Hugo Chavez: Under the Sign of Cancer

For several days, millions of people tried to decipher what happened in the hospital room where Hugo Chavez is resting. Because beyond the resilience of an individual, in that room is defined a part of the road map of this Island and an entire regional project involving several nations.

This issue transcends the gravity of a tumor, the lamentable and sad illness of any individual, and becomes a true political upheaval. The surgery performed not only delved into the flesh of the tenant of the Miraflores Palace, but also created a wound through which can be seen the weakness of his work. Right now, in Venezuela, the political chess game is underway, even to the point of analyzing options for succession. In Havana's Plaza of the Revolution the deliberations are also intense.

For the Cuban government, the healthy existence of Hugo Chavez has emerged as a guarantee for economic reforms at a rhythm and velocity that won't lead to a loss of control. The 100 thousand barrels of oil that arrive daily from that South American nation sustain the process of "perfecting" the system driven by Raul Castro, and allow him to buy time in the face of citizen discontent and international pressure. Thus, to care for Chavez is to preserve the presidential seat, to lose him could hasten Raul's own downfall. In recent weeks the island hierarchy has felt, once again, the vertigo of the abyss into which we sunk following the dismemberment of the Soviet Union, and it intuits that it could not survive the loss of another powerful ally. The vitality of the caudillo is also a guarantee of its own future, his weakness threatens a rapid loss of support.

We are also present at an authentic lesson of the inconstancy of the politics of the individual, hopefully one that will spark a rethinking among those committed to the vertical structure of Chavez's rule. Without the incendiary speaker of international forums, without the leader who launches almost weekly verbal attacks, the region suddenly seems more contemplative, more centered. It is as if, in a plural chorus, the voice of the overpowering baritone, drowning out all other tones, had suddenly left the stage. We must not discount, however, that the speeches under the hot sun will return, the long perorations to demonstrate he is fully recovered, the hours in front of the camera on his Hello Mr. President show to prove that he is healthy.

Hugo Chavez wants to get back into the role of an invincible figure, but inevitably something has happened to him. Something not foreseen by the opposition, or by the Cuban advisors surrounding him, or by the apologists who spread his ideas. Something related to the easily broken composition of a human being, a small detail of his anatomy that refuses to continue going along with his so pompous campaigns.

Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation.
Translating Cuba is a new compilation blog with Yoani and other Cuban bloggers in English.
Yoani's new book in English, Havana Real, can be ordered here.

 

 

 

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Comments

[fairwayhill]

07:07 PM on 07/06/2011

The problem in South America is that they need to create a strong middle class to both combat poverty and foster economic growth. For that to happen there must be a redistribution of income through progressive tax brakes, just like the in US or Europe, and a strong distribution of wealth, particularly real estate. These are not socialistic ideals, but rather the basic requirements for a free and competitive market economy. Leaders like Chavez started this revolution and there is no turning back to the old days of capitalistic misery for the majority people. Someone else will pick up on their revolution and keep modernizing the economy. The days of the big corporations and the few wealthy owning the economy, the country and the political system are fortunately gone for good.

[SigmundF]

09:19 PM on 07/06/2011

Your thesis sounds great but is inaccurate. In USA we had an extraordinary development of the middle class thanks to anti-trust laws but also because the early history of support to small business and low taxation rates pushed by governments in XVIII and XIX centuries. We had almost no taxes in this country and we already were a rich country with a huge middle class. In Europe socialism is walking the way in opposite direction with respect USA, they had a big middle class that is being exterminated by the taxation policy. Paying 66% of the salary of your employees in employment taxes, 15-25% of taxes over any sell, 30-80% taxes for profits and 30% taxes over salaries is impossible for middle class to survive; that’s why in Europe most countries around 85% of population are low class employees, 10% is middle class struggling for surviving, 3% are stat bureaucrats and 2% are super-upper class that shares the ownership of the country with the state 50-50.
Chavez is not doing in Venezuela what you believe but implementing same sad and destructive schema that served Castro for vanishing upper class first and middle class later and finally impoverish the country: to lure middle class into a supposedly war on upper class with same arguments you exposed and the seductive promise of taking over upper class richness and place ….. but after upper class it will be the turn of middle class, freedom and all economic life.

[fairwayhill]

09:39 PM on 07/06/2011

These are the facts in US dollars. And regardless of GDP growth, it is also essential to redistribute income to raise the average standard of life.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1wA78Y69AlM/TevjNIqxTqI/AAAAAAAAA8Q/5X-jY2tzQ1A/s1600/latin%2Bamerica%2Beconomic%2Bgrowth.jpg

[SigmundF]

11:03 PM on 07/06/2011

Absolutelly right..... but before redistribu­te income to raise the average standard of life is needed to create an income, to create richness..... raising taxes and destroying the economy never is a secure source of income..... that's what happened in USSR, East Europe, Cuba, North Korea and now Venezuela..... it is exactly what's happening in the soft socialist Europe of nowadays, look at Greece, look at Iceland, Ireland, Spain...... how many historical examples you need to get convinced????

[Comrade Komar]

01:04 AM on 07/07/2011

Middle class has nothing to do with economy. Economy grows when nation has surplus manufactured goods, food or raw materials for sale to other nations. Once nation becomes only consumer goods made by other counties, this nations quickly goes bankrupt.

[jimmythefool]

07:19 AM on 07/06/2011

I would recommend South of the Border by Oliver Stone for an interesting look at the continents views on Chavez.
Personally, I think he has breathed the air into the lungs of South America that Spain, Portugal and the USA had been stealing for quite some time.

[Ozarks]

07:35 PM on 07/05/2011

Chavez apparently ignored the advice of his Cuban Doctors and took off for Venezuela because, in his absence, his base was crumbling. Disobeying Doctors makes his continued health outlook dubious.

[The Grand Inquisitor]

05:00 PM on 07/05/2011

It seems that the author damages her credibility beyond rehabilitation when she writes things like this.

It really does suggest that she is not interested in democracy at all and simply wants right wing US backed governments.

[Comrade Komar]

08:21 PM on 07/05/2011

She makes good point. Chavez and Castro didn't deliver goods they promised and they must go. The phrase:
"Ask not, what your country can do for you. Ask what, you can do for your country."
from John F. Kennedy's speech doesn't mean anything to her.

[fairwayhill]

07:11 PM on 07/06/2011

Really? There is little "you can do for your country", if you own nothing and have below poverty line income.

[fairwayhill]

07:09 PM on 07/06/2011

... and big US corporations dominating South America like the old days.

[SigmundF]

09:41 PM on 07/06/2011

USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore are examples of countries that started their life in the modern world as colonies first and impoverished countries after independence….. all of them reached extraordinary economical development ….. to America arrived investors and companies from all over the world that helped to the economical advance of the country……. so….. to be a poor country full of poor people has nothing to do with the capacity to raise richness, development and welfare. There is no link between the presence of foreign corporations in a country and poverty but the opposite…. Without the investment of foreign companies in under developed countries poverty would be worst yet in those countries. Today Japanese, Chinese and European owns huge investments in USA and this is a very good think for USA’s economy……. To read old books like Capital and old fashioned “philosophers” like Marx, Lenin and Mao gives you a very archaic view of the world and economy….. same is happening to Chavez and his followers.

[Comrade Komar]

01:39 PM on 07/05/2011

Nothing lasts forever. Some day is going to be post Chavez Venezuela and post Castro Cuba. Good luck.