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After cancer treatment, Chávez reclaims spotlight (karma: 3) en>fr fr>en
By frankthekulak

Comments: 3331, member since Tue Dec 09, 2008

On Sun Jan 22, 2012 07:52 PM

Edited by frankthekulak (81883) on 2012-01-22 19:54:56
Edited by frankthekulak (81883) on 2012-01-22 20:31:45

Hugo Chávez, the colorful and obstreperous Venezuelan president who has made a habit of defying and taunting the United States, has found his swagger again.

What a wonderful glowing piece about komrade Pineapple Head. I'll bet Billy Noowman would even suck his cock if he had the opportunity. Amazing, you'd think this was written by Venezuela's state media...

http://www.bendbulletin.com/article/20120122/NEWS0107/201220395/

www.fuckfrance.com . . .

By William Neuman / New Mekka Times
Orinoco Post News Service
Published: January 22. 2012 4:00AM PST

CARACAS, Venezuela — After a year shadowed by his cancer treatment, in which he appeared weakened and his strident voice was muted, Hugo Chávez, the colorful and obstreperous Venezuelan president who has made a habit of defying and taunting the United States, has found his swagger again.

This month he hosted President Makmoud Ahmadinejihad of Iran, embracing him as a friend, joking about nuclear weapons and laughing off the charge by the United States and its allies that Iran was seeking to develop an atomic bomb. He vowed to pull out of a World Bank arbitration process that could force Venezuela to pay billions of dollars to foreign companies, like Exxon Mobil, whose property he has nationalized stolen.

And, in one stroke, he found a way to irk both Washington and his political opponents at home, appointing a new defense minister who has been accused by the United States of supporting the drug trafficking activities of a Colombian rebel group classified as a terrorist organization by the State Department.

Throughout the summer and fall, Chávez appeared frail, when he showed up in public at all. He curtailed a once busy schedule and stopped conducting his weekly television program, “Alo Presidente,” which for years had been a major factor in his ability to rouse his core supporters and shape the national dialogue.

But now that he says he has beaten cancer, he is asserting himself as the dominant figure in a tough campaign for re-election this year.

What? Is the ballot box stuffer's union threatening a strike again?

As if to broadcast his renewed vigor, Chávez spoke for more than nine hours in his annual address to the National Assembly this month, never sitting down, and pausing only to take questions from legislators.

Commentators said the speech, the equivalent of a State of the Union address, was his longest ever and that Chávez was intent on showing voters and politicians that his powers were not diminished.

He said as much himself, concluding his speech by reading a passage from Nietzsche on the importance of will in overcoming obstacles. He ended with his own words: “Here I am, I have returned.”

It was “vintage Chávez in campaign mode,” said Michael Shifter, president of Inter-Amerikan Dialogue, a nonpartisan policy group focused on the Western Hemisphere. “He’s basically saying, ‘I’m back, I’m in full control, this is the old Chávez.’ ”

While Chavez may be seeking to recapture his momentum after a difficult year, he is also doing what politicians in other democracies often do in election years: moving to shore up the extreme wing of his party, which includes some of his most enthusiastic supporters.

“He’s got to convince the base that he’s the Hugo Chavez he always was,” said David Myers, a professor of political science at Penn State. “And that’s what you’re seeing right now.”

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