You've got to hand it to WikiLeaks: the whistle-blowing outfit sure has impeccable timing. Even as forces loyal to Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi fire on protesters in a mounting massacre and human rights calamity, Julian Assange has released U.S. diplomatic cables which should prove acutely embarrassing to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Venezuela has been a long-time ally of Gadhafi's, and some reports even suggested that the Libyan leader might have recently fled to Caracas in an attempt to save his own skin [Venezuela's top diplomat Nicolas Maduro denied the speculation, however, remarking on Monday that Gadhafi had not escaped to South America. The strongman, Maduro added, had preferred to stay in Tripoli in an effort to exercise "the powers granted to him by the state and facing the situation"].
WikiLeaks cables lay bare the tight diplomatic and political alliance between Gadhafi and Chávez. In 2009, the U.S. Embassy in Caracas wrote Washington about an African-South American summit held on the Venezuelan island of Margarita. Chávez had called the meeting in an effort to highlight the historic unity between long-oppressed continents, though such public relations efforts were severely undermined by the roster of participants which included autocrats like Gadhafi and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. According to U.S. diplomats, Chávez and Gadhafi congratulated each other on their "revolutions" during the ceremonies. From there, the rhetoric got more and more ridiculous. "The meeting with Gaddafi," U.S. diplomats wrote, "provided the opportunity for rhetorical assaults on capitalism, colonialism, and imperialism."
Bizarrely, Chávez declared "What Simon BolĂvar [the Great Liberator of South American independence against the Spanish] is to the Venezuelan people, Gaddafi is to the Libyan people." Gadhafi then praised Chávez for "having driven out the colonialists," just as he had driven out those in Libya. "We share the same destiny, the same battle in the same trench against a common enemy, and we will conquer," Qaddafi said. As if these exchanges were not preposterous enough, Chávez then took advantage of the occasion to award Gadhafi the "Orden del Libertador," Venezuela's highest civilian decoration, and presented the Libyan leader with a replica of Simon BolĂvar's sword [to see a video of the sword-bearing ceremony, click here].
The summit at Margarita was merely the tip of the iceberg: for years Chávez and Gadhafi have enjoyed warm ties. As fellow world oil producers and supporters of the Palestinian cause, Libya and Venezuela have seen eye to eye on foreign policy matters. According to Venezuelan paper El Universal, Chávez has visited Libya on five separate occasions. Perversely, Libya reportedly awarded Chávez with something called the "Qaddafi Human Rights Prize" back in 2004. Five years later, Gadhafi named a football stadium in the Libyan city of Benghazi after Chávez.
Now that Gadhafi has been discredited, will Chávez give second thought to his severely misguided foreign policy? Given the Venezuelan's bizarre track record, it doesn't seem very likely. For years, I've been writing about Chávez's backward approach to African affairs up on my website. Far from supporting popular struggle, Chávez has embraced the most unscrupulous and autocratic leaders imaginable. Commenting on former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, the Venezuelan remarked "I don't know, maybe he [Amin] was a great nationalist, a patriot." Chávez didn't stop there, hailing Robert Mugabe as a "brother." The African leader, Chávez said, had been wrongly branded a "bad guy" in the eyes of the world. Like Gadhafi, Chávez once presented Mugabe with a replica of a sword wielded by BolĂvar. As if it could get no worse, Chávez has also embraced Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, a leader who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity in Darfur. The ICC has charged Bashir with five counts: murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture, and rape.
With revolution now sweeping away the most autocratic rulers across the African continent, Chávez now has a unique opportunity to redraw his political priorities. Will the Venezuelan leader see the error of his ways or continue to embrace phony Third World liberation in the guise of autocratic despotism? Señor Presidente: the silence has become truly deafening.
Nikolas Kozloff is the author of Revolution! South America and the Rise of the New Left (Palgrave-Macmillan). Visit his website, www.nikolaskozloff.com
I took a look at your website. A little feedback: Smile. I'm eager to read all your work. You are speaking some very deep truths. Just remember, this Earth is a joyous, wondrous, mystical place, and life is like a beginning with endless possibilities. I know; there are tyrants everywhere, and everything seems out of balance. Show us instead that you are in love with the Earth and this life, that you believe in us, so we have a model of something other than angry men who rule. Blessings,
www.offthegridmpls.blogspot.com
Democratic leaders don't keep political prisoners.
