{"id":36719,"date":"2013-03-09T08:27:45","date_gmt":"2013-03-09T13:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/forex-news\/?p=36719"},"modified":"2013-03-11T09:12:21","modified_gmt":"2013-03-11T13:12:21","slug":"hugo-chavez-r-i-p","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/2013\/03\/09\/hugo-chavez-r-i-p\/","title":{"rendered":"Hugo Chavez R.I.P."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bill Bonner, billbonnersdiary.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Today, we struggle to hold back tears. Another world leader has bit
\nthe dust. This time Venezuela’s big chief. Some bleak corner of Hell
\ntook him in on Tuesday, if not before.<\/p>\n

Chavez was a great entertainer. Real life was too small for him. He
\nhad to stretch the truth out… bend the real world into a larger, more
\nfantastic shape… and puff it up with hot air until it could hold him.<\/p>\n

In real life people go about their business, taking what fortune
\nsends their way and doing their best with it. That stage was much too
\nrestricted for Chavez. He aimed to play a more important role under a
\nmuch bigger proscenium arch. Naturally, he took up politics (the refuge
\nof all fantasists) and tried to overthrow the Venezuelan government; he
\nlanded in jail.<\/p>\n

The authorities let him out after a couple of years. He went right
\nback to his mischief. A few years later and he was elected president of
\nthe country. But even that wasn’t enough. He conspired to twist the
\nnation’s constitution to make himself “President for Life,” which, in an
\nact of divine mercy toward the Venezuelan people, ended this week.<\/p>\n

Chavez<\/strong><\/a>
\nwas a great showman. He kept TV audiences entertained for hours,
\nconcocting a larger-than-life fairy tale about how terrible the foreign
\ncapitalists were and how his “Bolivarian Revolution” was setting things
\nstraight.<\/p>\n

Alas, his lines were written by hacks; perhaps he wrote them himself.
\nIt took a real A-list actor to deliver his speeches with a straight
\nface. The idea of a 21st Century Socialism, for example, that he claimed
\nto have invented himself, was so transparently hollow and self-serving
\nthat a lesser thespian would have been laughed off stage.<\/p>\n

A Magisterial Presence<\/h3>\n

Chavez followed in a long South American tradition of crowd-pleasing
\nstrongmen. Like Peron, Castro and Melgarejo, he was not only a leader
\nthe masses could adore, but he was also one they deserved.<\/p>\n

Melgarejo has been largely forgotten. But he was one of the great
\nstandup guys of Bolivian politics. In 1854, like Chavez, he attempted a
\ncoup d’etat against the legitimate dictatorship of the time. He was
\ncaptured. He was tried and found guilty. That should have been the end
\nof him, but he came out with a convincing argument for clemency: that he
\nwas drunk at the time and not responsible for his actions.<\/p>\n

President Belzu pardoned Melgarejo. A few years later, just to show
\nhis gratitude, Melgarejo murdered Belzu. Then came a real tour de force
\nof political theatre, illustrating not only Melgarejo’s magisterial
\nstage presence, but also the masses’ deep attachment to their leaders<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

A crowd had gathered in front of the presidential palace demanding the return of Belzu. “Viva Belzu,” they chanted.<\/p>\n

Melgarejo appeared on the balcony. He had the dead body brought out and displayed to the crowd.<\/p>\n

“Who lives now?” he asked them.<\/p>\n

“Viva Melgarejo,” they replied.<\/p>\n

Having whacked his rival, Melgarejo soon became perhaps the most
\ndisastrous leader in the history of South America \u2013 a hotly contested
\ntitle. He is said to have signed the Treaty of Ayacucho with Brazil, in
\nwhich he traded millions of acres of Bolivian territory for a
\n“magnificent white horse.”<\/p>\n

In 1870, France and Germany went to war. Hearing reports of the
\nGerman assault on Paris, Melgarejo rushed to defend the City of Lights.<\/p>\n

He reputedly could not locate it on a map, but he was fascinated by
\nwhat he had heard of it. So, he told his army to march to Europe. His
\nmilitary commanders informed him that they had no means to cross the
\nAtlantic Ocean. Melgarejo replied: “Don’t be stupid! We will take a
\nshortcut through the brush!”<\/p>\n

Cash and Claptrap<\/h3>\n

That was the sort of Bolivarian tradition to which Chavez was heir.<\/p>\n

But Melgarejo was hardly the only legator. Chavez learned from Juan
\nPeron too. Argentina had been one of the richest countries in the world,
\nin the early 20th century. You can see the residue of it here today \u2013
\nbroad, tree-lined avenues and beautiful beaux arts, belle \u00e9poque and
\narts nouveaux private buildings and public monuments. (The Argentines
\nwere great admirers of the French too!)<\/p>\n

Now, Argentina is way down the list of the world’s richest countries.
\nToday, it is No. 54 on the CIA Factbook list \u2013 with Trinidad and
\nTobago, Equatorial Guinea and Greece far ahead of it. That, along with
\nperiodic financial crises, massive strikes, disappearances and pointless
\nwars, is the legacy given Argentina by Peron and his Peronist
\nsuccessors.<\/p>\n

You’d think the gauchos and the porte\u00f1os would have had enough of it
\nby now. But they still elect Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, a Peronist
\ncandidate, just as they voted for Chavez in Venezuela despite an
\neconomic record worthy of Mariano Melgarejo.<\/p>\n

That’s what makes the masses so attractive to leaders like Chavez:
\nThey are incredibly stupid. Consumer prices rise even faster in Caracas
\nthan in Buenos Aires. The power goes out, too. Despite being one of the
\nworld’s top oil producers<\/strong><\/a>,
\nsupplies are so tight people are urged to take “socialist showers” to
\nconserve energy. And the murder rate is among the highest in the world \u2013
\nso high that even people from Baltimore are afraid to go there.<\/p>\n

Chavez made their lives more miserable, but the masses still loved
\nhim. Of course, he paid for their affection. He took $100 million in
\nannual oil revenues and spread it around. Realizing that it would go
\nfurther in poor neighborhoods than in rich ones, he built his popular
\nsupport on cash and claptrap.<\/p>\n

And now he is gone. The performances have come to an end. The show’s over.<\/p>\n

“Now he belongs to the ages,” said Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton
\nwhen Abe Lincoln died. Now Chavez belongs to the ages too… like Peron
\nand Melgarejo.<\/p>\n

Good riddance.<\/p>\n

Regards,<\/p>\n

\"Bill<\/p>\n

Bill<\/p>\n

billbonnersdiary.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bill Bonner, billbonnersdiary.com Today, we struggle to hold back tears. Another world leader has bit the dust. This time Venezuela’s big chief. Some bleak corner of Hell took him in on Tuesday, if not before. Chavez was a great entertainer. Real life was too small for him. He had to stretch the truth out… … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Hugo Chavez R.I.P.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}