ralkm:
ameliajones:
socialdullard:
eternaldragons:
socialdullard:
eternaldragons:
socialdullard:
Communist dictator???
Google is your friend…
A Socialist who used taxation, eminent domain, nationalisation, education, media and strong arming to redistribute wealth for the poor isn’t a communist. (Frankly no leader in history ever has been)
He was fairly elected 4 times. He Lost a referendum that would have extended his Presidency indefinitely, and didn’t contest it.
He wasn’t perfect, but he changed his country greatly and to some extent for the better. He deserves the respect of World leaders.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
AHAHAHAHHAHAHAA
……he helped the country…HAHAHAHAHA
I’m laughing at this
Wow… Just wow….
So free health care for everyone isn’t helping a country?
Lifting the poor our of poverty isn’t helping them?
Having almost completely eliminated illiteracy isn’t helping?
Please enlighten me as to what is helping by your definition?
He was not perfect, but he deserves respect for what he achieved, but not all of the means by which he achieved them.
He didn’t finish anything, they were all projects lefts after a while, or they were close because they didn’t give the money
The doctors were terrible, people actually ended up worst than before because they weren’t “real” doctors or they were from Cuba
The program that “helped graduate for a career” were drop after a few years; and he was trying to close private Catholics/Religious schools, the only ones that ACTUALLY were good because public schools were terrible, and even worse during all these 14 years
He was terrible, he gave weapons to the ones who follows him, he close almost half of the nationals companies or the one he took, they ended up close or the workers weren’t able to even make it work properly
because yes, the companies he took, all the workers were fired
and that’s NOTHING too all he did to the country, there is the problem with the gerrilla, the taxes, the control of the media, the food, everything is control in Venezuela, you can’t find food, medicine, because he controls who have the dollars to buy supplies of everything
People get kill everywhere for a piece of bread or a cheap cellphone, you can’t do anything, they were trying to block the internet and track your calls
And about all those elections that he “won” were not true, his electronic election system it’s a trick, AND he have the The National Electoral Council (CNE) on his side, same goes to almost all the judges, the congress, he control all the powers
He will pass to the history books like the worst president that ever ruled the country, MY country
To the international view it might be seen as “good” but that’s because the media (tv/radio/press) can’t publish anything that speak of him in a bad way, because yes, the government controls that too
I hope this BIG post made you understand Venezuela a little bit, but I’m tired already even if I’m missing a lot
and if is not clear enough, all of this is from a Venezuelan who have seen that demon for 14 years destroying her dear country
His adoring fans on the streets look pretty healthy and passionate.
I may not be able to get the full picture but I don’t view him as a saint.
And the idea of Cuban doctors being bad seems rather laughable, they’re some of the best in the world.
International election monitors were on the ground, certainly at the most recent election and many of them agreed it was fair. Including many respected left wing politicians from the UK that I follow on Twitter that did not always sing his praises.
I feel somewhat sad for you, you have been on the losing side of these reforms and redistributions, but you also are vehemently entrenched in Ideologies that reject such gestures as criminal or dictatorial acts. He was elected fairly, he is now dead, and in a democracy you will have an opportunity in the coming weeks to seek a more moderated form of the revolution he sought.
Yeah some people liked him. Mostly the poor who wanted things being handed to them instead of learning how to actually get out of poverty and the ones being benefited by him, obviously. I mean, some people liked Hitlet too and followed. Did that make him less of an assasin? lol
The last election was won “fairly”, they didn’t cheat, that’s true. He just did something called Operación Morrocoy which means they were ON PURPOSE doing the whole process as slow as possible to annoy voters and make them leave. They went to the poor people and told them that if they didn’t vote AND for him, they’d take away their homes and all of the privileges they’ve been given. Oh that was so FAIR, right?? Fair election, yes.
