Obsequies for Chavez were Just a Warm-Up for Fidel's (Le Figaro, France)
"Only ignorance about Latin American reality or a nostalgia for
strong leaders can explain the admiration Hugo Chavez aroused on the French
left. ... Revolutionary romanticism regularly fueled conflict during the Cold
War, in which the United States opposed the allies of Soviet communism. ... In
this sense, the obsequies for Hugo Chavez were just a general rehearsal for the
chorus of lamentation that in some circles, Fidel Castro's inevitable disappearance
are bound to bring."
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.
Like many Latin
American caudillos before him, Hugo
Chavez knew how to create a hybrid political system in which the most
idealistic leftism is able to embrace an authoritarianism the likes of which is inspired by history's darkest
dictatorships.
The obsequies for the
Bolivarian “Comandante” resulted in many a tear. Such
support from the most impoverished is understandable, as is the quasi-religious
devotion Chavez inspired in his partisans. For fourteen years, every state
resource was in the service of his personality cult. The ideological barrage he
subjected Venezuelans to allowed him to establish a personal influence his
successors will find very difficult to maintain.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
That Chavez devoted
his energetic demagoguery and means without end in the form of oil wealth to
campaigns against poverty, explain his indisputable popularity among his
people. His generosity toward brotherly countries helped him buy heroic stature
on the continental left, grandly claiming the legacy of Bolivar, father of
Latin American independence.
Moreover, his fanatic
anti-imperialism and diatribes against the United States of George W. Bush easily
won him the sympathy of leaders as unsavory as Iran President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad and Belarus head of state Alexander Lukashenko
- who were both present at the funeral.
Hugo Chavez had an
extraordinary talent: creating myths out of almost nothing. But his policy was just
a series of failures - particularly in the field of economics. Due to its oil
reserves, Venezuela is potentially the richest nation on the planet.
Expropriation, nationalization and corruption have made it a state plagued by crime,
inflation and chronic food shortages.
This is social policy à laLéon
Blum, so praised by the left. As for Chavez' institutional reforms, which Minister
of Overseas VictorinLurel compares to
those of General de Gaulle, they mostly consisted of replacing existing
democratic bodies with institutions at the caudillo's beck and call.
Only ignorance about Latin
American reality or a nostalgia for strong leaders can explain the admiration Hugo
Chavez aroused on the French left. There is also a strong dose of anachronism
in his religion of anti-imperialistic socialism. Revolutionary romanticism regularly
fueled conflict during the Cold War, in which the United States opposed the
allies of Soviet communism.
In this sense, the obsequies
for Hugo Chavez were just a general rehearsal for the chorus of lamentation
that in some circles, Fidel Castro's inevitable disappearance are bound to bring.
There is strong concern that this might be an occasion for new fireworks.
