Ooh ah, Chávez no se va

By sizemore Last edited 214 months ago
Ooh ah, Chávez no se va
chavez.jpg

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez made quite a splash in London over the weekend:

Around a thousand people packed into Camden Town Hall to witness a mixture of a Latin American populist rally, an evangelical meeting and a football match... And yesterday in the People's Republic of Camden the villains remained very much President George W Bush, his acolyte Tony Blair, big business and the forces of reaction.

Ken was in his element playing host while Blair was snubbed as 'the main ally of Hitler'. Perhaps Blair was relieved not to be confronted by the outspoken Chávez although it would have been fun to have them discuss their respective foreign policies:

The Venezuelan president has been building a Latin American open "axis of good" against "American hegemony". He has replaced the Soviet Union as the supplier of cut-price oil to Cuba, helped pay off Argentina's US2.3 billion debt to the IMF, and provided free medical aid to citizens of neighbouring countries.

Ken underlines his support of Chávez by writing for The Guardian this morning:

It is a sign of how little David Cameron's Conservative party has changed that London Tories are boycotting today's meeting with Chávez. This contrasts, of course, with the Tories' longstanding feting of the murdering torturer General Augusto Pinochet. To justify their position they ludicrously compare Chávez to Stalin... Today Venezuela is being opposed largely on the basis of lies. We have to make sure Venezuelans have to face nothing worse. It is the duty of all people who support progress, justice and democracy to stand with Venezuela.

Last Updated 15 May 2006