Champion of the Left Hugo Chavez to "Rule By Decree"

This is exactly where the Left in America wishes to take us. Let's just see how many of them act as his apologists, and blame us for the move.

CARACAS, VENEZUELA — President Hugo Chavez was granted sweeping powers Wednesday to rule by decree for 18 months to accelerate his push toward socialism, a move that critics said propelled Venezuela toward dictatorship.

Convening in a downtown plaza for a session that resembled a political rally, the National Assembly unanimously gave Chavez control in 11 key areas, including the economy, the oil industry, defense and the structure of the state.

"Long live the sovereign people! Long live President Hugo Chavez! Long live socialism!" said National Assembly President Cilia Flores as she proclaimed the "enabling law" approved by a show of hands.

Chavez critics call the law a radical lurch toward authoritarianism by a leader with unchecked power, similar to the way Fidel Castro monopolized leadership in Cuba years ago.

LA Times Article


The results of a quick Survey on what others are saying....

Freedom Folks Hugo Hitler Chavez Gains Decree Power

Radioactive Communist Zombies Evil Empire

The Jawa Report I Think This Star Wars Quote Sums It Up

And below I have pasted the body of a dKospedia article on Hugo Chavez:

Hugo Chavez

From dKosopedia

Hugo Chavez, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, is the President of the Bolivaran Republic of Venezuela. Chavez won a fully democratic and open election in August, 2004 with 58% of the vote. Jimmy Carter served with international observers certifying the final tally.

Since then the Venezuelan government has exhibited signs of authoritarianism. Economic elites like opposition leader Gerardo Blyde are still free to speak but the political space for opposition is shrinking as there are fewer mews media outlets to propagate elite opinion. The formal authority of the Venezuelan presidency is also increasing. On January 19, 2007, the Venezuelan National Assembly passed legislation allowing the Venezuelan President for 18 months to impose political, economic and social reforms.

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Populist

Chavez is widely viewed throughout Latin America as a champion of the poor and economically disadvantaged middle class. Opposition to his solidly progressive views in a long-standing climate of economic hard times led to a push for the 2004 recall election, preceded by previous attempts at a coup d'etat and marked by harsh opposition from the oligarchic Right in Venezuela and elsewhere. Chavez has implemented civic reforms which have directly and tangibly benefited Venezuela's poor and middle class, which has widened his support among these sectors and helped stave off opportunistic threats against his office and government. Chavez's detractors accuse him of being "demagogic" and "thuggish," and that he seeks to "consolidate power" and "enrich cronies" while "using" the poor.

Chavez's policy platform is Bolivarísmo, a renewed effort to determine and define autonomous public and political policy in Latin America, named after and hearkening to Simón Bolívar, leader of the Latin American independence movement throughout South America in the 1820s and counterpart of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Venezuela and Brazil, together with Bolivia, represent a recent trend toward the left in Latin American politics and society, a trend which had been impeded for decades by US intervention, notably through efforts of the CIA. The name of revolutionary icon Fidel Castro, hated in Washington and Miami but loved across much of Latin America, is regularly deployed to cast aspersions upon Chavez and other progressive leaders of the region who retain diplomatic and cultural relations with Cuba, notably because of Cuba's high literacy rate and breadth of medical and social care achievements.

The primary Bolivarismo platform is land reform, an issue that threatens US transnational economic interests. The US has not been helpful to Chavez, but has been less forceful in having him removed than it has been with previous left wing politicians in Latin America. The preferred methods of intervention have historically been the destabilization of leftist and progressive states through agitation propaganda and inflammatory rhetoric. Land reform has historically been repelled through military and covert interventions, as are the cases in Guatemala and Perú in the mid-twentieth century.

The second son of two school teachers, Chavez was born on July 28, 1954 in the town of Sabaneta, Barinas, Venezuela.