53 Comments

• seanomelb | Mar 09, 2013, 06:12 PM EST

  McNamara31 the teaparty types are not interested in the reality of what Chavez acheived. They turn on their Fox channel everyday as if it were a religion and kneel to the middle of the road fascists like Hannity and believe him as if they were talking to God. Hannity represents big business and the poor teaparty types just have not worked that out yet.

• anglo-norman | Mar 09, 2013, 02:20 PM EST

  That jumped up little leprachaun glorified handshaker Higgins is a joke

• McNamara31 | Mar 09, 2013, 09:20 AM EST

  falconflash .....In the 20 years before Chavez came to power, 60% of the Venezuelan people had fallen into the poverty class. Venezuela is home to the world’s second-largest oil reserves; and most of that oil has been under wraps, protected by the nationalized oil industry that Chavez set up. Much of the oil money went to pull the poor out of poverty and provide clean water and better overall living standards.He did the opposite of your comment, he took what had been a fortune for a few people, and helped his countries poor and America's too.

• Smyrnian | Mar 09, 2013, 08:01 AM EST

  Merefalow - Live your life in this world without oil. Try it.

• merefalow | Mar 08, 2013, 06:31 PM EST

  Chaves took the oil money which WOULD have gone to fat cat ceo,s corporations and shareholders and distrbuted where it never would have gone,to the poor and down trodden,instead of the impirealist way of creating a `10% elite, creating monarchys where there had never been any,from goat herders,who,s obscene wealth is sqandered on jumbo jets ,defence spending from the masters who placed them in power,palaces of unbelievable opulence and a rigid class system with the poor of the world imported at meagre wages,to build their infrastructure, with no unions or rights,marooned in these repressive societies for years sometimes before their passports were returned,these are countries of no human rights,freedom of speech or democracy as we understand it,but we kiss the ass of these western puppets because of their oil,and the leaders with oil who wont dance to their tune they destroy,they would do the same to Venesuwela to,as they did in many s.american countries,CHILE,ALLENDE,BACKING PINOCHET AND THE DEATH SQADS, but Chaves stopped them and spread a revolution that i hope will spread to those societies in s,america where the 10% elite still exploit with the help of outside intrests.viva chaves,he was only a part of the revolution,it will continue without him.

• falconflash | Mar 08, 2013, 05:51 PM EST

  McNamara31: What was Chavez a Robin-hugo....he took from the poor (Venezuelans) and gave to the rich (Americans). Where was his responsibility to the Venezuelan people?!

• McNamara31 | Mar 08, 2013, 03:31 PM EST

  Chavez did more for the poor than any other South American leader. In the U.S. Citgo helps more than 400,000 Americans this year with a 100-gallon donation of heating oil and also provides assistance to 250 homeless shelters.When all the rich Oil Companies were asked to help, only Citgo responded. Not even Bush the "big Texas" oil man accomplished that.

• falconflash | Mar 08, 2013, 01:47 PM EST

  Liberal Gay 0 Muslim 0 atheist 0 terrorist Hated St. Paddy. No way. Nobody ever did.

• Bocktherobber | Mar 08, 2013, 12:20 PM EST

  I heard that Chavez was a liberal gay Muslim atheist terrorist who hated St Patrick.

• falconflash | Mar 08, 2013, 11:57 AM EST

  Will Joe Kennedy build a Catholic school or hospital with his Chavez money? Not in a million years...

• falconflash | Mar 08, 2013, 11:44 AM EST

  Chavez? Horrible. While a case may be made for nationalizing the oil industry, good ol' Hugo did not give the money to Venezuelans....he gave it to Cuba, Bolivai, and other countries in order to foment socialism/communism in the region....the Venezuelan people got "NADA" --that's Spanish for NOTHING! Great patriot, no no no. Wannabe internationalist rebel/socialist? Yes.

• jamieLM | Mar 08, 2013, 11:32 AM EST

  @stevenstarAll Caps, at least as an American, I know the difference between "quite" and "quiet". You're no expert on America/Americans so spare us your idiotic anti-American rants. We Americans don't care what you think!!! Btw: Irish posters on this site can speak for themselves and don't need you to do it for them. Want to know the truth about Chavez? There are plenty of credible sources to give you the facts on this guy.

