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Posts Tagged ‘Hugo Chavez’

A Cultural Revolution in Venezuela…through Books?

4:02 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Books| Controversia| Culture| Latin America| Venezuela · 5 Comments

14 May 2009

littleprince While conservatives here in the U.S. sling the word “socialism” around like an insult, in Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez is leading a crusade for children to learn all about it via books. Chavez’s “Plan Revolucionario de Lectura” (”Revolutionary Reading Plan”) is getting off the ground now, with the goal, according to Chavez, of “constructing the new man”.

Chavez says he’ll be doing this by encouraging the reading of “revolutionary books”, while at the same time ridding libraries of classics such as “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery and Cervantes’ classic Don Quijote for “ideological reasons”. I wonder what ideology he is referring to. No, I mean really…I don’t get what ideology is espoused in either of those books that he might disagree with. Maybe I need to read them again?

Chavez’s critics say he’s trashing lots of other books as well, citing that they must be thrown out because they are infested with mold or moths. According to La Tercera, among them are Hitchcock’s The Mummy, another one I don’t get. The books were allegedly sold to a recycling company for pennies on the kilo.

First it was RCTV, now it’s library books? Is this a harder push towards a cultural revolution in Venezuela? What do you think of what Chavez is doing? Let us know in the comments.

Via / La Tercera

Chavez’s Daughter + Allende’s Grandson = LOVE

10:45 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities| Chile| Chismes| Latin America| Venezuela · 2 Comments

7 May 2009

It’s not often that we hear about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s personal life or family, but this latest bit of chisme about Huguito’s daughter is quite interesting. It seems that María Gabriela Chávez is dating the grandson of slain Chilean president Salvador Allende, Pablo Sepúlveda Allende. Chavez introduced the couple this week on his weekly TV show, Aló Presidente. Spain’s El País reports:

“Pablo!”, exclaimed the Venezuelan leader, embracing [him] told said that [he] was “a Chilean doctor, María’s partner and the grandson of Salvador Allende”, who he regularly says he admires and calls “the martyr president.”

The Venezuelan press had recently reported that the journalist, second daughter from Chavez’s first marriage, had managed to convince Sepúlveda Allende that he leave the medical center where he worked in the Chilean city of Coquimbo, opened by his grandfather who was also a doctor, to reside in Venezuela.

Might this be the making of a Latin American left political superfamily?

Via / El País

Why the Hell Does Joe Scarborough Insist on Making Chavez Sound Kind of French?

12:07 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Media| Obama| Politics| Venezuela · Comments Off

21 Apr 2009

I am grateful I don’t have cable so I don’t stumble upon the cable news nonsense pretending to be fair and balanced.
While the Summit of the Americas has come and gone, some people just can’t let it go, especially U.S. President Obama shaking hands with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

What did Joe want? For Obama to punch Chavez? Or tell Ortega to shut up the way the Spanish King told Chavez once.

You also have to love the revisionist history that vilifies Ortega with no mention of the U.S. supported coup that led to civil war in Nicaragua pero instead wonders why Obama didn’t school the two Latin American presidents on Democracy.

May I suggest that people start sending Scarborough a copy of the book “Shavez” gave to Obama?

Via / Media Matters

Galeano Book Blowing Up on Amazon Thanks to Chavez-Obama Exchange

19 Apr 2009

The Eduardo Galeano book that Hugo Chavez gave President Obama yesterday, “The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent”, has gone from an Amazon rank of 54,295 to number 2 today. Hey, not bad in just over 24 hours, and if this gets Americans to understand the history of the U.S. and Europe in Latin America, all the better.

Check out the interview with Chavez above where he talks about giving the book to Obama and how apparently awesome his meeting with the U.S. president was.

Via / AP

Obama and Chavez Make Nice

18 Apr 2009

While Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez might have called President Obama a “poor ignoramous” last month, he appears to be changing his tune — at least a little. At the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago last night, the South American leader had something very different to say about his U.S. counterpart:

“I think it was a good moment,” Chavez said about their initial encounter. “I think President Obama is an intelligent man, compared to the previous U.S. president.”

OK, so he’s not calling him Einstein, but he isn’t calling him ignorant either.

In the meeting, Chavez gave Obama the Eduardo Galeano book, “The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent” (video after the jump…check out Chilean President Michelle Bachelet’s reaction when that happens). And if you’re wondering if Obama took the hint, not right away. AP reports that he thought Chavez was giving him his own book and wanted to give Huguito one of his, too. Oh, well. Understanding comes poco a poco.

