Hugo Chavez is dead

[TaraJo]

I think this is going to be one of those times where I'm really glad we have a democrat in the white house. The GOP is filled with war-mongers who would love nothing more than to put their own hand-picked puppet in power and they won't hesitate to throw trillions of dollars worth of military spending to do it. Obama is going to be much less involved in the process this time around, but I still think he'll voice his opinion and he will probably make a little effort to help his guy get in there, but I doubt he'll use military force unless there's some kind of whole scale social breakdown.

[Rev. Rye]

Okay, I looked at CP, knowing that, for whatever reason, they believe that Fidel Castro died sometime around 2006, and I found this gem on Hugo Chavez' page:

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (b. July 28, 1954 - d. circa Dec. 11, 2012) is the repressive leftist tyrant of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Chavez was not seen in public since he entered a Cuban hospital near death on December 11, 2012. Venezuela's communist regime engaged in liberal denial about his death for nearly three months, even releasing a photo of an ostensibly fit and smiling Chavez. But on March 5, 2013, likely due to pressure from other nations that knew Chavez had died, Venezuelan communists finally admitted Chavez was dead.

I guess they believe that the governments of Cuba and Venezuela act like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ffgkRmXeKw

[jstrodel]

Chavez tried to take over Venezuala with a coup d'tat and when it failed, he came back and got elected and seized power and basically made himself the Castro of Venezuala.

[Autumnlicious]

Makes you wonder why he bothered to try a coup to begin with...

[A Theist]

Yeah, I just mailed Sean Penn a sympathy card since best buddy Hugo kicked the ol' bucket yesterday....Can't say that I'm sorry to see Hu-go! Good riddance to a socialist dictator!

[Anomalocaris]

I'm sure the CIA will be rounding up a suitable replacement. We can't keep our noses out of Latin America.

I disagree.

Since Lula da Silva became president of Brazil and since the military juntas collapsed South america`s are no longer the US`s playball.

Why not? What has south america suddenly obtained that would give it much increased bargaining power and leverage against the still overwhelming economic and military power of the US? Superficial signs of influence may wax and wane, but underlying leverage and power disparity is the long term steady determinant of who is the big dog.

The only development that might pull south America away from US would be rise of brazil. In such a case it would not be clear whether south America will do better in Brazil's orbit rather than the American orbit. But the day brazil attain such powered is at least many decades off, if it would arrive at all. Even brazil's recent windfall offshore oil discovery that otherwise might give it earlier leverage over the US has been nullified by the developement of shale oil and frakking extraction in US proper. I am also sure the US will play Argentina off against rising brazil long before brazil rises very far to nullify the latter's influence and allow the US to retain preeminence in south America.

[LastPoet]

Yeah, I just mailed Sean Penn a sympathy card since best buddy Hugo kicked the ol' bucket yesterday....Can't say that I'm sorry to see Hu-go! Good riddance to a socialist dictator!

You know, whatever his political stances were, I think a comment like that, it doesn't warrant for such an offhanded response. It was a human being after all that died with cancer. I'll take a bullet to my head instead of that, anytime man.

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ETA: This doesn't mean I accepted his political views, IMO, he was a demagogue.

[Minimalist]

Yeah, I just mailed Sean Penn a sympathy card since best buddy Hugo kicked the ol' bucket yesterday....Can't say that I'm sorry to see Hu-go! Good riddance to a socialist dictator!

Exactly how I felt when that cunt, Bush, left office. Too bad he wasn't indicted for war crimes....but maybe some day the Hague will grow a pair of balls.

[LastPoet]

He will probably become an icon to the Venezuelan people, just for dying, how stoic. Truth of the matter is that he wasn't loved by the US admins because of his nationalization politics.

[A Theist]

Yeah, I just mailed Sean Penn a sympathy card since best buddy Hugo kicked the ol' bucket yesterday....Can't say that I'm sorry to see Hu-go! Good riddance to a socialist dictator!

You know, whatever his political stances were, I think a comment like that, it doesn't warrant for such an offhanded response. It was a human being after all that died with cancer. I'll take a bullet to my head instead of that, anytime man.

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ETA: This doesn't mean I accepted his political views, IMO, he was a demagogue.

Sorry LP, but I don't care...Hugo was a real scumbag...I say Good Riddance! I hope we can rid ourselves of other petty scumbag tyrants like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bashar al-Assad, and Kim Jong Un....