Granted, I’m a right-wing fascist, but oddly, I’m not quite as surprised as Kotaji that Venezuelan President Simon Bolivar Hugo Chavez might be interested in meeting Kim Jong-il.
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14 Comments
It’s no secret that Chavez is as anti-American as North Korea, it’s just surprising that he would pull this sort of stunt. If Venezuela wants the heat to be turned way up, this is definitely the way to do it.
–Remort
Simon Bolivar?Don;t you mean
Fidel Castror?Robert, please read North Korea and Venezuela
simon Bolivar“El Shiz Nik” and North Korea even have a “Venezuela-Korea Friendship Parliamentary Group”, according to the KCNA.I was somewhat playfully wondering if the select country club of the evil axis was going to be adding junior members or not or if Chavez would take an active role in “Mercenaries 3″.
Is anyone surprised that Kotaji is surprised? I gave up looking at his blog because I got tired of all the communist apologetics on it.
Kotaji’s fine. Yeah, his politics are a bit on the left, but he’s not a Stalinist. And at any rate, I’m sure he finds a lot of other K-bloggers to be tiresomely rightist.
It seems that Chavez is trying to set up a series of alliances with anyone who hates the US. It doesn’t matter how foul and detestable they are (such as KJI), it’s just important that they hate the US. It even seems that Chavez is going out of his way to irritate the Yankees as much as possible. As a sideline, it’s also a possibility that Venezuela could buy some missile technology from the fat dwarf, too.
I will offer a couple of opinions and then leave the field clear for people to flame me as much as they like.
First, I’m sort of surprised and not surprised at the same time about this. Chavez is not stupid and must have some idea of the reality of North Korea. He is also operating in a political scene where there seem to be a variety of political strands mixed together, from old-school Stalinists to self-proclaimed Bolivarians to moderate liberal left types. Either he has come under the influence of a minority group who really think that North Korea is a ‘kindred spirit’ or he just thinks it is a good strategic decision to get into bed with anyone who is standing up to the US of A. Either way I think this a bad move. Although perhaps not as bad as ‘doing a Lula’ and just doing whatever the US and the IMF tells you to…
Second, one thing that a lot of people on the right seem to forget in their eagerness to denounce Chavez is that what he has actually done has been surprisingly moderate, particularly in the first few years of his administration. (He replaced the management of the state oil company! Gadzooks!) What really upsets the Venezuelan right is that he is not one of them - not one of the old oligarchy who had the place sewn up for many years, diverting the oil money into their pockets. He has become increasingly radical, partly in response to the pressure from the domestic right and the hawkish allies in Washington (partly also because he has raised the hopes of the Venezuelan poor and now has to give them something or lose power). In a sense the Bush administration has helped to create the very ‘monster’ they wished for.
Btw my thanks to Robert for defending me against all those horrid rightwing bloggers. ‘Tiresomely rightist’ - great, can I borrow that?
Yeah, I disagree with a lot of what Kotaji writes, but he is definitely an intelligent, worthwhile addition to the Korea blogging world. I would far rather have someone like that than any “dittohead”. A lot of people of all political persuasions need to learn that having a different opinion does not automatically make someone evil/stupid/smelly/whatever.
Kotaji: Chavez is a “A progressive president with an impeccable democratic mandate who is sincerely attempting to improve the lot of the poor majority of his country”?!?
Please, read up: http://vcrisis.com/
This Kim-Chavez meeting is a natural gathering of vile demagogues. Chavez was a military coup leader and is now an elected autocrat who is undermining every check and balance in the system and squandering oil revenues to spread his revolution. That kotaji sees him as progressive and with an impeccable mandate only highlights the paucity of respectable leftist governments out there.
Kotaji wrote: “In a sense the Bush administration has helped to create the very ‘monster’ they wished for.”
Dude, this is by now a cliche. The left has been preaching this for decades. Uncle Ho was a moderate free marketer who just wanted to sing “Kumbaya” until the U.S. stopped supporting him in favor of the Frogs after WWII. Ditto Benevolent Fidel, who almost became a U.S. baseball star in the 50s. Evil Eisenhower and Kennedy just didn’t understand the poor guy and *poof*, he became a radical. Yes, these poor enlightened leaders just tried to be moderates but big ol’ bad Uncle Sam just wouldn’t let them, would he?
Please, read up: http://vcrisis.com/
Yeah, that author is a paragon of objectivity.
Kotaji, blaming the US for ‘making’ despots like Chavez has been repeated endlessly by leftists who want to get in digs at the US for everything. No matter what happens, they find a way to pin the blame on the US. Chavez isn’t as bad as KJI and others, but he’s already helped to shrink the economy and is on course for becoming a long-term dictator. If anyone is turning up the heat, its Chavez, who takes every public opportunity to denounce and try to bait the US.
Snow, I didn’t say that the US had made Chavez into a despot because I don’t think he is a despot. The point I was attempting to make (although not clearly enough it seems) was that he hasn’t actually been that radical in terms of what he has done and his more strident tone toward the US recently seems to be a result of the way in which the US administration has treated him.
On the economic point you made, Venezuela’s economy did indeed shrink during the aftermath of the 2002 coup attempt and the management lockouts of 2002-3. Currently though, its GDP growth is around 10% (twice that of the US, about five times that of the UK). Granted this may be the result of high oil prices, but you’ve still got to be careful about throwing around accusations like that.