Chávez dead

[Razgovory]

I can't believe that Chavez dies and the next day the thread is hijacked into the legal particulars of the Honduran coup/not coup.

At least I think we can agree that Raz was wrong that people didn't give a fuck about the coup.

Am I? Most of the board wasn't aware it happened. 

[Razgovory]

Our more conservative friends were quite a bit more subdued when Pinochet died, and he was a dictator who launched a successful coup.

A couple of important differences--Pinochet never tried to make himself a threat to American interests, and had been out of power for a good while at the time of his death.

Well unless you consider setting off a bomb in Washington and the killing of an American citizen.

[Viking]

Chavez was a big anti-American, antisemitic dickhead who went out of his way to be a right real pisshead to Washington and whose bullshit foreign policy won't be missed, but that doesn't negate the reforms he made in attempting to return some equality to Venezuela's rich-poor imbalance.  I know that's a foreign concept here in the United States of Wall Street, but he actually improved a lot of impoverished lives. 

Americans just can't stand Latin American leaders that don't march lockstep with the US and look the anti-Communist part straight out of early 1980's Central Casting.  Pretty funny for a hemisphere we've pretty much ignored since Roosevelt, unless it's to topple a government or ignore right-wing death squads whacking herds of Jesuits and nuns.

Yeah, Bush really really hated Lula didn't he?

[CountDeMoney]

Yeah, Bush really really hated Lula didn't he?

Can it, shitbird;  nobody ever counts Brazil in US-Latin American relations anyway.  They don't even speak Spanish.  They're just...there.

[The Larch]

Back in 2009, Der was happy about the coup.

http://languish.org/forums/index.php/topic,1367.0.html

Damn was that messy. I remember speaking with Minsky about it when I visited NY in 2010.

I see that spicy still hasn't answered my question on how Zelaya was "going left wing" and that justified having the military kicking him out of the country. 

[garbon]

I can't believe that Chavez dies and the next day the thread is hijacked into the legal particulars of the Honduran coup/not coup.

At least I think we can agree that Raz was wrong that people didn't give a fuck about the coup.

Am I? Most of the board wasn't aware it happened. 

Most of the board? As I showed, we spent several months on that topic.  You might have some of us not remembering it - but what does that prove?  How many threads we've had about Chavez vs. 2009 Honduras? That the former got more media coverage than the latter in the intervening years?

[Razgovory]

Back in 2009, Der was happy about the coup.

http://languish.org/forums/index.php/topic,1367.0.html

Damn was that messy. I remember speaking with Minsky about it when I visited NY in 2010.

I see that spicy still hasn't answered my question on how Zelaya was "going left wing" and that justified having the military kicking him out of the country. 

What a hoot!

[Admiral Yi]

It was appointed by the OAS and the Honduran Supreme Court, reported to the Supreme Court and was made up of respected Honduran figures.

That's not what your BBC link says.

Edit: And incidentally of course the OAS would be jumping about it illegal. Latin America democratised at great cost in the past 20-30 years so I can see how they'd want to be very demanding in preserving that and wanting to see troops remain in the bases.

Which assumes that their decision at the time was obviously the correct one, yet they felt the need to appoint a commission to investigate the correctness of the decision.

[derspiess]

Back in 2009, Der was happy about the coup.

http://languish.org/forums/index.php/topic,1367.0.html

Damn was that messy. I remember speaking with Minsky about it when I visited NY in 2010.

I see that spicy still hasn't answered my question on how Zelaya was "going left wing" and that justified having the military kicking him out of the country. 

Yeah well get in line, Spaniard. You're not the only person affected by my ADD-induced thread abandonment.

[Syt]

So, is Chavez still dead?

[Duque de Bragança]

So, is Chavez still dead?

Chávez ha muerto.

[fhdz]

I'm really glad that this time we've managed to resolve all the arguments

[Iormlund]

He ... did his part to undermine regional security in his part of the world. 

It has the advantage of distracting attention from his abundant failings, but it has the disadvantage of not being supported by the evidence.  Chavez had a brief blip of notoriety when it came to light he was supporting FARC, and rightly so.  Supporting an narco-insurgency against a democratic ally is no laughing matter. 

It's hard not to laugh at these statements when the main narco supporter is the US government with its disastrous drug policies.

[Admiral Yi]

It's hard not to laugh at these statements when the main narco supporter is the US government with its disastrous drug policies.

Please elaborate.  I'm particularly interested to learn how the US, with its active anti-drug efforts, is a greater supporter of narcotics than Europe, with its lax laws, is.

[Valmy]

Please elaborate.  I'm particularly interested to learn how the US, with its active anti-drug efforts, is a greater supporter of narcotics than Europe, with its lax laws, is.

Really?  Haven't these arguments been repeated a billion times?

The US leads the world in illegal drug use...which is an enormous market that fuels organized crime...which leads to them having the muscle to fuck with governments like Mexico.