Fascist bash, USA bashing...

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Monday, April 14, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel

VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: For four days some 800 foreign and 1500 local revolutionaries met at the Teresa Carreno Theater and Parque Central in Caracas to celebrate the first year of Chavez' return to power, after being eased out by the current Interior Minister, General Lucas Rincon, in a very strange Palace coup.

This grotesque meeting would have been just a laughable extravagance if it had not been for the fact that the government also celebrated the killing of innocent Venezuelans at the hands of Chavez' followers. Part of the celebration included setting these killers free, leaving no doubt, among the relatives of the victims, that these crimes would never be punished by this government.

The event was very irritating for the millions of decent Venezuelans who saw it from a safe moral distance. The 800 foreign guests were a varied menagerie. There were some notorious visitors, like Ignacio Ramonet, the high priest of neofascism; Professor Jaime Petras; Daniel Ortega, the former President of Nicaragua and indicted rapist; the odd looking and un-maternal mother of the Plaza de Mayo, Hebe Bonafini; a British film maker named Alex Cox who seemed to be completely lost in that environment; a 10-year-old Cuban girl already full of hate at such an early stage of life. However, most of the cast was made up of unknown extras, all very happy to be there, all expenses paid by the financially bankrupt Venezuelan government.

There were Ecuadorian military, Araucano indians, ultra-leftist editors, a true "who is who" of international vagrancy.

The event merits a few comments:

1. I wonder if the $25 million which the government shelled out for the event could not have been better utilized to do something about the 250000 plus street children of Venezuela. Just outside the place of the event the visitors could not fail to see the miserable Amacuro Indian women begging for a few coins, or the street children sleeping in the sidewalks, or the buhoneros trying to sell anything from condoms to cigarettes to porno movies to bring some food home. To spend $25 million to finance the intellectual diarrhea that took place in Caracas, seems to be clearly immoral, when compared to the social degradation existing in Caracas and the rest of the country, due to the lack of sensibility of our verbose President.

I would have developed some respect for this government if they had decided to dedicate the $25 million to do something about the starving Venezuelan population, rather than spending it in this fascist bash.

2. Although the stated purpose of the event was the celebration of the first anniversary of the so called counter-coup, the main purpose became clear from day one: a bashing of the US. During the three days of the event, Bush was frequently compared to Hitler and all speakers made a point of condemning the War in Iraq, not so much because they were concerned about the people of that country but because one of their ideological icons, Saddam Hussein, had been expelled from power. The event had the misfortune to be held after the war was practically over and the people of Iraq could be seen in the streets showing their relief at getting rid of a monster who lived in abundance while his people suffered horrible poverty.

3. We heard very sad things for democratic ears. Daniel Ortega, accused of rape by a member of his own family, came to say that Chavez represented the hope of Latin America. Hebe Bonafini said that she had been happy at the tragedy of September 11 because the towers included "powerful people" plotting against the poor. Jaime Petras at least showed flashes of intellectual honesty, when he defined Chavez Law regulating Media Content as "protofascist." Alan Cox said that he did not know much about Venezuela but he assumed all leftists were with Chavez (the opposite is true). The pathetic Cuban girl sounded like a programmed robot, talking against US imperialism and other cliches.

Even more damaging for Venezuela, this event put the government of Hugo Chavez in a clear collision course with the government of the US.

Chavez brought to Caracas, all expenses paid, the most violent anti US fauna of the Americas. For a country like the US, which has already shown a short fuse when dealing with perceived enemies, this can easily be interpreted as a conscious and no longer harmless effort on the part of Hugo Chavez to antagonize them.

When combined with the obvious support Chavez has shown to the Colombian terrorist guerrillas and with his incontinent verbal abuses against the country which is our main client and our traditional political ally, it is easy to see that Chavez has now been included in the US list of undesirable characters.

• When Ramonet spoke about Venezuela being a future target for US military action, he was probably starting on the road of the self-fulfilling prophecies.

The reason for this challenging attitude on the part of Chavez is obvious. I have said before and now say again that the only road left open to Chavez is martyrdom. He is incompetent as a President and he does not know how to govern. He is incapable of solving our problems. The only way an inept politician can find a place in history is by becoming a martyr.

I suggest there is a much less traumatic way for Mr. Chavez: Please resign and make us happy so that we can have, at least, a kind memory of you...

Gustavo Coronel is the founder and president of Agrupacion Pro Calidad de Vida (The Pro-Quality of Life Alliance), a Caracas-based organization devoted to fighting corruption and the promotion of civic education in Latin America, primarily Venezuela. A member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), following nationalization of Venezuela's oil industry, Coronel has worked in the oil industry for 28 years in the United States, Holland, Indonesia, Algiers and in Venezuela. He is a Distinguished alumnus of the University of Tulsa (USA) where he was a Trustee from 1987 to 1999. Coronel led the Hydrocarbons Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington DC for 5 years. The author of three books and many articles on Venezuela ("Curbing Corruption in Venezuela." Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No. 3, July, 1996, pp. 157-163), he is a fellow of Harvard University and a member of the Harvard faculty from 1981 to 1983.  In 1998, he was presidential election campaign manager for Henrique Salas Romer and now lives in retirement on the Caribbean island of Margarita where he runs a leading Hotel-Resort.  You may contact Gustavo Coronel at email gustavo@vheadline.com

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