I don’t like the tone you’re using with a fellow venezuelan, to be honest, and you’re naive and clueless if you think that “oh now he’s dead and everything will be better and democratic and nothing’s going at the country”. Everyone’s SCARED right now because they don’t know what’s going to happen and how are the elections going to turn out. Criminality is NOT ANY BETTER, too. So please stop talking as if you knew what you’re talking about, please and thank you.
OK. WOW. JUST… I MEAN.
KINDLY, SHUT THE FUCK UP.
Facts, dude. Facts. You can’t understand the real situation of a country if you haven’t been in said country. Because let me tell you something, when the media is State-controlled, you are not going to listen to many bad stuff, will you?
Hi. Nice to meet you, my name is Venuska, I’m 25 and I’ve lived all my life in one of the low class/poor neighbourhoods of Caracas. Chavez was my president for 15 of those years, so I think I know what I’m talking about.
Venezuela lives of oil. It’s what we do, and filling your car’s tank is actually cheaper than a bottle of water. In these years, oil prices reached its maximum ever, didn’t they? Us, as an oil country, got A FUCKING LOT of money for that, or at least we should. We didn’t. The government became SO FUCKING CORRUPTED the money never reached the people. Chavez was always offering new schools, hospitals, universities. The schools were poorly built, the teachers weren’t paid, the hospitals have been without changes, the universities are now using the buildings that used to belong to important and productive companies. Every single day there was some kind of protest of the people asking for the things they weree promised, EVERY DAY.
They talk about food sovereignty. Guess what? Having fertile lands, 90% of the food we eat comes from Argentina, Brazil or Nicaragua, because the fields that were expropriated by the Government are now useless. Is that sovereignty? Depending on other people to eat? And that’s when you find something in the market. Getting butter, milk, flour, meat or chicken is a miracle these days.
The health care system. Let me tell you a nice story here. My mom has a kidney disease. She had to enter the system because neither her nor I have a job (we’ll talk about that point later) and she NEEDS the doctors. Funny thing is, there is only one hospital that can attend her, and really, they can’t do shit. There are no equipments, no medicines and frankly, no doctors because they are not payed what they deserve. The public health care system is failing, and people would rather spend millions of bolivares in a private clinic than going to a hospital.
UNEMPLOYMENT. THERE ARE NO JOBS. The companies are afraid because of the ever changing employment laws and they aren’t hiring anyone, no matter if you are a undergraduate from one of the best universities there are here.
VENEZUELANS ARE LEAVING. There are more than a million Venezuelans out there, running away from a country with no options for their future. My sister had to, my friends, my teachers, their families. Is that fair? Every weekend, there are more than 200 violent deaths, EVERY WEEKEND, because the authorities do nothing to prevent it. Hell, they armed Colombian guerrilla groups and some urban groups like the Tupamaros and the Colectivo La Piedrita, civilians armed with better weapons than the army itself. What for? To “defend the Revolution” . Here, your life is worth a cellphone, or a pair of sneakers, or maybe you were just trying to get home when some motherfucker was bored and decided to shoot the first thing that passed by him. I was shot for my bag, and I almost didn’t make it, and what did the police about it? NOTHING.
“But hey, the people loved him”. Sure, they did, but not all of the people and having people loving him didn’t make him a good person or a good president. Half of the country voted against him this past October, HALF, and it is known to everyone and their moms that all the elections are fixed here. He won the first time, yup he did, because people wanted a change, but on the short and long term, this hasn’t been a good change.
I respect your right to have an opinion, but not the way you are playing down the opinions of those of us who live here and have to endure the situation EVERY FUCKING DAY. If you want to come to Venezuela and see the situation for yourself, be my guest. No, really, I’ll give you my address and you can come here and I’ll gladly be your guide to everything Caracas and Venezuela have to offer.
Chavez was a dictator. And you can think whatever you want to think, but that won’t change who he was to us.
And we are scared, because from now on, things will get even more dangerous.
