(1) (13)

Interesting how these things get around. The word of these amazing photos of Mexico City got to me from him, who got it from him, who got it from him, who apparently found them here, which is where, for me, the trail went cold.

The picture Patrick Crozier chose to reproduce is particularly extraordinary. Talk about 'fake but real'. Something to do with how the guy photoshops the pictures to make things clearer, I am guessing. I often do the same with shots I take from airplanes.

Architecturally, I think this is particularly bizarre. There are times, may the God Who Does Not Exist forgive me, when I yearn for a violent revolution in sleepy little Britain, just so that the planning permission (i.e. non-permission for almost anything remotely interesting except when the government wants it) system collapses, and people could build, in Britain's still overwhelmingly green and pleasant land, whatever crazy thing they liked. Just as a for instance, why are there not more castles built nowadays, with cylindrical and pointy towers?

Mind you, extraordinary things are still being built in Britain, by the sort of people who are still allowed to do such things.

(2) (20)

Despite the urging of much of Brazil's ruling classes to support the measure, the world's first national referendum which put the proposition to ban the sale of firearms was smashed decisively by a 2:1 margin.

The people who are baffled why so many common people in a murder wracked country like Brazil would oppose such a measure need to realise that it is precisely because the country has such problems with violent crime that people need the means to protect themselves.

As I have said on other occasions - the right to keep and bear arms: it's not just for American anymore.

Maybe more Brazillians in London should be armed as well...

(2) (18)

A new film is to be made about Che Guevara, the man whose image adorns the T-shirts of many a young student "radical" or someone trying to appear hip (even if they haven't much clue about his real life). This story, drawn from a report at the Venice Film Festival, suggests that the man will be portrayed warts an' all, making use of declassified CIA files. Good. It is something of a pet issue here at Samizdata that while the monsters of Fascism are rightly excoriated in film and print and unthinkable of a youngster to wear a picture of Adolf Hitler on his shirt, it is considered okay to do the same with the portrait of a mass murderer like Lenin or Chairman Mao. Of course in some cases the results of this mindset are unintentionally amusing.

Maybe the message is getting through. Totalitarian socialists are not hip, and not clever.

(0) (15)

I love this headline:

Castro Lauds Cuban Municipal Elections

I bet he does.

Under Cuba's one-party system, city and provincial leaders, as well as representatives of the National Assembly, are elected by citizens on a local level. Anyone can be nominated to these posts, including non-members of the island's ruling communist party – the only one recognized in Cuba's constitution.

So, in theory, anyone can stand for election, and if they win they can then take part in choosing anyone as President.

Well, not quite.

Cuba consistently defends its system as democratic, but critics of Castro's government argue that tight state control, a heavy police presence and neighborhood-watch groups that report on their neighbors prevent any real political freedom on the island.

It is easy to sneer, and I hereby sneer, at elections like this. But what also strikes me is that fraudulent though this system obviously is at the moment, it might eventually mutate into something genuine. To put it another way, window dressing can end up taking over the shop.

What if Castro dies – Castro will, I predict, eventually die – and there is no longer any widespread agreement about who it is proper to vote for, and who those voted for should themselves vote for when they choose Castro's successor?

At least Castro now feels sufficiently pressured by the challenge of true democracy to feel the need to arrange his own fraudulent version of it. And the experience of participating in this charade is quite likely to make at least some of those taking part in it wonder how it might feel to vote in a real election.

(0) (8)

Harry Hutton mostly does sarky, misanthropic humour, so this on the spot reportage from Colombia might very well get missed by a lot of more earnest types than him who would appreciate reading it.

Here is John Pilger arguing that American military aid has caused a humanitarian disaster in Colombia. The trouble with this is that, since the really huge flows of US arms and money began, the level of violence has plunged.

Kidnapping fell 42% last year, and 26% the year before that; the number of massacres was down 53% in 2004, and murder fell 17.7%; street crime, the number of displaced persons, crime against taxi drivers... all down. And every single Colombian I have spoken to, without a single exception, has told me that the situation has improved. I had dinner with some foreign human rights workers, who told me that this was also their strong impression.

Harry's commenters have mostly concentrated not on whether the above reportage is true, but rather about the rights and wrongs of legalising the drugs, the proceeds of which are so much a part of the problems of Colombia. Or maybe not, because Colombia has always been a violent place. I favour total drug legalisation for all the usual libertarian reasons, but whatever you think about that, this is an interesting piece of reportage.

