General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: If Chavez is dead, we need to be in solidarity with the people of Venezuela. [View all]Cleita
(75,480 posts)I lived with my parents while growing up in an American mining company town in Chile. I got very familiar with our Monroe Doctrine based State Department policy in South America. American mining and oil companies were king and at the top of the food chain. They were backed by our nation who fed carrots to the ruling classes, no matter how corrupt and cruel they were. The sticks were administered to anyone who dissented, who were immediately labeled communists and somehow ended up at the wrong end of a revolution and often dangling from a lamp post. No one who opposes American interests in South America is going to be treated as anything other than a murderous dictator.
The only American who really gets what goes on in those Southern Hemisphere nations is Noam Chomsky. He speaks the truth about our policy there. If Noam says Chavez was or Morales is a murderous dictator then I will believe it and not before. He is the only American scholar on the subject that I trust.