On July 6, 2008, the man with the mouth that never quits has decided to “suspend” his nine year run of Sunday morning chats on Venezuelan television. It’s been a bad year for Hugo. His ratings are down. His approval ratings hover just under 50% now if you trust Gallup but if you prefer the Bolivarian version, they are over 70%.
Of all of Chávez’s problems, none is greater than the on-going collapse of the FARC for it severely weakens his ambitions to resurrect a ne “Gran Colombia” with him at the helm. That has always been his goal, a greater Colombia followed by some bizarre continental enterprise. No one else want it but those quixotic Bolivarian cells that Chávez funds up and down the Americas. Chávez is the man with the mouth and the golden cheque book. But Chávez is also being implicated with supporting the FARC financially, morally and militarily (supplying arms) and under Chávez Venezuela has become a drug transfer point.
President Uribe is to travel to Caracas this Friday to meet with President Chávez. Chávez has promised to receive him “like a brother.” Noticias 24, an opposition TV channel in Venezuela, compiled this video (en español/castellano) of the less than brotherly statements Chávez has said recently about Uribe.
“Uribe you are servile peon of the Empire.”
“I have nothing to say to Uribe. Uribe is a farse, a liar. As long as I live I will have nothing to say to Uribe.”
“Uribe does what Bush tells him what to do. Bush wants war. Uribe then wants war.”
“I accuse the President of Colombia of being a sad peon of the Empire out to destroy the people of Latin America.”
“The government of Colombia has become the Israel of Latin America.”
“Uribe is a mafia.”
“The oligarch President of Colombia. Uribe is a criminal. He is just not a liar, he is a paramilitary government, he is just not a lackey, he directs a narco-government.”
“Uribe wants a war. Uribe plays the game that the Empire wants.”
Brotherly. Hugo does have a way with words. Uribe went to Harvard and Oxford. Chávez barely finished high school before enrolling in the Venezuelan Army. I am not quite sure why Uribe is going to Caracas but Uribe has been running circles around Chávez this past year. It should be interesting.
Chávez’s Contribution to the Spanish Language
Venezuelans are not known their Spanish, it is rather grotesque to be frank, typical of the Spanish spoken in the Caribbean basin. S tend to disappear and everything is peppered with the word coño. It can be difficult to comprehend at times. And Chávez’s Spanish is horrific however colourful. However, Chávez has inspired a new word in Spanish– petrochequera, or oil checkbook. It describes Chávez’s lavish spending outside Venezuela. He subsidies the oil of his friends or gives it away even at times but he also funded campaigns of numerous radical leftists in Latin America among other projects such as paying for Bolivia’s voter identity cards. That’s an odd project for him to fund unless you want to suspect him of voter fraud, which I do.