Thread: Venezuela’s “Demonstration Effect�: Defyin

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1579

Venezuela’s “Demonstration Effect�: Defying Globalization’s LogicMonday, Oct 17, 2005



By: Steve Ellner - NACLA

The continued ability of President Hugo Chávez to carry out significant reforms in the face of U.S. hostility and a fierce U.S.-supported domestic opposition has important implications for progressive Latin American struggles. Chávez’s success places in doubt the view that effective resistance by Latin American and Caribbean countries to the “free-market� neoliberal order is no longer possible.

The “no-alternatives, resistance-is-futileâ€? view is borrowed from Margaret Thatcher’s famous observation that alternatives to free-market policies no longer exist. It is reinforced by the ongoing market-based conditionality of all assistance (including debt forgiveness) from the United States and U.S.-dominated international financial institutions. That the Chávez experience goes against Thatcher’s dictumâ€â€

I am getting to like this guy. Seems he is doing what is right for his country and the average citizen rather than the special interests and the elitist!
I especially like the part about protecting his countrys soverignty!