You asked about Chavez in your reply to my post, "Columbia University Speech Thugs". That post was about the melee that happen during a speech on the Columbia University campus about the Minuteman Project as part of a debate on immigration. ...and whether it "Can it be true that free speech at Columbia applies only to those who are deemed legitimate by a self-proclaimed group of political purists?"... ( see http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=13840530 )
I am not sure how Chavez fits into a discusses of the post, "Columbia University Speech Thugs", but you asked:
..."How does Hugo Chavez qualify as a tyrant? Should I ask... How does Hugo Chavez who is popularly elected in Latin America, without the blessings of the military or the moneyed class qualify as a tyrant?"...
I try not to make remarks like calling Chavez a tyrant. However, I do provide research with links where others may have called him a tyrant or other names. Here are a few examples that you might research. Hope the links help you find your answers. MLD38
Chavez: Despot or poor's champion? Includes Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Colombian novelist, regarding Chavez: "I was overwhelmed by the feeling that I had just been with two opposing men. One to whom the caprices of fate had given an opportunity to save the country. The other an illusionist who could pass into the history books as just another despot" http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/564C3DA9-133C-49BC-97A4-2E6A58BA7E6B.htm Starts off: ..."When the Bush administration gave its blessings to a 2002 coup which temporarily unseated him, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez described the US president as a rear body part. The national reaction to this outburst was indicative of how the ex-soldier divides his nation along class and racial lines. The rural poor loved it – here was the president of their country speaking in a language they understood. But others, principally among the country's white, middle-class elite, took it as yet another example of what they see as Chavez's recklessness. "Vulgar showman", "neo-Marxist autocrat", "populist champion" and "narcissistic buffoon", Chavez has been called all these and more. For the elite which has traditionally run Venezuela, he is the devil incarnate, intent on turning the country into a communist state. But for many among Venezuela's poor majority, Chavez is the tarnished saviour who represents their best hope of a decent life."... Includes: ..."According to local government and international data, nearly 48% of Venezuelans are considered at the poverty level, while another 32% are considered living beneath the poverty line. Consequently, most Venezuelans suffer from a lack of sustainable nourishment."... ..."Chavez has particularly reneged on his pledges to improve living standards for the poor. Under his controversial rule, the number of people living in poverty has increased and per capita income has dropped."... ..."There are continued reports of widespread unlawful killings and torture of criminal suspects by the police" Amnesty International report on human rights in Venezuela"... And: ..."feature of Chavez's time in office has been his eccentricity, symbolised by his curious weekly television show, Alo Presidente. In the show he is demagogic, cajoling, bullying, threatening, vulgar and silly. He sings, cracks jokes, lambasts his political enemies and even quotes from the Bible. The poor love it, but the rich grimace with embarrassment."...
Venezuela : The true state of the country of Hugo Chavez ..."For those that just want to know about the bizarre, wonderful country of Venezuela and its even more bizarre current Government"... http://blogs.salon.com/0001330/categories/venezuela/ ..."Funny how Chavez' stunt at the United Nations led so much traffic to my blog. You see, if you combine the words Chavez and Devil in any decent search engine, guess who is right at the top with many entries? Thus, I had a Devilanche of visitors as people tried to read more about what Chavez was saying about the leader of the country that buys the most oil from Venezela in the world. "...
Ends with:
..."Hopefully, he will spend sometime here in the next few months and leave his US$ 83 million Airbus parked, stop buying more weapons, planes and helicopters and worry about and work for his own people. But I doubt it.
The rest is simply a charade. But that is all we have seen for the last eight years.
Ask what Vargas state is, what happened there in 2000 and what conditions are like today. Ask what inflation has been in the last eight months or in the last eight years. Ask what corruption is like at the highest levels of power. Ask how many corrupt politicians have been prosecuted. Ask what the fascist Chavez/Maisanta/Tascon list is. Ask who pays Chavez' campaign. Ask what the gag law is. Ask if the same person is the Minister of Information and spokesman for Chavez political party. Ask how many people have died in opposition rallies in the last eight years. Ask how many political prisoners there are. Ask who the El Llaguno shooters are and why they are free. Ask if Chavez' relatives owned so much land before he became President. Ask what has happened to the thousands of hectares of expropriated land. Ask how many military are part of the civilian Government. Ask how many fascist dictators Chavez has visited and embraced in the last eight years. Ask what happened to the 2.4 billionUS dollars missing from the FIEM fund.
There are hundreds of questions like this you can ask and the answers are all absolutely terrifying and horrifying.
The Talented Mr. Chávez The Atlantic Monthly | May 2006 ..."A Castro-loving, Bolivar-worshipping, onetime baseball-player wannabe, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez is perhaps the world’s most openly anti-American head of state. With Latin America in the midst of a leftward swing, how dangerous is he?"... http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200605/chavez
Hugo Chavez, United Nations: Diablo's diatribe http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/judi-mcleod092106.htm Ends with: Chavez ..."shows an utter lack of respect for American people and American soil."..."Meanwhile, one can only imagine the squeals of "injustice" if Bush, or any Republican politician, did the same thing to Chavez on his home turf."...
(2) Richard Brand from The Miami Herald brought the issue of national security to the fora, arguing that Sequoia, a fully owned subsidiary of Smartmatic, has entered the electoral business in the USA. Smartmartic connection to the Hugo Chavez regime is a matter of public record, having been launched with Venezuelan government’s funds."... See Forget Dubai -- worry about Smartmatic instead http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/14194451.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.js...
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