Ten Things I Learned from Hugo Chávez
By Laura Wells
Source: Laura Wells: Solutions
Sunday, March 10, 2013
5. Empower your People, and your Peers, Connect with Everyone. It seemed to me that Chávez’ motto was to empower ordinary people, and also empower peers – heads-of-state across the continent and even across the world. He learned from history that a single country, attempting to strengthen its own sovereignty at the expense of the interests of a super-power, is in much better position when in partnership with other countries also standing strong. Chávez worked diligently with other South and Central American presidents to fulfill liberator Simon Bolivar’s dream of a united Latin America. They built alliances for trade, finance, telecommunications, culture, and governance. Chávez’ approach seemed to be: connect with everyone, even those who oppose you, because there may be a time when their rarely given support could help your mission. When Colombia acted in ways that harmed the region, Chávez initiated meetings to address the matter, and to maintain a working relationship for future times when Colombia would stand with Latin America. Chávez also connected with other heads-of-state around the world, including those in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and he was willing to meet with American presidents from Clinton, to Bush, to Obama.
8. Paso a Paso, Step by Step, It All Contributes. In political delegations with the Task Force on the Americas, other participants and I often met with activists who had been organizing for 40 years or more. We asked them how on earth they managed to keep going all that time when the system seemed irretrievably locked into a two-party system with an entrenched oligarchy. The activists smiled and shrugged, “Hay que luchar, paso a paso” – “You have to struggle, step by step.” During all my travels to see firsthand what was happening in Latin America, I gained a new appreciation of history and how you’re never sure what’s going to happen, but when you are committed you can keep moving forward. It becomes clear that everything we’re doing now will be of use once there’s a crack in the seemingly impenetrable system. That crack happened in Venezuela; Chávez was elected; and the country began to turn away from concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the 1%, toward a sharing of wealth and power in the hands of the 99%.
Full Article: http://www.zcommunications.org/ten-things-i-learned-from-hugo-ch-vez-by-laura-wells
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11. The US is probably using cancer as a weapon: ""It's very difficult to explain, even with the law of probabilities, what has been happening to some of us in Latin America. Would it be so strange that they've invented technology to spread cancer and we won't know about it for 50 years?"
12. The US caused the earthquake in Haiti through weapons testing by the Navy. But Haiti was just practice; the final target is destroying and taking over Iran by causing an earthquake there.
13. Opposition women are actually little girls. Referring to Condi Rice: “Remember, little girl, I’m like the thorn tree that flowers on the plain. Don’t mess with me, Condoleezza. Don’t mess with me, girl.”
14. Capitalism ended life on the Red Planet. "It would not be strange to hear that there had been civilization on Mars, but maybe capitalism arrived there, imperialism arrived, and finished off the planet.”
15. US aid to Haiti was simply a military occupation. "I read that 3,000 soldiers are arriving, Marines armed as if they were going to war. There is not a shortage of guns there, my God. Doctors, medicine, fuel, field hospitals, that's what the United States should send. They are occupying Haiti undercover."
Socialist dictators say the darndest things.