• Smyrnian | Mar 08, 2013, 09:27 AM EST

  Higgins should head to Venezuela or Cuba and see how he likes it down there....

• BrianO | Mar 08, 2013, 08:42 AM EST

  Joe Kennedy recieved 0ver $930,000 annual salary and his wife received over $350,000 annual salary running citizens oil partnership with Chavez. In their non profit scam. If you are curios just google journalist Howie Carr.

• seanomelb | Mar 08, 2013, 12:18 AM EST

  Dublinduke where's your proof that Chavez stole $2 billion dollars . Idiots like you concoct some outrageous claims and post them as truth.Mike7571 show me the proof you fool.

• pilib04 | Mar 07, 2013, 09:33 PM EST

  ¡Hasta la Victoria Siempre, Comandante Chávez!

• Smyrnian | Mar 07, 2013, 09:02 PM EST

  Alois - Yeah, just what we need, yet another socialist only this time one enriching himself enormously at the public expense.

• aloistmartin | Mar 07, 2013, 08:54 PM EST

  Ireland could use a Man like Hugo Chavez~

• Mike7571 | Mar 07, 2013, 07:43 PM EST

  Good ol' Hugo, the people's hero. he died with over $2billion in his personal accounts taken from his people. "Please sir, may I have another one?"

• Smyrnian | Mar 07, 2013, 07:41 PM EST

  Kevin - you don't have to have a Socialist party so named to be socialist.

• Smyrnian | Mar 07, 2013, 07:34 PM EST

  SeanO - if you have been out of Ireland more than a half hour Stevenstar considers you non- Irish and you can't comment here. :)

• dublinduke | Mar 07, 2013, 07:02 PM EST

  You are low informed eejits. The Kennedy kid got a kickback from Chavez for this ad. Chavez was a thieving, murdering dictator who turned Venezuela into a crime ridden cesspool with massive poverty and unemployment while stealing millions of dollars per year of oil income. Nothing but a leftist socialist thief who courted the undereducated Hollywood celebs to promote his criminal activities. Grow up for god's sake and admit when you've been had.

• Searlit | Mar 07, 2013, 06:42 PM EST

  Pilib04, you're right, I read about Chavez giving oil to NE people who couldn't afford it. I also remember back during the first oil crisis, some people in the southern states had bumperstickers saying 'Let the Northeast Freeze'. Nice sentiment from your fellow countrymen. I didn't know about the techies putting the CITGO sign on the Faux set. Now is that what the Irish call cheeky? I love it! STEVENSTAR, what a huckster - Irish Americans think there more Irish than the Irish? Not this one! Sláinte ar aon chaoi!

• KevinKehoe | Mar 07, 2013, 06:39 PM EST

  I have often crossed Words with Woundednee but your comment is spot-on and very true. Smyrnian you are way of the mark when you say Ireland is a socialist country. True there are many in Ireland who are socialist but unfortunately no socialist party have ever been a majority in Government since the foundation of the state, only two conservative right wing party's who between them have committed treason on there people for there own greed. Don't even mention the Labour party as a side kick to the traitors as it plain to see what they truly are, Masons ?

• seanomelb | Mar 07, 2013, 06:36 PM EST

  AS A DUBLIN BORN LAD LIVING OVERSEAS DO I HAVE YOUR PERMISSION TO MAKE COMMENTS ON THIS SITE STEVENSTAR.

• Smyrnian | Mar 07, 2013, 06:14 PM EST

  @@@STEVENSTAR - Mr. know it all anti- American. Wrong again. I am Irish born, lived most of my life there, still own a house in Ireland, pay taxes in Ireland and I have an Irish passport and split my time between the US and Ireland. Grown up and lighten up. You are no authority on anything. Is that Irish enough for you???

• Bocktherobber | Mar 07, 2013, 06:02 PM EST

  Happyhippo -- Is it socialism when the government gives all the taxpayers' money to the bankers?

• Bocktherobber | Mar 07, 2013, 06:00 PM EST

  Any possibility of turning off those caps? It's very hard to read.

