Whether Hugo Chavez was kidding or not, his silly and foolish statement about capitalism probably destroying life in Mars represents another not so funny irresponsible moment by the Venezuelan President. If he was kidding, he went on for too long, speculating whether this could have happened or not, when he talks to a public that tends to believe what he says. If he was serious, it is no surprise that an ignorant lieutenant so full of himself now wants to extend his creativity to science. Why not? He has innovated in so many fields by now, destroying the economy, trying unworkable ideas and spending money on his whims and mostly useless capricious ideas.
Even bad ideas are the subject of a nationwide address as amply covered by Daniel today. A country where running water was the future for all, now faces a step back into water delivery trucks, with the Government as the provider of tanks and water. Chavez is truly leading Venezuela into a primitive society, that is as far as his limited mind and gigantic ego can take us. Only backwards seems to be his motto.
To make matters even worse, those surrounding him are as limited or as blinded by ideology as the Venezuelan President, which only reinforces problems. Cabinet members seldom have any experience in their responsibilities, let alone managerial experience. Look at Giordani and Merentes, out of place and out of their league in their respective, and very important, positions.
And it shows. If capitalists destroyed Mars, Chavez’s fuzzy socialist project will turn Venezuela into Venus, frozen in the past, run by ignorants and not hospitable for living.
And yes, for this blog, as for Daniel and CC, here is the video, impossible not to add it to twelve years of our foolish history under Hugo.
The Devil's Excrement 
March 25, 2011 at 4:08 am
María,
Here the places where our comandante-presidente had his Aló Presidente in 2008:
http://5700032790782320749-a-1802744773732722657-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/venezuelaeuropa/alo2008/alo2008b.gif?attachauth=ANoY7coQqjEch0ATcyORiWOghgTQMpbQE_n4Y0_ZGW1h3vGrNRPvAhXCRAYQ7Zh5oQ6NmXzDNJf_fhoMl8J38gI2QKZL7MENge3e9RQvBMElmpuwMaPIiqX8nhh7RTiOpafCkX-9jzFXHQ4vckyQv9F4wSiGNy_9hJBU0ueA04fDb3oCFnKGKkG7UOvGrLfglT7AvdzjcvqvaICW3FaM_MH5BitHgdSXfw%3D%3D&attredirects=1
The one for 2009 was similar, but now the municipios were a bit different. Only those very highly populated are revisited every year.
And this is the thing: Chávez goes to Monagas and says “porque los chaaaaaaaaaimas…Ustedes, descendientes de chaaaaimas. Saben que los chaimas eran socialistas? Y los kariña…saben que eso no es de kariño, sino de Caribe? Porque esos valerosos antepasados nuestros no se rindieron al Imperio.
Allí tenemos a Diosdado anotando datos de las comunidades kariñas. Anota, anota, Diosdado. Y Ustedes vigilen que anote todo Miren cómo la 4ta República dejó abandonados estos pozos petroleros…y los agricultores…Nosotros vamos a poner aquí un nuevo centro de…”
Now: if he goes to Falcón, he will talk about those Caquetío Indians…por eso es que son tan bonitas estas mujeres de Coro…miren a esa chica como se sonríe…pícaara” and then he will talk about how the Adecos of yore killed Zamora, the “only real revolutionary back then”…and then he will announce some new project there, something that will then be another failure…but it is not because of him but “because he doesn’t know”. If he were to go to Morón in my state I am sure he would talk about Andresote and his real revolution.
And so it goes.
Now: most of the history statements Chávez mentions are rubbish, with some parts that are indeed true. Still, that is more than what I imagine others saying. Other than Leopoldo, I don’t see many others going there and much less getting to know those people, their myths, their specific problems. Probably Capriles would do, but he can’t do it alone and we can’t wait until he can go on campaign. What “national” leaders are going to go there and show they know the area and they are NOT from that area?
Take this: the vast majority of the Venezuelan readers of these blogs grew up in Caracas, Maracaibo and Valencia. Those cities account for less than 30% of the Venezuelan population.