In case ralkm’s reply is not enough for you, allow me to throw some numbers and facts around. Take a seat (no, seriously, this is a very long post, you better be sitting down). And I took the time to write a +4,000 word post, twice, because tumblr crashed before I could publish it the first time around, so please, DO take a seat.
- Inflation:
Don’t be fooled: this government has been kept in power by the unprecedented high prices of oil. We have never, EVER had more money coming in. When he took office the price of oil was $9.30, in 2008 it reached $126.33. So you would expect, then, that the inflation rate would go down, right? FLASE. Every year the inflation rate was no lower than 30%. This year was 46%. Remember what ralkm said about having 90% of our food imported? Yeah, it doesn’t stop there, we import 80% of our GOODS. So, what does that translate into? That overnight everything, that includes FOOD and MEDICINE, doubled or tripled; or what is the same, your money was worth half its value. Every year, more than once. Oh, and btw: a minimum wage is not even enough to purchase basic monthly food supplies (both are numbers provided by the government) let alone medicine or paying rent (more on that later). But let’s not stop there:
- CADIVI
So hey, every Venezuelan should have access to foreign currency, right? Well…. But if not everyone can afford it, let’s subsidize it and make it available for everyone! So (and this is an example with round numbers, the reality is much, much worse) if $1 = 10 bolivares in the international market, then the government will make it $1 = 5 bolivares for the Venezuelan citizen and pay for the rest. That’s fantastic, right? Yeah, except for the conditions and consequences: 1) the government is not giving away that money for free, you still have to pay this (subsidized) exchange rate with your own money, and to do this 2) you need to have a credit card to apply (and last time I checked credit was the bases for capitalism) to 3) stay on a limit of $2,500 per year per person if you’re going abroad (that means you need to include a copy of your flight ticket, which has to be round trip, in your paperwork) , or only $400 for internet shopping if you can’t afford to travel out. 4) Because this limit is far from enough, it has generated a black market in which $1 = 15 or 20 bolivares.
And because the government is subsidizing foreign currency, they get to decide when to up the prices. Which means that companies (remember: 80% imports) need to charge even more than black market price in case there’s a devaluation overnight. Let’s try an example (mind you, this happened to me): a dress in Spain was worth €12, add the 30% export tax and the price comes to €16 aprox. With the exchange rate at the time, it should have cost between 200 bolivares (subsidized price) and 320 bolivares (black market price). I saw the exact same dress in the exact same store in Venezuela. Can you imagine what the price tag was? +500 bolivares. Apply that to all the clothes, to all the food, to all the medicine, and to other first necessity items. Doesn’t seem such a great idea anymore, ey? Is this your idea of redistributing wealth?
Onwards!
- Literacy and Health
The information you have is inflated and wrong. Did you know that in 2001 (Chavez came into office in December 1999) literacy was up to 93,5% and that a year ago it was up to 95%? So…. A 2% rise in literacy with a remaining of 5% of the population still illiterate? That’s *hardly* “eradicating illiteracy”… even more so, why should I applaud a government for doing what they were supposed to do in the first place?
But ok, let’s look into Las Misiones, Chavez’s educational modules that went deep into the slums to provide educational services for people. Did you happen to know that most material provided was heavily stuffed with propaganda that praised Chavez’s “21st century revolution” giving a biased side of history and conveniently leaving out important information like economics or about how governmental institutions are supposed to work? Even the maths problems read like: “Pedrito’s mom went to the supermarket but didn’t have enough money, so she went to a Mercal (a government subsidized market) and found the things she needed for X bolivares, and in the supermarket it cost Y bolivares. How many bolivares did she save by going to Mercal?” (meanwhile, the Mercal doesn’t even have enough food and the shelves are constantly empty or just packed with whatever they have in overstock atm). But hey, last time I checked propaganda was not necessary to teach math. But what do I know?
