[DEBATE] : Fw: Un-civil society: King Juan Carlos vs President Hugo

[peter waterman]

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Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2007 2:11 PM
Subject: Un-civil society: King Juan Carlos vs President Hugo


>
> http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/globalisation/juan_caros_vs_president_hugo
> <http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/globalisation/juan_caros_vs_president_hugo>
> Published on openDemocracy ()
> King Juan Carlos vs President Hugo
> By Justin Vogler
> Created 2007-11-13 17:39
>
> "Why don't you shut up?" shot King Juan Carlos, voice trembling and hand
> raised threateningly towards the Venezuelan president who had just 
> labelled
> former Spanish prime minister, José María Aznar, a "fascist" and a 
> "racist".
>
> Chávez didn't shut up and nor did his Bolivian counterpart, Evo Morales, 
> who
> charged the "Europeans" with not accepting their historic debt with Latin
> America's indigenous population. The Cuban vice-president, Carlos Lage,
> threw in his two cents against Aznar and then Daniel Ortega [10] let rip
> against the Spanish energy giant Unión Fenosa, accusing them of massive
> fraud in their dealings with Nicaragua. It was all too much for poor Juan
> Carlos and the enraged monarch stood up and stormed out of the closing
> ceremony of the seventeenth Ibero-American summit in Santiago on 10 
> November
> 2007.
>
> Despite the compulsory brave face, the Chilean organisers must have
> concluded that the event [11] was a disaster. Far from confirming Michelle
> Bachelet's [12] international standing the world saw a weak hostess unable
> to keep order. She spectacularly failed to silence Hugo Chávez and had to
> plead with King Juan Carlos for him to return for the final photos. 
> Chávez,
> who initially went out of his way to woo Bachelet, now appears to have
> concluded that there is nothing to be gained from her, or the Chilean
> government's favour. He came to Santiago on a wrecking mission.
>
> The Spanish papers had no doubt who won the spat. El Pais lauded "Don Juan
> Carlos" who "fulfilled his role given that the Venezuelan president's
> insults crossed the line of what is tolerable in relations between 
> sovereign
> countries". For El Mundo's editorial "it was the King of Spain who stopped
> the Venezuelan caudillo in his tracks in front of all the Ibero-American
> leaders, telling him what someone should have told him a long time ago".
>
> Despite the media praise, the Spanish may be well advised to rethink their
> approach towards the new world. No matter how popular Juan Carlos [13] is 
> at
> home, fielding a Spanish monarch in a summit packed with Latin American
> nationalist leaders who define themselves in opposition to imperialism is
> like throwing a red rag to a herd of bulls.
>
> Chávez has always worked under the assumption that any press is good 
> press.
> He came to Santiago looking to steal limelight and push himself onto the
> world's front pages at a time when Venezuelans are preparing to vote on 
> his
> controversial new constitution. In this respect, Juan Carlos's outburst
> played [14] into his hands. But for a man who models himself on 
> independence
> leader Simon Bolivar, and aspires to lead the south in conflict with the
> north, being told to shut up by a Spanish monarch was humiliating. It is
> telling that the pro-Chávez Venezuelan daily Diario Vea appears to have
> ignored the incident.
>
>
> The incoherence of cohesion
> The Venezuelan president's first move after his arrival in Santiago on 9
> November, Friday was to rubbish Bachelet's chosen summit theme [15]: 
> "social
> cohesion". With typical bluntness he declared that "you can have cohesion 
> in
> hell". But, this time at least, there was an astute underlying message.
> Social cohesion is, Chávez told us, "conservative", "static" and 
> meaningless
> if it isn't built on "social justice" and "social transformation".
>
> This cuts neatly to the core of Latin America's democratic predicament. 
> Yes,
> stable democracy requires social cohesion. However social cohesion 
> requires
> a moderately fair distribution [29] of power and wealth. This doesn't 
> exist
> anywhere in Latin America, least of all in Chile. Chávez had actually said
> something profound and, in so doing, revealed the summit for what it was: 
> an
> expensive and ill-conceived marketing operation with no real content.
