Well not exactly, but this kind of irony is what happens when you try to make sense of baited Hugo Chávez logic.
"Whoever votes 'Yes' is voting for Chávez, and whoever votes 'No' is voting for George W. Bush, president of the United States," Chávez told supporters at a huge pro-government rally in Caracas on Friday.
(The Washington Post, December 3, 2007)
It is fairly evident from polls and the like that the United States is not the most popular nation on the world scene these days and neither is our president. But even given the US's and more so George W. Bush's unpopularity the people of Venezuela choose the big, bad, mean United States over a president for life who is empowered to appoint governors and control the Central Bank.
Since 51 percent of voters in Venezuela's Sunday election voted to defeat Chávez's 69 constitutional "reforms", does that mean that a higher percentage of the Venezuelan people support George W. Bush than folks here in the United States. That just goes to show that Chávez 's logic and rhetoric is a bit skewed. As the article notes, it could very well be that this kind of erratic behavior is doing him no favors. Or it could be that the people of Venezuela are smart enough to know, that while not perfect, a democracy with checks and balances on the powers of its leaders is still the best kind of government going on the planet.
Kudos to Venezuelan voters for going to the polls and making their voices heard.
2 Comments
Al Reds | December 11, 2007, 6:20am | #
Dear Ms. Trenolone,
As a venezuelan I thank you for your article, however I’d just like to point out the following observation; and that is for sure the margin of victory of venezuelans rejecting Chavez’s proposal to amend the Constitution is much larger than the 51% acknowledged by the goverment and that you mention. Political reality in Venezuela is now different since about 45% did not vote, and when polled they cited "dislike for the government" as one of the main reasons to stay home, 30% voted against, therefore that leaves only about 25% that supposedly agree with what Chavez wants to do. We probably won’t know the exact figures due to the fact that Chavez controls and manipulates his government officials, however we can only guess that the victory was by overwhelming numbers since this time Chavez did not have any other option but to admit defeat.
Luis A. Baquedo | December 11, 2007, 9:27am | #
I am very proud of the Venezuelan People for rejecting the proposal for a socialist state. Simon Bolivar must be extremely happy in Heaven. Congratulations my brothers and sisters from Venezuela.