by B. R. GOWANI
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez after surviving the United States supported failed coup in 2002. PHOTO/Al Jazeera
In 1991, the United States President George H. W. Bush (1924-)(1989-1993) bombed Iraq “back into the pre-industrialized age“. He committed many crimes but this was a major one.
Henry Kissinger (1923-), the US Secretary of State and US National Security Adviser (1969-1977), is another war criminal who has never been charged and is at large, like Bush Sr.
There are many more enemies of humanity like them who are still a burden on this planet.
The wealth and income disparity is on the rise and the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke the record just ten days back.
Nature, which has usually been not too kind to the wretched of the earth, hit them with one more tragedy-the untimely death of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez (1954-2013)(1999-2013), at the age of fifty-eight.
In today’s sole Superpower world where most of the countries toed the US line, Chavez was an odd man out. The US tried to oust him from power but didn’t succeed.
William Blum puts it without mincing words why the US wanted Chavez dead.
“There was no one in the entire universe that those who own and run ‘United States, Inc.’ wanted to see dead more than Hugo Chávez. He was worse than Allende. Worse than Fidel Castro. Worse than any world leader not in the American camp because he spoke out in the most forceful terms about US imperialism and its cruelty. Repeatedly. Constantly. Saying things that heads of state are not supposed to say. At the United Nations, on a shockingly personal level about George W. Bush. All over Latin America, as he organized the region into anti-US-Empire blocs.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id–ZFtjR5c
Poor people benefited a lot, not only in Venezuela and many other countries but also in the United States. Former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy II paid tribute to Chavez. He said, in these times, when “some of the wealthiest people on our planet have more money than they can ever reasonably expect to spend,” Chavez cared for the poor.
Kennedy’s charity, Citizens Energy, over a period of eight years, received 200 million gallons of free heating oil from Venezuela, which it then distributed to poor people in Washington DC and 25 states.
His death is a great loss to millions and millions of people who saw him as a savior. No doubt, it also made many people very happy. The US administration is on the top of the list.
In 2005, Christian fanatic Reverend Pat Robertson wanted Chavez to be assassinated.
“You know, I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war, and I don’t think any oil shipments will stop.”
He continued:
“We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don’t need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It’s a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.”
The US machinations to undo what Chavez did and to befriend his enemies and the wealthy must be in high gear.
Let’s hope the US doesn’t succeed.
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com