Chavez Isn’t Dead
He Lives On with Bolivar and Marti
Elio Delgado Legon
HAVANA TIMES — “Death is not true when one’s life work has been carried out well; the cranium of a thinker turns to dust, but their thoughts live forever, bearing the fruit of what that thinker envisioned.” Jose Marti wrote these words in an article published in the Mexican newspaper El Federalista, on March 5, 1876.
Coincidentally, it was also on March 5 — but in 2013 — that the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias, ceased to exist physically. One hundred and thirty-seven years have passed, but the words of Marti returned to acquire extraordinary validity.
Venezuelan revolutionaries will not allow the flags hoisted high by the Chavez government in recent years to fall.
Hugo Chavez, like no one else, knew how to interpret the ideas of Bolivar. He managed to jump-start a revolution that has been doing and will continue doing what Bolivar could not: unite all of Latin America and give the Venezuelan people their well-being and dignity denied from them for 200 years.
Undoubtedly, Chavez is one of those indispensable people who struggle all their lives, but in his short life he managed to leave a gigantic accomplishment, one that can only be compared to the work of Simon Bolivar.
The ideas of Chavez will live on and prove victorious, as he proclaimed upon learning of his illness. “We will live and we will win” was his motto then, and I’m sure he was referring to his ideas.
His struggle was hard and he left his life in it, but he cleared the path for the onward movement of those comrades who accompanied him in his years in office, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the armed forces and the revolutionary people.
Chavez’s flag has not touched the ground, he himself was transformed into the flag and it flies in every effort realized, in each of the missions carried out during his governance. Convinced, the Venezuelan people proclaimed: We are all Chavez and we will not let the gains of the Bolivarian Revolution be taken away.
Undoubtedly, Chavez is one of those indispensable people who struggle all their lives, but in his short life he managed to leave a gigantic accomplishment, one that can only be compared to the work of Simon Bolivar.
Now the revolutionary people of Venezuela and their leaders will continue it. They will succeed in all the tests imposed on them and they will save the Bolivarian Revolution.
Chavez’s flag has not touched the ground, he himself was transformed into the flag and it flies in every effort realized, in each of the missions carried out during his governance.
The people of Venezuela have been in the streets since they learned of the death of their leader. The views expressed on television are all hold the same conviction – to continue the revolution and defend what has been achieved so far.
The PSUV will continue along the path outlined by Chavez, upholding his ideas, refining the missions undertaken in the interests of working people.
Chavez, along with other revolutionary Latin American leaders, succeeded in creating the unity that Bolivar dreamed. His struggle and strength are made a reality in ALBA and CELAC, but —
above all — they are reflected in the reductions in poverty, marginalization and illiteracy; in the provision of health care and education for his people, and in the elimination of inequalities – though much remains to be done.
If the Venezuelan people are convinced anything, it’s that the Bolivarian Revolution will continue, and that socialism of the 21st century, as proclaimed by Hugo Chavez, will remain a reality. This is because for revolutionaries of Venezuela and the world, Hugo Chavez has not died. He lives on, with Bolivar and Marti.
The interest rates soared in the early 1990’s and then declined from 1995 to 2002. From that date the rates have climbed again, although not yet to the levels seen 20 years ago. So what? At 25% today inflation is still impoverishing the middle class and the poor. The rich are doing fine. That’s the reality of the Bolivarian revolution.
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/venezuela/inflation-cpi
Click between 1990-1998, see the rates, and then compare to 1998-2013 rates before throwing your usual propaganda and right-wing myths.
No, Moses is a extreme-right guy. He’s just being hypocrite as usual, because until the news that Chavéz was dead he was throwing death wishes upon him.
ok we get it moses, you’re a center right guy, we cannot expect any objectivity from you, thanks for showing us who u r
What will forever separate Chavez’ legacy from that of Bolivar and Marti is that these leaders called on their followers to be better than they were. They spoke, wrote and behaved in a manner which called us to higher ideals. Chavez, on the contrary, based his populist appeal in name-calling, hate-mongering, and divisiveness. As a result, he made enemies as readily as he attracted fans. “We are Chavez” may well be the chant in the street but ask yourself is that who we aspire to be or who we just who we are?
I’ve felt and said that now is not the time to criticize Hugo, but to mourn his passing.
He did all he could to reassert national independence and help the working people, and succeeded in some large degree. He tried to build a European-type of social democracy on the Caribbean, and this has made the usual deadly enemies, both domestic and foreign.
We will now see, in the forthcoming elections, whether the advances made under his leadership will be long-lasting.
Condolences and Best Wishes to the Venezuelan people.
The gap between the rhetoric and the reality of Chavez’s mismanagement it s staggering. While professing all he did to help the poor, in the long run, it is Venezuela’s poor who will suffer the most from his economic policies. The people of Venezuela will be stuck with the bill to clean up the economic mess Chavez left behind:
“The House That Chávez Built”
“Venezuelan Disease involves more than just fiscal profligacy. It also involves misguided responses to inflation. Populist governments tend to make their worst mistakes in dealing with inflation. Governments today, unlike in the 1960s, have learned to worry about inflation because it is one of the quickest ways to expand poverty. Inflation acts as a form of consumption tax that falls heavily on low-income, salaried groups, lowering their purchasing power dramatically.”
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/03/07/the_house_that_chavez_built