"On The Road To Hell"
Hugo Chávez Grants Rare interview to Western
Media
Venezuelan president combatively defends
11-year rule and blames economic woes on western capitalism
By Stephen Sackur
July 14, 2010 "The Guardian" -- Venezuela's
president, Hugo Chávez
intends to inject new urgency into his socialist, anti-imperialist
revolution because, he says, there is clear evidence that "capitalism
is destroying the world".In a combative 60-minute interview with the BBC
Hardtalk programme
in the presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela's president blamed his
country's deepening recession on the irresponsible economic policies of
the US and he expressed disappointment with Barack Obama's "very
negative signals" towards Latin America.
"I
wish Obama would focus on governing the United States and would forget
his country's imperialist pretensions," the 55-year-old leader said.
Chávez rarely grants extended interviews to the
western media. This one was arranged to coincide with the Caracas premiere of
Oliver Stone's new documentary, South of the Border.
The film portrays a Latin America being transformed by leftist
radicalism. The leaders of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador all
get walk-on parts, but it is their Venezuelan counterpart who has the
starring role. Stone and Chávez shared a limousine to the red carpet
launch of the film in Caracas's national theatre.
"What's
being going on in Venezuela for the last 10 years is amazing – a piece
of history. The least I can do is introduce this man and this movement
to the American people," said Stone, Chávez beaming by his side.
Whether
many Venezuelans will ever see the film remains unclear. The premiere
was full of Socialist party bigwigs and activists who hooted with
delight as their president was seen lambasting George Bush, beating off
a coup attempt in 2002 and generally adopting the mantle of a
21st-century Castro. But no amount of support from a maverick US
film-maker can disguise a simple truth; domestic support for Chávez's
"Bolívarian socialism" is being sorely tested by a second consecutive
year of recession.
Venezuela
possesses the biggest oil reserves outside the Middle East and supplies
more than a tenth of US oil imports, but still the economy has woefully
underperformed others in Latin American in the last two years.
Inflation is at 30% and seems likely to rise further. The Venezuelan
currency, the bolívar, has been devalued and is still sinking among
Caracas's parallel market money changers. In the capital's sprawling
hillside barrios jobs are scarce and Chávez's party is looking
electorally vulnerable just three months before parliamentary elections.
He
blamed the economic woes squarely on America's "rampant, irresponsible
capitalism" which was taking the world "on the road to hell". "In
England and in Europe you should know this," he said. "You have more
problems than we do."
Chávez
quoted a stream of economic statistics to illustrate his claim that his
11 years in power had "begun to redress the balance between a very rich
Venezuelan minority and a very poor majority" – unemployment halved,
extreme poverty down from 25% to 5%, he said.
Domestic
critics of his nationalisation programme – which has turned the oil,
power and agriculture sectors into vast state bureaucracies – accuse
him of creating a "Bolívarian bourgeoisie" of corrupt officials and
cronies. But Chávez emphasised he intended to go further with his
socialist model. Privately owned enterprises are now being expropriated
with increasing frequency – a recent controversial example involved the
French-owned Exito supermarket chain after allegations of profiteering
and currency manipulation.
"Eleven
years ago I was quite gullible," he said. "I even believed in a third
way, I thought it was possible to put a human face on capitalism. But I
was wrong. The only way to save the world is through socialism, but a
socialism that exists within a democracy; there's no dictatorship here."
But
a crackdown on opposition was highlighted last Friday with an arrest
warrant issued for the owner of the TV channel Globovisión, which takes
a critical line against Chávez.
Guillermo
Zuloaga has since gone into hiding, but he recently told Hardtalk: "I
have the right to have my own personal opinions and to say whatever I
like about Mr Chávez ... he has to be able to accept criticism.'
"The socialism that Chávez is looking for is
just a way to manufacture poor people."
During
the interview Chávez became visibly agitated when questioned about his
government's respect for an independent judiciary, freedom of the press
and the rights of political opponents.
As
the tension rose Oliver Stone, who was seated in a corner listening
intently to the exchanges, gestured to the president with both hands.
The message was easy to read: calm down.
Chávez
claimed Venezuela's press was "100 times more free than that in the
US", but when challenged over the recent suspension of the privately
run RCTV, ostensibly for failing to abide by a legal requirement to air
his numerous (often very long) addresses to the nation, he again went
on the attack. "Another lie of yours. You're a great compiler of lies.
Where did you get these huge lies from? Listen, are you a qualified
journalist?"
It's
not Chávez's domestic record that most concerns the west; it's his
determination to create an "axis of unity" with those he sees as fellow
strugglers against western imperialism. He lists the leaders of China,
Russia, Syria and Belarus as "good friends", along with Iran's
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In the last three years Tehran and
Caracas have strengthened military and intelligence co-operation while
deepening trade ties, and Chávez responded indignantly to the latest
round of UN sanctions against Iran. "Venezuela is a free country and we
will not be blackmailed by anyone. We will not accept being told what
to do over Iran, we will not accept being anyone's colony," said
Chávez. But he categorically denied claims frequently aired in the US
that Venezuela is supplying Iran with uranium.
His
disappointment with the US president was expressed in highly personal
terms. "I shook Obama's hand and I said, 'I want to be your friend.' My
hand is still outstretched. I am not Obama's enemy but it's difficult
not see imperialism in Washington. Those who don't see it, don't want
to see it, like the ostrich."
The
president did have a dialogue with the last Democrat in the White
House, and that memory seems to have sharpened his disillusionment with
Obama. 'I said to Hilary Clinton in front of President Obama, 'I wish I
could enjoy the same relationship with a US president that I had when
your husband was in power.'"
Chávez
refused to say whether he would seek another term in elections
scheduled for 2012. Though few doubt that he will, having pushed
through the abolition of term-limits in a hard-fought referendum and he
has spoken of ruling until 2030.
"Fidel
has spent his whole life on his [revolution]," Chávez said. "Whatever
life I have left I will dedicate to this peaceful democratic revolution
in Venezuela."
Stephen Sackur's Hugo Chávez interview airs on
the BBC News channel tomorrow night at 11.30pm
Satrio Arismunandar
Executive ProducerNews Division, Trans TV, Lantai 3
Jl. Kapten P. Tendean Kav. 12 - 14 A, Jakarta 12790
Phone: 7917-7000, 7918-4544 ext. 3542, Fax: 79184558,
79184627 http://satrioarismunandar6.blogspot.comhttp://satrioarismunandar.multiply.com Verba
volant scripta manent...(yang terucap akan lenyap, yang tertulis akan abadi...)
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