Reply #12: After your unsupported comments on Chavez, I'm a little afraid to ask, because

[Peace Patriot]

I would like accurate, fact/experience-based, on-the-ground info on the political situation in Honduras. I know Honduras' horrific history as the launching pad for Reaganite death squads into Nicaragua and El Salvador, but it seems to have a better government now, and I know several things about the president, Manuel Zelaya: a) that he was not happy with the Bushwhacks, b) that he brought Honduras into the Bushwhack-negotiated CAFTA, but has also visited Cuba on trade missions, and c) that he joined ALBA, the Chavez inspired and organized barter trade group.

Could you give us your perception of where Honduras is heading politically? How would you describe the current president (left, center-left, etc.)? Honduras is now sandwiched in by leftist or progressive left-center governments (left-Nicaragua, left-El Salvador, progressive left-center, Guatemala). Will this influence Honduran elections? How are the Bushwhack CAFTA, and the Chavez trade group ALBA, working out in Honduras?

My objections to your comments on Chavez are these...

"He´s in trouble. With falling gas prices he will lose his butt.

It seems to me, based on vast reading, that the Chavez government has prepared Venezuela quite well for drops and fluctuations in oil prices, and for the Bushwhack's Financial 9/11. They have $42 billion in international cash reserves, for instance. Employment has improved in 2009, and Venezuela is coming off a period of sustained and remarkable economic growth over the last five years, with the most growth in the private sector, not including oil. The Chavez government has also concentrated on education, on bootstrapping the poor in various ways, on land reform/food security, local manufacturing and local and regional infrastructure. The oil revenues couldn't have been better spent, to overcome decades of malfeasance and corruption by rightwing governments, and to prepare Venezuela for the future. And the government's response to the current Bushwhack, worldwide economic meltdown has been quicker and more progressive than any other government in the world.

So, why do you say "he will lose his butt"? What do you mean? What do you base that statement on?


"Also, if drugs are legalized he will be in real trouble. Chavez has a little dirty secret about Cocaine."

Cocaine is not going to be legalized any time soon, here, or in Venezuela, or anywhere else. Bolivia has legalized coca leaf chewing and tea drinking--a traditional indigenous medicine--but that is far, far different than cocaine production, and its attendant crime, which both Venezuela and Bolivia strongly oppose.

Secondly, what are you talking about--re: "Chavez has a little dirty secret about Cocaine"? He gets gifts of coca leaves from Evo Morales. That does not mean that he is a cokehead, or dealer, or profiting in any way from the cocaine trade. Apples and oranges. Frankly, I think it is the Bush Cartel that has "a little (big) dirty secret about Cocaine." Wherever the Bushwhack "war on drugs" went, there cocaine traffic, weapons traffic and crime increased. (Colombia, Mexico, Peru.) So you are going to have to prove this to me. What do you mean? And what are you basing it on?

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And welcome to DU!