Villainous Hero

How the Mighty Have Fallen

When Hugo Chavez died, the chattering classes and the Commentariat went into official mourning.  A saint had departed from the earth.  A true hero of the people, the poor, the underprivileged had shuffled off this mortal coil.  A political giant had left us.  But his legacy remained--an inspiration to all.

Pieces written by professional mourners appeared throughout the Western press and electronic media.  Chavez proudly announced himself to be a socialist and that socialism was the only way forward.  All of this was a bit too much from the more substantial outlets.  This from his obit in The Guardian:

During his 1998 presidential campaign, Chávez had insisted that he was "neither of the left nor the right". But by 2006, he felt sufficiently secure to declare that socialism was the only way forward. Specifically, it was "21st-century socialism" – a vaguely defined hotchpotch of ideas filched from a variety of sources, whose only consistent ingredient was an ever greater concentration of power in the hands of one man.

Twenty first century socialism turned out like all other socialisms--in the end it devolved into a governing clique centred around Chavez using the cause of the poor to take control of the levers of government to exploit the very poor he championed.  He has also also a big time favourite of criminal gangs, whose "enterprise" has expanded significantly under his reign.

The Guardian obit continues:

The debate continued as to whether Chávez could fairly be described as a dictator, but a democrat he most certainly was not. A hero to many, especially among the poor, for his populist social programmes, he assiduously fomented class hatred and used his control of the judiciary to persecute and jail his political opponents, many of whom were forced into exile.

Contemptuous of private property, he seized millions of hectares of farmland and scores of businesses large and small, often with little or no compensation. The result was an even more oil-dependent economy, which in place of the "endogenous development" promised by the revolution, relied on imports for basic foodstuffs once produced domestically.

Larceny was the prime hallmark of his reign.  Illegality was its culture.  Power was its deity.

Our own Prime Minister was roundly criticised because he was travelling in South America at the time and refused to break his schedule to attend the funeral of Chavez.

John Key was in no hurry to rejig his South American foray to join 30 other foreign leaders at the funeral of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. He did note that Venezuela bought lots of milk powder, but one wonders how closely he looked at the export figures. Last year Venezuela was our fifth biggest market for milk powder, butter and cheese - $454.2 million worth. It is also one of the fastest-growing markets; those sales have risen 420 per cent in a decade. Successive governments have stressed that New Zealand's foreign policy is governed by trade considerations, so Key might have thought it worthwhile to doff his hat to the late President Chavez, even if Washington disapproved.

Fortunately, Key knew better.  Anyone not blinded by Marxist dogma could see that Venezuela is a nation that was crippled by Chavez.

Chavez used his country's vast oil wealth to launch social programs that include state-run food markets, new public housing, free health clinics and education programs.  Poverty declined during Chavez's presidency amid a historic boom in oil earnings, but critics said he failed to use the windfall of hundreds of billions of dollars to develop the country's economy.  Inflation soared and the homicide rate rose to among the highest in the world.

Crime is now endemic.  The country will likely descend into chaos and become another South American pseudo-state controlled by criminal gangs.  

But there are many in the West who view these things as mere peccadilloes.  Chavez was a class champion.  He loved the poor.  Or so the story line runs.  All minor blemishes have been forgiven.

In truth, however, Chavez was nothing more than a modern day Ozymandius.  He has now passed from the sight of mortal man to await judgement before the Throne of God.  His works will follow him.