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Originally Posted by G.K Zhukov
It's so easy labeling people isnt it. Specially without backing it up with any arguments.
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It's patently obvious to all but those who are blinded by a combination of hate for the US and ideology (Which is to say, people like you.) that Chavez is not the most committed person in the world to liberal democratic norms. Journalists frequently complain of harrasment, he has a professed admiration for Robert Mugabe, et al, his restrictions on media material which harms "the national interest", his own TV and Radio slots on the state network, etc. You begin to wonder how long a real democratic system in Venezuela will hold up; note I said
increasingly.
Even so, his economic reforms have been largely inneffectual anyway. unemployment and inflation have increased dramatically, GDP has dropped, and that's surely not a good thing by any standard we choose. I think Venezuela has the potential to go much the same way as Zimbabwe and other such states - ruined on a pseudo-Socialist populist programme based around scapegoating of the evul forces of imperialism. I don't really see any need to hold him up as a master of political leadership.