Don’t get me wrong: these people had never had access to any kind of education in their life. This is, to say the least SOMETHING. But why isn’t the whole of the public education system being refurbished to accommodate every citizen? No, it’s best to put a bandaid (Las Misiones) on the wound. You think I’m exaggerating about the low quality of public school? I went to a public university (the best in Venezuela), I had classmates coming from everywhere in the country, from every section of society, public and private school. And the ones from public school said this to me again and again: in order to get into university, they had to take expensive private preparatory courses (we’re talking the bolivar equivalent to anywhere between $500 - $1000, which is a lot) in order to just be able to take the admission tests for the universities. That makes sense, right? Someone that goes to public school because they can’t afford private should definitely be able to pay for expensive education if they want to pursue more studies (which will be the only chance they get to improve their quality of living, if anything).
Oh, and while we’re at it, this “socialist” government also cares so much for the people that kids, younger than 12, are begging for food and money on the streets and live under the highway bridges of the capital. “Funny” enough, this was one of the first promises this regime made: to eradicate the problem of Los niños de la Calle, but they’re still there and they’re more than ever… you don’t have to look hard for them, they will come and find you. You know, the kids who should be at school? If you’re curious there’s a post about one of these kids, Eliécer, going around tumblr (you can find it here). I don’t know how good your Spanish is, but it’s worth the look (I even offer to translate it into English to whoever PMs me asking for the translation)
Now, let’s talk about this “universal healthcare” you are referring to. Mision Barrio Adentro were modules installed in the poorest slums, with the doors open to whoever needed medical assistance. Let’s take a look: most doctors on the guard were Cuban (why not give jobs to Venezuelan doctors goes beyond me) and openly admitted that they had 4 years of medical training. Last time I checked, you needed a lot more than that to become a doctor. Regardless, they were equipped and trained to give basic first aid which is not underappreciated given the high levels of public violence (more on this later). But if you have a worse problem (anything from a life threatening wound to a chronic illness) you have to be referred to a hospital (taxi’s on you, btw, they have no ambulances to give you the ride). And what happens when you get there? You might find doctors willing to help you, but they will need you to bring your own supplies: gauze, latex gloves, rubbing alcohol. Do you follow Venezuelans on twitter? Because several times a day you will have re-tweets of people asking for blood donations to be sent to a particular hospital to help a friend or a family member because, you guessed it, there’s none at the hospital. Oh, btw, how many times have you had someone coming up to you on the streets to beg you for money for medication or to pay hospital bills? Because people begging for money for medical assistance are more common than the homeless kids.
If you want proper medical assistance you have to go private, with an insurance. Remember how minimum wage was not enough to pay for food? Yeah, you better not have an accident or get a serious decease, then! Oh, did I mention that pensions for the elderly are even lower than minimum wage? And that they take every chance they have to not pay for it? My grandfather, who always turns in the required documents in time, has been fighting to get his pension back for 3 years now because there was an “error” in the system and he stopped getting any… and meanwhile, someone else was cashing the checks. HIS checks. Speaking of my grandfather, did you know that his life savings were vanishing because my grandmother got terribly ill and he had to pay for her medical bills as well as both their medications? Medications that would often be impossible to find because the government wasn’t importing any for “lack of funds” (lack of funds my ass, remember how high the oil prices were). And I’m not talking aspiring, I’m talking about the meds to keep you alive. But we got lucky: because he has Spanish papers it was cheaper for him to move back to Spain with my grandmother (leaving everything behind) and put her into actual public healthcare. Most of the Venezuelans are not so lucky.
