Former UK diplomat, Craig Murray, shares some thoughts on the death of Chavez
Craig Murray, for those who don't know, was the former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan who was recalled and fired by the UK Foreign Office because he disobeyed orders to stop complaining to his superiors that Britain was ignoring Karimov's (the Uzbek dictator) use of torture against political opponents and the use of torture to extract useless "intelligence" (passed back to the CIA and MI6) from suspected terrorists (i.e. anyone who was a threat to Karmiov's rule). Since Uzbekistan was an ally in Bush's so-called "War on Terror" it was much preferred that any torture or illicit killings by the US/NATO ally be swept under the carpet and not mentioned in polite company.
Here's a snip from his blog post on Chavez:
Chavez overwhelming achievement was to apply succesfully in a developing country the international law doctrine of a states inalienable right to its mineral resources, as declared by the UN General Assembly in 1968. One of the fundamental reasons that the developing world is so poor is that states have been unable to take a reasonable share of the economic benefit from exploitation of their mineral resources. The main reason for this is that multinationals have bribed corrupt politicians for the rights at little purchase cost and low taxation and resource share.
I know Ghana best. Newmont, the worlds biggest gold mining company, has revenues of 1.5 billion dollars in Ghana and pays no corporation or revenue tax. Not one penny (or rather pessowa). And causes vast environmental despoilation and social dislocation. That is how the sytem works, throughout the developing world.
The doctrine of alienable right enables states to simply cancel such scandalous deals, and that is exactly what Chavez did in Venezuelas oil sector. Cancelled them and imposed fairer arrangements. He applied the huge increase revenues to massively succesful poverty alleviation via social programmes, housing and education.
The western states of course do everything to stop developing countries doing this, on behalf of the multinationals who control the politicians. They threaten (and I am an eye-witness) aid cancellation, disinvestment and trade sanctions. They work to make you a political pariah (just watch the media on Chavez today). They secretly sponsor, bankroll and train your opponents. The death of such dangerous leaders is a good outcome for them, as in Allende or Lumumba.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/03/chavez/