‘Vampire’ holiday: The passing of Chávez

Transcribed from a March 8, 2013, audio column at prisonradio.org.  The writer is a political prisoner housed at SCI Mahanoy in Frackville, Pa.  

The death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has brought out the malicious and carnal glee of the corporate press, who report breathlessly, not only on his mortal passing, but an end to the Bolivarian Revolution.

They are the voices of their vampire, Wall Street bosses, who delight in owning more of the earth, no matter how much misery they may cause for millions.

In fact, Chávez was beloved by the vast majority of Venezuelans — poor, Indian, and African — who saw in him their rising in the world.

Upon his death, seven nations declared days of mourning in his honored memory — Cuba, Chile, Uruguay, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina and Iran. Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, decreed three days of mourning and called Chávez an inspiration of the revolutionary transformation sweeping through Latin America.

Argentina’s president, Cristina Kirchner, also ordered three days of mourning to mark the passing of Chávez.

For millions of Latin Americans, Chávez brought dignity to them, by refusing to play the puppet for El Norte — the U.S. Empire.

He helped found ALBA [the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America], the International Latin American Bank, and became, in Fidel Castro’s retirement, a son of his spirit, who learned from his mentor how to resist the Empire.

According to virtually every newspaper in America, Chávez was ‘anti-American.’ Why?

Because he refused to bow, scrape and kiss the boots of Empire?

Because he wanted the oil wealth of the nation to be used for Venezuelans, instead of investors on Wall Street?

How many of us know that CITGO provided low cost heating oil to over one and a half million Americans, and that CITGO — a wholly owned subsidiary of Venezuelan oil — did so with Chávez’s blessings?

Would an ‘anti-American’ make sure that over a million Americans are warm in winter at reduced cost?

Chávez was anti-imperialist, and he opposed how the U.S. ran roughshod over Latin American countries and their independence at will.

When he took to the rostrum of the U.N. and said, “The devil was here yesterday,” and that the place “smelled of sulphur,” he was a global hit — except for U.S. puppets.

The “devil” was U.S. Imperialism, still a dangerous, drone-invading, bomb- dropping threat to millions worldwide.

Chávez, on the other hand, was loved and admired by millions, both in and out of Venezuela. ¡Viva Hugo Chávez!