Good Article on Venezuala
Those aware of Venezuala and what's going on there probably have some vague notion that it amounts to a repeat of Castro in the 1960s (after all, Chavez himself claims Castro as an inspiration and that he is continuing his revolutionary tradition).
But this article in the Houston Chronicle (which hardly counts as a radical lefty publication) makes a number of important points for Americans who want to understand what is happening in Venezuala and, to some degree, in the rest of South and Central America.
http://www.freepress.net/news/20947. (link goes to free reprint on Free Press cite, which has Chronicle link embedded.)
I wish I had more time to write on this. The story of how the U.S. squandered the good will it enjoyed after the end of the Cold War -- a process of squandering that goes back to the Clinton administration and has a lot more to do with bread and butter trade issues than Iraq or Israel/Palestine or the one or two other "big ticket" items that are all people hear about in the media -- is one that needs to be understood for the formulation of a foreign policy that generates peace and economic propserity for us and the rest of the world.
Finally, it would be well to ask why we have taken zero action on Russia -- which has engaged in a far more egregiuous pattern of silencing critics, renationalizing industries, and opposing our interests abroad -- but are getting hot and bothered on Venezuala.
But this article in the Houston Chronicle (which hardly counts as a radical lefty publication) makes a number of important points for Americans who want to understand what is happening in Venezuala and, to some degree, in the rest of South and Central America.
http://www.freepress.net/news/20947. (link goes to free reprint on Free Press cite, which has Chronicle link embedded.)
I wish I had more time to write on this. The story of how the U.S. squandered the good will it enjoyed after the end of the Cold War -- a process of squandering that goes back to the Clinton administration and has a lot more to do with bread and butter trade issues than Iraq or Israel/Palestine or the one or two other "big ticket" items that are all people hear about in the media -- is one that needs to be understood for the formulation of a foreign policy that generates peace and economic propserity for us and the rest of the world.
Finally, it would be well to ask why we have taken zero action on Russia -- which has engaged in a far more egregiuous pattern of silencing critics, renationalizing industries, and opposing our interests abroad -- but are getting hot and bothered on Venezuala.