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I really didn’t wanted to write this, mainly because I am no Andrew Breitbart<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n But, at the same time, I think this is the most suitable time to write this, because it can shed some light into some of the Hugo Ch\u00e1vez<\/strong> worst wrongdoings amongst many.<\/p>\n Let me be clear – I am in no way happy because another human being is dead. I couldn’t. I am happy because a tyrant is apart from power and he can no longer play with other people’s lives.<\/p>\n Let’s set the record straight: Ch\u00e1vez set up a fetishist messianic cult for himself and Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar<\/strong><\/a>, El Libertador<\/em> -and this one, was also a piece of work, but I’ll tell you about him some other time-.<\/p>\n By no means was he a democrat.<\/strong><\/p>\n He was a military who failed a coup d’etat<\/a> <\/em>during 1992. That should have been a great, large, red flag about Hugo Ch\u00e1vez being no friend of democracy before he was first elected, in 1998.<\/p>\n Then, after he was in office, nothing would get him out of it – not even a clean democratic campaign. Thanks to his demagoguery, he got enough popular votes for a referendum in order to change the Constitution and keep himself in power -he was reelected three times after that-.<\/p>\n Ch\u00e1vez was no fan, either, of Human Rights.<\/strong> He had political prisoners. A group of his political prisoners became known as the Caracas Nine<\/em><\/a>, nine people which were held captive against their will, with no verdict at all, no process or anything of the likes.<\/p>\n This kind of situations and the hostile environment against any kind of opposition led Human Rights Watch to\u00a0denounce human rights violations in the country<\/strong>. Ch\u00e1vez responded how? He kicked out Jos\u00e9 Miguel Vivanco<\/strong><\/a>, HRW’s American division director. Yeah, he was mature enough like that. \u00a0(Funny story: Ch\u00e1vez claimed Vivanco was some sort of right partisan and CIA stooge, so Vivanco had to come to Colombia; here, our then President, far-right politician \u00c1lvaro Uribe V\u00e9lez<\/strong>, also kicked out Vivanco when HRW’s report about Colombia was as sad as Venezuela’s.)<\/p>\n And free speech didn’t do any better. Ch\u00e1vez did almost everything he could to silence any kind of opposition and dissent. That’s why the only openly anti-Ch\u00e1vez\u00a0newschannel\u00a0is Globovisi\u00f3n<\/em><\/a>, which had enough money to keep airing, from abroad, after the Bolivarian government fined them sistematically and didn’t allow them to keep broadcasting from within the country. I would go far enough to claim this toxic attitude towards free speech is contagious. No wonder\u00a0Rafael Correa<\/strong> has\u00a0selective disdain for the media<\/a>. And actor Sean Penn<\/strong>, a close friend of Ch\u00e1vez, once said those who called Ch\u00e1vez a dictator “should be jailed<\/a>” – no due process, no right to defend yourself, no free speech. A go-to jail card, just for having an opinion<\/strong>.<\/p>\n It’s not like Ch\u00e1vez only posed a risk to civilisation because he was Mahmoud Ahmadinjad<\/strong>‘s BFF<\/a>. And this was one of many Ch\u00e1vez’ questionable friendships<\/a>, like those with the Jackal, Mugabe, Amin, Bashar al-Assad<\/a>, Omar al-Bashir<\/a> and Moammar Gadhafi<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nor he was a social justice hero.<\/strong><\/p>\n Ch\u00e1vez came up with a cartoonish name for his movement: Socialism of the 21st Century<\/a>, which was based in Bolivar’s cult. Well, that doesn’t sound about right – Karl Marx<\/strong>, you know, the Socialism ideologue, despised Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar<\/a>\u00a0and there was no room for interpretation on that. My guess? Ch\u00e1vez didn’t even know what he was doing<\/strong>. He was a crazy, resentful man, who despised America, the West and the whole civilisation.<\/p>\n He raised the minimum wage, some might tell me. That’s right, he did. And you’d have to be economically illiterate to not know the more\u00a0amount of circulating money there is, there’s an erosion in the\u00a0purchasing power of money – what economists call inflation<\/a>. You can only increase the amount of circulating money when your economy is growing… and Venezuela’s wasn’t. Even\u00a0Heinz Dieterich Steffan<\/strong> stopped advising Ch\u00e1vez on economic issues<\/a>, because he wasn’t thorough.<\/p>\n Venezuela’s economy has always depended on oil. When Ch\u00e1vez came to power, the economy went good for the first two years, and then, low prices started to have a negative impact on the country’s economy. Ch\u00e1vez took it out on the workers of PdVSA<\/em> -Venezuelan state oil company-, professionals, educated people, and fired them<\/a>, replacing them with know-nothings<\/strong> who happened to follow Ch\u00e1vez’ ideology – whatever that was.<\/p>\n A keynote to bear in mind – despite how much Ch\u00e1vez hated America, he couldn’t afford that hate<\/strong>, Venezuela depends on America buying it’s oil, and Ch\u00e1vez was more than willing to sell oil to American companies<\/a>.<\/p>\n So the whole country didn’t bankrupt entirely and poverty declined, yes. But crime rates soared<\/a> to the point it is actually one of the most unsafe and insecure countries<\/strong>.<\/p>\n In addition to that, Ch\u00e1vez was an important ally for Farc<\/a> (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia<\/em> –\u00a0Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), a narco-terrorist group whose members have comitted atrocious crimes<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0for more than 50 years. Every time Colombia’s army was onto them, Venezuela would provide safety and aid to terrorists. I fail to see how can someone protect a terrorist gang that uses landmines and recruits children and say that person is some kind of social justice hero or humanitarian<\/strong>. It’s neither!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He despised knowledge<\/strong>.<\/p>\n I’ve saved the worst for the end. Hugo Ch\u00e1vez didn’t like knowledge. The PdVSA<\/em> fiasco should be enough proof, but I will give you more. When everyone learnt Hugo Ch\u00e1vez had cancer, he started wasting taxpayers’ money on superstition<\/strong>, big time. Native superstition<\/a>, Christian superstition<\/a>, Shamans<\/a>, natives’ religion again<\/a>, Ecumenism<\/a>, whatever not evidence-based belief-kit came his way. He even thanked god<\/a> after one of his surgeries performed by Cuban\u00a0physicians was a success.<\/p>\n But that was him. For the rest of his fellow countrymen, they would need to go to Venezuelan doctors, which is an issue, because Ch\u00e1vez reformed the law of medical practice<\/a> and put at the same level actual physicians with quacks. Yeah, that’s right. Whenever you go to a Venezuelan hospital you could be lucky or you could be treated by a\u00a0Holistic Community doctor (M\u00e9dico Integral Comunitario<\/em> – MIC), who are ‘taught natural and traditional medicine’. FYI, the first graduated MICs failed all the Medicine National Academy tests<\/a> – nevertheless, they’re considered the same as regular, actual, professional doctors<\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Conspiracies, conspiracies everywhere<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Ohh<\/em>, yeah! That too. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Ch\u00e1vez believed 1969 moon landing was a hoax<\/a>. This is Christopher Hitchens<\/strong>‘ account of how he found out:<\/p>\n All of this so-called evidence, too, was a mere product of imperialist television. After all, “there is film of the Americans landing on the moon,” he scoffed. “Does that mean the moon shot really happened? In the film, the Yanqui flag is flying straight out. So, is there wind on the moon?” As Ch\u00e1vez beamed with triumph at this logic, an awkwardness descended on my comrades, and on the conversation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n