Gordo,
I think we need to be cautious about comparing historical periods, we can just detect some common patterns and see if some lessons can be learn, just some. Fascism was a given movement in Italy at a certain time. There are some common traits, but that’s it. There is the dirigism, the military obsession, the nationalism
and the portrayal of the nation as a victim.
Chavismo is most about Chávez, though. I would say Chavismo is a military-dominated myth-obssessed/supported fascistoid movement in a neo-feudal Caribbean petrostate.
Perhaps you could be interested in Caballero’s “Por qué no soy bolivariano”. He compares Chavismo above all to fascism there, but also makes some distinctions.
March 24, 2011 at 5:54 pm
Kepler,
I’m still thinking about “intolerance” as a political objective in governance as well as citizen uprisings. Do you think intolerance is what leads to fascism? Do you think Chavismo is a form of fascism?
March 24, 2011 at 3:34 pm
Sure, you can post it. Just to be fair: since then the municipio Páez in Northwest Zulia became Guajira. So: that should be grey now.
March 24, 2011 at 2:01 pm
Kepler,
Great comments, specially this one:
“Imagine if the top 5 of UNT, PJ, Causa R (well, the top 1 there) and (cough, cough) COPEI and AD and PODEMOS started to visit places outside Caracas-Northern Valencia-posh-middle-class Maracaibo.”
I think they are going to be forced to do this…I only hope that the potential candidate will be elected soon and people unified not around the man/woman candidate but around I good program. Also the next president and his/her team will have an HUGE job ahead…and I just hope that Venezuelans do not expect that in 2-3 years things will get better because they will not, even if everybody is willing to move they asses and work extremely hard.
I was also born in a special period and I consider very lucky about this! About your map is great can I posted in my facebook?. I also hate this glorification of Bolivar et al.! If we just keep moving forward!
March 24, 2011 at 11:26 am
María,
Yes, that’s something. Still: it is Leopoldo’s party, it is too much about him only. What’s the ideological or -never mind ideology- the programmatic difference between VP and AD and UNT? What would happen if Leopoldo is hit by a guacharaca falling dead from the skies?
The MUD is selecting common candidates but still not more than that. That is almost as if we were in a coalition in Britain or Germany, not in a dictatorship.
We are acting a bit better than Belorussian opposition, which don’t even have one candidate, but not much. That was not how the Poles or Germans acted in the eighties and they had it easier, actually, as they were not in a petrodollar state and they had a better idea about what was going on on the other side than most Venezuelans do.
Right now we have lots of groups with different protocaudillos and
they never talk about their ideologies because they do not want to put off people (or perhaps because they really have no ideology) and what is worse, they don’t talk about their projects (perhaps fearing the PSUV would steal their ideas) and they don’t share resources because they want to be the new Bolívar. No one but Leopoldo has been going to “the middle of nowhere” because no one thinks that should be done by anyone but the “Annointed”. Geez, I see several top politicians from the Green party, from the SPD and from the CDU travelling through Germany all the time. OK, Germany is just a third of Venezuela and traveling in Venezuela IS an odyssey. Still, this feudal mentality of ‘de aquí no me muevo, carajo, esta es mi base y solo me sacrifico si me dan la presidencia’ is not good.
Imagine if the top 5 of UNT, PJ, Causa R (well, the top 1 there) and (cough, cough) COPEI and AD and PODEMOS started to visit places outside Caracas-Northern Valencia-posh-middle-class Maracaibo.
We are talking about, say, 15 people with some support. Each one visits this year 10 other urban centers. That’s 150 urban centres at least in 2011.
I have plotted the Aló Presidentes for one year on an animated map. Chávez is very cleverly going across the whole nation based on population distribution. Our leaders think really that 95% of urban population means 95% of the population lives in Caracas, el resto es monte y culebras.
Military:
I wrote one year ago a post about Venezuela’s military infatuation. I used to think when I was a child that we were the most democratic country in Latin America. But then I was born just in a very special period.
