chavez and anti-semitism

Forward published a piece Venezuela's Jews Defend Hugo Chavez which reveals an interesting dynamic. In a recent speech, Chavez apparently made a reference to "Christ-killers" but in a Latin American context, Liberation Theology has long depicted Jesus as a socialist and consequently speaks of gentile business elites as "Christ-killers."

The Simon Wiesenthal Center took the comment as anti-semitic and are asking Chavez to apologize. But local Latin American Jewish organizations, as well as other American Jewish organizations are defending Chavez and are accusing the Simon Wiesenthal Center of rushing to judgment by charging Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, with making antisemitic remarks.

So then that raises the question of whether the Simon Wiesenthal center is speaking in the interests Venezuelan Jews or speaking as an American organization which disagrees with Chavez's political stances?

chavez of arabia

Here are some very Grenada-esque pieces on Hugo Chavez and the connections he is making in the Middle East and Africa:

La Voz de Aztlan: "Chavez of Arabia" Greeted as Hero in Damascus
Aljazeera: Winning Arab hearts and minds by Dima Khatib
Adisa Banjoko: I dunno why, but I'm kinda starting to dig Hugo Chavez....

latin america and the arab world: resistance and occupation

Progressive Podcast: Tariq Ali, author of Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis of Hope, delivers a lecture in Sydney, Australia entitled: Latin America and the Arab World: Resistance and Occupation on Hugo Chavez and the insights which the experience of Latin American leftist populism may hold for the Middle East.

A revolution is moving across Latin America. Since 1998, the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela has brought Hugo Chávez to world attention as the foremost challenger of the neoliberal consensus and American foreign policy. Tariq Ali shows how Chávez's views have polarized Latin America and examines the aggression directed against his administration. His lecture will guide us through a world divided between privilege and poverty, a continent that is once again on the march. The contrast with the Arab world could not be more striking. Here the resistance is divided and without the social vision required to unite a people.

the anti-imperialist left confronted with islam
Planet Grenada and Hugo Chavez
tariq ali

dj ahmedinejad aka hugo chavez

To be honest, I'm not sure what the whole story is. But I was checking out Ted Swedenburg's blog hawgblawg, and in his latest post Sound Comments... were links to different music pages, one by someone with the Grenada-esque name of DJ Ahmedinejad aka Hugo Chavez and some links to other pages by some very non-traditional Middle Eastern + Turkish electronic music collectives. Not my usual musical fare but still worth a listen.

pat robertson is evil: reason #873

Pat Robertson calls for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (on video)

From the August 22 broadcast of The 700 Club:

ROBERTSON: There was a popular coup that overthrew him [Chavez]. And what did the United States State Department do about it? Virtually nothing. And as a result, within about 48 hours that coup was broken; Chavez was back in power, but we had a chance to move in. He has destroyed the Venezuelan economy, and he's going to make that a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism all over the continent.

You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don't think any oil shipments will stop. But this man is a terrific danger and the United ... This is in our sphere of influence, so we can't let this happen. We have the Monroe Doctrine, we have other doctrines that we have announced. And without question, this is a dangerous enemy to our south, controlling a huge pool of oil, that could hurt us very badly. We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.

(courtesy of the left side of the dial)

is there a black vote in venezuela?

Venezuelanalysis.com: Is There a "Black Vote" in Venezuela? is an older piece which touches on how far Venezuelan society still has to go when it comes to its Black citizens, even under Hugo Chavez.

ahmadinejad to tour latin america

La Voz De Aztlan
January 11, 2007

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to tour Central and South America

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to begin a four day tour of Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragaua, Bolivia and other Central and South American countries on Saturday.

President Ahmadinejad will begin his tour in Caracas, Venezuela where he will meet with President Hugo Chavez Frias. His next stop will be Managua, Nicaragua where talks with the president-elect Daniel Ortega are scheduled. On Monday, President Ahmadinejad will attend the swearing-in ceremony of Ecuador's new president Rafael Correa, who won his country's presidential election last November. President-elect Rafael Correa will not be renewing the lease for the US military air base on Ecuador's pacific coast. President Ahmadinejad will also hold meetings with other South American presidents including Bolivia's Evo Morales, before completing his tour on Tuesday.

There are growing strong ties between many Latin American countries and Islam. The reasons are historically based. Both have suffered tremendously because of USA imperialist tendencies. Even today, there are still some countries in the region that have puppet regimes subservient to the USA. There are quite a few puppet regimes in the Middle East as well and the USA is presently struggling to implant a new one in Iraq.

southern woes and southern comfort

From Common Dreams: Latin America Shifts Left: It's the Economy by Mark Weisbrot looks at some of the economic obstacles faced by Latin American countries, especially Bolivia which recently elected its first indigenous president Evo Morales.

And from the Washington Times: Hugo Chavez suggests the formation of a regional "Bank of the South" that would help reduce foreign debt in Latin America, and offer no-strings loans in competition to the U.S.-backed IMF.

"...he run venezuela"

Yahoo News: CARACAS, Venezuela - The American singer and activist Harry Belafonte called President Bush "the greatest terrorist in the world" on Sunday and said millions of Americans support the socialist revolution of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. Belafonte led a delegation of Americans including the actor Danny Glover and the Princeton University scholar Cornel West that met the Venezuelan president for more than six hours late Saturday. (full story)

telesur - "latin america's al-jazeera"

The new Pan-Latin American tv Channel Telesur began broadcasting recently to bring news from a Latin American perspective. It is backed by the governments of Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba and Uruguay who say they want it to promote Latin American integration. The driving force has been Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose government has contributed 70 percent of Telesur's financing and owns 51 percent of the channel. The channel's board members include a group of international supporters including the actor Danny Glover, the writer Tariq Ali and Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel.

The "Latin American 'Al-Jazeera'" is already ruffling feathers. Before the new channel even started broadcasting, the US House of Representatives passed an amendment to call for the US government to broadcast its own channel in the region to counter Telesur's influence.

That's sort of a disturbing thought. The image just flashed in my mind of a more tan version of Tom Cruise, only with a Latin accent saying "I want the truth!" while a US congressman with an uncanny resemblance to Jack Nicholson replies "You can't handle the truth!".

Telesur's Website
BBC News story about Telesur
Democracy Now! story about Telesur (includes excerpt from interview with Telesur's president)