Read more…

Not All Americans Welcomed at the Summit of the Americas

6:49 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Cuba| Latin America| Obama| Politics| Puerto Rico · 2 Comments

17 Apr 2009

h22161americasschenk A poet friend of mine invited me to join a Facebook Group called , “AMERICA” is not U.S.A. AMERICA is the name for a whole continent”. This US-centrism has been a peeve of mine for at least ten years now, specifically from when I lived in Chile and found myself in the very difficult position of defending my Latina/Puerto Rican identity (Yes, Kai I’m talking about being Rican again, sigh).

Now the idea of who is “America” comes up again against the context of The Summit of the Americas, which started yesterday in Trinidad. Love him or hate him, President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua raised a good point at the start of the Summit, saying:

“It is not of the Americas , because Cuba is missing, Puerto Rico is missing,”

So how can you have a Summit of the Americas without two nations facing important challenges rooted in colonialism?
Read more…

Chavez on Obama: “Poor Ignoramous”

6:47 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia| Latin America| Obama| Politics| Venezuela · 5 Comments

23 Mar 2009

A couple months after saying that he “stinks like Bush”, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is once again striking out against U.S. President Barack Obama. He’s spittin’ mad for comments allegedly made by the U.S. leader and calls Obama “pobre ignorante” (”poor ignoramous”) on his TV show Aló Presidente (video above):

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama was at best an “ignoramus” for saying the socialist leader exported terrorism and obstructed progress in Latin America.

“He goes and accuses me of exporting terrorism: the least I can say is that he’s a poor ignoramus; he should read and study a little to understand reality,” said Chavez, who heads a group of left-wing Latin American leaders opposed to the U.S. influence in the region.

Did Obama really say this? I can’t seem to find the citation anywhere, and it seems strange to me that someone who said he would sit down with Castro and Chavez and is reaching out to Iran would dare rock the boat with Venezuela, a country with which the U.S. already has a tenuous relationship. Does anyone know if this statement was actually made?

If it is true, it has absolutely zero basis in my eyes. Venezuela export terrorism? You can love or hate Chavez, but that statement is just not factual and wreaks of exaggeration and Republican scare tactics.

Via / Reuters

Sabado Morning Cafe Con Links

21 Mar 2009

The Bustelo machine is running and this is what Mala is reading:

Raven’s Eye is live: Women and trans folk of color ISSUES have been done to death, we want OUR LIVES.

Seriously, where is the Change? Another Workplace ICE Raid

From the City of Brotherly Love :Where is the love for free speech and for Mumia?

Tech and Human Rights Justice in Guatemala

Is Cuba Keeping It’s Citizens Prisoners?

Ay that wacky Hugo Chavez is at it again.

And El Salvador’s new President wants to help with U.S. immigration.

Now go outside! It’s a nice Spring day.

Sabado Afternoon Links: Venezuela, El Salvador, Mexico, Brazilians, Washing, and Jon Stewart

14 Mar 2009

Mala is a little stressed out and seeking calm from the internet isn’t really helping.

I mean, mira, scary socialist Chavez is taking over everything, including highways, ports and airports.

It’s not like the U.S. to interfere in the elections of Latin American countries like El Salvador, right?

We could all just unwind in Mexico.

If we wanna a wax we’d have to skip Jersey.

We can’t even wash our kids anymore

Pero thankfully when all else fails, we have Jon Stewart.

Venezuela: “We Want to Open Doors to the U.S”

1:15 pm By Maegan La Mala · Latin America| Politics| Venezuela · 1 Comment

5 Feb 2009

After what can only be described as a disastrous 8 year relationship between the U.S. and Venezuela under the Bush administration, the Venezuelan government appears to be changing its tone (if not its rhetoric) with regard to the big bad country to the north. Venezuelan parlament members were in Washington D.C. this week and made some promising statements about changes on the horizon in the strained U.S.-Venezuela relationship:

“While the current government’s priority will be to resolve the economic crisis, it is necessary that we begin to dialogue in order to build new ways to come together, situations in which our similarities might be rescued,” said Francisco Torrealba, member of the National Assembly.

Torrealba says that he wants to re-ignite mutual exchange between his country’s national assembly and the U.S. Senate, something that had been lost under the Bush administration.

All of this sounds pretty promising, but Torrealba did criticize Barack Obama for “making negative comments about Chávez“, though he implied that Obama might have misled by others before making these statements.

Let’s hope Obama lives up to his campaign promise of dialoguing with Venezuela. It’s what’s best for both countries. But wait, what about these comments from Huguito?

Via / El Universal (Venezuela)

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