What do Americans think should be done about Hugo Chavez and Venezuela in the near future?

Question

I think ignoring them would be a braggish, boastful move.

Hey! OIL-WEALTHY Communism is at the GATES!!

Venezuela is NOT Cuba....and it backs Ahmadinejad!!

Answer 1

Chavez is a piss-ant. Pretend he doesn't exist, is what I say. Notice how every...single...day... he does something to consolidate his power and stranglehold on the country? He's going to turn the country into a dictatorship, and the stupid sheep that live there are going to stand on the sidelines and APPLAUD him while he does. Amazing...

Answer 2

I, unlike many other Americans actually know Venezuelans. What I was told was that if you were dirt poor, he's great. If you are middle class or upper class, he sucks. He is taking away the rights of his people everyday in his country. Those that live in tin shacks don't care about freedom of speech as long as they are getting free medical care and support. However, that old saying, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely" rings true here. A law has just been enabled in his country that allows the President to make laws by decree for the next 18 months. That is scary. The only thing that can be done I feel (at the risk of sounding like a tree hugging hippie) is to get off of foreign oil dependence. WE are actually funding this guys socialist experiment. Our need for oil is crippling this countrys security and funding alternative fuels to make us independent should be a national security issue.

Answer 3

How about leaving Venezuela alone?

What Chavez is doing in Venezuela may not be in the US's best interests (making foreign corporations pay their fair share of taxes, putting money into health care and education rather than into the pockets of US multinationals, making sure Venezuela's oil revenues benefit those in Venezuela not those in America) but what he is doing is in his people's best interests - child mortality had crashed, literacy has improved, many people for the first time in their lives have access to proper medical facilities.

The majority of Venezuela's people voted overwhelmingly in free and fair elections (certified by former US President Jimmy Carter) for Chavez to lead the country. For once, maybe the US should actually practice what it preaches about democracy and respect the wishes of the voters of Venezuela.

Answer 4

Chavez is a minor nuisance at best. The best way to deal with him is to ignore him and further marginalize his position. The only thing reacting to his rhetoric will do is make him seem more important on the world stage than he really is. At some point the United States has to wake up to the fact that our dependence on foreign oil is a major handicap. We need to reduce dependence, by opening up new sources domestically to stem the short term demand while putting real effort into research on alternative fuel sources which is the long term solution. Once we are no longer at the mercy of these countries for their primary commodity real diplomacy might be possible, but as long as they have us over a barrel so to speak the global situation is only going to continue to deteriorate exponentially.

Answer 5

It is your kind of thinking that has set this movement of Chavez, Evo Morales ,and Ortega in motiuon, against the tyranical mode of operando of the U.S.A. to its neighbours in the Hispanic side of the Americas!To be blunt is the racism and experimentention ,against the people of Hispanic America that has set the wheels in motion, to answer your racist question, if by americans you mean the people of the U.S.A , they need to mind their own busisness, Chavez was voted in a democratic election, no,? so what is the problem?, so were Ortega and Morales ,Indegenous people to represent their own, what is the problem?If the U.S.A. goverment can turn itself about and deal with Hispanic America in a different and justice ,fair way , maybe the wheels can be turned around , I doubt it ,as the U.SA. only supports and place in Hispanic America ,dictators who are under the watch of Washington! So what will it be? Since 1492 Hispanic America has been under attack by the English, mostly and others , but the goverment of the past english colony, U.S.A. has top them all! Saludos.

Answer 6

I think ignoring him is the way to go - in the long run, Venezuela's upper classes are going to revolt or simply take their assets out of the country. He'll have to moderate himself in order to keep Venezuela strong...and in the meantime, he's still providing cheap oil and gas to Katrina victims in the USA...

Answer 7

I think the best possible thing the West can do to deal with Chavez and his OPEC buddies is to get ourselves off of oil. In this day and age there's absolutely no excuse for not running cars, busses, trucks, whatever, on bio-diesel or on ethanol.

To the people who say that these technologies are "too expensive", look at what we're spending in Iraq. If we didn't need the oil, then we could stop giving them money, and we could either play hardball with them or we could ignore them.

But as it is, we are like addicts and they are like drug dealers. We NEED them, and they WANT our money (notice I didn't say they NEED our money). That puts the one in NEED at the mercy of the one in WANT.

The only way out is to get unaddicted to oil. It's such a shame that nobody on a national stage is even talking about it. It outrages me, and it saddens me at the same time.

Answer 8

I think they should invite him over to run America I'm sure he'd do a much better job for the people there than rich selfish fascists like the Bush Dynasty. Chavez is one of the few politicians who actually cares about the people.

Answer 9

Leave them to their own self destruction asa we have too many wars going on now and too many problems here to worry about a 3rd world country

Answer 10

Invite him round for tea. Hes probably got a few stories to tell