I made this map:
This is just a detail, but it shows our attitude. You won’t see that in the States even with a Washington State and a Washington DC or in Colombia with a Santander.
The municipios in dark blue and cyan are called after Bolívar (Libertador or Bolívar). Those in red are called after a caudillo from the Independence time. The municipios in yellow are called after a military born after the independence. As far as I know only one municipio has changed name: Paez in Zulia. It was Páez until Chávez decided it should not. Now it is Guajira. Actually, for once I agree with Chávez, although I don’t think it should be up to any one person to decide that. We should have municipios named after Spanish or Indian toponyms. This obsession with some “caudillo”, with “ese hombre, caraaaajo”, is just sick.
So much we have lots of Municipios Libertador and Bolívar.
One of the things the PSUV thugs say about us is that “estamos insultando el nombre de Bolívar” and they really mean it and they get into trance. We should teach people to break the obsession with all those military figures and any caudillo, civil or military.
Venezuela was liberated by hundreds of thousands of people. Most of them died well before 1830.
Now we should be working towards a national network that is built upon ideas and teams. Even if one group says they have ideology X and the other have ideology Y, they need to work together.
March 24, 2011 at 7:43 am
I hope opposition take note of Kepler, MO and Maria Gonzalez’s comments.
March 24, 2011 at 7:33 am
No Maria, I said it. I find it frustrating that people are waiting for the 2012 election so sure that they will win, like they did in 2004 and even last Fall.Chavez is planning and plotting every minute while that is our only strategy. We dont protest because we got burned in 2002 by the leadership. I still think protests do something, but it will be really hard to get them going.
March 24, 2011 at 5:22 am
Kepler,
Maybe this waiting for elections is a manifestation of the ” I do not move my ass” tradition among us…wait for another paternalistic government to solve the problems instead of me. It is true that our history has been violent, and maybe I was just thinking more about the last 50 years.
About your comment: “Unless we go to those areas (and I don’t mean every part of Apure, not every municipio in Amazonas, but I do mean every one in Carabobo, Guárico, Cojedes, Zulia, Miranda and Monagas, for instance), we won’t have enough support.”
You are 100% correct! but I think that trend is reversing very slowly if you think about the” redes populares” of Voluntad Popular…however that has to be translated to presence in those areas during the election.
March 24, 2011 at 4:02 am
Gordo,
I see your point now. I don’t think something like the US independence will happen anywhere on Earth again. I do think we can learn from any movement around the world. But above all, we still need to learn Venezuela’s real socio-economic history, its fucked up sense of nationality, the day-to-day world of the AVERAGE Venezuelan and his motivations, what he or she knows or thinks to know about the world.
I think one of the problems in Venezuela has been that those who do care for a change and are at the top of the movements are not well connected with the broader masses, do not know the national identity issues many Venezuelans do have (rollo histórico increíble) and try to use solutions that won’t work in Venezuela, like what the people were doing in Serbia or Georgia. That has improved a bit, but not enough.
People still fail to see the geopolitics of Venezuela, Venezuela’s population distribution and how that works to favour Chávez. Unless we go to those areas (and I don’t mean every part of Apure, not every municipio in Amazonas, but I do mean every one in Carabobo, Guárico, Cojedes, Zulia, Miranda and Monagas, for instance), we won’t have enough support.
For one thing is for sure: Chavismo will cheat and cheat and cheat. We need them to cheat so much that their cheating is no longer tolerated by anyone.
We have very different history from what Libyans have, our lack of memory means the little democratic tradition we had has changed less the minds of people than we thought.
Maria: we certainly have more democratic traditions than Libyans, but still: Venezuela has probably always been the most military-obsessed country in South America and that since its independence. The 58-98 period was THE exception, most others had less milicos in power before that. Venezuelans did not take part in wars against neighbours but their bloody Bolivar obsession and the way the “liberators” controlled the country after independence saw to it that we never developed much of a civil society. It has always been a feudal one.
