GGabriel on "Hugo Chávez and Venezuela: a leader’s destiny"

This piece is undoubtedly masterfully crafted, drenched in ably handled philosophy, and so far divorced from the Venezuelan reality that it leaves the reader not only exhausted but seeing Hitler's spectre dressed in red. Chavez is undoubtedly in love with the dream of the great man. This is undoubtedly dangerous, its Nietzschean prioritization of greatness over goodness, indeed over the human, is a powerful (a)moral logic. Albert Camus exposed this phenomenon in his seminal work "The Rebel": a cry of anguish at human suffering subsequently divorced from this same humanist content in a flurry of romanticism and rage. Yet Latin America does not share the deep Western nihilist tradition, that emptied these cries entirely leaving efficacy, in other words power, as the only guiding principle. Krauze must recognise that indeed some leaders are better than others, precisely because they refuse to relinquish their humanism. Deeper contact with the Venezuelan reality would teach Krauze the truth of this, his lack of it is revealed in the caricatured narrative of recent events he provides. It would teach him of a powerful Venezuelan moral discourse of participation and social inclusion that is indeed the goodness that those of Nietzschean decent will see as constraining Chavez's greatness. The reality of this discourse is transforming the country, for the better. Picking just a handful of factual inadequacies we can see how they give flesh to Krauze's Nazi fantasy: 1) Fearsome Fiction - "Having closed, harassed, or fined the few media outlets that opposed him, Chávez devoted the impressive media network that he has assembled (300 radio stations, subsidised papers, five TV stations in the capital alone) to relentless propaganda for him and his regime. The opposition, barred from these outlets and slandered in them, was left with only a single television station and another cable station (which Chávez in all likelihood will soon shutdown)." Contact with Venezuela - Human Rights Watch observes, in its recently damming report on the Chávez regime, that even after moving to cable in 2008, to which only a quarter of Venezuelan's have access (having had its public airwaves liscense witheld), RCTV received an audience share of 13% in comparison with the largest state channel, VTV's meagre 4%.  2) Fearsome Fiction - The Jews of Venezuela have been denounced as the instigators of the coup attempt against Chávez in 2002. The theory of a "worldwide Jewish conspiracy" has become a common place in Venezuela. In the weeks leading up to the February 2009 referendum, the old Mariperez synagogue in Caracas was violently assaulted Contact with Venezuela - First a touch of context: Venezuelan anti-imperialism leads naturally to anti zionism given the 8 billion provided to Israel each year from the US in military aid and the continuing annexation of the West Bank byIsraeli settlers. Is anti-zionism anti-semetic? In response to mass murder in Gaza Chavez expelled the Israeli ambassador and launched a scathing critic of Israeli actions that received plaudits around the world. Some poorly educated elements of society denounced the actions in abhorrent anti-semetic terms. What was the response of the "fascist" president? Chavez stated publicly, repeatedly, that anti-zionism should not be confused with or a cause of anti-semitism in efforts recognised by the Venezuelan Israeli Association- http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4205 Follow the hyperlink rabbit hole to the original document here sourced as evidence of Chavez's denunciation of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy (the word scapegoat). The text, criticising the ownership of over 50% of the world's resources by less than 10 % of its population reads - "unas minorías, los descendientes de los mismos que crucificaron a Cristo, los descendientes de los mismos que echaron a Bolívar de aquí y también lo crucificaron a su manera" - "some minorities, the decendents of those who killed Christ, the decendents of those who in their own way here crucified Bolivar". The first two words are crucial "unas minorias", they are plural, they refer to multiple minorities though the translators at the reliable source "The Devil's Excrement" translate it to read "a minority". Thus a statement that should be understood as condemning inequality all over the world with a worrying anti-semetic note is twisted to evidence Chavez's denunciation of global Jewish conspiracy. On such an important topic statements such as this must be criticised; forcing Chavez to be consistent in his separation of Anti-Zionism from Anti-Semeticism, but done with clarity - avoiding manipulative translations and sweeping statements. This one statement, given Chavez's anti-imperialism and his recent repeated differentiation between anti-semitism and anti-zionism (the latter of which alone follows from his anti-imperialism) is simply not sufficient the huge allegation launched by Krauze - "And this brings us to another element of classical fascism that Hugo Chávez has not hesitated to exploit: anti-semitism". 3) Fearsome Fiction - "On the "corruption perceptions index" released in 2008 by Transparency International, Venezuela was rated 158 out of 180." Contact with Venezuela - Latinobarometro found the percentage of Venezuelans who personally knew of an act of corruption declined from 27% in 2001 to 16% in2005, 42% feel progress has been made fighting corruption from 2003-5 compared to a regional average of 34%.  4) Fearsome Fiction - "On the subject of liberal democracy, his opinions have always been sweeping: "Liberal democracy is no good, its time has passed, new models must be invented, new formulas.... Democracy is like a rotten mango" Contact with Venezuela - Chavez does denounce the Western liberal institutional structure, largely because under Venezuela's Punto Fijo pact its price was massive social and political exclusion that, compelled by its own moral logic and falling oil prices led it to massacre Caracas slum dwellers in their homes in the Caracazo of 1989 for daring to protest at the introduction of a neoliberal reform package. Yet this state extermination of the poor proves insufficient to stop Krauze describing Punto Fijismo as "against all odds had been working quite well since 1959". Krauze also overlooks the entire positive agenda of the Bolivarian (wow, how daring) Project - the creation of a "participatory democracy", an agenda that has seen the creation of around 24000 communal councils and unprecedented mechanisms of popular empowerment. Fascists were not ones to be subjected to popular control, yet Venezuela's constitution includes a mechanism by which the population can initiate a recall referendum on President's mandate. If 20% sign a petition such a referendum is called, and indeed was called in 2004! Hitler, Mussolini and Franco rolled into one! And yes, the signatures were released by Luis Tascon, an individual clearly outside Chavez's control, and subsequently used to discriminate against oppostion members, just as not being a member of an opposition party has often disqualified one from a job in the private sector. But really, no one has carried out any kind of remotely rigorous study into the extent of this discrimination (Have we stumbled onto fearsome fiction number 5?). Human Rights Watch declared in their recent report that political discrimination has become the norm in the Venezuelan work place. Their evidence? One case in 5 years and a population of over 25 million people where some young man reported that his grandmother had allegedly once been denied medication because of her presence on the list. To conclude, Krauze's immense disconnection from what is an important and contestable Venezuelan reality that should be subjected to rational debate, and not fantasies of fascisim, leads him to overlook Latin America's enduring moral fabric, never fully assaulted by modern Western nihilism, and the extent to which it both binds and determines some great men.

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