>
> Then there was the interchange with the Spaniards. This again can be
> subjected to different readings. Chávez's ire was provoked by Spanish 
> prime
> minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's [30] recent insistence that
> development is impossible if countries insist on blaming external factors
> for their economic and political woes. This is standard neo-liberal
> criticism of Latin American dependency theory and is a comfortable 
> position
> for any leader of a former colonial power to take.
>
> For his part, Chávez observed that José María Aznar's [31] documented
> support [32] for the attempted coup in Venezuela in 2002 represented an
> external factor that did threaten Venezuela's political and economic
> stability. He went on to recount a telephone conversation he had had
> previously with Aznar during which the Spanish prime minister encouraged 
> him
> to cut his ties with Cuba and join "our club: the first world". When 
> Chávez
> raised the fate of poor states like Haiti, Aznar reportedly replied:
> "Chávez, these have already screwed themselves".
>
> It was in this context that Chávez called [33] Aznar a fascist and a
> worldview that divides states between "the first world" and the "screwed"
> certainly smacks of something not far from fascism. It is true that Chávez
> was almost definitely playing to the home audience. Even so, calling 
> fascism
> by its name is commendable and an international summit is a good place to 
> do
> it. It certainly makes more sense than mouthing vacuous sound-bites about
> "social cohesion".
>
> But to go from this to saying that "a snake is more human than a fascist 
> or
> a racist" is childish and makes nonsense of what could have been a thought
> provoking intervention. Maybe it all fitted with the objective of grabbing
> headlines. From outside at least, it looked like Chávez had once again 
> gone
> too far and spoilt the whole effect.
>
> The contra summit
> From the conference centre, Chávez and his cohorts were rushed to 
> Santiago's
> infamous national stadium for the close of the "people's" "summit of
> friendship and integration". These gathering are always depressing affairs
> in Chile. Civil society is weak and the Chilean Communist Party continues 
> to
> play its historic role of co-opting and controlling social movements. Only
> about 3,000 people showed up to sweat it out on Saturday 10 November and
> instead of the colour and diversity that usually mark social forums the 
> eye
> was met by a sea of red flags emblazoned with the hammer and sickle.
>
> In place of lively debate about globalisation and global warming the air
> hung with nostalgia and the spectre of bygone heroes reduced by worship to
> monochrome: Salvador Allende [34], Victor Jara [35], Gladys Marín [36], 
> Che
> Guevara [37]. It didn't help that Daniel Ortega was among the first to
> speak. His slow rambling discourse was full of capitalism's perverse
> contradictions, the evil of imperialism and reminiscences of the 1978
> guerrilla struggle. There was nothing that belonged to the new century and
> no indication that the Sandinista leader [38] has a coherent plan for
> Nicaragua's [39] socio-economic development.
>
> The Cuban vice-president, Carlos Lage [40], was better. He did the
> obligatory roars of "socialismo o muerte!" and "Viva Fidel!" and touched 
> the
> usual ports: the Cubans imprisoned in the United States for spying, the
> blockade and the immortality of the revolution. But he did give a concise,
> articulate and in many ways inspiring speech, and was alone in remembering
> to talk about poverty, education and health.
>
> Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa [41], didn't make the venue, fuelling
> speculation that he may be rethinking his links [42] with the region's
> radical left. Evo Morales [43] did come but was late and inevitably it was
> Chavez who dominated the proceedings.
>
> I have sat out a number of Chávez's diatribes and every time agonised to
> decipher the political message behind the bombastic tomfoolery and
> nationalist rhetoric. It's usually tough going, Saturday was no exception.
> True, the speeches are not meant for me, they are meant for Venezuela's 
> poor
> who live in a different socio-economic and cultural reality. I accept, 
> maybe
> too charitably, that the endless babble about Simon Bolívar [44], 
> Francisco
> de Miranda [45] and Antonio José de Sucre [46] are part of a concerted
> effort to reconstruct Latin American history on leftist terms. And I
> understand that all politicians, especially those who court the "great
> unwashed", need the common touch.
>
> Even so, there are times when none of this is sufficient and one is forced
> to conclude that Chávez's verbosity is a self-indulgence that serves only 
> to
> inflate his own ego. There is, I believe, good being done in Venezuela and
> more than anything the world needs international voices with the courage 
> and
> integrity to speak truth to power and call fascism by its name.
