Chavez On The March Again

According to various reports from this weekend, Hugo Chavez - the so-called "populist" strongman of Venezuela - is at it again.

According to the pro-globalist Washington Post, Chavez is openly backing former Communist dictator Daniel Ortega to win the November presidential elections in Nicaragua.

According to the pro-globalist Associated Press, as written in the Microsoft-owned MSN Money section, Guatemala's president Oscar Berger will meet Chavez next month to negotiate a deal to buy discounted oil from his country, as well as increase Venezuelan investments in oil and gas exploration in his country.

According to El Universal of Caracas, Haiti's presdient-elect will have a one-day visit with Chavez to also discuss efforts for his nation - the poorest in the Caribbean - to buy cheap oil.

According to the influential Jane's military news website, the Chavez regime is hoping to buy a total of 26 Russian-built fighters, as well as a Red Chinese defense communications system.

All the while, Venezuela has become one of the most violent nations in South America, if not Latin America. According to the South African Mail & Guardian, much of the bloodshed can be laid on the doorstep of Chavez's neo-Marxist class-warfare policies. Although down slightly from 2004, over 9,400 people were killed in 2005.

On the pro-Venezuelan opposition blog Vcrisis.com, there is a four-part series on how the pro-Socialist government is funding a effort to put a positive spin on the regime. The parts of the series are here, here, here and here. They even compare many of his tactics to Mussolini and Argentina's Juan Peron, as written here. They also have a comment on his actions this weekend here.

Even the - ugh! - Anarcho-socialists of Indymedia Colombia complain about the Chavez regime making deals with international oil conglomerates, as well as threatening the welfare and culture of Native American tribes in his domains.

So long as Chavez and his supporters continue to run Venezuela, that sad nation will continue - in spite of whatever progress it seems to be making - to suffer under their misrule. Alas, like too many other nations of the Spanish-speaking world, they don't know about Distributism. Too many have never read Belloc, Chesterton and their legitimate successors, and their insights on how to lift their countries out of poverty and oppression.

And all done without resorting to interference by Washington, Havana, Moscow, Beijing, the IMF, the European Union countries, the cursed UN and WTO or all of the multi-national conglomerates.

So let us do our part, by prayer and education, to bring Distributism to Latin America. And help kick both big business interference AND neo-Marxist so-called "populism" out of the lives of Latinoamericanos.