider margin than the Venezulan media led on. 51-49? More like 65-35,” reveals an abmysmal lack of awareness of the Venezuelan media and the anti-Chavez people who own most of it. Newspapers and TV alike are full of anti-Chavez rants. I am sure that if the opposition media could have made such a claim, and in truth no less, they would have. If the opposition media wasn’t able to come up with these figures, then how did you, cpotts, manage to get them?
Term limits are the stupidest restriction because it takes away the right of the people to decide for themselves who it is that they want to govern them. The only reason that the crooked capitalist governments, and that means all of them, want term limits is so that they can continuously change their puppet spokespeople as they become odious to the people. The term limits are also for whenever the citizenry is outraged against any particular puppet leader they will have to start over from scratch learning the character of, and then hating, the next dummie. The term limits keep the citizenry on an emotional rollercoaster while the corporate governments continue unabated with their mostly evil programs that are designed to entrench their control over any given society.
Right, a cup of coffee to wake you up is good. Coca leaf in the morning: bad. I love these guys. Dare I hope. They are like three Super Powers, Super Amigos for the people! v El Diablo y DeadEyeDick.
Wow, I am impressed. I am going to share this with a friend who insists that Hugo is bad because he is like a dictator. I have always said: but look at what he does with his power he starts ventures like this that are what we need as a people to survive and thrive. Viva Hugo and all of his amigos and amigas. Medea, you do indeed rock!!!
Love and Peace
JMorgan
Good point DrDanJ.
All power has the potential to corrupt. Some of the worst things have happened in the name of doing good for the many. We must all be sober, to the extent that Mr Chavez is not just wealthy by his acquisitions, but that there is limited time for all of us as a species on this planet. The investments through the ALBA Bank, in a sustainable green life for all in the southern hemisphere, must begin promptly. One paradigm, must replace the other. Ultimately no body’s wealth will be in oil. That is a limited time deal , but pristine environments are rare and worth preserving at this rate.
Golly gee another commie plot to make the US look bad, the land of the free and the home of the big mac. More power to those who want to be free of this countries social and political dictatorship. The people who complain about Chavez being a dictator are just mouthing the words of the powerful.
Lets face it this nation is purely transactional, community and society means nothing, its self interest that counts and self interest that is promoted and has been swallowed by the majority, it has become America Inc. and guess what you are not a shareholder. You can vote for whoever but nothing of value changes the citizens are not shareholders iin America Inc.
C Potts: Chavez has never sought absolute power. Look at the Venezuelan constitution and you will see absolute power is impossible with it.