A few other commenters have also pointed out what a lying twat Pilger is. It is good that such drivel as his can now be challenged quickly by bloggers who, unlike Pilger, actually know what Pilger is talking about. Had I come across it by some other route, I would have dismissed Pilger's piece as almost certainly being made-up rubbish, purely because of who it is by, but it is nice to be sure.

(1) (26)

Yet another attempt is underway to portray Ernesto 'Che' Guevara as someone who was actually admirable, rather than someone who should be remembered, if at all, as an inept communist thug and mass murderer who deserves to be buried under the scrapheap of history.

Fortunately not everyone is fooled.

(1) (11)

Just when you think that language cannot possibly become any more twisted or discourse any more debased, up pops a reminder that we still have a long way left to fall:

The 1971 shooting of students by government forces in Mexico's so-called "dirty war" has been classified by an investigating prosecutor as genocide.

While marvelling at this breathtaking and brazen ridiculousness of this charge, I note that it is merely the opinion of a prosecutor as opposed to an official verdict. However, if it becomes an official verdict I trust that no-one will be surprised.

Like the word 'rape', the word 'genocide' has increasingly been deployed as a political trigger word and abused to the point where it has not just been devalued but is perilously close to being stripped of every smidgeon of meaning. I suppose we will have to find a new term to describe the extermination of an entire race now.

This particular case may or may not go any further but it almost does not matter. The point is that the bar has been lowered again and the occasion will not go unmarked among that class of jurists and campaigners who weave together the fabric of supranational laws.

Within ten years, charges of 'genocide' will be laid against people who tell racist jokes.

(0) (13)

According to the great leader's physician, Fidel Castro can live to "at least" the age of 140 years old. His proof? Castro still has the strength to go on protest marches. God help us if participation in moonbat gatherings is all it takes to guarantee more than a century of life on this planet; if you think old people are crazy these days, just wait until they're all sporting "Not in my name" badges and spouting communist rhetoric.

Speaking of which, how long do we reckon it will it be before Fidel's fans start trotting out this doctor's expert opinion as further evidence -- along with the country's literacy rates and supposedly world-class, "free" healthcare -- that Cuba is a great nation from which we could all learn so very much?

(2) (111)

Online purveyors of imperialist Yankee running-dog capitalism are not welcome in socialist paradise:

A new law has been passed in Cuba which will make access to the internet more difficult for Cubans.

Only those authorised to use the internet from home like civil servants, party officials and doctors will be able to do so on a regular phone line.

So there we have it. A country that has (allegedly) 100% rates of literacy but you are not allowed to actually read anything.

(2) (17)

Seeking out fiskable material in the Guardian is altogether too much like spearing fish in a barrel. It's almost unfair. Callous, even. In fact, spoilt for choice, I generally elect to leave the tiddlers and save my energies for the succulent, fat ones that drift serene and oblivious to my cravings for their ample and oily flesh.

Dinner is served, courtesy of one Brian Wilson who takes his readers on a moist-eyed trip down memory lane:

Twenty-five years ago this month, I visited Cuba for the first time. The occasion was the World Festival of Youth and Students, which drew 20,000 to Havana from 150 countries - probably, to this day, the country's biggest display to the world of its revolutionary wares.

Come on over, Mama, whole lot of schtoopidity goin' on.

Yet, for our Brian, these were the salad days:

But for me, that visit was the start of a life-long love affair.

Ah yes, the romantic boulevards of gay Havana, where Brian strolled arm-in-arm with the Revolutionary Vanguard of the Hoopty-Squat Dirtbag 25th of November People's Liberation Front Army (or something).

There is no need to confuse that statement with uncritical acclaim for everything about the place. But criticism should never ignore the fact that Cuba's primary service to the world has been to provide living proof that it is possible to conquer poverty, disease and illiteracy in a country that was grossly over-familiar with all three.

Where's the 'living proof', O Besotted One? Why isn't every Cuban Embassy on the planet besieged with sick, starving, illiterate people all clamouring for passage to Havana and salvation?

I have now had half a dozen such sessions with Castro. He talks a lot but then he has a lot to talk about. He is a man with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. I have got to know quite a few surprising characters whom few would recognise from the caricatures - Castro as an admirer of Churchill; Castro as a pragmatist who recognises the inevitability of globalisation and wants Latin America to mould it; Castro whose withering remarks about the Soviet Union confirm just how unloving a marriage of necessity that was.

