Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'hugo chavez'

Latin America: After the Left

This week’s Acton commentary: The left is in trouble in Latin America. Sebastián Piñera’s recent election as Chile’s first elected center-right president in decades owes much to the inability of the center-left coalition that governed Chile after 1990 to rejuvenate itself. Continue Reading...

Venezuela’s New Man Has No Old Rights

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says that “the world needs a new moral architecture.” He also has a clear idea of what that morality ought to look like. Speaking at a conference on socialism in May of this year, he said that “every factory must… produce not only briquettes, steel, and aluminum, but also, above all, the new man and woman, the new society, the socialist society.” Continue Reading...

Nationalization. Catch the Fever!

Everyone seems to be going ga-ga over nationalization in the US these days, and why not? Heck, it seems to be working pretty well for Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Blast from the not-so-recent past: Maxine Waters on the domestic oil industry… Continue Reading...

‘Liberty Theology’ — WSJ article by Rev. Sirico

In the Wall Street Journal’s Americas column, Rev. Robert A. Sirico examines the shift in thinking about liberation theology among Catholic Church leaders in Latin America. Excerpt: Catholic Church bishops, priests and other Church leaders in Latin America were once a reliable ally of the left, owing to the influence of “liberation theology,” which tries to link the Gospel to the socialist cause. Continue Reading...

What Latin Americans Want

What’s behind the stunning defeat of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez in a popular referendum this week? Undoubtedly, he overestimated the appeal of his “21st century socialism” among Latin Americans. A new poll also shows that the most trusted institution in Latin America is not the government — but the Catholic Church. Continue Reading...

Latin America’s Messengers for Recycled Marxism

An assortment of radical socialist chums gathered in Caracas, Venezuela for a lively discussion on the issue, “United States: A possible revolution.” The event was part of the third annual Venezuela International Book Fair on November 9-18, and featured the usual campus radicals, anti-American crusaders, and Marxist activists. Continue Reading...

‘The New Fellow Travelers’

In the Washington Post, Anne Applebaum takes a look at Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, and his worshipful celebrity fans in the United States. Here’s the key paragraph from her column, The New Fellow Travelers: In fact, for the malcontents of Hollywood, academia and the catwalks, Chávez is an ideal ally. Continue Reading...

NYT editorial on Chávez: necessary not-so-evil

The NYT editorializes today that Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez is, at worst perhaps, a necessary evil given the current political climate: “if it takes Mr. Chávez’s demagogy to spur Washington toward more enlightened policies in the Americas, so be it.” Continue Reading...

2006 in Review, 3rd Quarter

Our series on the year in review continues with the third fourth of 2006: July “Isn’t the Cold War Over?” David Michael Phelps I’ve got an idea for a new sitcom. Continue Reading...