The chavistas have claimed that it was a coup d’état in Honduras in 2009, and that the new elected president, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, is a “golpista,” a coupster. However, a recent Venezuelan diplomatic cable reveals that the democrats in Honduras were right all along in being suspicious against Lobo, whose name means Wolf. It turns out he really is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a communist elected president in the right-wing Nationalist Party. He has now entered a pact with Chávez to do exactly that for which Zelaya was deposed by the Congress and Supreme Court: Help Chávez add Honduras to his sphere of influence, and introduce “21st Century Socialism”, a euphemism for communism. See El Nuevo Herald and El Heraldo, the two newspapers who have a copy of the telegram. UPDATE: This blog now also has a copy, Acuerdo Lobo-Chávez.
It would be a full time job to maintain a blog record of all the violations of the Constitution, of Democracy, of Human Rights, and not at least of Decency, that Venezuelan Dictator Hugo Chávez is doing nowadays. Yet, if it does not get documented, there are naïve people who will refuse to believe that he is a dictator, just because he was elected in a democracy. Never mind that it is far from the first time a democratically elected leader has made himself dictator.
Venezuela is already far away from democracy. The damage to the economy is already vast. It seems apparent that the regime has been lying about oil reserves in order to borrow money, and that the country is basically broke, having sold the skin (i.e., the oil) before the bear was shot (i.e., having proven that the oil reserves actually exist). It is a plundering of catastrophic proportions that Cuba has carried out in the South American nation, with Hugo Chávez as Fidel’s quisling.
In 2007, Chávez himself said that he is a Trotskyist, a follower of the strategy of Leon Trotsky. He was the chairman of the soviet in Saint Petersburg during the (failed) Russian Revolution of 1905. When the White in Finland, the democrats, got their demands satisfied and the old Swedish-era democratic Constitution was reinstated in Finland, the Red took out their revenge and murdered all the “capitalists”, e.g. white collar workers, they could lay their hands on. That included my grandfather’s house, but he survived through a miracle, saved by their own workers who stopped the communists. Make no mistake, Trotskyists are no less bloodthirsty than Leninists or Stalinists, they just have a different strategy: First take absolute power in all major countries (so that there is nobody left with the necessary power to stop them), and only thereafter put their plans for total communism into action. One part of the Trotsky strategy calls for entering other parties in order to gain power through deceit – exactly what Lobo has done.
When Chávez said he is a Trotskyist, he thus said, “I plan to take absolute power on a continental scale, and when nobody is left to stop me I will eliminate all capitalists and introduce pure communism.”
Communism is not defeated. It just changed plan. It seems like they realized that “if you can’t beat them, join them.” By making the West believe that communism was defeated in 1989, the guard was let down. But also in 1989 the first steps were taken by Fidel Castro to take over Venezuela through a fifth colon rather than by guerilla war. It resulted in the Caracazo, and then the failed military coup by Chávez in 1992. In 1998 they managed to get Chávez elected, and in 1999 he illegally changed the Constitution. From there it has been downhill for Venezuela. China went into business with USA and now owns a significant part of USA’s foreign debt. Russia allegedly went democratic but is now back to its old authoritarian ways.
The biggest change is, however, in Latin America. Armed struggle has been replaced by a strategy of taking over through the use of civil society groups, which is not a bad thing in and of itself. In fact, it is the preferred method in a democracy. The problem is, however, that these groups are being used, or rather misused, for the benefit of an anti-democratic force that is acting under false flag: 21st Century Socialism. Hugo Chávez for years argued that it was democratic, but a new kind of democracy, not liberal democracy with strong and independent institutions but popular democracy, direct democracy. Using another word it can be called “mob rule” and that would be closer to reality. His plan is nothing new; it has been used since antiquity. Already the old Greeks saw many examples of when a strong-man took power from the city council through the support of the masses, those who did not understand the machinations of democracy, the balance of power. They had a name for such a strong-man. They called him “Tyrant.”
Chávez has bought significant amounts of modern war material from Russia and others. Russians have re-created their Caribbean fleet, and are building a military base in Venezuela. USA is allied with and has access to military bases in Colombia to the west of Venezuela, and to a base in the Dutch-administered Curacao just off Venezuela’s north coast. To the south Venezuela has a friendly nation, Brazil, but her neighbor to the east is Guyana, a nation with which Venezuela has a non-resolved border dispute. Venezuela claims that about 2/3 of Guyana really is Venezuelan territory and that the arbitration settlement in 1899 is invalid due to Britain not having acted in good faith, etc. All Venezuelan maps since 1970 show the disputed territory as belonging to Venezuela. Guyana is part of the British Commonwealth. There is a potential conflict that at present is being handled by the Secretary General of the UN. Hopefully it will not become the “Sudetland” of Venezuela.
The financing for Chávez’s plans comes of course from the coffers of the Republic of Venezuela. As a Trotskyist, he prioritizes taking power in other countries to consolidating the revolution in his own. Therefore he is allowing Venezuela to decay, and she is. Widespread electricity outages, lack of food production, and so on. The country is in dire straits, but Chávez pushes forward with supporting Cuba and buying influence in other Latin American countries. Apparently he must count on the final victory being so close so as to be within reach before Venezuela collapses completely. It means that he must count on final victory within a few short years, because that is how close Venezuela is to economical collapse.
What we cannot rule out, however, is that civil war starts in Venezuela sooner than that. If so, his stint is over. He cannot continue to expand his empire while fighting a civil war at home. One way in which a civil war could start is through a popular revolt, in which the military eventually has to pick side, and different parts of the country take different sides. This is just what happened in Libya this year, and similar to what happened in Spain after Franco’s half-failed coup, or in Finland after the November revolution in 1917. Venezuela sees more support for Chávez in some parts of the country, and more opposition in others. The risk for civil war is therefore significant as a result of any kind of revolt, civilian or military. There is a big powder-barrel and the fuse is very short now.
The bottom line is that there is a big and growing threat against peace and security in Latin America, but the threat is not confined to that continent. Chávez sees the enemy as being USA, but also her allies such as Israel and the UK. At the same time he is allied with other enemies of USA and Israel, such as Iran, Syria, Gaddafi’s Libya, Bielarus, etc., and also with drug lords and cocaine smugglers. But USA is ignoring him, not seeing him as a real threat. Is this wise?