Castro the wise. Castro the good. Castro the humanitarian. Castro the divine, the charming, the witty, the profound. Castro the bon vivant; a scholar, a gentleman, a prince among men. Dammit, I've run out of compliments.

The tragedy is that the evolutionary process - not least in regard to the liberal freedoms - could be so much more rapid and comfortable, if only the US would learn to co-exist a little more graciously.

See it's that bloody George Bush again. What a monster! On his ignoble head be the plight of Cuba!

Cuba's problems are immense. Socialism in one country is still a contradiction in terms.

Oh of course, it's not the socialism that is causing the problems, it's the socialism in one country. If only the rest of the world would take Cuba's lead those problems would all evaporate overnight.

All true, all the inevitable product of 40 years of siege, but also all irrelevant to the bigger picture of what Cuba represents as a symbol of human potential.

If Mr.Wilson thinks that an impoverished, oppressive, third-world communist toilet is a 'symbol of human potential' then it isn't just Cuba that has immense problems.

I have noticed quite a lot of this sort of orgasmic waxing about Cuba's alleged healthcare and education standards in the British leftist press of late. It is almost identical to the kind of rhetoric they once employed in the service of the British sovietised models. And 'once' is the key word because here in the UK they can no longer get away with that and they know it. Their rosey propoganda has first stumbled and then ground to a halt completely in the face of a first-hand shambolic reality that even they can no longer deny.

So it's all hearts and minds over to the tropical, mysterious and (best of all) faraway island in the Caribbean whose sovietised models work as intended (so we're told) and the rude actuality of bitter experience need never darken their melifluous visions. While angry Britons prod them in the chest and tell them they're talking crapola, angry Cubans denied a similar privilege are hitching a ride on old truck tyres to get them to Florida.

Doesn't stack up, does it. But, then, it never did. Pass the hollandaise sauce.

(1) (22)

I'm back onto Cuba again but, hey, it's not my fault. The buggers keep provoking me.

But at least I can now look back on a certain record of achievement on this particular subject. No sooner have I intimated that Cuba's allegedly splendiferous health-care and education statistics were probably a crock, then up pops cast-iron confirmation courtesy of this hilarious bit of fawnography in the Guardian:

Which only goes to reinforce what has long been obvious: that US hostility to Cuba does not stem from the regime's human rights failings, but its social and political successes and the challenge its unyielding independence offers to other US and western satellite states. Saddled with a siege economy and a wartime political culture for more than 40 years, Cuba has achieved first world health and education standards in a third world country, its infant mortality and literacy rates now rivalling or outstripping those of the US, its class sizes a third smaller than in Britain.

Which goes a long way to explaining why untold numbers of Americans are risking their lives every year in order to escape from America and get a better life in Cuba.

Er, no, wait a sec...that's the other way around:

Untold numbers of Cubans flee the island every year, trying to cross to nearby Florida - including via a truck turned into a raft this week.

Have these 'untold numbers' of Cubans all gone stark, raving mad? Who, in their right minds, would want to risk being eaten by sharks in order to get away from first-class health-care and education? Don't these insane Cubans realise just how poor, miserable, stupid and sick they are going to be in America?

Some ungrateful people just don't deserve 'social and political successes'.

(3) (26)

Fidel Castro, in a speech to the masses, has announced that he will not accept any more aid from the European Union as people connected with this organization have made critical comments about some of the policies of his regime.

Now if Fidel Castro actually keeps his word (I admit that this a dodgy assumption) his regime may soon fall.

Cuba has various sources of income. Some are not that important - for example the Castro regime's drug dealing has long been limited by the desire to maintain plausible deniability (cocaine dealing having a negative public relations aspect in modern times - although at one time it was considered a respectable trade, and may one day be so considered again). Also there is little point for Latin American cocaine sellers to work via Cuba (when they can sell direct) - although some groups (such as the F.A.R.C. and the E.L.N. in Colombia) have an ideological interest in working with Cuba.

Other sources of finance are important, but also vulnerable. For example the cheap oil from Venezuela depends on the President there continuing to hold power. Now whilst it is true that large sections of the population continue to be part of the 'Chavez cult' (the President is consided a sort of God - who is to be worshipped no matter how much harm he causes his worshippers), the majority of the population are not part of the cult and the President may feel it sensible to sell oil at market prices to whoever wishes to buy it - or the President may lose power.