Democratic leaders respect and welcome the separation of powers.
Democratic leaders respect the results of elections.
Democratic leaders don't need to resort to gerrymandeÂring.
Democratic leaders respect the constitutiÂon.
Hmmm. I thought America had democratic leaders. Obviously I was mistaken.
This explains why Mr.Kozloff, who normally would abandon anyone caught on Youtube declaring "I am the People! And I require loyalty!"--does not do so with Chavez. Mr. Kozloff finds it hard to give up the false idea that Chavez has benefitted the poor, so limits his critique to foreign policy only.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPhPfmQOtf0
It never seems to cross his mind that Chávez consistently expresses his admiration, respect, affection, solidarity and deep brotherhood with autocrats because he shares their understanding of power, and the leader's role with regard to his people.
I simply said that as of 2004 the United States no longer considers Libya a state sponsor of terrorism, and that the United States trades with them just like Venezuela does
And that the wikileaks did not reveal anything damaging about Chavez, since by their very nature they are our diplomatic cables and war logs. Anything we would say negative about Chavez in the cables we would say in public. Not much of it seems justified though, hence his continued popularity
By the way, Americans: It's not all about you. While indeed the trove of should-be-leaked information is deepest for America, Wikileaks has been publishing more information about other countries, ever since they started. It just never gets a hearing in America. Your news stops at the border.
Julian Assange doesn't hate America. He hates corruption, wherever it occurs.
They are our diplomatic records and war logs.
The only way they hurt foreign leaders is in the cases of places like Egypt were the leaders are colluding with our government to do things their population doesn't approve of.
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/hugo-chavez/
http://www.theipinionsjournal.com/index.php/2005/10/a-laughing-shame-robert-mugabe-malevolent-dictator-gets-rounds-of-applause-at-un-conference/
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2010/1022/Hugo-Chavez-embraces-Iran-and-Syria-wins-Russian-support-for-nuclear-program
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/cuba/4219222/Fidel-Castro-unlikely-to-be-seen-in-public-again.html
Chavez consorts with villains because he himself is a villain.
Really beats me how some on the (far) left have such blinders when it comes to this dangerous, authoritarian and demagogic ruler. It's pathetic. Just shows you that the left also has an unsavoury crackpot element within it.
If he wants to prove to the world that he is a democratic leader and believes in democratic ideals, as he and the PSUV insist, then why does he keep allying with anti-American despotisms? Simply because any anti-American government must inherently be morally justified?
If anything, Gaddhafi should be an example of the kind of revolutionary Chavez should desperately want to avoid becoming ... a deeply unpopular narcissistic dictator-for-life with nothing to keep him in power but the overwhelming firepower of his military.
Democratic leaders respect and welcome the separation of powers.
Democratic leaders respect the results of elections.
Democratic leaders don't need to resort to gerrymandering.
Democratic leaders respect the constitution.
Chavez has violated all of the above and many more tenets of what democracy is about.
Given the above, is it really surprising to you that Hugo Chavez considers allies all of those who need to use fear, intimidation, murder and so on to stay in power?
Like Bradley Manning.
Democratic leaders respect and welcome the separation of powers.
Unlike Obama's handling of the Chrysler bankrupcy.
Democratic leaders respect the results of elections.
Unlike GW Bush's Supreme Court Election Victory of the year 2000.
Democratic leaders don't need to resort to gerrymandeÂring.
Like Tom Delay's redrawing of the map of Texas in 2003.
Democratic leaders respect the constitutiÂon.
Unlike Hillary Clinton's crushing of Ray McGovern's First Amendment rights.
as required by the Constitution.
This Enabling Act was passed to make sure the Opposition could not use its 52% of the recent election vote to slow down or stop his plans for a Cuban-style government with him in the place of Castro.
http://www.lapatilla.com/site/2011/02/19/el-album-de-chavez-y-gadafi-fotos/
Is Spanish but pictures can be read in any language... except, perhaps, Communist denial lingo.
Hmmm... by the way, Chavez was very outspoken with regard to Mubarak's failing but I have not heard a single beep with regard to Gadafhi. Wonder why.