While we’re at it, did you know that the professors (whether in public schools or las misiones) and doctors are pretty much working for free? I’ve met many who often would go 3 months (or more) without a pay check, and if they dare protests by not attending to work they were fired for being “antirevolutionary”
Not enough? Allow me to continue
- Insecurity
Ralkm painted a good picture on how violent it gets: she got shot over her bag. 200 violent deaths per weekend, it has TRIPPLED during this administration. What else? 12 million weapons in a territory with a 30 million population. Those weapons didn’t get into the territory by accident: this government approved setting Russian weapon factories in the territory. You know what’s worse, after the attempted coup Chavez went through in 2002, do you know how he retaliated? He stripped the police from carrying weapons. In turn, his Circulos Bolivarianos, are armed to the teeth and he often incites them to “reclaim the streets” resulting on hundreds of injured (oddly enough, the people getting the short end of the stick are the poorest people living on the slums… you know, the ones whose quality of life his regime is “improving”). Here, meet some delinquents from La Piedrita.
Are you taking a good look at the weapon they have? Good. MOVING ON.
Kidnappings: Caracas is one of the kidnapping capitals of the world. Five abductions take place in Caracas every day, and numbers are between 9,000 and 16,000 kidnappings annually. Best case scenario: the person is held for ransom for about 72 hours to give time for the family to come up with the money (dollars in cash, btw); if they contact the police of fail to pay, the victim is executed. The sums asked go anywhere between $5,000 and $50,000, depending on their economic background. How many people do you know that have gone through this? Because I have lost count. And they are no longer targeting “rich” (more on this later) families, but they’re moving down the social ladder because it’s just such a profitable “business”.
But hey, in a country where the police doesn’t even have the infrastructure to write a speeding ticket, what do you expect? And don’t get me wrong, the police are not saint eithers: because they have smaller arms they also have the power to terrorize the common citizen through corruption. You know what happens every day? Policemen stop your regular citizen for a misdemeanour (say, going through a red light) charge them a reasonable amount of money (say, $50-100) and keep that money to themselves. Funny anecdote: an uncle of mine was once stopped in a similar situation and he was fresh out of cash and had just come out of a Christmas party at the office. When the policeman pulled him over, he just rolled down the window and told him “sorry man! I just spent the last cash I had on me!” The policeman took a look inside and saw a bottle of wine he had been gifted at the party, and asked for that as a “payment” and let him go. And everyone “happy”.
But why?! You may ask. And the answer is: why not? There is absolutely no one to control or put an end to this! Which leads us to…
- Opposition, political power, propaganda, campaigning, elections
If this government has done something right is to successfully politicize every public institution. There is virtually no political opposition to the government, everything is chavist. EVERYTHING. In 2010 he made sure that the opposition didn’t get more than a third of seats in Parliament even if they got 51% of the popular vote. This means that NO ONE can call out on the government. As for “not contesting the referendum” he lost (like you said in one of your replies, socialdullard) you know what he did? He changed the constitution anyway.
Last time I checked, a democracy is supposed to respect the minority’s opinions and listen to the opposition in order to improve. What’s worse: the opposition is not a minority IT’S HALF THE COUNTRY (and if you’re still with me, then by now you should know that there’s not an accurate political representation for the whole of the Venezuelan people). During his regime he shot down more than 30 radio and television stations for criticizing his regime. 30, THIRTY. Active political advocates from the opposition were effectively silenced, imprisoned, harassed and even killed. Not because they committed a crime like, say, shooting a young girl to steal their bag, no, but because they publicly criticized the government. People died in hunger strikes while asking the government to revise the list of political prisoners. Students were shot and incarcerated for disagreeing with educational reforms in public television. Still need more?
Like ralkm explained, the CNE is completely chavist and has forged the elections time and time again. But let’s be NAÏVE and pretend they didn’t, fine. Did you know the government keeps track of people’s votes? Anecdote time! My dad worked for a company that was expropriated by the government in the IT department. Some of his co-workers decided to apply to work on Caracas’ Metro. Let me emphasize this: people on IT, working with computers…. Nothing political about this work whatsoever, ok? Before the interview even started, the functionary showed them a folder showing their voting records so far – they rejected them, without the right to interview, because they had previously voted against Chavez. But sure, the elections are fair and clean and there’s nothing to be scared of. Because that has never backfired in the history of Latin America, surely. No wait, it has (see also: desaparecidos).
