No one is denying there are anti Chavistas, but they are the minority, Chavez won the presedential election in 06 with over 60% of the vote.

What is unsubstantiated rubbish is all the "despotic" nonsense.

__________________
Viva Fidel

If there ever was in the history of humanity an enemy who was truly universal, an enemy whose acts and moves trouble the entire world, threaten the entire world, attack the entire world in any way or another, that real and really universal enemy is precisely Yankee imperialism

They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?

Lol, well played Bourne, a five year old article about a march with what sounds like ten times less people than the one in the OP supporting Chavez.

__________________
Trust me, I'm a socialist!

There's power in a factory,power in the land, power in the hand of the worker. But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand, there is power in a union.
The union forever defending our rights, down with the blackleg, workers unite. To our brothers and our sisters in many far off lands, there is power in a union.
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own. - Billy Bragg

Agreed.

But let's remember that the Anti-Chavistas aren't only the wealthy.

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"Have you no decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
-Joseph Welch

Yes, the wealthy and the middle classes, it's not the people in the barrios.

__________________
Viva Fidel

If there ever was in the history of humanity an enemy who was truly universal, an enemy whose acts and moves trouble the entire world, threaten the entire world, attack the entire world in any way or another, that real and really universal enemy is precisely Yankee imperialism

They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?

Let's face it, the middle class are pretty wealthy aswell, certainly in comparison to the people in the barrios.

__________________
Trust me, I'm a socialist!

There's power in a factory,power in the land, power in the hand of the worker. But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand, there is power in a union.
The union forever defending our rights, down with the blackleg, workers unite. To our brothers and our sisters in many far off lands, there is power in a union.
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own. - Billy Bragg

My apologies. I misread the date. I thought that it was recent.

Please forgive me and feel free to return to your pro-despot, socialist / communist loving discussion.

Thank you. Are you going to provide evidence for your assertion that he's a despot?

__________________
Trust me, I'm a socialist!

There's power in a factory,power in the land, power in the hand of the worker. But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand, there is power in a union.
The union forever defending our rights, down with the blackleg, workers unite. To our brothers and our sisters in many far off lands, there is power in a union.
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own. - Billy Bragg

Human Rights Watch: Americas : Venezuela

Venezuela: Human Rights under Threat | Amnesty International

There's nothing substantial there, not anywhere near US abuses anyway. Also considering it says RCTV was closed down when it is still on the air shows how much such sources can be trusted.

If you want to see what RCTV is responsible for try watching The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. Then you would realise that if they did what they did in the US they would face the death penalty, in the UK they would face life in prison.

I doubt you will watch it as i suspect you enjoy being detatched from reality.

THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED

__________________
Viva Fidel

If there ever was in the history of humanity an enemy who was truly universal, an enemy whose acts and moves trouble the entire world, threaten the entire world, attack the entire world in any way or another, that real and really universal enemy is precisely Yankee imperialism

They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?

From another post i did ages ago:
I very much dislike Chavez's demenour, but there's no denying what he's done for Venezuelan's.

Venezuelan's chose their system of government. I would argue that after the violence of dictatorship they would have accepted pretty much anything.

Chavez has been democratically elected on numerous occasions (widely regarded as mostly fair, but not without incident). He was returned to power by the people after an American backed coup. He put up a resolution (which contained a couple of hundred edicts, including the term one) and he was defeated. He accepted the results. If he had as much power as people suppose, he would have done a much better job of rigging the vote.

Venezuelan's STILL support socialism:
Venezuelans Tend to Prefer Socialism Over Capitalism


Even after his attempt to grab more power (Bush did it with the Patriot Act), he's still just a tiny bit more popular than Bush Note that many of the things in his agenda were very popular. But the health of their democracy ensured his failure.

I like what Chavez has done, but i worry about a more extreme successor (be it extreme socialist or capitalist).

A quick look at human rights with Amnesty International (linked by the vcrisis.com site) shows the USA has a much worse record than Venezuela:
USA | Amnesty International

Careful what you reference. Their reviews of American human rights isn't exactly glowing.

In fact it makes Chavez look like an Angel in light of 50+ years of American state sanctioned terrorism.

U.S. Interventions - 1945 to the Present William Blum


As for your comments about their economy, here's an interesting article:
http://www.cepr.net/documents/public...te_2008_02.pdf

Don't be afraid of an alternative system, though not perfect you could find it has many desirable aspects that many American's would dearly love to implement at home if given open, non-demonising information.

As for your comments about destabilising the region - i know you know what the USA has done for the region over the last 50 years (you're smart enough). Don't play that card, quite disgusting.