Hugo Chavez meets Pope
Benedict in Vatican City, 2006. Did Chavez
have something to teach the
world about spirituality and politics?
Hugo Chavez Brought 'Era of the Wealth-Centric' to an End
(Juventud Rebelde, Cuba)
Do thecurrent 'owners of theworld' fundamentallymisunderstand Hugo Chavez
and theLatin American left? Accordingtocolumnist Ricardo Ronquillo
Bello of Cuba'sstate-controlledJuventud Rebelde, thankstopeoplelikeChavez, BolivianPresident Evo Morales, Fidel Castro and others, 'the
Eurocentric or wealth-centric era is over' and 'the genie has escaped the lamp,
and if that weren't enough, the genie has gone marvelously over to the side of
the eternally forgotten and humiliated.'
Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad comforts the mother of Hugo Chavez, Elena Frias, alongside the flag-draped coffin of her son, Mar. 8. Ahmadinejad came under fire from Iran clerics, not only for publicly showing such affection toward a female, but for saying Chavez would be resurrected with Christ and the Mahdi.
He was called a messiah by Iranian
president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and although the instrument that brought Hugo
Chavez to his "cross" remains to be duly clarified, according to
Bolivian authorities, what's certain is that their leader, along with his
counterparts in the renewed continental left, has founded a new spirituality
for politics in their countries and the world. And more importantly, for 21st
century socialism.
Venezuela Minister of Energy and Petroleum Rafael
Ramirez, in the midst of these days of mourning, told the press that Chavez had
practiced and encouraged a new ethic - an extraordinary new way of doing
politics.
That the Iranian government - in a highly ecumenical
gesture from a spiritual point of view - declared national mourning over the
passing of Chavez, making him the first non-Muslim to be remembered in this way
since the 1979 founding of the Islamic Republic - is an expression of the
influence and universal appeal of the Bolivian dignitary's political practices.
Ahmadinejad, who went to Caracas to honor Chavez shaken - described him as a "martyr"
who will someday return to this world accompanied by Christ and the Mahdi, the Shiite redeemer. Iran's Shiite Muslims believe
that the promised Mahdi will return to save the world
accompanied by 313 individuals, whose "pure devotion" make them the holiest
of the holy.
In the face of such an outpouring of grief on the part of
the Venezuelan people and others of the region - one must ask whether Chavez, a
man of faith and stirring spiritual sensibilities, hadn't already reincarnated among
the grief-stricken multitudes accompanying him to his eternal resting place, and
to give shape to the foreshadowing that reached a climax during his last presidential
campaign in the motto: "We are all Chavez."
One question then jumps out: What
happened within the planetary news consortia that resulted in the construction
and presentation of an inverse image: converting the images of a resurrected
Latin America to an absurdity; and its leaders into the incarnation of dark angels?
Even these days of upheaval haven't stopped the rage - a
rage that had its origin long ago. One recalls feeling joyful merriment over
the supposed existence of an axis of evil: Havana-Caracas; Caracas-Tehran; and Venezuela-Cuba,
which were said to be regional "destabilizers,"
and about authoritarian dictatorships that support the election campaigns of "dictators
on the left," so that other enemies of democratic institutions and free
expression could come to power.
On flat screens and the pages of
the great planetary media consortia, new data was never permitted to interfere with their depiction
of an "evil genius," a "well-heeled oilman," a "coca
leader," a "populist," or a "statist commander."
These powerful media often focus on "extravagance"
and turn gestures profound in their authenticity, simplicity and scope into advantageous fads,
like when Bolivian President Evo Morales wears the
typical clothing of his ancestors or other simple attire, while rubbing elbows
with luminaries of the suit and tie world.
Perhaps they don’t understand that the
way we dress is an expression of something very deep. Evo
Morales is saying, with this simple detail, that the Eurocentric or wealth-centric
era is over, during which everything had to be validated from the vantage point
of the towering metropolis, resulting in the Columbus-inspired vision of America
as one of "wild Indians."
In 2006, as Chavez spoke to thousands of Cuban youth and
young people from other nations after receiving the UNESCO's International Jose
Marti Prize, it occurred to me that perhaps from that day on, the global
aristocracy would also try to sell the moon.
It wasn't strange that such nonsense
would occur to the new merchants of the temple, when for a moment, Chavez
interrupted his touching speech to "decipher" the messages of our sweet
and poetic planetary neighbor.
Those who still own the world have
difficulty understanding the symbolism of this interruption, while any loving
mortal would see in it the longing of a sensitive man looking in the universe
for signs of infinite justice and peace, and who is furthermore willing to
fight to achieve them.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
At root of all these empty boasts and distortions, the
motive is none other than impotence. It is clear that the genie has escaped the
lamp, and if that weren't enough, the genie has gone marvelously over to the
side of the eternally forgotten and humiliated.
The new left, the new socialists as Chavez himself called
them, born out of the dust of the Berlin Wall, express a genuine genius and
sensitivity, quite distant from the orthodoxy, conceit, and petulance that
condemned the so-called model of "ideal socialism" to death.
Translated into the language of the mainland, as I have said
here, Chevez left the stage of history with the United
States having to deal with the "dangerous madman of the south," which,
as Chavez liked to remind us, is the way the liberator Simon Bolivar was contemptuously
classified.
All signs point toward - and Venezuelans have emphasized
with their grieving multitudes and civic talent - that in the lyrics of a
Creole song: This America has uncorked a "pile of crazies." The
region is turning into something like a "huge insane asylum" that the
straight-jackets will never again be able to control.
