tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1214972120511573397.post-26108705336704886432008-03-15T01:35:00.000-04:002008-03-15T01:35:00.000-04:002008-03-15T01:35:00.000-04:00My comment should have caused neither embarassment nor confusion. It was calculated to do neither.<BR/><BR/>Rather, it was to state my plain disagreement with the blogger who simply has the same name as I do. <BR/><BR/>I'm an American journalist from New York. I do not subscribe to my Canadian counterpart's views and I wanted to make that very,very clear.<BR/><BR/>To my mind and to that of many others, Hugo Chavez is a dictator and a bully. He's noisy, rude, ill-mannered and a thoroughgoing pain in the neck.<BR/><BR/>The student movement in Venezuela seems to agree - they made sure he was prevented from altering the Consitution to suit himself. If Chavez had succeeded in that referendum, he'd have been able to run for President forever and would have likely, sooner or later, had himself declared President for life.<BR/><BR/>Chavez is an unabashed acolyte of Cuba's Fidel Castro, whose revolution has proved nothing short of disastrous for Cuba and the Cuban people. The fact of Castro's age, and his recent illness may finally occasion some economic and societal reforms on that island nation.<BR/><BR/>Chavez also may have been trying to influence elections in Latin America with illegal cash infusions to the candidates of his choice. I refer specifically to Argentina and to the man stopped by customs trying to smuggle in $850,000 in American currency.(see New York Times coverage).<BR/><BR/>Latin america doesn't need a leader like Chavez. What it could use would be someone in favor of democratic reforms and better conditions for all the people of Latin America, without the Communist or leftist doctrine.Paul Kellogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09075890174184005732noreply@blogger.com