Now it is a urban-feudal petrosociety. And as Libyans, most Venezuelans seem to move their asses only when they actually see their life standards, their own ones, are going down. They won’t move their asses even if they have the hunch their standard of living WILL worsen later on.
For them it’s the hic et nun, the here and now.
March 24, 2011 at 3:06 am
Miguel I never said that elections are fair in Venezuela, but most of the people seem to be waiting for 2012. My comment was focusing on the “election culture” in Venezuela, which is strong compare with the middle east countries. Maybe if the elections were not so close the situation will be different.
March 23, 2011 at 10:30 pm
Expanding on Ira”s comment Chavez is going to pass out the guns just like Gaddafy did and without reason. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110323/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_venezuela_militias First the government of Colombia must be going balistic as a lot of these weapons will get lost as does everything else. Second, to imagine that these are all going to just loyal Bolivarians is crazy. There are all sorts of communists, anarchists, nationalists and just plain old gangsters lined up for these freebies. Not to mention that if you have a weapon someone will kill you for it. I fail to see him or anyone else winning if this gets out of control
March 23, 2011 at 8:49 pm
Don’t feed the troll…
March 23, 2011 at 8:34 pm
Hey Pygmalion where are you? I’d love to see you defend this story.
March 23, 2011 at 6:27 pm
Kepler,
Yes, it is more complicated. However, the point I am proposing here is that a that the American revolution may have been an outcome of a rare combination of circumstances that are unlikely to happen again.
I am thinking that the American revolution which was really a war of independence spear-headed by an educated landed class that needed the working class to fight. That combination is nothing like what we are seeing now. For one thing, the ruling government is not across the ocean far away from a group of colonies in revolt. Libyans are facing a much bigger battle. It makes everything so much more unlikely to get a good outcome.
March 23, 2011 at 6:02 pm
!. Are elections fair in Venezuela? I dont think so. I think there will be tricks and cheating and maybe, Chavez will pull his hat off the hat and decided to have instead a Constituent Assembly that will postpone the election.
2. You have to pay attention to hunger strikes. The students have discovered they are effective. The Government moks them, but when it realized in the earlier one it was for real, it complied. The same thing is happening now. If the students stay on strike, the Government will yield.
March 23, 2011 at 5:04 pm
I am wondering also about comment number 2 of Maria Gonzalez, I see in the news lot of hunger strikes, looks like some kind of sudden exaggeration of this kind of protest. I would like to read the view of MO and some views from commentators that see this in site in Venezuela.
Is the opposition looking to win 2012 election with a large chain of hunger strikes?
March 23, 2011 at 4:52 pm
Gordo,
The social conditions in the United States at the start of the independence war (which was basically of the US-born upper class)
were completely different from Britain or France (where the actual revolution took place).
For one, land ownership was way way way different, for obvious reasons: the native Americans had been displaced, it was a matter of getting one group with regional interest to get rid of interference from outside.
France was not like that.
The US was in obvious expansion. France was a boiling kettle.
Population density in the Colonies was just a fraction what it was in Britain and much less of what it was in France. France was highly into debt, among other things as the king had spent huge amounts of money in promoting the independence of the British colonies.
Britain went through a rather peaceful revolution earlier on. I think it is more interesting to ask why France and Britain evolved so differently. Those countries had more comparable conditions.
By the way: the demographics of France were also pretty different.
It was the third most population nation on Earth back then, having gone through one of the most rapid population increases in the previous decades that any other country had seen in those times.
There are quite a lot of factors you do not get shown in school books from one country alone.
The “uniqueness” of any one country becomes less so once one gets a broader picture.
March 23, 2011 at 4:09 pm
Two comments:
1. There is a big differences between Egypt/Libya and Venezuela…IN Venezuela people still believe that will be an election soon. Venezuelans have a long tradition to use the “voto castigo”…so the majority is just hoping and waiting. While in Egypt and Libya, the elections has been always win by only one guy or no elections have taking place for 40 years!…Now if the elections in Venezuela are delayed I think the situation can turned ugly very soon.