Speaking of opposition, why then, does Chavez and Chavism keep such high voting rates? The funding for their campaign (on any level, from president to governor) comes from public funding. Remember what I said about the opposition being virtually null politically? Yeah, where are they gonna get the money, private funding? Oh no, wait, there’s exchange control to deal with. WOOPSIE DAISY. Result: Chavez’s face is EVERYWHERE, there’s not one single Venezuelan who doesn’t know who he is. But as for the opposition’s candidate? His face is barely seen outside the big cities. In Caracas, during the last electoral campaign, his face only appeared as far as the airport. Reminder: HALF THE POPULATION is from the opposition.
- The middle class as the enemy
You might be an oppressive, imperialist pig, bourgeois, and (above all) privileged if:
You earn more than minimum wage
You own or rent property (regardless of what kind of property) big enough for every member of your family to have their own room.
You own a car
Your kids have access to good education
You can afford food and basic services (running water, electricity) every month.
You can travel once a year
You can afford “luxury” goods and recreational services such as: a computer, a cellphone (doesn’t have to be fancy), clothes (we’re talking H&M, Forever 21, quality clothes here, for the international readers), go to the movies once every two months, among others.
If you fall into ANY of these categories you are THE ENEMY. This is the middle class that is targeted as victims of express kidnapping, this is the middle class that is constantly insulted and threatened by Chavez himself in his public speeches and that the chavists hold as the enemy to be fought against. Do you know what the worst part is? This Venezuelan middle class has living standards that are LOWER than the “First World” middle class (it’s actually closer to the first world’s lower classes). Just so you have an idea: when we fled the country 5 years ago, my mom gave us a similar quality of life by earning twice as much the Spanish Minimum Wage. For my dad to give us the same, he had to earn 6 times the Venezuelan minimum wage. That was 5 years ago, since then, it has doubled.
So seeming you are writing this online, you’re a bourgeois pig that doesn’t understand the struggles of the people. Because, that’s right, if the middle class is the enemy that excludes them from any official political discourse. They are not “the people”! Then WHO is the people? The “people” is whoever supports the government, those are the only ones with a chance to benefiting from it (emphasis on CHANCE TO, as being supportive on the government doesn’t mean you actually get the aids you need). And do you know who is now the Venezuelan economic elite? That’s right: government officials. They’re not even subtle about it: they are buying property in the most expensive neighborhoods of the city…. Apartments worth around A MILLION DOLLARS, paid UP FRONT (I can confirm this first hand). And these are people that got rich with the regime and because they supported it: they don’t even keep it a secret. Care to explain again why people have to starve and die when there are officials carrying around a million dollars in their pockets? Blimey! A million dollars could feed a lot of mouths! A million dollars could help kick start a National Industry!
But hey, being “middle class” effectively makes you the enemy, a target for kidnaps, theft and terrorizing. Because, according to the official discourse, the “rich” stole and exploited from the poor to be where they are. Hey, last time I checked, being middle class was far from being “rich”. Last time I checked, my grandfather who came into the country with EMPTY POCKETS, looking for his family which he hadn’t seen since he was 8 years old because of the wars in Europe, worked every day to get everything he had. He started loading boxes and luggage in the airport and slowly worked his way up. He put his three daughters through college so they could earn enough money to support themselves and their own families. My mom and my dad were lucky enough to get an education so they could have an income that doesn’t even reach European Middle Class Standards. They worked for everything they own and they never exploited one single person. But that makes us all the enemy, apparently.
Because, you know, it’s too crazy to talk about improving the lower class standards and make them middle class. That’s TOO CAPITALIST! If we want to reduce the gap between social classes then, for sure, the solution is to lower the middle’s class standard. All under the slogan of PATRIA, SOCIALISMO O MUERTE (“Country, Socialism or Death”…. So that means that whoever doesn’t comply with socialism deserves to die or be killed?)
