January 19, 2010
Mexico City (DF), Mexico
For such a pale skinned gringo, his Spanish was impeccable. We were both sitting in the business class lounge at the airport, and the fluidity with which he was prattling away in Spanish on his mobile phone caught my attention.
Ordinarily, given his very light complexion and European fashion sense, I would have guessed that he was Argentine; his accent, however, was devoid of the traditional telltale Argentine indicators– the “sh” and “zh” sounds, use of the ‘vos’ for the second person, etc.
I was a bit puzzled and had plenty of time to kill thanks to an incomprehensible flight delay, so when he finished his conversation, I asked him (in Spanish) where he was from.
“I’m originally from Britain, ‘mate.” He must have noticed my surprise at hearing the Queen’s English, so he followed that up with “but I’ve been living in Caracas for over 20-years.”
Needless to say, this sparked a lengthy conversation between us about the politics of Hugo, the real situation on the ground in Venezuela, and what he’s doing to protect himself. I’ll call him Baldwin.
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Amazingly enough, Hugo Chavez is giving us a gift. Allow me to explain.
World leaders are gathered today in Berlin, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain. What would have been the greatest armed conflict in the history of the world was successfully avoided… peace prevailed.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, Hugo Chavez is stoking the flames of war in his region.
Notwithstanding the collapse of European communism, Hugo steers a rather unwieldly ship of socialism in Venezuela. Hugo calls his brand “Bolivarian Socialism,” named after the famous Andean political leader Simon Bolivar who had served as President in Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Peru.
Ironically, despite the moniker bestowed by Chavez, Bolivar was an avowed proponent of the free market who admired Thomas Jefferson and traveled with Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. Hugo’s policies are a far cry from Bolivar… but then again, the US government does not exactly promote the ideals of the Constitution either.
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