• STEVENSTAR | Mar 07, 2013, 05:57 PM EST

  @@@@Bocktherobber | Mar 07, 2013, 05:20 PM EST Smyrnian, do you live in Ireland?>>>>>>>>>>>>>NO HIS AMERICAN AS MOST OF THEM ARE ON HERE.... THEY THINK THEY KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT IRELAND AND ACTUALLY SOME OF EM ARE EVEN QUIET ARROGANT THINKING THEY ARE MORE IRISH THEN THE REAL IRISH ... ID REALLY LOVE TO GET MORE OF THE OPINIONS OF IRISH PEOPLE LIVING IN IRELAND AND BORN IN IRELAND ON HERE.... IM SURE ALOT OF PEOPLE WOULD BE VERY SURPRISED ABOUT WHAT WE ACTUALLY THINK OF THEM :)

• Happyhippo | Mar 07, 2013, 05:42 PM EST

  Socialism always ends in tears as does capitalism,but the latter has always reinvented itself if only because when human beings are free to fend for themselves they are more likely to find a way forward than those that came to depend so much on the state for everything,it was just that nobody told them what happens when the state runs out of money.

• Bocktherobber | Mar 07, 2013, 05:34 PM EST

  Spoken like a true redneck.

• Redneck56 | Mar 07, 2013, 05:30 PM EST

  Screw Chávez !!!!

• Bocktherobber | Mar 07, 2013, 05:20 PM EST

  Smyrnian, do you live in Ireland?

• seanomelb | Mar 07, 2013, 05:15 PM EST

  The USA spent most of the 20th century supporting right wing fascist regimes who murdered the working class. Most South American countries are now liberal and free of American agression,Hugo led this cgarge and won four fair and free elections. He lifted millions out of abject poverty with land reform, health and education reform. A true man of the people who would not be bullied by middle of the road fascist warmongers in the US who tried to usurp his authority. The era of the likes of Ollie North is over.

• Smyrnian | Mar 07, 2013, 05:07 PM EST

  Bock - not sure if you were serious or not but in any event Ireland is definitely a socialist country and the US is fast heading the same way hence the spending - taxing - borrowing problem to pay for all the freebies.

• pilib04 | Mar 07, 2013, 04:02 PM EST

  Searlit, Chavez also helped American needy by giving $100 worth of free heating oil to low income people across New England via CITGO. Interesting sidebar, for years a CITGO sign was part of the backdrop for Fox News. Techies put it up and FAUX NEWS didn't catch on for over two years!

• bunkerisland | Mar 07, 2013, 03:16 PM EST

  Chavez made effort to end the error of Colonial pillage on his country by throwing off the yoke of international corporations that simply bled that nation's natural resources and labor force while running away with the money. He reduced poverty in a significant way, increased educational opportunities and promoted broad based health care. Issues related to high crime rates and on-going poverty remain, but the man initiated a S. & C. American organization that will promote cooperation amongst these dozens countries that the US and Europe have exploited for centuries. Was everything well done? Hardly, but life is better for the majority of residents of Venezuela. Throwing out a few representatives of the US was probably the result of the US sticking its nose in internal political affairs of the nation. The US has been seen as the bully of the hemisphere for near a century. When and if it begins to respect the rights of its neighbors relations will improve. Obama seems to be devoured by the Middle East and the Far East with little time for those to the south.

• WoundedKnee | Mar 07, 2013, 03:14 PM EST

  The rightwingers bray about democracy, but when the people elect leaders they don't like, suddenly the rightists' mouths clamp shut. We saw this in the case of Palestine, where Hamas was freely and fairly elected as government. Yet none of the hypocritical Western states has ever recognized the people's verdict--they even invent excuses not to involve the government of Gaza in discussions about the future of Gaza! That's imperialism for you. Ditto for Venezuela. Indeed ditto for Ireland, whenever it votes the way the EU doesn't like. I am probably the only poster here who has been to Venezuela. My view is that Chavez, like all great leaders, made a number of errors and had many defects. But Chavez was a great man--contrast this Titan, a flawed Titan perhaps, with the pigmys who run the US and Ireland. I have fluent Spanish, and yesterday I watched the live internet coverage of the great tumultous mass of grieving humanity who followed El Comandante's coffin thru the streets of Caracas. Hundreds of thousands yesterday--tomorrow it will be a million and more. And as a Catholic I was happy that Chavez had died, in his words, "aferrado a Cristo"--clinging to Christ.

