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08/14/2004:
"Free-Spending Chávez Could Swing Vote His Way"
New York TimesCARACAS, Venezuela, Aug. 13 - In an extraordinary referendum after years of political turmoil, Venezuelans will vote Sunday on whether to dismiss President Hugo Chávez, who has alienated the Bush administration with his anti-American bombast and polarized the nation with promises to use oil wealth for a social revolution.
Eight months ago, as opponents of Mr. Chávez fanned out across the country to gather the signatures needed for the vote, he looked likely to have his tenure cut short. But on Friday, amid a huge spending campaign in poor neighborhoods, the contest had narrowed to the point where several pollsters said the president might win an endorsement of his rule.
The referendum is being closely monitored abroad. Mr. Chávez, 50, a former paratrooper and failed coup leader, rose from poverty to power five and a half years ago and then won re-election in a landslide that underscored Venezuelans' anger at the old political order. He has since so rankled Washington with his leftist agenda and authoritarian impulse that American officials blamed Mr. Chávez himself when he was briefly ousted after deadly street protests in 2002. full article
It is funny to see what is REALLY eating at these guys about Chavez. Imagine, he has the nerve to use oil profits to improve the lives of poor people. Here in the US with our elections, you would think poor people did not exist; nobody, Democratic or Republican, is making a peep about them. The problem, in their eyes, was solved by dumping the poor out of the bottom of the economy, to the land beyond statistics, during the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton years. You don't hear anybody talking about the appalling results of Clinton's 'welfare reform.'
So the reckless free-spender Chavez is pouring money into the ghetto. Shame shame shame. O yes, and his rough uncultured ways 'embarass' the elite. The poor should neither be seen nor heard.
The War on the Poor by Cockburn and St. Clair counterpunch.org
