Hugo Chavez has Died, a Tribute.

Date:   3/6/2013 4:12:43 AM ( 11 y ago)

                                       Hugo Chavez has Died

    Hugo Chavez was Born on 28 July 1954, died at age 59 today, Tuesday March 5th.

  Hugo Chávez was raised in a poor family in the rural plains of Venezuela's Andean lowlands. The family had a varied ancestry of indigenous, black African, and Spanish backgrounds. His mother and father were local school teachers there.

   From those humble beginnings to becoming what may be one of the most compelling stories in the history of politics - Chavez came home to die, having courageously held the nation together in absentia, as the heart wrenching end to Chavez's role in making Venezuela a much better place for millions of poor and underprivileged people.

   Chavez reconstructed the entire economy of Venezuela. That could never be done where politicians get into office by making promises to wealthy elites. In fact, Chavez returned huge amounts of land to the original inhabitants, having to take it away from cattle ranchers who had, in generations past, simply run the natives off their lands, often with the help of former Venezuelan governments.

  Chavez's government oversaw the return of Venezuela's oil to Venezuelans, by restricting foreign oil companies from extracting any more oil. Telling cattlemen to get off the land was probably not an easy thing for Chavez to do, but telling American oilmen to get out was likely a highlight in Chavez's political career!!

   Venezuela's Indigenous people were effectively emancipated during Chavez' time in office; they were treated harshly with elite people running the nation, and that attitude could return again if Chavez' policies are not kept intact. Evidence of the tenuous grip on freedom for Venezuela's natives came Sunday when one of their Chiefs was killed in a land dispute with former cattle ranchers.

  On top of all that,  Chavez's style of government might end up being a model for 21st C socialist nations. If Venezuela continues it's economic success or not depends on if Chavez's people, who did such a good job when he was in hospital, will hold onto power and hold onto their principles of a fair and just society or if greed and elitism will grab hold of them.

   I hope, for the sake of Chavez's memory and his role in creating a new way to govern, that his successors will take the high road. If they need courage at times in the future, they can reflect on Hugo Chavez' courageous battle with a cancer that took his life before he could finish his term in office.

    Last night, on hearing the news of Chavez's death, people gathered in their local plazas. In the Plaza Bolivar hundreds rallied, with people hugging and crying.

   Then they marched towards the Miraflores Palace chanting "Chavez lives, the struggle continues," "the people united will never be defeated," and saying that "the Venezuelan bourgeoisie will never return to the Miraflores Palace".

   Rest in Peace Hugo Chavez - Venezuela will never be the same again after your time there.

--------------------------Links

 "Huge Chavez has Died"
 http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/8033

 "just two days before Chavez' passing, a Yupka chief was murdered in a land dispute with cattle ranchers":
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/8021
 

----------------------------- Hugo Chavez:

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