>
>
> The tragedy of Hugo Chávez is that by talking too much, he becomes too 
> easy
> to ignore or, as appears to have been the case on 10 November, he lays
> himself open to derision. Whatever the rights and wrongs of an unelected
> monarch berating an elected president, King Juan Carlos got one thing 
> right
> on Saturday: Chávez could certainly do with shutting up a bit.
>
>
> Source URL:
> http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/globalisation/juan_caros_vs_president_hugo
>
> Links:
> [1] http://www.tcgnews.com/santiagotimes/
> [2] http://www.opendemocracy.net/node/3183
> [3] http://latin%20america:20/
> [4] http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/mapuche_3661.jsp
> [5]
> http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/union_disintegration_3756.jsp
> [6] http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/pinochet_4170.jsp
> [7] 
> http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/bienvenido_bush_4418.jsp
> [8]
> http://www.opendemocracy.net/conflict-falklands_malvinas/lessons_vogler_4495.jsp
> [9]
> http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/globalisation/institutions_government/pinochet_bachelet
> [10] http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/ortega_4070.jsp
> [11]
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml;jsessionid=3OEYGIHGEBD1XQFIQMFSFFWAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/global/2007/11/11/noindex/wchavez111.xml
> [12]
> http://www.chileangovernment.gov.cl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=701&Itemid=5
> [13] http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/books/default.aspx?id=6482
> [14]
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/13/wchavez113.xml
> [15]
> http://www.terra.net.lb/wp/Articles/DesktopArticle.aspx?ArticleID=369585&ChannelId=4
> [16] http://www.opendemocracy.net/node/2059
> [17] http://www.opendemocracy.net/node/2319
> [18] http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/venezuala_2730.jsp
> [19] http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/venezuela_3255.jsp
> [20]
> http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-china/china_venezuela_3319.jsp
> [21] http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/venezuela_oil_3580.jsp
> [22] http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/bolivarian_4146.jsp
> [23]
> http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/tokatlian_longview_4429.jsp
> [24] http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/oil_philip_4478.jsp
> [25] 
> http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/chavez_supremo_4523.jsp
> [26]
> http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/deepening_revolution_4592.jsp
> [27]
> http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/democracy_power/politics_protest/chavez_control
> [28]
> http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/democracy_power/politics_protest/elected_dictatorship
> [29] http://bt.yahoo.com/
> [30] http://www.la-moncloa.es/Presidente/Biografia/default.htm
> [31] http://www.washingtonspeakers.com/speakers/Speaker.cfm?SpeakerID=4755
> [32] http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/dec2004/vene-d10.shtml
> [33] http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/11/america/spain.php
> [34] http://www.salvador-allende.cl/
> [35] http://www.mundoandino.com/Chile/Victor-Jara
> [36] http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article5183.ece
> [37] http://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/index.htm
> [38]
> http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/nicaragua_ortega_4057.jsp
> [39]
> http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy_power/politics_protest/nicaragua_ortega
> [40]
> http://havanajournal.com/politics/entry/carlos-lage-and-the-future-of-cuba/
> [41] http://www.presidencia.gov.ec/
> [42] 
> http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/correa_ecuador_4134.jsp
> [43]
> http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/evo_unauthorised_4250.jsp
> [44]
> http://www.yalebooks.co.uk/yale/display.asp?K=9780300110623&sf1=author&st1=John%2520Lynch&m=2&dc=2
> [45] http://www.brookings.edu/press/Books/2006/franciscodemiranda.aspx
> [46] http://www.mundoandino.com/Peru/Antonio-Jose-de-Sucre
>
>
> Justin Vogler works as a freelance journalist based in Chile, teaches
> political science in the socio-economics department of Valparaiso 
> University
> and is studying for a PhD at the department of peace studies at Bradford
> University, England. He has spent twelve years travelling and working on
> development projects in southeast Asia and Latin America and is a regular
> contributor to the English-language daily, the Santiago Times
>
> This article is published by Justin Vogler , and openDemocracy.net under a
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