2. Do you think that will be better to pay attention to the several hungry strikes (students, workers and nurses) that are currently happening in Venezuela?
I would love to hear your comments
March 23, 2011 at 2:19 pm
I just want to say that what is happening all over the globe might be a struggle between “tolerance” and “intolerance.” When the ruling government is “intolerant” the repressed segment of the public rises up. But there are also movements of “intolerance” like Muslim extremists, nationalist movements, etc. that rise up against tolerant governments. Al-Qaeda 9-11 attack was probably an attack against tolerance.
Chavez’s intolerance to capitalism is one problem, and there are intolerant segments within the Egyptian revolution that could hijack the future government. The overthrow of the Shaw of Iran was an alliance of communist as well as religious segments in the beginning until the communists were thrown out later on.
The American Revolution was highly tolerant, maybe because the early settlers were refugees from European intolerance. The designers of the US Constitution were very skeptical of government, and they created controls to keep government out of people’s personal lives.
However, even with the constitutional limitations that try to limit the powers of government, ideological fanatics still try to use government to impose their beliefs on everyone else.
March 23, 2011 at 1:37 pm
I think Chavez is jealous! He must know by now that socialists can’t run businesses as well as capitalists. So, if you can’t beat them, then you trash them! This is the mentality of a bully.
Years ago, wasn’t Chavez was perhaps a little more tolerant of capitalists? I suspect that his inability to demonstrate the economic superiority of socialism has forced him to use his political and military superiority instead.
March 23, 2011 at 1:37 pm
Pol47:
I hate to agree with you on your sentiments, but I guess I have to.
I read this very encouraging article about the 2012 elections:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110323/wl_nm/us_venezuela_opposition_1
And then I read this sentence in it:
“Single-minded in preparing for the election, they [the opposition] have no plans to whip up the kind of street protests and military unrest now rocking the Middle East.”
Are they fucking nuts? NOW is the time to accelerate the protests, way BEFORE the campaign for 2012. Half of the Middle East plus parts of Africa is revolting (and change being made because of it), and the VZ opposition intends to plan just for an election that will be stolen from them anyway?
WHY THE HELL DO YOU THINK CHAVEZ JUST USED HIS DECREE POWERS TO DISTRIBUTE WEAPONS TO 90-YEAR-OLD GRANDMOTHERS!? (Which as we all know, is to deal with the results of the flooding, right?)
Get it through your heads, guys. And Lopez–step up to the plate already. You’re the only guy capable of delivering the message to the world:
Regardless of the results of the 2012 elections–stolen or opposition victory–Chavez isn’t leaving.
So put the fucking Polar and Cacique down and get out there and force the change that VZ needs.
March 23, 2011 at 12:44 pm
Chavez is watching Libya very carefully. Chavez turn is coming. Hopefully any attacks on Venezuelan civilians will also be answered by an international response.
Chavez is hoping the Castro brothers will still be alive to help him next year.
March 23, 2011 at 11:24 am
PQP!! esto es el colmo… seguro que fue un momento de inspiracion de los que solo este colega puede tener despues de comer un gran plato de habas y arvejas!
que pobreza!!!!!
March 23, 2011 at 11:19 am
And do not forget now Syria, You really need balls to protest in Syria.
Not all Venezuelans were sits some pay their share of protest and victims, like in Altamira Square and in 2003 Absent of Power (puente Llaguno).
March 23, 2011 at 11:02 am
As freedom spreads for the people of Tunisia, Egypt and other countries what does the people of Venezuela do but sit on their ass and do nothing but whin and hope that the elections of 2012 will change things.What a bunch of ignorant fools the people of Venezuela have become.
Just like Tunisia, Egypt and Libya when the people decide to help themselves in gaining freedom and human rights; others through out the world will also help in acheving those goals.
