In Latin America, US Would Rather Talk About Villains than Partners Ponte Al Dia
go to original March 12, 2013

How will the world remember Hugo Chavez? And what kind of leader was he? To discuss the implications of the death of Hugo Chavez on the world stage, Inside Story is joined by guests: Jeremy Corbyn, a member of the British Parliament, from the opposition Labour Party; Natasha Ezrow, a lecturer of government at the University of Essex, and the author of the book Dictators and Dictatorships: Understanding Authoritarian Regimes and Their Leaders; and Raheem Kassam, the executive editor of The Commentator, and director of communications for the Henry Jackson Society. (AlJazeeraEnglish)

It is quite possible that the only president of Latin American countries most non-Latino Americans can reliably name is Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, who died March 5 at the age of 58. The reason for this is two-fold, and significant in terms of where we go from here.

One reason was Chávez’s personality itself. Flamboyant, charismatic, vocal in both friendship and emnity, and over-the-top, Chávez made no bones about his disdain for U.S. administrations — particularly George W. Bush’s — and once famously declared that the devil had been in the same room and left his stink of sulphur, after the U.S. president addressed the U.N. General Assembly in 2006.

Chávez — a president from the emerging classes who first became a public figure when he was an active member of the military — was a leader who thumbed his nose at those he felt slighted him: he was more mestizo than criollo, more populist caudillo than high-born oligarch. When the King of Spain told him to shut up, Chávez’s response was the equivalent of “who do you think you are to say that to me?”

There is a fine line between self-respect and arrogance, and Chávez danced it, every moment of his 14 years in power.

Read the whole story at New America Media

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