Good Bye Chavez !

Flamboyant in his trademark red shirt ! Strong . A man with immense popularity. It is all there in the way he carries himself. In the texture of his voice and in the set of his shoulders .

He is the eternal revolutionary . His speech is passionate and to the poor and sick he offers overwhelming comfort and a sense of belonging and worth . A man of noble ideals who wanted the best for his countrymen.

During his time Venezuela saw a remarkable reduction in poverty and the poor enjoyed social benefits such as access to education and health care . His ideology was based on Bolivarianism “ The key ingredients for which are , an emphasis on the importance of education , the creation of civilian – military unity , Latin American integration , social justice and national sovereignly “ ( Hugo Chavez – Wikipedia )

So charismatic and popular was he that when he was voted as president to Venezuela, left- leaning presidents became the trend for Latin American such as Lula da Silva of Brazil, Evo Morales of Bolivia , Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua .

Chavez believed that “ Democracy is impossible in a capitalist system . Capitalism is the realm of injustice and a tyranny of the richest against the poorest . The only way to save the world is through socialism , a democratic socialism . Democracy isn’t just the government of the rich over the poor , which is what is happening in almost all the so called democratic western capitalist countries “ Hugo Chavez June 2010.

Although Hugo Chavez was against American policy his message to the American people was one of love and humanity and he proved that by offering free heating oil to the east coast New England states , thus embarrassing the Bush administration who were not willing to tackle the problem . This program was described as “ From the Venezuelan heart to the American hearths “ and its target was to help struggling low income American families keep warm .

During his presidency he ushered in a new constitution and established participatory democratic councils and nationalized many vital industries such as the oil industry which brought upon his head the wrath of the USA and the hatred of the elites of Venezuela .

As for Syria Chavez was always a firm supporter paying state visits and signing many treaties and memorandums of understanding. In October 2012 he said “ how can I not support the Assad government ? It’s the legitimate government of Syria . Who should we be supporting , the terrorists ? the so called “ Transition council “ who are killing people everywhere ? I don’t understand how some governments in Europe that claim to be serious have been meeting with terrorists.”

Chavez sent a number of oil shipments to Syria – where he will be sorely missed as he will be missed by the poor , the downtrodden and the helpless of the world- a truly outstanding personality! Good Bye Chavez – you will be missed .

Reem Haddad