A hemisphere begins to unite against Hugo Chavez
By A.M. Mora y Leon
12.05.06 | Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez is nothing more than a brutal leftist thug with aspirations of being the next Simon Bolivar, the next Fidel Castro. He seeks to unite all the nations of Latin America under his wing, so that together, they may challenge the United States. He would lure them into his axis with the promise of U.S.-financed cheap oil, yet punish and intimidate any who don’t go along with his direction by cutting off that same oil. He’s telling all nations that it’s either him or the U.S., and the U.S. has nothing to offer them.
Every last nation in the hemisphere knows it.
Ever since the May Day nationalization of Bolivia’s energy resources by Venezuelan state employees, followed by Chavez strutting through the capital of his new colony of South Venezuela — errr, I mean, Bolivia — like Hitler in Paris, there has been a growing realization that Chavez is a predator who would seek to take their resources for the sake of his own absolute power.
But things are not exactly going according to plan: Like a moving hurricane, a vast unified hemispheric move against the dictator of Caracas has now begun to form among many different nations. Rapidly moving together in this are:
PERU: The man who would spearhead this great regional move against Chavismo may well be none other than crazy Alan Garcia himself of Peru. It’s stunning but true. Garcia was once the Hugo Chavez of the Americas back in his day, 1980-1985, with a silver tongue full of leftwing demogoguery and lots of adoring supporters. He subsequently ran his country right into the ground. But having done that and lived that, he now says he has learned his lesson and won’t do it again. He actually intends to redeem himself by stomping out the region’s worst menace. Garcia’s now sane, but still knows enough about the mind of Chavez to be an effective foe to him. I can’t believe what I am seeing with this, but Andres Oppenheimer thinks this could very well be true. His essay is an enjoyable experience and a must-read here.
Meanwhile, Peru’s outgoing President Alejandro Toledo spared no words in denouncing the Thug of Caracas as a hostage-taker either. El Universal has some of his recent statements in Europe, seeking free trade, here. Peruvians are quiet common-sense people who value humility - related to this, here is one essay by a Peruvian reporter who says he values freedom much more than the false promises of nationalism.
MEXICO: Mexicans descended from the Aztecs don’t take being pushed around any more than Peru’s Incas do. That’s why Mexico’s popular President Vicente Fox came out in the last few hours today and hurled a salvo expressly directed at Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez in this FT piece here.
GUATEMALA: The great Maya nation isn’t for being pushed around either. Being fearless, President Oscar Berger launched a preemptive strike on Venezuela’s dictator warning him to stop trying to take over his neighbors. He noted that his good friend President Tony Saca of El Salvador is concerned too. Berger can’t stand Chavez either. The story is here.
BRAZIL: President Lula da Silva has denounced Hugo Chavez’s meddling in the hemisphere’s internal affairs and warned him to butt out of Bolivia. I wrote about his efforts to call Chavez on his interferences this morning in this post here.
ECUADOR: Its House speaker has openly accused Chavez of stirring up grassroots groups to shut down the Ecuadorean oil industry and refused to back away from it. Considerable research on this has been done at VCrisis in this post here.
THE CARIBBEAN is beginning to seek a free trade pact with the United States, something that goes against Chavez’s wishes.
URUGUAY is seeking to exit the regional trade alliance that Chavez wants into, known as MercoSur and sign a free trade pact with the U.S. If Chavez gets in, Uruguay is out of there and aligned with the United States.
All of this says unbelieveably a lot about what’s happening in the hemisphere. A huge regional movement to oppose Hugo Chavez is beginning to form and take shape up and down two continents. They have never been bolder, something that probably signals that Chavez has never been weaker. Apparently, they all sense the same thing: the time to strike at this predator is right now.
Source Publius Pundit
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