tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14072474.post382876042094672971..comments2023-11-03T06:36:27.305-04:00Comments on Phronesisaical: Love, Latin American Stylehelmuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09069600766378586919noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14072474.post-43441378870778196992007-03-10T20:28:00.000-05:002007-03-10T20:28:00.000-05:00In a classic good cop-bad cop con, Chavez is also ...In a classic good cop-bad cop con, Chavez is also forcing concessions out of US it would never have considered before Bolivarian rise.Yesterday Bush said he would discuss US agricultural subsidies, a verboten topic.The repubs just lost Iowa,S Dakota and Kansas!<BR/><BR/>As for a US State Dept report on human rights, it wouldn't even make good toilet paper.<BR/><BR/>I think Julia perhaps puts to much weight on Chavez and fails to understand the authentic grassroots movement which propels and legitimizes him.troutskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16020298501632120830noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14072474.post-87721614105161125512007-03-09T19:02:00.000-05:002007-03-09T19:02:00.000-05:00I think you're all right. This is the general poin...I think you're all right. This is the general point I've been trying to make. I find Chavez interesting because - whether him or others in the future - he opens the possibility for really thinking about alternatives and VZ has the money to enact them. If one views democracy as an experiment, as the original US democrats did, then VZ looks more democratic than the US.helmuthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09069600766378586919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14072474.post-16442079487930526592007-03-09T14:22:00.000-05:002007-03-09T14:22:00.000-05:00If I were Latin America I would count myself lucky...If I were Latin America I would count myself lucky if I failed to gain the attention of the American government.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14072474.post-53619904392613236082007-03-09T00:25:00.000-05:002007-03-09T00:25:00.000-05:00The issue is not even that "there are, of course, ...The issue is not even that "there are, of course, reasons, to be concerned about Venezuela". If you know anything about Venezuelan history (which I assume you do), you probably would agree that as of now, there is no more reason to be concerned about human rights in Venezuela than there has been in any other point of its recent democratic history (since 1958), neither in the number of human rights violations nor in the perceived "authoritarian tendencies" of Chávez himself (which, so far, haven’t produced political prisoners or secret prisons holding suspects with virtually no legal rights). So the right question is: why this sudden pointing of fingers at Venezuela now, as opposed to, let’s say the Venezuela from the 1970s or 1980s? What makes Chávez’s Venezuela worse than Rómulo Betancourt’s or Carlos Andrés Pérez’s? <BR/><BR/>This apart from the fact that irony seems to be totally lost in a government that seems so eager to list (and exaggerate) in painstaking detail the human rights violations of other countries while giving us Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo and those pesky 14,000 detainees being shifted between secret prisons around the world.<BR/><BR/>José del SolarAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14072474.post-17647487603767099652007-03-08T21:42:00.000-05:002007-03-08T21:42:00.000-05:00Julia--Don't worry, you speak English better than ...Julia--<BR/><BR/>Don't worry, you speak English better than the president of the United States.<BR/><BR/>And I think you're right in saying that there has to be an alternative to both the bluster and authoritarianism of Bush, and the bluster and authoritarianism of Chavez.<BR/><BR/>But I think that elsewhere in the region, that alternative has been found. I'm a big admirer of both Nestor Kirchner of Argentina and Michelle Bachelet of Chile. It seems that the further you get from the US, the better political situation becomes.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14072474.post-31030341962333583382007-03-08T21:27:00.000-05:002007-03-08T21:27:00.000-05:00What If, there´s latin americans who doesnt believ...What If, there´s latin americans who doesnt believe neither on Bush or Chávez alternative? Bush visiting Latin America is definitly a move that concerns not only to the lefties, Latin Americans have strong reasons for distrust any policy coming from the US (and this is more than just the lack of attention). There most be a way of offering to the latin americans a way of recovering their dignity without reading Galeano or more lately, hearing Chávez speech. There´s most be a way of making the people abroad understand that Chavez is not the positive alternative to the Bush project; is just another speech, make it out of the same non democratic Bush administration material. Of course, I havent found the way of making any of this two things real. Thats the drama of being a latin american and even more, of being venezuelan<BR/>PS: Excuses about the grammar mistakes, I dont speak englishmemememehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14006778786293964348noreply@blogger.com