Chavez wins

[Barnabas]

Chavez 61% Rosales 38%


-- 78% of votes counted--

[SlowwHand]

Chavez is a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, but an overwhelming 84 percent said they oppose adopting a political system like Cuba’s

If you sleep with dogs, expect fleas.

[Barnabas]

I dont fear that

I think it is much more likely that once Fidel dies Cuba becomes a democracy a la Venezuela, that Chavez going into a centrally planned commie direction

[SlowwHand]

He's what the people want, so that's fine by me.

[Impaler[WrG]]

Unlikly, Castros brother is next in line of sucsession and things look stable. Venizualin oil is proping up Cuba and delaying any major changes in Cuban politics. All be it if it was to go democratic "Chavism" would be the logical model.

[Barnabas]

I dont really like him much, he is too friendly with iran, likes to hug Ahmadinejad etc

He is like, every enemy of the USA is my friend, and that is wrong, latin america has a lot more in common with the USA than with the muslim world.

He also wastes a lot of money, if oil somehow gets cheap again I dont think he would be able to finish his term

[joncha]

Chavez

[Kontiki]

Was his parrot his running mate, or was it elected to some other office?

[Impaler[WrG]]

I agree Latin-American leftism has always been always been filled with too much vitriolic anti-americanism, anti-capitalism to make rational policy. I'm not saying these feelings are "wrong" in a morale sense just that ANY goverment not guided by real-politics is going to do dumb things.

P.S. I can still respect him for being gutsy enough to call Bush the Devil at the U.N.

[chequita guevara]

Cuba's got oil too, and they're going to start exploiting it. Once that happens, expect their economy to start doing a lot better.

BTW, the reason Latin-American leftism is so anti-American is that America is the big bully in the schoolyard. Any time these countries attempted to do something remotely popular, the U.S. overthrew the government and put in someone friendly to our business interests. You'd be a hater too.

[Barnabas]

Anti americanism also goes back to the mexican american war, spanish american war, the the creeation of panama and the panama canal issue, not only XX century issues

[OzzyKP]

Did we get any good will when we returned the canal to Panama?

[Impaler[WrG]]

Yes I completly agree with you guys, thats why I pointed out I didn't think these feelings were wrong. Simply that it dosn't do any goverment any good to base policy on emotional issues. A nations leadership should act to prevent the emotions of the masses from contributing to bad policy, doing whats in the best interest of their nation is their morale responsibility. Anger clouds that.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
Anti americanism also goes back to the mexican american war, spanish american war, the the creeation of panama and the panama canal issue, not only XX century issues

You think we only started bullying them in the 20th Century? Goodness no. There's almost two hundred years of bad blood between us.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by OzzyKP
Did we get any good will when we returned the canal to Panama?

Yes, but we lost it supporting the Contras, propping up murderous dictatorships in Guatemala and El Salvador, invading Panama, etc.