- Cult to the leader
Chavez has made a successful cult to the leader. He’s seen as a father, as a saviour, as “one of them”. But his dynamic does not “lift millions of poor people out of poverty”. He works with hope and fear, by giving away stuff. Yes, STUFF. If you are fluent in Spanish I invite you to take a look to interviews they make to the people while asking them why the support the government. “Because he gave me a house”, “because he gave us food”, “because he gave us money”. And when you ask them why they support a government that allows such insecurity, they say “it’s not Chavez’s fault, because no one let’s him work”. And yet, they are still poor. Working with this system means that you keep on supporting the government in hopes that “you will be next”, or with fear that if you stop supporting it the help will cease. During the first years of the administration (I was anywhere between 10 and 12 years old) the parents of classmates of mine worked as public notaries: they were required to go to political rallies to support the government to keep their jobs. I have friends who vote for Chavez because that gives them security to keep the job they have in public office. Remember what I said about the interviews in the Metro and how they keep track of people’s votes? Have you absorbed and processed the grim picture we have been painting? Do you understand now why it is a tactic based on dependency that keeps the poor just as poor? Because if you lose your job, no one will feed you; because if you lose your job, you better not have medical bills. Because so many people have NOTHING and cling on to him in hopes that he will give them something.
And I don’t blame them. If I were in their situation I would probably make the same decisions. But I’m PRIVILIGED enough not to be. That’s right: I am THE EXCEPTION and not the rule. At the end of the day, I got away and I’ll be save. I don’t have to live in the fear that tomorrow a riot will break and people will be shot to death. I don’t have to live in fear that I will be kidnaped because my parents can afford to give a good quality of life to our family. I don’t have to live with the uncertainty of when our money will go through a devaluation. I don’t have to worry about not finding milk, sugar, coffee, oil, meat, chicken, flour at the supermarkets tomorrow. I can get sick and be sure that I will be taken care of. Most of all: I can be safe knowing that I won’t be shot to death over a Nokia (yes, Nokia) and that I will return home every night.
But this is not true for the people I left behind, friends and family included. We’re scared, we’re all scared because no one knows what is to come. In the meanwhile, things keep getting worse and worse and worse. Footnote: can you imagine how much money Mr. Chavez left his family? Guess a number, and then double it. Done? Yeah, it’s probably not high enough. He’s leaving his family TWO BILLION DOLLARS…. $2,000,000,000. Let me say that again, TWO BILLION DOLLARS. When there are STILL people starving and living in complete misery. Hooray for The Revolution!
And to conclude: how dare you. Seriously, how dare you? If you admired Chavez for standing up to imperialism and giving a voice to the oppressed, why do you think your opinion AS AN OUTSIDER THAT HAS NEVER HAD TO LIVE THROUGH THIS REGIME is worth more than Venezuelans’? Hint: that’s oppression, so please stop, and be respectful of our voices. And as a side note: just because Chavez stood up against imperialism that doesn’t make him any good. Just because you have a common enemy it doesn’t make him good. He’s as bad, just another kind of bad. My grain of sand as a Venezuelan is, and will be, to rebut the mystification of Chavez as a saviour of the poor with facts and numbers. People need to wake up: if you think the media lies to us, the chavist official channels were no different. Did you know that he publicly said, over and over and over again, that ALL THE CANCERIGENOUS CELLS IN HIS BODY HAD BEEN ERADICATED and therefore, he would run for the campaign? Spoiler alert: they were lying through their teeth, like so many times before. But who cares about truth and responsibility?
This was a negligent government, with the worst administration we’ve ever had. In 14 years (that’s the longest time any administration has been in power in Venezuela) he built less public housing than any president before him did in 5 years. The economy is in the toilet, and because he didn’t step down when he should have had, we now have an extremely dangerous void of power. So don’t you dare mystify him.
THIS HAS BEEN A POST.