Then there is the nickel mining in Cuba. Nickel is a good source of money, however the mining depends on western companies and both the E.U. and Canada seem to be getting tired of encouraging private companies to operate in Cuba (considering the way these companies tend to get treated there). The belief that Castro should be supported because he is a 'progressive' (and also as a good way of twisting the tail of the United States) is finally slipping away. Also the fad of Cuba tourism seems to be losing its shine. Pre Castro musicians are dying off and pre Castro buildings are decaying (in spite of all the aid sent to prevent their decay).

This leaves Cuba with the income sent home by Cubans living overseas.

It is ironic that such an important source of income for Cuba (perhaps more important than tourism) is from people in the United States sending money back to their families.

A regime that depends on the population being supported by people living in the 'great enemy' can hardly be considered a strong one.

My guess (it can be no more than that) is that Fidel Castro will be out (or dead) within a year.

(0) (10)

Only the BBC could possibly publish a full-page editorial about the 50th anniversary of Castro's revolution in Cuba without once mentioning the word 'communism'. Not overlooked, however, is a bit of fawning over the Beard himself:

Mr Castro, then a 26-year-old revolutionary, led about 120 fighters in a raid on the Moncada barracks - with a garrison of about 800 soldiers - on 26 July 1953.

So brave! So dashing! So bold! Our hero! (swoon).

Still there are some brief, grudging but nonetheless damning admissions:

His country has gone from being the third-richest in Latin America to one of the poorest.

Its economy now relies heavily on funds sent from Cubans abroad and on tourism.

Untold numbers of Cubans flee the island every year, trying to cross to nearby Florida - including via a truck turned into a raft this week.

Grim reading indeed but completey overshadowed, of course, by Castro's laudable 'humanitarian achievements':

Cuba boasts the highest life expectancy in Latin America and one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world.

It has one doctor per 166 people and one of the most extensive free public health systems in the world.

It also has one of the highest literacy rates in the world, with just over 95% of the population being able to read.

Makes you wonder why so many Cubans are so hell-bent on getting the flock out of Cuba. Perhaps they are all 'extreme right-wingers'.

In any event, I wonder if those oft-touted statistics actually bear any resemblance to reality? Or are they, like Soviet grain harvesting figures, a mere device to provide Western leftists with a tool of apologia. The 'best healthcare in the world' schtick is now such familiar copybook mummery that it is even accepted by people who should know better. Perhaps somebody should ask those fleeing Cubans what life is really like.

(1) (18)

It has been reported that Iranian dissident TV programmes being broadcast into Iran via satellite from the USA are being jammed... from Cuba! Of course I have no doubt that the Communist Cuban government will deny they are responsible.

Fair enough. As a result, it would be really... interesting... to see some equally non-governmental action to stop them. I wonder how much it would cost to lash up 'private sector' anti-radiation missile with just enough range to reach the jammer in Bejucal, (near Havana) from not-too-far-into Cuban airspace? Let's call it a 'Rattlesnake' (as in Don't Tread on Me)

As tactical surprise would be complete, the 'Rattlesnake' would not need to be fast (more akin to a cruise missile than a Shrike or HARM), just so long as it had enough range. A simple aluminum airframe with little wings to minimize the propellant requirement, perhaps a stripped down off-the-shelf GPS unit for cruise guidance and a tuned passive homer for terminal guidance (you know, the sort of gear the US government pays hundreds of thousands for and which can be bought in Radio Shack for a few hundred bucks). If the weapon was accurate enough, a small 10 lbs improvised pre-fragmented warhead would probably be sufficient. If the whole thing could be kept under 250 lbs, it would be easy to modify all manner of private airplanes to carry it.

A 15 mile engagement envelope for a Hi-Hi-Lo stand-off attack would probably be adequate: skirt Cuban airspace, suddenly turn in for the attack, shallow dive for speed to maximise range of the missile, release the 'Rattlesnake', then dive for the deck at just under the speed your wings will fall off and run for Key West (or elsewhere) at wave-top level long before you develop any MIG or SAM 'problems'...but obviously the longer the range of the weapon, the better.

Key West, Mexico and a zillion little islands are only a few minutes flight time away for a low flying private airplane and, as I am sure any trafficker in 'herbs and spices' in that part of the world will tell you, there are an awful lot of small airfields in the Caribbean.

It is just an idea, of course... pure fantasy...I would not dream of actually inciting anyone to do this. That would be bad. I mean, if people started doing that sort of thing, folks might get it into their heads that it is okay to shoot at tyrants wherever they are found... and we wouldn't want that now, would we?