But in the most part this is to much to ask of the Venezuela people. It is more important to sit back and have a drink or drink a Polar while thier country goes down the tubes.
What a waste.
March 23, 2011 at 9:19 am
You mean, like the real Venus?
The closest there is to christian descriptions of Hell itself, on a planetary surface?
Nah, he wishes…
March 23, 2011 at 9:16 am
The answer to my questions are: even when he is hallucinating he gets the things wrong.
March 23, 2011 at 8:32 am
The World’s shortest book- Honest Intelligent statements of Hugo Chavez.
March 23, 2011 at 8:26 am
I have various questions:
If capitalism destroys Mars, Why is it called red planet?
Does Capitalism turn red all they touch?
The work of turn in red the things, should be a work of communism?
March 23, 2011 at 8:12 am
This nincompoop is definitely an Annunaki from planet Nibiru.
March 23, 2011 at 8:10 am
Bloody Mary: “09/11/02 attack”? I think you mean 09/11/01.
March 23, 2011 at 6:10 am
So he makes a foolish comment while the AN is granting him approval to actually arm the militias. The timing is suspect considering what’s going in Libya. Even WSJ picked up the Mars idiocy. Had to read WaPo to find out about the militia.
http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=0&pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=venezuela
March 23, 2011 at 3:34 am
No one should be in charge of anything if they have never had to make payroll or a production deadline. That would apply to too many world “leaders” and bureaucrats. Proven competence should be the basic qualification for any public office or position of responsibility, not a popularity contest.
March 23, 2011 at 12:02 am
The worst part is that, when all is said and done, this probably won’t even make it to the top 10 of the stupidest things he has said or done.
March 22, 2011 at 10:47 pm
He also supported others comnspiracy theories like the 09/11/02 attack (it was Bush’s plant), that the landing in the moon was a hoax, and is very likely that Bolivar’s power would be received by him through a kind of secret rite. But note that he is very consequent about what he does…. he loves to speculate, and he doesn’t hide this. This is why there are no plans using analysis… only projects based on especulation…. After twelve years. He is the first who doesn’t believe he is still in power. So, this is way he takes very serious a potential attack from a foreign country or subversion plans.
March 22, 2011 at 10:36 pm
The thing is, he is speaking so PERFECTLY to his audience (base). You really have to grasp this point.
He doesn’t want a developed VZ, he wants unlimited power and control. He is following Castro’s playbook, and it’s not only working, he’s thriving. I don’t mean to imply that he has popular support. I mean to imply that he is firmly entrenched. And he is.
March 22, 2011 at 10:25 pm
you all must be so proud….ok…last time i offered $5 to go buy a set of balls and take him out….that didnt work so here is $10….what are you people waiting on?
March 22, 2011 at 10:16 pm
I’m beggining to think Chavez believes that “El silbon” was the main cause of kids not going to school in the llanos on the 80s.
Probably a hologram caused by imperialists and “project bluebeam”
March 22, 2011 at 9:40 pm
Hugo Chavez is from Uranis.
He should consult US Rep Shiela Jackson-Lee about the flags the astronauts left on Mars. lol
March 22, 2011 at 9:37 pm
Funny, I could swear that I just saw a report on TV about how fast groundwater levels are falling in Northern China.
Reuters loved his theory. And I needed my weekly laugh from Hugo.
March 22, 2011 at 9:29 pm
He’s so full of shit, one feels compelled to wear bacteriological suits to make a comment about his idiocy. But the notion that capitalism is the main culprit in the threat to water resources is a travesty. In a democracy people can file grievances and the openness of the public debate exposes those at fault. Recently, we saw the reaction to the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the contrast with the silence imposed from above concerning the spill in Lake Maracaibo. Regarding grand-scale destruction of water resources nothing compares to the tragedy of the Aral sea, an ecological disaster driven by the Politburo of the Soviet Communist Party.
http://www.orexca.com/aral_sea.shtml
This man is overdue to meet his maker. We need to hasten that encounter.