• Bocktherobber | Mar 07, 2013, 03:11 PM EST

  Over here in Ireland, our politicians gave away every drop of our gas and oil resources to exploration companies. In return, we, the Irish people, receive not a cent of badly-needed profits that we might use to pay down our debts or to build hospitals and schools. But at least our politicians aren't socialists and that's the most important thing, right?.

• IrelandNorth | Mar 07, 2013, 02:56 PM EST

  They who know not, and know not that they know not are fools. Shun them! There's a lot of speculation on this story. Let only Venezualans with practical experience of his administration speak their truth. Privileged people are rarely entusiastic about leaders who threaten to square the circle, if that is in fact what he tried to do?

• Bocktherobber | Mar 07, 2013, 02:46 PM EST

  Scrivner, you are aware that the election was certified and free and fair by the Organization of American States and the Carter Center, aren't you? Did Chavez manage to fool them too?

• Scrivner | Mar 07, 2013, 02:23 PM EST

  Bock-the-Robber, you are cherry picking the facts. elections can be stolen with an initial grab for power by on the ground organizing, promises that never can be kept and rewards for turning out the masses. Then, when in power, work hard to destroy and/or drive out any potential opposition. Threaten the Judiciary if they dare to challenge usurped power, encourage followers to use violence and intimidation and for every societal pain--blame the other guy! You have seen it with dictators of the right and left, they always justify their actions by saying that they are doing it "for the people," but magically their foreign bank accounts see to get all the gains. Adios, Hugo, and good riddence.

• Bocktherobber | Mar 07, 2013, 01:56 PM EST

  Your low opinion of the Venezuelan electorate sounds a lot like ancient British aristocracy attitudes to the Irish.

• Smyrnian | Mar 07, 2013, 01:51 PM EST

  Bock - I already did. Read my post below.

• Bocktherobber | Mar 07, 2013, 01:25 PM EST

  Can you explain how a dictator wins three fair elections?

• Smyrnian | Mar 07, 2013, 12:51 PM EST

  Chavez was a socialist dictator who imprisoned and tortured many. He impoverished his country while enriching himself and allied himself with some of the world's worst terrorist states. Sure he was popular with the masses; all socialist leaders are popular with the impoverished masses because they get free stuff. Talk to the educated and those who work for a living and see what they say. PS Higgins is an idiot.

• dublinduke | Mar 07, 2013, 12:42 PM EST

  Chavez was a radical socialist and a two bit thief who took a poor country and made it poorer and led his people down a trail of social decay. The people of Venezuela should celebrate the death of this tyrant.

• PhlutiePhan | Mar 07, 2013, 12:15 PM EST

  Everyone needs to rewatch the movie "A Clear and Present Danger". There is capitalist corruption in South America. However, Chavez is a radical socialist along the lines of Fidel Castro. Two wrongs don't make a right. It would appear that the assasination of JFK is tied up in this entire mess.

• Searlit | Mar 07, 2013, 11:31 AM EST

  From what I read he helped the needy. God Bless him for that. I'm sorry he died. He will be remembered for the good he did.

• Bocktherobber | Mar 07, 2013, 10:33 AM EST

  It would be interesting to read more about this bank account. Do you have a source for the information?

• southside77 | Mar 07, 2013, 10:24 AM EST

  Hugo Chavez has a bank account with 2 billion dollars in it. How did this man of the people acquire 2 billion dollars? Hugo was just another corrupt politician. Power to the People not the politicians. Let the real revolution begin.

• Bocktherobber | Mar 07, 2013, 10:05 AM EST

  In elections certified free and fair by the Organization of American States, which includes the USA, Hugo Chavez won a far bigger majority than any recent American president, and yet, somehow, he's a dictator. How does that work?

• CavanAncestor | Mar 07, 2013, 09:22 AM EST

  Adams doesn't surprise me given the IRA's ordnance and ties to LIBYA and FARQ. Shame on the rest of them representing a country whose proud history was a long and painful struggle to overthrow the yoke of autocrats.