Great read here…..

By Pepe Escobar

Dig that red VW Beetle showing up this past Sunday morning at a Caracas barrio. Behind the wheel is none other than Hugo Chavez, president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (as it has been officially designated since 1999), global South working-class hero and scourge of the Washington Consensus, on his way to one more red-Ferrari’style landslide electoral victory.

The historical metaphor came with a Bob Dylan blowing-in-the-wind swing: while Chavez - who is seducing the global South with his attempt to prove another world system is possible - was having his mandate renewed by an overwhelming majority of voters in a free, fair, transparent election, in Santiago the aging former US-backed Chilean tyrant Augusto Pinochet - the ultimate, sinister Latin American dictator from central casting - was suffering a heart attack.

In the absence of credible, untainted opposition, Chavez was actually, once again, running against George W Bush. “Against the devil [George W Bush], against the Empire, vote for Hugo Chavez,” proclaimed red flags scattered all over Caracas. While Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Argentina’s Nestor Kirchner, the top two powers in Mercosur alongside Venezuela, celebrated Chavez’ victory, no tears were shed for for Pinochet (Evita Peron was much cooler).

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