EU Referendum

Showing posts with label Venezuela. Show all posts

Chavez+01[i-Chavez+01]Chancellor Angela Merkel is travelling in South America (and I thought she had given up on her endless flitting round the world and settled down to being the leader of Germany) and in her absence, as the German media wrote indignantly, the Dalai Lama will not be received either by the President or the Foreign Minister, a left-wing Social-Democrat but, I am sure, that is merely a coincidence.

More interestingly she has fallen foul of the ever more ludicrous and sinister Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who is, presumably, feeling a little miffed because his best friend in Europe has lost an election. Will that fate ever befall President Chávez, one wonders. It has not befallen his other great friend, the now retired leader of Cuba, Fidel Castro, but things are not what they used to be. Chávez, after all, lost the referendum, which would have effectively made him dictator for life.

President Chávez has a weekly TV show on Sundays (one can’t help feeling sorry for the people of Venezuela) and on it he attacked Chancellor Merkel. Well, attacked is not the right word. He threw a bucketful of verbal garbage at her, though, I suspect, she can cope with it.

She is from the German right, the same that supported Hitler, that supported fascism, that's the Chancellor of Germany today.

The man’s understanding of politics makes me think that if ever the people of that unfortunate country manage to get rid of him, he will have a successful career in various Western drive-by media outlets. Of course, he has also attacked in strong terms other politician, including those of Latin America, who happen to disagree with the Great Hugo.

Chavez on Sunday also called Colombian President Alvaro Uribe a "liar" who "shouldn't even run a corner store."

Chavez once called United States President George W. Bush "the devil" at the United Nations General Assembly. He has also railed against other leaders including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Mexican President Vicente Fox.”

King Juan Carlos once told President Chávez to shut up and the world applauded. The Great Hugo was clearly nettled as he keeps referring to the episode in supposedly careless fashion.

Chancellor Merkel may be easy-going but not so the European Commission President, who is also in South America. In his case there is little to do back home so he may as well travel and stack up those carbon footprints, though, obviously we would prefer it if he did so at his own expense.

Presumably, he, too, will attend the forthcoming meeting between heads of European and Latin American states in Peru. (These summits are getting to be rather a bore. What’s wrong with internet conferencing? I suppose, you don’t get to do a trip round South America at the taxpayers’ expense.)

The German newspapers have reacted in various fashion, mostly calling on European countries, and Germany in particular, to deal with the phenomenon of Latin America as it comes (that is including churlish boors who are wrecking their countries’ economy) because Europe could fill the gap left by the United States.

Whether this is an accurate description of what is going on in Latin America is questionable. It is probably true that “most voters feel they are globalization's losers” and it is easy for incompetent dictators to blame some outside influence such as the United States for that state of affairs. But that does not work for long. Eventually, the electoral swing will go back to more right-wing parties even in the countries that have now gone to the left (and not all have), as the voters become disenchanted with the populist thugs.

The so-called summit in Peru will give a certain indication of what might happen in the next few years by way of agreements between European and Latin American states, the relationship not having been terribly successful until now. Our guess is that Chávez and his few allies will once again be sidelined and he will once again rave at his weekly TV show.

King_Juan_Carlos[i-King_Juan_Carlos]Well, it had to happen some time. Fidel Castro’s younger brother (in the revolutionary sense), Hugo Chávez was told to shut up by King Juan Carlos. Pity, somebody did not do it to Fidel Castro many moons ago.

Rick Moran alerts readers on American Thinker to a delightful piece of news.

At a summit of leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal (what on earth has happened to the common foreign policy?) Venezuelan President Chávez held forth as usual but, contrary to all expectation not all his listeners were asleep. The Spanish Prime Minister, Zapatero and the Spanish King, Juan Carlos managed to keep awake.

Chávez launched into an attack on the previous Spanish Prime Minister Aznar, calling him a fascist (not, perhaps, the most sensible thing to say in the presence of Spaniards, given the country’s complicated history), adding for good measure:

Fascists are not human. A snake is more human.

The man’s ability to argue would be laughed out of court in sixth form debating society. Why the left in the West likes him so much passes understanding? Could it be that they like really stupid-sounding thugs because that makes them feel superior?

Prime Minister Zapatero stood up to reply and explained that Aznar was not a fascist but had been the duly and freely elected Prime Minister of Spain. And he did not have to have the egregious ex-President Jimmah Carter certify the election as free and fair. And he had not shut down any TV stations or changed the constitution. Well, no, Zapatero did not say all those things but I expect he thought them.

Apparently, the gathered heads of state applauded Zapatero’s statement about Aznar having been the legitimate representative of the Spanish people while Chávez tried to interrupt him. Thoughtfully, someone had switched his mike off though everyone seemed to hear King Juan Carlos turn to him and suggest angrily that he “shut up”.

Chávez tried to reply later in the time ceded to him by his close ally, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega but the response was lame in the extreme. Would Fidel Castro have done better in similar circumstances?

The King is not alone. He was applauded back home by the people and the media, including that on the left, which he must have found pleasant after recent carping directed more at his family than himself.

At the same time Venezuelan officials and the media came out fighting (well, waving toy swords) and defending their President, reminding King Juan Carlos that they were no longer his subjects, a somewhat irrelevant comment but one that is frequently brought out by countries run by dictators even if Venezuela with all the recent “reforms” is only a dictatorship in the making.

For some reason Chávez himself is pretending he did not hear the comment. Selective deafness it is known as, but one wonders what he hopes to gain by downplaying the whole episode.

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