Link via Zem

(4) (21)

I do believe that we may be witnessing the final days of Cuba's squalid communist regime:

The first wave of dissidents rounded up in a nationwide crackdown went on trial Thursday as Fidel Castro's government moved to wipe out growing opposition. Prosecutors sought life sentences for 12 of the 80 defendants.

"While the rest of the hemisphere has moved toward greater freedom, the anachronistic Cuban government appears to be retreating into Stalinism," department spokesman Philip Reeker said in Washington.

When governments start incarcerating their political opponents for life, it is because they are frightened and deeply worried and usually with good reason. I suspect the game is nearly up.

And, just as an aside, doesn't this show up the juvenile, publicity-seeking, egocentrism of the 'Bush is Hitler' mob in sharp relief? While genuine freedom fighters risk their very lives by taking on 'Il Presidente', the likes of Michael Moore can pose as 'oppressed heroic victims' while being chauffeured around to their various awards ceremonies and public speaking engagements.

(0) (0)

The Cuban Human Rights Commission reports 65 dissidents, mainly independent journalists, have been arrested in a three day crackdown.

Castro, as cynical as ever, is taking advantage of the world's attention being focussed on the overthrow of another Socialist military dictator.

Paul Staines

(0) (19)

So now we will see another test of George Bush's very shaky Free Trader credentials. He rightly wants Latin America to open up its markets to mutually enriching capitalism via the Free Trade Area of Americas (FTAA) agreements... but will the USA do the same for its markets?

In order to make FTAA worthwhile, Brazil has demanded the United States open its fiercely protected sugar, steel and citrus markets to freer competition.

Analysts agree that without Brazil there will be no FTAA, and it is unclear how quickly Washington can lower key tariffs.

It amazes me how so many US Republicans who cursed every breath taken by Bill Clinton, damning him quite rightly as an unprincipled political weathervane, nevertheless just gloss over George Bush's dismal record on liberalising world trade. Why is allowing the state to interfere in markets so as to make products such as sugar, lumber, steel and fruit more expensive to American consumers and industry just shrugged off?

The need for political support from key states, you say? Ah, I see. So you mean George Bush is just an unprincipled political weathervane, then. Gotcha.

(0) (0)

Hernando de Soto seems to have had an immense impact on all of Spanish America, and most particularly on his homeland of Peru. Unfortunately you hear very little about Peru in the news other than Fujimori escapades or Shining Path villainy. This letter from Dr. Edgar David Villaneuva Nunez, Congressman of the Republica of Peru to Microsoft shows an entirely different side of government in Peru. It is much worth the read whether your interest is in the meta-context shining through it, or of the powerful set of arguments Dr Nunez makes for free software.

The story is in the letter so I will let Dr. Nunez provide the rest of the narrative.

(0) (0)

Hugo Chavez is back in the presidential palace, as I lamented last Monday when I flippantly suggested the coup plotters should have shot him... only I was not really joking. There are all manner of rumour such as this from Instapundit on Wednesday that this is far from played out.

Hugo Chavez is the duly elected President of Venezuela. So what? When democracy and tyranny are on the same side, to hell with democracy. Democracy is not an end in and of itself, just a means to an end and that end is liberty... if a majority voted to expel all black people from the USA, would that be okay just because it is democratically sanctified? Of course not. If democracy leads to liberty, fine. If it does not, then time for a coup d'état. I am quite serious that my only problem with the coup against Chavez is they did not shoot the bastard dead. Sic semper tyrannis.

(0) (0)

I have had a couple e-mails asking me what I thought about the situation in Venezuela and the fact Hugo Chevez seems to be back in office after the Army deposed him. I assume the reason these two readers asked me what I thought on the subject, which is a bit off my usual polemical stomping grounds, is presumably because I wrote a well received piece on the subject of Hugo Chavez back in December.

Well all I can say is what is it with kids these days? The younger generation just do not take pride in their work. Back when I was a youngster, we all knew that a coup d'etat was not over until you have shot El Presidente dead on the steps of his palace.

(0) (0)

...when the law you break has no moral basis.

In 1991, a crime was committed in New York. The UN imposed an arms embargo on all of the former Yugoslavia and all the national governments who voted for that resolution were parties to that crime.

