South of the Border

Update Your Right Hand Thief provided attribution, source, and the actual quote I paraphrased below (re: Bush mouthpiece on Venezuela). Here it is:

"legitimacy is something that is conferred not just by a majority of the voters" (Christopher Marquis, NYT, 4/16/02)

Thanks, Oyster.

I haven't been following the happenings in Venezuela as much as I should be. So, it's good to see this essay by Richard Gott in Counterpunch. Gott argues that Hugo Chavez will decisively win the recall referendum set for August 15th.

While it seems long ago, considering the Middle East situation, Chavez and Venezuela were definitely on the Bushista radar screen back in April 2002, when elites in the country tried to overthrow his government. This prompted a number of curious reactions from the Bush administration--well, courious unless you realize that Bush (and, by extension, his supporters) gives not a shit for anything resembling genuine democracy. Damn, I've been reading around the blogosphere today, and forget where I saw this, but someone posted a quote from a Bush mouthpiece saying something to the effect that "majority support doesn't mean a government is legitimate." That as much as anything reveals Team Bush's contempt for the general public--something tells me their attitude towards US citizens isn't all that different.

While the Middle East will remain a major issue upon which the 2004 election is based, other regions in the world should not be discounted. In particular, should Bush win reelection, look for additional efforts to destabilize Venezuela. Chavez has embarked on a massive program of using oil revenue--which, ironically, has risen quite a bit thanks to Bush's foolish war in Iraq--to provide services for the poor. Access to education, health care (with the assistance of the best trained doctors in the region--Cubans), and so on are now provided either for free or with large subsidy. Once looked at as an eccentric, Chavez has now become a symbol of standing up to the worst tendencies of the United States and, as a result, has become very popular among peoples of the region. Unlike Jean Bertrand Aristide, he is too powerful to overthrow using minimal forces. In fact, the only thing he might have to fear at this point is assassintation--which, I'm certain, Team Bush would do in a heartbeat if they thought they could get away with it.

So, I'll breathe a sigh of relief. It looks like Hugo will ride out the storm--for now.