Escapism and Hugo Chavez

August 14, 2003

Hugo Chavez has been very clever in manipulating the Venezuelan political system, but when he loses or can’t figure out how to do something, he has always resorted to a peculiar form of escapism in which he simply ignores issues. Case in point is his almost total silence on the recall referendum that only a year ago he was hailing as the ultimate form of democracy or his lack of interest in economic matters because he simply can’t understand them. But never one for the small gesture, he arrived today in Paraguay and showed this form of escapism by proposing a different type of impossible referendum: A referendum in all Latin American countries to approve a moratorium on the external debt of all the countries for a period of five years. He talked about 100 million people backing the proposal giving them an enormous power to negotiate with the very powerful. Curious isn’t it? millions of Venezuelans want a referendum but the very powerful Hugo Chavez ignores it or tries to block it in all instances, but then he goes on a tangent with such a grandiose and obviously impractical proposal. I wonder what all the Presidents of the various Latin American countries present are thinking about the proposal?

This entry was posted on August 14, 2003 at 8:24 pm and is filed under Venezuela.

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