At the same time as this crime against the peoples of Croatia and Bosnia i Herzegovina was happening, Argentine Economics Minister Domingo Cavallo was conspiring successfully to sell Argentine weapons to Croatia via a series of dummy companies and third parties.

Now I am under no illusions that Mr. Cavallo was motivated by any desire to right the wrong done by the UN when it tried to prevent the poorly armed Croatian and Bosnian peoples under attack by the Yugoslav Army from defending themselves. Nevertheless, that was exactly what the results of his self-serving actions were. We were able to fight and survive and eventually prevail.

Yesterday Domingo Cavallo was arrested under the orders of politically motivated judges for his part in that entirely moral series of arms sales between 1991 and 1995. Argentine congressional deputy Elisa Carrio, an independent anti-corruption campaigner, welcomed the ruling that resulted in Cavallo's arrest yesterday saying "Truth and justice will prevail". Guess what, Elisa... it already has and you would not know what either looked like if they bit you in the behind.

And so, Domingo, whatever else you may have done and deserve to be punished for, I hope you beat the rap on this one because there was no moral reason for you not to have done it and several excellent reasons to do so. And given the state of the Argentine economy, I hope you stashed your end of the proceeds in Zürich, not Buenos Aires.

(0) (0)

A salute of many popping champaign bottles to our confreres with the Movimiento Libertario Costa Rica on winning at least five (and possibly seven) of the 57 seats in the Congress of Costa Rica. Bravo!

(0) (0)

Phil Thomas writes in with some remarks about the mess in Argentina

The antiglobalisation movement has made much of the current economic state of Argentina, claiming that the crisis is just the latest example of the economic depression and general ruin that following recommendations of the IMF and similar institutions to create and sustain robust, functional markets brings upon a nation. These activists are mistaken. It is certainly true that Argentine officials attempted to follow IMF advice in reforming many areas of the economy.

However, many of these reforms were stopped mid-stream and later abandoned, as Steve Hanke, a professor of economics at Johns Hopkins, details in a Cato Institute report. Once any attempt to provide a sound foundation for Argentina's economy was abandoned, it was only a matter of time until the system was in serious trouble. Abandoning the path of sound markets, along with a dramatic increase in taxation over the past decade, sealed Argentina's fate. In the end, blame for the current Argentine affair rests not with the international institutions or international capitalism in general, but with the Argentine politicians who saw fit to kill efforts to build a sound economy and in so doing mismanage their country into the ground.

Phil Thomas

(0) (0)

An article in New Jersey Online (NJO link here no longer works) reports that President Hugo Chavez's ongoing strategy of bankrupting Venezuela and ensuring only a moron would invest their capital there is gathering momentum.

Chavez says his land reform law will correct the injustice of only 1 percent of the population owning more than 60 percent of the country's arable land. But business leaders says it violates private property rights by forcing farmers to conform to a national agricultural strategy or risk having their land confiscated. Fedecamaras is also protesting a law that requires the state-owned oil company to own a majority stake in all future joint ventures with private corporations.

Now this, boys and girls, is what is known as fascist economics. Nominal ownership is retained in private hands but de facto control over the means of production is in the hands of government agencies. The term 'fascist' is often used as an epithet meaning 'bad guys' or 'statist' but that merely devalues the term, leaving us with fuzzy stereotypes of Nazis á la 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. Understood properly, fascism or 'right-socialism' is a form of socialism that concerns itself with control of assets rather than ownership. Often there is a mixture of outright left style nationalisations of 'essential' industries (such as oil companies), but a fiction of private ownership persists at lower levels.

To understand Chavez, and any number of other modern 'socialists' in Latin America, Europe or elsewhere, it is important to understand they are a mixture of left and right socialism... naturally modern socialists or 'social democrats' dislike being told some of their economic policies are fascist but there you have it. Whilst there is vast body of definitions of what constitutes fascism, most are written by self-described leftists keen to differentiate 'nice' socialism from 'nasty' national socialism/fascism. Yet as early as 1940, Fred Hayek in The Road to Serfdom exposed fascism for what it was... a variant of socialism. The often quoted slogan that 'Fascism is late capitalism' is not just wrong, it is incoherent. An economic system in which the means of production are allocated by the state's commands, regardless of who 'owns' the bloody things, is not, by definition, capitalist, late or otherwise. The defining characteristic of CAPITALism is that CAPITAL is allocated via markets in accordance with the priorities of owner of the capital.

So let's call Hugo Chavez what he really is: a fascist.